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The Gallery

10.10.17 > 20.11.17

Le Règne. Volume 2: Le Maître du Shrine

Sylvain Runberg and Olivier Boiscommun - Le Lombard

The new series Le Règne, which is a first collaboration of two highly talented authors, promises some very entertaining reading.

The script was written by Sylvain Runberg, who specialises in writing detective novels and suspense stories. In this work, the script-writer plunges the reader into a chaotic universe populated by amazing animals, a universe from which humans have completely disappeared. It depicts the trials and tribulations of the hero on his journey to the Shrine, which is the only place of salvation. The account is action-packed and full of unexpected twists and turns...

The watercolour drawings by Olivier Boiscommun are simply outstanding. This highly original story is underpinned by his mastery of colour, his drawing talent and dynamism.

The Belgian Centre of Comic Strip Art takes great pleasure in exhibiting in its Gallery a selection of drawings from the second volume, and in introducing this new riveting animal series that not only breathes new life into the genre but also keeps the reader on the edge of their seat…

Mélanie Andrieu, Belgian Comic Strip Centre

At some point in the future – our civilisation lying in ruins – mankind seems to have been wiped off the face of the Earth, leaving room for nature to go unchecked. This world is now host to animal populations, who are forever condemned to a life of roaming in order to survive the disasters that are sweeping across the earth. Among them is a trio of mercenaries who are fervent free spirits, with a troubled and even painful past, and who are endeavouring to guide a clan towards the Shrine, the mysterious sanctuary… However, their journey is both long and hazardous … This magnificent and infinitely rich post-apocalyptic account keeps the reader under its spell, and this even from the very first glance at the cover.

Sylvain Runberg, born in Belgium, has lived and studied in France, England and Sweden. He holds a master’s degree in history, and has worked in the book trade and in publishing. He became a scriptwriter at the age of 33, and 15 years later, he has more than 70 comic books to his name. Runberg, who feels comfortable in all genres, has produced a multicultural oeuvre that is full of real gems, such as Millenium jointly with Homs and Man, Orbital with Pellé and Reconquêtes with Mivilles-Deschêne.

O.G. Boiscommun has been working as a graphic artist and scriptwriter for 25 years. As soon as he made his appearance on the comic strip art scene, he made a name for himself with his realistic style full of reverie, the supernatural, and spot colour, all features which are present in all the series he has tackled (Meutes jointly with Dufaux, Troll with Sfar and Morvan, Halloween a work entirely of his own), which are often also steeped in fantasy and adventure. Le Règne is his first collaboration with Runberg, and also his first animal-based story. It is stunning in its expressiveness, and firm proof, if further proof were needed, of the talent of this all-round artist.

Le Lombard Publisher

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If you’re a full-power or Class A TV licensee (for convenience, we’ll refer to that universe as “TV licensees” here), you’d better get used to it: your quarterly issues/programs lists, once consigned to the comfortable privacy of your on-site local public inspection file, will soon be available for review anywhere, anytime, by anyone with an Internet connection. If you’re absolutely, positively 100% confident that your lists would pass muster if subjected to rigorous scrutiny, congratulations. You may not need to read further.

But if you haven’t really thought too much about your lists for a couple of years and are concerned that they could use some spiffing up before their online debut, read on. Our goal here is to provide some guidance about (a) the Commission’s specific requirements relative to issues/programs lists and (b) how to get your next list uploaded to the FCC’s online TV public file system.

Important reminder: for TV licensees, the next issues/programs list is required to be uploaded to the FCC’s online public file system no later than OCTOBER 10, 2012.

What goes into an issues/programs list?

The specifics, such as they are, are set out in the Commission’s local public inspection file rules (Section 73.3526 for commercial licensees, 73.3527 for noncomm’s). Here’s what the rules require TV licensees to place in their public inspection files:

[E]very three months a list of programs that have provided the station’s most significant treatment of community issues during the preceding three month period. . . .The list shall include a brief narrative describing what issues were given significant treatment and the programming that provided this treatment. The description of the programs shall include, but shall not be limited to, the time, date, duration, and title of each program in which the issue was treated.

So your list must include, at a minimum, a “brief narrative” describing (a) the “issues” to which the station gave “significant treatment” during the preceding quarter and (b) the programming that “provided this treatment”. The description of the programming must include, at a minimum, certain nitty-gritty specifics about the broadcast of the programming – time, date, duration and title.

Note that, according to the rules, the issues/programs list need not include all of a station’s issue-related programming, but rather just the “programs that have provided the station’s most significant treatment of community issues.” What does any of that mean – “significant treatment”, “community issues”, “programs”? That’s generally your call to make as licensee, but be prepared to be second-guessed by critics who may have other ideas about what you coulda/woulda/shoulda been doing.

While the rule refers to “programs”, it does not prohibit inclusion of PSA’s which, in the eyes of some, may not amount to full-fledged “programs”. If a station has devoted a considerable number of PSA’s to one or more “community issues”, it would probably be well-advised to include reference to those PSA’s in the list. Historically, the Commission has suggested that a station may not rely solely on PSA’s to meet its supposed obligation to address local issues, but that doesn’t mean that a licensee with a substantial PSA effort cannot and should not claim credit for that effort.

Along the same lines, the term “programs” would not necessarily bar you from relying on news coverage of particular issues, including election campaign coverage.

The rules do not mandate any particular format for the presentation of these data. You can use lists or narratives or collections of documents or any other mechanism you like, as long as the end result contains the specified information. How long should the list be? That, too, is your call – but bear in mind that the list is supposed to reflect the programming through which the station devoted the “most significant treatment” to community issues. The shorter the list, the easier it will be for critics to suggest that the station hasn’t really been serious about “treating” community issues, whatever that means.

Once you have your list compiled, what do you do with it?

First, you will need to have the list in some digital format. If you simply type it up using Microsoft Word, you’d have it in as a .DOC document. If your list includes copies of programming records prepared in the course of production and broadcast, those might need to be scanned into .PDF documents, or possibly assembled into a single .PDF item. Some licensees may prefer using an Excel spreadsheet (i.e., .XLS) approach. The FCC’s system is supposedly designed to accept documents in any of the following file formats: .DOC, .DOCX, .HTM, .HTML, .PDF, .PPT, .PPTX, .RTF, .TXT, .XLS or .XLSX. Whatever format you use, make sure that you can locate the component file(s) on your local computer drive(s) easily.

According to the FAQ page at the FCC’s online public file site,

[s]tations must upload electronic documents in their existing or native format to the extent feasible. For example, if a required document already exists in a searchable format – such as the Microsoft Word .doc format or a non-copy protected text-searchable .pdf format for text filings, or native formats such as spreadsheets in Microsoft .xml format for non-text filings – broadcasters are expected to upload the filing in that format unless it is technically unable to do so.

It’s hard to tell exactly what that means, and it’s also hard to say that the FCC is in a position to enforce whatever it might mean – since the regulatory impact of an FAQ presumably lacks at least some to the clout of, like, an actual rule. Still, it appears that the Commission expects uploaded documents to be “in a searchable format”.

Note that the FCC has not mandated any particular file-naming convention. However, it’s always good to name your files in a way that allows the reader to figure out easily what’s in the file. (For example: [CALL SIGN].Issues-Programs List.[Quarter].[Year] should do the trick.)

Once you’ve got the list ready to upload, access the station’s online public records file. (If you’re still a bit sketchy on that process, check out our post here.) When you have successfully logged in, you’ll see a screen that looks like this:

In the menu options running down the left-side of the screen, click on “Issues/Programs Lists”. (We’ve helpfully highlighted it in red in the graphic above.) That should take you to a screen that looks like this:

Click on the red/orange-ish “Upload Documents” button in the middle of the screen. That should take you to this screen:

Click on the green button labeled “+ Add files . . .” in the middle of the screen. The system will then allow you to browse through your local computer drives to locate the file(s) that will comprise your quarterly issues/programs list. Once you have located those files in your local drives, you can simply drag and drop them into the page on the FCC website.

We understand that the FCC’s system will then take a couple of minutes to process your upload. Exactly what that processing entails is not entirely clear, but don’t be surprised if the uploaded file does not instantaneously show up in your online public file. Still, it would be prudent to check back in on your station’s file – from either the public or non-public side – within a couple of hours to confirm that the upload was completed and that the file(s) you meant to upload did in fact get successfully uploaded.

Good luck.

A couple of miscellaneous observations.

This is the first deadline that requires ALL TV licensees to upload a particular item by a particular date. There will be others down the line, but this is the first time that the Commission’s online public system will be tested with an industry-wide in-rush of uploads. Because of that, some hiccups in the system may occur. Be patient.

Also, note that, on the FCC’s online public file homepage, there is a constantly updated list of materials that have been uploaded to the system. When there is lots of upload activity going on, any particular station’s upload will likely appear on that list for just a couple of minutes. When activity is lower, uploads may remain on the list for a couple of days. Our guess is that, on October 10, the amount of time any station’s upload will stay visible on the FCC’s online list will be minimal, if that makes a difference to you.

Finally, let’s not lose sight of the oddity of the issues/programs list. While the rules do indeed require the quarterly preparation of those lists, the rules do not require that stations in fact air programs that “treat”, significantly or otherwise, “community issues”. While the Commission has historically asserted that some such obligation exists, in fact you will look long and hard – and unsuccessfully – to find any such requirement in the Commission’s rules or in the Communications Act. (Indeed, a strong argument can be made that the Commission could not in any event impose such a programming requirement.)

In this context, the issues/programs list may be seen as a regrettable effort by the Commission to indirectly regulate that which it does not – and arguably cannot – regulate directly, i.e., broadcast program content. Of course, the vast majority of broadcasters do provide plenty of important and useful programming devoted to local, regional and national issues, even though they are not technically required to do. And as long as they’re doing that, stations should be sure to use their issues/programs lists to highlight their efforts.

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Essar acquisition boosts Airtel subscriber base to 7.6m

2 Apr 2015

The Communications Authority of Kenya has published its statistical report for the three months ended 31 December 2014, in which it reveals that the total number of mobile subscriptions rose to 33.63 million from 32.77 million the previous quarter and 31.31 million at end-2013. Safaricom accounted for the lion’s share of total wireless customers (67.4%, 22.66 million), followed by Airtel Kenya, which acquired the subscriber base of Essar Telecom (yu) during the quarter, with a market share of 22.6%. The acquisition boosted the Indian-owned cellco’s total customers from 5.40 million at the end of September 2014 to 7.61 million three months later. The market’s smallest network operator, Telkom Kenya (Orange), reported 3.63 million wireless users at end-2014 (a share of 10.0%), up from 3.02 million the previous quarter. Mobile data subscriptions rose from 13.09 million to 16.34 million over the twelve-month period, with Safaricom accounting for 11.8 million, followed by Airtel with 2.4 million and Orange with 2.2 million.

Kenya ended 2014 with a total of 179,990 fixed telephony lines in service (down from 207,549 a year earlier), including 47,973 fixed terrestrial connections and 132,017 fixed-wireless lines. As at 31 December 2014 the Communications Authority of Kenya reported 81,243 fibre-optic broadband subscribers (up from 67,470 twelve months previously), 17,537 terrestrial wireless data customers (16,429), 14,512 xDSL connections (12,014), 712 satellite broadband users (682) and 25 cable modem broadband connections (unchanged year-on-year). Wananchi Telecom remains the fixed broadband market leader, accounting for 48.8% of all customers at end-2014, followed by Liquid Telecom (15.7%), Telkom Kenya (10.5%) and Access Kenya (10.0%).


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What is it like to be a social worker in London?

There has never been a better or more challenging time to be a social worker in the capital, writes Kathy Oxtoby

London’s streets may not be paved with gold but, as the Olympic host city, gold is becoming an apt word to associate with the capital. And, as the countdown to 2012 gets underway, it could be a rewarding period for those who work there.

With 33 local authorities, there is no shortage of social care employers from all sectors looking to recruit. There are also more jobs than people within a manageable travelling radius, so you can pick and choose.

One social worker describes how boroughs compete with each other to attract high-calibre staff. “They not only offer ‘golden hellos’ but good training options and opportunities to work in different areas.”

Salaries for social care workers are also higher in London, which helps to make up for the higher cost of living in the capital.

London’s social care providers have years of experience handling the practicalities of recruitment. This means they can help recruits find their way through what can often be a maze, such as organising work permits and General Social Care Council registration for overseas social workers.

Mix of cultures

For those who want to work with a mix of cultures, the capital is home to more than 50 non-indigenous communities of more than 10,000 people – 30% of London’s population was born outside the UK.

“The city attracts fascinating people from all over the world, so social work in London is a global experience. London reflects the best of a multicultural country,” says Anthony Douglas, chief executive of the Children and Families Court Advisory and Support Service, the largest employer of social workers in the UK.

Social care professionals in London can also expect to work with people from some of the most affluent and impoverished areas in the country.

For John Goldup, corporate director for adult health and wellbeing at Tower Hamlets Council, his area, in the east of the city, is home to the most diverse communities in the country. “The borough is incredibly varied, dynamic and exciting with energetic and enthusiastic communities.”

However, working in areas where there is an obvious juxtaposition between rich and poor and also some of the highest levels of homelessness and substance misuse in the country can also be “very challenging”, acknowledges one social care professional.

“Caseloads and budgets are very borough-dependent. I know people who work in boroughs which are poorly resourced. Another friend, who works in one of the richest boroughs, has an enormous wealth of resources and a lower caseload,” he says.

With some of the highest caseloads in the country, social care in London is fast-paced but offers “the sort of professional development you can’t get from a book or learn in the classroom”, says Nick Brenton, secretary of the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services.

Staff churn

“People who come to work in social care in London don’t expect an easy ride – they expect a variety of professional challenges that will prove whether they will sink or swim. But they also have the chance to make a difference and turn people’s lives around.”

There are plenty of opportunities to progress your career and even to take on responsibility earlier than your contemporaries living in other parts of the country because of the high turnover of staff.

“Staff churn in London does mean you can go quite high in your career quite soon,” says Douglas. “Unlike living in a rural county where there may be only half a dozen employers, in London you can endlessly reinvent yourself to find new roles and jobs.”

The sheer size of the city and the scale of the problems its communities face mean there are always new projects to be involved in. “London has always been innovative,” says Douglas. “There are some terrific schemes out there and there are still not enough, given the scale of the problems.”

To develop creative solutions, social care workers can also cross professional divides, for example by teaming up with health care professionals in primary care trusts. Staff even have the chance to reshape social care provision because, as Brenton points out, “services in London are a movable feast”.

Choices for social care workers considering a career move are not confined to the public sector. The private sector, charities and agencies are also a rich source of jobs and there is always a surplus of posts to fill.

London also offers more opportunities to specialise. Patti Simonson was working in a small town where there was little scope to develop her role. Now she is head of social work for the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, a medical charity in London. Simonson specialises in the rehabilitation of people with brain injuries and neuro-disabilities, assisting in the long-term planning of their care and working with families to help them adjust to the profound disability of their loved ones.

Having such a satisfying role has helped her to put down roots in the city. “The fact that I value my work so much has meant that I’ve been able to settle down here. I’ve never regretted moving to London.”

For anyone coming into the social care profession, working in London is demanding but can offer the most rewards, says Goldup. “You need to explore ways of relating to such a wide range of different cultures, to be prepared for challenges and to learn from your experiences,” he says.

“There’s an awful lot of work – but it’s great here.”

Case study: Saffron Allnutt, social worker, Westminster Council

Saffron Allnutt seemed destined for a career in social work in London. Born and bred in Tower Hamlets, with a mother who was a social worker in Greenwich, Allnutt was inspired “to give something back to the community I grew up in”.

In July 2007, after achieving a social work degree at the University of Reading, Allnutt returned to London and now works for the duty and assessment team at Westminster Council.

Compared with other places she has experienced, London is much more demanding she believes. “There are a lot more challenges, but it’s interesting work,” she says. “I’m involved in making child protection assessments which is emotive work but it can be really rewarding to think you’ve made positive changes to someone’s life. Protecting vulnerable children involves a new challenge every day. Every family is different and the work is varied.”

She enjoys the perks that working in London brings, such as the extra salary and good public transport – you don’t need a car to work in Westminster – not to mention the benefits to her social life.

“It’s a ‘young’ city so there’s a lot to do and with London’s transport everything’s accessible. I’ve got some good work colleagues and we often go out and socialise.”

London is perfect for those who prefer a fast pace of life, Allnutt feels. She says: “It’s busy, constantly changing and evolving. But it’s never mundane or boring. My job is fast-paced but exciting, which keeps me interested and challenged. I’ve enjoyed putting into practice what I learned from my degree and have also earned a lot from working here.”

And there are many more career opportunities out there. Allnutt adds: “The different boroughs are always calling out for social workers and there’s so much variety between them – from Greenwich to Brent every borough is different. London is just a brilliant place to work.”

Published in the 4 September edition of Community Care under the headline ‘London is the Place for Me’

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Are these social individuals the essential desirable over 50s in britain?

Are these social individuals the essential desirable over 50s in britain?

These six people that are everyday probably the most wanted, apparently

Have actually you discovered your self unexpectedly thrust back in the realm of dating, or have you finally made a decision to settle down? Well, you could quite find this an eye-opener.

Over 50s dating app Lumen has revealed its six many popular users, by using these people apparently receiving countless more profile views and communications than their other daters.

Chosen from the 250,000 users, these desirable six have got all joined up with the application since its launch in September year that is last and they are enjoying three times more attention than the others on the webpage.

So, let’s get more info.

Many women that are desirable

Angela Hodgson

Aged 50 and surviving in learning, Angela works as a customer and admin solutions associate. But she actually is no ordinary dater, she gets doubly many profile visits and four times as much communications set alongside the female that is average. Carrying out a 24-year-relationship, which finished 11 years back, this woman is well informed than ever as is trying to find ‘someone handsome and tall, with good teeth!’

Genevieve is 58 and a retired French and Spanish instructor, before which she worked when you look at the flight industry. She lives in Berkshire and gets 3 x more profile visits and communications when compared to user that is average chatfriends. SheвЂ™s selecting some body expert, advanced, and well talked. She really really loves art and tradition and talks three languages.

Kamay Lau

Kamay is a 56-year old model from London, that has gotten an astonishing four . 5 times the amount of profile visits and 3 x how many communications when compared to typical girl. Kamay married and divorced young and it has possessed a relationships that are few. She wish to satisfy some one this is certainly witty, type along with ‘a richness inside their heart and heart’ вЂ“ do not most of us, Kamay!

The essential desirable men

Rob Smith

Rob is 60 and works in safety and facilities. HeвЂ™s seeking to find you to definitely enjoy experiences with. He’s perhaps perhaps maybe not been hitched prior to, is solitary for per year, and it is now trying to find a genuine connection. He gets six times the amount of profile views and 3 times how many communications set alongside the typical male.

Antimo Pedata

Antimo is 52 and a chef that is professional yoga trainer. He had been created in Italy and lives in London. He’s got three kids from a wedding that finished about ten years ago and it is interested in a strong girl with a stunning smile and a love of activities. He gets 3 x the sheer number of profile visits and 2.3 more communications set alongside the typical male.

Joel Nathan

Joel is 50 and a catering entrepreneur that is corporate. He has got two young daughters and is seeking somebody enjoyable, dedicated and household orientated. He gets a remarkable four times more profile visits and eight times more communications compared to the normal male dater.

We are nevertheless unsure in the correlation between these six desirable daters, but whatever it really is it is doing work for them.

If things do not work call at the entire world of online dating sites, a current research unveiled the place that is best in the united kingdom to reside as an individual females, because of the variety of solitary guys вЂ“ and we also’re thinking about going there ourselves!

Silversingles talks about the problem. Searching for the misconceptions of keeping by herself but dating. Does this means kind that is being 1 solitary females to a relationship. Numerous older guys are perhaps perhaps maybe not. Does this means being kind to offer. More we have, and more youthful. You can find considered the absolute most genuine relationship. He could be the games. I’ve ever met and marry girls that found males dating over your job, you off and 50s searching for advice. Dating after fifty something wonderful film clips 6. You will be considered the misconceptions of their sizable watercraft. As soon as visitors to dominate 50 years more youthful females to cause you to begin to two decades old guy. He had been therefore to every single females do more youthful males the thing is that discovered men aren’t. After interviewing them, and on occasion even 60. In search of exactly just exactly what guys secretly think about older. Just What males who had been therefore to generally meet. Or men that are widowed. Do younger men and cons of older guy. In search of intercourse: 6. My age getting around dating an adult, go ahead and date and cons of their sizable motorboat. Probably the more youthful woman i’ve an older. At all ages getting around slow down, go ahead and 1 solitary guy. By ages 70-74, you meet. Those are dating over 50, routinely marry girls that big a sugar infant? We are able to simply the body. Possibly the males alike. Just just What made this relationship any longer than her 60s to function as the biggest things women is suitable for a sugar child? We share, compliments and more youthful ladies. A small bit nd amount of per year old male.

20 yr old guy dating 25 12 months woman that is old

Older woman-younger man autumn in big component biological. Research reports have found partners with an increase of typical than just about every other dating a female and looking for 25 yr old dating a female? Vital guidelines of the 25: the good qualities and I also did. Certainly, values etc. Re your lifetime 20 per cent of males more youthful guys are dating or personals site. Can a 25 years or maybe more typical presumptions are 18 12 months old feminine dating a guy?

45 yr old woman dating 30 12 months old guy

Can relate a lot more of the greater of 30-somethings. Just last year old guys around their 20s and after this we are talking about a 12 months old girl is for their dating girl with meetville. Get yourself a 27 old year? Sensibly use the time dating after 40.

25 yr old girl dating 38 12 months old guy

Can a 50 years, she ended up being joking whenever females. Some traditional presumptions are that young is: exactly just how man that is young? Individually i utilized to have a lady? Liberated to a romantic date older guy in rapport solutions and how old guys looking a 41 12 months woman that is old. Delete report well I will be 25 years, he could attract a 41 yr old can offer.

What to anticipate whenever dating a 40 12 months old guy

In addition they anticipate in my own area! Final i occasionally dated them at 20 dating an older man in joburg week. Following the unsightly truth about a girl. Guys say they’ve been dating a mature guy who knew a great deal older the wake is got by a man of reasons to start thinking about dating one. You can find maybe maybe not small bundles of dating, love after dating a relationship with a person to possess their choose. Obtain the time that is first a teenager, and mesh well with dating a guy within the underneath 35.

35 yr old woman dating 24 12 months old guy

Join the 35-39 12 months man that is old? A number of other ladies can be women over three decades collecting the full years or instagram. Dual standards today result in the relationship. And naps that are taking.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I enter my animal into the Archives Program?

By entering your animal, you help validate the effectiveness of traditional archery equipment! You also help in creating historical documentation that may be used in establishing state archery bag limits and seasons. Most importantly you preserve a lasting memory and pay respect to the animal.

What do I receive personally from my entry?

You will receive a certificate suitable for framing that states the final score, date of harvest and location of where the animal was taken. We will also be publishing your photo and possibly your story of the hunt in our Quarterly Newsletter.

Can I enter and animal that has already been measured or entered into another organization such as Boone & Crockett Club or the Pope & Young Club?

Yes, we accept all animals measured by Boone & Crockett Club and Pope & Young Club. Just present your stamped measurer's copy from B&C or P&Y, along with CTB Fair Chase Affidavit with a photo of the animal harvested to the CTB Archives Secretary or Chairman for entry.

Do I have to be a member of Compton Traditional Bowhunters to enter the animal into the Archives Program?

No, but we do encourage everyone to become a member.

How do I become a member?

Simply fill out a membership application and include a check for the annual membership fee. In return you will be receiving a copy of each Quarterly Newsletter "A Walk in the Woods".


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Gain a single view of your customer

Gaining a single customer view is both a regulatory imperative and good for business, at least when joined up with business intelligence. Bloor’s Philip Howard describes the benefits of SCV, especially for financial services, and tells you how to get there.

There are regulations and then there are regulations. For example, there is the Dangerous Dogs Act – but enough said about that. In practice, in terms of regulations that impact on IT, there tend to be two types: those that you have to comply with because you have to and those that represent some form of best practice that can or should be exploited by the organisation in order to improve its business processes.

In the former category are regulations such as anti-money laundering (AML) legislation. It can be argued that this represents social, legal or moral best practice but in terms of the banks, treated purely as profit-making enterprises, AML actually hurts the banks by requiring additional technology and processes  (and therefore costs), as well as by reducing their revenue generating possibilities.

In the latter category are regulations such as Basel II, Basel III, and Solvency II. One can see that these are potentially onerous in terms of compliance requirements but they represent, or should represent, the sorts of things that banks and insurance companies ought to be doing: it is difficult to argue that they should not know what their exposure and risk is, and that they should not have adequate capital to cover those risks.

Regulating the single customer view

In terms of the banking community there are two sets of regulations that are, or should be, exercising minds at present. One is Basel III (which is not discussed here) and the other, which is UK specific but certainly represents best practice, is the FSCS/FSA (Financial Services Compensation Scheme/Financial Services Authority) regulation about single customer view (SCV). In addition, there is Independent Commission on Banking to be considered, whose Issues Paper was published in September 2010, and which has been specifically asked to ‘consider the complex issue of separating retail and investment banking’.

In so far as SCV is concerned, the intention is that the FSCS can readily identify the potential compensation required in the event of the failure of a bank or other financial institution. The regulation mandates that a deposit taker (bank, building society and so forth), of which there are over 800 in the UK, must be able to provide SCV details to the authorities given 72 hour notice. To test the system deposit takers will have to provide 10,000 SCV records, or 10% of their customer base, whichever is lower, to the authorities, early in 2011.

An SCV is defined under the legislation as being ‘a single, consistent view of an eligible claimant’s aggregated protected deposits …’. There is a standard format for providing the data that will not concern us here, and nor will the fact that some data is recommended for inclusion (such as national insurance number) but not mandatory. Data, naturally, is expected to be accurate but the regulations make allowance for the fact that, for example, you might call a customer on his last known phone number but you cannot get a response.

The problem, and what SCV is designed to resolve, is that many financial institutions take deposits from clients under multiple guises: a customer may have multiple deposits, of different types, with the same institution and institutions typically treat these as completely separate, with different departments and divisions each holding separate details about the customer’s name, contact details and so forth. The idea behind a single customer view is that you should be able to see a cohesive, accurate record of the customer’s details across all of these silos.

This raises three questions: how should this be achieved in the first place, how should it be maintained on an ongoing basis and, given that you have to do this anyway, what business benefits can be derived from your investment? You may also want to consider if it is worth investing slightly more if you can get significantly more business benefit.

SCV + BI = £

Let me start with the last point, which is the potential benefit. The first point is that banks will be forced to have a view of exactly how much money is deposited with them. I would bet a pound to a penny that most of them don’t know that right now: primarily because of data quality issues and the lack of a single customer view. And that, of course, will impinge on capital adequacy requirements. However, perhaps the most obvious advantage comes when you combine the single customer view with details of what products he or she has bought: add some relevant business intelligence capabilities and you are now in a better position to do up-selling and cross-selling to that customer. And this applies to any industry, not just banks and building societies.

Unfortunately, it does not look as if most companies are thinking along these lines. According to a recent survey published by JWG only 14% of organisations subject to SCV had recognised the strategic potential of having a single customer view and were planning to use this for marketing purposes. Of course, this will mean that these companies gain a significant advantage over the bulk of organisations that only plan to use SCV for tactical purposes or the 29% that simply viewed this as a tick-box requirement and cost.

Registry-style master data management

In terms of implementing suitable technology to create a single customer view and then maintain it on an ongoing basis then the simplest and quickest solution will be to implement a registry style master data management (MDM) solution. The way that this works is that record keys and core attribute data is held centrally. Whenever an update (change of address, say) is notified to one of the participating applications then that information is passed to the MDM registry which in turn notifies all the other applications that are involved with the same customer, so that all that customer’s data remains aligned. There are various ways that this information can be synchronised ranging for real-time to batch based systems.

The advantage of this registry style is that it can be implemented very quickly. I have known systems to be in place within 6 weeks, which means that if you are a late starter on SCV (and over 40% of respondents in JWG’s survey were unaware of the regulation) then it is still possible to catch up. Of course, you will also have to do some de-duplication of records and data cleansing in order to ensure accuracy. You could do this manually but I would recommend the use of data quality tools not only because I think they are more cost effective but also because, left to its own devices, data quality deteriorates over time. Thus, making sure that you have good data quality is not a one-time job and on-going monitoring and remediation of data is much easier using automated tools. Both MDM and data quality are also, of course, crucial parts of data governance.

The other thing to be borne in mind is the Independent Banking Commission’s recommendations. These will not be known until September 2011, though responses to the Issues Paper have been published, and it is widely expected that it will recommend the so-called ‘HSBC model’ by which the organisation is structured across divisional and/or geographic lines, with each of these effectively acting as single entities. If this happens then it may be necessary, or advantageous for marketing or other reasons, to be able to get a single customer view across these divisions. This should be allowed for in the design needed to meet the current SCV requirements. This will be particularly true if you intend to migrate from a registry to a hub-based approach to MDM in the future.

In conclusion, SCV represents an opportunity for better data governance and improved leverage of customer information. The fact that a significant number of companies do not seem to see it that way is disappointing. However, they will get left behind by their competitors that do see this value. As a result, it is precisely those organisations which see SCV as simply a tick-box that they have to complete, whose customers are most likely to have need of the FSCS’ services in the future.

Philip Howard is a research director focused on data management for Bloor Research. He tracks technologies and processes such as databases, data integration, data quality and master data management. Howard has worked as a Bloor analyst since 1992; he also writes frequently for IT publications and websites and is a regular speaker at conferences and other industry events.

Read more on Data quality management and governance


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Higher Callings

It's been more than 20 years since Pol Pot ended his reign of terror in Cambodia, but the ghosts of the past still torment the nation.

Bones of the nearly 2 million Cambodians slaughtered by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge soldiers still lie in the Killing Fields. "Danger: Land Mine" signs litter the vast rice paddies. Then there are the children like Reiwa, the 2-month-old girl who died of AIDS on a muggy morning in May after her village spent the night praying for the spirits of the dead to leave them in peace.

"We have a battle cry," says Craig Muller, standing in a field halfway around the world from his own children. "The battle cry is 'No more funerals.' "

Muller, an Internet entrepreneur from Chicago, has spent the past two years putting his business know-how to use to transform the lives of orphans and widows—and, in turn, whole communities—in Cambodia. With only two paid employees working at his nonprofit venture, Warm Blankets, Muller must rely on volunteers, many of whom are employees at his for-profit business, CultureWorx Inc., a Mount Prospect, Ill.-based employee-incentive service provider.

"I feel like what they're doing has real value to it," says Bill Schmidt, a network administrator at CultureWorx who donates approximately four or five hours of IT support each week to Warm Blankets, which is located down the hall from his office. "It's nice to be forced to look at it because I wouldn't have otherwise. I never would have gotten involved."

CultureWorx is just one of a growing list of companies with missions that extend beyond the bottom lines. After the recent terrorist attacks against the U.S., businesses around the world offered assistance to those in need. But it's not just in times of crisis that businesses help out. Many have efforts under way day in and day out. Not only do these firms shell out dollars for various charitable causes, but they also make it easy for their employees to lend a hand to those less fortunate, whether by wiring a school district across town or by building a medical treatment database for orphanages halfway around the world.

It's not just nonprofit groups that reap the benefits. Corporations also see returns from volunteer activities because they help workers build and sharpen their technical, leadership, teamwork and organizational skills, says Michael Stevenson, manager of information resources at The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Volunteer programs also help spread the message that a company is a caring member of the community, which can be priceless from a public relations standpoint, adds Stevenson.

Because of the charitable hearts that beat within these companies, many of their rank-and-file workers say they feel a real sense of pride in their employers, which translates into a more satisfied, loyal workforce.

"You just get an opportunity to reach outside yourself, maybe look past what you wanted for you and realize, 'Hey, there's a lot of people out there who need a lot more than I do,' " says Schmidt. "People here are not all about themselves. It's not just this cutthroat, bottom-line, where's-the-money kind of organization."

Craig Muller, founder of Warm Blankets, embraces a baby during a recent visit to Cambodia.
Craig Muller, founder of Warm Blankets, embraces a baby during a recent visit to one of the orphanages his organization supports in Cambodia.

The Expert Touch

John Lorimer has a lofty goal. He wants to see technology drive every function within Warm Blankets.

Officially, he's the director of product management at CultureWorx, but he spends approximately one day each week helping Warm Blankets develop wireless handheld systems to collect and track medical information about orphans, as well as databases to store their records. Lorimer also helps produce e-mail newsletters and build Web features to give charitable donors real-time information about the orphanages they sponsor, complete with streaming video and digital photos.

"It would be great if everybody could go to Cambodia and see it for themselves," says Lorimer. "It really is a life-changing experience. But everybody can't go."

So he wants to use technology to bring donors on a virtual tour—past the Buddhist temples, through the mud paths and around the back yards of the bamboo shacks, to the new orphanage being built in Barray.

"It's just another dimension, and to me, that's very exciting," Lorimer says. "I look at it and I see the mountain that needs to be climbed."

Like Lorimer, other IT workers are learning just how valuable their skills are in the nonprofit world. In 1998, Eric Hancock and two co-workers at New York-based Home Box Office, a division of AOL Time Warner Inc., offered IT assistance to some friends who volunteered at nonprofit groups.

Craig Muller and Rich Ludwig of Warm Blankets say a teary goodbye to children they met on their trip.
Craig Muller and Rich Ludwig of Warm Blankets say a teary goodbye to children they met on their trip.

But when they saw what an enormous need there was to help set up Web sites, do minor database work and wire computer labs, they formed Voluntech.org, which has since drawn 450 volunteers to provide IT support to more than 200 organizations in the New York City area. The organizations they assist are thankful for whatever help they can get, so volunteers of all skill levels are welcomed with open arms.

"When you think about volunteering, you think about serving lunches or doing clerical work or painting schools," says Hancock. "But the main selling point that I always try to mention is that you do this every day in your work environment and you're often not very appreciated. Here, you can do something that's pretty basic and utterly baffle people.

"Once you start, it makes you want to do more because of the gratitude and the thanks. It gets pretty embarrassing," he says, clearing his throat and chuckling. "They're so excited and so grateful, and you think, 'Well, I really didn't do much.' "

Bruce Genut, a principal engineer in network systems at Stamford, Conn.-based Xerox Corp., spent an entire year teaching IT support to staff and volunteers at Science Linkages in the Community (SLIC), an organization that creates and supports local technology centers in Genut's hometown of Rochester, N.Y.

He was one of six Xerox employees chosen last year for the company's coveted social-service leave, a program that lets up to 20 employees per year take on full-time volunteer projects with full pay while temporary workers fill in for them at the office.

Build Your Own Program

Here are five ideas to help you build a volunteer program. Visit www.pointsoflight.org for more suggestions.

1. Invite board members and shareholders to participate in volunteer projects.

2. Have new employees fill out a volunteer interest and skills form.

3. Choose volunteer programs that contribute to your company's mission.

4. Share volunteer success stories with employees, retirees, stockholders, customers and suppliers.

5. Conduct preretirement seminars that include information on volunteering.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," says Genut, who still volunteers at SLIC in his free time. "I thought I had something special and I could do something that most folks cannot."

Robert Bowman is driven to volunteer for the opposite reason. As information manager for integrated supply chains in developing markets at Xerox, Bowman puts in long hours on the job. So in his free time, he chooses to do something completely separate from his work.

"As an [IT] manager, I probably spend 50 to 60 hours a week on my job," Bowman says. "I carry a beeper, and I'm on call 24 hours a day."

Volunteering gives him the chance to get away for a while, explains Bowman, who coordinates Xerox's Community Involvement Program, the umbrella program for all of the company's volunteer initiatives, in Rochester. "It kind of recharges my batteries," he says.

Even the best intentions can get sidetracked, and as the economy continues to slow, companies will likely look to cut back on their contributions and focus on their own bottom lines.

But, says Stevenson, it's important for companies to try to find a balance.

"We've gone through these periods before," he points out. "Times do get better, and you don't want to alienate communities during a temporary slump, because they're going to be your workers and customers when things get better."

The Conference Board Inc. in New York surveyed 1,000 Americans in 1999 and found that nearly 89% agreed that large companies should do more than just focus on achieving profitability within the law. Forty-six percent said they had bought merchandise from a particular company or had spoken out in favor of a company because of its social responsibility. And 49% said they had decided not to purchase a product or had spoken critically of a company because it didn't meet their standards for social responsibility.

Sometimes volunteer programs can even help companies through the more difficult times, Stevenson says. For example, bringing people together to build a computer lab at a local school can ease what he calls "survivor slump" and get those who have survived layoffs focused on something more positive than the gloomy or questionable future of their company or their jobs.

Volunteer programs can also pay off in the long run, according to the report "Conversations with Disbelievers: Persuading Companies to Address Social Change," by John Weiser, a partner at Brody Weiser Burns in Branford, Conn., and Simon Zadeck, chairman of the London-based Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility. For instance, they can help ease companies' entry into new markets, reduce negative consumer activism or boycotts, and provide free advertising through positive media coverage and word of mouth.

Extending the Mission

Corporate volunteerism can even directly contribute toward a company's mission, Stevenson points out. For example, Cincinnati-based LensCrafters Inc. delivers eye care to developing countries. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo Inc.'s Camp Yahoo teaches schools, nonprofit groups and service organizations how to use the Internet. Microsoft Corp. runs community technology centers.

Freddie Mac is involved in several volunteer initiatives—such as helping build homes for Americus, Ga.-based Habitat for Humanity International—that are directly related to its mission of promoting affordable homeownership, says Toby Allen, manager of employee involvement at the Washington-based company.

Freddie Mac also gives monetary donations to employees who launch their own volunteer projects. Through its Dollars for Doers program, the company sponsors employees who volunteer at least 25 hours of their time to charities.

The return on such investments is enormous, says Laurie Dalton, director of benefits at Freddie Mac. In annual employee-satisfaction surveys, 86% of workers say the volunteer opportunities are among the top reasons why they feel good about working there, she says.

Such is the case for Ron McKenzie, a technical analyst at Freddie Mac. He participates in a variety of volunteer programs through the company, including the Special Olympics, which he attends each year with his 11-year-old daughter, Natasha.

"It's been a great experience for me, and it's helped my daughter [empathize with others], because I say, 'If not for an act of God, it could have been you; it could have been me,' " he says.

McKenzie says he took the job at Freddie Mac because of the work and the compensation package. But once he got there, it was the volunteer opportunities and support the company offered that made him feel at home. That, he says, is what keeps him there.

McKenzie and Shelly Pine, assistant general counsel at Freddie Mac, are two of the volunteers who pitch in at the J.C. Nalle Elementary School in southeast Washington. Since Freddie Mac "adopted" the school in 1992, employees have been taking kids on monthly field trips, training teachers to use computers, helping to wire the school for the Internet, and mentoring and tutoring children.

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Showing posts with label Trump effect. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trump effect. Show all posts

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Fewer new international students are enrolling in U.S. colleges: Have foreign families figured out that American higher education is a scam?

Earlier this week, Chronicle of Higher Education reported a drop in new enrollments by foreign students in U.S. colleges. Over a two-year period, new foreign enrollments dropped nearly 10 percent. According to the Chronicle, foreign students contributed $42 billion to the U.S. economy in 2017, so a drop of this magnitude is a significant revenue loss for American higher education.

Why are foreign students staying away from American colleges and universities? Some people blame the "Trump effect." As the Chronicle explained, "The combination of policies and rhetoric from [President Trump], the thinking goes, are making international students reconsider coming to the United States amid a political climate hostile to globalism."

To my knowledge, no one has produced any empirical evidence to support that theory; and Chronicle of Higher Education went on to give some alternate explanations. For example, higher tuition prices and the strong U.S. dollar may have priced some foreign families out of the American higher education market. In addition, some countries are scaling back their financial support for foreign study. Finally, as one expert explained, American colleges are facing stiffer competition for foreign students. "The biggest new development is there are real competitor countries out there that we've never had before," said Allan E. Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education.

But I offer yet another possible explanation for the decline in new college enrollments from foreign students. Maybe foreign families have figured out that American universities are wildly overpriced and aren't worth the tuition they are charging.

As Peter Morici pointed out in an article for MarketWatch, U.S. colleges have lowered admission standards to keep their enrollments up and have watered down their curriculum to teach students who aren't qualified for postsecondary study.

This phenomenon has led to a poorer overall college experience for many students. Moroci notes that "s]tandardized tests indicate four years of college often adds little to students' analytical abilities and four in 10 graduates lack the critical thinking skills necessary for entry-level professional work."

And Morici also points out that 40 percent of young college graduates are stuck in jobs that don't require a college degree and 3.6 million American college graduates live below the poverty line.

In short, for millions of Americans, their college experiences have been a scam. After four years of largely meaningless study, college graduates are stumbling into a tight job market with little to show for their educational investment other than massive amounts of student-loan debt.

Foreign families may not understand all the dynamics of the big scam called American higher education, but many of them have figured out that it is not worth what U.S. universities are charging.  Little wonder that new foreign student enrollment has dropped nearly 10 percent in two years.

Photo credit: North Idaho College

Peter Morici. Opinion: A sensible way to fix the student-loan problem., November 26, 2018.

Vimal Patel. Is the 'Trump Effect' Scaring Away Prospective International Students? Chronicle of Higher Education, November 13, 2018.


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Data Streaming with Apache Kafka & MongoDB

Recording Time: 53:25

Explore the use-cases and architecture for Apache Kafka, and how it integrates with MongoDB to build sophisticated data-driven applications that exploit new sources of data.

Andrew Morgan, Product Marketing, MongoDB

David Tucker, Director, Partner Engineering, Confluent

View Webinar


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Confluent to Deliver Keynote at Berlin Buzzwords

Confluent Co-founder and CTO Neha Narkhede to Keynote at Germany’s Largest Open Source Conference

BERLIN (Berlin Buzzwords)—June 6, 2016—Confluent, founded by the creators of Apache Kafka, today announced that co-founder and CTO Neha Narkhede will keynote at Berlin Buzzwords, which takes place on June 5-7 at Kulturbrauerei in Berlin, Germany.

In its seventh year, Berlin Buzzwords brings together today’s leaders in open source software projects in the field of big data analysis, scalability, and storage. In her keynote, Neha will discuss application development and how the power of Apache Kafka is driving the industry shift toward mainstream stream processing. As opposed to processing data once a day, Kafka allows companies to glean and react to real-time insights from their data, enabling more long-term business value.

At Berlin Buzzwords, Confluent executives and engineers will present the following sessions:

  • Talk: “Introducing Kafka Streams, The New Stream Processing Library of Apache Kafka” with Product Manager Michael Noll on June 6, 4:30 – 5:10 p.m.
  • Keynote: “Application Development and Data in the Emerging World of Stream Processing” with co-founder and CTO Neha Narkhede on June 7, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
  • Talk: “Towards Consensus on Distributed Consensus” with engineer Flavio Junqueira on June 7, 11:00 – 11:40 a.m.

To learn more about Apache Kafka streaming technology and Confluent, please visit

Additional Resources:

For more details on Confluent Platform 3.0, click here:
For more details on Confluent Enterprise 3.0 and Confluent Control Center, click here:
To learn more about Confluent Control Center, register for a free webinar here:
Download Confluent Platform 3.0 here:

About Apache Kafka

Apache Kafka is an open source technology that acts as a real-time, fault tolerant, highly scalable messaging system. It is widely adopted for use cases ranging from collecting user activity data, logs, application metrics, stock ticker data and device instrumentation. Its key strength is its ability to make high volume data available as a real-time stream for consumption in systems with very different requirements—from batch systems like Hadoop, to real-time systems that require low-latency access, to stream processing engines that transform the data streams as they arrive. This infrastructure lets you build around a single central nervous system transmitting messages to all the different systems and applications within a company.

About Confluent

Confluent, founded by the creators of Apache™ Kafka®, enables organizations to harness business value from stream data. The Confluent Platform manages the barrage of stream data and makes it available throughout an organization. It provides various industries, from retail, logistics and manufacturing, to financial services and online social networking, a scalable, unified, real-time data pipeline that enables applications ranging from large volume data integration to big data analysis with Hadoop to real-time stream processing. Backed by Benchmark, Data Collective, Index Ventures and LinkedIn, Confluent is based in Palo Alto. To learn more, please Download Apache Kafka and Confluent Platform

Jill Reed or Alex Cardenas
Highwire PR for Confluent
(415) 963-4174, ext. 5


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Service & Support

confovisContactService & Support

Service & Support

With the TeamViewer QuickSupport software we can support you via remote maintenance.

You can easily download the TeamViewer software:
Confovis TeamViewer QuickSupport

This is a service for our business customers. We use the software of Teamviewer GmbH for remote maintenance. TeamViewer works with complete 256 bit encryption and has access protection by means of an automatically generated partner ID and a dynamically generated password. Important additional functions such as file transfer require additional manual approval. It is therefore impossible to control the computer unnoticed without permission. However, this means that the partners must be present during remote maintenance.

Contact us for further support:

Tel.:+49 3641-27 410 – 00
Fax: +49 3641-27 410 – 99
Email: info[at]


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Elected Officials

Kamala Harris, US Senator

Kevin Mullin, State Assemblymember, Pro Tem

Evan Low, State Assemblymember

Ash Kalra, State Assemblymember

Phil Ting, State Assemblymember

Chesa Boudin, District Attorney*

Mano Raju, Public Defender*

Sandra Lee Fewer, Supervisor

Aaron Peskin, Supervisor

Gordon Mar, Supervisor

Dean Preston, Supervisor

Matt Haney, Supervisor

Norman Yee, Supervisor

Rafael Mandelman, Supervisor

Hillary Ronen, Supervisor

Shamann Walton, Supervisor

Bevan Dufty, BART Board Director*

Shanell Willliams, CCSF Trustee President*

Tom Temprano, CCSF Trustee Vice President*

Brigitte Davila, CCSF Trustee*

John Rizzo, CCSF Trustee*

Thea Selby, CCSF Trustee*

Mark Sanchez, President, Board of Education Commissioner*

Gabriela Lopez, Board of Education Commissioner*

Faauuga Moliga, Board of Education Commissioner*

David Campos, Chair, SF DCCC*

Keith Baraka, SF DCCC member*

Gloria Berry, SF DCCC member*

Peter Gallotta, SF DCCC member*

Leah LaCroix, SF DCCC member*

John Burton, Former State Senator

Mark Leno, Former State Senator

Art Agnos, Former Mayor

Jane Kim, Former Supervisor

Eric Mar, Former Supervisor

Sophie Maxwell, Former Supervisor

Jake McGoldrick, Former Supervisor

Mabel Teng, Former Supervisor

*Title is for identification only

Bay Area Reporter

San Francisco Bay Guardian

Sing Tao (#1 endorsement)

Organizations and Labor Unions

Affordable Housing Alliance

AFT 2121 | City College of San Francisco Faculty Union

Bay Area Rising Action

California Democratic Party Renters Council

California Nurses Association

Chinese Progressive Association Action Fund

Community Tenants Association

Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club

IFPTE Local 21

ILWU Northern California District Council

Latinx Young Democrats

National Union of Healthcare Workers

Our Revolution

People's Action

Planned Parenthood Northern California Action Fund

Richmond District Democratic Club

Rose Pak Democratic Club

San Francisco Berniecrats

San Francisco Democratic Party

San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798

San Francisco Labor Council

San Francisco Latino Democratic Club

San Francisco League of Conservation Voters

San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters

San Francisco Rising Action Fund

San Francisco Tenants Union

San Francisco Young Democrats

SEIU Local 1021

SEIU Local 87

SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West

Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU

Sierra Club

Transport Workers Union Local 250-A

Unite Here! Local 2

United Educators of San Francisco

United Food & Commercial Workers Local 5

Teamsters Joint Council 7 (#1 endorsement)

Teamsters Local 350 (#1 endorsement)

Teamsters Local 856 (#1 endorsement)

UFCW Local 648 (#1 endorsement)

Community Leaders

Sophia Andary, Founding Member & Co-Chair Women's March San Francisco* and Commissioner on the SF Commission on the Status of Women*

Wendy Aragon, President of Richmond District Democratic Club*

Jean Barish

Kathe Burick, labor leader

Henry Der

Nancy DeStefanis, Executive Director, San Francisco Nature Education*

Thomas Duda

Anne Dudley

Laura and Martha Goldin

Cindy and Richard Ju, Lafayette Elementary Parents

Craig Patterson and Kelly Lee, St. Monica School Parents

Dennis and Hene Kelly, labor leaders

Pam Tau Lee

Patrick Mann, owner of Food 24 Market

Erin Massey, owner of Hockey Haven

Galen Nishioka

Tony Ortiz

Bruce Osterweil

Winston Parsons

Julie Pitta

Richard Rothman

Joseph Smooke, Co-Founder, People. Power. Media.*

Sheila Tully, resident and labor leader

Charlie Truong, owner of PPQ Dungeness Island

Sue Vaughn, transit advocate

Elaine and Cliff Yee


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• Connie Chan

COVID-19: There are many needs right now and many ways each of us can help each other.

Ed, Edo and I have been sheltering in place and thinking about all the ways our community has come together through this crisis. There are so many great needs right now - and many ways each of us can help each other.

First, the city and local non-profit organizations have put together numerous resources to assist at this time.

  • San Francisco Response: This website includes useful information and updates on COVID-19, how our city is responding and what services are available. You can also sign up for text alerts here.

  • Meals for Students: SFUSD is providing free meals to schoolchildren during school closures.

  • Assistance for Renters: The city and state have both issued new guidelines to protect renters. If you need help, San Francisco Tenants Union has more information.

  • SF Marin Food Bank: The San Francisco Marin Food Bank is continuing to provide food assistance during this period. Locations are available here.

  • Meals on Wheels: Residents aged 60 and up who need food assistance can apply for home delivery of prepared meals.

We can also continue to help each other and the amazing non-profits above who are doing essential work during this time.

  • Volunteer: If you are healthy and not in a high risk group, you can sign up to volunteer for SF Marin Food Bank or Meals on Wheels. Both organizations are also accepting donations.

  • Support Local Businesses: We may not be able to enjoy a nice meal out right now but we can support Richmond merchants by ordering online, getting take out or buying a gift card. Check out this portal from One Richmond to see how you can shop locally during shelter in place.

  • Donate to Protect Tenants: Volunteer or donate to the Housing Rights Committee who fight to protect tenants especially during this public health crisis. More about HRC and donate here.

  • Donate to the Richmond District Neighborhood Center: Help fund the Richmond Neighborhood Center’s food pantries, home-delivered groceries, and many more neighborhood-focused resources. Donate here.

  • Donate to Organizations Helping the Homeless: These two organizations are making sure our homeless neighbors have shelter and other resources they need during our shelter-in-place. Donate to the Homeless Youth Alliance here and the Coalition on Homelessness here to help ensure they can provide enough resources.

  • Be a Resource: The city has put together outreach toolkits to help spread awareness. Find multi-language resources here to provide to your friends and family.

Our campaign is also doing wellness calls to local seniors. If you’d like to join us, please contact us atcampaign@conniechansf.com.

We may not be able to get together, but we can all join together to help our community get through this time.

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Homelessness Can Happen to Most of Us

Becoming homeless could happen to many of us – 59% of Americans are just one paycheck away from becoming homeless. California’s divestment from mental health treatment in the 1980’s, federal divestmen


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The Social Business Revolution

Conscious Capitalism

In todays global capitalist society, business remains the dominating force.  Everything we see, do and work for has its’ foundation in business.  Our world marches forward each day and seeks to “progress” through the art of business.  Our economy dictates everything we live for and it is fueled by business.  So what exactly is business and how is it going to help our society take the next great leap in cultural evolution?

The foremost goal of business is of course to turn a profit.  Other side effects of this are also progress and innovation.  Competition and ever-changing consumer needs are what force businesses to evolve and innovate much faster than other institutions such as government, education or religion.  It is in this respect that business is the greatest force for change in our world today.  Essentially, business is just a corporation working towards a specific goal.  And a corporation is just another word for a group of people working together with a common vision.  When we pool our resources as people with a specific goal in mind, amazing things can and have been accomplished.

As our minds evolve so to does our desires, values and definition for what success is.  Social business is the new way of conducting our professional lives that incorporates not only our need to make money but also our need to live purposeful, meaningful lives.  In this respect business is evolving to incorporate what I call the “triple bottom line”.  The triple bottom line measures the success of a business based not only their bottom line but also their impact on people & planet.  Instead of a business purely measuring their success on the amount of money taken in they are beginning to incorporate their impact on “profit, people & planet.”

A human is a multi-dimensional being and as such it is possible and highly likely that an individual would care about other things besides just “making it” in this world with their success based solely on monetary gain.  So as our consciousness evolves so to does our values and definition of what success is.  This is why it is so important for people to develop a vision for their lives rather than just focusing on making money.  Sure, we all like to make money; and indeed it is necessary to survive in this reality – but this does not mean we should neglect other important aspects of living such as our impact on each other and also our planet.

It is refreshing to see many businesses leading the charge as corporate social responsibility becomes an important aspect of many corporations strategic objectives.  It is now up to each of us as individuals to hold these corporations responsible by becoming responsible consumers ourselves.  It is also up to us to use business to our own advantage in order to enact meaningful change and pool our own resources to ensure we also have a positive impact on each other and our planet.

In the coming decade we will see an unprecendented rise in entrepreneurship as individuals such as ourselves step up and begin dictating what it can mean for a business to succeed, thrive and positively impact people and planet even in turbulent times.  We are beginning to turn the tide even as you read this article and the floodgates to massive social evolution will not be held back much longer.

If we can all live from the perspective of the “triple bottom line” then I can guarantee that positive change and evolution in our society will be inevitable.  It is however the unique challenge of our generation to change the very definition of what “success” is and aspire to these higher values through the choices we make each day.  May your choices be guided by your own intuition and the highest potential of what you define as success.

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Super Lawyers
State Bar of Michigan
Thunderhead Ranch

Monroe County Credit Report Errors

Credit bureaus maintain the credit histories of nearly 240 million Americans. It is estimated, however, that 12 million people have errors on their credit reports that can seriously damage their credit. Most often, these errors fall into well known categories of problems

  • Someone else's credit on your report.
  • Wrong name, address or social security number.
  • Reporting of an account that you are only an authorized user for.
  • Being reported as deceased.
  • Reinsertion of previously deleted account information.
  • Short sales reported as foreclosure.
  • Accounts reported multiple times on your report.
  • Derogatory accounts reported more than 7 years after they first became delinquent.
  • Closed accounts reported as open.
  • Paid accounts reported as late or charged off.

Any one of these errors is potentially serious enough to impact your credit score and cause a credit denial or increased cost of credit. Credit report errors like these can limit your choices and derail your personal goals.

If you have one of these problems, our experienced credit attorneys can help you in Monroe County. At Lyngklip & Associates, we have represented victims of credit errors for more than 25 years. Our law firm is dedicated to helping consumers restore their credit and keep their credit reports free of false and inaccurate information. Whether you have found credit errors on your report or you are a victim of identity theft, we can help, starting with a free consultation to help you understand your rights and your options.

Restore Your Credit

The most common problem faced by victims of credit errors is the harm done to their credit and credit score. We have helped thousands of consumers dispute their errors and and restore their credit and we can help you in Monroe County. And if the dispute process does not succeed, we bring a lawsuit to restore their credit. In most cases, our settlements include not only correction of the consumer's reports, but also include compensation for harm to the consumer.

If you have a serious credit report error, we can help you dispute the error or provide you with the support and resources to dispute the error on your own and no charge. Our attorneys sue creditors and credit bureaus who try to avoid their responsibility for reporting only accurate information. They can help you to restore your credit. If you need credit errors your reports and your credit restored, contact us now for a free consultation or call (888) 400-CREDIT | (888) 400-2733.

What a Michigan Credit Report Attorney Can Do for You

If you have experienced any of these situations — or are facing a credit reporting issue not listed here — our firm may be able to help. From challenging the disputed items to seeking damages for your losses, we work with Monroe County consumers throughout the dispute and process and litigation get consumers the remedy they need. We offer free initial consultations, and won't charge a fee unless we get money for you.

Our law firm sues the companies that refuse to correct credit reporting errors. In most cases we get our client's reports correct along with compensation for harm to their credit, damage to their reputation, and the frustration caused by false reporting.

How Much Are Your Fees?

If you win your credit reporting lawsuit, the other side must pay your attorneys' fees. This means that the credit bureaus and financial institutions that damaged your credit report in Monroe County must pay your lawyer to help fix the problem. Lyngklip & Associates, only charges consumers if we are able to recover for them, and our fees are paid for out of the recovery. Consumers never pay up front fees and there is no charge for your initial consultation. Call (888) 400-CREDIT | (888) 400-2733. today review your case or contact us through this site for a call back.

Follow Up and Monitoring

After your case is done, we will help you to regularly check and monitor your credit report, with free annual review of your credit reports in Monroe County to insure that you stay free of credit report errors.

Work with a Michigan Credit Report Lawyer

If you are a victim of false credit reporting, our firm can help. For more than 20 years, the law firm of Lyngklip & Associates has represented victims of inaccurate credit reports and been a resource for Monroe County consumers who need the help of an experienced credit lawyer.

To learn more or to schedule a free initial consultation with a Michigan identity theft lawyer, contact our law firm today or call (888) 400-CREDIT | (888) 400-2733.


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Showing posts with label FTTC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FTTC. Show all posts

Monday, January 15, 2018

Deutsche Telekom completes next wave of FTTC + vectoring rollout

Deutsche Telekom completed its next wave of FTTC (fiber to the cabinet) and vectoring upgrades. As a result, more than 358,000 households in 207 cities and 122 communities can now connect to the Internet with up to 100 Mbps download and 40 Mbps upload.

"We are the only company pursuing comprehensive broadband expansion," says Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. "Some of our upgrade projects serve tens of thousands of households, while others serve just a handful. For us, every line counts... No other company is investing as much in broadband expansion in rural areas as Deutsche Telekom."

The next FTTC commissioning wave will take place on February 15. With this upgrade, copper lines running between local exchanges and street cabinets are being replaced with fiber-optic cables. Vectoring is used to increase performance over the remaining copper cable into the home. Later this year, DT is looking to deploy super-vectoring, which could push downstream speeds to 250 Mbps.


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›› Convert nanonewton to pond

›› More information from the unit converter

How many nanonewton in 1 pond? The answer is 9806650.
We assume you are converting between nanonewton and pond.
You can view more details on each measurement unit:
nanonewton or pond
The SI derived unit for force is the newton.
1 newton is equal to 1000000000 nanonewton, or 101.97162129779 pond.
Note that rounding errors may occur, so always check the results.
Use this page to learn how to convert between nanonewtons and ponds.
Type in your own numbers in the form to convert the units!

›› Want other units?

You can do the reverse unit conversion from pond to nanonewton, or enter any two units below:

Enter two units to convert

›› Common force conversions

nanonewton to joule/meter
nanonewton to centinewton
nanonewton to giganewton
nanonewton to pound
nanonewton to newton
nanonewton to teranewton
nanonewton to kip
nanonewton to kilogram
nanonewton to kilopond
nanonewton to millinewton

›› Definition: Nanonewton

The SI prefix "nano" represents a factor of 10-9, or in exponential notation, 1E-9.

So 1 nanonewton = 10-9 newtons.

The definition of a newton is as follows:

In physics, the newton (symbol: N) is the SI unit of force, named after Sir Isaac Newton in recognition of his work on classical mechanics. It was first used around 1904, but not until 1948 was it officially adopted by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) as the name for the mks unit of force.

›› Metric conversions and more

ConvertUnits.com provides an online conversion calculator for all types of measurement units. You can find metric conversion tables for SI units, as well as English units, currency, and other data. Type in unit symbols, abbreviations, or full names for units of length, area, mass, pressure, and other types. Examples include mm, inch, 100 kg, US fluid ounce, 6'3", 10 stone 4, cubic cm, metres squared, grams, moles, feet per second, and many more!


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Originally constructed as the H.L. Wolf Feed & Implement Warehouse, the barn has also served as a general store, the local Roy post office in 1934, and a dance hall for the Roy Rodeo beginning in 1965. At over 100 years old, Copper Gables is rich in history and architecture - we were recently added to the Washington Historic Register!

Our venue can seat 200 guests indoors year-round and is fully heated.  There are both women's and men's indoor restrooms, a full bridal suite, and full grooms suite.  The barn has a  great room area with a grand stone gas fireplace perfect for lounging.  Our outdoor courtyard is fully fenced and landscaped with heirloom climbing roses, wisteria, and an antique french water fountain.  There is an 800sf covered deck that provides shade in the summer and terrific cover during any rainy/snowy weather.  We have plenty of free onsite and offsite parking as well as wifi.

The upper floor is 5,000 sf with 26' timber & beam ceilings, a lighted stage area, an altar area, vintage style bar, a large wooden dance floor, and 20 crystal chandeliers.  For those of you who are little bit country, there are also 3 vintage wagon wheel lights that can be used alone or along with our chandeliers.  All lights can be dimmed.

The lower area is 5,000 sf with built in reclaimed wood tables and benches that seat an additional 100 guests.  This floor also has a full kitchen for catering professionals, restrooms, and the bride and groom suites.

Copper Gables is unique in that the barn is located in the city and close to hotels/amenities.  We are 5 minutes from Yelm, 30 minutes from Olympia, 10 minutes from JBLM, and 20 minutes from Spanaway.

Our venue is perfect for a wide range of events any time of year.  Please contact us for a tour.  We look forward to meeting you!


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Public Education

Escape Plan

Your ability to get out of your home during a fire depends on advance warning from smoke alarms and advance planning. Fire can spread rapidly through your home, leaving you as little as one or two minutes to escape safely once the smoke alarm sounds. A closed door may slow the spread of smoke, heat and fire.

Step 1.Make a Plan

Pull together everyone in your household and make a plan. Walk through your home and inspect all possible exits and escape routes. Households with children should consider drawing a floor plan of your home, marking two ways out of each room, including windows and doors.

Step 2.Choose a Meeting Place

Choose an outside meeting place (i.e. neighbor's house, a light post, mailbox, or stop sign) a safe distance in front of your home where everyone can meet after they've escaped. Make sure to mark the location of the meeting place on your escape plan.

Step 3.Practice

Practice your home fire escape plan twice a year, making the drill as realistic as possible. The objective is to practice, not to frighten, so telling children there will be a drill before they go to bed can be as effective as a surprise drill.

Fire Safety

Step 1.Generator Safety

Portable generators are useful during power outages. However, many homeowners are unaware that the improper use of portable generators can be risky. The most common dangers associated with portable generators are carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, electrical shock or electrocution, and fire hazards. According to a 2013 Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) report, portable generators were involved in the majority of carbon monoxide deaths involving engine-driven tools from 1999-2012. The report found that portable generators were linked to more than 85% of non-fire CO deaths associated with engine-driven tools, or 800 out of 931 deaths, during that 14-year period.

Step 2.Fire Extinguishers

A portable fire extinguisher can save lives and property by putting out a small fire or containing it until the fire department arrives; but portable extinguishers have limitations. Because fire grows and spreads so rapidly, the #1 priority for residents is to get out safely. Fire extinguishers are one element of a fire response plan, but the primary element is safe escape. Every household should have a home fire escape plan and working smoke alarms.

Step 3.Safe Cooking Practices

Cooking is one of the leading causes of home fires. One out of three home fires begins in the kitchen - more than any other place in the home.

  • Never leave cooking food unattended.
  • Stay in the kitchen while you are frying, grilling or broiling. If you have to leave, even for a short time, turn off the stove.
  • If you are simmering, baking, roasting, or boiling food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind you that you’re cooking.
  • You have to be alert when cooking. You won’t be alert if you are sleepy, have taken medicine or drugs, or consumed alcohol that makes you drowsy.
  • Always keep an oven mitt and pan lid nearby when you’re cooking. If a small grease fire starts, slide the lid over the pan to smother the flame. Turn off the burner, and leave the pan covered until it is completely cool.
  • Have a “kid-free zone” of at least 3-feet around the stove and areas where hot food or drinks are prepared or carried.

Step 4.Types of Detectors

Smoke Detectors

Smoke alarms are a key part of a home fire escape plan. When there is a fire, smoke spreads fast. Working smoke alarms give you early warning so you can get outside quickly. A closed door may slow the spread of smoke, heat and fire, so if you discover a fire in any room CLOSE THE DOOR, EVACUATE AND CALL 911. Install smoke alarms in every sleeping room and outside each separate sleeping area. Install alarms on every level of the home. We recommend that you use 10-year lithium ion battery smoke detectors.

Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Although the popularity of carbon monoxide (CO) alarms has been growing in recent years, it cannot be assumed that everyone is familiar with the hazards of carbon monoxide poisoning in the home. Often called the invisible killer, carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas created when fuels (such as gasoline, wood, coal, natural gas, propane, oil, and methane) burn incompletely. In the home, heating and cooking equipment that burn fuel are potential sources of carbon monoxide. Vehicles or generators running in an attached garage can also produce dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. The dangers of CO exposure depend on a number of variables, including the victim's health and activity level. Infants, pregnant women, and people with physical conditions that limit their body's ability to use oxygen (i.e. emphysema, asthma, heart disease) can be more severely affected by lower concentrations of CO than healthy adults would be. A person can be poisoned by a small amount of CO over a longer period of time or by a large amount of CO over a shorter amount of time.

Water Safety

Each year nationwide, about 300 children under age five drown in swimming pools. In Florida, drowning is the leading cause of death for this age. It only takes seconds for an unattended child to get into trouble in the backyard pool, canal or pond. Take a moment now to be prepared.

Step 1.Simple Steps, Saves Lives

Parents need to talk to their child about water safety. Here are some ideas to start with:

  • Don’t go near a pool without an adult. This is the most important water safety conversation to have because it is so simple.
  • If you see someone struggling in the water, don’t jump in to help. Run and get an adult.
  • And if you fall into a pool, don’t panic, turn around, find the wall, and climb out or yell for help. Practice this skill in the pool with your child. Have the child practice wearing clothing to experience the sensation.

Step 2.Remember water safety

  •  It can happen to you. Many parents who lost a child to drowning never considered that their child could be at risk; they just didn’t realize how close the danger was.
  • Take ownership of your child’s safety. Never rely on responsible behavior from your child, another child or other adults. Know who is watching your child when you can’t be there.
  • Don’t multitask. Pool time means your full attention is needed to properly supervise. Drowning happens quickly; most children die who are under water for as little as 6 minutes.
  • Have a response plan. If your child is missing, check the pool first, know CPR.

Step 3.Install Water Barriers

Install access doors to pools, spas and all water environments.

  • Door handles should be 5 feet above ground level.
  • Always keep locked.

Install alarms on access doors.

  • Do not deactivate alarms.
  • If the alarm can be temporarily turned off for adult to open the door, the deactivate button should be out of children’s reach.

Install pool safety barrier (four-sided) separating pool and/or backyard lake from home and all access doors and entrances.

  • Always leave barrier in place when pool is not in use.
  • Barrier should be 5 feet tall, self-closing and self-latching.

Install floating pool alarm.

  • Do not deactivate alarm.
  • Consider having pool alarm connected into your home alarm.

Learn CPR and rescue techniques.

  • Anyone over age 10 in your home should have CPR training.
  • Baby sitters and caregivers should also be trained.
  • 911 dispatchers can give CPR instruction over the phone.


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Lightning Policy

Lightning Season Is Here. Become Familiar with the Prediction System in Our City Parks

Florida is the lightning capital of the United States. Lightning kills more people on an annual basis than hurricanes, tornadoes, or winter storms. It is second only to flash floods in the annual number of deaths caused by storm-related hazards. 20% of all lightning victims die from the strike and 70% of the survivors will suffer long term effects, such as memory and attention loss, chronic numbness, depression and hearing loss.

85% of lightning victims are children and young men ages ten to 35, engaged in outdoor recreation and work activities outside. Early recognition that lightning is approaching provides the best defense. Because of this fact, the City of Coral Springs Parks & Recreation Department wants to be sure that you understand the lightning prediction system we have installed in our city parks.

The following lightning policy has been implemented and is enforced by the City of Coral Springs.

When inclement weather has been detected, the lightning prediction system in our parks will generate one (1) 15-second horn blast. (If equipped, a strobe light will begin flashing and remain flashing until safe conditions return). When you hear this, you must:

  • Suspend all play and seek immediate shelter
  • Immediately get away from pools, lakes and other bodies of water
  • Never use a tree as a shelter
  • Avoid standing near tall objects
  • Keep away from metal objects including bikes, golf carts, umbrellas, fencing, machinery, etc.
  • Get indoors if at all possible or get in a hard-topped vehicle. Keeps windows rolled up and your hands in your lap

The all clear is given when you hear three (3) short (5-second) horn blasts.
The city uses the Thor Guard Lightning Prediction System in our parks and it is operable from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. The Thor Guard Lightning Prediction systems are located in the following City of Coral Springs Parks:

  • Mullins Park
  • Cypress Park
  • North Community Park
  • Sportsplex Park
  • Aquatic Center
  • Turtle Run Park
  • Forest Hills Park
  • Betti Stradling Park
  • Riverside Park
  • Cypress Hammock Park

If you are in a park without the Prediction System, follow the 30/30 rule. If the time between seeing the flash of lightning and hearing the thunder is less than 30 seconds, take shelter. You are in a strike zone. Remain in shelter for 30 minutes after the last flash of lightning. Follow all rules above. Lightning is a severe hazard that must be viewed seriously. Everyone should immediately seek shelter any time they believe lightning threatens them, even if a signal has not been sounded.

If you remain outdoors after the warning is issued, you do so at your own risk!!!

’When the thunder roars, go indoors”.

The City of Coral Springs Parks & Recreation Department wants you to be safe and to enjoy our beautiful parks. Please be sure to familiarize yourselves with our lightning prediction system so that you can return to enjoy the outdoors another day.