Mother’s Day is coming Sunday, and The Sacramento Press has a few gift ideas that are sure to let mom know how much you love her.

 

Gift idea No. 1: Send your mom on a relaxing getaway.

Super Spa, located at 1722 J St., Suite 1, offers a variety of massage services. Relaxation or therapeutic massages range from $40 to $120 depending on the length of the massage.

A warm stone therapy ranges from $90 to $140, and a head and scalp treatment for 30 minutes costs $40.

Every 60 minutes of massage includes an organic aromatherapy steam.

According to owner Suzanne Saunders, Super Spa's "Treat Mom to 90 minutes of bliss" special includes a L'initié facial care with Univera's super hydrating line-reducing face cream.

"We we will finish with their radiant and tightening skin toner," Saunders said. "She will be glowing for days."

Super Spa offers a chiropractic service, nutrition consulting, yoga sessions and a rain forest tub with Super Spa Me Organics bath salts, soaps and organic teas.

They have couples and single spa packages, including a chocolate rub and scrub package with a steam, 90-minute massage, body scrub, one-hour rain forest tub soak and organic chocolate.

Gift idea No. 2: Make her garden special.

The Gifted Gardener, located at 1730 J St., is a family-owned store that has an array of garden accessories, bird feeders and chimes to spruce up mom’s garden.

According to sales associate Taffetta Lassen, customers can expect store items to range from 25 cents to $270.

The two most popular items for the Mother’s Day holiday are chimes and bird feeders.

“Ninety-five percent (of our items) are meant to be outside,” Lassen said. “(We want to) encourage you to live outside, preferably in the garden.”

Several notable gifts include handmade clay flowers from Thailand, a large rock collection with various inspirational words, shea butter-enriched soaps in rhubarb, linden and honey almond, and gnome statues.

Sales associate Xian Kwong is Lassen’s son. "(Mother's Day) is a pretty big holiday for us," he said. "(We offer) something pretty for her garden."

One notable gift is a colorful hanging slate plaque with a hummingbird and flowers painted on it, which can be purchased for $23.

 

Gift idea No. 3: Buy her beautiful flowers.

Relles Florist, 2400 J St., is having several specials for Mother's Day with their cash-and-carry option. If you go directly to the store, you can purchase flowers at a discount if you pay with cash and take it with you.

According to Jim Relles, the president of Relles Florist, they carry at least 200 varieties of flowers from orchids, lilies, sunflowers, birds of paradise, liatris and anthuriums.

Relles said he recommends preordering flowers, but they have never sold out on Mother’s Day.

“We’ll have plenty of flowers (for Mother’s Day),” Relles said. “Mixed spring arrangements (are) very colorful.”

Relles also said that the average arrangement costs $40.

The arrangement below costs $40 and includes carnations, stock, pink statice and purple pom pom chrysanthemums.

Below is another arrangement that costs $40 and includes roses, carnations, statice, solidago and pom pom chrysanthemums.

“Roses are beautiful for Mother’s Day,” Relles said.

 

Gift idea No. 4: Treat mom to some retail therapy.

Several downtown Sacramento clothing boutiques have plenty of gift ideas for mom.

Sugar Shack, 2425 J St., is the perfect destination for the trendy mom. Sugar Shack has cute spring dresses and tops, belts, shoes and sunglasses. Also, they have lots of locally handmade jewelry.

Several of the brands the boutique carries include Toms shoes, Chaser, Level 99, Ark and Co. and OBEY.

Clothing prices range from $29 to $150.

A cute gift for mom that you can find at Sugar Shack is the polka-dot blouse below, from Ellison, which costs $38.

Clothing Remix, 2419 J St., carries new and used women's clothing, accessories and shoes.

According to co-owner Julie Vue, although their fashion pieces might look trendy, she said they “don’t want to rule out anyone.”

Vue said that the accessories and clothing range from $5 to $70.

Starting Mother's Day, they will offer 30 percent off of new merchandise and 20 percent off used merchandise.

They also offer styling tips on how to spruce up your wardrobe. According to Vue, if customers like a particular item, she shows them how they can incorporate it into their style by matching it with a pair of sandals or a nice blazer.

“We believe in trying the pieces on,” Vue said.

Vue said that she uses today’s magazines as inspiration combined with the customer’s personal style.

Below is a flutter sleeve blouse, from Von Chic, which costs $39.99.

The Cotton Club, at 2331 J St., is a boutique that offers unique, natural fiber clothing and all kinds of accessories. 

They carry casual to professional women’s clothing, from tops, blouses and dresses. They also have a large selection of scarves, purses, jewelry and hats.

Their clothing and accessory items range from $25 to $120.

Several of the brands the store carries are Cut Loose, Tribal, Nomadic Traders, Color Me Cotton and Flax.

Was your mom obsessed with the Royal Wedding? Treat her like a queen with one of the Cotton Club’s colorful hats.

One gift idea at the Cotton Club is this purple top below, which costs $84, by Color Me Cotton.

Make your mother feel special this Mother's Day. No matter what you get for her, she will appreciate anything that comes from the heart.

The Democracy Manifesto (go to the manifesto) represents a significant moment as far as the global conversation on democracy is concerned. It is also a moment of new beginnings.  A good conversation is one that produces more of it. I hope this one snowballs into more debates and dialogues. Democracy is worldly, primarily an artifact. Like other human artifacts, it too needs care, continuous attention, ingenuity and passion. The ongoing conversation on democracy, as I can recall from my own experiences, never suffered from dearth of ambition. Yet it has always been an exercise in humility and deep engagement.

Imagine that you go into a ‘sleep mode’ today and are revived after a gap of several decades. What do think will have been the history of democracy while you slept? What narratives will emerge? Will experiences in different parts of the world, particularly in the global south, be a part of the larger story of democracy?

You only need to ask the question to sense the importance of an affirmative answer. If currently existing democracy in India has merely overcome corruption and ensured the rule of law, if China has moved towards democracy, if Brazil continues to have popular government and there are elections in South Africa that change the ruling party, if there is democracy in Egypt (who would have thought of writing that three months ago?) and Palestine… or if there are not any of these things…

It is clear that the dominant ways of thinking of democracy are and continue to be narrow. They tend to make the political clamour, experiments and mobilizations in different parts of the world invisible. But it is surely the case as our experiment shows that if we think of democracy and look forward then the still dominant view is quite inadequate. The future of democracy will be shaped and even decided in countries that are more experimental than its traditional homelands. The ‘frontier’ of democracy to borrow an image, is no longer found in the ‘west’ or the global north.

This is the starting point of our global conversation. It questions the dominant view, and shows that other ways of engaging with democratic experiences are possible. Not only possible but also necessary and now in the public domain. 

First, a bit of history. 

A few years ago a group of scholars and activists from South Asia wanted to reflect on democratic experiences in their countries in the region. They all agreed that knowledge about democracy must be produced in a democratic fashion and that this demands a methodology that does not devalue specificities of experiences. They initiated a conversation within the region and finally produced a report - State of Democracy in South Asia.  The impetus for a further, global conversation on democracy emerged from several regional conversations that followed especially this South Asian one. No doubt, in the past there were discussions on democracy. But this time round, the conversation delves deeply into the fundamental questions regarding the ways in which democracy has to be explained and evaluated.  It attempts to re-define what it means to be democratic.

The Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), in Delhi, coordinated the initiative, and thanks to the intellectual energy of Professors Rajeev Bhargava and Yogendra Yadav, and a grant from the Ford Foundation, the global conversation took off to a good start three years ago.   During this period, three major international meetings, involving participants from Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America, were held (two in India and one in South Africa). Besides academics, a good number of participants came from the world of civil society and social movements.  The conversations thus far have been focused and productive.  

As I write this, activists and ordinary citizens have gathered in different parts of India to raise the issue of corruption in politics and public life. To them, fighting against corruption is a struggle for democracy. Like the continuing upsurge in the Arab World, the mobilization in India reflects the local concerns, dreams and aspirations. In some of these cases, practices on the ground seem to run way ahead of the dominant democratic thinking. However there are occasions when these events fall far short of the high normative standards of democracy. The lack of fit between theory and practice, in the above sense, is what grounds the substance of the ongoing conversation on democracy.

Being conversationalists we decided that we would produce only a draft of a Democracy Manifesto and ask for further thoughts, comments and even asides. Here it is. Let’s see what happens. We already have responses from Anthony Barnett, Laurence Whitehead, Jorge Heine and Melissa Williams. Hope more will join in.

The Democracy Manifesto: Re-imagining Democracy in Our Time 

To the introduction

The Arab democratic upsurge of 2011 inspires democrats all over the world. It has fired up the imagination of all those struggling for self-rule under authoritarianism. It also gives hopes to those engaged in deepening democratic practices everywhere. To all those who see democracy as a shared journey of humanity, it provides an occasion to reflect on what democracy means. This is a moment to re-imagine democratic ideals and practices in our time. 

1. Democracy as a political principle and as a form of government has expanded to nearly all corners of the world. It is recognized now that every human being must have an effective say in the decisions that affect their life. The notion that every government must respect this fundamental principle has greater acceptance than ever before. The ideal of self-rule has begun to fire up peoples’ imagination all over the world.  Democracy may not be a form of government that is experienced globally, but it has become an aspiration that is shared across the globe. This aspiration takes different forms. The ideal of popular self-rule has multiple readings.  Theses will depend on which people are being talked about, what understanding of self is being invoked and what  is accepted as self-rule.  “ The people” could mean all the citizens of a national state, the citizens at a region or locality, or the planet’s entire population. The self could be seen in terms of the individual citizen or in terms of a social community. Self-rule could be interpreted as voice, consultation, consent or consensus in any authoritative and binding decision-making process. A standard understanding is that democracy means free and fair elections, but it can also take other forms.
2. The globally dominant notion of what democracy means, however, does not reflect the journey of democracy. The prevailing orthodoxy about democracy  draws upon the limited experience of a small part of the globe. Selected facts of European and North American history have been turned into abstract principles. One of the many strands of western political thought has been assumed to be the sole repository of the normative imagination for democratic practices in different societies at different points of time.  An idealized notion of western liberal democracy hegemonizes the democratic imagination. It is assumed that capitalism and modernity have an intrinsic relationship with democracy. This hegemony of the western experience and imagination may not always affect popular struggles that are being waged in the name of democracy all over the world. Yet, it does constrain the translation of popular aspirations, practices and struggles into a set of norms, institutions and theories in the Global South. It also constrains the deepening of democracy within the global North.
3. Enriching our democratic imagination in line with the expansion of democracy would involve several things: widening our conceptual apparatus to accommodate diverse languages and idioms of democracy;  enriching our normative standards to reflect multiple histories and traditions of democratic thinking; and  correcting our explanations to account for radically different experiences and trajectories of democracy. Reimagining democracy along these lines is one of the most pressing ethical and political tasks of our times. It is imperative not just for democrats in the ‘aspiring’ and ‘new’ democracies, but equally in ‘established democracies’.
4. The prevailing orthodoxy on the democratic imagination assumes that democracy is strictly the gift of western civilization.  Yet, an honest genealogy of democratic ideas and practices must acknowledge that these are rooted in multiple trajectories. Ancient Greece was but one of the sources of democratic imagination. The ideas of democracy can be traced to Buddhist Sangha, Ganatantra traditions in ancient India, Islamic traditions in many societies and practices among the indigenous communities across the world. Much of the modern ideology and language of democracy has spread to most parts of the world from Western Europe and North America. Many of the well-established democratic institutions and practices in today's world were secured first in Europe through a series of popular struggles. The gains of these struggles are now part of our global human heritage.  Yet the western legacy is neither singular nor unambiguous.  For every advance in democracy, there is also the history of denial of democratic rights. Besides, the history of the expansion of self-rule for one's own citizens was inextricably woven with the history of denial of self-rule to larger subject populations outside and ethnic minorities inside the territory of a ‘democratic’ state. For most of the world, the contemporary practices of democracy are neither a direct off-shoot of the various ancient traditions nor an imitation of the modern west. The democratic aspiration spread to most of the world by way of anti-colonial struggles and the various movements for self-determination and self-rule in the last two centuries.
5. Enriching the democratic imagination requires questioning the simple-minded democracy/non-democracy binary canonized by the dominant orthodoxy. As democracy becomes the most sought after regime label, the quest for self-rule is reduced to a contestation about the latter. This promotes binary, either-or, thinking over a graded understanding of the spectrum from democracy to non-democracy. The dominant orthodoxy’s focus on classifying a country either as a democracy or a non-democracy encourages façade democracies. This binary distinction has resulted in an excessive focus on the threshold of when a non-democracy turns into a democracy.  This summative and static judgment performs the function of putting some ‘established democracies’ beyond reproach. This artificial binary construct must come to an end.  Democratic practices may exist in apparently non-democratic regimes. Established democratic states can embody a vast array of non-democratic practices. There is no "finished product democracy" and there never will be.  The aspiration for democracy is open-ended. Each fresh step opens new horizons.
6. The dominant orthodoxy espouses teleology. Democracy is the ultimate and inevitable destination. This often leads to thinking in terms of stages or pre-conditions to the ‘transition’ to and ‘consolidation’ of democracy. Yet, there are multiple sequences and routes by which different political regimes come to be democratic. The route taken by democracy in the west is but one sequence of many. In turn, there are multiple trajectories within the west itself. Material prosperity and cultural uniformity are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for democracy.  We also need to move away from an instrumental and determinist view of the outcomes of democracy.  Democracy leads to different outcomes in different historical settings.  Democrats need to be aware of the dysfunctions of democracy, and not just in 'new' or 'developing' democracies. The case for democracy cannot rest on dubious and instrumental grounds such as its purported usefulness for desired economic outcomes. Democracy must be cherished for its intrinsic value, for what it means to human dignity.
7. Reimagining democracy requires a fundamental shift. There is a tendency to assume that democracy is an attribute of political regimes rather than that of political practices. This leads to privileging form over substance, to making too much of formal political institutions and to reducing democracy to electoral democracy. An emphasis on practices would require a more careful and painstaking sifting of the substance of political action, its contextual meaning and its consequences.  This also enables us to think of democracy beyond the formal domain of politics. Practices within the domain of the family or the market, for example, need to be viewed in terms of the extent to which they enable or constrain self-rule. Democracy needs to be thought of as a way of life.
8. Questioning the dominant orthodoxy also leads us to the search for an appropriate level of analysis. There is a need to move beyond a fixation with the national state as the natural unit within which one thinks about self-rule. The locus of national power is no doubt the principal level of struggles for self-rule. But to focus exclusively on it side-steps the colossal inequalities among and within nation states. The latter deny vast numbers of people across the globe an effective voice over decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods. The quest for democracy must go wherever effective and binding decision-making occurs.  Shifting sites of sovereignty require that we begin to think of inter-national relations as an arena of democratic contestation. The same could be extended to the level of continents or other groupings of nations. At the same time, the unit of analysis needs to be extended downwards, to regional and local units, for this is the level at which most citizens experience self-rule or its absence.  
9.  The idea of democracy is becoming global, and it acquires multiple meanings. As democracy becomes a global aspiration, it attaches itself to different and often competing values.  This entails a conversation with pre-existing cultural values. Many of these values are contradictory to the democratic ideal; they must go. Some of the pre-existing values are not fully compatible with democracy; they must change. At the same time, the idea of democracy itself does and must undergo a change.  As the idea of democracy is interpreted and re-interpreted in different parts of the world, misunderstandings and misuses will arise. Therefore democracy is and will remain a contested concept.  This contest is resolved by entering on a case by case basis. It cannot be resolved a-priori by insisting upon an original, all-encompassing definition of democracy.  The demand that democracy all over the world must conform to a fixed definition first worked out in one part of the globe is inherently undemocratic. The ideal of democracy requires a respect for the democracy of knowledge. Knowledge production is not limited to some privileged sites, some societies or some period in history. The ideal of democracy has emerged from a dialogue of the various expressions of self-rule in human history. If democracy is anchored in reason, dialogue is the custodian of reason.

10. Current definitions of democracy threaten to reduce it to an institutional checklist derived from idealized notions of the experience of a small part of the globe.  The ideal of democracy is seen to be synonymous with the historical form of liberal democracy in advanced capitalist societies of Western Europe and North America.  Often this is further reduced down to a few key institutional features.  Yet, the historical experience of democracy in most of the world provides overwhelming evidence against this approach.  More often than not, imported institutions do not produce the same consequences that they did in their home context. Similarity of form is no guarantee of democratic substance.  In fact, a search for familiar form is an invitation to cynical and superficial copying for extraneous gains. On the one hand, the experience of ‘established democracies’ shows that the appearance of a democratic form of government can very well go hand in hand with the de facto rule by experts, the dominance of corporate power, social control by private networks and  the decline of citizen participation. On the other hand, the experience of democratic success outside the global North suggests that a departure from the mandated institutional form is often a pre-condition for success.  Mass democracies of post-colonial societies tend to acquire depth through practices that may not have a legitimate institutional expression in the conventional wisdom on democracy.  Institutions are crucial to the formation and strengthening of democracies, but what institutions do depends on the context in which these are located.  We need to shift the focus from the form of an institution to its real- life consequences in a given context. Democracy is an ever-evolving principle that can take different institutional expression at different points of time in different societies.

11. Thus, the principles and practices of democracy have to be open to multiple sources of learning. There are several living 'traditions' of consultation and consensus making all over the world. Such local practices need to be 'critically transformed' in order to make them relevant for democratic practices today. New power sharing arrangements are being worked out all over the world in different contexts, in response to different needs. Various monitoring tools are being invented in different democracies. So far only a few of these appear on the radar of  the democratic imagination. The search for a richer democratic imagination requires that we look for practices, institutions, intellectual traditions and thinkers everywhere to help us reshape democratic theory.

12.  The very notion of exporting democracy is inimical to the spirit of democracy. Democracy promotion can turn into democratic imperialism. Like all ideologies, democracy too can turn into a dogma. Strengthening democracy is about deepening the values which shape the principles of democracy within a society. The 'culture of democracy' of a given society is vital to building democracy. The idea that some people lack 'culture' and are not ready for democracy also goes against the principle of democracy.

13.  To deparochialize the idea of democracy is not to privilege an Eastern or Southern view of democracy over existing Western or Northern views. To the contrary: it means universalizing our understanding of democracy and democratic practices. The insistence on difference and divergence is designed to synthesize the multiple experiences of democracy. This is a necessary condition for reclaiming the global heritage of democracy and for reimagining a truly global future for it. FROM SOUTH TO NORTH.

Of the various values that the idea of democracy attaches itself to, four deserve a special mention.  First, democracy requires individual and collective freedom, for self-rule cannot exist in the absence of a basic guarantee of freedom.  Any kind of coercion or violence thus goes against the spirit of democracy. Second, the idea of self-rule requires that everyone have an equal say in matters that concern them.  Democratic deliberations require a level playing ground, free from widespread inter- and intra-group inequalities. Third, the ideal of self-rule requires a recognition of communities that often constitute the self. Thus democracy requires respect for deep diversity. In a world where most political units contain diverse communities, any attempt at cultural homogenization is not in keeping with the spirit of democracy. Fourth, given that democracy requires maintaining the conditions for democratic deliberations for future generations, it implies an ethic of responsibility towards nature.

As May 8 approaches, andyou’re tired of looking at jewelry, flowers, and pajama jeans, why not plan a special day instead? Explore these six ideas for spending Mother’s Day in...

As children sit their GCSE exams, Matthew Syed argues that we are foolish to believe excellence is only for the few Excellence through birth or graft? Chess prodigy Nigel Short who, at 19, became the then-youngest ever grand master, faces off with Garry Kasparov The ideas of Darwin have made an almost total conquest of modern consciousness.

IL-Chicago, Integration Engineer Who You Are:Do you have a passion for technology? Do you want your work to have a direct impact on company success?  Do your communication skills match your technical skills?  Would you thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced, team-oriented environment? Are you able to bring people together on ideas? If so, then we have the dream opportunity you’ve been waiting for – read on! Who We A

"Friday Night Lights,'' which has been so entrenched in ideas surrounding absent fathers, is spending its final season in the territory of paternal healing.

Oh no! It's Mother's Day very soon and you forgot to get her a gift? Mother's Day is a very important date to show your mother that you love and appreciate her, so you should make an effort to do something for her, even if you don't have much time left. No ideas? Have no fear: this article is here to help! Just read on for some simple, quick and cost-effective ways to show your appreciation to your mother this Mother's Day.

Man, I'm just bursting with ideas, however that's a pretty normal state for me. So much so that you could perhaps argue I'm a living incarnation of a...

Do you know how to raise capital and do you aspire to own your own business
I am an undercapitalized business man in northern Illinois I’ve designed and have a patent pending on a device that will let stroke victims with limited use of one arm and who rely on a feeding tube for nourishment the ability to feed themselves. I need help attracting venture capital When you consider every year there are 700,000 stroke victims in the United States alone and that a significant number of the end up relying on feeding tubes for a long time, add that to the throat cancer patients and accident victims to that number the potential market is huge as is the profit potential.
The company division will be called TLC manufacturing the product will be called a G tube feeding assistance system. When the project is complete I will give you the vice president of sales and marketing position and a5% equity position in the company.. I wouldown 50% and our venture capital supplier would own 45%
The business plan shows that we can make before tax profit of $673K per year with an investment of $441K. Interested candidates should respond with a short email describing their situation and ideas for raising capital. I will respond with a link to a demonstration video. If you wish to continue we can meet and discuss the opportunity

• Location: crystal lake
• Compensation: based onsales
• Telecommuting is ok.
• This is a part-time job.
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

The sun didn't seem to stop shining for the whole of April here in the UK and where we would normally still be sporting gloves and a bad mood there was a distinct whiff of suntan cream in the air and a smile around everyone's lips.
So it was with glee we opened a box from Polaroid with these babies inside to test out.
Proper sunglasses. Ones that actually protect your eyes.
Not £3.99 sunglasses from Tesco which is where we may or may not buy them usually.


These babies are also very easy to wear indoors, so I've embarrassed myself constantly by looking like some kind of George Michael wannabe as people give me a "there's no bloody sun indoors, you know" look.
Anyway, they're fabulous and all joking aside, one big bonus has been that Dan will wear his All The Time which has proved a big help in his fight against the dreaded hayfever.

Dan wears: Dynamite
Mia wears: Hot
Me: Take Off (Pah, I wish!)

Like them? Fancy getting your hands on some too?
Well, I have a set to give away to one lucky reader.
Polaroid are offering a pair of grown up and a pair of children's glasses of your choice: See the Polaroid range of women's glasses, men's glasses and kids' glasses for ideas.

And all you have to do for a chance of winning a set is answer me this question: What's the best thing about summer?
There is no right or wrong answer, I'm just nosy.
The winner will be chosen at random after the closing date.

Rules n stuff:
The competition is open to residents of the UK only (sorry rest of the world).
No cash alternative offered.
To enter, leave a comment on this blog.
Make sure your contact details are available.
The winner will be drawn at random from all entries after the closing date.
The competition closes at 23:59 on Monday, May 16, 2011.
The winner will be asked to provide a full UK postal address with postcode. Please allow 14 days for delivery.
If a prizewinner does not provide a full UK postal address within a week of being contacted, the prize will be re-drawn and a new winner will be contacted.

(sponsored)

It’s getting down to the wire. Mother’s day is right around the corner. It will be here before we know it.

Trying to think of the perfect Mother’s Day gift? As a Walmart Mom, I was presented with the challenge to Build-a-Basket for Mom. So I headed to my local Walmart with my own Mom in mind. The challenge was to create a beautiful gift basket less than $30. Can it be done?

After looking around a bit I stumbled upon this very cute white Better Homes and Garden basket. What added to the cute factor of the basket was the lining of pastel blue and yellow flowered fabric. What caught my eye the most was the price. This basket was on clearance for only $5 which makes this basket the perfect base for my Mother’s Day gift idea.

My Mom loves flowers, and as I’ve mentioned many times before she likes to garden as well. So instead of grabbing some fresh cut flowers that maybe will last a week, I went to Walmart’s Garden Center and looked for a plant that would match our basket. I found a rather large, PERENNIAL Delphinium for only $4. Not only are these flowers great and absolutely beautiful sitting in the Mother’s Day basket but since they are perennial my Mom can plant them in her garden and watch them grow year after year. A Mother’s day gift idea that lasts, gotta love that!
Next up a little pampering. Keeping with the blue theme, I found a large bottle of Olay body wash (in a blue bottle) and a matching bath puff with a Better Homes and Gardens Fresh Ocean Flowers candle for that perfect scent.

No gift basket is complete without some indulgences, I think. So I added a reusable, freezable cup (similar to this tumbler set) that my Mom can use throughout the summer to keep her drinks cold, even on the go, and some of her favorite candy.

I’m so excited about this basket. I think my Mom is absolutely going to love it. I can’t wait to see her face on the big day…if I can wait that long :D

What are your ideas for a Build-a-Basket for Mom?

Disclosure: I am a Walmart Mom. This post is sponsored by Walmart. I have been compensated for my time and efforts in creating this post and given a giftcard to cover the cost of the items mentioned in this post. As always my participation is voluntary and opinions are my own.

TweetMy kiddos are old enough now to realize how important it is to somehow express their love and gratitude to their Mama on Mother’s Day. My older three may even be entertaining ideas to express this love. But, I’m not quite sure they know how to execute the creating or purchasing of any special gifts. [...]

When Marco Pinotti (HTC-Highroad) finished 9th overall in last year’s Giro d’Italia, a discerning minority regarded the performance, and not Ivan Basso’s victory, as the most significant of the Corsa Rosa for Italian cycling. For years an unheralded journeyman, Pinotti had slowly risen to prominence in the latter part of the noughties as contemporaries like Ivan Basso and Danilo Di Luca’s stock fell, their reputations and palmarès sullied by doping scandals.

Few, though, would have batted an eyelid at Pinotti’s five Italian national time trial titles, his four days in the pink jersey in 2007 or indeed his 2010 Giro campaign were it not for the anti-doping convictions he wore so forthrightly on his sleeve. A graduate engineer, he also spoke eloquently about the environment, the challenge of attracting kids to cycling and just about any topic on which his views were solicited. He was, in short, a worthy spokesperson for a cycling nation that for years had placed its trust in men of straw.

Last December, on the eve of the 2011 season, we sat down with Pinotti to retrace his career path up to this point. With just ten days to go to the start of the Giro in Turin, we’re about to discover whether cycling’s voice of reason – and Pinotti’s palmarès – will continue on the same heartening upward curve.

A shorter, adapted version of this interview appeared in the April issue of Procycling magazine.

Cyclingnews: Marco, let’s go right back to the start. How and why did you start cycling?

Marco Pinotti: I started riding when I was 16. I was Matteo Algeri’s teammate. One summer I went round to his house to do homework and we went for a bike ride together. He said I was quite good, that I should give it a go and so on. Then I went to watch an Under 23 race that October. I liked it so I started looking for a team. I found out there was one in my village. So I joined and the next season I started racing.

Did cycling run in the family?

No one rode bikes in my family but my granddad always liked cycling and wanted me to race. He died in January 1992 and that was the year I started racing. He never saw me on a bike but I know he’d have been my biggest fan. I was lucky to be from an area where there’s a lot of passion for cycling, which really developed after the war with Gimondi. He was winning in the sixties, then the oil industry was in crisis in the 1970s and people started using bikes as a mode of transport. So it really grew, then in the 1980s and 1990s you got the ripple effect of Gimondi and that generation. There were lots of clubs in the area then. In the second half of the 1990s, there were something like 27 professionals living in Bergamo, some born there, some from other regions or countries. They were all guys who had started riding in the late 1980s. Now it’s very different; now there are only a handful of pros in Bergamo. I think there are two reasons why it’s changed so much. One is that people just don’t ride bikes as much any more. The other is that the foreigners aren’t coming to Bergamo any more. There’s still Kanstantin Siutsou, Alexander Kuchinski, one of the Efimkin brothers, but that’s about it. That’s because it’s no longer a good place to train. If a young rider, someone like Tejay Van Garderen, asks me to recommend a place to stay and train in Italy, I’d like to say Bergamo but I tell them to go somewhere else.

Kids of your generation in Italy grew up very aware of cycling and the top riders, didn’t they? Do you think that’s changed now?

Italian kids are maybe as aware of cycling as they once were but it’s changed. There are a lot fewer races. There are a lot fewer kids too, when you think of it. Now families have one, two kids on average. There’s more traffic, so parents don’t want their kids on the road. And there’s a lot of competition from other sports. I don’t know…On one hand, the Federation will tell you that the numbers are going up but those statistics are “doped” slightly by the numbers doing mountain biking, which is safer. Granfondos have really taken off too – but those are generally over 30s who are doing it for health reasons. And again, Bergamo’s not at the forefront of that trend.

Did you follow the Giro, the Tour?

Even before I started racing, I followed cycling. I followed all sport. I loved the Tour – with LeMond, Bugno, the back end of Hinault’s career. But I didn’t have any idols as such. I can remember the Fignon and LeMond Tour really well. But I wasn’t a “fan” of any one rider.

You were more focused on your academic work? You went on to get a degree in engineering….

I was certainly more focused on my school work than cycling at that time. I started racing but I didn’t intend to turn pro. That idea only really entered my head the year before I turned pro. I always had to juggle academic work with cycling, so I was always a bit pressed for time. I thought I’d turn pro for two or three years and see how things went, whether my body could take the strain. But I would never have expected a career like I’ve had, so long and successful.

How successful were you as an amateur?

I won races but I was never up there with Basso and Di Luca, those guys. I was always in a small amateur team. Now, and even more so then, there was a massive difference between the big, very organized teams who went on training camps and were basically run like pro teams, with riders who were effectively pros because they’d left school and cycling was all they did. I never went to training camps. I just used to race on a Saturday then go back to my parents’. So, I won races but small ones. I was never really in the set-up for the national team. Time trials were the only way for me to get noticed on a national level. Without those, I would never have gone beyond a few good results in regional races. There was a bit of a dearth of good time triallists so that’s where I slotted in. That’s what got my name out there on a national level

They were rough, unpleasant times in Italian amateur cycling….

Yep. Absolutely. I don’t know what it’s like now but it certainly wasn’t easy then. History has taught us that a lot of victories in that era were the fruit of illegal short-cuts and not talent.

Pinotti in his element

You came into contact with professional cycling for the first time immediately after the Festina affair, when you joined Polti as a stagiaire in August 1998…

I guess I was conscious of what was happening…but the Festina affair was a good thing because it opened up the possibility for change. It gave cycling a big jolt. When I turned pro, I heard mentalities were already changing. Or at least there was that hope. So that was the first jolt, which made people finally take the war on doping seriously.

But did you know what you were getting into?

No, I had no idea.

And you hadn’t seen team-mates or opponents doping with your own eyes?

No.

So it wasn’t as though you were going to races and your team-mates were filling the minibar with EPO…

No. I think if that was ever the case, it probably changed in 1998. After Festina there probably wasn’t much organized doping. It was individual riders making their own choices then. Perhaps the teams were closing their eyes to it but there was no organized doping. I don’t know what it was like before Festina. But something definitely changed there.

Had you already asked yourself the question of whether you would dope or not?

I was lucky that I was turning pro just because I could. I also had an education behind me. I turned pro in 1999 and graduated in 2000. My main aim was to get my engineering degree, then I was going to evaluate whether I could still race my bike. If I could survive with my values and not do too badly…I like racing my bike, so why not continue? Then when I got my degree I felt even more secure because I had something to fall back on. I even went for interviews after I graduated just to see how attractive the offers were. But they weren’t so attractive that I wouldn’t rather carry on racing.

And in fact, in those first two years, you…

Did nothing [laughs].

Well, yeah, you didn’t get amazing results but you did OK.

Yes, yeah. I mean, I turned pro and rode and finished the Tour in my first year. It was one of my biggest achievements in the first part of my career. It was the first Tour that Armstrong won. I finished and the directeur sportifs were all happy with me. 

But it must have been tough.

Well, I didn’t do anything exceptional but, honestly, I finished without ever having been on my knees. I was OK. It was actually a really good thing to do the Tour in my first year because I said to myself that was as hard as it could get. The level was high but the others also had two legs, just like me, and there I was with them. It was a good first experience of the Tour.

Your friend Matteo Algeri had bit more trouble than you adapting to the pro scene.

He did two and a half years. He was passionate but he had lots of physical problems which maybe came from overextending himself to get up to scratch. He’d eventually had enough.

What were your sporting highlights in those first couple of years?

Finishing the Tour in 1999, coming second in a stage in 2001… I was in a break with Rik Verbrugghe. That was the first time I really became aware of Jonathan Vaughters because that was the day he had to quit the race because his eye was swollen from a bee sting and he couldn’t take cortisone. I saw the photos in the paper the next day. I was second in that stage and I was fifth or sixth in the young riders’ classification. I was 30 or 40 minutes behind on general classification but still one of the best Under 25s. That was good for me because I was coming off a few physical problems. Even then I realized that I recovered pretty well. I might have been 50th overall in that Tour but I was in the top five young riders and that was having lost a bit of time in the flat stages. In the mountains I was in the top 40 or 50. I can remember the Alpe d’Huez stage that Armstrong won, when he bluffed Ullrich. I was in the first group of around 40 at the bottom of Alpe d’Huez. I can remember Armstrong bluffing, the penultimate climb…

The Glandon.

That’s it. There were a few hard sections and I could see Armstrong dropping back behind me. He didn’t look too bad but it seemed strange that he was there at the back of the group. There was Livingston on the front, then Ullrich…I can remember Telekom working the whole day. Then we descended, got to the foot of Alpe d’Huez and I got dropped. I can remember being puzzled when I saw him on the Glandon.

With hindsight and everything that’s happening now, what are your impressions of Armstrong?

When I rode the Tour in 1999 he was a source of inspiration. I was like a lot of other people. Looking back now….when he gave up the first time and L’Equipe published the article about his 1999 urine samples, it was a bit of a kick in the stomach.

You believed in him before that?

Here’s the thing [long hesitation]. As long as you don’t have proof, you always hope. I hoped. But there I thought, blimey, everything people said, the rumours…it was all confirmed, albeit not from a legal point of view. Now all I know, I read in the newspapers, and when I read about this investigation in the United States, I just think there’s no point now – the time to act was years ago.

Would context be any excuse? If one were to say, if he’s proven guilty, that plenty of other people were doping?

No, it’s not.

There’s an argument that he also dictated, created the context. He was the standard bearer for the sport. If he had sent out strong signals, would the context have changed?

OK, but it’s not the riders’ responsibility to send out signals. His job is to race his bike and win. Armstrong never tested positive. OK, there are those tests from 1999 but he was never convicted. What annoys me is the role the authorities played or didn’t play. A few months ago I read Paul Kimmage’s book, Rough Ride. As I read it, I was thinking, blimey, this was 1990! And if my memory serves me, Kimmage said that one of the reasons he was writing it was so that the UCI would finally see what was happening. He talked about how the riders all knew there would be no dope tests in the last stage of a major tour, so they took amphetamines. And this gave him a dilemma: he didn’t want to take amphetamines but he did want to help his team leader. So what could he do? In the book, he was effectively asking why the UCI let this kind of thing happen. He wrote it as an invitation to the authorities to open their eyes. They didn’t and so they’re maybe the guiltiest ones.

OK, but there wasn’t always the technology to detect certain substances. The riders also had to take responsibility, let their own ethics govern the sport.

Agreed, but for years these people underestimated the problem. In 1997 it was the riders who applied pressure to introduce a haematocrit limit. Maybe it did more harm than good – I don’t know – but it was the people at the base of the pyramid, the riders, who demanded action before the authorities. I wasn’t there at the time but…I’m more angry with the people who facilitated all this or who didn’t do enough. But then yeah, you’re also right about riders and their ethics. Now there are people trying to undermine the credibility of the biological passport, which is a positive thing that the UCI have introduced. A lot has changed but when Landis says there are riders who the UCI has protected, if that’s true, it’s very serious.

Allegations don’t come much more serious that that.

Yeah, because there is this conflict of interests between promotion and organization. If I was in the UCI’s shoes, it’s clear that I would want to create heroes, drama. The two roles, promotion and legislation, should be separated. There ought to be collaboration with the UCI but they shouldn’t be in control of both areas.

Doping is a completely selfish act, isn’t it? Would you agree that these riders have no concern for the wellbeing of the sport?  

I agree.

For example, Danilo Di Luca gave an interview this winter explaining why he collaborated with the Italian Olympic Committee’s (CONI) anti-doping commission. He said he’d done it “because he couldn’t stand being away from races”. There was no notion of him doing it to serve the sport.

This is hypocrisy at its worst. Don’t get me started on Di Luca because if you do we’ll still be here tomorrow morning. I don’t want to talk about him.

But it’s obvious that you’d like to…

[long sigh] You can’t say what he said. I don’t know what he told the investigators – he must have said something if they reduced his ban – but compare Di Luca and Tom Zirbel. Zirbel was banned for two years by USADA having tested positive for DHEA. He didn’t know how it got into his body and he definitely didn’t take it intentionally. Nonetheless, he admitted that what enters an athlete’s body was his responsibility and he wasn’t able to prove that it was contamination, perhaps because he didn’t have the money and the lawyers. Anyway, he couldn’t prove it and he got banned for two years. There was another case - Zirbel heard about it - of an athlete who did manage to prove that he’d taken a contaminated supplement and the company got sued – but the athlete still only got a three-month reduction to his ban. Then along comes Di Luca, who’s already been charged twice -  once for consulting a doctor who’s banned from cycling for life and now for this. Di Luca tests positive, admits he did it and then he provides the investigators with information, which he can do because he’s an expert in the field, and they give him a nine-month reduction. Then what? He throws his hands up in the air and says, “I didn’t name any names. I didn’t spit in the soup. I just explained my doping methods.” So as an expert in the field, he’s told the investigators how you go about doping. At this point Zirbel says, “Ah, it’s a shame that I’m not an expert in doping. I should have pretended to be one then I’d be able to start racing again next year. Because I’m an idiot, though, and I let this substance get into my system without knowing how, I’ve got two years and I’m stuck with it.” You see these are the inconsistencies of the system. I read what Zirbel wrote and I thought, yeah, he’s right.  I respect him. I mean, they are two different bodies making the decisions, USADA and CONI, but the lack of uniformity is still unacceptable. It’s things like this that undermine cycling’s credibility.

And yet it’s a lot better than it was.

I say that if things remain as they are, it’s at least a big improvement on fifteen years ago. There’s been some progress. Everyone whinges about McQuaid but ever since he took over at the UCI – I don’t know, maybe under another president there would have been even greater strides – but things have improved. Maybe it’s because he’s come under pressure from WADA, the riders, the media, but efforts have been made. Cycling must be one of the cleanest sports now. I mean, I don’t know anything about other sports, but I know what happens in cycling. Sure, if you read WADA’s report on the Tour de France, you think to yourself that they’re still not doing enough, that the holes in the net are still too wide, but what do you do?

Is one of the reasons you still “hope” Armstrong was clean his charisma, his presence?

He definitely has that. I rode the 2009 Giro alongside him and you could see his charisma. Cycling has benefited from that. Do I hate him? No, because I’m more upset with the authorities. I never said a word to Armstrong all those years when he was winning the Tour. He was a lot more accessible at the Giro in 2009. Someone from the hospital in Bergamo called me during that race to ask whether Armstrong might agree to have his photo taken with the oncology department, since there was a stage finishing in Bergamo. I thought to myself there was no way, he’d have people asking him for stuff every two minutes…but I’d told this person that I’d try anyway. So at the first opportunity, in the middle of a stage one day, I found him in the bunch and asked him whether he might be able to help. He was really gracious, actually. He said they should look in the roadbook, find out where his team were staying at the end of the stage to Bergamo and meet him there in the evening. He even asked for their name, so he knew who it was. Sure enough, the day after the Bergamo stage, he found me in the bunch and told that the people had come and got the photos they wanted. Apparently the people from the hospital had invited him to some kind of conference in October but he couldn’t go because his girlfriend was due to give birth then. He was very approachable, really, which is not what you’d expect of someone that famous and in demand.

Another charismatic rider whose career overlapped with yours was Gilberto Simoni, your team-mate at Lampre and then again at Saunier Duval.

His was a different kind of charisma. He came to Lampre in 2000 and rode with us until the end of 2001, when he went to Saeco. Then in 2006 I rode with him again at Saunier Duval. I have good memories of him. He’s not someone who brings a team together, not that kind of leader…

Really?

Not in my experience. He was always a bit in his own world. He was very methodical [pauses] but in his own way. In winter, he hardly rode his bike. I can remember the first year that I was at Lampre, he started his training in January. Then he went and finished third in the Giro. Let’s say that he did things his way. Then, by the time we rode for Saunier Duval, he had become much more of a leader, which he needed to be because we had a lot of young riders. The directeur sportif would often give his briefing in the morning and Gibo would interject with his own ideas. He started to have a big influence on the directeurs sportifs, probably as a result of having won the Giro twice and grown in confidence. He didn’t shout but he didn’t have to; when he talked, you listened.

With the media, he was very enigmatic. Sometimes it could be quite comical.

He was like that with us too. You thought he wasn’t paying attention but he noticed everything, then he’d deliver these killer one-liners. If you messed up in a race he wasn’t one to bang his fists the table and if you did something right he’d always remember it. You’d finish stages happy with the work you’d done for the team but thinking Gibo probably hadn’t even noticed certain things, yet he always did. He was always brutally frank as well – a typical mountain man. He didn’t care about public relations.

Which other riders have particularly influenced you in your career?

I learned a lot from Chris Horner.

Tell us more.

Yeah. I raced with him at Saunier Duval. He had real race craft, really good tactical sense, but all of his own, very American. I can remember in the 2005 Tour of Switzerland, he, Leonardo Piepoli and Fabian Jeker were our strongest riders on the climbs and in the transitional stages rest of us had to cover the breaks. I can remember this puzzling him. He said that all team leaders seemed to do in Europe was sit on for the whole race and see how far they could get on the summit finishes. He couldn’t understand why the leaders didn’t also pull on the flat stages, or why they weren’t covering the breaks too. So he had pretty different perspective from the rest of us. He’d been in Europe in the late 1990s, it hadn’t really worked, then he’d come over for the second time in 2005. He was 34 at the time yet, to listen to him, you’d have thought that he still had six, seven years as a pro ahead of him. I couldn’t work it out: he’d been at La Française des Jeux, broken his scaphoid or something, then won everything in America and come back over here. And here he was now sounding like a kid at the start of his career. I said to myself, blimey, never mind six or seven, the way he’s talking he’s going to ride for another ten years. He was 34 then and now I’ve just had my best season at 34 years of age… and he’s just had his best year at 39.

So it was the power of positive thinking, youth as a self-fulfilling prophesy?

That’s it. I was 29 at the time and I was thinking I didn’t have that long left. I looked at him and thought he’d have one, two years at best. But then you heard him, and five years on you can see now that it wasn’t just wishful thinking on his part. There he is at 39 winning at the Tour of the Basque Country.

In your own career, moving to T-Mobile, which soon became Highroad, was a massive turning point.

Yeah. I’d always wanted to ride in a foreign team and the culture of an American team suited me perfectly. The constant striving to improve, the innovation…it lit a fire under the passion I already had.  It’s the main reason why I’ve improved so much. The old way that still prevailed in Italian teams had its advantages but you only have to look at what this team’s for done me to see that this is the way forward. Liquigas is still a big team but Italy’s still a very traditionalist country because its cycling culture has such deep roots. For example, in this team we spend hours if not days getting our bikes properly fitted. In Italian teams, if they do it, it’s just for show, for the press. I’m not even sure they’re convinced that these things have an effect on performance. For example, at Lampre, Compex supplied us with electro-stimulators, like they do here. But there the directeurs gave us the Compex and that was it, whereas here, last year, we had a two-hour seminar on how to use it. See what I mean? There I seem to remember half of the team got a Compex at the start of the season, they took some photos, then the rest of us got ours later in the year, but no one ever told us how to use it. The same thing with nutritional supplements and equipment. You might already know the stuff that they tell you but you might not. Maybe in Italy the amateurs are more advanced in terms of what they know but then they stop learning.

Somehow it’s hard to imagine you becoming a directeur sportif when you retire, whether it’s in Italy or anywhere else.

You never know. I can’t really see myself driving a team car but you never know. At the moment I’m thinking about racing and nothing else. I’m better off being like Chris Horner and living for the moment. That’s where my focus is now.

...

We were just randomly throwing out ideas today here in Hawaii while making chocolate, and we wondered why don't people heat the room their tempered chocolate is poured in to the appropriate 88-92° F temp so that one doesn't have to worry about the molds being the wrong temp and shocking the chocolate, and you also wouldn't need to worry about the batch of chocolate you have tempered cooling and becoming too thick to pour, and if you had a depositor, you wouldn't have to worry as much about…

The earthquake in Christchurch has provided an opportunity to reflect on a wide range of ideas and issues about the things we think are important, and how best we might prepare ourselves for the eventuality of a crisis situation. I remember as a student at school being required to undergo ‘earthquake drills’ and ‘fire drills’ [...]

Joe Hewitt helped build Firefox, he built the wildly popular developers' tool Firebug and then he single-handedly created one of the world's most widely used iPhone apps: the Facebook app. Today he announced on his blog that he's leaving Facebook and going independent.

What's he going to do? Build tools. "[T]ools for writers, designers, programmers, whatever," he writes. "Wherever people are using computers to turn their ideas into reality, I want to help." That sounds awesome.

Sponsor

Hewitt continues:

"I've spent the last four years of my career working on a very different kind of software. At Facebook, I've gotten to build communications tools that reach hundreds of millions of people. I've had the honor of seeing people, even my own parents, using my apps while walking down the street, in restaurants, on trains, in planes and everywhere I go. Still, I haven't been able to stop thinking about Firebug.

"Technologies have a way of growing faster than the ecosystem of tools needed to support them. Over the last four years, we've seen the rise of mobile apps, the cloud, and now HTML5. Most developers building on these new platforms are using the previous generations of tools along with a mix of ad-hoc scripts and Web apps to get things done. It works, but it is far from ideal. In fact, it reminds me a lot of the Ajax climate back in 2006 when I decided to make Firebug.

"And so, I'm independent now, and I'm going to pour myself into understanding the needs of modern developers and designers, and creating software to fill those needs. There are so many opportunities that I can't even predict what I will end up building, but I am pretty sure I know where I am going to start. I can't wait."

Other blogs will focus on Hewitt's incredible success building Facebook's mobile offerings, but imagine the wisdom from that experience turned to face outward. Leading developer and former director of developer tools at Mozilla Dion Almaer writes tonight, "I have never been as excited about someone leaving a company as hearing that Joe Hewitt has moved on for Facebook to become an independent developer."

Hewitt's plan to build tools for other developers (much less writers and designers!) points towards a future where the Web is a platform for democratized creation again. A generative force, not a new walled garden silo for passive consumption of media on a mass scale.

Facebook is many things; on the positive side it's been an incredible introduction to a writeable, personalized, feed-driven, mobile, social, place-aware Web for hundreds of millions of people. Just like AOL was too often mistaken for the entirety of the Web in the old days, though, there's a risk that many people will treat Facebook like the entirety (or at least the center) of the Web today and in the future.

There's nothing hotter right now than mobile design and applications and there are few things online more conflicted with potential and confusion at the same time as HTML5. Some tools-driven leadership could come in very handy in both departments.

Joe Hewitt creating for creators, on the open Web, sounds like very good news for the Web and its future.

Discuss

There are many ways to design sign-up and log-in forms. Most designers are familiar with the conventional ways. But understanding and applying a few innovative techniques could make your forms simpler and more efficient to fill out. In this article, we’d like to present a couple of new ideas that might be useful for your next designs. Please notice that before using these techniques, you should make sure that they make sense in the context in which you are going to use them.

El candidato, Alejandro Soler, pretende convertir al Ayuntamiento en el motor económico con el desarrollo de 4,6 millones  de metros cuadrados de suelo industrial

Free speech may prove complex Amarillo.com Offstage, two divergent audiences, likely with opposing ideas of the messages they'll be hearing about homosexuality, abortion and radical Islam. "We've got a First Amendment right to freedom of speech, as long as you're expressing your opinion," ... Muslim Woman Leads ACLU Fight for Pastor's Right to Condemn IslamNew America Media all 2 news articles »

Pamela Burleigh-Konopka added an event

We were off to Hoi An for a few days during the recent break. We'd toyed with ideas of setting off somewhere abroad but work and other commitments wouldn't let us do it and I'm glad of it. A relaxing time with good food and friendly people and a break from the city was just perfect. I also spent some time with the models of Hoi An who will happily either sell you fruit or pose for you for a very modest fee.

At the 5th annual Invent Your Future conference on April 26th and 27th in Santa Clara, California, professional women came to interact with nationally known authors and business experts. Approximately 200 women attended, including many local students as part of the IYF Scholarship program. Ruth Stergiou, CEO of Invent Your Future Enterprises, spoke during the conference about helping showcase professionals for the next generation of women and getting teen girls interested in computer science through a program called “Dare to be Digital."

In addition to book signings, breakout sessions, and roundtables, Invent Your Future provided a place for Silicon Valley professional women to network.

Speakers at the conference this year were top-notch, and although it was not the theme, social media was a topic that resonated through each keynote and session. The first ten minutes of Wednesday’s conference turned into a social media free-for-all: Attendees were invited to turn on their mobile phones and use them to text, tweet and Facebook pictures of the event (see above) to friends and co-workers everywhere.

Invent Your Future Speaker Highlights:

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon: The author of the New York Times best-selling book, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, spoke about spending time with the women of war-torn Afghanistan, where she learned to see them not as victims, but as powerful survivors and entrepreneurs.

Julie Hanna: The chair of the board of directors at Kiva, an online microloan organization that has helped people start businesses around the world, spoke about how technology is a force for politics and business. She said, "People don’t view themselves as victims. Most don’t want charity, they want access.:

Almaz Negash: The CEO of Entwine Global, spoke about her childhood in Africa, the powerful influence of her mother and the necessity that we, living in one of the richest places in the world (Silicon Valley) have to make opportunities for the underprivileged women who live among us, but are often invisible.

They all agreed that social media and the web can help by connecting people and allowing women to participate in each other’s stories around the globe. Social media brings democracy to the conversation.

Jane Edison Stevenson: The vice-chairman and CEO of Korn/Ferry International and author of Breaking Away: How great Leaders Create Innovation That Drives Sustainable Growth spoke about how our society is becoming more fear-based; the way to counter that, she said, is through innovation.

Nancy Duarte: The CEO of Duarte Design spoke passionately about how women are hard wired to both nurture and conquer, and folded that theme into a personal anecdote about climbing Half Dome in Yosemite with co-workers.

Guy Kawasaki: The former Apple fellow, author and highly animated motivational speaker got the most laughs of the entire conference with his ten step overview explaining how to “enchant” others in a business setting. His latest book is Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions.

It was interesting to see how much credence and emphasis most speakers gave to the importance of social media as a tool to help empower business women around the globe. The Invent Your Future audience was highly engaged by the topic as well. A workshop session called “Celebrate Your Brand Using Social Media," hosted by SM consultants Beverly Macy and Teri Thompson was very well attended. It generated a discussion around their contention that “reviews are the new advertising and conversation is currency”.

I had a chance to interview one attendee (Nadine Lezada, IT Business Manager for Marketing and Customer Service; Lifescan Division of Johnson & Johnson) regarding her thoughts about the conference. In her own words,

"After attending this year's Invent Your Future Conference for Women, I walked away feeling motivated to envision new ideas, empowered with renewed confidence and energized to take bold steps in directions I didn't think about before.”

Corporate partners for Invent Your Future included HP, Oracle, American Airlines and eBay. Keynote sessions were hosted by Bay Area Vista (NBC) producer Janice Edwards, as well as award-winning journalist and former KPIX (CBS) news anchor Sydnie Kohara.

"Friday Night Lights,'' which has been so entrenched in ideas surrounding absent fathers, is spending its final season in the territory of paternal healing.

I swear no matter how hard I try to get organized and have everything set for holidays, I am always missing something. Case in point? This year I bought Mother’s Day cards in plenty of time. I was so proud of myself. Only problem? I forgot to mail them. Sigh… So, if you’re like me [...]

I dont know how many people will be there exactly, but it’s the cheapest way i can do anything with food. My fiance and I have to pay for everything ourselfs and its hard for him to help me out right now, he is over seas. Any ideas for cheap wedding things would help right [...]

I’m traveling to Europe next summer (2012) and I need about 5,000 dollars total for everything. I have a ojb, but don’t work much, and I need some quick and easy ways to make money. I’m only fifteen, and I prefer to do something legal, so If anyone has any good ideas, I would really [...]

Of all the dangerous ideas that health officials could have embraced while trying to understand why we get fat, they would have been hard-pressed to find one ultimately more damaging than calories-in/calories-out. That it reinforces what appears to be so obvious—obesity as the penalty for gluttony and sloth—is what makes it so alluring. But it’s [...]

There’s been a lot of articles published recently on ideas and advice for the perfect Mother’s Day gift. Some are frugal, others are extravagant while others leave me shaking my head (what mother wants kitchen utensils?). Let me share a not-so-secret about moms.  We just want to be loved and appreciated by our kids. So [...]Thank you for subscribing to the RSS feed. Please sign up for my free newsletter. Content © KLA Media 2009-2011. All Rights Reserved. ...

Ron Paul’s ideas on the rise

Lady Blasphemy I have no idea what any of this means… …but the comments of youtube are full of grave portent. Any ideas out there? Metro: Lady Gaga kicks off the video for Judas by taking a ride with Jesus and his apostles on their motorbikes. The gang then reach a small village at night [...]

What a shocking day for progress outside of Scotland. The minor improvement of AV spurned, hopes of PR dashed, and the Tories escaping not just unscathed, but positively emboldened. Today was not ‘a good day for the left’; it was a victory for tribalism and mendacity. Today we, the people, opted for a return to a solid two-party state in Westminster. If the Tories pull off their boundary fix, and the Scots vote for independence, even a two-party state may be a distant dream. What a shocking day.

The one bright flame that flickered in the darkness of the UK was in Scotland, where even under a proportional system the Scottish National Party have secured an historic victory. The grip of the major Westminster parties on British politics has taken a serious blow, as has the notion that PR can only deliver coalitions. Cameron has acknowledged the enormity of the result by pledging to “campaign to keep our United Kingdom with every fibre I have” (Gerry Hassan covers the result in full here). But South of the border, things are looking exceptionally bleak.

Looking back at May 2010, the decisions taken by Clegg and senior Lib Dems have proved to be disastrous. Not only have they weakened their party immeasurably, they have empowered the Conservatives without gaining a single concession of any substance.  Electoral reform, the reason I and many others voted for them, has now been kicked into touch for who knows how long. Neither Clegg nor the Coalition is likely to survive until 2015. For all this carnage, what has been gained?

It has now emerged that Brown offered a referendum on full proportional representation – the choice of reformers, the choice of the Lib Dems and the choice of all honest democrats. Clegg turned it down. He accepted instead a referendum on AV, another lopsided majoritarian system which no one had asked for, coupled with a gerrymandering of constituency lines in favour of the Conservatives. True, it’s unlikely Brown could have delivered a PR referendum, but STV should have been the primary ‘red line’ – take it or leave it. If neither party were able or willing to offer it, the Lib Dems still had options, and they still had public support.  

With purple protesters in the street and wide support for electoral reform, Clegg could have declined coalition, leaving a Tory minority government. The old LabCon duopoly, unwilling to grant the public a say on how they elect their government, would have shouldered much of the blame. Public support for PR would have grown, not shrunk. The Lib Dems would have been strengthened, and a Tory minority government would never have lasted the distance. But they wanted to play the statesmen, the guardians of the “national interest” – they wanted to be in government, whatever the cost. And how dear that cost has been.

In accepting the vote on AV, they opted to fight on the weakest ground possible. Had they battled for an honourable coalition, gaining concrete and substantial concessions, even AV would have been winnable. They needed to show coalitions could work for the public – they failed. Had they secured a vote on STV, even their dismal servility in this coalition would not have stemmed the tide. Instead – they got the worst of both worlds, and today they have been blown apart.

As for Labour’s role, the sight of Margarett Beckett and David Blunkett campaigning alongside the Noes was a good reminder of just how reactionary Labour can be. Blunkett even acknowledged the No campaign’s dishonesty:

 “We are in the middle of an election campaign. People in elections use made-up figures”

When the duopoly is threatened, they have few qualms about hugging the Conservatives close. One of the most astonishing things about this Coalition is how quickly it has erased the memory of New Labour in power, turning pink-Thatcherites into heroes of the common people. “A little less, and a little slower” will hardly ring through the ages as a revolutionary cry.

Dreams of proportional representation, some have said, will be strengthened by this result, not weakened. I would only ask that this view is backed up with a credible plan of how this is going to happen. I had an interesting exchange with David Rickard on this issue, and he makes some persuasive arguments, but on this point it’s hard to be optimistic:

 “If AV loses, on the other hand, the left-of-centre parties can start pressing for PR and other reforms right away, and pressure could be brought to bear on Miliband's Labour to back PR. We could then have a pro-PR electoral alliance and coalition in waiting at the 2015 election”

The Lib Dems perished today, they are no more, they have ceased to be; they are the yellow parrot of British politics. Labour have shown themselves divided over AV, let alone PR – something that would all but guarantee the end of Labour majority governments. Asked by John Humphrys what a No vote would mean for reform, Miliband replied: “we won't be coming back to this very quickly.”

The Conservatives could hardly have asked for a better day. FPTP has been retained, and they will be encouraged by the results of the local elections. How tempted will they be to call an early election? They failed to win last year, in the most benign circumstances they could have dreamt of. Since then, the public has had a sharp reminder of just how noxious and untrustworthy they can be: the forest sell off, the NHS “reforms”, the desire to privatise everything except “the judiciary and the military”, corporate tax cuts and a complete failure to bring the banks to heel. Labour remain rudderless and ill-prepared, but a snap election would still be a brave move.  If they can hold out until the boundary changes are passed, assuming they get them through, England will be a Tory fortress.

The Coalition may well crumble before then; tensions will reach new highs on the back of today’s events. The Lib Dems would be annihilated in an election tomorrow, but the longer they remain propping up this destructive Conservative government, the more contaminated they will become. They are now in a lose-lose situation, facing either a swift beheading or a slow and painful poisoning.  

What next. The gloves must come off. Labour desperately needs to find some bite and some ideas. On elected Lords, touted as a sweetener to the Lib Dems, expect lots of committees, consultations, reviews, reviews of consultations…. Forget it. The Lib Dems failed to secure anything concrete on the issue. Either the Lib Dems secure solid and fundamental concessions or this Coalition needs to end.

 

Decorating mavens and art lovers rejoice! It’s May in North Texas and along with it come a multitude of home tours and art festivals sure to get your creative juices flowing Grab some design ideas from...

The culture-enrichers keep pouring into Lampedusa. Depending on which news story you read, 500, 800, 831, or 1,400 new arrivals landed on the island overnight.

First, two boats with 500 people:

500 Refugees From Libya Make Landfall in Lampedusa

(AGI) Palermo — Two boats that sailed from Libya with 500 refugees made landfall on the island of Lampedusa this evening.

The boats were sighted this afternoon by an aircraft of the Coast Guard. The disembarkment operations were concluded slightly before 10 pm this evening at the Favaloro dock, where a total of 500 migrants came on shore, including approximately thirty women and children, all of who originated from Sub-Saharan Countries.

Next, a total of five boats with 800:

More Than 800 Arrived Last Night in Lampedusa

(ANSAmed) — Lampedusa (agrigento), May 6 — Immigrants are arriving on Lampedusa in high numbers again: more than 800 in a single day. Another boat, the fifth in a few hours time, arrived last night just before midnight after it was intercepted by a patrol boat of the Italian Finance Police, 19 miles west of the island. The barge had 60 non-EU citizens on board, including one woman, almost certainly departed from Tunisia.

Seven more immigrants were detained last night by the police in Linosa, the smallest of the Pelagie islands, immediately after they landed. Most migrants who arrived yesterday in Lampedusa, and have been taken to the first reception centre, are refugees from countries in the sub-Saharan area, who had departed from Libya.

The number was later revised to 831:

Lampedusa Witnesses Arrival of 831 Migrants in 12 Hours

(AGI) Palermo — Last night, Lampedusa witnessed the arrival of a 5th migrant boat in just over 12 hours. Last night’s’ landings raised the arrivals total to 831. A bout of bad weather had put a temporary halt to migrant flows from Libya, now in full swing. Docking at Favaloro quay, of yesterday’s 5 landings, two boats alone accounted for some 500 migrants; two other boats accounted for 216 Libyans and 50 Tunisians. Nine other Tunisians are reported to have landed on the island of Linosa.

Steen sent an Italian TV news report about Lampedusa. I’m hoping for a translation later, maybe tomorrow, but the title of the clip refers to a total of 1,400 migrants.

Let’s pause for a moment and consider these numbers. We’ll use the median published figure of 800 migrants during the previous 24-hour period. The MSM reports (see below) are stuck on 25,000 as the total number of refugees that have arrived in Italy since January. However, three weeks ago the Italian government put the figure at 27,000, and I have seen more than 3,000 additional immigrants reported since then. So the correct number is at least 30,000, which is what I have been using for a while.

By agreement with Tunisia, Italy is allowed to repatriate up to sixty migrants a day. The most recent reports indicate that the Italians are not heaving out the Tunisians as fast as that; the average has been about thirty repatriations per day since they began in early April.

About five hundred Tunisians have managed to sneak across the border into France, and various other European countries have willingly accepted small groups of the North African migrants — the reported numbers seem to indicate that about six hundred have been shipped out so far.

So we start with 30,000, subtract 1,000 repatriations, and 1,100 relocations (official or otherwise), leaving roughly 28,000 recently arrived culture-enrichers in Italy.

And Italy just acquired 800 more over a single 24-hour period.

Let’s assume that those 800 arrive only sporadically, maybe once every four days. That would mean that an average of 200 refugees are being added every day. While that’s going on, an average of thirty per day are repatriated, and three per day are being sent to other European countries.

Which means Italy is gaining 167 culture enrichers per day, or roughly 5,000 per month.

Obviously, the current situation cannot continue indefinitely.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
In other “Camp of the Saints” news, Italy is now conferring with Malta over their common plight:

Frattini Speaks of Common Interest With Malta Over Migrants

(AGI) Palermo — Franco Frattini said that Italy and Malta have a common interest in the EU taking strong action over immigration. The foreign minister was speaking to journalists in Palermo. Following last Monday’s formal protest to Malta over a boat with 416 migrants on board that the Maltese didn’t assist after it sent an SOS when in Maltese waters, he assured, “It is an interest on which we will never be divided.”

Meanwhile, the head of the European Commission concedes that there may have to be some adjustments made to the Schengen Agreement:

Barroso Wants Schengen Rules Assessed Case by Case

(AGI) Palermo — At a press conference that followed the final day of the PPE study conference in Palermo, the president of the European Commission, Jose’ Barroso, has said “We will not abolish the Schengen Treaty” but apply the rules on a case by case basis as happened recently between Italy and France.

Barroso said he would immediately return to Brussels and had no plans to visit Lampedusa.

SwissInfo has more details on the proposed Schengen changes. Some excerpts are below; the full text will be included in the news feed.

Notice the article uses the 25,000 figure, as do virtually all the major MSM outlets. This shows that the media — and presumably the bureaucrats in Brussels — are not being honest about the extent of the crisis in Italy:

EU Moots New Schengen Rules

The European Commission has put forward new proposals to ensure the “better management of migration” in the wake of an influx of immigrants from North Africa.

The Commission has been pressed by Italy and France, who say reform is needed to “restore the faith of citizens in free movement”.

The proposals, outlined on Wednesday, are being submitted to European Union interior ministers and to the three non-EU Schengen member states, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.

The 25-member Schengen area has scrapped systematic border controls between its members, allowing for passport free travel within the zone.

The Commission has now said the “temporary reintroduction” of limited border controls could sometimes be necessary “under very exceptional circumstances, such as where a part of the external border comes under heavy unexpected pressure”.

But the EU commissioner for home affairs, Cecilia Malmström, has stressed that any such measures must be temporary and geographically limited.

Switzerland, which has been a full member of the Schengen area since March 2009, will take part in the discussions of the new measures, but not have a vote.

The Swiss government will decide whether to apply any new rules on immigration and border controls.

Rethink

Many of the proposals are in fact updates of previous ideas which had been somewhat coolly received in EU capitals. But the row between France and Italy over the arrival of 25,000 migrants from Tunisia in the Schengen area has led to a rethink in many countries.

For example, France is currently exercising strict border controls at Ventimiglia (on its border with Italy) because of the influx of North Africans via the Italian island of Lampedusa, many of whom have said they want to go to France.

Until now, the only situation in which border controls can be reintroduced is when there is a serious threat to public order.

Any requests for the reestablishment of controls are assessed by the Commission. So far – about a dozen cases – it has always agreed.

[…]

“The answer to migration flows should not be a reintroduction of border controls or a change in the Schengen rules,” wrote former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt on the website of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, which he chairs.

“What we need is transparency and accountability: The Commission and parliament should be involved in the evaluation of the concepts of ‘public order’ inside the Schengen area to prevent unilateral decisions of re-introducing border controls.”

Both France and the European Union say that they do not intend to put these measures into action, but that they are regarded as a “deterrent weapon to force states to respect their obligations”.

But this is no easy matter for those who have large maritime frontiers. Greece, for example, has a problem controlling its long sea border with Turkey. The Commission says it should be given more help, in particular by increasing the funding for Frontex, the EU agency for external border security.

[…]

Malmström is clear that there should be no going back on Schengen.

“The free movement of people across European borders is a major achievement which must not be reversed, but rather strengthened,” says a press release from the European Commission.

The proposals will be now be discussed by the Schengen interior ministers. A decision will be taken by EU leaders at the end of June.

That’s today’s news from the Camp of the Saints. I’m sure there will be more tomorrow — in fact, I already have in hand a translation from the German.

Stay tuned.


Hat tips: C. Cantoni and Insubria.

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MI-Grand Rapids, BusinessGE AviationBusiness SegmentAviationAbout UsGE is planning for tomorrow. Where will you be? For more than 125 years, GE has been respected for its performance and innovative spirit. GE people worldwide are dedicated to turning imaginative ideas into leading products and services that help solve some of the world's toughest problems. Looking for a challenge where your experience is valued? C

Job Description: Sales & Operations Manager

READ ENTIRE DESCRIPTION BEFORE APPLYING.

About CleanBeeBaby: We are a new business poised for strong growth across the country. CleanBeeBaby is an eco-friendly cleaning service for baby car seats and strollers. Our service targets families with children under 5 who are time-starved, worried about health and safety, and hate cleaning. Additionally, regular cleaning with eco-friendly methods allows for parents to re-use and recycle car seats and strollers, decreasing waste. Our mobile service partners with retailers all over the LA area (from Pasadena to Santa Monica, and Hermosa Beach to Westlake Village) to clean baby gear while moms are inside shopping. We also do house calls and private events. We launched in March 2011 in Los Angeles. You can learn more at www.cleanbeebaby.com or www.facebook.com/cleanbeebaby

Why work for us: Working for a start-up allows you to learn many skills and competencies as you are required to wear “many different hats.” You will experience the various aspects it takes to run a business – from marketing, sales, operations, business development, and much more. Getting in to a start-up in the launch phase is a rare and precious opportunity, and there will be many opportunities for increasing responsibility as we grow and start to franchise. We’re building a company culture based on exceptional customer service and truly delighting the parents who come to us. We want happy, well-adjusted, and humble employees who work hard and are passionate about working with parents and young children. In turn, we will provide a fun work environment with flexible perks and benefits. We’re committed to developing leaders in our business who will want to stick around for many years!

Responsibilities:
General management of mobile business, including coordinating house calls, open & close at retail sites, customer service and labor management. Looking for someone who is RELIABLE, TRUSTWORTHY, and OUTGOING.

Customer Service & Business Management:
• Answer all incoming phone calls from 9-5 Monday through Saturday. Schedule appointments for customers and answer questions about the business. Up-sell customers to higher end service packages. Respond to all customer service emails/inquiries within 24 hours. Manage calendar.
• Provide excellent customer service throughout the day including greeting customers, collecting information, taking payments, providing giveaways and ensuring all needs are met
• Help with general office duties and marketing tasks such as writing blog posts for website, data entry of customer details, updating facebook / twitter status to announce locations, keeping record of sales and services, employee work times, and house call log sheets
• Ensure compliance with all regulations and insurance requirements surrounding car seat installation, as well as compliance with local and city regulations for parking, labor laws, etc.

General Operations:
• Set up site at retail locations including tent, tables, and equipment/supplies. Clean-up site in evening and ensure proper storage. Recharge mobile devices and wash towels overnight.
• Become proficient at cleaning and using all car seats and strollers. Train and check employee’s work to ensure high quality standard. Regularly help with cleaning when busy or working alone
• Complete car seat certification course and help parents reinstall car seats in vehicles after cleaning service is completed
• As needed, help with house calls including pick-up, drop-off, or cleanings at customers’ homes (or sometimes at your own home)
• Maintain a safe and clean site (including a clean van which needs to be hand-washed weekly)
• Order and pick-up replacement supplies and manage inventory carefully to ensure adequate reorder lead time
• Help with general mechanical duties such as maintenance of equipment, van, and generator
• Perform tune-ups and repairs on strollers when needed. Coordinate drop-off/pick-up with repair experts, bike shops, seamstresses as needed
• Help in developing operations manual which will be used in franchising the business

People Management:
• Ability to work closely and professionally with retail partners to set up logistics for site set-up
• Managing labor – ensuring timely arrivals, a focus on safety, compliance with workplace rules such as dresscode and no smoking, disciplining and documenting workers who are late or do not comply. Will assist owner in hiring and firing labor
• Communicate frequently with owner regarding status updates, issues/problems. Debrief owner each evening on day’s sales via email or phone.
• Provide suggestions and ideas to owner for new site locations, customer reactions and suggestions, and operational improvements including cleaning methods

Skills:
• Self-motivated and driven; Experience working autonomously with little supervision
• Ability to juggle many tasks and work quickly during tumultuous times of high stress
• Experience managing hourly workers
• Customer service experience in a retail or restaurant setting, particularly when dealing with wait times and service backlog

Qualifications:
• Problem solving—the individual identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner and gathers and analyzes information skillfully and collaboratively.
• Oral communication—the individual speaks clearly and persuasively in positive or negative situations, demonstrates group presentation skills and conducts productive meetings.
• Quality management—the individual looks for ways to improve and promote quality and demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness.
• Judgment—the individual displays willingness to make decisions, exhibits sound and accurate judgment, and makes timely decisions.
• Planning/organizing—the individual prioritizes and plans work activities, uses time efficiently and develops realistic action plans.
• Safety and security—the individual observes safety and security procedures and uses equipment and materials properly.

Preferred qualifications that are “nice to have” but not required:
• experienced Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician (training can be provided if not already completed, but prefer experienced applicants)
• Technical skills and mechanical competence for helping with repairs and van/equipment maintenance
• Cleaning industry experience and contacts
• speaks Spanish
• Any business experience in Marketing, Bookkeeping, etc

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; balance; stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl; talk or hear; taste or smell. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 40 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus

EDUCATION: Prefer at least 2 year college degree or technical school training

WORK AUTHORIZATION: Must have US work authorization, proof of social security card/passport and drivers license.

COMPENSATION: $2500/month, with opportunity for raise within 3 months after trial period. This company is a start-up, and despite the long hours, we are not able to pay much yet. We hope to offer better pay after we get off the ground! Some benefits may be negotiated based on your priorities (e.g. work schedule, vacation, health care, etc). Profit Sharing/Bonus available. One year commitment required or training costs must be reimbursed.

To apply: please email resume and cover letter outlining your skill sets and desire to work in a start-up. Email subject should be “Open Manager Position”. Include the sentence “I read the detailed job description” as the last sentence in the cover letter to be considered.

Attention: Ms. Jennifer Beall, cleanbeebaby@gmail.com

Hiring Organization: CleanBeeBaby

• Location: Los Angeles
• Compensation: $2500/month (raise after 3 months) plus profit sharing/bonus and flexible benefits
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

Job Description: Sales & Operations Manager

READ ENTIRE DESCRIPTION BEFORE APPLYING.

About CleanBeeBaby: We are a new business poised for strong growth across the country. CleanBeeBaby is an eco-friendly cleaning service for baby car seats and strollers. Our service targets families with children under 5 who are time-starved, worried about health and safety, and hate cleaning. Additionally, regular cleaning with eco-friendly methods allows for parents to re-use and recycle car seats and strollers, decreasing waste. Our mobile service partners with retailers all over the LA area (from Pasadena to Santa Monica, and Hermosa Beach to Westlake Village) to clean baby gear while moms are inside shopping. We also do house calls and private events. We launched in March 2011 in Los Angeles. You can learn more at www.cleanbeebaby.com or www.facebook.com/cleanbeebaby

Why work for us: Working for a start-up allows you to learn many skills and competencies as you are required to wear “many different hats.” You will experience the various aspects it takes to run a business – from marketing, sales, operations, business development, and much more. Getting in to a start-up in the launch phase is a rare and precious opportunity, and there will be many opportunities for increasing responsibility as we grow and start to franchise. We’re building a company culture based on exceptional customer service and truly delighting the parents who come to us. We want happy, well-adjusted, and humble employees who work hard and are passionate about working with parents and young children. In turn, we will provide a fun work environment with flexible perks and benefits. We’re committed to developing leaders in our business who will want to stick around for many years!

Responsibilities:
General management of mobile business, including coordinating house calls, open & close at retail sites, customer service and labor management. Looking for someone who is RELIABLE, TRUSTWORTHY, and OUTGOING.

Customer Service & Business Management:
• Answer all incoming phone calls from 9-5 Monday through Saturday. Schedule appointments for customers and answer questions about the business. Up-sell customers to higher end service packages. Respond to all customer service emails/inquiries within 24 hours. Manage calendar.
• Provide excellent customer service throughout the day including greeting customers, collecting information, taking payments, providing giveaways and ensuring all needs are met
• Help with general office duties and marketing tasks such as writing blog posts for website, data entry of customer details, updating facebook / twitter status to announce locations, keeping record of sales and services, employee work times, and house call log sheets
• Ensure compliance with all regulations and insurance requirements surrounding car seat installation, as well as compliance with local and city regulations for parking, labor laws, etc.

General Operations:
• Set up site at retail locations including tent, tables, and equipment/supplies. Clean-up site in evening and ensure proper storage. Recharge mobile devices and wash towels overnight.
• Become proficient at cleaning and using all car seats and strollers. Train and check employee’s work to ensure high quality standard. Regularly help with cleaning when busy or working alone
• Complete car seat certification course and help parents reinstall car seats in vehicles after cleaning service is completed
• As needed, help with house calls including pick-up, drop-off, or cleanings at customers’ homes (or sometimes at your own home)
• Maintain a safe and clean site (including a clean van which needs to be hand-washed weekly)
• Order and pick-up replacement supplies and manage inventory carefully to ensure adequate reorder lead time
• Help with general mechanical duties such as maintenance of equipment, van, and generator
• Perform tune-ups and repairs on strollers when needed. Coordinate drop-off/pick-up with repair experts, bike shops, seamstresses as needed
• Help in developing operations manual which will be used in franchising the business

People Management:
• Ability to work closely and professionally with retail partners to set up logistics for site set-up
• Managing labor – ensuring timely arrivals, a focus on safety, compliance with workplace rules such as dresscode and no smoking, disciplining and documenting workers who are late or do not comply. Will assist owner in hiring and firing labor
• Communicate frequently with owner regarding status updates, issues/problems. Debrief owner each evening on day’s sales via email or phone.
• Provide suggestions and ideas to owner for new site locations, customer reactions and suggestions, and operational improvements including cleaning methods

Skills:
• Self-motivated and driven; Experience working autonomously with little supervision
• Ability to juggle many tasks and work quickly during tumultuous times of high stress
• Experience managing hourly workers
• Customer service experience in a retail or restaurant setting, particularly when dealing with wait times and service backlog

Qualifications:
• Problem solving—the individual identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner and gathers and analyzes information skillfully and collaboratively.
• Oral communication—the individual speaks clearly and persuasively in positive or negative situations, demonstrates group presentation skills and conducts productive meetings.
• Quality management—the individual looks for ways to improve and promote quality and demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness.
• Judgment—the individual displays willingness to make decisions, exhibits sound and accurate judgment, and makes timely decisions.
• Planning/organizing—the individual prioritizes and plans work activities, uses time efficiently and develops realistic action plans.
• Safety and security—the individual observes safety and security procedures and uses equipment and materials properly.

Preferred qualifications that are “nice to have” but not required:
• experienced Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician (training can be provided if not already completed, but prefer experienced applicants)
• Technical skills and mechanical competence for helping with repairs and van/equipment maintenance
• Cleaning industry experience and contacts
• speaks Spanish
• Any business experience in Marketing, Bookkeeping, etc

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; balance; stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl; talk or hear; taste or smell. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 40 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus

EDUCATION: Prefer at least 2 year college degree or technical school training

WORK AUTHORIZATION: Must have US work authorization, proof of social security card/passport and drivers license.

COMPENSATION: $2500/month, with opportunity for raise within 3 months after trial period. This company is a start-up, and despite the long hours, we are not able to pay much yet. We hope to offer better pay after we get off the ground! Some benefits may be negotiated based on your priorities (e.g. work schedule, vacation, health care, etc). Profit Sharing/Bonus available. One year commitment required or training costs must be reimbursed.

To apply: please email resume and cover letter outlining your skill sets and desire to work in a start-up. Email subject should be “Open Manager Position”. Include the sentence “I read the detailed job description” as the last sentence in the cover letter to be considered.

Attention: Ms. Jennifer Beall

• Location: Los Angeles
• Compensation: $2500/month (raise after 3 months) plus profit sharing/bonus and flexible benefits
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

FILTER Creative Group is seeking a highly creative and results-driven online /print publicist who can thrive in a fast-paced, multi-faceted environment. The online/print publicist must be motivated, internet savvy and passionate about good music, film, brands and culture. This position requires a publicist who will work with partner websites, blogs, and print publications to promote new artists, albums, tours and various music film and entertainment releases and/or events. Copy writing will be required for press releases and potential editorial programming, which includes, but is not limited to, website updates, features and newsletters.

The publicist will assist in carrying out campaigns for the company, work with the other staff members and clients to ensure successful execution of FILTER Creative Group's online campaigns. The role requires strong writing and communication skills, creative thinking, problem solving, and a drive to explore and discover new sites, blogs and opportunities for client promotion.

You must be highly-organized and detail-oriented, and able to manage multiple tasks and deadlines. A good work ethic and enthusiasm is exceptionally important, as is an avid interest in music & entertainment online, and being part of a dynamic team of people who revel in music, fashion and culture. This role involves maintaining great relationships with publication contacts (editors, writers, and bloggers) and seeking out and leveraging new promotional opportunities with partner sites and research. This position will be reporting to the Online Marketing Department Manager. Please note this is a freelance position and length of the position is determined by company workload.

Job Requirements:

- At least two years experience in online AND print publicity
- Proven success in pitching to print and online media
- Database of media contacts and strong relationships to coincide with the company's current partners
- Research and pitch ideas to target media
- Demonstrate a positive attitude
- Develop and distribute press releases
- Monitor and report on coverage
- Provide support for other areas of PR/marketing as needed.

If you feel you are a great fit for this position, please send your resume and cover letter to: info@filtermmm.com. Please place "Good Music Will Prevail" in the subject of your email.

• Location: Hollywood
• Compensation: Based on Experience
• This is a part-time job.
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

About the Company:
Yagnaum Systems is a Solutions Integrator / Consulting Firm providing Staffing, Application Development, & Training Services to premier Clients all over the United States.


Job Description:
Our client, in Soho, Newyork is seeking a Sr. Front End (UI) Web Developer

Job Title: Sr. Front End (UI) Web Developer
Location: New York City, NY (Soho)
Job Type : Full Time
No: of Years of Exp:6 to 8 years ( Senior )

Must have Skills:

HTML / CSS / OO Javascript / JQuery / Photoshop

Nice to have Skills:

Some SQL, PHP


Academic Qualifications: Bachelors

Job Responsibilities:

Client is looking for a well-rounded front-end/user experience developer who is comfortable working across a range of web technologies. Applicants should have an expert knowledge of XML/HTML/DHTML/CSS with focus on cross-browser compatibility and semantic markup. He or she should also have strong object oriented development skills and experience developing rich, highly dynamic, client-side applications.

The person in this role will be in charge of balancing innovative new features with performance and speed for an optimal user experience, as well as constantly thinking of creative paths for the future of Client- generating feature ideas, and implementing them.

Applicants should have an impressive portfolio of web applications they have built. We favor candidates who can show us they have a keen product sense and will contribute good ideas for improving the product.

Job Deliverables: Graphic Design, Wire frames, Html /CSS Code

• Location: Soho, Newyork
• Compensation: $90,000 - 100,000/YR
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF THE BAY AREA (www.bbbsba.org ) is seeking an experienced Grants Writer/Manager who will manage a diverse portfolio of grant funding sources to support program and capacity resources for our local non-profit agency. The position is full-time and exempt, and will be based in our San Francisco office. This position requires demonstrated track record as a grants writer/administrator - transferable skills will not be considered in lieu of required experience.

POSITION DESCRIPTION:
BBBS of the Bay Area has a highly successful track record of securing national and local support for its core programs in our 5-county region, with approximately 35% of our annual budget derived from government grants and corporate/private Foundation revenues.

This position is responsible for producing all grant proposals, LOIs, reports and related communications to funders to secure/maintain financial resources for the agency’s local youth mentoring services.

The Grants Manager will work under the direction of the Chief Development Officer to secure budgeted grant resources from government, corporate and public/private foundation sources, identify new sources of grant revenue to support program growth and capacity-building initiatives outlined in the agency’s Strategic Plan, and cultivate opportunities to expand relationships with existing funders.

The successful candidate for this position must have a minimum 3 - 5 year track record as a professional grant writer, able to demonstrate highly effective and compelling writing skills resulting in funding awards and a disciplined attention to detail in managing workflow. He or she must be able to work closely and collaboratively with senior management team and staff to identify appropriate program opportunities to match agency and funders' priorities.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Maintains, directs and executes a strategic Grants Program that effectively matches program & organizational needs to funding opportunities from government/corporate/private foundations.

• Works closely with lead staff to develop compelling approaches and materials that win financial support for our programs and help build capacity, meet programmatic goals.

• Manages all writing, data collection and submissions of LOIs, grant proposals and reports to prospective and current grant funders.

• Meets deadlines, including timely acknowledgment of award notices, compliance of all required data/progress reports to funders.

• Stewards relationships with existing corporate and foundation partners and develops effective relationships with new supporters.

• Maintains accurate database records and report management of grant activity using Salesforce.com database tools

• Provides weekly/monthly and ad hoc grant reports for internal discussion/review of projected/secured/pending grant awards and measurable metrics.

• Researches, identifies and prioritizes new sources of funding on an ongoing basis, will keep up-to-date revenue projections and ensure that annual income targets are met.

• Participates in other agency activities as assigned, including but not limited to assisting with fundraising events, match activities, strategic planning sessions, and community meetings.


QUALIFICATIONS:

• 3 - 5 years demonstrated track record as a successful Grant writer, capable of cultivating and stewarding productive relationships with institutional grant-making organizations.

• Strong technical writing and editing skills, with the ability to interpret and package ideas in a clear and persuasive manner.

• Experience with all aspects of Grant research, cultivation, management and stewardship.

• Dynamic and engaging interpersonal communication style, experience in presenting one-on-one and in group settings. Able to facilitate and lead collaborations within the agency.

• Extremely organized and detail-oriented.

• Ability to work independently and as a team player, to take initiative and manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment. Thrives under deadline pressures to produce consistently.

• Proficiency with a variety of software including Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, SalesForce.com (or similar donor database management system)

• Must be able to meet moderate physical demands of position including ability to lift/carry up to 25 lbs.

• Must have access to a reliable vehicle, valid driver’s license, and meet state of California-required automobile insurance minimums for travel throughout our 5-county region.

• Must pass criminal background check.

• Bi-lingual in Spanish a plus

SALARY:
We offer a competitive salary commensurate with experience. Excellent benefits package including four weeks of accrued paid time off in the first year, 11 paid holidays, plus medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance.

TO APPLY:
Submit resume, grant writing sample and salary requirements. Due to the large number of applications received, we will be unable to respond to all inquiries – Only qualified candidates under consideration for the position will be contacted.

To learn more about our organization, please visit our local agency website at www.bbbsba.org

• Compensation: We offer a competitive salary commensurate with experience. Excellent benefits package including four weeks of accrued paid time off in the first year, 11 paid holidays, plus medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance.
• This is at a non-profit organization.
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

Whether you are a manager or an engineer, everyone needs to have some competency in presenting their ideas.  Presentation skills are critical in influencing others, articulating complex ideas, and addressing large groups of people.  Even if you spend your days confined to your office writing code or finding bugs, at some point, you will need to present your ideas, maybe even to the VP when he stops by your office to see your new software features.  So what makes for a good presentation?  Recently, I had to give a formal presentation and had to think through my years of training to make sure I communicated key points and started meaningful conversations with the audience.  So let me spend this time giving you my top 10 tips on giving a good presentation.

1. YOU: Spend the first few minutes of your presentation introducing yourself.  This is more than just your name and “rank”.  You are in front of this group of people for a reason.  Take advantage of it to let them know a little more about you and your career highlights.  For many people, the first few minutes of your presentation will allow them to judge if they like you are not, or if they are interested in your topic or not.  Ever heard of first impressions?  This is first impressions to the extreme, especially if the audience is large.  Don’t blow it!
2. YOUR AUDIENCE:  Know your audience.  If you are going to influence your audience you need to know who they are.  Not personally, but you need to know how much they already know about your topic, what points may be the most interesting to them, and what takeaways they are looking for within your presentation.  Don't give details to high-level managers and don't give high-level business facts to a technical audience.
3. YOUR TOPIC: Review your overall message with key members of the audience beforehand if this is a proposal or new idea.  If this is a presentation to your team, upper management, or some other group within your company, you should be able to sample a few people before the day of the presentation, give them the highlights, and see if they are in agreement with your assertions.  This is especially critical if the topic is controversial.  You want allies in the audience that will speak up if the discussion heads in the wrong direction.  If you are presenting to a bigger, more anonymous group (either a training class or conference) you may not be able to poll a sample of the audience beforehand, but you still should run your presentation by a few people to gather inputs.
4. YOUR VISUALS: Your topic needs to be clear and concise – your slides will make or break your presentation.  If you have verbose slides and then read them word-for-word then you are wasting the audience’s time.  Couldn't you just make your point in email?  The text in your slides should be bullet points.  You should form what you are going to say for each bullet item and it should add more information and value than what the slide by itself says.  If your slide deck will get passed around and doesn’t contain enough info with just your bullet points, you can add notes (Microsoft PowerPoint has a notes section for each slide).  Just remember, your presentation is more about what you say and how you say it than what each slide says.  Also, if you can add fancy visuals and animations make sure they are appropriate and don’t overwhelm your point.  I don’t have that problem.  As a Test Manager, the most fancy “visual” you’ll see from me is a table of data, but that hasn’t stopped me from having good, productive presentations.  Also, being a Test Manager, I never like seeing presentations with spelling errors in the text or other inconsistencies so have your slides reviewed by someone before presenting them.
5. YOUR VOICE:  Show passion and excitement when you talk.  Add some inflection to your voice.  Being monotone can put the audience to sleep no matter how interesting the topic.  Also, speak up loudly.  Always loudly.  A microphone helps, but you shouldn’t need one.  Speaking loudly shows confidence and will keep your audience engaged.  If you are soft spoken and don’t have a microphone, you are not setting yourself up for success.  Inflection and volume in your voice is a great way to keep the audience engaged.  There was a time at Microsoft where presenters tried different methods to keep the audience's attention.  I've seen presentations from people in crazy costumes where you didn't actually know who the presenter was, and even one presenter who decided he would get his head shaved during his whole presentation.  It was amazing to see how this shaving progressed and that he didn't flinch or get distracted from his presentation topics, but I honestly don't remember what the presentation was about, only that I just saw a guy get his head shaved.
6. YOUR FLOW:  Show your idea or topic in a progressive way that ends with a clear message on how it will add value.  Start by giving some background so the audience is all on the same page.  Explain the issues, give your proposals or examples from your experience, and suggest ways it can add value to the individuals in the audience.  If you have challenges or risks, state them.  If you have asks from the audience, state them.  If your presentation is about the audience making a final decision (like if presenting to managers) state your expectation on the last slide that you are looking for a decision from them.  Clarity makes for a productive presentation.
7. YOUR BRAIN:  Show that you have expertise in the topic and additional insight that others in the audience may not have.  Don’t just present facts or issues, but draw conclusions so that you can lead your audience in the right direction.  Given that, it’s also not fair to the audience to present a one-sided argument.  Give counter-arguments yourself so that others in the audience don’t have to.  Lay it all out from background info through technology, proposals to risks, and final conclusions.  Pretend you are giving your audience breakfast in bed.  You don’t expect them to get out of bed when they don’t have all that they need.  Think through all that is needed and have it all on hand for them just in case.  If you aren't sure, put it in an appendix.  That way, you can go to it if the presentation changes direction, but if not, it is there for a reference.
8. YOUR BODY:  Show confidence in your body language.  Don’t dance and don’t cross your arms.  I can give you more advice here, but then I’d follow that up with don’t be self-conscious about your body language, and that will make you really confused.  What works for me is pretend you are opening up to the audience, maybe even hugging them.  Your arms are inviting by being beside you, behind you, or in some other position that sends the message that you are inviting people in.  Crossing them says ‘stay away’ and that’s not the message your audience wants to hear if you are giving them good information in your presentation.  Dance, pacing, or any other walking around can be distracting unless it’s up and down the aisles in which case you are again opening yourself up with your body language to help draw people in, so getting into the crowd is good.  Movement while in front of the crowd can be distracting.  If you are concerned about any of this, sit down in a chair at a conference table.  That is by far the easiest environment to present from.  If you want to go bigger than that, try video-taping yourself first during a practice run.  You’ll find watching yourself will be priceless in improving your presentation skills.
9. YOUR TIME:  Actually, it’s the audience’s time.  Watch the clock.  Don’t go over the time you are allotted.  If you allow questions within your presentation, make sure that you get back on topic and don’t go off on a tangential discussion.  I typically count my slides and my time and make sure I have a good ratio.  For example, I recent had to present 15 slides in 30 minutes.  2 minutes a slide was reasonable but even at the end I stopped before the final slide (which was less important to the conversation) and skipped any appendix items.  If you have 30 minutes to present 45 slides, you aren’t going to complete it in time.  Be reasonable about your pace.
10. YOUR STAGE: The logistics are the most important part, really.  Yes, microphones, projectors, laser pens, and more can make or break a presentation because your comfort level with these items will affect your focus on the topic at hand.  Know what surroundings you are going to be presenting in.  Sometimes I will show up a bit early or check out the facilities the day before to understand the configuration of the audience (seating arrangements) and of the speaker.  If you think you will be sitting at a large conference room table with your own laptop, but instead find out you will be hooked to a microphone, video-taped, and talking from a pedestal, this can make a big difference in how you prepare, what you wear (yes, that is important to some degree), and when you arrive.  Should you bring print-outs or send out the slide deck to the audience ahead of time?  What about remote viewers through video conferencing?  If you plan on doing any audience participation-like activity, you should think twice about this if part of your audience in remote.  And questions from the audience can be really tough to hear for remote viewers so always repeat the questions before giving answers. 

And a bonus tip if you've read this far:  ADVANCED SKILL:  Adding humor is great in keeping the audience engaged, but it’s a double-edged sword.  Although it can be very powerful when done right, many times it is done wrong and the phrase or topic you thought would be funny and get a laugh, gets silence, long, uncomfortable silence, and that throws off the whole presentation.  So my advice, don’t go for the jokes.  As you get more confortable presenting, they actually somewhat form on their own as you make your way through your topic points.

 

Overall, the most important tip is to just go do presentations.  You need to get out there, in front of people, and practice this skill.  Some will be good and some will honestly suck.  But how else are you going to get better?  If you don't practice, you may have some awesome ideas and no mechanism to get momentum behind them.  Good luck!

I'm thinking of an 80s song, common in movie soundtracks, that starts with a sung "Oh we oh we oh we oh wee ohh Ahhh". The google, it does nothing. Any ideas?

How can I branch out my title insurance company to survive this economy?

My husband has a small title insurance company in the DC area. It's been successful through ups and downs over the past 10 years, but the current economy has been quite brutal, and things aren't looking up, even as the "worst" of the economy is theoretically behind us. He's hoping this dry spell is just a phase, but he thinks he needs to branch out the business to help ride it out or make it flourish in more directions for the longer term.

I've brought his concerns to mefi hoping for some ideas for directions that are a natural (or even unusual) extension of title insurance/real estate settlements so that he can keep his company alive. For example, should he get a license in property/casualty insurance and sell homeowners and auto insurance as well? He's got a scrappy and sharp staff of 2 other employees (who he can potentially get more training for) and a lawyer he works with (peripherally), but my husband himself is not an attorney.

Help!

Scrapbook Storage Ideas

Next week is teacher appreciation week at my daughters school and Friday is the designated "Candy, fruit, or treat for the teacher" day.  We baked sugar cookies for her at Christmas and she loved them but I don't want to go that route again, I want something special (i.e. bread) for this wonderful teacher.

I am thinking of a sweet bread or rolls. 

Give me some ideas!

bwired partners with team building business - The Mind Gallery

 

Team building business, The Mind Gallery has partnered with bwired to create an engaging website to further their reach within the corporate team building marketplace. The Mind Gallery work nationally and internationally to focus and engage organisations with their Business Goals. The site had to convey the Mind Galleries process involving visualizing and painting the corporate goals which stimulate the creative side of the brain and continues to make links and generate ideas long after their events are over. This outcome was developed by creating a visually pleasing product catalogue to show their corporate event outcomes. The Mind Gallery wanted their site to stimulate businesses into using different methods to create team building success.

The key developments for the Mind Gallery website were -

o    To establish an effective online presence

o    To enhance the website to be a core communication tool

o    To assist in selling the innovation to their targeted audience

o    To increase the exposure of the Mind Gallery brand

o    To Increase and drive brand loyalty and referrals

Check out the new website at www.mindgallery.com.au

For more information about website strategy and design, call 1300 780 566 to speak to one of our consultants, get a website analysis or request a web quote today - sales@bwired.com.au.