Monday, December 31, 2012

In your town: What's going on in your community

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Source: http://www.app.com/article/20121230/NJNEWS/312300031/1070/NEWS02&source=rss

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Water Filters: An Indispensable Device - ArticlesWide.com ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]HOME :: Shopping and Product Reviews :: Electronics ... Also make sure to check with the manufacturer of that filter to see if their product removes the contaminants. You can filter the tap water that comes from your faucet by ...

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Is Your Website Mobile Compatible? - Web Design Company

With the ever-increasing use of smart-phones and tablets, it has become essential for businesses to ensure their website mobile-compatible. Without a mobile compatible website, your businesses will not be available to consumers that use their mobiles to access websites.

One of the first things a business can do to capitalise on the mobile marketing boom is to check how their current website appears on popular mobile devices including tablets and smart-phones. There are a number of free mobile testing tools and emulators that businesses take advantage of.

In this article, we have identified the top free web-based tools that allow you to test if your website is mobile compatible. The list includes simulators that show you how your website appears on popular mobile devices as well as tools that offer more in-depth testing of your code and other aspects of mobile usability.

Here are the 10 most useful mobile testing tools for your website:

1. Opera Mini Simulator

Mobile Testing - Opera Mini Simulator

Opera Mini is one of? the most popular mobile web browsers and is used by over 200 million users. Opera Mini Simulator is a live demo of Opera?s mobile phone browser that functions as it would when installed on a handset.. You can use the web-based tool from any Java-enabled Web browser, or downloaded the desktop version of the software to install and run from your PC.

What Can You Test?

Rather than simulating different mobile phone makes and models, this offers general testing on simulated mobile version of Opera browser which is used on many mobile phones.

2. Pixmobi?s Mobile Phone Emulator

Mobile Testing - Pixmobi

This emulator allows you to view your designs on 6 different phones and several mobile browsers including Safari, Opera, Android.

The website enables you to test the display of your website in a cell phone terminal. It offers several customisation and settings options including dimensions, resolutions, user agent, behaviour, and more. Choose a cell phone terminal in the listbox, then type the website

What You Can Test?

  • iPhone 3, 4 and 5
  • HTC HD and HTC Touch Diamond
  • LG U970
  • RIM Blackberry
  • Samsung Glaxy Spica & S2

3. Ipad Geek

Mobile Testing - Ipad Geek

This is a very simple tool for testing how site appears on mobile devices. It is very easy to use and does not offer many customisation parameters. You can use it to test landscape and portrait versions on iPad, iPhone 3.4 and iPhone 5.

What You Can Test?

You can test how your website looks on the landscape and portrait screens of the following devices:

4. The Responsinator

Mobile Testing - Responsinator

The Responsinator helps website makers quickly get an indication of how their responsive website will look on the most popular devices. For those who test sites regularly, there is also a handy bookmarklet that you can drag to your browser?s toolbar to click test sites as you browse the Internet.

What Can You Test?

You can use it to test any website on portrait as well as landscape screens of the following mobile devices:

  • iPad? Kindle
  • Android (Samsung Galaxy)
  • Android 3
  • iPhone 3, 4, 5

5. Gomez?s Cross-Device Website Compatibility Test

Mobile Testing - Gomez

Gomez?s cross-device website compatibility testing tool helps to identify browser problems that impact your end-users. It helps businesses to ensure device compatibility issues do not result in loss in revenue and brand equity for your business. With this single tool you can see how your website renders across the following four real mobile devices:

What Can You Test?

  • iPhone 3GS
  • iPad
  • BlackBerry
  • Nexus One (Android)

6. W3C mobileOK Checker

Mobile Testing - W3C Validator

This checker performs various tests on a Web Page to determine its level of mobile-friendliness.

Unlike other tools on this list, this does not show how your website appears on different mobile devices. Instead is runs an in-depth validation of your code and provide a details report outlining what issues affect the mobile friendliness of your website code.The tests are checked against the W3C mobileOK Basic Tests specification developed by W3C, the worldwide consortium for web standards.

What Can You Test?

7. Tablet Emulator

Mobile Testing Tool - Tablet Emulator

This is a free tool by SFusion, the US based business development and marketing solutions provider.? It is a collection of 5 individual tools for testing android-emulator, iphone-emulator, ipad-emulator, blackberry-emulator and tablet-emulator for testing your website on other non Apple tablets.

8.?? Mobile Meter by Google?s ?Get Mobile? Initisative

Test Mobile Website - Getmo

Get Mobile is an initiative by Google that aims to help businesses create mobile-friendly sites. It acts as a useful starting point where companies can see how their current site looks to mobile users, learn best practices and find resources. It offers suggestions on how your business can build a more mobile-friendly experience and includes ?Mobile Meter? testing tool.

What Can You Test?

  • It shows you your current site on a generic smart-phone.
  • Also provides a free report with personalised recommendations

9. MobiReady

Mobile Testing - MobiReady

MobiReady is another online testing site that allows you to enter a URL so that it can perform a set of evaluations, including Page Test, Markup Test and Site Test of the web page.

What Can You Test?

You can test various aspects concerning the mobile-accessibility of your website including:

  • In-depth Site wide testing or single page test
  • Mark-Up test
  • W3C Validation
  • dotMobi compliance
  • Enhanced Device emulators
  • Detailed error reports

10. Perfecto Mobile

Mobile Testing -  Perfecto

This is different to testing using emulators.an emulator is a simulation of how the device should behave and as such can have minor discrepancies from the real device. The only way to prove your site or application works correctly on a range of devices is to physically test it on real devices. But this can be an expensive affair. This is where cloud based enterprise level testing systems such as Perfectomobile can help. It allows to access and control real mobile handsets located around the world. You actually get to test on the latest handsets and tablets that are controlled online, providing 100% accuracy.

The tool is not free but you can take advantage of the free trial version.

What Can You Test?

You can test dozens of real physical mobile phone models and makes by connecting and controlling them remotely.

Conclusion:

It has never been more important for businesses to ensure their website is mobile compatible. You can take advantage of the free mobile testing tools above to check how your current website appears on popular mobile devices such as smart-phones, tablets and Kindle. Based on the results, you can decide if you need to create a mobile version of your website.

What About You?

Do you know if your website is mobile compatible? Do you use any of the tools above? Perhaps you would like to suggest another mobile testing tool for this list. Please add your response by leaving a comment below.

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Source: http://www.kronikmedia.co.uk/blog/mobile-website-testing-tools/6449/

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Sunday, December 30, 2012

London 2012 heroes including Ben Ainslie, Bradley Wiggins and Jessica Ennis gave us the time of our lives - Patrick Collins

By Patrick Collins

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It was towards the end of the Opening Ceremony that a blissful certainty descended. In the space of a single enchanted evening, Danny Boyle had painted a picture of a nation at ease with itself; compassionate, resourceful, diverse and quirky. And as we stumbled away from the stadium, senses reeling from the spectacle, we knew beyond question that Boyle?s masterpiece had set the stunning tone; that London would stage an Olympics for the ages.

The heroes would emerge in golden clusters; Mo and Jessica, Bradley and Victoria, Ben, Andy and all those for whom first names alone now suffice. Over the past few weeks of the awards season, those heroes have been duly feted by a grateful public. Soon they will tramp in massed ranks to the house at the end of The Mall, where a sword will touch deserving shoulders and medals will dangle from worthy lapels.

Arise: Ben Ainslie is one of the Olympic heroes being honoured for their achievements

Arise: Ben Ainslie is one of the Olympic heroes being honoured for their achievements

Pace setter: Bradley Wiggins celebrates winning the Men's Individual Time Trial

Pace setter: Bradley Wiggins celebrates winning the Men's Individual Time Trial

Something to behold: Jessica Ennis flew the flag for Britain as she won the heptathlon

Something to behold: Jessica Ennis flew the flag for Britain as she won the heptathlon

? ? ?

More from Patrick Collins...

It is right that they should be rewarded, especially if those rewards help us remember how it felt in the days of high summer, when great deeds were done in stadium and velodrome, on lake and road and in all those arenas which held the country entranced for day after magical day. And not merely the deeds themselves, but the numbers and the passion of those who witnessed them.

Those of us who have followed the Olympic circus down the decades had grown used to stadia being thinly populated for heats or qualifiers or so-called ?minor? sports. Not in London. Sebastian Coe had promised that the Games would be watched by capacity crowds. To the amazement of the International Olympic Committee, that promise was emphatically delivered.

The numbers were unprecedented. If tickets were unobtainable, then the public would stand five, ten, 15 deep to cheer on the triathletes, the marathon runners or the road racing cyclists. And not only the British contenders, but each and every Olympian.

The feats of the gods demanded full tribute, of course. Usain Bolt was already installed as a citizen of the world, while the likes of the American swimmer Michael Phelps, and Kenya?s David Rudisha, whose 800 metres world record was perhaps the performance of the entire Games, produced the kind of excellence which far superseded nationality.

But the same approval and admiration was accorded to the overmatched boxer, the outclassed swimmer, and to young Sarah Attar, the first woman athlete from Saudi Arabia to compete in an Olympic arena. Sarah finished more than 30 seconds behind the field in the 800 metres but thunderous cheers told of her ultimate triumph. Somebody asked if she had a message for her countrywomen. ?I?d tell them: Don?t give up on your dreams,? said Sarah, and a roomful of reporters began blinking furiously.

Usain and Michael, David and Sarah; we treated them all alike. Never was a Games more welcoming, less partisan. It was an object lesson in how civilised sport should be conducted. In truth, we surprised ourselves. For there was courtesy and friendliness, a willingness to chat with strangers, advise on travel and recommend decent pubs. This was not what visitors expected from Britain, and most certainly not from London. Their surprise was our delight.

Delivered: Sebastian Coe oversaw a fantastic Olympics in front of packed stadiums

Delivered: Sebastian Coe oversaw a fantastic Olympics in front of packed stadiums

Global citizen: Usain Bolt is known all over the world and his popularity increased further still at the Games

Global citizen: Usain Bolt is known all over the world and his popularity increased further still at the Games

What about the golf?

If anybody is foolish enough to ask me about the last day of the Ryder Cup, I tell them at some length about standing on the fringe of the 18th green at Medinah, so close to the winning putt that I actually heard Martin Kaymer?s ball fall ?clonk-clonk-clonk? into the cup.

And it?s true, at least I think it is. Difficult to tell as, at that moment, the world went mad in celebration of the most incredible recovery in the history of the event.

In any other year, it would have been the outstanding sporting memory. In the year of the London Olympics, it took its place in a long queue.

The same may be said of Rory McIlroy. Being leading money-winner on both sides of the Atlantic,? as well as US PGA champion, qualifies him for no more than an honourable mention. Even so, it was a staggering year for the young Irishman.

Naturally, the mood was assisted by the extraordinary success of Team GB. At this nostalgic time of year, the tales of gold are lovingly retold. Even those of us present on the first ?Super Saturday? occasionally wonder if it really happened.

But the reality was gold in the women?s team pursuit, gold in the men?s coxless four and gold for Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland in the women?s double scull. All of which was a prelude to a night of sheer fantasy in the Olympic Stadium.

Heptathlon gold for Jess Ennis, long jump gold for Greg Rutherford, 10,000 metres gold for Mo Farah. Lord Coe called it ?the greatest day of sport I have ever witnessed?. But it was even more; with six Olympic gold medals, it was the greatest day that British sport has ever known.

And so it continued; Wiggins in the time trial, Murray at Wimbledon and, absurdly, another Super Saturday with Mo winning an historic 5,000 metres and Bolt?s Jamaicans obliterating the sprint relay world record.

Magic MOment: Farah crosses the line to win the 5,000m at the London Olympics

Magic MOment: Farah crosses the line to win the 5,000m at the London Olympics

Spectacular: It wasn't just the stadium and the fireworks which looked great

Spectacular: It wasn't just the stadium and the fireworks which looked great

Along with a fierce pride in our city and its people, there was a deep and genuine sadness when the Olympic flame died. We told ourselves that never again would we know such times, nor see such sport. That mournful conviction lasted precisely 17 days.

For, quite astonishingly, the Paralympics were equally compelling. Long before the first week was through, the names of David Weir and Sarah Storey, of Sophie Christiansen and the captivating Ellie Simmonds were rolling off the tongue. Ellie?s 400 metres performance in the Aquatic Centre was equalled only by the drama of the men?s 100 metres, when Britain?s Jonnie Peacock sprinted away from the overwhelming favourite, Oscar Pistorius.

Captivating: Ellie Simmonds (right) was one of the Paralympians who stunned us again and again

Captivating: Ellie Simmonds (right) was one of the Paralympians who stunned us again and again

Thrillers: David Weir and Sarah Storey (below) delighted us during the Paralympics

Thrillers: David Weir and Sarah Storey (below) delighted us during the Paralympics

Sarah Storey

Sarah Storey

The Paralympics were no longer worthy and esoteric. In less than two weeks, they had moved into the mainstream. It was perhaps the most significant advance that British sport made all year. And when they ended, in? lachrymose lashings of Coldplay, the melancholy began in earnest.

I remember leaving the Olympic Park on that Sunday evening and boarding the? Docklands Light Railway. Across the carriage, in their distinctive purple and red suits, sat? a couple of volunteers. They were middle-aged, tired and a little emotional. Unpaid and largely unheeded, they had worked throughout the Olympics, then the Paralympics. Save for a single basketball game, they had seen little live sport.

On that final day, they had completed a? double shift, getting up at 6.15 for the early start. It was almost midnight, and their faces were grey with fatigue. Tomorrow, they would become civilians again. They were not looking forward to it. ?So you enjoyed the Games?? I asked. They smiled at the foolish question. ?Enjoyed it?? said the man. He shook his head, slowly. ?It was the best time of our lives.? In those few words, he had given us the perfect summary of our Olympic summer.

?

Murray delivers the dream

There were times during 2012 when the bare facts read like tall stories. Andy Murray, Wimbledon finalist, was one thing. Andy Murray, Olympic gold medallist, was another.

And Andy Murray, US Open champion, the first Briton to win a Grand Slam since 1936, was of another order entirely. Yet in the course of his staggering summer, he delivered all three. In a normal era, it would have been a sensational achievement. But in an era containing the finest players the game has known, it was a feat beyond compare.

What a year: Andy Murray memorably won the US Open title in November

Unless the comparison happened to be with the deeds of Bradley Wiggins. His victory in the time trial at the London Games was his fourth Olympic gold. He also happened to win the Tour de France.

It goes without saying that he was the first Briton ever to do so; the first to scale the mountains, to charge through the valleys, to endure the sprints and the time trials and to ride into Paris in a yellow jersey. He covered 2,173.75 miles and devastated the most formidable field his sport could assemble.

To have a Murray or a Wiggins once in a lifetime would represent lavish prosperity. To have two such athletes in the same astonishing year was sporting wealth beyond measure.

?

Pietersen keeps finding new ways to steal the limelight

One abiding image of the celebrations which followed England?s series victory in India is of Kevin Pietersen grinning at the camera, the autographs of his team-mates scrawled all over his shirt front. The picture screamed ?reintegration?, which was presumably what Pietersen wanted to convey.

It was a momentous year for English cricket. A great captain, Andrew Strauss, made way for the youthful Alastair Cook, who also has the whiff of greatness about him. And England lost a hard-fought home series to a formidable South Africa team, which made their subsequent triumph in the sub-continent the more remarkable.

Yet throughout the year, Pietersen had invaded the headlines to the discomfort of the cricket authorities. There was his texting to South African opponents ? ?provocative? but not ?derogatory?, he insisted. There were his crass public statements, the indiscreet jabber which invited retribution.

Whirlwind: Currently there is tranquility between England and Kevin Pietersen... will it last?

Whirlwind: Currently there is tranquility between England and Kevin Pietersen... will it last?

And there was his unfortunate habit of listening only to bad advice, taking only unsound decisions and repeatedly allowing ego to over-rule his dubious judgement.

But there was also his talent, that glittering ability which allowed him ? in Colombo, at Headingley and, most dramatically, in Mumbai ? to play, in a calendar year, three of the finest innings the modern game has known.

It was that glorious talent which saw him reintegrated into a team that sorely need his gifts. At the moment, all is tranquil between Pietersen and England. We must hope that tranquillity reigns in 2013.

?

Greed and ugliness 3

Drama and Sense 2

At the last gasp, Manchester City won the most dramatic title contest the Premier League has seen. Still more improbably, Chelsea emerged from the Champions League clutching the trophy with the big ears.

Another massive TV deal was signed, prompting agents to order fresh stocks of Krug. And England chose an immensely capable and experienced man to be their new manager.

There were those who declared it an excellent year for football. And they were wrong.

For the most urgent priority of the English game was the pursuit of the bottom line. The Premier League was the richest, therefore, it had to be the best.

Racism was ugly, of course,? but it was a problem for less enlightened countries. We have no truck with that kind of thing here. Likewise hooliganism; all in the past. And yet, the cases began to accumulate. The Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra affair was shabbily treated by Liverpool.?

Shambolic: Liverpool's treatment of the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra race row was poor

Shambolic: Liverpool's treatment of the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra race row was poor

The John Terry-Anton Ferdinand scandal dragged on through much of the year and was appallingly handled by just? about everybody involved.

The moral leadership was? non-existent, the consequences deeply damaging.

Meanwhile, crowd chants grew uglier, more threatening, and grounds suddenly seemed less safe than they should be.

Good things were happening, too, and the appointment of Roy Hodgson was sane and sensible. He may not have sufficiently talented players and the Brazil World Cup is surely a hopeless quest. Yet he represents an important step in the right direction.

The national game ? so wealthy, so confident yet so little loved ? needs many such steps in 2013.

?

?

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College for Creative Studies provost, design guru dies : Imre Molnar helped style future designers at Detroit school

Imre Molnar helped style future designers at Detroit school



CCS Chevy design
Imre Molnar, College for Creative Studies provost, helped produce scores of future car designers. A 2011 student project examining a future Chevrolet urban mobility vehicle called the Stretch is shown.

Imre Molnar, the longtime academic chief at the prestigious College for Creative Studies in Detroit, died Dec. 28 of a heart attack while bicycle riding in California, the school announced.

Molnar was at CCS for 11 years, holding the positions of dean and then provost. CCS is one of the top design schools in the country and counts some of the most important car designers as alumni, including Chrysler's Ralph Gilles and Ford GT designer Camilo Pardo. Along with the Art Center in Pasadena, Calif., CCS annually turns out a crop of young designers who are among the most sought-after in the auto industry.

Molnar was born in Hungary and grew up in Australia. He also served as design director for clothing maker Patagonia and worked as operations director for design consulting firm Hauser Inc. He also was a consultant for Ford, BMW, Hyundai, Kia and Volkswagen.

He came to CCS in 2001 and was instrumental in the expansion of the transportation design program. On his watch, the school moved to the historic former General Motors design studios in Detroit, allowing aspiring designers to learn in the same spaces Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell once created some of the landmark automotive stylings of the Twentieth Century.

Autoweek holds its annual Design Forum at CCS in the A. Alfred Taubman Center for design education.

Molnar also helped create the school's master's of fine arts program. Previously, he was a faculty member at the Art Center, where he earned a master's degree.

Well-respected in the automotive sector for his expertise, Molnar was a frequent source for Autoweek. He compiled a list of his favorite designs for an issue earlier this year, selecting the eye-catching Cadillac Sixteen from 2003 and the Corvette Stingray concepts (2010) among his favorites.

Despite his considerable standing in the design community and demand as a speaker at conferences around the world, he remained focused on developing the next generation of cutting-edge designers.

"In order to design, you've got to have a real passion and love for it," he told Autoweek this spring.

Molnar is survived by his wife, Felicia, and children Isabelle and Max.

CCS STATEMENT

Richard L. Rogers, CCS president, said in a statement on the school's website: ?Imre Molnar has been a remarkable leader whose accomplishments in his 11 years at the college are huge. For me, it was a personal privilege and pleasure to have worked so closely with him. I admired his values, his intelligence, his talent, his determination, and his passionate devotion to his family and the college. He leaves a great void, and we will miss him terribly. Let us go forward in reflection on his many contributions to CCS and the Detroit community and in sympathy with his wife Felicia and children Isabelle and Max.?

Imre Molnar
Imre Molnar, provost of the College for Creative Studies, died Dec. 28.

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Autoweek loves passionate comments and debate, but remember that you're part of a diverse community. Above all: be respectful. Critique statements, not people; talk about the automotive world, but skip the political rhetoric, hate speech, and obscenities. While we can't read every post, this site is moderated and Autoweek will remove comments as we see fit. Questions? Read our Terms of Use or email moderator@autoweek.com.

Source: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20121230/CARNEWS/121239999

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Top 10 Sports Stories of 2012: #4 - State Volleyball

Top 10 Sports Stories of 2012: #4 - State Volleyball | KTVQ.com | Q2 | Billings, Montana

www.ktvq.com

BILLINGS - South Central Montana has been a hotbed of volleyball talent for years. At least one, usually more, state title trophies come home to this area every November. But when all four make their way back, it's hard to ignore.

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Transcendent artistic moments in 2012 - KansasCity.com

The assignment was deceptively simple: Tell us a story of one experience of the year during which you felt transported by art. Culture has the power to change our lives, to expand our hearts, to help us learn about and understand our increasingly complicated world. Undoubtedly it occurred in your world sometime this year. Here is how some of our local artists, trendsetters, regular contributors and culture professionals found moments of art in their lives in 2012.

Steve Paul, The Star IN THE CIRCLE OF LIFE, WAGNER?S RING CYCLE BRINGS COMFORTMy brother, Jack, passed away in April. Although he had a Ph.D. in biology and was steeped in science, he also loved classical music. After he was diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer in July 2010, we went to as many classical concerts together as possible. Jack was a huge fan of the operas of Richard Wagner, and it just so happened that not long after his fateful diagnosis, the Metropolitan Opera in New York started to broadcast its newest Ring Cycle to movie theaters around the country. Jack and I attended all of them as over a period of months: ?Das Rheingold,? ?Die Walkure? and ?Siegfried.? And in between the operas, we watched the entire eight-hour Wagner biopic starring Richard Burton on DVD. We were wallowing in Wagner.On Feb. 11 of this year, the Met broadcast the final opera in the Ring Cycle, ?G?tterd?mmerung.? By this time, Jack?s condition had worsened considerably, and he was suffering from severe bone pain, especially in his legs. But he was determined to sit through one of the longest and most demanding operas ever written. I made ham sandwiches for intermission, Jack took powerful painkillers, and we both settled in for six plus hours of Wagnerian cataclysm. I could sense that Jack was in intense pain as we watched the doomed gods and goddesses play out their tragedy on the screen. But he insisted on sticking it out, and we made it. Valhalla was destroyed, and Jack accomplished his goal of seeing the complete Ring Cycle before he crossed his own rainbow bridge a month or so later. Watching Wagner?s transcendent masterpiece with my brother as he faced his own epic saga was profoundly moving for both of us. Music, as it has done for untold millions of others, was able to lift my brother out of his pain and take him to a place that is beyond all suffering, a place of eternal and infinite beauty. A MOMENT OF LITERARY TRUTH IN A SAN FRANCISCO CATHEDRALIt was a good year in publishing, as it always is. So many great books to read: new collections by Alice Munro and Junot Diaz. Translations of Peter Nadas and Laszlo Krasznahorkai. Chris Ware?s new project, ?Building Stories?? the list goes on. But if I had to identify the most significant literary ?moment? of the year, a moment when I experienced the transformative power of storytelling, I would have to look back. Way back. All the way to Victor Hugo. A chilly spring morning in San Francisco. My father and I are standing outside a cathedral, somewhat uncomfortably ? partly because we are in dress clothes, which neither one of us favors, and partly because we are early for the baptism of my niece and nephew, my sister?s twins. We are so early, in fact, that the doors of the church haven?t even been unlocked. Neither of us is known for our punctuality or competence in any kind of logistical operation ? getting to places in strange cities, remembering our keys and wallets and phones, etc. ? and to compensate for our notoriety we have overdone it a bit. We have overdone it a lot.My father remarks that he can remember being early for only one other event in his entire life. Oddly enough, my daughter?s baptism 10 years prior. There, too, he waited outside the church, and as he waited something strange happened. About 30 minutes before Mass was to begin, he saw a woman mounting the steps to the church. She was terribly hunched over, struggling as she walked, suffering from some illness or disability. She wore a veil over her face, and as she passed my father on the steps he could see that something terrible had happened to her. Her face was severely deformed, its features out of the usual alignment. She walked past him and into the church. Then, a few minutes later, walked out again. It occurred to my father that it was too difficult for her to attend Mass with, as it were, the masses. That she must do this every week ? arrive early, spend a few minutes in quiet prayer, then slip out before the first parishioners arrived. Or at least the people who thought of themselves as the first. This was her secret. That by the time anyone else arrived, she had already come and gone. My father?s father suffered from polio, and so my father has always been especially attuned to people struggling with their bodies, struggling to maintain their independence and dignity. He often notices the afflicted, their efforts at concealment ? the bulky coats, the elevated shoes ? even when these afflictions and efforts are obvious to no one else. We talked a bit about suffering, why it exists, why it strikes at random and so unevenly.Then something even stranger happened. People started to arrive for the baptism. The doors were unlocked, and we filed in. The twins appeared ? perfect specimens of humanity, fat and pink and happy, beautifully dressed ? and the service began. Not five minutes in I saw someone moving about the perimeter of the church, making his way through the stations of the cross. The man walked on two legs but couldn?t be said to be upright, for his spine was bent at a seemingly impossible angle, his torso absolutely parallel to the ground. Perhaps polio, perhaps a congenital disease. His posture was so tortured, his suffering so obvious, that it hurt to watch him walk. He prayed aloud at each station, shuffled to the next. He was dressed in loose gray clothing, his pants secured with a rope. Members of the audience shifted their gaze back and forth between the twins ? the picture of health ? and the praying man. I don?t know what others were thinking, but for me it was hard not to think that we were experiencing something significant. That we were being reminded of something, taught something. Formal ceremonies were nice, of course, but what did it really mean to come to church? Had any of us ever come to church with the devotion that this man did? My father is an English teacher, and so am I. When we talk to each other, which is all too rarely, we tend to talk in literary references, quotes and allusions. Each of us tends to focus on the moments in life that seem unbelievable, like fiction. It was right out of a novel, we say to each other. Quasimodo, we said, in this instance. Unreal. It had felt, to both of us, that we had been visited by the character from ?The Hunchback of Notre Dame,? that we had witnessed something outside of the boundaries of ordinary life. The baptism, to us, felt not like life but like a scene, something that distilled and encapsulated one of life?s truths. And the juxtaposition! The repetition! We had just been talking about my daughter?s baptism, the veiled woman. We couldn?t get over the timing, the coincidence.After that weekend, I thought many times of the hunchbacked man. I even went back to Hugo, whom I hadn?t read since high school. And it occurred to me that this habit of mine ? of comparing extraordinary moments and people to their literary predecessors ? is all wrong. Is in fact entirely backward. We tend to compare people ? real people ? to characters from Shakespeare, Dickens, Hugo. These people are so exaggerated, we say, in their features, their attitudes, their mannerisms and habits, that they have become a fiction. When in fact we might look at it another way. That Shakespeare, Dickens, Hugo, et.al, were true to life, attuned to not only its subtleties but its extremities.The man in the church wasn?t a character; his condition was real, one he lived and felt every day. To compare him to a character would be to deny, in a way, the lives that are dissimilar to our own ? to embrace the ignorance we live in, if we are fortunate enough to be among the parishioners who arrive on time to Mass, unaware that others have already come and gone. It seems to me now that looking at ?extraordinary? people and things as a fiction is a kind of injustice. That it takes away somewhat from the validity of the actual suffering or mania or grandeur around us. And so this literary ?moment,? this visitation, reminded me that we might look at reading less as an ?escape? from real life and more as a meditation on its actual truths. We might look at life?s players ? our colleagues, our politicians, our neighbors, our families, the strangers we encounter ? less as characters, more as people. HOW I BROKE MY GLASSESI was reading a poem called ?Body and Soul,? by B.H. Fairchild, from his 1998 book, ?The Art of the Lathe,? handy on my bookshelf that Saturday morning, where I worked alone in my office. In my imagination, I was reading aloud to my students, which I planned to do soon, a poem about sandlot baseball among men in Depression Oklahoma, in which a boy, 15, stands in to make the sides even ? who he is, exactly, doesn?t matter here. I then reread the poem?s final 15 lines, which address why those men would pitch five times to a kid who each time sent a homer over their heads. Why not walk him? Because, the poem says, the Depression and a war and the idea of being a man ?had cost them just too ? damned much to lay it/ at the feet of a fifteen-year-old boy.? The poem, here, begins to soar into the harsh light of that Oklahoma Sunday, and my eyes became weak, and I could do nothing but fumble with my glasses and throw them at the wall, and grab hold of the final phrase, which I had by heart and still have, and offer it up. | Robert Stewart, poet, teacher and editor of New Letters A POWERFUL BREAKTHROUGH DURING ?NIXON IN CHINA?There was a section of Act 3 of John Adams? opera ?Nixon in China? that I have never ?understood,? despite a quarter century of history with the score. Richard Nixon is reliving an intense World War II bombing experience ? the orchestra basses are insistently and rhythmically pulsing, Nixon is emoting intensely, and Adams has written this strong viola solo with a disjunct musical line that seems to be in active combat with Nixon?s vocal line. They seem to have nothing to do with each other, and I never understood musically or dramatically what the composer was thinking. It always sounded like a mistake to me.Suddenly, during one of our early performances last March, while I was ?in the moment? and in the thick of things as the conductor, we came to that section, James Maddalena began singing it as he has so many times before, and the viola entered. This time, I became transfixed as the entire musical structure (including the inscrutable viola line) jelled in my ears and heart, and I became entranced in what I can only describe as intense musical/dramatic passion. My head seemed to buzz sympathetically as I was swept along by the power of the music and emotion. Somehow I now ?understood? what Adams might have been trying to convey with his unconventional music writing. Moreover, the power of this section of music seemed to open up my understanding of the remaining minutes of the opera that followed, and I had a similar experience at this place in the remaining performances. This experience was highly subjective and personal. Perhaps it has nothing to do with the composer?s original intentions. Nevertheless, this was a moment in performance when a piece of music I had known for a long time became special for reasons I will never be able to completely understand or explain. As a music lover and performer, I live for such moments. LONDONERS DISCOVER THE MAGIC OF KC NATIVE KRYSTLE WARRENWhen Kansas City native Krystle Warren ambled out of the blue side lighting at London?s Hammersmith Apollo one night last month, the applause was welcoming but reserved. My husband and I had an idea what we were going to hear, but a few thousand Londoners did not. On the candlelit stage, she gave a brief nod before singing Kate McGarrigle?s ?I Don?t Know,? accompanied sparingly by piano. ?You ask me what it?s all about,? she crooned, her voice dusky, deep for such a small frame, her hands gently twisting the air as she spun out the phrases. She has sung all over the world to innumerable crowds, but with the same intimacy that she displayed when she was couch-surfing in Kansas City, performing at such humble places as Prospero?s Books or the RecordBar.Warren was on tour as a backup singer with Rufus Wainwright, in a show that ranged from flamboyant pop-rock to heart-on-sleeve sorrow to a manic finale featuring tinsel, body glitter and a man-sized foam sandwich.Her solo was a respite of introspective singularity, bereft of hyperbole and overzealous flash.Warren wrenched lyrics around, eliding phrases, sustaining, almost gnawing on syllables. Her voice absorbed energy, and we were all twisted up in that energy, pulled forward with every breath. The audience?s response when she finished shook the plaster in its enthusiasm. HEEDING THE SIREN SONG OF A BEAUTIFUL BOOKThe boys were loud, gangly, full of energy as they burst through the library doors. Joshing and cutting up, they filled the quiet space with their exuberance. Shouting ?we?re late,? one darted off, but the other?s attention was arrested by a book. A 17th-century volume on virginity, bound with a single folio from a choir book. The notes of a hymn for the Virgin Mary carefully penned by a medieval hand ran up the front cover. Perched in an open display case, the book demanded attention. The boy, likely no more than 15, stopped short, arrested in wonder. He inched forward, drawn by the beauty of the calligraphy. He slowly extended a brown index finger. Glancing left, then right, he hesitated before gently touching the manuscript page, yellowed by time. He had to touch. He wanted a tangible interaction with this piece of animal flesh that had been tanned, scraped and decorated with Latin words by a medieval scribe ? a page that had been repurposed as a book cover when the need for handwritten songbooks had long passed. His friend called, and the boy was gone, one of many to have stopped to appreciate the artistry of a book. DANCE AND DRUMS CONJURE ANCIENT SPIRITS ON NEW MEXICO PUEBLOThe air was January crisp, and the sky was brilliant blue above the unpaved plaza of the Jemez Pueblo in northern New Mexico. From one end of the road a procession of musicians and dancers rounded the corner into view, as a comparable group ? dozens of men and boys, wearing hides and antlers ? rhythmically marched off the other way. It was Jan. 6, the pueblo?s annual and culturally complex Three Kings feast day and Buffalo Dance. For hours on end the dancers performed this ancient ritual and celebration, at the center of which were two men in buffalo guise and a young buffalo maiden. Framed by two-story row houses along the plaza, the trio stepped high and slowly turned in unison as they dipped this way and that. They faced a haunting pulse of drumbeat and chant from the corps of musicians, staff-bearers and elk dancers, who were channeling spirit forces of which I knew very little. But I was mesmerized, and in the declining chill of the afternoon I was moved by something utterly magical.My friends and I stood on the edges as the processions came and went, the clans aiming to embody the animal power and good fortune that accrue to those who carry on the stories of the ancients. As the drums deeply sounded and the dancers stepped, it did not seem that far-fetched to consider that what we were witnessing was one of the few, last expressions of authentic American art. A JOLT OF JAZZ HITS THE POWER & LIGHT DISTRICTThe seemingly unrelenting series of setbacks endured by partisans of Kansas City?s jazz scene weighed on my mind moments before I entered the Kill Devil Club for the first time in October. I wondered if the new establishment, at the southwestern edge of the Power & Light District, was destined to become yet another entry on an increasingly lengthy list of ill-fated jazz venues. My trepidation was transformed into awe as I entered the handsome room. The decidedly masculine space offers a panoramic vista of the entertainment district?s neon lights and the distinctive H&R Block building. Hermon Mehari, one of the leading figures of Kansas City?s current musical renaissance, led an energetic band in an eclectic set of jazz standards, R&B classics and contemporary hip-hop. A youthful audience of well-heeled revelers swayed appreciatively. None of them were fretting about the future of live jazz in Kansas City or the ongoing efforts to augment the area?s commercial prospects. On that vibrant fall evening inside the Kill Devil Club, Kansas City?s artistic promise and the potential of a redeveloped downtown were neatly aligned. VIBRANT VOICE UNITES ART AND MUSIC AT THE NELSONI acknowledge: I am totally biased toward the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. There are so many magical moments that I witness every day here that it makes it difficult to boil it down to one.So I will not mention the great exhibitions, powerful speakers or great cultural celebrations that we present but will suggest the power of moments that I glimpse casually, unexpectedly. They can be as simple as overhearing a child expertly explaining to her parents an artwork that moved her during a class visit, or finding a group of children sitting on the floor of our ancient galleries, enthralled by the other-worldliness of a non-technological society, or at the moment at dusk when I?m in my office and the Bloch Building suddenly illuminates.But if I were to choose one specific and sublime moment from this year it would have to be listening to the colorful voice of Kansas City?s native son, tenor Vinson Cole, filling the Adelaide Cobb Ward Sculpture Hall. During an intimate recital, Cole shared that when he was younger, he?d visit the museum and it would give him a renewed sense of beauty and hope. Those feelings were clearly in the air as his vibrant voice rejoiced, making the museum the house of all arts and bringing to all an overwhelming sense of peace and promise. A TOAST TO GENERATIONS OF TRADITION IN MADEIRAThe wine business sounds so romantic, and truth be damned, at times it is. I?m in Funchal, Madeira, on an island 200 miles off the coast of Africa; I?m on the third floor of a centuries old factory building with about 35 bottles of Madeira standing open and ready. They range from a few years old to some from other eras: 1968, 1920, 1910. Drinking wines that old, in itself, renders the quotidian silliness of my career less tedious. Madeira, the island and the wine, offers time and more. Its volcanic soils and warm, humid landscape generate wine that is eternal, or close enough. A bottle of 1920 Bordeaux might be good, but it?s a crapshoot. A 1920 Blandy?s Bual (the bottle in front of me as I type this) is money in the bank. Delicious, caramel, honey, citrus, nuttiness: Those are its ancient and lively flavors. The island is a tropical lemonade stand for the wine-obsessed. Jagged, lush mountains above vineyards and banana plantations. Old wines for sale everywhere. The winemakers here are bred to this; they are their family?s third generation, or fifth, or seventh. The wines speak of a heritage that defines our aspirations for all wine. KC BALLET BRINGS DANCE TO ?NIXON IN CHINA?One of the highlights of 2012 for me was an ambitious and distinctive collaboration between the Kansas City Ballet and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Ward Holmquist, artistic director of the Lyric Opera, asked me to create the choreography for an extensive dance sequence in Act 2 of ?Nixon in China.? I selected two brilliant lead dancers, Nadia Iozzo and Logan Pachciarz, along with six other company dancers, and we began our creative work in the new Bolender Center studios. The existing Vancouver, British Columbia, production of this contemporary opera by John Adams included beautiful scenic elements, with projections and an unusually shaped dance floor. We were able to replicate the stage dimensions in our new, large studios and make a seamless transition into the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. That fact, combined with exhilarating performances from singers, dancers and Symphony players, all in a contemporary opera, exemplified the definition of a successful artistic collaboration. Additionally, Nadia Iozza?s heroic performance, particularly during the rainstorm scene, was compelling and transcendent. ?ANIMALS DO NOT TAKE VOWS? EMBODIED HUMAN FRAILTY AND FRATERNITYKansas City artist Anne Austin Pearce comforted me. Her Charlotte Street Award exhibition work at H&R Block Artspace titled ?Animals Do Not Take Vows? underlined life?s fantastical journey and its fragile impermanence in a way that felt bold, tender, wistful and contemplative, but never overwhelmingly sad. Her painted scrolls presented a beautiful allegory for life?s complexities, for things said and unsaid, done and undone, and opportunities gained, missed or passed over. While deeply poignant, the liquidy blues, silvers, grays and blacks of her scroll paintings seemed to mark a passage through time that reminded me of how tender yet beautiful are the tracings we leave behind. The work spoke to me as if the artist herself had sketched out the last two years of my life?s complexities and reminded me to see it all as extraordinary, even the hardest parts. While the skeptic in me may hesitate to write it, the more important child in me embraces how Pearce?s art reminded me that everything and everyone is connected and deeply intertwined, and that that alone, is a spectacular truth. A DAY AND A NIGHT UNDER THE SPELL OF ?KENTUCKY CYCLE?A November afternoon found me in the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre?s production of ?The Kentucky Cycle.? I set my schedule to take in the first part of Robert Shenkkan?s epic drama on a Saturday expecting to return the following week for the second. Transfixed from the opening command, ?top of the show,? to the end 3?1/2 later, I lost my sense of place, duty, time and resolve.The story?s arc, the actors? presentation, the audience?s reaction drew me the way a good book calls to me. I could not wait a whole week to know the end. Surely the actors would not be as primed a full week hence as they would be three hours later. I took stock of the things I had to do that night. Some were pressing, while others were as inviting as pulling teeth. Outside of rest, I could not see what was so important about a promise made under duress when compared to a magnificently acted story. I called my partner, convinced her to come and share my madness, and spent the evening in the clutches of the second three hours of a well-told story with no obligation but what the best of art dictates ? your presence and attention. ?DRAMA QUEEN? DIDONATO INVITES THE AUDIENCE INNov. 16, Helzberg Hall: Music lovers were treated to a magical concert by Joyce DiDonato and Il Complesso Barocco. The evening highlighted music from DiDonato?s recent recording, ?Drama Queens,? featuring arias from Baroque operas sung by royal characters.The music-making was superb. DiDonato and instrumental ensemble Il Complesso Barocco were on fire, with extremely accomplished, historically informed and stylistic performances. However, what ultimately inspired me most was DiDonato?s insistence on and ability to engage the audience and invite them into the experience. Both through onstage comments during the recital as well as the talk-back at the conclusion, she made the listener a part of the concert, breaking down the invisible wall between performer and listener. As producers and artists, we aspire to create these intimate moments of connection. This performance magnificently achieved one. A STORY OF TRIUMPH TOUCHES TEDXKCOver the last four years, TEDxKC has delivered a number of inspiring presentations and musical performances, none more so than an 18-minute segment at this year?s event, in August at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.Janine Shepherd, former Australian champion cross-country skier, shared the story of her horrific cycling accident and determined recovery. Training for the Winter Olympics, Shepherd was hit by a truck and suffered a dizzying array of life-threatening injuries; she was rendered a partial paraplegic.At TEDxKC, Shepherd slowly and gracefully moved down a line of five chairs, using them along the way for props and balance. At some point during the arduous recovery process she came to realize her real strength never actually came from her body; it came from her heart. ?Although my body may be limited,? Shepherd said, ?it was my spirit that was unstoppable.? Shepherd not only overcame the most improbable odds to walk, she also learned to fly, first earning a private pilot?s license; she now has a commercial license and instructor?s rating. More than 1,400 people listened in rapt attention to the details of her journey, and since then, some 250,000 have viewed her story on TED.com.And while Janine Shepherd?s personal challenge was extraordinary, her message is relevant for everyone who has experienced it: You are not your body. QUIXOTIC REACHES NEW CREATIVE HEIGHTSI am writing about two moments of cultural magic that originated from one source: Kansas City?s own Quixotic. Each time I think that this creative ensemble of musicians, dancers, aerialists, composers, designers and choreographers can?t top their last performance, they blow past it.This happened at the international TED conference in California in February and at the Midland in April. The TED performance gave me chills as I watched dancers commingling with video projections to a captivating beat. The performance earned them a standing ovation from a crowd that regularly witnesses world-class speakers and performers. The Midland show, titled ?One,? layered performances that were quiet and delicate with full-throttle, aggressive pieces. I saw concepts and movements and costumes that were from a different universe. Solos and duos and trios on stage. Then everyone at once. Then the curtain. Sigh, show?s over.Quixotic doesn?t just raise the bar. They leap from the bar, coil and curve, hold the gaze of the audience, and float back to the ground before soaring into another dimension.

| Patrick Neas, a freelance writer and The Star?s Classical Beat columnist, who usually appears weekly in this section ? | Christie Hodgen, assistant professor of English and creative writing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and author of the novel ?Elegies for the Brokenhearted? and other works of fiction ? ? | Ward Holmquist, artistic director of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City ? | Libby Hanssen, a freelance writer whose music reviews appear frequently in The Star ? | Virginia Blanton, professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City ? | Steve Paul, arts editor and senior writer at The Kansas City Star ? | Bill Brownlee, freelance writer whose music reviews appear frequently in The Star ?ss | Juli?n Zugazagoitia, director and CEO of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art ? | Doug Frost, a wine and spirits consultant whose column appears monthly in The Star ? | William Whitener, artistic director of

Source: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/28/3983690/transcendent-artistic-moments.html

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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Health and Fitness: Back Pain ? Some Clues to Discovering the ...


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Who Should You Trust for Career Advice? YOU? | The Savvy Intern ...

Some time ago, Tim Murphy wrote a great post on Brazen Careerist about how there is no ?silver bullet? or secret weapon in a job search??no pill we can take that allows us to tap into insta-career-success.

There?s such a plethora of career advice out there targeting the uninformed or simply frustrated job seeker and career changer, that it?s hard to know what to follow and who to trust.

My thoughts?

Follow whoever you deem interesting and credible, and trust no one because every career ?expert? out there comes from their own school of thought in terms of determining what the best methods are.

Now that is not to say any of them are wrong ? in fact, I would say many of them offer incredibly valuable and sound advice. It isn?t important to try to sift through the articles, blogs and LinkedIn discussions and determine who?s right, who?s wrong, and who?s full of crap. Instead, find the key take-aways and identify opportunities to integrate those ideas into your own strategy to make it work for you.

There is no silver bullet, no secret, no tried and true roadmap experience to landing the perfect (or the next) job. If there were, my webinar would have been entitled ?6 Secrets to Getting Called Back, & Getting Hired? instead of ?6 Steps??. Because that is what makes a successful career move, understanding your motivations for change, creating a smart strategy chock full of the right resources, and then taking the right steps to make it happen.

So what does all that look like?

Understanding Your Motivations for Change

As someone who?s changed careers 4 times before the age of 30, and before settling upon what I feel is what I?m meant to do, I?ve learned something about the nature of career transition. It?s not necessarily about being lost around what you?re meant to do professionally. Rather it?s about understanding that with each new job, you recognize new skills and experiences that you?ve built upon that can potentially open new doors. Even the most passionate professional who loves what they do and swears they?ve found their calling would probably agree that who we are professionally is ever-evolving. We will continue to learn about ourselves and our capabilities and open our eyes to new paths/careers/ideas/revenue streams.

Don?t be afraid to look at those experiences and skills objectively and see what might be possible if you make a change. Hating your boss might be a valid reason to change jobs, but not necessarily for changing careers. Wanting a job that energizes you by capitalizing on what you do best, could go both ways. What?s your true motivation for making a change?

Utilizing the Right Resources

You have 20 bookmarked websites on how to write an effective resume (including mine). Are you a CEO, a sales executive or an Art Director? When you?re lapping up all the job search advice, it?s important to consider who is a subject matter expert in your field, and as a result caters their advice and resources to the specific needs, challenges and opportunities of your field. While I can probably advise on and construct an effective resume to suit any career field or level of experience, my core competency is understanding the marketability, branding and career challenges of professionals in creative industry- advertising, marketing, design and media.

I have plenty of clients from areas like social work, psychology, sales, academia, film, the arts, real estate and a slew of others, and I have enjoyed working with every one of them. I have even more to offer those job seekers and career transitioners who fall into my niche, based upon my hiring experience and knowledge of their industry.

Every career professional understands the idea of ?reinventing yourself professionally? it seems. But they don?t necessarily have any clue about the field you?re interested in transitioning into. That?s where it becomes important to partner with someone who knows their client.

I?ve been to coaching school. And while they do teach you to really listen well and home in on the challenges and opportunities in what your client is telling you, they don?t teach you how to identify what makes a really great Creative Director, or a stellar Copywriter, or what?s going to make HR salivate and dry heave over a truly phenomenal Project Manager resume.

Haha?the visual of that last one makes me laugh.

Same goes for working with recruiters. If you?re in the creative industry, you?re not going to have much success working with a generalized recruiter who places everything from light industrial to high-level administrative roles. Nor will you have much luck scouring generalized job boards that cater to everyone, instead of your niche.

Where you expend your time and energy in terms of the resources you?re utilizing, is a critical make-or-break part of your strategy. If you?re highly specialized and you know your opportunities aren?t abundant on the job boards, spend more of your time networking with strategic contacts, or maybe increasing your visibility as a subject matter expert in your field by blogging, tweeting, starting discussions and commenting on other people?s blogs. Take someone out to lunch (never underestimate the power of a good Chinese buffet). Or better yet ? put together a totally kick-a$$ self-promotional package that creatively and strategically displays your brand!

Taking the Right Steps

There?s a reason people hire career coaches and the like. It?s because job searching and changing careers is a process of transition. It?s very easy to get lost, demotivated or simply frustrated and stagnant in the process. That doesn?t mean you can?t do it on your own free will and chutzpa. But it?s important to enter into the process with the right expectations, and that you create a solid network of supporters to help you along the way.

That might include a career consultant or coach, a recruiter, several good butt-kicking friends, your spouse or significant other, and a couple colleagues and past supervisors who are open to feeding you viable leads and providing positive recommendations and references. All in all, taking the right steps toward effective change includes:

  • Understanding your motivators for change
  • Understanding the next steps to target, and creating a vision around them (who, what, where, why and when)
  • Creating a diversified strategy that utilizes the right resources (how)
  • Embracing your support network for motivation, accountability and idea sharing
  • Having full faith and confidence in yourself, and your ability to navigate potentially rough waters
  • Enjoying the process of making it happen, and not only living in the future of ?I?ll be happy when??

It?s about what works for you, and everyone?s path and strategy and method of execution will be completely different. So don?t necessarily look to the ?experts? for all the answers. Their job is to give you some really great jumping off points. Then it?s what you do with that information and how you apply it to your situation that will make all the difference.

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For this post, YouTern thanks our friends at Aspyre Solutions!

DanaAbout the Author: Dana Leavy founded Aspyre Solutions, focusing on small business development and career consulting. Her mission is to support creative and socially-conscious small businesses, through career transition coaching and business consulting for creative professionals and entrepreneurs.

Dana has helped hundreds of professionals in advertising, marketing, design and other industries execute effective career plans to find and DO the work they are passionate about. She has presented seminars on navigating careers, transition and work-life balance to several colleges and universities, and her advice has been featured on MSN Careers, Fox Business News, NewsDay, CareerBuilder.com, GlassDoor and About.com. Follow Dana on Twitter!

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Scientists home in on cause of osteoarthritis pain

Dec. 27, 2012 ? Researchers at Rush University Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers at Northwestern University, have identified a molecular mechanism central to the development of osteoarthritis (OA) pain, a finding that could have major implications for future treatment of this often-debilitating condition.

"Clinically, scientists have focused on trying to understand how cartilage and joints degenerate in osteoarthritis. But no one knows why it hurts," said Dr. Anne-Marie Malfait, associate professor of biochemistry and of internal medicine at Rush, who led the study. An article describing the research was published in the Dec. 11 print version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Joint pain associated with OA has unique clinical features that provide insight into the mechanisms that cause it. First, joint pain has a strong mechanical component: It is typically triggered by specific activities (for example, climbing stairs elicits knee pain) and is relieved by rest. As structural joint disease advances, pain may also occur in rest. Heightened sensitivity to pain, including mechanical allodynia (pain caused by a stimulus that does not normally evoke pain, such as lightly brushing the skin with a cotton swab), and reduced pain-pressure thresholds are features of OA.

Malfait and her colleagues took a novel approach to unraveling molecular pathways of OA pain in a surgical mouse model exhibiting the slow, chronically progressive development of the disease. The study was conducted longitudinally, that is, the researchers were able to monitor development of both pain behaviors and molecular events in the sensory neurons of the knee and correlate the data from repeated observations over an extended period.

"This method essentially provides us with a longitudinal 'read-out' of the development of OA pain and pain-related behaviors, in a mouse model" Malfait said.

The researchers assessed development of pain-related behaviors and concomitant changes in dorsal root ganglia (DRG), nerves that carry signals from sensory organs toward the brain. They found that a chemokine known as monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 (CCL2) and its receptor, chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2), are central to the development of pain associated with knee OA.

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 regulates migration and infiltration of monocytes into tissues where they replenish infection-fighting macrophages. Previous research has shown that MCP-1/CCR2 are central in pain development following nerve injury.

In the study, following surgery the laboratory mice developed mechanical allodynia that lasted 16 weeks. Levels of MCP-1, CCR2 mRNA and protein were temporarily elevated, and neuronal signaling activity increased in the DRG at eight weeks after surgery. This result correlated with the presentation of movement-provoked pain behaviors (for instance, mice with OA travelled less distance, when monitored overnight, and climbed less often on the lid of their cage -- suggesting that they avoid movement that triggers pain) which were maintained up to 16 weeks.

Mice that lack Ccr2 (knockout mice) also developed mechanical allodynia, but this began to resolve from eight weeks onward. Despite having severe allodynia and structural knee joint damage equal to that in normal mice, Ccr2-knockout mice did not develop movement-provoked pain behaviors at eight weeks.

To confirm the key role of CCR2 signaling in development of the observed movement-provoked pain behavior after surgery, the researchers administered a CCR2 receptor-blocker to normal mice at nine weeks after surgery and found that this reversed the decrease in distance traveled, that is, movement-provoked pain behavior.

Interestingly, levels of MCP-1 and CCR2 returned to baseline or lower by 16 weeks in mice exhibiting movement-provoked pain behaviors. This finding may suggest that the MCP-1/CCR2 pathway is involved only in the initiation of changes in the DRG, but once macrophages are present, the process is no longer dependent on increased MCP-1/CCR2.

"Increased expression of both MCP-1 and its receptor CCR2 may mediate increased pain signaling through direct excitation of DRG neurons, as well as through attracting macrophages to the DRG," the researchers said.

"This is an important contribution to the field of osteoarthritis research. Rather than looking at the cartilage breakdown pathway in osteoarthritis, Dr. Malfait and her colleagues are looking at the pain pathway, and this can take OA research in to a novel direction that can lead to new pain remedies in the future," said Dr. Joshua Jacobs, professor and chairman of orthopedic surgery at Rush University Medical Center.

Treatment of OA in the United States costs almost $200 billion annually. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is expected that by 2030 nearly 70 million adults in the U.S. will have been diagnosed with some form of arthritis.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, an estimated 27 million Americans live with OA, but, despite the frequency of the disease, its cause is still not completely known and there is no cure. In fact, many different factors may play a role in whether or not you get OA, including age, obesity, injury or overuse and genetics.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the oldest and most common forms of arthritis and is a chronic condition characterized by the breakdown of the joint's cartilage. Cartilage is the part of the joint that cushions the ends of the bones and allows easy movement of joints. The breakdown of cartilage causes the bones to rub against each other, causing stiffness, pain and loss of movement in the joint.

Malfait's co-researchers on this study were Rush scientists Rachel E. Miller. PhD, Phuoong B. Tran, PhD, Rosalina Das, and Nayereh Ghoreishi-Haack, and Dr. Richard J. Miller, PhD, and Dongjun Ren from Northwestern University.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rush University Medical Center.

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Journal Reference:

  1. R. E. Miller, P. B. Tran, R. Das, N. Ghoreishi-Haack, D. Ren, R. J. Miller, A.-M. Malfait. CCR2 chemokine receptor signaling mediates pain in experimental osteoarthritis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; 109 (50): 20602 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1209294110

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/OsgbDFVFGqI/121227173053.htm

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Friday, December 28, 2012

Make-or-break moment for fiscal cliff talks

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama was preparing to present a limited fiscal proposal to congressional leaders at a White House meeting Friday, a make-or-break moment for negotiations to avoid across-the-board tax increases and deep spending cuts at the first of the year.

Lawmakers and White House officials held out a slim hope for a deal before the new year, but it remained unclear whether congressional passage of legislation palatable to both sides was even possible.

The Friday afternoon meeting among congressional leaders and the president ? their first since Nov. 16 ? was likely to center on which income thresholds would face higher tax rates, extending unemployment insurance, and preventing a cut in Medicare payments to doctors, among other issues.

For Obama, the eleventh-hour scramble represented a test of how he would balance strength derived from his re-election against an avowed commitment to compromise in the face of divided government. Despite early talk of a grand bargain between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner that would reduce deficits by more than $2 trillion, the expectations were now far less ambitious.

Although there were no guarantees of a deal, Republicans and Democrats said privately that any agreement would likely include an extension of middle-class tax cuts with increased rates at upper incomes, an Obama priority that was central to his re-election campaign.

A key question was whether Obama would agree to abandon his insistence during the campaign on raising taxes on households earning more than $250,000 a year and instead accept a $400,000 threshold like the one he offered in negotiations with Boehner. Another was whether Republicans would seek a higher income threshold.

The deal would also likely put off the scheduled spending cuts. Such a year-end bill could also include an extension of expiring unemployment benefits, a reprieve for doctors who face a cut in Medicare payments and possibly a short-term measure to prevent dairy prices from soaring, officials said.

If a deal was not possible, it would become evident at Friday's White House meeting, and Obama and the leaders would leave a resolution for the next Congress to address in January.

Such a delay could unnerve the stock market, which edged lower for a fifth day Friday amid worries that lawmakers would fail to reach a budget deal. Economists say that if the tax increases are allowed to hit most Americans and if the spending cuts aren't scaled back, the recovering but fragile economy could sustain a traumatizing shock.

Obama called for the meeting as top lawmakers on Thursday alternately cast blame on each other while portraying themselves as open to a reasonable last-minute bargain.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid all but conceded that any effort at this late date was a long shot. "I don't know timewise how it can happen now," he said.

The No. 2 Senate GOP leader, Jon Kyl of Arizona, said it is "pretty unlikely" that Senate Republicans would agree to legislation averting the fiscal cliff if it wouldn't pass muster in the House.

"If you know the House isn't going to do something, why go through the charade?" he told reporters. "That becomes political gamesmanship."

Obama and Reid, D-Nev., would have to propose a package that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell would agree not to block with procedural steps that require 60 votes to overcome.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said he still thinks a deal could be struck.

The Democrat told NBC's "Today" show Friday that he believes the "odds are better than people think."

Schumer said he based his optimism on indications that McConnell has gotten "actively engaged" in the talks.

Appearing on the same show, Republican Sen. John Thune noted the meeting scheduled later Friday at the White House, saying "it's encouraging that people are talking."

But Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., predicted that "the worst-case scenario" could emerge from Friday's talks.

"We will kick the can down the road," he said on "CBS This Morning."

"We'll do some small deal and we'll create another fiscal cliff to deal with the fiscal cliff," he said. Corker complained that there has been "a total lack of courage, lack of leadership," in Washington.

If a deal were to pass the Senate, Boehner would have to agree to take it to the floor in the Republican-controlled House.

Boehner discussed the fiscal cliff with Republican members in a conference call Thursday and advised them that the House would convene Sunday evening. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., an ally of the speaker, said Boehner told the lawmakers that "he didn't really intend to put on the floor something that would pass with all the Democratic votes and few of the Republican votes."

But Cole did not rule out Republican support for some increase in tax rates, noting that Boehner had amassed about 200 Republican votes for a plan last week to raise rates on Americans earning $1 million or more. Boehner ultimately did not put the plan to a House floor vote in the face of opposition from Republican conservatives and a unified Democratic caucus.

"The ultimate question is whether the Republican leaders in the House and Senate are going to push us over the cliff by blocking plans to extend tax cuts for the middle class," White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said. "Ironically, in order to protect tax breaks for millionaires, they will be responsible for the largest tax increase in history."

Boehner, McConnell, Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi are all scheduled to attend Friday's White House meeting with Obama. Vice President Joe Biden will also participate in the meeting, the White House said.

___

Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Charles Babington and David Espo contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-meeting-last-stab-fiscal-deal-085552437--politics.html

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Video: Russian Ban on U.S. Adoptions

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The men who would save Mali's manuscripts

Islamist militants in Timbuktu destroyed graves and shrines associated with Sufism this year. Ancient manuscripts are not directly threatened, but some fear they are next.

By John Thorne,?Correspondent / December 25, 2012

In a small workshop at the edge of town, where the towers of high-voltage power lines march toward the horizon, Boubacar Sadeck sits surrounded by papers, parchments, and hides. On his business card is written in French, ?Artisanal copyist of XVI century manuscripts.?

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?In Timbuktu, I?m the only copyist of my generation still working,? he says.

But he is no longer in TImbuktu. He fled for the capital Bamako last April as violence engulfed Mali's north.?Islamist militants now control Timbuktu with a rule by gun that threatens?both the country's future and the artifacts from its rich past.?

Last summer Islamist militants in Timbuktu destroyed graves and shrines that were associated with Islam?s mystical Sufi tradition. The militants called them blasphemous. While no threat ??Islamist or otherwise ??has emerged specifically against manuscripts, the sense of lawlessness has some in Timbuktu worried.

?The Islamists have said they don?t want to harm the manuscripts,? says Abdel Kader Haidara, a specialist in manuscript cataloging and director of one of Timbuktu?s largest family libraries. ?But other people could take advantage of the situation to attack our heritage.?

'Greatly honors lettered men'

There are around 180,000 medieval manuscripts in Timbuktu, Mr. Haidara says, covering topics from Quranic exegesis to philosophy, mathematics, and law. So far some 23,000 have been cataloged ? a scavenger hunt through archives that often lays bare Timbuktu?s past as a crossroads of trade and scholarship.

Haidara descends from a line of bookish types, he says ? among them scribes, writers, and judges. In 2000 he renovated his family?s library, home to some 45,000 manuscripts, which includes rooms for manuscript restoration, digital scanning, cataloging, reading, and conferences.

?Timbuktu was among the earliest Islamized African cities,? says Haidara. ?Islam came from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and even Spain ? thus the relations via families that re-settled here, as well as the commercial links.?

Timbuktu grew from a caravan way-station near the Niger River to its zenith around the turn of the 16th century as a key commercial hub of the Songhai empire, then at the height of its power.

?In the city are many judges, doctors, and clerics, all well-financed by the king, who greatly honors lettered men,? wrote the Arab traveler Hassan ibn Muhammed al Wazzan al Fasi, known as Leo Africanus, who visited Timbuktu in the early 16th century. ?Many hand-written books are sold there that come from Barbary, and from these more is earned than from any other merchandise.?

Demand for books fed an?industry of copyists, skilled calligraphers who reproduced texts and, with their notes and marginalia, contributed to the evolution of scholarship.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/pdL_9yqx5Oc/The-men-who-would-save-Mali-s-manuscripts

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