Category: News

Published Jan. 5, 2010
By Sara Schilling, Tri-City Herald staff writer

Winter quarter is under way at Columbia Basin College in Pasco and the campus again is seeing enrollment growth over the same time last year.

“There are more people coming to us thinking this is a safe harbor and good time to invest in their education” because of the bleak economy and job market, said CBC President Rich Cummins.

But that does create challenges for the college, which like other institutions in Washington is getting less money from the state because of deep budgets cuts and is facing the possibility of even more reductions, Cummins said.

Winter classes at CBC started Monday. Enrollment figures for the first day weren’t yet available, but there were nearly 6,800 students signed-up as of Dec. 30.

That’s an increase of more than 470 students over the same time last academic year.

The full-time equivalent count, which is used by the state to allocate funding, also was up — from 4,575 to 5,041 students during the same time. That’s an increase of more than 10 percent.

Part of the reason for the higher enrollment numbers at the beginning of the quarter could be that more students are registering for classes earlier than in the past.

CBC officials had to cut some programs and limit the number of sections offered because of the state budget cuts, and they’ve encouraged students to register early.

Fall quarter enrollment was up 17 percent in mid-August over the same time the year before, but that percentage dropped some over the course of the quarter, according to information from CBC.

Still, the college is seeing more students signing up, which leaves officials trying to do more with fewer resources, Cummins said.

The college lost about $3.4 million in the last round of state cuts. And Cummins said CBC could lose another $1.5 million in state money for the remainder of the 2009-11 biennium.

The state Legislature is heading back into session next week.

More cuts will mean more tough choices, Cummins said. A committee of faculty and staff examined the college’s budget situation and made recommendations during the last round of cuts, and that’ll happen again, he said.

Still, CBC has had successes despite the tight financial times, Cummins said. For example, the privately funded nuclear technology program started running in the fall.

“In spite of bad budget news, there’s capacity here. People who know what they want (in terms of training and classes) can come and get it,” Cummins said. “We’ve had a big impact and continue to have a big impact. In spite of troubles, we’re strong.”

Classes at Washington State University Tri-Cities in Richland resume Jan. 11.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

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HECO Executive Vice President Robbie Alm says the company must pursue every renewable resource available from the sun, wind, land and oceans. The contract with Renewable Energy Group of Iowa must be approved by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission.

Whitney Tilson doesn’t think Warren Buffett interfered at all when he voted against Kraft’s proposal to acquire Cadbury. Instead, Tilson thinks that Cadbury will still get a good offer from Kraft while Buffett is essentially negotiating for a lower price. Watch Tilson on CNBC below:

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See Also:

• Warren Buffett Just Delivered A Death Blow To Cadbury
• Kraft And Nestle’s Cadbury Bidding War Has John Paulson Laughing All The Way To The Bank
• UK Cadbury Factory Workers Protest Against Any US Take-Over

Today the entire world’s eyes were fixed upon all of the live blogs, video streams, and articles pouring out about two of Google’s new latest releases. The Nexus One Android Phone and the Google Web Store. While you might suspect Canadians were sulking about its lack of availability in Canada, Wrong! We were celebrating a victory of our own; the confirmed release of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.

The phone will be running Android 1.6 and while that may have Canadians wondering how long it is until we get Android 2.1, you can be happy to know it’s got some new tricks for an old dog. Listed below are the technical specifications for the phone(via AndroidInCanada.com).

• OS: Android 1.6
• Dimensions: 119 × 63 x 13 mm
• Weight: 135 grams
• Includes: GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3.5mm audio jack
• Display: 4-inch WVGA (480×854 pixels) capacitive scratch-resistant touchscreen
• Memory: 8GB microSD card included, with 1GB of internal memory
• CPU: 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250
• Camera: 8.1MP with 16x digital zoom, auto-focus, touch focus, face recognition, and geo-tagging

What really stands out with the X10 is the inclusion of a similar, if not the same, 1GHz processor included in the Nexus One. This processor will show Canada some of the fastest speeds it has ever seen from Android and hopefully make a dent in providing Android awareness to the Canadian market. Sony has taken Android and improved upon it by adding new features such as Sony Ericsson Mediascape and Timescape™ that add to make a for a completely new way to experience Android. Videos of these two new features can be found below. The release of the X10 is expected for the second quarter of this year.

The question is… will you wait for your Dreams and Magics to be updated to 1.6, or will you drop it like an old girlfriend for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10?

Your Canadian Correspondant,

@MatthewPatience

The Illinois Department on Aging (IDoA) is kicking off efforts for the year-long campaign 2010:  Year of the Engaged Older Adult.

Last month, Governor Pat Quinn made the call to action to get individuals and families engaged in efforts to benefit their communities and thus improve the state.  The focus for January is Intergenerational Programs:  How Generations Support Generations.

People should look for examples on how older adults are engaged in their community or neighborhood.  Gathering stories will help all generations save their family stories, create stronger connections among generations and foster communication skills – interviewing, listening, writing, and reading.

For ideas, log onto law.siu.edu/GenServeGen.

IDoA Director Charles D. Johnson is leading the statewide initiative that started when Illinois was selected to participate in the National Governors Association (NGA) Policy Academy on Civic Engagement of Older Adults.

The project is designed to improve the health and lives of older Americans and increase their involvement in service, learning and work.

“Our goal is engage citizens, especially those ages 50 and older, and tap their talents to benefit others,” said Director Johnson.

“We are encouraging individuals, their families, organizations and networks to find ways to do good in their communities.  Whether baking cookies for our troops overseas, sharing family stories to document family history, we want people to find ways to get involved and make a difference to benefit their communities.”

A team of dedicated professionals in Illinois have been working to map out the best strategies to get older adults involved in community and to encourage more interaction between the generations.

Members of the NGA Illinois Leadership Team include the Illinois Department on Aging, Intergenerational Initiative-SIU School of Law, AARP, Retirement Research Foundation, Corporation for National and Community Service, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Senate Higher Education Committee, Illinois Community College Council of Presidents, Chinese American Service League, Illinois Association of Area Agencies on Aging, and McCormick Foundation.

Activities will be planned across the state to engage older adults in service, learning and work.

The purpose is to:

• highlight the tradition of service by reporting the stories of older generations
• increase participation in service across generations
• publicize and communicate to local communities the ways generations support one another
• emphasize the importance of each citizen’s contribution
• demonstrate how Illinoisans 50+ strengthen the economy

For more information about program services to assist older adults in Illinois and their caregivers, call the IDoA Senior HelpLine at 1-800-252-8966 or for TTY (hearing impaired use only) call 1-888-206-1327.

I am not all that big on celebrity endorsements, but I do understand that they can be very beneficial in getting the word out on important topics ot people who might not otherwise hear it.

So I’m pleased to see that Jennifer Lopez did a short video about the benefits of vaccination against pertussis for a website called Sounds of Pertussis (created by the vaccine division of the pharmaceutical company Sanofi Aventis). The video calmly and rationally explains why it’s important to vaccinate for pertussis, also known as whooping cough.

Regular readers know my stance on this: pertussis can kill, as parents David and Toni McCaffery found out when their four-week-old daughter Dana died from it in 2009 — she was infected because not enough people had vaccinated their children, and the herd immunity in that area of Australia was too low. It’s important to talk to your physician about this and find out if you should vaccinate yourself and your loved ones.

The antivaxxers are loud about this issue, of course. Meryl Dorey and her Australian Vaccination Network have spread misinformation far and wide on this issue, even saying that pertussis doesn’t kill anyone… a statement that is so clearly false that it’s difficult to believe someone could honestly utter it. No doubt the antivaxxers will ooze out of the woodwork in the comments below — they always do — and make all sorts of similar false claims. And also no doubt we’ll see the attempts to poison the well by saying the JLo video was produced by a — gasp — pharmaceutical company!

Like Ben Goldacre, I am not a huge fan of a lot of the tactics used by those companies to sell drugs. But that doesn’t mean everything they do is wrong. Vaccinations, as I feel I must point out over and again, have saved hundreds of millions of lives, a number so huge it’s awe-inspiring. But so many antivaxxers seem to want to see us return to the days when children died of measles, when kids were confined to iron lungs when they couldn’t breathe due to polio, and people died by the millions from smallpox and other preventable diseases.

Antivaxxers are wrong. The data are overwhelming that their arguments are false. Vaccines save lives, countless lives. Talk to your physician. Please.

Filed under: By the Numbers

Subaru, Kia and Hyundai increase alone, FoMoCo loses least

Most automakers giving themselves a pat on the back for a strong sales performance in December should take a second look at the books. A good month of sales to finish off a crappy year still equals a crappy year of sales. The chart below makes this perfectly evident, as only three individual brands and no multi-brand automakers managed to make it through 2009 selling more vehicles than they did in 2008. Not surprisingly, Subaru, Kia and Hyundai (in that order) were the three brands to post an overall sales increase in 2009, with Subaru posting a double-digit rise of 15 percent. With 216,652 sales overall, Subaru now sells more vehicles in the U.S. than Volkswagen and Mazda, two direct competitors with larger lineups.

Though no multi-brand automaker can claim a sales victory in 2009, you might be surprised to learn that Ford Motor Company with its Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Volvo brands performed the best. FoMoCo sales in 2009 fell 15 percent, a smaller drop than any of its competitors. Toyota Motor Company sales (Toyota and Lexus combined) fell over 20 percent, but the Japanese juggernaut still managed to beat Ford in number of vehicles sold (1.77 million to 1.68 million).

The rest of the industry’s performance can be viewed in the chart below. Note that there were 308 selling days in both 2008 and 2009, so the percent change in volume sold will equal the percent change in the daily average sales rate.

By the Numbers – 2009: Up and Down Year Ends Down For Most Edition originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Update: A commenter reminds us we’ve posted this before, but you know what, we don’t mind. If we had forgotten about it, then surely several readers have, too, and it’s just that good.

Original post: Russian gas giant Gazprom has an amazing corporate anthem which starts with the lyrics “Don’t bother trying, you’ll never find a surer friend than Gazprom.” It’s not new, but it never gets old, and you will enjoy watching it immensely.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• You Know Natural Gas Has Gone Big Time When Cramer is All Over It
• CERA Analyst Jim Osten: There’s A Permanent Oversupply Of Natural Gas
• American Shale Gas Revolution Threatened By Fracking Environmentalists

I watched a tv show the other day called Hoarders that gives you  a look inside the homes and minds of people who hoard. It was just so sad to see the houses falling apart and the trash several feet deep mixed in with former treasures. After seeing the show, I started to think about the fact that these people didn’t start out hoarding to that extent. So, how did the whole thing get so out of hand and how can you tell if you are predisposed to be a hoarder?

I think that, for many people who have this problem, the hoarding was pretty manageable for many years. It seems like it only got to the catastrophic level seen on the show after the death of a close family member. The surviving person was unable to part with anything the deceased person had used, even an old razor. Then, he or she started worrying about whether that package had anything important on it. A UPC code? Diagrams? So, he or she set it aside to look at later and never got back to it, added a few newspapers and the junk mail that needs  to be read cover to cover and rinsed and repeated until there was a foot or more of stuff littering the place. I’ve seen hoarding mentioned as an OCD related behavior, as well.

Here’s my unofficial “Could You Be a Hoarder?” quiz:

• Do you feel sick or anxious when you think about sorting through a closet, a drawer, or a stack of paper?
• Do you sort through things someone else is throwing out and put most of it back into the house instead of the trash?
• Are you sentimental to the point that you kept every baby tooth every child lost, every school paper he or she brought home and every little memento, no matter how trivial it was?
• Is your walking space becoming more and more limited as you try to navigate between piles of stuff?
• Are you scared to throw things out in case you might need them? I’m not talking about important financial documents and your house deed. Totally keep that stuff. I’m talking about every receipt you’ve ever received.

For more information about hoarding, read Mayo Clinic’s hoarding article or make an appointment with your doctor to discuss your concerns. Hoarding can take over your life and keep you from enjoying all the wonderful things many people take for granted, like having friends over for tea.

Photo: SXC

Post from: Blisstree

Are You Developing Hoarding Behaviors?

There are plenty of stories today about the not-so-secret “Google Phone” known as the Nexus One (assuming no silly legal issues get in the way) was finally “officially” announced. There wasn’t much surprise at the announcement, other than the fact that Verizon Wireless is expected to get the phone in the spring as well, meaning that there’s a CDMA version out there somewhere. Nearly every story about the phone has played the paint-by-numbers game of asking “is this an iPhone killer.” To be sure, the Nexus One (which I have had a chance to play with) is extremely iPhone-like. But pitting it head-to-head against the iPhone may be the wrong way of thinking about it.

As he often does, Bill Gurley cuts through the clutter to make a really strong point. The iPhone and its closed system were designed for the top of the market only. Google isn’t necessarily looking to compete with the iPhone or take users away from the iPhone — it’s looking to attract the market of “everyone else,” for whom the Nexus One (or other Android Phones) represents a huge upgrade over what they have:

The iPhone does exist, and it is wildly popular. There are an estimated 55 million iPhones in use around the world. Despite this remarkable success, history will also show that Apple intentionally chose a business model with plenty of room for disruption underneath its pricing structure. It also chose a single carrier as a partner, which resultantly threatened others. Then Google built a product and a strategy that allayed the carrier’s relative fears. Google gave them what they wanted, and then even gave them money. It could afford to do this because Google aims solely to protect the great business they already have in advertising, not to make money directly from the product (HW or SW in this case). Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla’s Firefox represent choke points on the personal computer whereby Google could lose search share, or at least be forced to pay a toll. In mobile, they see a chance to potentially eliminate the toll-takers.

With a business model that allows for much broader distribution and price points that are well beneath the iPhone, Google’s Android won’t compete directly with the iPhone. For the iPhone loyalist, like Stewart Alsop who railed against Android, Android is simply not an option. This price insensitive user demands the very best experience they can possibly have and this is still the iPhone. Users won’t switch in mass from the iPhone to the Android. It’s the other 3.95 billion cell phone users that are highly likely to consider Android a step up from their current feature phone. The Android strategy results in phones at much lower prices with much more diversity which will hit a broader set of demographics. Apple can and will quintuple its current market share and still have a small portion of the overall cell phone market.

This is why the two products do not compete head to head. With its super aggressive model, Android will be the choice of the masses, and with its sleek design and non-compromising price point, Apple will rule the high end.

While I think Gurley overplays the claim that the Android strategy results in “phones at much lower price points,” since that hasn’t happened yet, there are a number of good points raised in this article. In many ways it goes back to the discussion we had a year and a half ago about the differences between open and proprietary strategies. The closed, proprietary, “walled garden,” strategies have advantages in brand new markets — no doubt. They are less chaotic, more user friendly and simply easier to grasp for many. But, in the long run, the open solutions almost always win out. The solutions that allow others to jump in and add stuff, change stuff or make stuff better. It may take some time, and the lead time for the proprietary solution may seem insurmountable, but overtime, the more open solution almost always wins out. Remember when AOL and its walled gardens were going to dominate the “open” internet? It seems likely that the same thing may play out in the mobile space.

The second point that I think is key is the recognition that Google has the opportunity to play a bit of business model jujitsu against competitors with Android, noted in this sentence: “It could afford to do this because Google aims solely to protect the great business they already have in advertising, not to make money directly from the product (HW or SW in this case).” This is a point that we discuss in a variety of different business markets. It’s why we think that those who understand how to embrace the difference between scarce and infinite goods have a huge advantage. If you can make money by giving away a product for free that some legacy business relies on charging for — and then making your money up in an ancillary market (made bigger by giving your product away for free), then you have a massive advantage to disrupt the market.

The problem, however, with Gurley’s post is that it isn’t clear that Google is actually doing any of this. As noted, the pricing on the Nexus One is hardly revolutionary, and seems quite standard. Gurley is right that Google with Android has an opportunity to do something disruptive, but it’s not clear it’s there yet.

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The American Law Institute, comprised of 4000 judges, lawyers, and law professors who shape and help promote consistency in the law throughout the United States, recently disavowed the intellectual framework for the modern death penalty system.

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What would CES be without a few absurd concepts from Asus? This year’s concepts are unabashedly futuristic, united only by their penchant for touch and gesture controls, and a terrible name: Waveface. Let’s have a look at it:

There’s a notebook, which folds flat! A TV, which you control with your hands! A watch, which is made entire of display material! It’s more or less the kind of stuff you’d expect to find in a fourth-year industrial design student’s portfolio, except with the backing of a company worth billions of dollars

The Waveface moniker was not explained, which is probably for the best. Waveface. It “may take around five years. It’s possible.”

1.Scapa de numerele neesentiale !!!
Aici se includ si varsta,greutatea si inaltimea. Lumea ar parea mult mai simpla,daca nu am mai pune atat de mult accent pe lucruri atat de irelevante.

2.Pastreaza-ti numai prietenii optimisti,plini de viata,cu simtul umorului !
Pesimistii nu vor face decat sa te traga in jos.
De cate ori nu s-a intamplat ca un prieten sa va strice dispozitia cu un comentariu stupid sau cu lipsa lui de optimism ?
P.S Daca esti pesimist inca mai ai ocazia sa te schimbi !

3.Continua sa inveti !
Ce sa inveti ? N-ai vrut niciodata sa inveti ceva? Poate ai vrut vreodata sa inveti sa dansezi,sa inoti,sa sari cu parasuta…
Sunt o gramada de lucruri noi,care cu siguranta iti pot schimba perspectiva despre viata !
Incearca!

4.Bucura-te de lucrurile simple (un zambet,un sarut,o plimbare,un cantec…)

5.Incearca sa razi mai mult/des . Razi pana ramai fara aer.Viata pare mult mai roz atunci cand razi.

6.Momentele triste vor aparea din cand in cand.Lacrimile la fel.
Indura,plangi,treci mai departe !
Singura persoana care va fi cu tine toata viata,esti tu !
TRAIESTE atat timp cat esti in viata.Alta ocazie nu o sa mai primesti !

7.Inconjoara-te cu lucruri pe care le iubesti.
Nu conteaza care sunt acestea : familie,prieteni,hobby-uri,un caine,o pisica,muzica,filme …

8.Ai grija de sanatatea ta !
Poti sa ai toti banii din lume. Daca esti bolnav,e ca si cum nu ai avea nimic !

9.Spune-le “Te iubesc” celor la care tii,de fiecare data cand ai ocazia. Ar putea fi pentru ultima oara !

10.Traieste fara regrete !
Nimic nu e mai dureros decat un lucru pe care ai vrut sa-l faci,dar nu l-ai facut.
Ai visat sa faci ceva ? Ce mai astepti ? Ce te opreste ? Nimeni nu o sa-ti indeplineasca visul ! Tu esti singurul/singura care poate sa faca ceva !
Ai vrut sa fii cu cineva ? Astepti sa faca el/ea toata treaba ? DO SOMETHING. Lucrurile rareori se intampla de la sine. Viata nu e un basm !Viata e asa cum e !!!

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1. Viata de cacat
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Harvard Review Editor Christina Thompson has been awarded a Creative Writing Fellowship in Prose by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Thompson was one of 42 nonfiction and prose writers chosen from an applicant pool of about 1,000. The award carries a $25,000 stipend.

Thompson’s work-in-progress explores the history of Polynesian people and how they came to inhabit the Pacific region. Thompson, who grew up in Boston, became enamored with the area while studying in Australia on a graduate school fellowship. She enrolled as a doctoral student at the University of Melbourne and, on a trip to New Zealand, met Seven, a Maori man who would become her husband. Their relationship is prominently featured in her book, “Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All,” a historical memoir that inspects interactions between Westerners and Maoris.

“This new project takes off from a chapter in that book called ‘Hawaiki,’ and goes back in time to recount the ancient Polynesian colonization of remote Oceania,” said Thompson.

Thompson received a grant from the Literature Board of Australia in November — more funding that, along with the award from the NEA, will enable her to travel alongside her husband and sons to conduct research in far-flung places like Vanuatu, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, and French Polynesia. “We’re hoping to visit a couple of archaeological sites and get to some of the more out-of-the-way islands, including an atoll or two.”

“The NEA fellowship is a very lucky break for me because I’ve been wanting to write this book for a few years,” said Thompson. “I can do a large part of the background research right here in Widener [Library], but when it comes to getting the feeling of the places — the color of the sky, the feel of the air, the temperature of the water — there is really no substitute for getting your feet in the sand.”

Thompson’s work has appeared widely in publications such as Vogue, American Scholar, the Journal of Pacific History, and Australian Literary Studies, and in the 1999, 2000, and 2006 editions of Best Australian Essays. She has been the editor of Harvard Review since 2000, and teaches creative writing courses at Harvard Extension School, where she won the James E. Conway Excellence in Teaching Writing Award in 2008.