01-03-2012 22:39 Hi everyone you can't get better online design help than this, Puppet Digital Design is open for business. Graphic Design, Creative Advertising on all media, online marketing and website designs. Give us a budget and we will spend double that of our own money so its the best. Give us a go.Rick Ovadia CD and owner,
Read the original here:
PUPPET DIGITAL DESIGN STUDIO - Video
Self-publishing an essay through Amazon is a reminder of the benefits of a traditional publishing house.
One of my favorite stories about writers concerns John O'Hara, who long ago wrote the book for the musical Pal Joey, based on his own novel. When the play was making a big run on Broadway, two friends of O'Hara's bumped into him on the streets of New York. "Oh John," they cooed, "We just saw Pal Joey again, and we enjoyed it even more than the first time!" O'Hara snarled, "What the hell was wrong with it the first time?"
The ability of writers to feel offended or persecuted is pretty close to unlimited, and one of the interesting side-effects of the technological revolution in publishing has been to bring out new forms of anger and woundedness -- and not just among writers. Mega-agents like Andrew Wylie see publishers as their arch-enemy; even librarians are warming to the hate-fest. For instance, Colorado College librarian Steve Lawson says, "Publishers have contempt for the authors they need to write works, and the readers they need to read works. Publishers are scared that the Internet is going to disintermediate their asses into the dustbin of history, and the best response that many of them have come up with is to express their fear through hatred."
Wow.
We need to make some distinctions. Companies like Elsevier, who make a great deal of money selling access to scholarly articles whose authors don't get paid at all, are rightly the target of angry protests. But most publishers, it seems to me, don't loathe writers and readers but are instead simply trying to figure out how to survive in a rapidly-changing market, and in a business that has rarely commanded big margins and huge profits.
Consider my own experience. Last year I published a book with Oxford University Press called The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. Oxford gave me a small advance, but thanks to that advance I was able to turn down some speaking engagements in order to focus on writing, which I enjoy much more than speaking. When I turned in the manuscript it went to some highly professional copy editors who caught many errors that I had missed. Designers came up with an attractive and appropriate cover, and gave the text a clean and elegant look. Marketing people got the book into the hands of reviewers, and arranged for me to give some talks and radio interviews.
The book has done okay. Not great, but okay. Would it have done better if Oxford had thrown more into the marketing? Had set up a 10-city book tour? Ordered an intern do a hunger strike in front of the New York Times office until they agreed to publish review? Probably. But not all that much better, and surely not enough to recoup the publisher's investment. Only so many people are interested in the things I write about. (Or, okay, maybe I'm not that good a writer. You happy now?)
But one of the illusions most common to writers -- an illusion that may make the long slow slog of writing possible, for many people -- is that an enormous audience is out there waiting for the wisdom and delight that I only can provide, and that the Publishing System is a giant obstacle to my reaching those people. Thus the dream that digital publishing technologies will indeed "disintermediate" -- will eliminate that obstacle and connect me directly to what Bugs Bunny calls "me Public." (See "Bully for Bugs".) And we have just enough unexpected success stories to keep that dream alive.
Well, here's hoping. But a couple of months ago I decided to dip my toes into these waters: I wrote a longish essay called "Reverting to Type" about my own history as a reader -- a kind of personal epilogue to The Pleasures of Reading -- and decided to submit it as a Kindle Single. Amazon wasn't interested, so I decided to publish it myself using Kindle Direct Publishing. I announced its existence to the world: that is, I posted a link on my tumblelog and tweeted about it. A few people downloaded it; some pointed out typos that I had missed, but that a copy editor surely would have caught. I thought about ways to promote it better but haven't been able to come up with anything other than becoming a self-promoting jerk on Twitter. Last time I checked it had sold 98 copies.
Read the original here:
Digital Self-Publishing: Should Publishers Be Worried?
by Isle of Man Constabulary
At approximately 3.25pm on Wednesday 29th February 2012 a Road Traffic Collision occurred on Barrule Road, Willaston involving a dark blue coloured Mercedes People Carrier, similar to a Mercedes Viano, where a 12 year old school boy crossing the road was injured and received treatment at Nobles Hospital. Injuries sustained in this collision are quite minor but have resulted in him not being able to attend school. The vehicle involved entered Barrule Road from Ballanard Road and travelled into Willaston Crescent. The vehicle is described as having smoked out windows and silver alloy wheels. Police would like to speak to anybody who may have witnessed this incident in order that the owner and driver of the vehicle can be spoken to or if the driver of the vehicle is aware of the incident, they would be urged to contact Police Headquarters at their earliest convenience. If anyone has any further information regarding this incident, and have not already spoken to the Police, please contact Constable Glen Corlett at Lord Street Police Station or Police Headquarters on 631212. -ENDS-
If you'd like to send any information or news releases to us then please feel free to do so and we would be more than happy to consider sharing your news with the Isle of Man!
Send your Isle of Man news to:webmaster@manx.net
Manx Telecom Ltd 2012
Manx Telecom Ltd, Isle of Man Business Park, Cooil Road, Braddan, Isle of Man IM99 1HX Registered in the Isle of Man Reg no.5629V Vat Reg no GB 003-2919-12
Read this article:
Road Traffic Collision - Barrule Road
by Department of Health
Islands Waiting List Down and New Enhanced Services Commence The Isle of Man now has a significantly enhanced breast care service, following the successful implementation of a three phase development plan, first outlined by the Department of Health in 2010. The three phases, which were designed to significantly enhance the scope of breast care available on-Island, were as follows: Fund and appoint a permanent Consultant Breast Surgeon Introduce an on-Island sentinel node biopsy service Introduce an on-Island planned breast reconstruction service Ms Millie Bello, Consultant General Surgeon with a special interest in Oncoplastic Breast Surgery and Breast Care took up post at Nobles Hospital on 1st February 2012. Ms Bello is highly qualified and experienced in oncoplastic and reconstructive breast surgery and breast care. In line with the Departments plans, Ms Bello has already been able to perform sentinel node biopsies (using the blue dye method the radioisotope method will be introduced in the coming months), with breast reconstruction patients already booked-in over the coming weeks - all provided on-Island at Nobles Hospital. Sentinel node biopsies have the benefit of requiring the removal of far less tissue to diagnose the extent and stage of cancer. The provision of on-Island breast reconstruction not only reduces the costs of referring patients to hospitals in the UK, but also ensures that patients dont have to undergo the inconvenience and disruption of travel, instead being treated closer to home, with family and friends available for support. As well as meeting its commitment to implement these three key developments, the Department has also been able to make additional advancements and improvements: The appointment of a permanent Consultant Radiologist with a special interest in breast care The appointment of a second Consultant Histopathologist with an interest in breast disease, due to commence work on 1st March 2012 An increase in the hospital middle grade doctor support for the breast service with the allocation of a full time Associate Specialist and a Specialty Doctor to the breast team An increase in outpatient clinic capacity resulting in reduced waiting times for urgent and non-urgent breast referrals An increase in the number of theatre sessions and the availability of an all day theatre list to allow complex breast surgery and reconstructions to take place on-Island. This also enables the removal of a tumour and subsequent breast reconstruction to be done in a single procedure. Since July 2011 both the overall inpatient and outpatient waiting lists have gone down. These figures include non-urgent and routine referrals that arent cancer related; suspected and confirmed cancer cases are classed as urgent and seen much faster than this average time. Where breast cancer is suspected, patients are given an appointment in the next available clinic and are seen within days. If cancer is confirmed, patients are admitted for treatment within 30 days, this is in line with national standards. On the 14th July 2011 there were 88 patients on the outpatient waiting list who had been waiting an average of 21 days for their appointment. On 14th February 2012 there were 69 patients on the outpatient waiting list who had been waiting an average of 17 days for their appointment. The number of patients waiting on the inpatient lists and the length of time they were waiting for admission were 26 patients waiting on average 226 days on 14th July 2011 and 27 patients waiting on average 158 days on 14th February 2012. Minister for Health, David Anderson MHK said: The Island has a truly exceptional breast service of which we can be very proud. The appointment of our new Consultant Surgeon, Consultant Radiologist and Consultant Histopathologist; not to mention the provision of additional clinic and theatre time and the introduction of on-Island breast reconstruction and sentinel node biopsy all provide a huge leap forward for what was already an excellent breast care service. For the size of our population our breast care service really punches above its weight. Im delighted that the Department has not only been able to go far beyond maintaining the services provided under the previous locum surgeon, but also significantly enhance them for women who suffer from this disease. The team at Nobles Hospital is to be commended for their tireless efforts to develop and enhance our breast service and provide the very highest standards of care for the people of the Isle of Man. We also need to remember of course that in addition to this Ms Bello also provides out of hours general surgical cover on a one in four basis, meaning that the Department now meets the requirements in this regard as laid out by the Royal College of Surgeons so excellent news all-round. We also mustnt forget the important role of prevention, by ensuring we all lead healthy lifestyles, whilst continuing to offer screening where we can to catch any signs of cancer at the earliest opportunity. This theme of prevention and screening lies at the heart of our Health Strategy. Although a review into breast screening is currently underway in the UK by Sir Mike Richards, the Departments advice in this regard currently remains unchanged. Women between the age of 50 and 70 are routinely called for breast screening, every two years. This short diagnostic procedure can save lives, so its important that women attend when called. Anyone outside the age bracket of 50 70 who has concerns can contact their GP or the Breast Screening Service on 685339. - ENDS -
If you'd like to send any information or news releases to us then please feel free to do so and we would be more than happy to consider sharing your news with the Isle of Man!
Send your Isle of Man news to:webmaster@manx.net
Manx Telecom Ltd 2012
Manx Telecom Ltd, Isle of Man Business Park, Cooil Road, Braddan, Isle of Man IM99 1HX Registered in the Isle of Man Reg no.5629V Vat Reg no GB 003-2919-12
Originally posted here:
Good News for Breast Care
By Kate Hessling Assistant News Editor
UPPER THUMB Local governments are working under a tight deadline to develop a plan to substantiate what they believe are true taxable values for wind turbine developments. At the same time, they are throwing their support behind a special tax State Rep. Kurt E. Damrow has proposed for wind energy developments.
Wind companies pay personal property taxes for wind developments, and the taxable values are established by the Michigan Tax Commission. Those values and, as a result, the amount of personal property taxes wind developers pay counties, local townships, schools and libraries decrease each year because of depreciation. And, per an October ruling by the state commission, there will be a larger than previously established drop in values this year.
The county expects the decreased values will mean a roughly $260,000 loss in revenue from local wind developments this year, said Huron County Commissioner Ron Wruble.
In light of the immediacy of the situation, where counties will lose at least 20 percent of revenue from local wind developments, officials are focusing on proceeding with their own study of true cash valuations rather than waiting to get the information from the FOIA requests, Krause said. He said they have until early March to develop a plan substantiating what values they believe are correct because thats when assessments are presented to townships.
At the same time, TRREC, the Michigan Association of Counties, Michigan Township Association and government officials from other counties experiencing wind development are supporting House Bills 5278 and 5279, which were sponsored by Damrow, R-Port Austin. The bills create a separate category to tax commercial wind developments. Its called the Alternative Commercial Energy Systems (ACES). It previously included commercial wind, biomass and solar electric generating systems, but its been amended to include only wind, Damrow said.
We will work on an agenda for commercial biomass and solar, but right now, time is of the essence (for wind developments), he said.
If lawmakers in Lansing approve the ACES tax, rather than paying personal property taxes, wind developers would make ACES payments. The payments either would be a base fee thats established for each system based on the rated megawatt hours each unit will produce, or $4 per megawatt hour generated for sale.
Damrow said his proposed plan is a county-levied tax with 40 percent of the revenue going to the county general fund, 40 percent to the township general fund and 20 percent divided among the host county public schools.
He said with his plan, a township with 50 commercial 1 to 3 megawatt generator wind turbines would see a minimum payment of $482,000 annually to its general fund, and the same amount would be paid to the county general fund which is much more than the $239,739 that Huron County Treasurer Sherry Learman said was distributed among all the local host townships in 2011. The county received $387,837 last year.
Original post:
Officials support proposed tax on turbines