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Jack Orr, bad boy of San Diego politics
Stories from Ronald Reagan to Roger Hedgecock
By Paul Krueger, Aug. 8, 1985
Jack Orr: "I don't think people like Roger Hedgecock. I mean, you either love him or you hate him."
Image by Jim Coit
Jack Orr is San Diego's most candid and outspoken political campaign consultant. The chain-smoking, coffee-gulping Orr doesn't win more elections than other local consultants, though he has had his share of successes. But his campaigns are certainly more fun to watch.
Like San Diego colleagues Ken Rietz, Jim Johnston, Dave Lewis, and Nick Johnson, Orr's job is mainly background work. He helps uncover embarrassing information about his candidate's opponent, leaks the damning evidence to newspaper reporters, then translates it to the glossy pages of mailers designed to sour voters on the opposition candidate.
He helps his own candidate raise campaign funds then spends the money on radio, television, and newspaper advertisements. And he aids in securing endorsements from civic leaders and incumbent politicians, rounds up volunteers, defines issues, polishes debating styles.
Orr, however, has never been content to stalk around the political back-stage. When he directed the 1981 campaign against a proposal to elect San Diego's city council members by district instead of city wide, the forty-six-year-old Cardiff resident took a visible role almost equaling that of Councilman Bill Cleator, official spokesman for the "No on District Elections" effort. It was Orr who dragged out the ghost of liberal Democrat Tom Hayden and told voters how district elections were the first step in a conspiracy by Hayden, his actress wife Jane Fonda, and their Campaign for Economic Democracy to take over city government. The district elections measure was defeated by a nineteen percent margin.
When Orr two years later engineered Cleator's unsuccessful campaign for mayor, he went directly to the press with similar attempts to demolish Roger Hedgccock, who also was seeking the mayoral post vacated by Pete Wilson. Orr told reporters how Hedgecock was "closely tied politically to CED causes and activists" and spiced up his charges by invoking Tom Hayden's name. Hedgecock, who eventually won that race in a runoff election against Maureen O'Connor, accused Orr of "McCarthyism" and described the mention of CED and Hayden as "a classic Jack Orr smear campaign."
Orr and other campaign consultants are masters at distributing such damning information about their candidate's opponent in the final days of an election. These "hit pieces" arrive at voters' mailboxes too late for the opponent to rebut the often incomplete and misleading information. An angry Hedgecock even publicly indicted the Orr-produced mailers during the 1983 mayoral campaign when he protested that the hit pieces "are always effective, and Orr knows it, with voters who make up their miods at the last minute and have not been watching the other things in the campaign." Orr took that to be a compliment.
After Cleator lost the mayoral primary, Orr dissolved the campaign consulting firm he ran with partner Larry Sanderson. (The two had been jokingly nicknamed "Whore and Slanderson" by both detractors and admirers.) At that time Orr correctly predicted Hedgecock would win the mayoral run-off against O'Connor by capturing the votes and financial support of Republicans who voted for Cleator in the primary. "They don't like Roger, but they will also never vote Democrat," Orr said of these Republicans.
He has remained a force in local politics through an irregularly published newsletter he writes and mails to local journalists and political junkies. That newsletter gets credit — or blame — for derailing the city council campaign of Democrat Bob Filner. In the closing days of Filner's 1983 race against Gloria McColl, Republicans worried that Filner, who had won the district primary, might defeat their conservative favorite, McColl. Orr printed a lengthy item in his newsletter warning that "unless Filner is clearly exposed for what he really is — a radical progressive — Gloria McColl could lose." Orr detailed Filner's ties to the local branch of Hayden's Campaign for Economic Democracy (Filner's former wife was active in the local branch of CED), telling readers that "if more evidence is needed, simply pick up the phone, call CED headquarters, and you will receive a message of support for Bob Filner."
He also reported that Filner, an SDSU history professor, had published articles in three "Marxist" and "socialist" scholarly journals. McColl's campaign, and the Union's editorial page, used that information to buttress their condemnation of Filner's liberal views and associations.
Orr wasn't being paid by the McColl campaign, and his willingness to take on Filner shows that his scathing attacks on Democrats and liberals aren't just the work of a political hired gun. While local conservative consultants Johnston, Lewis, and Rietz occasionally hire out to Democrats (Rietz ran Councilman William Jones's re-election effort; Johnston and Lewis handled media for Maureen O'Connor's mayoral campaigns), Orr sticks with Republicans. He and former partner Sanderson directed the unsuccessful electoral efforts of Jerry Baker, Brian Bilbray, and Ross Tharp for state assembly; Ed Malone for city council; and Cleator for mayor. He helped Cleator win election to the council in 1979, beat district elections in 1981, and helped re-elect former Congressman Clair Burgener in 1982. Orr feels most comfortable running campaigns with which he shares a political affinity, such as Libertarian/Re-publican Fred Schnaubelt's ill-fated state senate bid and a number of successful anti-rent control campaigns throughout California and other western states.
Orr hasn't always been political. His introduction to campaign work came in 1966, when, as an English literature student and editor of the Cal Poly, Pomona campus newspaper, strategists for Ronald Reagan's gubernatorial campaign asked him to "say good things" about Ronald Reagan. "I said, Hell, I'll be glad to,' " Orr recalls with a laugh. " 'He sounds like a nice enough guy.' "
Two years later Orr, then a disillusioned doctoral student at USC, called a pollster he'd met during the Reagan campaign and inquired about more campaign work. "He told me, 'Yes, if you'll shave off your beard, cut your hair, and wear a suit.' I said, 'Wait a minute! This is me! . . . How much does it pay?' "
A shorn and clean-shaven Orr was hired by Republican strategists Stu Spencer and Bill Roberts to work on a congressional campaign in Inglewood, and for the next decade he shuttled across the country working various jobs. In 1979 he settled in San Diego, where he worked on the Reagan presidential campaign and connected with Republicans Jan Anton and Ed Gray, both close associates of GOP heavyweight Gordon Luce, president of Great American Federal Savings and Loan.
It was Gray who in 1979 called Orr to talk about Cleator's council race. "Ed said, 'The Cleator campaign looks in bad shape to me. What do you think, Jack?' '' recalls Orr. "I didn't even know that, but I said, 'I think it's an unmitigated disaster!' " The two talked politics. Gray made some phone calls, and the next day Orr and Sanderson got their first San Diego job, running Cleator's campaign.
Though he hasn't directed a local campaign since Cleator's mayoral race, Orr in June signed on to manage Carlsbad City Councilman Richard Chick's 1986 challenge to incumbent Supervisor Paul Eckert. Orr continues his biting assessments of local politics through his newsletters. A recent issue takes a swipe at the Managed Growth Initiative and notes how San Diego's Campaign Review Task Force has "labored mightily and brought forth tripe.'' Orr offered his views of local politics and politicians during a recent two-hour interview around the dining room table of his ocean-view Cardiff home.
On Roger Hedgecock
I don't think people like Roger Hedgecock. I mean, you either love him or you hate him; I don't think there's a "like factor'' involved there. I myself wouldn't sit down with Roger Hedgecock even if it were in my own best interests to do so, because I don't trust the man and I think he's bad for the city. Roger forces people to do things because it's in their best interest, and then he tells them what their best interest is. For the most part, people attracted to Roger Hedgecock are those who lack position and seek to gain it from him by being "conscientious.'' Look at his staff members, for instance. For the most part, they're very weak people, even Evonne Schulze. [Schulze was Hedgecock's director of community and neighborhood relations until July 5, when she left to run for the District 7 council seat.] Take her out of the mayor's office and what was she but a community college adviser? People like Hedgecock's campaign consultant Tom Shepard — they seek to gain position and advantage as a result of being with the big fish. Tom Shepard is the classic example of a pilot fish, the kind that lives off the shark. He swims alongside the big guy; wherever the big guy goes, he goes. An exception, however, was Mike McDade [Hedgecock's former chief of staff]. He's just an extremely nice man, charming, with integrity — and he guards it constantly.
Hedgecock, however, is a politician of extraordinary vision, simply because that's the kind of person he is. He's the sort of person who says, "Let's go. I don't know what's out there, but let's go in that direction. I'm so confident of my own capabilities and skills that whatever happens out there that might involve public policy. I'll make it right.'' He's a very intelligent person and he fears nothing. He's fearless even now. I used to compare him to Nixon, but I think that Nixon always feared how history was going to regard him, and I don't think Roger even cares. If he did, he would act differently; he would be concerned. But he doesn't even show a twinge of remorse for being caught in the act of doing things for which he's been critical of others in the past. Take his rhetoric of "I'm running against a fat cat. I'm running against a millionaire.'' At the same time, he's accepting extraordinary largess from people with millions, like Dominelli and Hoover. And had he not been caught, he'd still be trumpeting that. At the same time he's criticizing people for taking money from developers, real estate interests, and the power brokers, he's got very high-powered campaign people seeking out precisely the same donations. It's the worst kind of hypocrisy in the world. One could argue that he doesn't show any remorse because he doesn't believe he's done anything wrong. He believes that people like himself are above everyone else.
In the special election of 1983, Roger knew he had to be the person to follow Pete Wilson. He had to look like Pete Wilson and act like Pete Wilson, at least so far as the public was concerned — because the public liked Pete Wilson. And Hedgecock succeeded brilliantly.
Of course the Hedgecock that the public didn't see or hear never stuck to him. He's got a certain amount of Teflon all over him as well. But there's a very definite meanness of spirit. For example, if someone opposed Pete Wilson, Pete criticized him for opposing him on that particular issue. It never carried over. But if you oppose Roger Hedgecock, if you question his judgment at all, it's that way for life.
The drive, the god-sent politician's genes, the "want'' are all similar in both Wilson and Hedgecock, but you know, they broke the mold and threw it away after Pete Wilson. Pete was a tough man who appeared to be mild mannered. A very tough man. Here's one example: I think it was during the city council appointment of Susan Golding, when she defeated Gloria McColl. Wilson rapped the gavel and said, "Now, with the council allowing me this prerogative. I'm going to address the candidates en masse and make the following statement: If any of you candidates would support or would vote for rent control — under any circumstances — you will not have my vote. If any of you candidates would support or would vote for district elections — under any circumstances — you will not have my vote. And if any of you candidates support the right to strike or the right to collective bargaining for public employees, you will not have my vote. Now, with that I open up this meeting to the councilmen."
Well, that's strong language, that's putting it right out there for everybody to see. And the candidates went, "Oh no! Never! Never, rent control! No district elections! Bad, boo! And no, no! No public strikes are allowed!"
In the last election, Dick Carlson couldn't compete with Hedgecock. Roger had the advantage of incumbency, as well as the advantage of a tremendous amount of study, coupled with his extraordinary vision. And nobody else was prepared to run against him, nobody figured he could be beat. Even with all the bad press, no one was sure that he was guilty. Roger did a superb job of turning the tables on the prosecutors; he turned it around. Of course, the Hedgecock people all say that this lawsuit wouldn't take place in any other city. But of course it would, with this kind of evidence and information. But Roger is shameless and fearless, and conjured up this perfectly good public relations scheme in which this is all a plot against him. Everybody's plotting against him. So sure, whether it's begrudging or not, many people involved with politics in this town have a healthy respect for Roger's abilities.
Dick Carlson was not terrible; he's a fine gentleman. But his campaign was a joke. He had an excellent campaign consultant in Ken Rietz, but I suspect that ninety percent of Rietz's recommendations were simply ignored. Then, too, Carlson was not preparing himself on the issues, and besides, he made some terrible gaffes. Moreover, Dick Carlson didn't look like a San Diego candidate, and Roger knew that precisely. Roger made an excellent campaign of portraying Dick Carlson as a man who not only didn't know what he was talking about, but probably never would. It was an excellent tactic, a brilliant tactic, to paint a picture of your opponent that sticks to him. I don't know who came up with that "No Fat Mayors" sticker, but that, too, was a stroke of genius. Reprehensible, yes, but in terms of the campaign process, brilliant. First, "He doesn't know what he's talking about," then, "He's portly." And it stuck.
And Carlson got a lot of bad press from the media. The piranhas leaped on him, and it sounded just like a bunch of newspaper and television reporters saying, "How does that reporter have a right to run for mayor?" [Carlson is a former television news anchorman and print journalist.] I think there was a media prejudice involved.
The Democratic Party
In contrast to the Republican Party, the Democratic Party is controlled by complete nig-nogs and wig-outs down here. If it were to return to the traditional values of the Democratic Party,
if labor had a strong position in the party's state or county organization, then the party would be stronger. But labor is disenfranchised in Southern California, and less effective. We don't have enough smog to throw a book at, we've got great recreational facilities, a relatively low crime rate, and a very high educational and income level. Downtown's going to be beautiful, absolutely beautiful. True, I agree that some of the things done down there, and the way they're done, favor certain people over others. That's the natural state of things. But the Democrats, they have to go out there and say, "This is terrible! And look! This is really terrible!" Now, some Democrats, Assemblyman Steve Peace, San Diego City Councilman Mike Gotch, and Assemblywoman Lucy Killea, for example, say instead. This is a great place and we made it happen." But you know, these people. who are successes in town, have no role in the party. After a Democratic Central Committee meeting, everybody goes out different doors; they have no unified purpose within their party, and they're mean spirited for the most part. Every faction and sect known to mankind would be biting at [former county chairman] Phil Connor's ankles, saying, "If you don't do this, we're not going to be involved in that!' That party needs to be restructured.
The Democrats are into rights for cats and rights for gays and rights for Indians and rights for women. And in many instances, all those revolutions are over. Right now they still have no currency with which to work; about the only thing they've got is the Managed Growth Initiative and the campaign to stop La Jolla Valley, and most people in San Diego County don't even know where La Jolla Valley is and what the developers are going to do.
If I were the Democratic Party, I would have run against Roger Hedgecock, saying, "That Republican Roger Hedgecock," and I'd have put together a campaign against "that dirty Republican Roger Hedgecock.' I'd unify the Democrats. I would have taken advantage of the fact that he was under the gun. But to these Democrats, Hedgecock is a Democrat. As far as they're concerned, he's really a Democrat and is just registered as a Republican.
Young Politicians
There are a number of influentii young politicians in the city an county. People tend to like County Supervisor Brian Bilbray, for instance; He's a very honest guy, he's got brains, he learns fast, and he's got style. I mean, what guy in San Diego can get away with having a bulldozer as his logo?
Steve Peace is very promising. He's an art to watch when he goes, say, to the chamber of commerce or Rotary club with the good fathers of the Republican Party sitting there, and he charms them out of their socks. And he does it because he knows what he's talking about. He's got traditional American values. The story about him being appointed to the Whip under (Assembly Speaker] Willie Brown is just a riot. When Brown offered him the job, he said, "Can I take the weekend to think it over?" And he said, "And then I was walking down the hallway and I said to myself, 'Dummy, he just offered you the third most important leadership position in the assembly and you just asked if you could take a weekend to think about it!'
If Susan Golding stays in one place long enough to develop a good record, I think she's got an excellent future in San Diego. She's tough, smart, and she wants to be elected. She wants to make decisions, she likes to make decisions. Most politicians are forced to make decisions that they really dislike making. I saw [San Diego City Councilman] Bill Mitchell once walk into a committee hearing and stun the whole audience, saying, "I'm sorry I can't stay and I agree with both sides." Now, Roger likes to make things happen or he likes to kill things. Susan likes to make things happen or she likes to stop things. Same with Brian Bilbray and Steve Peace. They enjoy it.
Someone else who's coming along is (San Diego City Councilman] Ed Struiksma. He'll be good. To me. he's amazing, because he really doesn't come from a background of extraordinary political, intellectual, educational, or social resources. Yet he maximizes everything he's got.
And former City Councilman Fred Schnaubelt — while he's no longer an elected official and his influence has waned, he's one of the few people in San Diego right now who can compete with Roger Hedgecock on the basis of energy, expertise, wit, and an extraordinary amount of study. But given the Libertarian philosophy Freddy espouses, I think that's always going to come back to haunt him. His was the funniest campaign I ever ran. It was for state senate. We held a news conference and Don Harrison, who was then with the Union, said, "Well, Fred, let's see if you're still the most honest politician in San Diego. Do you believe we should legalize marijuana. gambling, prostitution, and pornography?" And Fred said yes. And the campaign was over.
Memorable Campaigns
My most fun campaign was the district elections in 1981. The problem with district elections is that they diminish the overall power of the coun-cilmen. create limits that allow for one-issue candidates rather than multi-issue candidates. You diminish their power rather than enhance it. In San Jose, for example, the city lost $60 million through bad investments. Why? Because no one considered that "their responsibility." It was a "citywide" problem, they'd say. "That's not my district." In these other cities with district elections, the council members are very weak. Roger Hedgecock saw that, and I think to this day that's why he was for it. He must have said, "I'm going to be mayor someday and I don't want a bunch of strong councilmen out there. What I'd like to have is a bunch of little drones who are all concerned about their own little districts, and they have to come to me as the citywide elected person, and I'm the focal point. Whereas, these people will now fade into obscurity because they're only representing a certain district, rather than the city at large." As I said before, Roger is probably one of the most brilliant politicians this county or state has ever seen. He doesn't think backwards.
Well, it was a month out, we were down two-to-one, and my adversaries were so pompous and self-assured. I was the campaign consultant and the committee restrained me up until about a month before the election. They exerted extraordinary restraint in not allowing me to do what I considered necessary in order to defeat the people who were backing the district elections — our good friend Tom Hayden and the Campaign for Economic Democracy crowd who all came down here. It was right out of the CED handbook, if there is a CED handbook: first you diminish the power of all elected officials, okay? And the best way to do this is by district elections.
Finally, I didn't just sit back and let them just hang themselves. I took the offensive. We won big.
Ross Tharp was the most difficult candidate I ever worked with. [Tharp, a Superior Court judge, 'ran against Larry Kapiloff for state assembly in 1980.] I finally had to say, ''Ross, you don't like me, I don't like you. Goodbye." That was my only confrontation of that kind with a candidate, but I just had to get out. And personality conflicts aside, he tried to run the campaign. He'd come up and say, ''I've got these billboards. First we're going to put a TH on the billboard, and then, two weeks later, we're going to put an ARP on the billboard." And I ask, ''Why? What kind of dumb idea is that? Why not just put THARP up?" And he says, ''Well, I'm going to get people interested." So I say, ''Well, you'll get people interested if you put THARP up, and by the way, Ross, we've only got ninety days." With Ed Malone [who ran for San Diego City Council against Bill Mitchell four years ago], I had to have philosophical discussions about everything every day. I only put up with it because Malone is such an intellect; he didn't come to me with cheap ideas. It always came down to very intelligent debate. For example, in my opinion, money is simply a resource to accomplish a communications project. Malone raised money unwillingly because he felt personally that it was degrading and corrupt. He was good at pointing to things that demonstrated corruption. He'd ask me, ''If I take money from a certain group, won't it appear then that I'm a tool of that group?" And I'd say, ''It will undoubtedly be stated by your opponent that this happens to be the case, but that doesn't make it true, and if it's not true it's not important, okay?" And he'd say, "No, even if it's not true, it's still important." He was concerned not so much about bad publicity but about the appearance of things that compromised him. Now, with Representative Bill Lowery, I don't care who walks through the door with money. Bill will take it and spend it on his campaign. And Freddy Schnaubelt is a classic example of a guy who would take builders' money and then vote against them. And make them like it and come back and give him more money!"
Regulation of Political Campaigns
There is a basis for corruption in political campaigning. There's so much rotten in the business. For instance, there are two types of campaign managers or consultants. The first are, again, the pilot fish. They hook up to one candidate or to the Republican National Committee, Democratic National Committee, or to a PAC [political action committee], and they feed off that client, they feed off that host. Now, once I help to elect a person, I'm done with him. I don't feed off him. I don't constantly try to influence him in the manner in which he might vote on a particular issue. In many cases I have no interest in doing that. It takes up too much time. Besides, there's an inherent conflict of interest between being a campaign manager and being a lobbyist, not to mention corruption. I won't do it! I'm not a lobbyist, that's not my business. If I go in to my candidate, shut the door, and say, "Look, my friend is dying. He needs this vote. You're my friend, we have a future together," well, I think that's corrupt. On the other hand, I don't think you can stop it. I don't know of any way it could be stopped, regardless of the law. I'm not even sure that it's in the best interest to. But it's a personal influence there; it's neither evidence nor information that an ordinary lobbyist supplies, but personal influence.
As for the standards of campaign consultants, no licensing or controlling is going to do away with hit pieces. And I wouldn't ask to do away with them. One's man hit piece is another man's truth. What I do think should happen is that the people who send these out ought to be required to sign their names on the bottom of it. And his candidate should have to put on the bottom, "I have reviewed the material that is enclosed in this campaign literature and have approved it for distribution to the general public." For instance, the hit piece Susan Golding did on Lynn Schenk, the one that said Schenk was under investigation for trips — an obvious lie. Who was behind that? Did it say who? No. Really, I don't think you can prevent hit pieces any more than you can prevent a husband from blowing off his wife's head or vice versa. There is no deterrent strong enough to keep irresponsible people from taking irresponsible actions, or responsible people from taking irresponsible actions in a heated situation. So you institute penalties; heavy fines, for example. And if it can be demonstrated that there was a conscious design to mislead the public, then the fine ought to be extraordinary. If Golding and Dick Silberman and Dave Lewis and Dan Greenblat had had to sign that document, they would have read it very closely; they'd have given it second thoughts.
There are two other main areas of real grief to me. The first is kick-backs, which as far as I'm concerned, is the more reprehensible. For instance, consulting firms will create phony firms through which they'll buy campaign materials, marking the cost up each step along the way. The candidates get ripped off and the contributors get ripped off.
Let's say, for example, that I buy campaign buttons from Campaign Novelties, Inc. Well, Campaign Novelties is actually my company. Campaign Novelties has bought the buttons from another organization, then marks up the cost twelve, fifteen, seventeen percent, and Campaign Novelties, which I own, sells the buttons to me, the Jack Orr Company. Then the Jack Orr Company marks the cost up another twelve, fifteen, seventeen percent, and sells to the candidate. And he's paying twice as much.
There's another campaign scam that happens here all the time, and it's not so hidden. That would be if I, the Jack Orr Company, were to make a deal with a local printer to mark up his prices and then I'd do the same with mine. We'd both get something, and he'd just be paying me in the back door.
Right now these abuses aren't controlled, but they should and could be. It's theft, it's no different from walking in and robbing the petty cash.
During the special election campaign, when I was working for Cleator, some guy who wasn't a client of mine came in to me and said, "Why don't I just hire your firm for $100,000?" And the first thing I said was, "That's illegal!'' He wasn't even a friend of Cleator, he just wanted Cleator elected, not Hedgecock, especially not Hedgecock. He was a very wealthy man. He could have come in and said a million dollars! That sort of thing happens routinely; if any campaign consultant were to tell you he hadn't been approached with illegal money numerous times during every campaign, he'd be lying. And because of instances like this, I think campaign consultants should be forced to disclose their client lists, much like a candidate will disclose his or her contribution list. So disclosure is everything, okay? But that's what most politicians, and especially campaign consultants, don't want.
I also think these local Mickey Mouse campaign laws should be repealed, those that say there is a $250 contribution limit that can only come from an individual and can't come from a corporation or a business or a partnership or a political action committee, when, at the same time, the Supreme Court now rules that a PAC can essentially do anything it wants to under freedom of speech. Now under the new Supreme Court ruling, a county central committee can give as much money as it wants to a campaign, so long as it's disclosed. There's lots of room for abuse there, but the key is the disclosure. You can't prevent anyone from violating the law in any respect, but you can provide for penalties and compensation. And along the way you can make provisions for the public to look in and see what the hell is going on.
Then there are the bizarre reporting requirements. I say open the books. Open them up at all times. Now all of a sudden the campaign treasurer will say, "Oh my god, that's going to be a lot of work." Of course it's a lot of work. But as a matter of fact, it's necessary. so that we can see — in terms of finances — what's going on at all times. I can guarantee that if the process is opened up, reporters will be down to the office all the time. That way, if disclosure were open at all times, I would allow anybody to give any amount of money to any candidate.
Moreover, if you try to limit the amount that an individual candidate may contribute from his own resources, then you might as well step down and say, "Next, all candidates will have only fifty volunteers." Campaigns will be turned into a Monopoly game, with everybody getting the same amount of money and starting at the same place. That would be very boring, and to what extreme would it go? For instance, everybody knows that tall people are more impressive than short people in public events. Docs that mean I get to stand on a stool and Ed Malone has to crouch during public events? Next they could dream up a campaign law so that everybody had to be five feet tall, and X-number of women had to run. That's nonsense. Limiting resources limits the vitality.
Life Imitating Art
You know, I didn't see the film The Candidate until some five years after it came out because I was convinced that there was no way that anybody could ever make a movie about politics that would actually show what really goes on. But I was appalled. Every single thing, event, and statement in that film I had either seen or heard personally, except for at the end, when Robert Redford, who had just gotten elected to the U.S. Senate, asks, "What do I do now?"
Well, I had been in Utah working on radio spots for Orrin Hatch's 1976 senatorial election. When I'd finished his radio spots, I began working for the Republican National Committee. I didn't see Orrin until the elections were over. On election night I was in' Chicago when I heard that he'd won, and I thought that was great, absolutely wonderful. On the next Monday morning as I was getting on the plane, there was Orrin Hatch. He was coming through from Salt Lake City and was changing planes at O'Hare, and there he was, standing there, talking on the phone. I said, "Hey, Orrin! How ya doing? Congratulations!" And he looked at me and said, "Jack, Jack, help me! What do I do now?"
More stories by Paul Krueger
San Diego big labor's deceit on propositions K and L — Aug. 11, 2017
Hedgecock firm gives big to anti-Alvarez campaign — Jan. 9, 2014
Filner's Solid Waste Chase — July 4, 2012
Big-Money Boys — Nov. 22, 2000
When Roger Hedgecock was a kid politician — Aug. 25, 1977


Because I'm a big fan of Avatar and I've been dreaming to live in planet Pandora, I'm gonna share to you the basic Na'vi words and phrases. I recently updated my about page and I included the Na'vi language in the stuff that I'm interested to write about. I also added a new category in my blog entitled Pandora.
I just noticed that another major Google PR update has occurred yesterday, July 18, 2011. I noticed a lot of sites returned to their original PageRanks after the June 27, 2011 major PR update. Some sites that gained +1 PR, rolled back to their original PageRank, such as PlurkThemes.com (PR7 to PR6), Ajalapus.com (PR6 to PR5), SachaChua.com (PR6 to PR5), Jehzlau-Concepts.com (PR6 to PR5), and other notable Filipino blogs.


'Manto' actress Rasika Dugal was seen wearing a multi-coloured dress for 'Manto' promotions. It was a colourful dress, except for the fact that it was donned by Dia Mirza too. This dress came from Label Ritu Kumar and was truly an attractive number.
Now, Dia had sported this dress for a laidback-vacation look, while Rasika strictly meant business when she wore this dress. The only thing different spotted was probably the bodice of her attire. Though the colours used were almost the same, Rasika's dress patterns were more abstract. Dia's colourful prints on the bodice of her dress were sharp and sleek.
So, coming to Rasika's dress of the day first, she wore a flared dress, which was enhanced by psychedelic prints. Her skirt featured an asymmetrical hemline and was accentuated by diagonal stripes. She teamed her look with beige-hued pumps and her complementing chic earrings came from Rejuvenate jewels. Her makeup was dewy and the sleek hairdo rounded off her look.
Dia's dress was almost similar with a vibrant mix of prints, but she paired it with brown-hued sandals and notched up her look with dark shades and wavy tresses.
So, Dia and Rasika taught us how to wear an almost similar dress on two different occasions. So, whose look you liked more?


text:
Q: jq on non-well-formed JSON file So, a program I'm using dumped its data in a quasi-JSON like this:
{"id": "A0001", "weight": 10.5, "category": "A"}
{"id": "A0002", "weight": 8.0, "category": "A"}
{"id": "A0001", "weight": 22.3, "category": "B"}

As you can see, it has JSON dictionary per line instead of wrapped in a list.
Can jq handle this kind of malformed JSON?

A: jq does not consider this invalid JSON but as several independent but concatenated JSON documents. Each of these will be piped through the filters by each own (by default). So
jq '.id' input.json

will also return three indenpendent outputs:
"A0001"
"A0002"
"A0001"

However you can use -s or --slurp to wrap all these into a top-level array and process that as one input'. So
jq --slurp 'map(.id)' input.json

will return
[
  "A0001",
  "A0002",
  "A0001"
]

A: you could do it w/o jq, just using unix cli:
bash $ echo [ $(<file.json paste -s -d, -) ]
[ {"id": "A0001", "weight": 10.5, "category": "A"},{"id": "A0002", "weight": 8.0, "category": "A"},{"id": "A0001", "weight": 22.3, "category": "B"} ]
bash $

the resulting output is a valid JSON.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


What are the key (tech) challenges of wealth management in the nearest future? How will banking be affected, customer service in particular? Is the time right for AI- driven product recommendations or behavioral client profile analyses? What about chatbots, virtual reality or conversational in-car interfaces?


The Muntons 15 Bottle Wine Fermenter is part of our 15 Bottle Equipment Kit and is key to successfully making the Cedars Gold or Stark Naked 15 bottle wine kits or if you have that perfect country wine recipe that you want to make more of.
The fermenter is a clever piece of kit. One of its main attractions is that it includes its own internal fruit strainer so syphoning country wines is a lot easier, especially if you're used to using an ill-fitted kitchen sieve over a bucket. It is also very handy in catching the rogue Elderflower heads that are hard to remove and handily, it has a strainer on the tap to filter out any fruit pulp if you're making wine where you ferment with the fruit in.
The tap itself is a great advantage as it allows you to bottle your wine straight from the fermenter itself, saving a bit of time and effort. You could even dispense from the fermenter into your glass!
The best feature this item has is its large neck, meaning that cleaning, or more importantly being able to get your hands into it to clean, is simple. The only downside is that it doesn't have handles to help with lifting when full and wet.
The Muntons fermenter is designed for 15 bottles, annoyingly, most other kits come as a 6 bottle or 30 bottle so this fermenter will be for its own purpose, however, if you want to make more of that country wine recipe that went well last time (see our Recipes for inspiration) or would like to upgrade to the exceptional quality of the Cedar's Gold or Stark Naked wine kit range then this simple fermenter is ideal.


Captain Robert Falcon Scott was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition (1901–1904) and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913). On the first expedition, he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S and discovered the Polar (Antarctic) Plateau, on which the South Pole is located. On the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, four weeks after Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott's party discovered plant fossils, proving Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents. A planned meeting with supporting dog teams from the base camp failed, despite Scott's written instructions, and at a distance of 150 miles from their base camp and 11 miles from the next depot, Scott and his companions perished.
Following the news of his death, Scott became a celebrated hero, a status reflected by memorials erected across the UK. However, in the closing decades of the 20th century, Scott became a figure of controversy, with questions raised about his competence and character. Commentators in the 21st century have regarded Scott more positively after assessing the temperature drop below −40 °C (−40 °F) in March 1912, and after re-discovering Scott's written orders of October 1911, in which he had instructed the dog teams to meet and assist him on the return trip.


Burrito Union | Duluth's most unauthentic Mexican restaurant serving up burritos and Brewhouse beer!
Come check out our new menu with some fresh goodness plus our old favorites. We've done some updating to our interior as well.


text:
YOUNG WOMEN FROM DCHA'S STEM PROGRAM ATTEND EXPO AT MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Several young women from District of Columbia Housing Authority communities recently attended a STEM Expo held at Morgan State University.
The expo, held on November 9, had more than 50 exhibitors including Morgan State partner federal laboratories: Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Naval Warfare Center Carderock Division (NWCCD), Marine Corps System Command (MCSC), United States Naval Academy (USNA) and Chemical Biological Center(CBC). Many of these laboratories offer internship applications for high school or undergraduate students.
The young women, who participate in DCHA's STEM Program through the Office of Resident Services, were sent to different areas of the event based on their grade level. The ATLAS Conference was for high school students while the Institute for Transportation Engineers workshop and Drop Anywhere Labs, which featured the latest technology in touchscreens and virtual reality, for middle school students. Elementary students went to the Hurt Gymnasium for the robotics competition.
All of the students joined to engage in hands-on activities with the more than 50 exhibitors in the ballroom area of Gilliam Concert Hall. There they worked on projects, such as mixing chemicals to create foam, operating miniature microscopes, sparking fun–a technique to create electronic lighting, and 3-D drawing, among other activities.
For more information about DCHA's STEM Program, call (202) 645-5023.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
MBA college rankings | GMAT Business schools
By Sameer Kamat on January 15, 2013
We have published our first B-school rankings based on a popularity index. Unlike the other B-school rankings, our attempt is to find out the top 50 international business school that have the best online footprint. Or in simple terms – the most popular business schools.
The big assumption here is that the level of interest in a bschool's 'online properties' (website and social media presence) is directly correlated to how popular it is among prospective students as well as other stakeholders (staff, employers, alumni).
If you haven't seen it yet, check out the full list first before reading the rest of this post: Business School Rankings
Welcome back. So now that you have seen our B-school rankings and you have idea of what we have done to evaluate and rank the bschools, let's take the discussion forward. What is the relevance of this list? What are the key takeaways?
Insights from the MBA Crystal Ball B-school Rankings
Brand power doesn't automatically translate into internet dominance
Sure, it does help to have a strong brand. If you thought online popularity for bschools is directly related to the strength of their brand, that isn't entirely true. Many strong brands don't figure on the top in our rankings.
For instance, an Ivy league b-school such as Dartmouth – Tuck is ranked at number 44.
Ditto for the European brands like Cambridge, Oxford that have relatively young MBA programs, but very strong university brands (giving them the advantage of high website traffic to the parent site). However, when it comes to overall online popularity rankings where we consider not just the website traffic but also social media parameters, they rank in the bottom half of our list.
No single bschool has really cracked the internet code
For each of the online platforms we've considered for our bschool rankings, the rules of getting traction differ. For instance, the tone and type of content that is appropriate for Facebook may not work for Twitter, and vice versa. Bring in a relatively more formal platform like LinkedIn, and the complexity increases. Then there's the regular website to be taken care of as well.
With all the diversity involved, no single business school seems to have really conquered them all. Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) is the only school to have single-digit ranks for all 4 sub-categories. Harvard and Stanford are the closest competitors in terms of consistency.
Bschools have plenty to learn from each other
This one's a derivative of the previous point, but independent and important enough to be mentioned separately.
There are some bschools that are doing extremely well in one arena, but lagging behind in the others. Re-inventing the wheel isn't the best strategy. Rather than trying to come up with all the answers on their own, bschools could learn what their competitors have been doing.
Competitor analysis in the online space is a little easier than getting a sneak peek into other bschools' offline initiatives. Irrespective of the closed door meetings that happen, there are plenty of signals in the public domain that bschools can look at and improve their own strategies.
We've done some basic analysis here as well in terms of the best practices, but we'll keep that for another post if there's interest.
American business schools do it better
Among the 50 top ranked bschools, 50% of the schools are based outside USA. Though it's not a comprehensive list, the choice of schools is fairly balanced when it comes to locational diversity is concerned.
Despite the number of international (i.e. non U.S.) bschools in the list, within our top 10 there are only 3 non U.S. bschools (IMD Switzerland, HKUST Hong Kong and IE Business School). In the next 20, there's only one (Rotterdam School of Management).
Maybe it's the longer track record for these schools. Maybe it's the greater demand for the degree by domestic employers. Maybe it's a better overall marketing strategy that includes offline and online initiatives. But when viewed with a global lens, bschools in USA have in general fared better when it comes to online popularity.
B-Schools need to focus more on their online strategies
What the absolute ranks don't reveal is the huge relative gap between the top ranked bschools and the rest. We use an internal scoring system to rank each bschool. To avoid confusion, we've kept these internal scores out of the main b-school rankings. But for us to appreciate this next point, here's a table that lists each school along with its score. It's a relative scoring system. We've eliminated some schools that did not make it to the top 50 list.
Bschool ranks and internal scores
Rank Business School Name Score Rank Business School Name Score
1 Harvard Business School 75 26 Wisconsin School of Business 10
2 Stanford Univ GSB 51 27 Univ of Cambridge – Judge 9
3 IMD Switzerland 40 28 Univ of Southern California – Marshall 9
4 Hong Kong UST (HKUST) 39 29 Univ of Oxford – Sai•d 9
5 IE Business School 38 30 Warwick Business School 8
6 Univ of Virginia – Darden 38 31 Univ of Chicago – Booth 8
7 Univ of Pennsylvania – Wharton 36 32 UCLA – Anderson 7
8 London Business School 28 33 York Univ – Schulich 7
9 MIT Sloan School of Management 27 34 Esade Business School 7
10 Univ of California at Berkeley – Haas 20 35 Indiana Univ – Kelley 6
11 Vanderbilt Univ – Owen 14 36 Manchester Business School 6
12 City Univ – Cass London 13 37 Univ of North Carolina – Kenan-Flagler 6
13 Columbia Business School 12 38 EM Lyon 6
14 Univ of Texas at Austin – McCombs 12 39 Univ of Toronto – Rotman 5
15 Northwestern Univ – Kellogg 12 40 Carnegie Mellon – Tepper 5
16 INSEAD 11 41 HEC Paris 5
17 Cornell Univ – Johnson 11 42 Emory Univ – Goizueta 4
18 Rotterdam School of Management 11 43 Univ of Cape Town GSB 4
19 New York Univ – Stern 11 44 Dartmouth College – Tuck 4
20 Duke Univ – Fuqua 11 45 Univ of W. Ontario – Ivey 4
21 Univ of Michigan – Ross 11 46 NUS School of Business 4
22 Yale School of Management 11 47 Georgetown Univ – McDonough 3
23 Indian Business School (ISB) 10 48 ESMT Germany 3
24 SDA Bocconi 10 49 St Gallen 3
25 IESE Business School 10 50 CEIBS 3
– The overall scores for Harvard (75 points) & Stanford (51) have a huge 24 point gap.
– The score for the next 5 bschools ranges from 36 to 40.
– The rest of the 43 are all bunched in the 3 to 26 point range.
– The bottom half (25 bschools) have a score of under 10.
Almost all the top Business schools spend a significant amount of effort, time and money in offline initiatives such as meet-and-greet events, seminars and conferences across countries to reach out. Each event could be attended by hundreds of interested folks. However there's a much bigger audience that can't attend these events – due to accessibility issues or other commitments.
It is easier for bschools to reach this audience through online initiatives. That's an area that bschools need to tap into more in order to maximise the bang for their marketing buck.
An aggressive online marketing strategy alone won't help
When the focus shifts towards attracting eyeballs, it's easy to lose track of the bigger picture. This last point is not directly linked to our b-school rankings data, but we've added it here to put things in perspective for bschools that hope to move into the top 50 ranking soon.
Our website gets quite a bit of spam from some bschools that are hoping to capture a slice of the online traffic (fortunately none of them figure in our rankings). So a bad online strategy can backfire too. A hired online marketing company might never appreciate the pain that goes into building a credible brand.
The field of business education is extremely competitive. For many bschools, a strong internet presence (or the lack of) can have substantial implications on their future. The quick-fix option would be to hire an excellent online marketing company and get some super-smart ideas on increasing the online traffic, followers and likes. That's easier said than done.
But for the sake of argument, let's assume that a brilliant online marketing and social media strategy does succeed in significantly boosting a bschool's visibility on the internet. However what happens if there's little relevant, rich and intriguing content to hold back the new fans and followers?
The brand will lose its sheen rather quickly. So rather than over-focusing on online strategies, schools also need to continue building a strong legacy. This can include investing in their intellectual resources, building a stronger curriculum, attracting the right talent (admission officers, professors, students, support staff) and ensuring that the high expectations are delivered.
This last part can take years, unlike a jazzy new online strategy that can result in a flash-in-the-pan effect.
We hope our unusual bschool rankings help the top business schools as well as the rising stars on the horizon re-evaluate & polish their online brand building strategies.
If you have any feedback or suggestions on our bschool rankings, please post them below in the comment field.
Would help if there was a Indian applicants specific perspective. I mean like UK has stricter visa policies so maybe employment there will be much more difficult. Same with Canda, China etc., So probably they should rank lesser than US b schools? Also popularity with employers could be considered….my 2 cents.
Thanks for your thoughts, Vijay.
We've intentionally kept it at a global level for one primary reason. It's easier to get data for the rankings. That helps in reducing (though not eliminating) the subjectivity involved in such an exercise.
'Popularity', as it applies to bschools, is tough to define. So we've narrowed it down to 'online popularity'. that allows us to rank each school based on publicly available & real data (as opposed to intuition) that we've gathered from multiple sites. Also, the data collation, analysis and presentation process we've followed is repeatable. Which means if we repeat the exact same process next year with a new set of data, we'd be able to compare apples to apples.
It becomes tricky to have a country-specific popularity ranking without adding a big element of subjectivity to the evaluation process. Also, the process may not be standardised or repeatable. So we'd end up comparing apples and oranges.
For now, the content and insights from the bschool ranking are at a universal level. So they are equally relevant for anyone irrespective of which country they are based in.
But it's an interesting viewpoint that you've shared. Maybe there's scope for someone to come up with a country-specific bschool ranking that has a good balance of objectivity and relevance.
MBA Hopeful says:
Well, the best "online footprint" does not correlate well with "most popular" business schools. A school may have sloppy website, but may attract a lot of interest because of other factors.
More importantly, does this ranking has any significance while deciding on a particular B-School? For example, choosing HEC Paris over Rotterdam School of Management will be a nobrainer, though later ranks pretty high on this listing.
Another ranking to confuse applicants ..
MBA Hopeful,
Thanks for sharing your views. I'm sure many other readers might have the same questions. So let me address both points.
I agree with you that the definition of 'popular' goes far beyond the online footprint. There could be regional or country specific biases (as Vijay has commented), there could be cost related aspects, ease of getting selected. All that increases the subjecitivity and decreases the feasibility of the process. So for starters, we've kept it simple knowing well that it may not be perfect.
While creating this ranking, we have not used any parameter (GMAT score, work experience, quality of teaching, salary / career enhancement potential etc) that would be directly relevant MBA aspirants for selecting bschools.
In fact, even the insights we've documented here are more relevant for bschools than for MBA applicants. So it is NOT an alternative to the other MBA rankings that include those parameters. Our ranking should not be used by MBA candidates to select bschools. Rankings such as those published by Financial Times and Businessweek are better starting points for bschool selection. Hope that addresses the confusion part.
We've been transparent about these aspects in the Business school rankings methodology section. But I thought I should mention them again here for the benefit of those who haven't read the methodology yet.
Ritwik says:
Nice to see this ranking. I think it is going to become more important in the coming years.
As a prospective student sitting in India researching on business schools, I couldn't agree with you more. The biggest challenge I faced while researching on business schools is the lack of online information.
The simple example that I have is – YouTube videos. It's common that you go to Google and type the school name. But I decided to use YouTube to get to know the schools closer. I was surprised by the lack of focus that business schools have on the most popular video sharing site. You can read webpages after webpages about the faculty, curriculum and students profiles, but just the way 'Action speaks louder than words','A video speaks much louder than thousand articles and blogs'.
In fact I found that some of the very good schools effectively had zero presence on YouTube.
One of the other points that you have made about no single school getting it right is also true. If I take the YouTube example again, there were few schools which focused exclusively on their curriculum, subjects and faculty in their videos while other solely talked about their culture, student community and life at campus. There should be equal focus on both the aspects.
I think B-Schools have to start thinking about this aspect of marketing and come up with a well-thought strategy to attract international students who can not always visit a campus or connect to a student closely. (A virtual campus tour through Google Street View might be a great idea!)
For now, let me just say that I agree with the ranking and it is going to gain more and more relevance in future.
Ah, we have our first supporter! So after 1 neutral and 1 negative vote, we have a thumbs up. Thanks, Ritwik.
Excellent point about Youtube. We did think about including Youtube as one of the social media parameters (along with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the official website). But we took it off from the list because (you've hit the nail on the head here), there just isn't enough data.
If more schools take Youtube seriously, we'll start including it in the future rankings.
Prashanta says:
I agree with You-Tube being higlighted as an important crietria. When I was going through my application process, I found you-tube videos particulalry insighful. It maybe just an impression thing, but the audio-visual medium of communication has a lot more impact!!
On a seperate note, I like the fact that the ranking is taking online popularity into consideration. It will perhaps be intersting to see how much of this online populatirty leads to tangible results. For example, I would be curious to know how many likes from prospsective students leads to actual applications, or how many likes from potential emplyers leads to actual internship/job postings on the concerned university's website.
Overall, I found this ranking really interesting!
Prashant,
What you've suggested about extrapolating the findings from this ranking to check for conversions would be an excellent way to take the story forward.
However, rather than a third-party (like us), bschools would be in a better position to do so as they'd have most of the relevant data which they may not want to share with the external world.
On a related note, nice to see some good lateral thinking happening out here. Hope the marketing teams within bschools are able to pick up some ideas and adapt / incorporate them in their online marketing strategies.
Melodania says:
Nice rankings, Sameer. Online popularity is a good criteria for rating schools. But somehow I feel top schools like a Harvard or a Stanford, do not really indulge in aggressive online marketing, mainly because they don't need to, owing to their hyper-powerful brand names. Would you agree?
In that case, would these rankings come into question? Or is it that by 'online footprint', you are taking into consideration every aspect of a school's online presence (may be blog mentions, discussion boards-like GmatClub, forum threads etc..)?
It's also interesting, as, since top schools don't feel the need to sell themselves as much(online or otherwise), prospective students have to work that much harder to actually learn about them.
Melodania,
Thanks for the interesting observations. Your 'would you agree' question got me thinking.
1. I'll take the second point first as it sets the context well. We don't consider signals that go beyond the 4 basic platforms we've listed in the methodology. The assumption here is that the official website is the center of the universe for all online activity that directly or indirectly supports every other activity.
Due to historical reasons, a HUGE amount of intellectual property (research articles, innovative developments, debates that push the academic envelope) is hosted by official websites. Social media and forums came much later. This new social interactivity layer was built on top of the basic infrastructure that was already existing.
As an example, a significant number of posts, tweets, discusson forum mentions revolve around content that's hosted on the bschool's official website.
So rather than make the bschool ranking methodology more complex (and impractical), we stick to a simple model assuming that all the online activity that we aren't directly measuring is still getting captured by one of the 4 platforms that we consider.
2. You have a valid point that Harvard / Stanford et al already have powerful brands. However in order to stay up there, they need to work harder. It may not be apparent from the social media pages, but they spend a lot of effort in the 'thought leadership' department. Harvard Business Review (HBR) for instance is a great vehicle for the Harvard brand to reach out to the academic as well as corporate audience. It gives the brand 'visibility' in ways that social media can never match. Other top brands may not have the resources or the inclination to pursue such initiatives with the same aggression.
All that effort may not result in any immediate result (like a spike in FB followers), but if the gap between Harvard/Stanford and the rest of the bschools in the ranking above is any indication, it pays off in the long run.


The National Kidney Foundation is hosting its annual Derby Dash Runk/Walk on Saturday, May 5 in Franklin. Participants are able to celebrate the Kentucky Derby and raise money to help local families dealing with kidney disease at the same time.
Mary Pat Rick and Gayle Polaski discuss the details of the event and how you can get involved. Registration is open now.


The seventeenth meeting of the Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR), regarding the international spread of poliovirus, took place in April 2018 (see current note 52/1907).
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) issued a response on 26 June 2018, stating that the conclusions of the IHR Emergency Committee do not change their risk assessment for Europe.
The committee's report presents a list of critical commitments it expects the government to deliver by the time the CCC issues its next progress report to Parliament in June 2019. A number of actions are required by the end of 2018 including concrete policies to secure improvements in residential energy efficiency, a deployment pathway for the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) commercialisation programme and new policy to strengthen the incentives for people to buy electric vehicles.
For more detailed information on SEISS, visit their website or contact either Ian Henton or Colin Ramsay at HPS on 0141 300 1100.


Dr Christopher Blyth, Allen Cheng, Paul Kelly, Tom Kotsimbos, Heath Kelly, Tony Korman, Deb Friedman, Louis Irving, Sanjaya Senanayake, Grant Waterer, Simon Brown, Mark Holmes, Cameron Hunter, Simon Bowler, John Upham, Graham Simpson, Stephen Brady, Saliya Hewagama, Dominic Dwyer, Jen Kok, Peter Wark, Kristine Macartney.
Project blurb: The main aim of the study is to provide timely surveillance data to public health authorities on severe influenza. This complements data collected in sentinel general practices on influenza across Australia, and helps public health authorities form a picture of influenza activity.
In addition, we are also able to see if the seasonal influenza vaccine is protective against hospitalisation with influenza by collecting data on patients presenting with respiratory symptoms are diagnosed with and without influenza.
Plain language summary: From 2014, PAEDS, in collaboration with the Influenza Complications Alert Network (FluCAN), resumed surveillance of influenza. PAEDS provides unique timely sentinel data from two sites (Sydney and Perth) on influenza hospitalisations, including complications and deaths. The data on children supplements adult influenza surveillance data collected by the other 15 sites under the FluCAN network. Information on influenza test-negative (control) patients is also collected and allows vaccine effectiveness to be calculated and reported to WHO. Analysis has demonstrated very low vaccine uptake (among control subjects) which suggests a need to improve paediatric influenza immunisation in Australia. Good vaccine effectiveness against influenza hospitalisation in children has been reported. Influenza surveillance will expand across the whole PAEDS network in the coming 12 months, under the NHMRC partnership grant.


Well, unfortunately it turns out that I won't be joining the Oculus team that I was really hoping to do. And of course it's nothing personal, I just didn't have the amount of experience they were looking for for the intended position. Such is life and I hold nothing against them for the decision even though it did kind of bum me out a bit at first.
But! The trip may have bore some unexpected fruit which I shall find out next Monday after the holiday as I've been contacted by another company out in CA who has a great deal of interest in my Cross Plane project! Now I don't want to reveal too much at this point as it may very well just turn into a conversation with the guys and that's it, but the fact one of my projects had an impact on this company enough to reach out to me via an intro from Oculus is pretty cool!
So I'm looking forward to that and this could be quite the large opportunity as well should something come of it. I'll keep everyone in the loop when Monday gets here!
I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and would greatly encourage everyone to "NOT" go shopping Thanksgiving night! That's not what this is about and I'm surprised at retailers for making this decision. But that's a rant for another day!


Do you feel frustrated every time you see someone turn without using their "oh so easy" to use blinkers? Are you silently filled with fury whenever you see someone throw trash onto the ground about a foot away from the public trashcan? Maybe you start grinding your teeth whenever you see someone blowing smoke about five feet away from a "no smoking twenty feet from the building".
The frustrating thing is, you don't have any power to control what people do. You can't make someone pick up that burrito wrapper even if you were a cop. But hey, you could make them pay for it! And wouldn't that be nice? While you might not get the authority to make people pay for all the chaos they're creating in this wild world of ours you might find that people are just a little more well behaved when you're rocking this cute dress. This navy-blue dress has a buttoned-down look with a shield on the chest and is tied in the middle with a sash. It also has a badge on the sleeve so people know not to mess even when they see you from the side. You'll get a sassy hat as well, so you can tip your hat at those blinker-using drivers to let them know they're good to go.
So, maybe you won't solve all of the world's chaos in one night but you'll feel more powerful than your typical day to day as soon as you button up your new uniform. Just make sure to refrain from jaywalking. You don't want to be a dirty cop, do you?


text:
Bolloré Logistics unveils supply chain innovation centre B.Lab Singapore
B.Lab Singapore will promote innovation for the supply chain with a particular focus on digital and warehouse automation, and sustainability.
Nov 22, 2019: Bolloré Logistics has unveiled the 1,000-square metre B.Lab Singapore, in an effort to further intergrate automation in its business. The Singapore centre follows the imauguration of the B.Lab Digital Innovation Center in Paris earlier this year.
"Choosing Singapore as the location of our Supply Chain Innovation Center was very natural for us. We have a very strong footprint here and the local conditions in terms of business and innovation ecosystem are excellent. We are very thankful for all the support received to make this project a reality, giving us the means to invent the supply chain of the future," said Frederic Marcerou, managing director, Bolloré Logistics Singapore.
The main features of the lab include a dedicated Design Thinking room to conceptualise ideas and a lab area where Bolloré Logistics staff can develop and experiment solutions.
"The facilities are really amazing. The entire space is modular so that we can accommodate any type of projects. We have a lot of natural light in here. That makes people feel very open and comfortable, which is essential for co-innovation with all our stakeholders like customers, vendors, start-ups and especially academia," said Fabien Tertois, head of innovation, Bolloré Logistics Singapore.
"We are very excited to start our first projects in the coming weeks with Singapore's universities and polytechnic schools following the workshop we held together on October 24, with the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB)," he added.
Gian Yi-Hsen, executive director, conglomerates, EDB, said "Bolloré Logistics' decision to anchor its B.Lab Supply Chain Innovation Center in Singapore is testament to Singapore's position as a leading global logistics hub. Tapping into Singapore's vibrant innovation ecosystem and strong digital infrastructure, the B.Lab will be an important innovation node to conceptualise, develop and pilot new supply chain solutions in the automation of Bolloré Logistics' operations here. We look forward to the continued partnership with Bolloré Logistics, as B.Lab co-innovates with Singapore start-ups and academia to meet the needs of its customers around the region."
Below is a video on the Paris B.Lab:
Related Posts:- Logistics


Police are investigating after a break-in at a store in Leighton Buzzard town centre.
Halford on North Street was burgled in the early hours of Thursday, November 29.
A Beds Police spokesman said: "We were called in the early hours of Thursday morning to a report of a burglary at Halfords in North Street, Leighton Buzzard.
Anyone with any information should contact us by visiting www.bedfordshire.police.uk/report or by calling 101 and quoting reference CAD 46 of 29 November.


The installation of an alarm system is just as important as the alarm system itself which is why all of our Camera FX installers are fully trained and experienced alarm technicians. Our clients need to have confidence in the security system being installed as well as the quality of the installation. The alarm system we choose to provide is one which offers high-definition video, a fully comprehensive analytics solution and is equipped with leading security technologies, Avigilon.
What is Avigilon High-Definition Analytics?
The difference which sets Avigilon apart from other technology based security systems is it's pattern-based technology providing accurate recognition in not only movement, but specific characteristics of people and suspicious vehicles. This is done through HD resolution and 'Teach by example' technology which enables the user to retrain the system to accommodate the specific needs and environment of the venue. Combined with Avigilon's other pattern-based technology providing unique analytics algorithms, Avigilon is using technology which is not yet available in the security industry.
The Avigilon units themselves are discreet and designed to blend into the architectural surroundings.
At Camera FX we understand how important it is that our clients have confidence in their security systems and monitoring and is why we provide only the best in security systems, alarm installation and customer service.
If you would like any more information on our services and installation procedures, or would like to arrange a quote for your residential or commercial premises, please contact our head office today.


It has been more than one week they stayed in our house. There's no other word can describe my feeling when they came beside "Happy". Even sometime, they fret me. But, I always love them. See you my lovely nieces and nephews.


When two inductors are placed close to one another, the flux generated when a changing current flows in the first inductor will cut through the other inductor (see Figure 28.1). This changing flux will, in turn, induce a current in the second inductor. This effect is known as mutual inductance and it occurs whenever two inductors are inductively coupled. This is the principle of a very useful component, the transformer, which we shall meet later.


> I've modified ffmpeg's cook decoder to operate with fixed point.
> it can stream radio from the BBC, too.
> faster than (soft) floating point, good enough for real time (25% load).
> doesn't seem to attract much attention.
Please send it, I'm interested.


TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Country star Jason Aldean brought the party back Thursday in his return to the stage following the deadly mass shooting that broke out while he was performing in Las Vegas, but the fun was tempered by the sting of the tragedy.
Three songs into his show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the singer launched into a five-minute speech that honored the 58 killed and nearly 500 hurt in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. But Aldean took a defiant tone in telling concertgoers to resist living in fear, and he called for more of the national unity he's seen since the attack.
Fans agreed. They pumped their fists and held up American flags as Aldean continued.
"I want to play the show for you guys that the people in Las Vegas came to see and didn't get a chance to," he said.
Friends Audra Miller, Lee Holstein and Amanda Zmak were some of those fans. They were in the audience when the shooting happened and ran for cover like thousands of others.
They traveled from Dallas for the Tulsa show and wore T-shirts they decorated themselves that said "Vegas Strong," a popular meme since the attack.
Miller, 34, said Aldean made them proud and viewed the evening as a triumph.
Aldean gave fans the show they wanted. The Georgia native is one of country music's biggest stars, touring in support of his album "They Don't Know," which debuted atop the Billboard 200 in 2016. Much of his catalog includes Southern rock, pop and hip-hop influences, a mix of hard-charging party anthems and ballads with lyrics about farm work, drinking and small-town life.
He blasted through hits including "Big Green Tractor," "Fly Over States" and "She's Country," and popped open a can of beer onstage after the encore.
Aldean canceled shows in California last week to mourn those killed Oct. 1 at the outdoor Route 91 festival. He resumed his tour in an arena where concertgoers walked through metal detectors, and police presence was visible.
The singer visited shooting victims still in a Las Vegas hospital Sunday. The day before, Aldean performed Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" on "Saturday Night Live" in tribute to the victims and the late rock superstar.
Petty died the day after the shooting in Los Angeles after suffering cardiac arrest.
Authorities have said Stephen Paddock targeted the country music festival, opening fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel before killing himself. They are still trying to determine a motive.
Tags: attack, JasonAldean, Los Vegas. Bookmark the permalink.


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Whenever you are struggling with punctuation or dialogue, or pretty much any literary problem, then you should take a look at how the "professionals" did it. Generally, you will find that most successful writers abide by the same set of literary rules, especially when it comes to matters of grammar and punctuation. Even though every writer has their own unique voice, they still manage to ensure that their story reads like a novel.
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What we know about Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock
THE 64-year-old man who opened fire on a Las Vegas music festival, killing at least 59, is now dead. Here's what we know about him.
James Law@JournoLawJ
news.com.auOctober 3, 20175:31pm
59 dead in worst mass killing in US history
Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock.Source:Supplied
THE man accused of opening fire on a Las Vegas outdoor music festival on Sunday night in the worst mass shooting in US history has been identified as 64-year-old retiree Stephen Paddock.
The Nevada resident was found dead when a SWAT team stormed his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino, from which he rained bullets down on the country music concert.
Las Vegas sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters that the shooter took his own life when authorities entered.
Officers found an arsenal of at least 20 rifles inside the hotel room, the New York Times reported.
An AR-15 assault rife was among the cache of weapons found, according to law officials.
Two of the rifles had scopes on tripods which were positioned in front of the two windows that had been broken out.
Mr Paddock had been staying at the hotel since Thursday, September 28.
Mr Paddock was a white man from the city of Mesquite, northeast of Las Vegas, with no criminal history on federal, state or local records, except for a minor citation.
Mr Lombardo said a background check on the shooter failed to turn up any "derogatory" information.
Mr Paddock reportedly had no political or religious affiliations, he was university educated, he worked as an accountant or auditor before his retirement, and he was a licensed pilot who owned two planes.
Police are yet to determine the motive for Mr Paddock's attack, in which he killed at least 59 and injured at least 527 more.
"Right now, we believe it's a sole actor, a lone-wolf-type actor," Mr Lombardo said.
"We have no idea what his belief system was. Right now, we believe he was the sole aggressor."
Given the lone-wolf nature of the attack, Mr Lombardo said: "I don't know how it could have been prevented."
Guns & Guitars - the gun shop where suspected Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock allegedly purchased firearms, October 2, 2017 in Mesquite, Nevada. Picture: Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
When asked whether the shooting amounted to "domestic terrorism", the sheriff said, "We have to establish what his motivation was first".
The sheriff described the shooter as a "psychopath" and Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman called him a "crazed lunatic full of hate".
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that the shooter was one of its soldiers who had converted to Islam months ago, according to SITE Intel Group.
However, SITE Intel Group director Rita Katz said the terrorist organisation "needs evidence" to back up its claim.
BREAKING: #ISIS claimed #LasVegas attack, reporting through 'Amaq that executor is one of its "soldiers" & he converted to Islam months ago pic.twitter.com/4E85vEIUzH
— SITE Intel Group (@siteintelgroup) October 2, 2017
Aaron Rouse of the Federal Bureau of Investigation rubbished IS's claim, telling reporters on Monday that investigators had found "no connection to an international terrorist group".
While the shooter appears not to have had any previous run-ins with the law, his father was Benjamin "Chromedome" Paddock, a bank robber who was on the FBI's 10-most-wanted list during the 1960s.
A wanted poster from 1969, after Mr Paddock Sr had escaped a Texas prison, described him as a "psychopathic" who had "suicidal tendencies and should be considered armed and very dangerous". He was eventually captured in 1978.
The 1969 wanted poster for Stephen's Paddock's father Benjamin — also known as "Big Daddy" and "Old Baldy".Source:Supplied
When he robbed an Arizona bank in 1960, Mr Paddock Sr's neighbours told a local newspaper that they couldn't believe that the "colourful businessman" and father-of-four they knew could be involved in such a shocking crime.
Stephen Paddock (right) and his bank robber father Benjamin Paddock (left).Source:Supplied
It was revealed overnight that Paddock was a big gambler, with police and a casino executive telling NBC News that he had made several large transactions in recent weeks.
He had made gambling transactions totalling more than $10,000 a day at multiple Las Vegas casinos, sometimes clearing as much as $30,000 in a 24-hour period. It is unclear, however, whether those transactions amounted to wins or losses.
His brother also said Paddock was a "wealthy guy" from playing poker and could play $100-a-hand poker.
It also emerged a man identified as Stephen Paddock filed a slip-and-fall suit against The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas in 2012.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, he claimed he "slipped and fell on an obstruction on the floor" and was injured as a result of the "dangerous condition."
The lawsuit was dismissed in October 2014.
Broken windows on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino after a lone gunman opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. Picture: David Becker/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
Police have not disclosed what weapon Mr Paddock used in the massacre, but they said he smashed the hotel windows with a hammer-like object to get a clear shot at the 22,000-strong crowd.
Authorities searched Mr Paddock's Mesquite home, 90 minutes' drive from Las Vegas, on Monday but uncovered nothing unusual.
Mr Paddock lived in Sun City, an upscale retirement community for those aged 55 and older that included an 18-hole golf course and outdoor swimming pools, USA Today reports.
Mesquite police officer Quinn Averett told reporters that it was a "nice, clean home, nothing out of the ordinary".
However, officers did uncover weapons and ammunition.
Mr Averett said Mesquite police had no previous contact with Mr Paddock, not even a traffic stop.
The cop said the home was in a "very quiet neighbourhood" in a "low-crime area".
The entrance to the Sun City Mesquite retirement community where suspected Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock lived. Picture: Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
Stephen Paddock took his own life after the Las Vegas massacre.Source:Supplied
Authorities also plan to search Mr Paddock's second property in northern Nevada.
The shooter's brother, Eric Paddock, told NBC News that he had "no idea" why he had committed the massacre.
"Mars just fell into the earth," he said. "We're completely dumbfounded.
"We are completely at a loss."
Eric, who lives in Florida, said his brother was "just a guy" who "snapped or something".
The brother also told ABC News that the family was "dumbstruck" by the news, saying he felt like he had been "crushed by an asteroid."
"As far as we know, Steve was perfectly fine," Eric said.
He said his brother liked to go to Vegas to gamble, see shows and "eat burritos".
The last time Eric had heard from his brother, in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, he had texted "how's mom?".
Eric said his brother had handguns, but he was at a loss to explain how he obtained the automatic weapon used in the massacre.
"Where the hell did he get the machineguns?" he asked reporters.
Eric Paddock, brother of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock, speaks to journalists near his home in Orlando, Florida. Picture: AP Photo/John RaouxSource:AP
The sheriff said Mr Paddock had been using the ID of former Queensland resident Marilou Danley, who is understood to be his housemate.
Authorities have spoken to Ms Danley, 62, who is currently outside of the US.
Police said she was not with him during the shooting and she was not believed to have been involved in the attack.
Former Australian resident Marilou Danley is believed to have lived with Stephen Paddock in Nevada.Source:Facebook
Authorities are also looking for a Hyundai Tucson with a Nevada licence plate as part of their investigation.
The US Homeland Security Department said there was no "specific credible threat" involving other public venues across the country, the New York Post reported.
'RECLUSIVE' NEIGHBOUR
Meanwhile a broader picture emerged of a man who liked to stick to himself, often going away for long periods of time.
Paddock and Ms Danley also lived in a retirement community in Reno, Nevada.
Those living in the neighbourhood of Del Webb told the Washington Post they barely knew him.
Harold Allred said his wife knew Ms Danley through exercise classes and social gatherings but they never spoke to Paddock.
"He was reclusive," said Mr Allred said. "We never met him."
Another neighbour, Diane McKay, who lived next to Paddock until July said Paddock was aggressively unfriendly.
"He was weird. Kept to himself," Ms McKay said.
"It was like living next to nothing. You can at least be grumpy, something. He was just nothing, quiet. He never went out in the back and enjoyed the back yard, nature.
"They had a little back yard, 17 feet to the fence and hill. But the blinds were always closed."
The house in the Sun City Mesquite community where suspected Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock lived, October 2, 2017 in Mesquite, Nevada. Picture: Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
Remains of the garage door sit in the driveway in front Paddock's house. Picture: Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP
GAMBLER ON THE MOVE
Paddock would often leave home and not come back for periods at a time, and often spent time away on gambling trips.
He also moved around.
As well as his home in Mesquite, Nevada, he also lived in Melbourne, Florida as well as Texas and California.
Paddock was married in 1977 and in 1985, and got divorced from his first wife in 1980, according to broadcaster National Public Radio.
Paddock obtained his pilot's licence in 2003 and had worked for Lockheed Martin.
A spokeswoman for the company told the Las Vegas Review Journal, Paddock worked there from 1985 until 1988.
— with Debra Killalea
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Eastern Illinois men's and women's track opened day one of the EIU Big Blue Classic with ten top three finishes including a pair of school records in the women's hammer and women's 400 meter hurdles.
Senior Jasmine Woodley won the women's hammer with a throw of 178'6" which was nearly three feet farther than the record set last week by MaKenna Wilson at the SIU Saluki Invite. Wilson placed second in the hammer this week with a throw of 168'11". Wilson would add a top three finish in the shot put as she was third with a mark of 42'5.25".
Senior Pedra Hicks won the women's 400 meter hurdles with a time of 59.40 as she improved upon her own school record in the event.
Dustin Hatfield was first in the men's 5,000 meters with a time of 14:38.07 with teammate Marcus Skinner third with a time of 14:46.81. Avani Flanagan made a charge over the final 600 meters to finish in third place in the women's 5,000 meter run with a time of 17:57.59.
Senior Joe Smith added a first place finish for the Panther men as he won the long jump with a leap of 22'5.25". Nick Phillips was second in the men's hammer with a throw of 193'2" which ranks as the fourth best throw in school history. Clayton Turner rounded out the top three EIU men in field events on Friday with a second place effort in the shot put. He had a throw of 53'1.50".


Are you overwhelmed with the thought of a personal injury lawsuit? There are many other people through this country that are in the same boat as you. This article has a great deal of advice to help.
Any time you find yourself injured, you may also find that it's rather difficult to find the right lawyer. You should find someone experienced with cases involving personal injury. A good personal injury lawyer is equipped with lots of information about the best ways to approach personal injury lawsuits and prevail in court.
When comparing prospective personal injury attorneys, it never hurts to ask for recommendations from people who were recently involved in a lawsuit like your own. By doing this, you stand a much better chance of finding a lawyer you can work well with and who will get the outcome you desire. You need the best attorney that money can buy.
Curb your instinct to apologize after you are in an accident. This may help them prove that you are at fault for the incident. You shouldn't do it even if you think you're wrong.
Lots of people deal with back pain. If you do, try using a warm towel or hot water bottle to relax it. Make sure not to strain it anymore and cause further damages. While you rest, you should also think about taking over-the-counter pain medication to help.
Make sure you have an attorney hired before you correspond with any insurance claims adjuster or responsible party. They can use anything you say against you later as evidence in a trial, so talk to a lawyer first to hash out what exactly you should say.
Prepare in advance of speaking with prospective lawyers. This is really important if the lawyer you hire only gets paid if you do. A case without a good presentation can be rejected, as the lawyer will only be paid if victory is given to you. Be sure to practice your presentation and have your paperwork in hand.
You may be confused by legal and medical terminology, and that is why skilled professionals are so valuable. Read the article below and use it as a guide to help you through your personal injury case. Follow the advice from your attorney and doctor, and be sure to stick to your case until it is done.
You should also include any lost income when you are getting everything together. This should include time off work or loss of bonuses. You also can total the money spent and lost on classes in which you weren't in attendance.
As you seek potential representation for your personal injury matter, take the time to seek personal recommendations from friends and family who have been in situations similar to yours. If you do this, your chances of finding a good lawyer that you're able to work with will be much higher. You owe it to yourself to get the very best attorney you can find.
A lot of attorneys with questionable backgrounds use flashy ads to draw in crowds; you should avoid these lawyers regardless of their tempting ads. You can't really tell how honest a lawyer is by viewing an advertisement. Before picking a lawyer, consider your in-person meetings with them.
If it is possible, keep your vehicle in the exact position it is in if you were in an accident. This can sometimes hurt your chances of proving your case. Move your vehicle only if the accident occurs in a very busy street and staying in the same spot could cause another accident.
Don't apologize to the other person in your accident! If you say you are sorry, the other person will try to prove you are at fault. You might feel as though you did something wrong, but you must never apologize.
If you have a car accident or get hurt at work, you should get a lawyer right away. You must not waste time when attempting to win a personal injury lawsuit. When you hire a lawyer quickly, he will be able to help you gather photographic evidence, take witness statements, and interview parties involved.
Just because you have an attorney working on your personal injury case, this will not guarantee you a settlement right away. You need to be patient, because the case takes a while to finish. The bigger your city is and the more you're seeking, the longer it's going to take. Keep this in mind at the outset, and you are less likely to become frustrated or upset.


text:
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Home News Local news A.G. Challenges Election's Board Actions on Hansen, Ballot
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A.G. Challenges Election's Board Actions on Hansen, Ballot
A letter dated Wednesday from V.I. Attorney General Claude Walker says the St. Croix Board of Elections acted improperly to remove former Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen's name from the ballot based on a name change request now before the courts and a subsequent challenge by the Democratic Party to Hansen's eligibility to seek elected office.
Walker's letter was addressed to St. Croix Board of Election Chairwoman Lilliana Belardo de O'Neal in response to her request for guidance on the challenge brought by Lauretta Petersen of the V.I. Democratic Party.
In an Aug. 24 filing with the district election board, the Democratic Party alleged that Hansen's bid for office is in violation of V.I. Code provisions regarding the former senator's voter registration. The party said specifically that Hansen's status as an elector should be questioned given that former district lawmaker has published a public notice about her petition for a name change.
Petersen claims that Hansen sought and was denied the court's permission to waive the public notice requirement, which is mandated by Virgin Islands law.
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Walker not only found the board's actions improper he said the Democratic Party's affidavit of challenge to Hansen's voter registration failed to comply with pertinent sections of the V.I. Code. Walker listed 15 conditions that had to be satisfied for the affidavit of challenge to be properly filed with the elections board.
Walker wrote, "Therefore, the affidavit was defective and should have been rejected by the Board ab initio (from the beginning)."
"The action of the St. Croix Board of Elections is flawed and should be corrected," Walker wrote.
Walker did promise to have an assistant attorney general present at the next elections board meeting to provide legal counsel and guidance as required. The next meeting is set for Thursday.
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More than three million Caribbean people suffered the permanent or temporary loss of their homes because of adverse weather events in recent years, and the numbers appear to be escalating dramatically. #visource #usvi #news ... See MoreSee Less
UNICEF: Hurricanes Are Scattering Caribbean Families | St. Thomas Source
More than three million Caribbean people have suffered the permanent or temporary loss of their homes because of adverse weather events in recent years, and the numbers appear to be escalating dramati
This is so unfortunate


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