PC Pro Schools

3 月 24th, 2010 by louismartinez1959

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Ahead of I forget this with all that may be proceeding on, I came across a fresh useful resource in town when I was speaking my certification check last week (or was it the week before?).  I used to be seeking online for any spot to consider my analyze when the “PC ProSchools” link came up as being a feasible test web site.  It turns out it is definitely close to me (I-96 and East Beltline) and is really new (too new for Google Maps - about a calendar year aged).

I thought I realized of the majority of the Microsoft training facilities in town and had in no way discovered of them.  I obtained to my examination about 15 minutes early and they had been completely booked so I started asking about their applications and examining a number of their materials.  I ended up acquiring a tour of the amenities and plans by a guy named Richard Fera (who was truly useful).

They had a great coaching lab (place for 50 at fresh machines, dual projectors, dual stations inside the back with the room for more trainers (3 trainers out there at a full school)).  They had an open lab and what looked like a server room / wiring closet (which turned out to become an “advanced lab” area).  Their focus is on the infrastructure side (i.e. the MCSE route) on obtaining the servers up and operating and all kinds of troubleshooting.  They will not present programs for computer software growth (i.e. the MCPD route).  So they had certainly not observed in the check I used to be taking nonetheless it was really obvious that their testing lab received quite a tad of use.

They may be a Microsoft Platinum Partner provider for instruction (which says a good deal about volume, graduation rate, certification fee, and placement price (>70%)).  It's an fascinating product because they operate it type of like some thing involving a technical trainer (i.e. supplying a person type at a time) plus a school (full-blown multi-year program).  They offer you an intense one-year routine which can be open to any high-school graduate who meets some standard standards.  The courses are either M/W or T/Th (with a few Fridays thrown in for test-prep and labs) from five:30-10:30, that's very a tad of function.  But inside end make sure you have your MCSE.

Add to this that they also do placement and have tasks seeking for persons - placed 48 in the lass class of 50.

Reading through this post it seems model of like an advertisement, nonetheless it actually isn't.  I'd create about any new useful resource category, classes, book, and so forth. that may very well be valuable to individuals doing what I do (or supported the servers I should run on) and do that pretty typically.  If I knew somebody who was thinking about servers and hardware, and shopping to get a job with out committing 2-4 a long time to classes, this looks such as the model of issue you'd have to have to help keep you on trail and get it carried out speedily.  It is an choice worth examining out at minimum.

Do you think you're among thousands who experience as if they’re stuck in a dead end career? Perhaps you devote many several hours daily wondering how it is possible to escape and move on to something far better. If not only a effective job, at lowest anything less stressful and far far more fulfilling. You have viewed the commercials about all of the programs in IT, but is it in your case? Can you really succeed in this kind of subject?

The response is really a resounding yes. It's presently considered one of the speediest expanding fields on the employment marketplace. Right now could be the great time to leap in and turn out to be an IT professional.  Laptop or computer Proschools can guide you get there.

Experts predict that just about fifty percent on the workforce inside the United States are going to be employed in industries exactly where IT services are abundant. That is already evident as many companies nowadays rely on engineering to functionality additional effectively and maintain up while using fierce competition. The IT business can give you the energy to obtain employment exactly where that you are financially rewarded and respected for the abilities, anything we all want and deserve.

Under we now have listed some details concerning the IT sector to your evaluate. This information ought to grant you an thought on the best way to locate that prosperous career you have been shopping for.

Careers in IT are estimated to boost at a charge of 36% more than the next 10 ages

The IT area accounts for an estimated 25% with the contracts developed from 2002 towards the present day

Computer-related contracts are among the top 20 best developing professions inside the United States. This number is estimated to enhance a lot more than twice as speedy as other occupations

It is been noted that IT jobs offer the highest earnings of each of the 20 fastest increasing professions.

It's among the fasted rising places of employment within the land. This field continues to offer you opportunities to countless numbers as much of the work designed for IT go unfilled because of the lack of certified candidates.

The possibilities in Data Technological know-how are endless as this domain can only improve. Just take a look at what we’ve undoubtedly witnessed so far. In a small sum of time, it could be you reaping the positive aspects of this booming industry. With several local institutions and on the web courses like Pc Pro Educational facilities, acquiring commenced has never been a lot easier.

Easily hop on the net, confer using a handful of pros and take the initial phase towards establishing your new job.

What is Assist Receptionist counter?

A Assist Table vocation gives the foundation to explore other gratifying careers in laptops. You never require past laptop or computer encounter to commence your education and in just ten small weeks you are able to be commencing your new profession! If you will need a fast solution…get trained…and get doing work!

Aid Workplace is a needed department at each firm that makes use of personal computers. Currently that may be virtually each firm, building Assist Desk a recession proof career! Support Table technicians respond to telephone calls and e-mail messages from shoppers looking for aid with computer system complications. Let’s say an accountant suddenly can not entry payroll details that may be saved on the laptop or computer system. This accountant would contact you and it can be your responsibility to troubleshoot and fix this dilemma. In responding to these inquiries, help-desk technicians should listen cautiously towards client, ask questions to diagnose the nature from the difficulty, after which it patiently stroll the consumer through the problem-solving actions.
Get the proper education easily so you can begin creating the correct money more quickly.

Our Laptop or computer Support Desk routine can carry your operate experience as well as your present talents, and mix it with an instruction focused on an example of the most effective rising occupations from the U.S. in just ten weeks. For a Microsoft IT Academy using a tested and comprehensive software we can transform you right into a remarkably sought soon after Guide Table Professional with sector typical certifications. This routine is 100% online in order to continue to do the job although in college. And our results speak for themselves.

The U.S. Dept of Instruction National Center for Schooling Statistics tells us that a four 365 days higher education record now usually takes 6 many years using a 57% graduation charge including a 2 year community college/tech institution now requires 3 many years with an alarming 23% graduation charge. Sad to say, the majority of us do not have that model of time to start out generating the income we must survive. And who would like to threat those people odds of completing the routine? Our graduation costs are above 80%.
Consider the 1st step toward having back on trail.

Unemployment costs are hitting record high amounts and our land is struggling out of an financial recession; you can not afford to wait any longer. Whether or not you've got previously been laid off, concern the reduction of the task or just want in making a improve, a new vocation could be yours! You can be on your own solution to the profession that offers the earnings and safety you may need.

See for yourself by registering for an informational seminar complete with routine and tuition info. Merely click within the “Attend Vocation Revival” button and you will be in your way!

Computer ProSchools Graduation Good results
Desktop ProSchools, a Microsoft Academy, is proud to announce its first graduating course of 2008. In 2007 more than 300 IT Professionals graduated from Computer ProSchools' Guide Desk/MCSA program.

FOR Fast Release
PR Log (Press Discharge) – Apr 18, 2008 – Over 150 graduates and their guests filed to the Country Inn & Suites in Brookfield, WI on a cool spring evening to celebrate a six month journey to becoming an IT professional.

Last August, students in track 183 began their journey at the Brookfield Campus of Laptop or computer ProSchools, a Microsoft IT Academy licensed by the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board and accredited by ACCET.   Record 183 contained manufacturers, construction workers, secretaries, retail representatives and office workers. All committed to changing their lives and becoming  Help Desk Analysts, Network Administrators or Personal computer Technicians to name just a handful of and on March 20, 2008 they had been a person stage closer.

The Commencement ceremony began having a Welcoming Address from Campus Director Laura Polancich. Polancich, whose primary responsibility at Personal computer Pro Educational facilities is to provide job placement services was proud to congratulate the additional than 50 percent of the graduating course that had by now secured a employment in the excessive paying IT industry and made a commitment to carry on assisting individuals still searching. Subsequent Vice President of Educational Services, Kate Pelchat, presented an Executive Address and congratulated the course for their hard function and dedication. Pelchat compared the graduates’ journey at Pc Pro Educational facilities towards CAT5 cable they had been given at their initial orientation highlighting the ups and downs and even the knots at times and shared a quote from Ernest Hemmingway that “It is good to have an conclusion to journey in the direction of however it may be the journey itself that matters from the conclusion.”

Lead Instructor Mick Brentar stood prior to the school for his final lecture, so to speak. He challenged them to carry on learning always and explained how proud he is to now call them colleagues within the IT Sector.
The Keynote Address was delivered by Ricardo Monteen, a Aid Workplace Manager at Manpower Corporation along with a former graduate of Computer ProSchools from 1 12 months ago. He chronicled his journey, sharing how different his life is now. It was a total circle moment for everyone as Monteen explained how he had just hired four Computer Pro Schools graduates for his Support Receptionist counter team.

The mood was excessive as the evening concluded which has a punch and cake reception wherever families, graduates and faculty shared memories; all knowing that the sum of a journey is a fresh perspective of home and for all that perspective is very different 6 months later.
Graduate Wendy Tokarz shared “Being able to graduate with my course and conquer this type of challenging goal feels wonderful. My family and friends are so proud of me. It’s just excellent!”

At the time of this publication, much less than one month later, more than 75% of these graduates, including Tokarz have been offered IT positions and have begun enjoying the rewards of their new careers.

Pc Pro Schools an ally in improving pc entry among those with disabilities

Last Spring, New Horizons Un-Limited (NHU) had the good fortune of meeting Laura, the Campus Director of Personal computer Pro Schools’ Brookfield campus, at a Brew City HDI chapter meeting. At the meeting, NHU expressed a need to have for volunteer technicians to assist with their personal computer refurbishing and help table activities. Seeing this opportunity for a solution to give again, although also supporting the job goals of her students, Laura swiftly recruited students to support NHU.

In excess of this past yr, NHU has welcomed virtually a dozen Computer Pro Universities students as volunteers. Although all on the student volunteers have had a solid technical foundation, a lot of of them have been lacking that all important expert expertise to help them win their dream career.

What NHU supplies in expertise to the students is exceeded by what they, as volunteers, have contributed to NHU's routine. They have expertly refurbished dozens of computers, which, in turn, have been donated to dozens of individuals with disabilities that would not have otherwise been able to afford a home computer.

Just like NHU's student volunteers, the individuals that receive the refurbished computers are trying to increase their lives by way of know-how. A pc means much more to them than most of us could ever imagine.

To many of NHU's recipients, a pc is the tool they need to pursue their dream task and ultimately their own financial freedom.

NHU's refurbishing system is work entirely by volunteer technicians. It simply would not be doable without having the expertise and dedication of their volunteers.

NHU's most recent group of volunteers is going to be graduating from Pc Pro Colleges in just weeks. It is NHU's hope that the encounter the students have received will aid the students reach their occupation goals.

NHU would like to extend a special thank you to Craig, Dan, Fred, Jim and Jonathan for their dedication to seeing that all people, no matter their earnings, may have entry to a home computer system.

Pc ProSchools Unveils New Website
Cutting edge engineering illustrates a obvious picture of this state-of-art Microsoft IT Academy. Laptop or computer ProSchools, Inc. is excited to announce its new website located at www.pcproschools.edu.

FOR Immediate Discharge
PR Log (Press Launch) – Apr 23, 2008 – Since 1994 Personal computer ProSchools has been providing IT education in the Milwaukee place. In excess of the ages, Desktop ProSchools expanded operations opening campuses in Green Bay, WI and Madison, WI. In 2006 and 2007 the campuses in Grand Rapids, MI and Indianapolis, IN respectively opened. “As we grow we wish to present a consistent brand image,” explains CEO James Brent. “When you enter a Starbucks, you immediately know exactly where you might be because of the colors and décor and their promotional items and website carry this same experience and image.” 

Earlier this yr Computer ProSchools hired InovaOne, a full-service strategic consulting business specializing in creative design and production, media delivery and thorough outsourcing companies located in Roswell, GA, to create a brand new branding concept. In addition towards the website, InovaOne made a new logo, classes colors and promotional materials to present a consistent image at the five Computer ProSchools’ campuses located throughout the Mid-West.

“The objective of our new website is to provide prospective students using the initial information so they're excited to carry the future action and routine a campus visit” shares Vice President of Marketing and Admission, Wendy Mirenda.  “When we first commenced speaking to InovaOne I had been impressed with how they used high-tech avenues to present their messages. Being a state-of-the art Microsoft IT Academy, I thought we ought to be undertaking that.”  And the new website does just that! www.pcproschools.edu offers interactive videos to highlight all that Computer ProSchools has to present. In addition, a prospective student can experiment their own IT knowledge by means of the Computer system Knowledge Assessment or sign up to visit a campus suitable as a result of the website.

Overall, the new website offers general details about Desktop ProSchools, a series of student good results stories shared directly from the students themselves at a video testimonial format, Occupation Companies and IT Marketplace Facts tabs providing insight into how Personal computer ProSchools gives students that winning advantage inside speediest rising sector within the US. Another added benefit will be the new Employers page exactly where IT managers and employers can locate out a lot more and get in touch with us directly to hire among our graduates.

Personal computer ProSchools also switched towards the .edu website address from the past .com address. This address is exclusive to educational institutions, requiring evidence of your respective accredited status prior to even securing the total address. Immediately after achieving accreditation with ACCET last 12 months Pc ProSchools certified for this educational based address line. “We’re an accredited university,” explains VP of Education and learning, Kate Pelchat, “we need to be letting the general public know that by way of the use from the .edu address.” Visitors familiar with using the original website will now easily be redirected automatically to the www.pcproschools.edu website.
For more info on Desktop ProSchools visit www.pcproschools.edu. For far more data about InovaOne visit www.inovaone.com.

I didn't know SWFLA had this crap

1 月 5th, 2010 by louismartinez1959

David Sirota: Why It's Bad News That the Health Care Conference

Politicians do things because they are forced to do things, not out of the goodness of their own hearts, and if there ever is a secret plan, it's usually to pull one over on the public.

Sony boosts Alpha range with DSLR-A450: Digital Photography Review

Sony boosts Alpha range with DSLR-A450: Sony has introduced another sub-$1000 DSLR, the A450. The Sony Alpha 450 slots in below the A500, offering the same 14.2 megapixel CMOS sensor as the more expensive A550 but …

Fox News And CNN Split Ratings Victory New Years Eve | TV | Mediaite

CNN's New Years show, hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin, and Fox News' New Years show, hosted by Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly, split the ratings victories Thursday night from 11pm-12:30amET. CNN won the A25-54 demographic, …

On Friday I received a
“legislative
alert” from the Texas PTA about “a new drug known as
'strawberry quick'” that “smells like strawberry” and “is being
handed out to kids in school yards.” The message itself has a
distinctive odor, more reminiscent of a barnyard than of a berry
patch:

There is a very scary thing going on in the schools right now
that we all need to be aware of. 

There is a type of crystal meth going around that looks like
strawberry pop rocks (the candy that sizzles and “pops” in your
mouth). It also smells like strawberry and it is being handed out
to kids in school yards. They are calling it strawberry meth or
strawberry quick. 

Kids are ingesting this thinking that it is candy and are being
rushed off to the hospital in dire condition. It also comes in
chocolate, peanut butter, cola, cherry, grape and orange. 

Please instruct your children not to accept candy from
strangers—not even candy that looks like this from a friend
(who may have been given it and believed it is candy). They should
take any of this “candy” that they may have to a teacher, principal
or parent immediately.

Pass this email on to as many people as you can (even if they
don't have kids) so that we can raise awareness and hopefully
prevent any tragedies from occurring. 

A person of ordinary intelligence, even if he did not know about
the extensive debunking of the “candy-flavored meth” story that has
been done by Snopes.com,
by Bob Curley at
Join Together, and even by the Drug
Enforcement Administration, would have to wonder: How does a
drug dealer benefit by tricking little kids into thinking that
methamphetamine is candy? How likely is it that a sixth-grader,
having been “rushed off to the hospital in dire condition” after
ingesting “strawberry quick,” will want to repeat the experience?
Assuming that such (unreported and undocumented) incidents are an
unintended result of a marketing strategy aimed at people who know
they are buying speed, how much sense does it make to flavor a drug
that people typically snort or smoke?

The Texas PTA is not alone in passing along these rumors. The
legislative alert includes a link to an undated Fox News story that
asks:

Have you heard of “Strawberry Quick?” It's not a kid's
drink—it's a kid's methamphetamine. Drug dealers mix meth with
Kool-Aid in an attempt to make it look and taste better. And again,
there’s the snappy name. While Strawberry Quick hasn’t made a big
splash in Dallas [thanks to the Texas PTA's vigilance, presumably],
it is gaining ground in other parts of the country….Anyone who’s
seen a meth addict, with their scabbed skin and rotting teeth,
knows what a con “Strawberry Quick” is.

The Fox story quotes a DEA agent in Dallas who confirms that
drug dealers are “looking for a new consumer” and that “good
marketing” helps but who does not actually mention strawberry meth
(let alone “chocolate, peanut butter, cola, cherry, grape and
orange” meth). The January issue of the DEA newsletter
Microgram
noted that “'flavored methamphetamine' (most notably
'strawberry meth') has received extensive and often alarmist
coverage in the mass media over the past two years.” But with the
exception of a single grape-smelling sample tested by a DEA lab in
late 2008, which included “tiny purple specks” that may have been
“bits of a grape flavored candy or lollipop,” the agency has not
been able to confirm the existence of anything like a bright pink,
strawberry-flavored substance produced by mixing meth with drink
powder, let alone found that it is “gaining ground” anywhere.
Naturally, that fact has not stopped members of Congress from
trying to ban
it.

According to the government-sponsored Monitoring
the Future Study (PDF), by the way, meth use among
eighth-graders has been falling since the survey started asking
about it in 1999.

Much of the attention at the Women's draw at the this year's US Open had been on Kim Cjilsters' amazing comeback.

Cjilsters and Serena Williams collided in the semifinals.

Cjilsters had wins over three ranked players to reach the semis. The Williams-Cjilsters winner would be a huge favorite in the final against the Caroline Wozniacki-Yanina Wickmayer winner.

The match was a slugfest that will be remembered for how the match ended instead of how it was played.

Williams received a code violation after slamming her racket concluding her loss in the first set. She had to be careful the rest of the match. Any loss of temper could result in a bigger penalty.

Cjilsters won a tight but sloppy first set 6-4.

Williams played a better second set and was down 6-5, serving to send the second set to a tiebreaker. Instead of the dramatic tiebreaker, a moment occurred that would change tennis history.

Down 15-30, a foot fault was assessed on Serena's second serve. It was reported on ESPN.com that Serena said the to the line umpire “”I swear to God I'm going to take this ball and shove it down your throat, you hear that? I swear to God.”

Williams response was “”I didn't say I would kill you. Are you serious? I didn't say that.” The line judge replied by shaking her head and saying, “Yes.”

The supposed threat to the line umpire resulted in a point penalty. Because the point penalty occurred on match point, the match ended as a result.

US Open Tournament referee Brian Earley was quoted after the match as saying. “She was called for a foot fault, and a point later, she said something to a line umpire, and it was reported to the chair, and that resulted in a point penalty, ….it just happened that the point penalty was match point. It was a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct.” (ESPN.com)

Many questioned whether or not Williams should continue in other events in the Open. She then went out and won the doubles with sister Venus the next day.

Williams was fined $175,000 last month for incident and given two years probation. If she maintains her cool and has no other outbursts in the next two years, the fine will be reduced to $82,500.

If she has another incident at any of the grand slams, than Williams will be suspended for the following US Open.

Plus a bit about hair weaves. His turn was hugely appreciated and – though
this was doubtless far from his principal purpose – hundreds of copies of
his book were sold.

The institute had not previously given houseroom in its hallowed halls to many
sportsmen. But you suspect after Tuesday’s successful confessional, there
will be others to follow.

Doubtless an invitation has already been issued to Tiger Woods.

UPDATE: Fort Myers Police make largest crystal meth bust

By WINK News

Story Created: Jul 29, 2008 at 10:46 AM EST

Story Updated: Jul 29, 2008 at 6:53 PM EST

FORT MYERS, Fla.- Fort Myers Police busted six people in connection to a crystal meth trafficking scheme.

One of the six people arrested includes Jose Flores, the owner of the Palm Beach Boulevard auto dealership, City of Palms Auto.

“Tell you the truth, I don't believe it yet,” said Leandro Rodriguez, manager of a nearby auto dealership.

People who know Flores were shocked to learn he was put behind bars, accused of negotiating a drug deal that brought what police call a significant amount of crystal meth to Fort Myers.

“Pretty nice guy, he drove kind of an old car, a 1996 white car, not a lot of money on him…nothing like that,” said Rodriguez.

We asked if there was ever any indication Flores had been negotiation drug deals out of the dealership, “No indication, never,” he said.

Police say Flores made it onto their radar about eight months ago after hearing he allegedly negotiated smaller drug deals out of the business.

“We knew we had high level distributor here and we just maintained constant surveillance, figured out what his habits were, what his contacts were stuff that he did when he didn't know we were with him and we were,” explained Sgt. Jay Rodriguez with the Fort Myers Police Department.

Using a confidential informant, police were able to get Flores to negotiate a deal to bring down six pounds of crystal meth, $140,000 worth from Georgia to Fort Myers.

The deal went down on Friday at Flores' home on Fifth Street East.

Six people were arrested, including Flores, his bodyguard Obdulio Medina, and the supplier who drove the drugs to Southwest Florida, Gladis-Arias Garcia.

Police say the three other suspects in custody are in the country illegally from Mexico, including Arias-Garcia, Miguel Sanchez and Javier Medina Santoyo.

Mexico is the same place police believe the drugs originated, in a so-called “super lab”.

“The quality is very high quality, the crystals are super hard, so we do believe these came from South America, Mexico,” said Sgt. Rodriguez.

Police aren't sure how the drugs made it across the U.S. border. We are told when the drugs made it to the Atlanta area, they were driven to Southwest Florida.

Detectives do not believe the crystal meth was to stay in Fort Myers, instead, they say it probably would have been divided up and transported to other areas for sale.

Police say this may be one of the biggest crystal meth busts ever for the city. The US Attorney's Office will prosecute the case.

All six were in Lee County Jail custody, each on $30,000 bond as of Tuesday afternoon.

Didn't we just have a huge meltdown over this?

12 月 10th, 2009 by louismartinez1959
New Homes for Sale
By Barry Goodknight
Published on Nov 24, 2009

Most real estate ventures are overflowing despite the economic uncertainties and the growing competition in the market. Many homeowners and home buyers are taking advantage of the different trends apparent in the industry like the plunge of the home values, as well as the different mortgage and loan assistance given by the federal government. Due to the increasing financial assistance and opportunities to own houses and real estate properties, a lot of potential buyers are now on the lookout for new homes for sale, where they weren’t before. The countless home listings of properties due for short sales and foreclosures certainly didn’t hinder people from opting for new homes and constructions to purchase and invest in.

Especially prevalent in the state of Florida, the advent of new home builders and developers paved the way to new and fresher perspectives on home buying and selling. Most home buyers would see various benefits in investing on newly constructed buildings for their primary residences and other purposes and the choices are equally abundant. Houses would vary depending on the home builders that are developing their distinct and respective real estate projects and the price range also as varied.

What are the variations of houses'
Almost all real estate agencies offer new homes for buyers to look at, giving floor plans, virtual and ocular tours, pictures and other media that would give potential buyers a substantial background of the property for sale before seeing it in real life. Furthermore, there are plenty of money saving options, incentives and rebates that are available for buyers of new homes. Featured new houses by home builders would include single-detached homes which are the most conventional of all home types, townhouses or condominiums and single units situated in multi-unit buildings or premises. Others also offer new houses in master-planned communities which have special features and specifications exclusively accessible in gated neighborhoods.

New houses for sale in special communities like the ones commonly found in the golf communities of Florida are equipped with luxurious amenities and facilities that most homeowners enjoy. It isn’t always about the golf.  The good ones have club houses, tennis courts and other sports too.  The concept is to actually build a community within a community conducive for everyday quality living. Aside from the amazing surrounding countryside, the new houses are typically of high standard with specifications varying in accordance to price and availability. Some of the basic homes have customized interior paint, basic home areas like the kitchen, bedroom, garage, basement, and porch.

What is definitely outstanding about new infrastructure and residential developments that are springing up is that they are customized in order to suit and fit every modern need and demand. However there are still some that show classic and traditional designs which are timeless treasures, well-accepted in the world of real estate. New houses, and houses in general are still one of the most safest investments that anyone can make in the current climate.

House Flipping Makes a Comeback

By Daniel Saltman

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Four years after the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble, flipping homes is back in fashion.

Jon Mirmelli, a Phoenix real-estate investor, learned late in the morning of Sept. 28 that a never-occupied custom house on the northern fringes of this Phoenix suburb was going up for auction around noon the same day. The six-bedroom home, built on a three-acre desert plot, has a kitchen with two dishwashers, four ovens, “antibacterial” copper sinks, and a master “spa” bathroom with space for a flat-screen TV visible from the tub.

Flipping Foreclosures

Avraham Azoulay, left, and Donna Valva looked over their list of foreclosed houses outside the Maricopa County Court building during an auction in Phoenix, Dec. 3, 2009.

The minimum bid, as set by a unit of Citigroup Inc., which had a $1.3 million mortgage on the home, was $379,900. After several minutes of bidding among investors and their representatives, some wearing shorts and flip-flops, Mr. Mirmelli won the home for $486,300. A week later, he agreed to sell it for $690,000 to a woman who moved in this month.

During the housing boom, millions of Americans tried to make money by buying and then quickly reselling new houses and condominiums. That kind of flipping stopped several years ago as home sales stalled amid a surge in foreclosures and curtailed lending.

Now, a different breed of flipper is proliferating: one who seeks bargains at foreclosure auctions. Unlike the boom-time flippers, the latest generation needs cold cash, lots of local-market knowledge and strong nerves.

Investors compete mostly with other full-time professionals who monitor foreclosure auctions at county courthouses across the country. The bidders often haven't had a chance to inspect the property or determine whether it's occupied by tenants, who may be hard to evict.

Sometimes “you have half an hour to make a half-million-dollar decision,” says Damon Lines, an executive at PostedProperties.com, a Phoenix firm that provides information to foreclosure investors and bids on their behalf. “That's something most people can't or aren't willing to do.”

In the states where home prices have fallen the most, many local real-estate markets are dominated by foreclosed property, dragging down the value of neighboring homes. Barclays Capital estimates that banks and mortgage investors have 639,000 foreclosed homes for sale across the U.S., largely concentrated in Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada. That's equivalent to more than 10% of expected U.S. home sales this year.

Flippers swoop in at public auctions of foreclosed homes, known as trustee or sheriff sales. In many states, the lender sets the minimum bid, and takes possession of the property only if no one bids more. In the past, the minimum generally was about equal to the mortgage balance due. But in today's market, in which many home values have dropped far below the loan balance, lenders wouldn't attract investors if they set the minimum at that level.

So lenders, or the loan-servicing firms that represent banks and investors, are increasingly likely to set the minimum much lower. Their goal is to tempt others to buy the house and spare banks the headaches and costs that come with taking possession.

Sean O'Toole, chief executive officer of ForeclosureRadar.com, a research firm, estimates that in November about 21% of homes sold in trustee sales in California went to investors rather than to a foreclosing lender, up from 6% a year earlier. The trend is similar in some other areas with high foreclosure rates, including Phoenix and Miami.

The advantage of such an outcome for the bank is that it gets money for the property right away, even if it isn't enough to cover the loan balance due. The bank doesn't need to make repairs to the home, cover the taxes and insurance, or pay real-estate-agent commissions.

[Letting Go]

The risk for banks is that if they set the minimum bid too low, the home might end up selling for much less than they could reap if they took ownership of it and sold it themselves. But with some 7.5 million U.S. households behind on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure, many lenders are overwhelmed. They're negotiating with distressed borrowers and figuring out how to sell the growing supply of foreclosed homes.

“The banks are so screwed up,” says Mr. Mirmelli, the Phoenix investor, that they don't always have a clear idea of the value of the property they are foreclosing on.

To help them set the minimum bid, banks often consult with local real-estate agents and use software that estimates housing values. American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc., which collects payments and handles foreclosures on behalf of banks and loan investors, uses a formula designed to “achieve a fair value for the property and induce third-party bidders,” says Christine Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Coppell, Texas-based firm.

American Home starts with a broker's estimate and subtracts the expected costs of taking ownership of the house and selling it. The minimum bid is above the net proceeds American Homes believes it could get by acquiring and selling the property itself, she says.

Outside the Maricopa County court building in downtown Phoenix, trustees, companies that are hired to handle foreclosure auctions, offer as many as 600 or 700 houses every weekday. A typical auction lasts only a few minutes. On a recent afternoon, a few dozen bidders and onlookers were clustered around a trustee employee seated on a lawn chair conducting auctions. He kept track of the bids on a laptop computer perched on one knee.

Many of the bidders are regulars at the sale, bidding for themselves or on behalf of investor clients. “We're all kind of like a little dysfunctional family,” says Steve Mutsaers, a representative of PostedProperties, who was wearing black sunglasses, a white polo shirt and gray plaid shorts. During the summer, Mr. Mutsaers says, he wears a sombrero to cope with temperatures well above 100 degrees.

People who attend trustee sales here and in other foreclosure hot spots around the nation say the auctions have recently been attracting more bidders. “Properties are getting bid up,” says Hal Feinberg, a Phoenix property investor. “You can still get good deals, but you've got to be more patient than you were a year ago.” He and other investors in the Phoenix area say they have been flipping a lot of the homes they buy to Canadians taking advantage of a weak U.S. dollar.

Buying at these auctions is perilous. There are no public viewings, so bidders often can't know how much damage may have been done inside a house by occupants facing foreclosure. “We've seen everything,” says Doug Hopkins, chief executive of PostedProperties. “We've seen people pour concrete down the toilets.” Unless they've done their homework, bidders also don't always know whether they're buying a home subject to a lien from another lender, which can happen in cases where the borrower took out more than one home loan.

Because of such complexities, many of the bidders are people with experience in the property business. Jon Goodman, a real-estate lawyer in Boulder, Colo., for example, has bought 19 properties so far this year with other investors and sold 11 of them.

In February, the group won an auction for a home in Commerce City, Colo., near Denver, by bidding $142,000. Only afterwards did they discover that the previous owners had stripped the house of a toilet, much of the carpeting and a kitchen range. They replaced the missing items and made other minor improvements, eventually selling the house in May for $209,000. (The loan balance on the house had been $265,663.)

Mr. Goodman says their expenses came to about $24,000, including about $8,000 for real-estate commissions. That left a pretax profit of about $43,000.

The foreclosure auction was handled by American Home Mortgage Servicing. Ms. Sullivan, the spokeswoman for American Home, says the firm believes it didn't underprice the home and it received “a fair, market-value price for the property.”

In Miami, a group of investors led by Oded M. Kaiser recently bought a condo at auction for $170,000. Two weeks later, they flipped it for $330,000. The loan balance was about $466,000. A spokeswoman for Litton Loan Servicing, which handled the sale on behalf of mortgage investors, declined to comment.

Not all flippers come out on top. Mr. Goodman says one of his legal clients, bidding on his own, unwittingly bought a house that was still subject to a first-lien mortgage. To gain control of the property, the client had to pay off the first mortgage. As a result, says Mr. Goodman, the client, who declined to be named, is likely to have at least a small loss on the deal.

Last summer, Phoenix investor Greg Thielen bought a home at an auction and later found that the former owner had stripped out air-conditioning units, granite countertops and kitchen cabinets, and uprooted palm trees from the lawn. Repair costs came to about $30,000, leaving Mr. Thielen with a small loss on the purchase. “It's not as easy as people think,” says Mr. Thielen.

James R. Hagerty/The Wall Street Journal

The Scottsdale property bought by Mr. Mirmelli was supposed to be the dream home for Brad and Michelle McCaughey and their three children. Mr. McCaughey, who grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich., was a minor-league hockey player and coach after graduating from the University of Michigan. About nine years ago, having moved to Phoenix, he says he discovered “a passion for real estate.” He became a real-estate agent and began investing with his father and brothers-in-law in rental properties. Soon they had a dozen homes.

In 2005, Mr. McCaughey and his wife paid about $500,000 for three acres of desert land and began building a home. By the time the house was nearing completion in 2008, the family rental-property business was in trouble because financing and other costs were exceeding their income.

The McCaugheys started selling their rental properties and put their own house on the market. They hoped to avert a foreclosure by getting Citigroup to accept a short sale, in which a home is sold for less than the loan balance due. Before they could find a buyer, though, Citigroup foreclosed on the home, and it went up for auction at the Maricopa County Courthouse this past September.

Citigroup initially set the minimum bid at auction at $1.3 million, far more than the market value, given comparable sales in the neighborhood. Then, on the morning of the sale, Citigroup lowered that minimum to $379,900. PostedProperties, which monitors Web sites for such price changes, sent out an email on the opportunity to Mr. Mirmelli.

Developments Blog

Mr. Mirmelli has his iPhone set up so he can call up the address of a home due to be auctioned, see a map of the neighborhood with a tap of his finger and then see panoramic photos of the street with another tap. While he researched the home, one of his partners drove out to see the exterior and make sure there were no occupants. A PostedProperties employee bid on their behalf and won the house for $486,300, a sum that then went through the trustee to Citigroup.

After expenses of about $54,000, including real-estate commissions and minor repairs, Mr. Mirmelli and his partners expect a profit of about $150,000 on the flip. “It turned out to be a very good return,” he says.

A spokesman for Citigroup declined to comment on the transaction.

The McCaugheys, who formerly owned the house, are now renting a smaller home. Mr. McCaughey now works for a telecommunications service and is thinking about going back into hockey-related work.

Over a bowl of soup at a Paradise Bakery & Café in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, Mr. McCaughey says he sees a lot of real-estate bargains now and may jump back into the market at some point. As for the losses he's taken on his former holdings, he says: “It is what it is. You deal with it.”

Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com

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Six Bogus Beliefs Held By Youth
December 10, 2009

By Toby Moreland
(Toby is a 25-year-old Floridian)

Young people are incapable of recognizing their own enemy. This is the essential condition required for the peaceful transfer of political power to a world dictatorship.

As a young man who recently received an “education” from one of the finest schools in the U.S., I can state beyond doubt that this condition has been met. In a society conditioned to champion personal ambition, self-expression and self-empowerment, the educated youth of today are kept intoxicated with illusions. Everyone is looking up, staring at the sun, and unable to stop and think for even a moment out of fear of losing their momentum up the ladder.

Here is the script my generation sticks to.

- Mankind lived in total ignorance until very recently. (Proof: widespread racism, religious fundamentalism, mistreatment and oppression of women, European imperialism, rabid nationalism, xenophobia, etc. were all norms.) Young women and minorities are especially prone to gobble this idea up and congratulate themselves for being an enlightened member of a progressive society. In the interest of being liked and getting laid, young white men follow suit.

- All types of ‘ignorance’ still exist today AND represent the primary threats to peace and stability. (Conclusion: Legislation to protect minorities (anti-hate, anti-religion) is natural progress and shall continue uninterrupted.) Religion has become like Al-Qaeda to today’s educated youth. It barely exists, but everyone is convinced it is a powerful beast capable of plucking a person out of his hedonistic bliss at any moment, if not carefully watched.

-Sexual restraint can no longer be taken seriously, as it was an invention of religion to control the masses and women in particular. (Conclusion: Get it when you can, while you can. It’s practice for someone you might really like someday!) There is a tremendous amount of pressure on young women to be able to “handle” emotion-free sex. They have been convinced, mostly through entertainment media, that taking sex seriously is a weakness. It is a bodily need detached from the rest of you. Combined with a social scene set around alcohol, young love is a messy, schizophrenic story where one is very lucky to find someone on the same page.

- Total Moral Relativity : there are no absolute truths, there is no reason to believe in anything too strongly, everything is circumstantial. (Conclusion: yes, everything is corrupt. It has always been that way. Power corrupts. We’re selfish. People are assholes. I’m an asshole, at least I’m willing to admit it.) Result: attitudes are uniform within social groups.

- Politics and religion are not to be discussed amongst friends, therefore they are not. Ever. (Conclusion: agree to disagree. Result: Even the smartest people are never exposed to ideas outside of the mainstream media/academia, but you cannot convince them of this.)

- Communism is a legitimate ideology, only it has never worked. (Result: my generation leans heavily to the left. As the Republican party has become synonymous with Christianity, pro-life, wealthy, white, war, big business, etc., it is no wonder why. Government involvement in industry seems inevitable to everyone, but few are able to envision future consequences.

With these unquestioned six beliefs alone, defenders of humanistic internationalist doctrine are created. Good, intelligent kids that are just trying to do their best and find their place in the world while fulfilling their parents’ expectations have been conditioned to unwittingly serve and defend the interests of a small group of psychotic criminals.

By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board

The nation is enduring continuing foreclosures because too many people bought houses they couldn’t afford and too many have zero equity. Now they owe more than the house is worth and many are inclined to simply mail the keys to the lender.

In the aftermath of this housing bubble, the Federal Housing Administration is doing more to help prop up the market. But there are signs the FHA is overextended. Worse, its lenient lending terms could be sowing the seeds of future foreclosures.

The FHA helps funnel capital to the market by guaranteeing that lenders will be paid back if borrowers default. Taxpayers don’t back up this guarantee; the money comes from insurance premiums.

But the risk is rising that the FHA will become another in a series of agencies requiring a taxpayer bailout.

In November, an auditor’s report found that the agency’s capital reserves had fallen to 0.5 percent of its $685 billion pile of insured loans — dangerously below the 2 percent cushion it’s supposed to have.

At the same time, Congress doubled the maximum mortgage the FHA could guarantee to more than $729,000 for single-family homes and $1 million for multi-family properties.

This was supposed to be a temporary move, and it may have made sense in the higher-priced California market. But in the halls of Washington, the danger is that temporary steps tend to become permanent. Sure enough, some in Congress want to boost the maximums even more and make them permanent. That move would put the FHA outside of its traditional mission of concentrating on mortgages for low- and moderate-income families.

After release of the auditor’s report, the agency announced steps aimed at strengthening its reserve. It proposed to raise the minimum credit scores required of borrowers, cut the amount lenders can contribute to closing costs and increase the down payment, now at an unjustifiably low 3.5 percent.

Unfortunately, the agency hasn’t said how much the down payment requirement would rise. Some in Congress say the minimum should be 5 percent, and bills to that effect have been introduced. Keep in mind that FHA loans have traditionally required a down payment of 20 percent. Clearly, the agency has gone too far down the wrong road.

The FHA’s challenge is to help support the market during a difficult time — but without forcing a taxpayer bailout or approving too-lenient loans that breed the next foreclosure wave. The most important thing the agency could do is move quickly to increase the minimum down payment.

Best Xmas Decoration ever?

12 月 7th, 2009 by louismartinez1959
Best X-Mas decoration ever? - Turry Mckanisters
Posted 12/7/2009 10:45 AM EST on shelbystar.com

“Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas  decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever.Great stories. But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.”

Comments (0) | Permanent Link

The President's War on Christmas

Jesse Walker | December 7, 2009

Will of The League of Ordinary Gentleman
nominates this as the best conspiracy theory ever, and he may
well be right. From the Memphis Commerical Appeal:

In the opinion of Arlington Mayor Russell Wiseman,
President Barack Obama's speech on Tuesday night on the war in
Afghanistan was deliberately timed to block the Christian message
of the “Peanuts” television Christmas special.

Wiseman made the statements on his Facebook page, where he
declared Obama to be a Muslim.

The
report also notes that A Charlie Brown Christmas
“has become an endearing program for many because of its emphasis
on the 'real meaning of Christmas.'” In Mayor Wiseman's honor,
I'll reach into the archives and pull out my
reminder that the Peanuts special takes on a
different tone when you pair it with its follow-up:

Ten months after A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired,
returned to America's TV screens in It's the Great
Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
, a special that undermines its
predecessor more thoroughly than any sequel this side of the
Alexandria Quartet. Where the first film is a testament to
religious faith, the second is all about doubt, as Linus waits
patiently for a supernatural being that everyone in the audience
knows will never come. While his pals happily celebrate a proudly
pagan holiday, Linus haplessly attempts to preach the true
meaning of Halloween. Only one friend is briefly convinced, and
even she is essentially motivated by lust and greed.

For a moment, despite everything, the Great Pumpkin seems to
appear. It turns out to be the neighborhood beagle, himself
suffering from the delusion that he's a World War I flying ace.
Ho ho ho.

Carol service tonight, but the Christmas play was last Friday.

It was moving, brilliant and funny. There was even a proper sketch with Joseph and a heavily pregnant Mary; something which has become, sadly, very rare in the current climate.

'On the first day of Christmas… My true love gave to me…' sang some 80 children in various attires. Different groups of boys making the appropriate movements, with the outstretched little hands showing 'five gold rings', thin arms pulling at invisible udders for the maids 'milking'; there was some geese a'laying, swans a'swimming and a smattering of calling birds.

Actually, I was getting a little peeved with Pest n.1: he was part of the group getting up from their chairs, arms high over their heads in a triangle shape, to mimick the 'partridge and pear trees' bit of the song… only he was not doing the same as the other five or six boys. He was just getting up.

Typical of him: always the DIFFERENT one. Always the rebel.

It took about half an hour of muttering to myself that I have given birth to the black sheep of the community when I realised that he was, well…meant to do that.

He was meant to be the PARTRIDGE.

 
    
     My new son in law will be traveling a great distance and spending his first Christmas with us.  To celebrate, I thought I would make one of his packages a little different.  A scrolling message tag will say, "Merry Christmas, Forrest."  A solar powered mini car will race around in circles on top of the package (it is powered by a light above the package).  If you get too close to the package to examine things, a voice will say, "Step away from the package!"
This logic will create two dramas over the next two weeks.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has been struggling to light a fire under members of his party. He needs moderates to understand they are part of a majority and progressives to figure out what they want in exchange for concessions to moderates who oppose a public option.

Liberals are absolutely right in their frustration with the Senate. It’s become an absurd institution, perhaps the least democratic legislative body in any country calling itself a democracy. It makes no sense that four or five votes can trump 54 or 55 votes. But the Senate is what it is. For now, liberals have to live with this.

Republicans, in the meantime, know that delay is their friend, and they will delay and delay—and delay some more. The emergence last week of a memo from Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire to his GOP colleagues outlining all the ways they can slow action should put spine into Democrats.

In a nicely diplomatic cover letter, Gregg argued that Republicans “must use the tools we have under Senate rules to insist on a full, complete and fully informed debate on the health care legislation.” Translation: Let’s keep this turmoil going until the Fourth of July, or, heck, all the way to Labor Day.

The best news for advocates of health care reform is that Reid has sought to force action by convening a group of 10 Democrats, five moderates and five progressives, to work out a compromise. After several meetings over the weekend, they were focusing on an alternative to the public option modeled after the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan, even as progressives sought further expansions in coverage.

It’s a shame that a public option might be stopped by a small number of senators. But the compromise would still give government a role in promoting competition as the overseer of an alternative that would probably focus on not-for-profit insurance plans.

The core issues of this debate have been settled. The Congressional Budget Office has swept away the major arguments that opponents of reform have been trying to make. The bill before the Senate would cut the deficit, not increase it, and would stabilize or reduce health care premiums for most people, not raise them. The proposal contains serious cost-control measures that can be built on over time. Passing health care reform is thus not only morally necessary, but also fiscally responsible.

But getting there will be much harder if the Senate doesn’t act this year. Obama is right that nation-building should begin at home. Health care reform will mark the beginning of domestic nation-building.
   
E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com.
   
© 2009, Washington Post Writers Group

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93 Percent Of Soybeans And 80 Percent Of Corn In The U.S. Grow From Seeds Genetically Modified By Monsanto

11 月 30th, 2009 by louismartinez1959
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Monsanto is the largest seed company in the world. It controls 95 percent of the market for insect and herbicide resistant cotton traits. In 2008, Monsanto had shares of up to 65 percent for traited corn and soybeans and about 45 percent for traited corn. During the late 1990s and through the 2000s, Monsanto acquired almost 40 companies “creating the horizontal and vertical integration that underlies the firm’s platforms in cotton, corn, and soybeans,” according to a whitepaper by American Antitrust Institute’s vice president and senior fellow, Diana Moss. Most of the acquisitions were seed companies.

The whitepaper cites a report by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), which noted that Monsanto’s U.S. patents for Roundup Ready soybean seeds give it power over the seed market. It also points out that during the years 2002 to 2009 there were almost 60 patent infringement and antitrust court cases in federal district and appeals court. Almost 55 percent involve Monsanto as the plaintiff, and 20 percent as the defendant. This amounts to three-quarters of all the cases. “The lack of competition and innovation in the marketplace has reduced farmers’ choices and enabled Monsanto to raise prices unencumbered,” said Keith Mudd from the Organization for Competitive Markets, after Monsanto decided to raise some GM maize seed prices by 35 percent.

Obama administration investigating Monsanto

Christine Varney, chief of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said last summer that “competition issues affecting agriculture have been a priority for me.” In October, Monsanto said it received requests from the Justice Department about possible violations of antitrust laws.

Peter Carstensen, a former Justice Department lawyer, recently said, “The Justice Department has clearly begun a major investigation and is moving ahead.”

“My guess is that they are looking at a number of situations that involve dominant firms with near monopoly power and are interested in reviving and enforcing the Sherman Act, Section 2, which governs monopolization,” Tim Greaney said recently. Greaney is also a former Justice Department lawyer

EU revoked GM patent in 2007

In 2007, the European Patent Office (EPO) revoked the 13-year patent on Monsanto’s GMO soybeans. The patent gave Monsanto  about 90 percent of the market for GMO soybeans. Scientists said it was too broad of a patent.

“No patent symbolizes the brokenness of the patent system better than Monsanto’s species-wide patent on genetically engineered soybeans,” said Hope Shand of ETC Group. “Monsanto’s patent is both technically flawed and morally unacceptable.”

Shand added, “Monsanto’s patent is undermining the economic security of farming communities and jeopardizing access to seeds – the first link in the food chain. Whoever controls the seeds controls the food supply.”

“The statistics speak for themselves,” said Greenpeace’s patent expert Dr. Christoph Then. “A single company has been awarded sweeping monopoly control over one of the world’s most important food crops.”

Check out the previous installments:

Can Anyone Stop Monsanto?

Can A Company That Makes Roundup Be Sustainable?

The Conseil d’Etat, France’s highest court, has ruled that U.S. agrogarchy bully-corp Monsanto has been lying through its proverbial teeth concerning the safety record of the best-selling weed-killer, Phuck_Up.

The court confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto had falsely advertised its dodgy toxic herbicide as “biodegradable” and claimed it ‘left the soil clean’ when in fact it has the half life of several millenniums and left the ground, sub-soil and water table as toxically contaminated as Hiroshima’s following their ‘August Surprise’ nuclear ‘surrender or else’ trick or treat in 1945.

French environmental groups had brought the case in 2001 on the basis that radiaoactive glyphoshitphate, Phuck_Up’s main ingredient, was classified as “dangerous for the environment” by the E-USSR’s Ministry of Nasty Chemicals.

Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds which produce genetically-modified cereals that then genetically-modify the DNA of farm animals that eat them – and thus on through eggs, milk and meats that genetically-modify the DNA of the human product consumers.

Er, that’s us by the way!

Just as frightening as the corporation’s nefarious business tactics – which include a few Biblical classics such as bearing false witness, blackmail, FDA bribery, graft, corruption and instigating oppressive and ruthless legal battles against small farmers – is its decades-long history of toxic contamination of the environment , animals and the people who come into contact with their crap products.

Monsanto has become the name of a most Satanic cloud hanging over the future of health and food safety across the entire globe – wherein profit is all and any major screw-ups will be met with litigation down the road.

This powerful entity has already managed so many reprehensible acts it boggles the mind, including dragging a most reluctant agricultural industry into a new age of hazardous genetic modification of seeds.

Now France’s Conseil d’Etat has confirmed the earlier judgment that Monsanto falsely advertised its cash cow Phuck_Up herbicide as “biodegradable” that “left the soil clean” — claims that are totally abstracted from the truth. What ‘honest’ (sic) lawyers term “a pack of f*cking lies”.

However what do we expect from a company that produced two of the most toxic chemical substances ever known — polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, and dioxin (Agent Orange) – and guaranteed they too were the next best thing since sliced bread.

Glyphoshitphate, the active ingredient in Phuck_Up, is the most commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among farmers, gardeners, al fresco prostitutes and landscape maintenance workers across the US.

The surfactant and adjuvant ingredients in Phuck_Up are not inert and become more acutely toxic than glyphoshitphate itself, and the combination of the two is a direct cause of genetic damage – in animals and humans.

Think Gulf War Syndrome – then multiply it by ten.

Glyphoshitphate is acutely toxic to fish and birds and can kill beneficial insects – especially pollinating bees – and soil organisms that maintain ecological balance – worms, moles, tunnel rats and shit like that. In fact it’s toxic to any living thing it comes into contact with.

In one environmental study wetback Mexican gardeners working around Texas were asked to gargle with glyphoshitphate every morning as a cure for ‘beaner breath’, which resulted in a 50% mortality rate, and skeletal alterations were observed in over 90% of their female partner’s fetuses.

This has become a major worry because mega-tons of Phuck_Up are used every year on U.S. gardens, lawns and farms, especially on GM crops that are engineered to be Phuck_Up resistant.

It has now been scientifically proven that Monsanto’s GM Frankenstein Phuck_Up Ready crops, which are very common in the United States, contain massive Phuck_Up glyphoshitphate residues.

A study published earlier this year by the Chemotherapy Gazette even showed, for the first time, just how toxic these residues may be to your health when one woman’s body hair, teeth and fingernails fell out after eating a GM corn cob that had been sprayed with Phuck_Up while growing.

Little wonder the global organic agricultural community have re-named Monsanto’s seeds and crops as Tumour_Boosters.

Regardless of the massive corruption inside the FDA that has seen Monsanto’s dodgy products approved and marketed, scientists were well aware that GM foods were a total opposite to natural foods, and that their creation could prompt unknown and unpredictable health problems – especially so in animal and human DNA. .

This manifested as a yet another major bribery and corruption scandal with bully boy Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone ‘Posilac’ (rbGH/rbST) being injected into dairy cattle and the milk from such causing boosted levels of IGF-1 (Insulin Growth Factor) in humans that has been directly linked to a variety of nasty cancers – typically breast and colonic.

Ah well, while you have the laws of the land , and too of logic and common sense, being ridden rough shod across and manipulated by scumbag lawyers to serve the benefit of the few to the detriment of the many, the FDA and their corrupt membership will continue to behave like jukebox politicians – drop a few coins in and they’ll play any tune you want.

Patented seeds are go-to for farmers, who decry their fast-growing price

For plants designed in a lab a little more than a decade ago, they’ve come a long way: Today, the vast majority of the nation’s two primary crops grow from seeds genetically altered according to Monsanto company patents.

Ninety-three percent of soybeans. Eighty percent of corn.

The seeds represent “probably the most revolutionary event in grain crops over the last 30 years,” said Geno Lowe, a Salisbury, Md., soybean farmer.

But for farmers such as Lowe, prices of the Monsanto-patented seeds have steadily increased, roughly doubling during the past decade, to about $50 for a 50-pound bag of soybean seed, according to seed dealers.

Full Story Monsanto’s control over seed market prompts antitrust inquiry – washingtonpost.com.

Monsanto Shares Climb Modestly The stock was up about a half a percent in midday trading following a bullish Barron's article.

Tags: half a percent, midday trading, monsanto

Read the original Article Here

    The contention of whether or not the farmers in the late part of the 19th century were exploited and their ways of life ultimately endangered is not subject to challenge. As the political policies implemented throughout the latter part of this era certainly put small, family-owned farms at an economic disadvantage in relation to the industrialized areas. Government officials regularly put big businesses at an advantage by appeasing them with favorable legislation. This, accompanied with the overall profiteering demonstrated by the railroad companies, banks, and other big businesses involved in the process of farming and distribution, made agrarian discontent rampant among farmers throughout the nation. However, some of the claims made by these farmers were discernibly invalid, as they inadvertently escalated the situation by trying to push the balance of power in their favor, and depriving the situation of equilibrium. Farmers and agricultural workers pursued both their legitimate and illegitimate complaints through diplomatic, economic, and political means, and attempted to rectify their situation.

    Much to the dismay of the farmers, government policies were legislated that were coincidentally favorable towards big-businesses, especially railroad companies. These pieces of legislation disrupted the operation of small-farms, and made it difficult for said farmers to turn a profit and support their families. As a result, entire farming communities and experienced an internal recession of their own. Another underlying cause of this recession was that farmers in the United States were exporting into unprotected markets (with an already small profit margin) and inversely, importing from protected markets. With this vulnerability to high import prices, government tariffs had a particularly drastic effect on them. As such, when the Dingley Tariff of 1897 was passed and the government raised the tariff to an astounding 52 percent, it was not financially viable for farmers to continue importing goods that they required, since there weren't any alternatives available, the farmers were compelled to pay the tariffs.

    Certain resources were readily available in areas surrounding major farming communities, particularly silver, and as such farmers had an abundance of silver. However, as the government's currency had long been backed by gold stock and not silver, the farmers were left with a large stockpile of “useless” material. Additionally, as the population in the United States increased throughout the 1800's, the money in circulation dropped, therefore causing a short supply of money. Farmers faced fierce opposition against their proposals for currency policy reform, the soon-to-be president; William McKinley addressed their concerns in his acceptance speech given in Canton, Ohio, on August 26, 1896. In this speech McKinley acknowledged the political interest of the farmers in their proposition to change the currency ratio, and bluntly stated that such an economic move would cause “hard times” over the American people. One political theorist, J. Laurence Laughlin, argued that the growth of the world markets and the diminished production of goods, rather than the scarcity of gold, was the underlying cause of farmer's economic hardship. Laughlin also stated that because of the lack of “worldly” capacity by the farmers, world markets would often exploit their prices. Ultimately, Congress passed the Gold Standard Act of 1900, which required all currency to be backed by gold rather than silver, and the farming communities were sent into an uproar. The long-time discontent over the government currency policies that caused farmers to purchase gold at inflated rates in order to operate was at its tail-end in the 1900s.

    The governments on both the local and national level were partially responsible for the financial failure of farmers, however; as they corruptly allowed a select few railroad companies to essentially monopolize the market, enabling them to set their own freight rates, which led to price gouging and unethical business practices. There were also instances in which the railroad lines possessed elevators that were used to measure the amount of grain that was being hauled (thus calculating the transportation cost), and would inflate or deflate the weight depending on what was in their best interest. Railroad companies were also notable for not having set rates, and adjusting the rates based on the client, they would often quote one price and change the price once the service was performed, and the clients were obliged to pay it.

    While railroad companies played a large role in the diminished success of farmers, there were other contributing factors. Some of these were a result of unfair business ethics, and some were more natural occurrences. Much of the financial hardship experienced by the farming communities can be traced back to their local banks. The national corporate banks in the United States, which offered more competitive loan rates, saw the farming communities as unreliable and untrustworthy, and thus refused to loan out business capital to them. As a result, farmers had to turn to their local banks in order to fulfill their credit needs. With centralized control over the local credit needs, these banks, much like the railroad companies of the time, had in effect, a monopoly over their local credit business. Local banks would often, unfortunately, charge high, non-competitive interest rates which pushed farmers into further economic hardship. As these farmers became heavily indebted to local banks (that were often financed by Eastern businessmen and corporations), debt collectors often seized their farms and foreclosed onto their properties, which took away the livelihood of these people. In essence, these farmers became economic slaves to their banks.

    Another potential reason for farmer's lack of probability is that many of the farms throughout the west were located in isolated farming communities, and thus the transportation costs and expenses on other materials that were vital to their farm's operation and daily lives were extremely expensive. Thus, farmers were not able to easily gain access to valuable resources and goods that were necessary for economic expansion, and to effectively compete in a worldly market.

    A cause that certainly cannot be attributed to anyone at fault is also that of natural hardships. Natural hardships were abundant, and much to their dismay, agricultural workers were not able to control such occurrences. Such hardships include bug infestation, severe drought, and the overall lack of knowledge of how to best adjust to their environment.

    Even though many of the farmers' complaints were certainly understandable and legitimate, there were also a number of illegitimate claims made against corporations, government officials, and American society overall, that were simply invalid. Farmers had long protested over the scaled railroad freight rates that often gave bulk-discounts to those people traveling nationwide or for long distances, as much of the farmer's business and operations were local or regional. As such, these freight rates were not lucrative to them, and essentially discriminated against them. However, George W. Parker, vice-president of the Cairo Short Line Railroad, made an assertive point in his testimony for the Senate Cullom Committee in 1885. Parker argued that the railroad's current business model was vital to the continued operations of the company. Parker stated that it was necessary to offer bulk-discounts at a slightly adjusted price, in order to fill the vacancies on the train and help supplement the local transportation costs. In order to be economically and financially sufficient, these added passengers were necessary, as approximately 33 percent of the operating expenses had to be paid regardless of the volume of business on the line. This argument made on behalf of rail lines, is understandable and their business model is viable. Thus, the farmer's complaints in this particular instance can be deemed invalid.

    In the instances of legitimate complaints, the farmers tried to effectively combat their ill-treatment, and incorporated several methods of reform, including economic and political measures. Those involved in the agricultural industry and directly affected by the shrewd big-business practices and favorable government legislation, took political measures to try and voice their opinions. Thus, a political party was established in order to initiate legislation that would better this situation, this party was later known as the Populist Party and sported a political platform that emphasized the reformation of the government and the elimination of corrupt policy-making. Small-farmers also began to pool their resources together in order to get an economic advantage with their suppliers of machinery, seed, and other supplies that were necessary to successfully run a farm. Additionally, a loose coalition was formed, which enacted a series of regulations, known as the Granger Laws.

    While the farmers certainly had every right to be disgruntled at the way their government had treated them and they tried to improve their situation through appropriate and honorable means: through the formation of coalitions, their own internal policy-making (Granger Laws), and the Greenback Movement.

    WaPo Feminist Says Palin News Was Sexist, But Palin Children

    Washington Post staff writer Liza Mundy (author of a friendly book-length Michelle Obama biography) reviewed two books on women's history for the Sunday Post, one by New York Times columnist Gail Collins and one by GOP political …

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    source

    Most people have no idea that the a large portion of the food that they eat each day has been genetically modified. In fact, over the past decade it has been nothing short of a revolution. Today 93 percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn in the U.S. grow from seeds genetically altered according to Monsanto company patents. But is it a good revolution? Is it a positive thing for one corporation to control such a high percentage of the seeds? Are there reasons to believe that genetically modifying our food could be harmful to all of us?

    The truth is that as Monsanto has gained an increasing market share in the seed market, prices for the Monsanto-patented genetically modified seeds have steadily increased. In fact, those prices have approxmiately doubled over the past decade.

    Competitors of Monsanto claim that they have “ruthlessly” stifled competition in the seed industry. They want the government to consider antitrust action against Monsanto.

    But they are not the only ones who are upset.

    Many farmers are fed up with Monsanto's ruthless use of litigation. All over the United States, the wind is carrying Monsanto's genetically altered seeds into neighboring fields. Monsanto regularly sends out investigators to visit farms and to test whether any Monsanto strains have shown up on those farms. If they have, then Monsanto proceeds to sue the living daylights out of those farmers.

    Other activists are concerned about the environmental impact that Monsanto is having.

    You see, once genetically modified crops are released into the environment it is virtually impossible to ever contain or recall them. Insects, birds, and the wind easily carry genetically modified seeds into neighboring fields and beyond. Pollen from genetically modified plants ends up cross-pollinating with natural crops and wild relatives. In fact once this becomes widespread enough, the natural crops can be bred into extinction.

    You can't put the genie back in the bottle.

    Has it been wise for the U.S. government to allow so many bizarre genetically modified crops to be released into the environment especially when the long-term health and environmental impacts of these crops are not known?

    The truth is that many natural health experts claim that there is a growing body of evidence that genetically modified foods have a link to food allergies, intestinal damage, autoimmune disorders, anemia, diabetes, infertility and even cancer. Independent scientific studies done on the effects of genetically modified have produced some incredibly troubling results.

    However, independent scientists and even government officials that have dared to question the safety of genetically modified foods have been harrassed, threatened and in some cases even fired. Someone out there wants to make sure that only one side of the genetically modified food debate is told to the public.

    With billions of dollars in profits to be made, it certainly would be inconvenient for the truth about genetically modified food to get out to the American public. The reality is that the monumental greed of the “mega corporations” that we have created is going to end up killing a lot of people.

    If these genetically modified crops start failing or find themselves more susceptible to crop diseases than natural versions could we end up with a massive food emergency on our hands? If it does eventually come out that some of the massive increases in disease that we are seeing this decade are due to genetically modified foods, what will that do to the demand for organic seeds?

    There are a lot of unanswered questions like that. Many people are becoming increasingly aware of genetically modified crops and are wishing to avoid them, but the reality is that they are virtually everywhere and they are found in an increasing number of food products so it is almost impossible to completely avoid them.

    It is tougher than ever for those of us who seek to eat right and to live an organic lifestyle. Hopefully someone in Washington D.C. will wake up before it is too late.

    More tax dollars to be spent on construction site waste

    11 月 23rd, 2009 by louismartinez1959

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    Naples Fl. Construction

    By JUDITH BURNS

    WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule Monday aimed at reducing pollution from construction sites, saying that it will significantly improve the quality of water nationwide.

    The rule will be phased in over four years, starting in February, and when it is fully in effect, the EPA estimates there will be four billion fewer pounds of sediment discharged from construction sites each year.

    Nearly 82,000 home builders, commercial and industrial building contractors, and civil-engineering companies are expected to be covered by the rule, which the EPA estimates will impose about $953 million of annual costs.

    Such costs could raise home prices and cause a small number of builders to go out of business, resulting in some job losses, the EPA said in a draft version of the final rule.  It said job losses may be temporary given the relatively high turnover in the construction industry, and acknowledged that the new rule is being introduced at a time when construction has fallen off sharply.

    “However, the four year phasing process is expected to give the industry sufficient time to experience several years of growth before all the rule requirements are in effect,” the EPA draft said.

    Construction site owners and operators covered by the rule will have to use best management practices, including soil stabilization and erosion control, to ensure that soil that is excavated, moved or otherwise disturbed by construction activity doesn't pollute nearby bodies of water. In addition, owners and operators at larger construction sites will be subject for the first time to federal monitoring requirements and limits on storm water discharges.  The monitoring requirements will take effect first at sites that disturb 20 or more acres and eventually at sites of 10 or more acres.

    The EPA said the rule, which will establish minimum national standards, is intended to work in concert with existing state and local regulations that may be more stringent.

    Adoption of the rule came in response to a court order in a lawsuit brought by a handful of states and nonprofit environmental groups alleging that the agency had failed to issue regulations required under the Clean Water Act.  A U.S. district court ordered the EPA to issue the rule no later than Dec. 1, 2009.

    A spokesman for the National Association of Home Builders couldn't be reached immediately for comment. A spokesman for Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. said the group wouldn't be able to comment until the final rule is published in the Federal Register.

    We finally had some good news (we hope) from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, regarding housing assistance to those so devastated by Hurricane Ike a little more than three, let me repeat - three, months ago.

    Our local newspaper reported that FEMA has a new plan. Soon the displaced because of the event will receive to occupy a new design of manufactured home that will have two bedrooms in a little more than 600 square feet of living area. These units are suppose to be either low or have no emissions of the formaldehyde that has haunted the agency.

    Folks, please note that the new car, new carpet smell is also of formaldehyde.

    There is to be a special area, a trailer community if you will, established in our very own Bridge City! I'm sure the other affected areas have a special location as well.

    The units may not arrive by Christmas but are promised soon.

    It's beats living in a tent, your vehicle, a moldy home or, shudder, living with family members this long.

    And, readers, it's cold here for us. We're use to almost year-round heat and attire of shorts and flip-flops.

    Before you attempt to donate winter weather clothing to the residents, please call the area distribution points first.
    My second or third time I went to donate I was told that they had all they could take and all residents had their needs meet in that area. Things can always change though.

    Back to the newly designed housing: FEMA has also promised to survey the residents of these new units for feedback. What a concept!

    Microsoft has released Exchange 2010 to the public

    11 月 9th, 2009 by louismartinez1959

    Exchange 2010 – Available Now!

    You may now buy Exchange 2010!

    Two weeks ago we announced that Exchange 2010 was code complete and, as we get ready for launch, we’re seeing some amazing results from our early adopter customers.   They are so good, that I can’t help sharing some of these early highlights – just a sneak peek of what is to come.

    One server, many solutions

    One of the things I’m most excited to see is the evolution of Exchange from an e-mail server to a multi-workload communications backbone.  Some organizations are now bringing in Exchange to do the job once managed by four or five different systems, and the results are really impressive.  With Exchange 2010, you’ve got a full e-mail, calendar and contacts solution, built-in information protection, built-in mobile e-mail and mobile device management, a full voice mail replacement, and a brand new archiving, retention and discovery solution.  Exchange administrators have seen their roles grow from simply providing great e-mail to providing an end-to-end communications solutions.  Customers are seeing impressive results in each of these workloads.

    It does e-mail

    It always has, but in 2010, it does it better.  With the new high availability, disaster recovery and back up capabilities combined with the significant IO reduction a few very cool things become possible.  First, what used to take multiple applications to achieve mailbox resiliency becomes possible using just Exchange.  Second, a very large mailbox – even 10 gigs+ becomes very affordable and supportable.  With Exchange 2010, a major government agency increased mailbox sizes by 10x, reduced failover times by four hours, decreased IT admin and storage costs and expects cost savings of up to $1 million per year with Exchange 2010.

    It makes everyone mobile

    Let’s face it – people want access to e-mail, calendar and contact information from everywhere. Outlook Web App, Outlook Mobile and Exchange Active Sync have long been the leading solutions for web e-mail and mobile phone access for businesses.  But, we didn’t rest on our laurels with 2010, and it shows in the positive user feedback– from the improved OWA UI with integrated IM/presence, to conversation view in mobile, to EAS device management – every user can now have a rich mobile experience, while you don’t have to pay anything more since it’s all ‘in the box’.

    It replaces voice mail (and gives a text preview!)

    A mid-size innovative manufacturing company deployed Exchange 2010 voice mail avoiding a $43,000 annual maintenance contract for their legacy voice mail and reduced IT support required by more than 1000 hours – providing an additional $28,000 savings.  And, with the new text preview, a national auto dealer has improved their sales rep response time to voice mails by 50%, which means a better sales experience for customers.

    It archives and discovers

    At a regional healthcare group, they are able to use the integrated archiving, retention and discovery capabilities of 2010 saving them the cost and maintenance of using third party solutions that resulted in $250,000 they didn’t have to spend – and that was just the first year savings.

    It protects people

    Using the combination of Exchange 2010 and Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, a global electronics firm has seen a 90% reduction in unwanted e-mail, meaning less time deleting and more time making new gadgets for you and me.  And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg — there’s a lot more around information protection we’ll showcase at launch.

    When you think about the full value of Exchange together it’s an impressive package!  And, I’m really pleased that many of you clearly agree — a recent customer survey we did showed that 40% of Exchange customers are planning to move to 2010 within the next 6 months.  This certainly validates the feedback I’ve gotten from our customers and partners about the value delivered by Exchange 2010.

    Since I know many of you are underway with deployment planning, I wanted to take this opportunity to make sure everyone knows the licensing options, so you can plan accordingly.  Just like 2007, Exchange 2010 will offer a Standard CAL and an Enterprise CAL.  Standard CAL includes all e-mail, calendar and contacts capabilities, mobile messaging with Exchange ActiveSync, plus the new over-the-air updates of Outlook Mobile on Windows Mobile 6.1+, and Outlook Web App.  The Exchange Enterprise CAL adds e-mail archiving, discovery and retention functionality, integrated voice mail (i.e. unified messaging) and Forefront Protection for Exchange.

    On the server side, Exchange Server Standard will now support high availability, so all customers can take full advantage of the new database availability group capabilities.  Exchange Server Enterprise enables configurations with up to 100 databases per server.

    All of the specifics around pricing and licensing will be available when we launch, but just to give you an idea, a customer buying a new license will pay about $55 for Standard CAL and about $35 for Enterprise CAL.  Existing customers with Software Assurance, of course, only pay for the renewal of Software Assurance, so this price is much lower.  And for the servers, a typical customer can expect to pay about $550 for Standard Server and $3200 for Enterprise Server.  As you know, pricing depends on the license type you choose, and if you buy via one of the CAL suites further discounts apply, so definitely take this as a ballpark vs absolute.  As always, your reseller partner or Microsoft rep can get you the specifics on pricing once Exchange 2010 is available.

    I can’t wait to share more of the incredible results our Exchange 2010 customers are seeing and talk with you about your Exchange 2010 plans.  I hope you can join us at TechEd Europe in Berlin, Exchange Connections in Las Vegas or online at www.thenewefficiency.com as we launch Exchange 2010.  It’s going to be a great time!

    Julia White
    Director of Exchange Marketing
    Microsoft

    Exchange 2010 - Disponible dès maintenant! Vous mai maintenant acheter Exchange 2010! Il ya deux semaines, nous avons annoncé que Exchange 2010 a été code complet et, comme nous nous préparons pour le lancement, nous constatons des résultats étonnants de nos clients adopteurs précoces. Ils sont si bons, que je ne peux m'empêcher de partager certaines de ces temps forts au début - juste un aperçu de ce qui est à venir. Un serveur, plusieurs solutions Une des choses dont je suis le plus heureux de voir est l'évolution d'Exchange à partir d'un serveur e-mail à un multi-charge de travail des communications backbone. Certaines organisations se proposent actuellement dans Exchange pour faire le travail une fois géré par quatre ou cinq systèmes différents, et les résultats sont vraiment impressionnants. Avec Exchange 2010, vous avez une complète e-mail, agenda et contacts solution, une protection intégrée de l'information, built-in e-mail mobile et la gestion des appareils mobiles, une le remplacement complet de messagerie vocale, et une nouvelle marque d'archivage, la conservation et la solution de découverte. administrateurs Exchange ont vu leur rôle croître de fournir simplement des e-mail à fournir un bout-en-bout des solutions de communication. clients constatent des résultats impressionnants dans chacun de ces charges de travail. Il fonctionne e-mail Il a toujours, mais en 2010, elle ne fait mieux. Avec la haute disponibilité de nouvelles, de reprise après sinistre et sauvegarde de capacités combinées avec la réduction significative IO quelques-unes des choses très cool devenu possible. En premier lieu, ce qui prenait applications multiples pour atteindre la résilience de boîtes aux lettres devient possible en utilisant seulement Exchange. Deuxièmement, une boîte aux lettres très importante - voire 10 gigs + devient très abordable et supportable. avec 2010 Change, un organisme du gouvernement du pays ont augmenté les tailles de boîtes aux lettres 10x, réduction des temps de basculement de quatre heures, a diminué IT admin et coûts de stockage et s'attend à des économies de coûts allant jusqu'à 1 million de dollars par an avec Exchange 2010. Il rend tout le monde mobile Let's face it - les gens veulent avoir accès à des informations de messagerie électronique, calendrier et de contact de partout. Outlook Web App, Outlook Mobile et Exchange Active Sync ont longtemps été les principales solutions de web e-mail et accès à la téléphonie mobile pour les entreprises. Mais, nous ne reposait pas sur nos lauriers en 2010, et cela se voit dans les commentaires des utilisateurs positif partir de l'interface OWA avec l'amélioration intégrée de GI / présence, pour visualiser la conversation dans le mobile, à EAS de gestion des périphériques - Chaque utilisateur peut maintenant avoir une expérience mobile riche, alors que vous n'avez pas à payer plus rien, puisque c'est tout »dans la case ' . Elle remplace la messagerie vocale (et donne un aperçu du texte!) A la mi-taille de fabrication innovants société a déployé Exchange 2010 messagerie vocale en évitant un contrat de 43.000 dollars annuels d'entretien de leur messagerie vocale héritage et l'a réduit de soutien requis par plus de 1000 heures - fournir un montant supplémentaire de 28.000 l'épargne. Et, avec la prévisualisation nouveau texte, un concessionnaire automobile national a amélioré leurs ventes de temps de réponse aux mails REP voix de 50%, ce qui signifie une meilleure expérience en vente pour les clients. Il découvre des archives et des soins de santé à un groupe régional, ils sont capables d'utiliser l'archivage intégrée, la conservation et les capacités de découverte de l'année 2010 leur permettant d'économiser le coût et l'entretien de l'utilisation de solutions de tierce partie qui a abouti à 250.000 dollars qu'ils n'avaient pas à dépenser - et que n'était que la première année d'épargne. Il protège les personnes qui utilisent la combinaison d'Exchange 2010 et Forefront Protection 2010 pour Exchange Server, une entreprise d'électronique mondiale a vu une réduction de 90% en non désirées e-mail, ce qui signifie moins de temps d'effacement et de plus de temps à faire de nouveaux gadgets pour vous et moi. Et, ce n'est que la pointe de l'iceberg -, il ya beaucoup plus autour de la protection des renseignements que nous allons présenter au lancement. Quand vous pensez à la pleine valeur d'échange ensemble, il s'agit d'un paquet impressionnant! Et, je suis vraiment heureux que beaucoup d'entre vous d'accord clairement - un sondage récent que nous avons fait a montré que 40% des clients d'Exchange avez décidé de passer à 2010 dans le 6 prochains mois. Cela valide bien le feedback que je m'absente de nos clients et partenaires sur la valeur apportée par Exchange 2010. Depuis que je sais que beaucoup d'entre vous sont en cours avec la planification du déploiement, je voulais saisir cette occasion pour s'assurer chacun connaît les options de licence, vous pouvez donc planifier en conséquence. Tout comme 2007, Exchange 2010 offre une CAL Standard et une CAL Enterprise. Standard CAL inclut toutes les fonctionnalités de courriel, agenda et contacts, la messagerie mobile avec Exchange ActiveSync, et le nouveau over-the-air de mises à jour d'Outlook Mobile sous Windows Mobile 6.1 + et Outlook Web App. The Exchange Enterprise CAL ajoute archivage d'e-mail , la découverte et la fonctionnalité de rétention, la messagerie vocale intégrée (messagerie unifiée IE) et la protection de Forefront pour Exchange. Du côté du serveur, Exchange Server Standard sera désormais en charge la haute disponibilité, de sorte que tous les clients peuvent tirer pleinement parti des capacités nouvelle base de données du groupe de disponibilité. Exchange Server Enterprise permet aux configurations avec un maximum de 100 bases de données par serveur. Tous les détails dans la tarification et les licences seront disponibles lorsque nous lançons, mais juste pour vous donner une idée, un client qui achète une nouvelle licence paiera environ 55 $ pour les CAL Standard et environ 35 $ pour Enterprise CAL. Les clients actuels avec la Software Assurance, de Bien sûr, ne payez que pour le renouvellement du programme Software Assurance, si ce prix est beaucoup plus faible. Et pour les serveurs, un client typique peut s'attendre à payer environ 550 $ pour Standard Server et 3200 $ pour Enterprise Server. Comme vous le savez, le prix dépend de la licence type que vous choisissez, et si vous achetez par l'intermédiaire de l'une des suites CAL remises supplémentaires s'appliquent, si définitivement prendre cela comme un terrain de balle vs absolue. Comme toujours, votre partenaire revendeur ou Microsoft rep vous pouvez obtenir des détails sur les prix une fois que Exchange 2010 est disponible. Je ne peux pas attendre pour partager davantage les résultats incroyables de nos clients Exchange 2010 voient et de parler avec vous de vos serveurs Exchange 2010, les plans. J'espère que vous pouvez nous rejoindre au TechEd Europe à Berlin, Exchange Connexions à Las Vegas ou en ligne à www. thenewefficiency.com alors que nous lançons Exchange 2010. Ça va être une époque formidable! Julia WhiteDirector d'Exchange MarketingMicrosoft

    Open Source has a long history, programmers have shared ideas and pieces of code since the earliest days of computing. Some of the earliest open source programs were games but with more sophisticated technologies led to programs like 'Tex', the useful typesetting system developed originally by Donald Knuth. The growth in popularity of the PC led to an explosion of open source programs, as proprietary software was relatively expensive. A key weakness for the early PC was the lack of reasonably priced compilers with the exception of Basic, which shipped with windows.

    The flourishing of open source in the early '90s also accompanied the rise of Unix as an operating system. Unix became popular not just because it was cheap but also because it was possible to modify and improve the operating system. For universities it provided a potent mix of cost effective systems and a learning environment. Unix was driven by the need for that type of operating system. Equivalent proprietary operating systems such a VMS satisfied the needs of the commercial world, but eventually there was cross pollination by system developers, Unix also became monetized and proprietary. The drivers of the cross pollination were, again, related to cost. Printers and disk drives were expensive, even communication protocols affected cost, quickly we saw the rise of twisted pairs, TCP/IP and Samba shares. Open source had made it possible to connect the enterprise.

    All of this had happened in the IT world without a great deal of input from the business world apart from the urgings of “better, faster and cheaper”. This peaceful coexistence of open source and proprietary systems changed forever with the rise of Linux, and the availability of totally open source systems. Soon IT salesmen were selling hardware, that was rapidly becoming cheaper, to business executives with an eye on the bottom line. There was not a great deal of innovation, this was largely a marketing success. We finally had 'free' software.

    This has led us to a situation where open source software is regarded as 'free' and proprietary software is regarded as, well, costing money. In fact this is not the case, the cost of software relates to how much benefit a company realizes on it's IT infrastructure. Software is only part of the infrastructure, and should be treated as part of a larger cost benefit structure. If Open Source should not be embraced because it is 'free', why would you embrace it? Open Source can form an important base for a business to interact with the software community, if you can't find software that satisfies what you regard as a reasonable requirement, why not go Open Source and share the learning? It will offer your staff an opportunity for greater job satisfaction and raise the profile of your company. Next time someone asks you, are using 'free' software, just say, no , but you do like to contribute to the Open Source community.

     

    Cats now getting swine flu

    11 月 4th, 2009 by louismartinez1959

    Wed Nov 4, 2009 4:10pm EST

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    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A cat in Iowa has tested positive for H1N1 swine flu, the first time a cat has been diagnosed with the new pandemic strain, the American Veterinary Medical Association said on Wednesday.

     

    The 13-year-old cat apparently caught the virus from one of the people living in the house, the group said in a statement. It has recovered and does not appear to have infected anyone or anything else.

     

    Pigs are the original source of the H1N1 virus and it has been found in several herds, as well as in a pet ferret. Ferrets are especially susceptible to human influenza viruses.

     

    “Two of the three members of the family that owns the pet had suffered from influenza-like illness before the cat became ill,” Iowa Department of Public Health Veterinarian Dr. Ann Garvey said in a statement.

     

    “This is not completely unexpected, as other strains of influenza have been found in cats in the past.” Both the cat and its owners have recovered from their illnesses.

     

    The AVMA has a website on H1N1 illnesses in U.S. animals at www.avma.org/public_health/influenza/new_virus. Dogs and horses also can catch various influenza strains, although none have so far been diagnosed with H1N1.

     

    “Indoor pets that live in close proximity to someone who has been sick are at risk and it is wise to monitor their health to ensure they aren't showing signs of illness,” said Dr. David Schmitt, state veterinarian for Iowa.

     

    The new H1N1 passes easily from person to person and has infected millions globally since March, killing at least 5,000 people whose infections have been documented.

     

    (Editing by Jackie Frank)

    Marijuana has been legalized in Co ski town

    11 月 4th, 2009 by louismartinez1959

    DENVER – The Colorado ski town of Breckenridge has voted overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana.

    Early returns Tuesday night showed the proposal winning with 72 percent of the vote. The measure would allow adults over 21 to have up to 1 ounce of marijuana.

    The measure is largely symbolic because pot possession remains a state crime for people without medical clearance. But supporters said they wanted to send a message to local law enforcement to stop busting small-time pot smokers.

    The vote comes as communities nationwide are struggling with how to enforce pot laws at a time when medical marijuana has surged in popularity.

    Exchange 2010 Release Date

    11 月 3rd, 2009 by louismartinez1959

    exchange

    Exchange 2010 Release Date

    Microsoft announced that the new Exchange Server 2010 will ship by the end of the year. It released the final beta recently along with Forefront for Exchange Server 2010 which is a security add-on for the server software.

    The design philosophy of the new Exchange is that of a hybrid. It is designed to work equally well as a hosted email service as it is a corporate one. The flexibility and scalability touted in previous press releases certainly hint at a much more robust and flexible approach to the software.

    Microsoft has tested the application thoroughly using its own infrastructure, and the Live@Edu programme. This programme was a free offering to students which offered a co-hosted Exchange setup free of charge with ten gigabytes of storage per user and an online storage facility called SkyDrive which enables students to add files to cloud based network folders.

    The software giant also used its own corporate network to host the new Exchange 2010 infrastructure. In a statement they said that it was the perfect way to iron out any last minute issues while serving thousands of mailboxes concurrently.

    Michael Atalla, the Exchange Group Product Manager announced the release on the team blog this week. He also highlighted some new features such as the interoperability with Exchange 2007 with Service Pack 2, and the ability to co-exist with Server 2003 servers. Initially Exchange 2010 was only going to work on Server 2008 machines, but it may be the case now that is can work with the older OS. There was also added support for 64-bit Server 2008, upgrades from the Exchange 2010 Release Candidate to the Release To Manufacturing version, which is also good news for early adopters. It means now that the RC version can be updated to the RTM rather than being uninstalled and installed anew.

    This release is another example of the sea change at Microsoft over the past couple of years. They seem to be listening to users, interacting and consulting with them and even taking some of the feedback on board. We now seem to be getting software that we want, rather than what they want us to have. Windows 7 is another example of a product that has gone though lengthy feedback testing and beta’s before being released to manufacturing.

    Microsoft is also attempting to improve the email discovery and compliance aspect of its email platform. Feedback from tester so far indicates that this isn’t ready yet, and probably won’t be at the time of release. It will probably be along in a year in the first Service Pack for Exchange 2010.

    While the compliance aspect isn’t fully finished, the improved interface and administrative tools are. They have been received positively so far from Exchange experts around the world as it makes it much easier to maintain the infrastructure and individual users, all from one interface. This cuts down significantly the amount of administration it will take to keep the nodes functioning.

    Exchange 2010 is expected to ship at the end of this year.