| Civil Affairs in Israel, Public Relations Image Challenge
Politicians started following the leads of marketing firms and hiring PR consultants to help them dress, speak and convey their message - or image - and reach their target audiences. Politicians in Israel have only begun to take such strategies seriously in recent years, holding on strongly to traditional, informal ways. Golda Meir used to smoke cigarettes while being interviewed on TV. And years later in 1993, When Teddy Kollek ran for mayoral reelection in Jerusalem, he hired a very young and recent army press-corps graduate as his PR director, and a lay art staff to design his posters, many of which were made by hand. He also smoked cigars publicly. Israeli candidates for prime minister started hiring American consultants as far back as 1977, but it wasn't until the 1999 elections, when Binyamin Netanyahu hired Arthur Finkelstein and Ehud Barak brought in James Carville, Stanley Greenberg and Bob Shrum, that top American consultants totally revamped the Israeli electioneering process to follow American marketing strategies.
Triathlete Royce Laine Jr. meets challenges head-on
Royce Laine, Jr., son of Royce Laine of Lake Isabella, has gotten a new lease on life through fitness, and has inspired people across the nation to get moving. A former triathalete who had planned on someday going pro, Laine had been honorably discharged from the Air Force as a disabled veteran due to cumulative back injuries when he had a freak accident that lost him the use of his legs forever. While at a local men's basketball game twelve years ago, Laine ran onto the court to celebrate his team's win and get on T.V. When he reached the floor, he dropped his t-shirt and slipped while picking it up, and was subsequently trampled by the crowd, crushing his spine. 'I got onto T.V. the wrong way,' he said. Until 2006, Laine used a power wheelchair that allowed him to get out of shape and become angry at the world.
Flip Shelton: Don't sweat the scorpions
NI Hao. I'm back from the Kingdom of Bicycles and had a cracker of a holiday. It seems my pre-travel worries were unwarranted. (Dear reader: if you missed my last column I was caught in a Chinese conundrum and feared retribution from the god of travel, Hermes.) According to English pop songstress Katie Melua, there are "nine million bicycles in Beijing" and, given that the city is as flat as Ballarat, the topography is certainly conducive to cycling. To give you some perspective -- just over one million bikes were sold in the whole of Australia last year, while in Beijing nine million bikes exist in an area roughly twice the size of Melbourne. That's about 536 bikes a square kilometre! In bravery akin to a matador facing a rampaging bull, cyclists gather at intersections before building up enough strength in numbers to venture across.
University of Akron officials market Quaker Square Inn as distinctive ...
From her new, circular dormitory room at the University of Akron, Becky Stanic has a skyline view of East Akron. ''It's like a dream,'' the painting major said with enthusiasm amid a mass of clothing and DVDs that she was moving into her room last week. ''It's so beautiful. Moving over here is a little bit more luxury than I'm used to.'' Stanic is one of the 206 UA students now living at Quaker Square, the shopping, dining, office and hotel complex that UA bought in November for $22.7 million from hotelier Jay Nusbaum. While the complex has had a storied life as an oatmeal plant and then as a tourist destination, this semester it's starting another chapter — part public facility and part dormitory called Quaker Square Inn. For more than a quarter-century, Quaker Square's old grain silos have housed an eight-story hotel.
Goods not feeling bad anymore
After being limited to 11 points, tying his season low, in the loss to Stanford last month in Berkeley, Anderson, the Pac-10's leading scorer, was 2-for-13 from the field this time and was held to 15 points, all in the second half. Some of it was the defensive pressure applied by 7-foot Robin Lopez and Taj Finger, but some of it was merely Anderson having a bad night. "He had some open threes that he usually makes," Brook Lopez said. In fact, Anderson missed on two three-point attempts that might have turned around the game and put the Bears (15-10, 6-8) back into the NCAA Tournament picture. With 7:40 left and the Bears trailing by two, Anderson missed badly on a three-point try. Then, with 4:10 to go and the Bears again down by two, Anderson again failed on a three-point attempt.
McCain's Univision Connection
Why can't you disparage your opponent in a political campaign? ... I'm obviously late on picking this up, but McCain really does have a habit of making categorical, blunderbuss statements that maximize, not the truth, or his political maneuvering room, but his own sense of righteousness. ... Examples: 1) It's not that he doesn't remember various Iseman-related meetings. They never occurred. 2) The United States will not torture (except, you know, when it will). 3) Any comment disparaging of Senator Obama is not just inappropriate, it's "totally" inappropriate (except down the road, of course, when it may become necessary ...). 1:47 P.M. link ___________________________ .
Archive for: February, 2008
Between the Lines Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives Sun completes MySQL purchase; Eyes more open source acquisitions Posted in: General Open Source Sun Sun said Tuesday that it has completed the purchase of MySQL for $1 billion and CEO Jonathan Schwartz indicated the company plans to keep shopping for open source acquisitions. "Open source is really in the DNA of Sun," said Schwartz on a conference call to trumpet MySQL as a transforming acquisition. Schwartz also added that Sun was "looking forward to more tuck in acquisitions on the open source front." Schwartz wasn't going to name what companies were on his acquisition list, but he did outline some key attributes. Open source companies with "high integrity" communities, broad distribution and some commercial success would be fine tuck in acquisitions.
Keep it simple on Egg Harbor Rd.
Business owners on Egg Harbor Road want to see the city of Sturgeon Bay keep any reconstruction of the high traffic road as simple as possible. The city sent a letter out to Egg Harbor Road business and property owners Jan. 31 informing them of a public meeting scheduled for Feb. 5.
On the docket were staff recommended road surface improvements and a two way left turn lane in the center of the road for the 3,000 foot stretch between the Georgia Street/8th Avenue intersection and the 14th Avenue intersection.
Estimated project cost for reconstructing the road surface and creating the TWLTL was $575,000.
In addition to discussing options for improving the road surface were such infrastructure options as constructing pedestrian walkways, bicycle paths/lanes, traffic flow improvement and storm water management.
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