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Home / Archive: 09. August 2008
A bright light goes out…The Sojouner
It’s impossible to encapsulate Soj’s life in a few words, but saying nothing at all would be even worse. The Dreams community was the fuel behind my belief in Second Life and Soj’s faith kept all of us on track through some rough times.
I met The Sojourner in my first months of Second Life, back when I was still considering medicine as a career. I then realized something that may seem naive now…if you ever read about stroke in a biology book, you’ll never know the whole truth: the subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which every day, stroke survivors find themselves more limited than they were the day before. It’s a feeling of uselessness, of anger at yourself and at the world that very few can conquer with as much dignity and patience as Soj did. She challenged herself and the obstacles her health placed in her way. With Second Life as a filter, I almost forgot that she was a bit slower or that she reacted to a social/technical change by falling apart. She focused so much on helping others that we, in turn, almost forgot the struggles she went through or that she only had a short amount of time to be with us.
The Soj I had met wasn’t the person she was before stroke, or at least this is what she told us all. The truth is that stroke changes people – things you could do alone before, even simple things like reading the analog clock, need to be done with the help of someone else. I found this email I once sent to her:
“Often times I wish I had saved the many conversations we had. I am truly happy I met you, and even happier that you now have a part of your life that can make you feel like you have a purpose. I think the purpose was there all along, it just may be harder to adjust to it when you change from being the strong one into the one who needs support.“
I don’t know about you, but Soj never felt like she was asking for help. She inspired strength and love, while taking in a little advice or care when she was discouraged. Second Life allowed her the freedom to be who she truly was, to keep being a nurturing, loving person, even when real life was very different.
The Sojouner …despite her name, she is here for a lot more than just a day. I know a lot of us will fight to keep her dream alive. Let’s hope we can be half as strong as she was for us. To place a tribute to her, please follow this link.
Gossip - Death of an Avatar By Poid Mahovlich
:: Gossip - Death of an Avatar :: Part 1
By Poid Mahovlich
Saturday March 22nd 2008
4pm SLT
Ars Simulacra: NMC’s SL Artist Showcase Island
This interactive installation by Poid approaches the themes of gossip, betrayal, and SL Drama. Scripted to allow you to “point the finger”.
you can tp directly from here.
Preserving Muscle Mass
Plant Foods for Preserving Muscle Mass - News from the USDA Agricultural Research Service
This study had escaped our eye until now - just catching up -
The study was led by physician and nutrition specialist Bess Dawson-Hughes at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Mass.
The typical American diet is rich in protein, cereal grains and other acid-producing foods. In general, such diets generate tiny amounts of acid each day. With aging, a mild but slowly increasing metabolic “acidosis” develops, according to the researchers.
Acidosis appears to trigger a muscle-wasting response. So the researchers looked at links between measures of lean body mass and diets relatively high in potassium-rich, alkaline-residue producing fruits and vegetables. Such diets could help neutralize acidosis. Foods can be considered alkaline or acidic based on the residues they produce in the body, rather than whether they are alkaline or acidic themselves. For example, acidic grapefruits are metabolized to alkaline residues.
Today is world’s indigenous people day
Today is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People (IDWIP), and it is a timely reminder that New Zealand is one of four countries that voted against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. In fact the Government tried to derail it with its proposal to substantially alter the text so that it would have given indigenous peoples fewer rights than others.
One of the reasons why we failed to agree was that the Declaration implied that indigenous peoples had rights that others did not have.
They already do - they can enrol on the Maori roll, for a start.
The Declaration provides a minimum standard for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world, and was explained by its supporters as intending to inspire, rather than to have legal effect. New Zealand did not, however, accept that a State could responsibly take such a stance towards a document that it knew it couldn’t implement. But this is a declaration, not a treaty or legislation. New Zealand has passed laws as well as UN Conventions that it has not implemented. Why is this declaration so special that it had to be ignored?
Because clearly, we have been breaching ratified UN treaties for years. For example, the UN just last year noted that New Zealand is diminishing the importance and relevance of the Treaty of Waitangi and to create a context unfavourable to the rights of Maori under the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination
And our Government was not impressed at all with the report of the UN Special Rapporteur for indigenous issues, Rudolfo Stavenhagen, after he visited last year to investigate the treaty settlements process, the Foreshore and Seabed Act and policies designed to reduce social inequalities.The report is the product of the most important international human rights institution there is, but our Government thumbed its nose at it and has decided that it does not want to give a message that it is a Government that cares for rights of indigenous people.
At last the dream comes true for China’s eccentric pilgrims - Guardian Unlimited
They have come from across China. For many it is their first trip to the capital. And for almost all the Beijing Olympics is proving to be the spectacle they have dreamt of for so long. Xue Mengqian, 50, a farmer, his long hair tied back in a ponytail, has ridden his lovingly maintained bicycle all
Russian troops raid town scores dead in Georgia - Miami Herald
OUTSIDE TSKHINVALI, Georgia Russian tanks and troops rumbled into the separatist province of South Ossetia and Russian aircraft bombed a Georgian town Saturday in a major escalation of the conflict that has left hundreds of civilians dead and wounded. Russia, which has close ties to the province and
Make Your Search Campaign Successful
Search marketing is a great way to generate revenue and grow your business. However, many marketers fail at search and don’t know it. The basic performance reports available from providers like Google can lead an advertiser to believe that his or her campaign is generating plenty of qualified interest, when the truth might be precisely the opposite.
Clicks, click-through rate and cost-per-click are the measuring sticks of most search campaigns, because they’re the statistics most easily gleaned from online reports. Judging a campaign’s performance by these standards is not only misleading, it can cause an advertiser to waste significant investment.
Why? Because a click is only one action — it doesn’t measure what that prospect did when he or she clicked on your ad (that is, did he or she become a lead or buy your product) or even how qualified he or she is. Our experience tells us there are many advertisers who are content to generate thousands of clicks at considerable cost, but discover on further analysis that the vast majority of those clicks are completely worthless.
The perfect search campaign is one that:
■ generates a cost per acquisition (CPA) — whether your acquisition is a lead, download, registration or sale — competitive with other advertising vehicles
■ generates predictable CPA results at projected spend levels
■ is sufficiently expansive to cover every keyword or phase, and every variation that a qualified prospect could search on
■ delivers relevant ad copy for every keyword (to drive clicks) and maps to relevant landing pages (to drive conversions)
■ is designed in such a way that specific terms, groups of terms and campaigns are all optimized separately, with separate budgets, ad copy, geo-targeting and day-parting
■ is tracked through use of a back-end database or CRM system that measures ROI on a keyword-by-keyword basis.
Don’t have all these metrics in place? No one does. The scenario above is the ideal program, and a hypothetical ideal at that. But you should use these standards as goals and benchmarks.
Know what you want to achieve. Are you trying to generate downloads, registrations, page views, sales leads, qualified leads or sales? How are you defining that goal — is someone filling out a registration form, hitting a particular page or meeting certain qualification criteria?
Your search campaign should measure how many of those desired actions are taking place; how much each desired action is costing in the aggregate; and, which keywords generate those actions at the lowest cost.
Howard Sewell is president of Connect Direct.
Resumes and SEO. Let your resume work for you! - Mr SEO
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SEO Articles by Mr SEO
P.S. If you are coming from Web Presence… I do not work for them. They refused to remove my link and their false claim that I am their SEO guru. So, Please if you need SEO see me. Visit me at www.mr-seo.com
High Resolution version AJAX powered Reservation system
If you are interested in a high resolution version of Ajax Powered Reservation System created by A1Software please visit http://www.alphasoftware.com/alphafive/video/20080808A1_Res_V3
The exciting world of Xdialog, starring Selwyn Rabins
If you’re not using Xdialog already, you’re totally missing out. Just think about it …
The humble dialog box is the most common interface element in most applications. It controls most of the action. Yet dialogs are the least noticed by most users. They often appear for only a short period of time. A few clicks later, they’re gone.
Sure, users appreciate your well-designed reports, your clearly-laid-out forms, and even your complex, real-time data operations. But for every form, report, or operation you add to your application, it’s not unusual to have one or more dialog boxes help the user command the action.
Not only are dialog boxes the underdogs of the user interface, they’re also the workhorses. They’re the primary means of asking users the Who, What, Where, When, and How that allow the users to control the action.
And when it comes to building these vital interface elements, nothing (that’s right, nothing!) comes close to the speed, power, ease-of-use, and all-around good looks offered by Alpha Five Version 9 and Xdialog. (Trumpets, please.) In fact, Xdialog is so capable, much of Alpha Five itself is written using Xdialog.
The correct use of Xdialog can transform a good Alpha Five application into a great Alpha Five application. They can speed your development, add a professional finish, and give users access to features that would have otherwise been too expensive to build, were they built from scratch.
On Monday, July 21, my brother Selwyn will show you how to take maximum advantage of Xdialog in your own applications in his one-time only, live class. Don’t miss it! Sign up today!
Xdialog: the Ultimate Guide for Creating Dialog Boxes in Alpha Five
Date: Monday, July 21, 2008.
Time: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time
Video: You need a PC and a high speed Internet connection to see the video.
Audio: You will need to call a U.S. telephone number to hear the audio
Cost: U.S. $149
Open PhD positions at University of Insubria, Italy
Concorso XXIV ciclo - A.A. 2008-09
Dottorati di Ricerca
Bando per l’ammissione ai dottorati di ricerca XXIV ciclo
(in attesa di pubblicazione sulla G.U. - IV serie speciale “Concorsi ed
Esami”)
http://www.uninsubr ia.it/pls/ uninsubria/ consultazione. mostra_pagina?id_pagina=3788
http://www.uninsubr ia.it/uninsubria /allegati/ pagine/3788/ bando_XXIV_ ciclo.pdf
Duke’s Motion
It has been a while since I updated the front page. Between the holidays and my other commitments, I have had to take some time to get caught up with my other affairs. However, FODU is still very much in business. I hope you have noticed that our Moderator has been continuing to keep the media links page updated everyday. I also hope you have been reading the excellent DSED blog, which has done more than fill any gap left by my absence. I will try to update more frequently and I want to do a larger post to get caught up. In the meantime, I just wanted to share my thoughts about Duke’s motion to shut down the informational site http://www.dukelawsuit.com/, which is maintained by a publicist for the players and their lawyers. Duke’s caim is that it violates North Carolina Rule of Professional Conduct 3.6, the same rule that was among those Mike Nifong was disbarred for violating.
Well, I must say that I am glad that, after two years, Duke has finally discovered Rule 3.6. When Mike Nifong was out in front of the cameras violating it hourly, they did not want to know one thing about it. As late as September 2006, Bob Steel tried to argue with me about whether Nifong was actually doing anything wrong. Now, if they could only understand it . . .
First, Rule 3.6 only applies to lawyers. It does not apply to parties such as the players and their families. Although not unqualified, parties have a First Amendment right to say whatever they want about a case that is much broader than what is allowed to lawyers. Rule 3.6 certainly does not apply to the heartfelt statement lacrosse parent Steven Henkelman gave at the press conference.
Second, Rule 3.6 allows lawyers to comment on matters in the public record, which includes court filings.
Here are the relevant portions of Rule 3.6:
(a) A lawyer who is participating or has participated in the investigation or
litigation of a matter shall not make an extrajudicial statement that the lawyer
knows or reasonably should know will be disseminated by means of public
communication and will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing
an adjudicative proceeding in the matter.
(b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), a lawyer may state:
(1) the claim, offense or defense involved and,
except when prohibited by law, the identity of the persons involved;
(2) the information contained in a public record;
* * *
At the press conference linked on the site, attorney Charles Cooper did nothing more than summarize the contents of the complaint, which was being filed as he spoke. He appeared careful to so limit his remarks. The memorandum of law in support of Duke’s motion conceded this point. It tried to make a “spirit of the law” argument that the complaint itself was inflammatory and thus no public reference should be allowed to be made to it. Here is the crux of Duke’s argument from the memorandum of law accompanying the motion:
Plaintiffs will almost certainly argue that these statements are fully permitted by Rule 3.6(b)(2), which allows an attorney to comment about “information contained in a public record.” Many of these statements are direct quotes from the Complaint, while others are slight paraphrasings of the Complaint. (See, e.g., Compl. ¶¶ 3, 11(a), 11(b), 11(c).) When a complaint contains such incendiary language, an attorney should not be permitted to hide behind the language of the complaint and make a statement to the press that strings together paragraphs that are highly prejudicial. Such an action is contrary to the very intent of Rule 3.6, “materially prejudices an adjudicative proceeding,” and should not be allowed.
This is not a legal argument. Indeed, the fact that it is not a legal argument is also why they cannot offer one shred of legal authority to support it.
Mike Nifong violated Rule 3.6 by commenting on the evidence, lying about the evidence and inviting antipathy toward the accused. This was conduct squarely prohibited by the rule and manifestly prejudicial. Comments 5 and 6 accompanying the rules give a fuller explanation.
Others have noticed the hypocrisy of Duke criticizing dukelawsuit.com while at the same time maintaining its own informational site about the case which contains dishonest and self serving accounts of the administration’s handling of the Lacrosse Hoax. It is worse than that. Duke was anticipating lawsuits from the very beginning. Remember Mark Simeon, Nifong’s political ally, was lining up the Mangum family for a suit and brought Willie Gary to town in furtherance of that goal. If you will recall, Duke’s site initially linked media accounts that were mostly negative toward the players and ignored accounts critical of the investigation. As the tide started to turn, and Duke’s own misconduct became apparent, Duke began to anticipate suits from the players, instead.
In fall of 2006, Bob Steel made an offer to at least one of the families to pay their legal expenses in exchange for singing an agreement not to sue. Despite the desperation of their situation, they refused. Bob Steel and Richard Brodhead also had a meeting with the families to try and sort out their differences that went nowhere. Duke has known that the present suits were coming for a long time and the twisted apologetics contained on its own informational site were created with that prospect in mind. This strategy reminds me of the famous advice a rugby manager gave to his players before a game: “Be sure and get your retaliation in first!”
What is particularly telling to me is that, while Duke’s motion complains about prejudice caused by dukelawsuit .com, it does not ask for a specific remedy other than asking that the website and its contents be declared violations of Rule 3.6. It does not ask for a gag order. Motions for gag orders to avoid pretrial publicity are not uncommon and Duke could have made a much stronger argument for one by simply pointing to the harm pretrial publicity might cause. It would not be an availing argument, mind you, given its own attempt to take its case to the public, but a better one. By misframing the issue as a legal ethics and Rule 3.6 issue, it decided to forgo a stronger argument in order to try and score a rhetorical point. Duke is falsely attempting to create the appearance of similarity between the conduct of the plaintiffs and their nemesis Mike Nifong. In other words, Duke is attempting to try the case in the media while at the same time purporting to uphold the opposite principle. But then again, Duke signaled how it intended to fight this suit when it hired a lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, whose principal skill set is not federal civil rights litigation, but political infighting.
Food Review - El Rancho in Westport
539 Westport Rd.
Mexican in Westport
El Rancho, located in the heart of Westport, is an appealing little restaurant with a wide variety of items on offer - Mexican food at extremely reasonable prices.
Most dishes average between $5 and $6, which is a happy treat for a college student’s budget.
Next Page »
Why? Because a click is only one action — it doesn’t measure what that prospect did when he or she clicked on your ad (that is, did he or she become a lead or buy your product) or even how qualified he or she is. Our experience tells us there are many advertisers who are content to generate thousands of clicks at considerable cost, but discover on further analysis that the vast majority of those clicks are completely worthless.
