CBC provided 30 students with the opportunity to put on an evening news broadcast in Vancouver.

Students produced stories, reported on stories and did streeter paks and promos. The team of finalists were chosen from over 150 applicants. These students worked with top journalists like Mi-Young Lee and Alan Waterman to produce their stories. Time in the editing studios, production and reporting were well spent.

This great opportunity happened on November 26th 2009. Interested? Check out the website below and apply next year!

http://www.cbc.ca/bc/newsday/

Cause when I look to the sky something tells me you’re here with me
And you make everything alright
And when I feel like I’m lost something tells me you’re here with me
And I can always find my way when you are here

- Pat Monahan, Train

I was at a concert recently where the group, Train, which was formed in San Francisco, played from their new album, Save Me San Francisco.  I thought it an interesting title given that they have to play in about 50 other cities on their tour and I doubt they would tell people how, “Chicago is great, but we’re here to tell you about San Francisco”.

I admit that I have had a lifelong love affair with San Francisco.  Fortunate to have been born here and even more fortunate to still work and have a family here, I try not to take it for granted.  Even my wife who is from the East Coast finally has broken down and said this is the perfect place to have settled.  “It has soul.  It has character, ” she once told me.  She’s right.  But it isn’t just the City.  It’s the people too.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Having spent years working in Chicago and New York and various other cities, I love those cities for many of their merits as well.  And the people there are so real and loveable in their own way and sometimes even more loveable than San Francisco.   I’m sure everyone feels that way about where they are from, so excuse me while I gloat.  After all, Conde Nast Traveler’s reader poll  did say that San Francisco is the best place in America, so they can’t be that wrong, could they?

Yes San Francisco has it’s Golden Gate, it’s nearby Napa wine country, and the beautiful Pacific coastline, but like every beautiful painting or landscape, the object of your desire has to have depth which keeps you coming back for more.  It has to engage you, frustrate you, encourage you, entertain you, and most of all, leave you breathless in amazement as you look back over your shoulder as to what you have been through.  For me, San Francisco has always been “all points pointing west” whenever I look for that solution. 

Maybe there really is something magical about San Francisco.  For my whole life I’ve known people who have moved to this city I call home.  They come here to find themselves, to discover acceptance for who they are, or just to begin again.  In the 1800s there was the Gold Rush, in the 1960s it was the hippies and free love.  Today it is still for the technology as well as an alternative style of living.

As a native, I’m not looking for much of the new so much that I am looking to have more of the same and in some way to revisit those things which I’ve enjoyed so much about the past, and some recent small events have gotten me to thinking about those healing powers of the City once called by Herb Caen, Baghdad by the Bay.  They might not mean anything individually, but together in reflection they do.

Nick and a Proud Dad

A few weeks back on the golf course in the 56th Northern California Family Golf Championships with my son.  The tournament is one that I started playing with my own dad when I was in high school.  It was my way of getting closer to my dad doing something he enjoyed.  We played many times and it wasn’t until my early 20s that we finally took home a trophy for our flight.  I still remember that hug and that smile and laugh my dad gave me when he won, “We did it,” he exclaimed.  It was an aw-shucks kind of smile, but it wasn’t until now that I realized he really did enjoy it as much as I did.

With the shoes reversed some 20 years later, I became overwhelmed with a sense of deja vu.  I kept looking at my son and remembering all the great times I had in this tournament with his grandfather.  Back then I did it to be closer with my dad and I always felt it was for me.  But as we advanced each round in this tournament this year I realized how much I was getting out of this and just relished the moments spent with my son to just talk about life, learning to relax, and to tell him no matter what happened, how proud I am of him.  It wasn’t just me.  Many of the other teams were multi-generation San Franciscans who had played the tournament as youngsters and now were playing with their own children. Such a cool event and yet, such a personal and life building experience.

The kid who keeps me young

Soccer Saturdays was not something I had growing up.  Anyone who has children these days knows what it means to be a soccer parent.  You spend your days as a chauffeur and snack coordinator.  In San Francisco it has been a chance for me to see old high school friends, cousins and classmates who have children the same age.  Having the time to talk about old times and fins out about old friends has become a weekly ritual.  It just makes you realize how small this City is.

Now getting back to the Train concert, I took my wife and my best friend from high school to see Train at the reknowned Fillmore concert hall (http://www.thefillmore.com), one of those temples of music that has so much hisotry in it (more on this later).  Train inspired this posting as they were formed in San Francisco, disbanded for solo careers and just recently moved back to San Francisco to start recording together.  They told the story of how although none of them were originally from the area, they felt as though the City had saved them twice.  First by bringing them together and then, bringing them back together again.  They went through a myriad of songs all about California and San Francisco that left the 3 of us so happy that we went and so proud of the city we call home.

A few weeks later I got a message that one of my childhood elementary school classmates had passed away.  We weren’t close, but I saw the grieving that many of those classmates felt.  Although our friend died early and a rough life was pretty much the cause of death, that did not matter to us.  The outpouring of grief and emotion turned into a beautiful private vigil at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach at sunset.  Suddenly the 76 classmates were now back in touch some 30 years later, brought together by the death of one of our own.  It makes me wonder if our friend realized how much she was loved and will be missed by so many and by those who she might not have seen in so long.  My wife thought it very interesting and touching that our community was that tight.  I reminded her and our children ( they go to the same school my brothers and sister and I went to) that history repeats itself and that some day our children might be out there grieving for one of their classmates.

In getting our classmates together I even had the opportunity to go out to a restaurant owned by one of our firends.  He even comped us a great meal (http://www.betelnutrestaurant.com).  Afterwards we went to the Fillmore to see a small artist named Mat Kearney.  It turns out that  Mat’s parents have a lot of history in San Francisco and were in attendance.  They were flower children who met in San Francisco in the ’50s while working in a diner as a waitress and a chef.  Although they hade very little money they were able to see a few concerts at the Fillmore and claimed their favorites were Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Dylan.  Well now they have to add their son to that list which has brought their lives back to San Francisco full circle.  I love little stories like that.

Yes, San Francisco  has its mysterious charm and I’m sure it has healing powers for whatever it is that ails you or those around you..Los Angeles may have its Palm Trees and beautiful people, New York might have Wall St., and all the nightlife you could want, Chicago has great food and spirit, but San Francisco simply has the “it” factor that attracts and rewards those who embrace it.

Train @ the Fillmore

Mat Kearney @ The Fillmore

Welcome to the new Points of Blue blog. We hope you enjoy our musings on all things Leinster.

The team has been announced for Saturday’s match. Biggest shock is that Rob Kearney has been omitted from the 22. Not sure if he has picked up a knock. Says a lot about the squad that the Irish and Lions full back cannot force his way into the Magners match squad.

Should be a good atmosphere at the game. Plenty of fancy dress costumes on show i would imagine. Another sell out will mean the RDS will be rocking once again. The 6.30pm kick allowing fans to loosen up their vocal chords with a few pre game drinks.

According to the official site ‘there will be plenty of fun on the night including live pre match music from the River Valley Band, a Live Half Time Show, Fancy Dress for adults and children, Jugglers and Magicians, fun Halloween Games, and a Dark Rider on horseback. There will also be a House of Horrors with where you might get a fright from scary surprises at the Judges and Stewards Pavilion (behind the Anglesea Stand, next to gate E).’

LEINSTER:

15: Isa Nacewa
14: Shane Horgan
13: Brian O’Driscoll
12: Gordon D’Arcy
11: Luke Fitzgerald
10: Jonathan Sexton
9: Eoin Reddan

1: Cian Healy
2: John Fogarty
3: CJ van der Linde
4: Leo Cullen CAPTAIN
5: Malcolm O’Kelly
6: Kevin McLaughlin
7: Sean O’Brien
8: Jamie Heaslip

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Bernard Jackman
17: Mike Ross
18: Nathan Hines
19: Stephen Keogh
20: Simon Keogh
21: Shaun Berne
22: Girvan Dempsey

So far, it’s been Octobrrr

Omaha World Herald, Published Friday October 16, 2009

You’ve turned the furnace on earlier than you wished, your golf game got canceled — and you’re already eyeing a new sweater.

If it gives you any comfort, you’ve been through the coldest start to October on record.

Regional offices of the National Weather Service crunched the numbers Thursday. They found that the combined average daytime-nighttime temperature in the first 14 days of the month was an astonishing 12 to 15 degrees below normal.

That’s based on records dating back from 50 to more than 100 years, depending on the time period evaluated by each office.

The December-like weather is leaving, though, and soon.

Near-normal temperatures are expected to arrive this weekend and generally remain through most of the rest of the month, forecasters say. If that occurs, Omaha-area residents will be seeing daytime highs in the 60s.

“It’s all perspective, but it’s going to feel like summer on Sunday when it hits the 60s to around 70 degrees,” said Mike Moritz, senior meteorologist at the weather service office in Hastings, Neb. “It’s going to be a great, great feeling.”

Tom Kines, a meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc., The World-Herald’s weather consultant, said a couple of factors contributed to the unseasonably cold weather.

With the jet stream on a more southerly track, polar air has been able to flow across the heart of the country unimpeded.

Another major factor: cloudy skies.

So far this month, most of Nebraska has seen just one day — Oct. 7 — when clouds filled less than 10 percent of the sky, according to the weather service. That’s the one day that temperatures across the state generally topped 70 degrees.

Cloud cover is also the reason that daytime temperatures, rather than nighttime ones, drove the record-setting cold.

In Kearney, for example, the average daytime high, 49.7 degrees, was 19.4 degrees below normal, according to the weather service. By contrast, the average nighttime low, 34.3 degrees, was 7.6 degrees below normal.

Kines said daytime cloud cover has kept the sun from heating the atmosphere. At night, clouds did the reverse, acting as a blanket and keeping the day’s lingering warmth close to the ground.

The cold air is affecting everything from heating bills to family outings.

The Metropolitan Utilities District reports that natural gas usage is up 34 percent over a normal October. The good news, according to MUD, is that the utility’s October gas price is the lowest it has been in seven years.

Area climatologists say they’ve heard all the jokes about global warming.

“Where’s global warming? It’s out there,” said Ken Dewey, applied climatologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “We just happen to be the exception to the rule.”

The oceans, he noted, are the warmest they’ve been in recorded history. And September, globally, was the United States’ second-warmest on record and Canada’s warmest.

This despite Nebraska and Iowa seeing not only record cold in October, but one of the coolest summers on record.

“It’s not called Nebraska warming,” Dewey said. “It’s called global warming.”

Source

Nebraska loses another major manufacturer and 171 employees to lose their jobs right before Christmas.  Has Nebraska officials done everything they could to keep the plant here?….read more

Where do I start? – Saturday’s wedding included an October snow storm, a drive-thru lumber yard (many thanks to Builder’s), a snoozing ring-bearer, two live chickens, a charter bus, an awesome wedding party, and two of the finest people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting – Do I need to point out the obvious by saying that this was an epic wedding? – Enjoy the sneak peek, the full gallery will be available after October 24

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!

this saturday there will be a rally with Bar-B-Q, a bake sale and t-shirts from 12 – 4p.m. come show your support.

The SPCA vet referred to a donkey that was limping on its foreleg.  The odd thing about that is that is an animal they asked about specifically before when they received one of the other “anonymous complaints”, they were told he had arthritis,( per their vet) and provided documentation and the SPCA conceded. That is what the SPCA doesn’t tell you is they knew these things but the “complaints” aren’t going to stop because they are not coming from people who are informed about the business of livestock, they just don’t care for people like him. Well as they sit in their ivory tower and cast judgement on him I would ask what should happen to an old donkey whose life know consists of loafing around a pasture and occasionally going to a petting zoo, where he is hand fed and marveled at by a bunch of children who otherwise might not get to see farm animals up close.

• The chickens to which their report refers (many of which were bought the previous Friday) as emaciated or thin are “free” fed. That is to say there feeders are always full and accessible so they may eat as much as they can at any time.
• What they didn’t bother to ask or “investigate” if you will is those chickens came from a commercial source and where either molting or had poor feed conversion rates( i.e. weren’t putting on weight at the same rate as their peers) so they were viewed as unprofitable.
• Which is where Earnest comes in buys them and puts them in a smaller cage and free feeds them so they no longer have to compete with their larger contemporaries. Also when chickens are kept together in large houses they pick at the smaller or weaker birds, this is how he gets them. Given a few months of free feeding on a high protein diet most will stop picking and regain feathers as feathers are mostly protein. The process take from 8 to 12 weeks but varies with birds, time of the year, weather, and diet. For Mr. Kearney’s detractors the business axiom buy low sell high must be lost.  I would ask what would they have happen to these animals.
• In the past, what has happened was they were killed and ground up and fed to the other chickens, I guess that is more humane.
• Another common practice to combat picking in commercial operations is to debeak (removal of up to 1/3 of the upper beak) which the SPCA has referred to as mutilation, but left alone they will kill each other. So since the media won’t do it I’ll ask “What is the solution?”

In reference to the water which has “algae” in it, the water is discolored by the mixture of electrolytes, vitamins, and wormer; it is colored because the birds are attracted to the color green. The SPCA might have known that had they asked or observed the operation with an objective perspective instead of showing up with an agenda.

• The SPCA vet misidentified a guinea as a black and white chicken, I question how much experience in aviary medicine that person has.
• Also they go on to characterize many of them as underweight with no idea as to the age of the animal, a practice which would be very difficult to do according to the published standard.

I am currently in the process of  loading the pics onto a disc so I can put them on here, but what they show are SPCA volunteers dragging the sheep through the mud (as it had rained the night before), then they took the picture.  We will post a pic of the sheep’s pen and the sheep as they appear in petting zoos. I am not sure whom if anyone trained these people how to lead a sheep but clipping a lead rope to itself around her neck is not the right way.

And to the vet whose report on what was wrong with them or what evidence of abuse existed long wool on a  sheep in october is not unusual. They  are clipped a little more closely in about a month when they begin to appear in manger scenes around the metroplex, pictures will follow from years past but will not happen this year as the church said they couldn’t afford the bad press.

L’Inde et la Chine continuent comme TOP destinations de délocalisation, mais Europe Centrale / Europe de l’Est diminue tandis que l’Asie du Sud et du Moyen-Orient lieu

Chicago (Mai 18 mai 2009) – La détérioration des avantages de coût et la qualité du travail améliorées sont la conduite d’un changement radical dans la géographie de la délocalisation en fonction de la dernière édition du cabinet international de conseil en management AT Kearney Global Services Location Index (GSLI), un classement des plus attrayantes destinations de délocalisation.

Alors que l’Inde, la Chine et la Malaisie, de conserver les trois premières places qu’ils ont occupées depuis la GSLI inaugurale en 2004, un changement fondamental dans l’index a eu lieu parce que la fois forte des pays d’Europe centrale ont abouti au sol vers les pays d’Asie, du Moyen-Orient et Amérique du Nord Afrique.

Le GSLI analyse et classe les 50 premiers pays dans le monde entier pour repérer les activités d’externalisation, y compris les services de TI et de soutien, les centres de contact et de support back-office. Le score de chaque pays est composé d’une combinaison pondérée des scores relatifs de 43 mesures, qui sont regroupés en trois catégories: l’attrait financier, des personnes et la disponibilité des compétences et de l’environnement des affaires.

Établi pays d’Europe centrale dont la Pologne, la République tchèque, la Hongrie et la Slovaquie, autrefois parmi les premières destinations de délocalisation pour les entreprises d’Europe occidentale, ont diminué considérablement en raison d’une augmentation rapide des coûts axée à la fois par l’inflation des salaires et l’appréciation des monnaies face au dollar. Pendant ce temps, les pays à faible coût en Asie du Sud et Moyen-Orient ont fait des gains importants cette année que la qualité et la disponibilité de leurs forces de travail améliorées. L’Egypte, la Jordanie et le Vietnam GSLI classé dans le Top 10 pour la première fois.

«Importance Bien que le coût demeure un facteur majeur dans les décisions de votre lieu d’externaliser, de la qualité du bassin d’emploi est de plus que les entreprises voient dans le marché du travail à travers une lentille mondiale alimentée par la pénurie de talents à la maison, en particulier dans les fonctions supérieures, à valeur ajoutée», a déclaré Norbert Jorek, un partenaire avec AT Kearney et directeur général de la division Global Business Policy Council. “En réponse, les gouvernements du monde entier investissent dans le capital humain exigé par l’industrie et des délocalisations.”

Les résultats complets de l’Index de cette année sont fournis ci-dessous. Une analyse plus détaillée et des renseignements sur le rendement régional peut être trouvé à www.atkearney.com.

Faits saillants du GSLI de cette année comprennent:

* Le Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord apparaît comme une région clé de la délocalisation en raison de sa grande, bien instruits de la population et sa proximité avec l’Europe. En plus de l’Egypte et la Jordanie, classé au sixième et neuvième, respectivement, de la Tunisie (17ème), Emirats arabes unis (29ème) et le Maroc (30ème) se classent toutes dans le GSLI parmi les 30 premiers pays. “Le Moyen-Orient et de l’Afrique a le potentiel de redessiner la carte des délocalisations et dans le processus apportent tant besoin pour ses grandes possibilités, la classe sous-éduquée”, a déclaré Johan Gott, gestionnaire de projet pour l’indice mondial Location Services.
* Afrique subsaharienne a aussi montré la force. Ghana au 15e rang, Maurice 25, Sénégal 26 et l’Afrique du Sud 39e.
* Les pays d’Amérique latine et des Caraïbes continuent de capitaliser sur leur proximité avec les États-Unis en tant que destinations proches des côtes. Chili placés plus élevés des pays de la région, 8e rang de la force de sa stabilité politique et l’environnement commercial favorable. Autres exécutants forte dans la région comprennent le Mexique (11ème), Brésil (12ème) et la Jamaïque, qui ont augmenté de 11 places pour classer 23e.
* Inde, la Chine et la Malaisie continuera de diriger l’indice par une large marge grâce à une combinaison unique de compétences des gens de haut, environnement commercial favorable et un faible coût. En particulier, l’Inde est resté à la pointe de l’industrie de l’externalisation et a effectivement devenir un moteur de croissance de l’industrie grâce à l’expansion des entreprises indiennes de délocalisation dans d’autres pays.
* Les États-Unis, représentés par le potentiel onshoring des petits «Tier II» des villes comme San Antonio, est passé à la 14e place du classement en raison des avantages financiers d’une baisse du dollar. Le pays est le chef de file dans la catégorie des gens les compétences et la combinaison de la hausse du chômage et des pressions politiques pour créer des emplois manifestent un intérêt croissant parmi les plus petits onshoring possibilités intérieures endroits. Des tendances similaires sont visibles dans le Royaume-Uni, la France et l’Allemagne, qui toutes ont également augmenté dans le GSLI.
* Alors que la crise financière mondiale a ralenti ces dernières se déplace délocalisations, le pourcentage du personnel des sociétés «offshore mai très bien augmenter en raison de la crise. Mises à pied à la maison ne se traduisent pas des mises à pied parmi les travailleurs offshore, les entreprises cherchant à maintenir le service mais aussi réduire les coûts. En outre, les installations offshore ont tendance à être plus efficaces parce qu’elles sont plus récentes et des années le manque d’inefficacité souvent construits dans les installations à terre.

«La dynamique des délocalisations mondiales évoluent clairement que les sociétés réévaluent les risques politiques, l’arbitrage du travail et les compétences requises dans le cadre des suites probables de la crise économique mondiale”, a déclaré Paul A. Laudicina, AT Kearney, président et directeur de gestion. “La gestion du risque prendra une importance nouvelle mesure pour protéger la prestation de services mondiaux de l’interruption et de garantir les capacités sont stratégiquement dispersés plutôt que regroupés en un coût peu d’endroits efficace.”

Global Services Location Index 2009
(number in parenthesis indicates ranking in 2007 GSLI)

*Based on lower-cost locations in each country: San Antonio (U.S.), Belfast (UK), Leipzig (Germany) and Marseilles (France).

www.atkearney.com

I’m obsessed. It’s unhealthy, I know. But this is undeniable.

Mat Kearney is, and this is a fact, the very best musical artist the world has seen.

You may disagree with this statement.

But why is that?

I myself can confirm that Mat Kearney plays and writes excellent music. He’s a renaissance of sound in himself! People might agree with me, saying that yes, of course he is a good musician, but may find a different artist more worthy of the “Best Musical Artist Ever” title. I would even admit to say that possibly, just possibly, some people on this earth just might not like Kearney’s music at all (an outrage, I know!).

The wide variety of music offered amazes me. While surfing iTunes, I’ll stumble across a style of music that makes me think, “People actually listen to this?” But even more often it seems that every day someone introduces me to a new artist who I absolutely fall in love with. Ranging from such wide genres as

classical,

hardcore,

rap,

acoustic,

alternative

and even native chanting, there is an absolutely immense collection of music available all over the world.

So why do some people find different music more appealing? And why is it that the conflicts between teenagers and classical music compared to adults and rap seem to be brought up so often? Is it the age-old battle of Nature vs. Nurture? Are we all just evolving to different styles of music or is it just culture affecting the way we express ourselves?

Perhaps the best answer I’ve discovered is that music is an art. For many cultures it’s essential to the way of life. It’s an expression of the society and the people themselves. In fact, it seems that other than the release of emotion and showing of one’s identity, there is no simple definition of music. No single concept or theory totally embraces the word, indicating that music is more than just noise, more than just simple sound.

Music is more.

What is music? It’s a primal desire to not just express our inner being, but to express it for the world to see. To make music, to breathe, to eat, to dance, to sing, to live. Music is not just essential to society. Music is essential to each one of us. Music is essential to life.

And that’s why I love what I listen to. And that’s why my parents listen to something different. And that’s why some people choose to listen to hymns, or rap, or acoustic. We are what we listen to. Music defines us.

So….I just really love this song.

And the video that goes along with it? It makes me think…

I just get this really cool reaction watching it. I don’t know! I’m still trying to figure out the meaning. What’s your take?

I had a blast with the Southeast girls golf team today at Meadowlark Hills in Kearney – They started the season strong, and Tori finished 2nd overall – Congrats, and I look forward to a great season on the links! – To see the full gallery from today’s action, check out: http://bmjohnsonphoto.com/kearneyinvite

I’m not much to shoot sports but this is my little cousin and it is soo much fun to watch her play softball. Here are some shots from her last game of the regular season before playoffs.

I just had to get this pose, if only she would have looked at me.

This is one of her teammates.