New & Notable

Complete Macro Ring Flash LED Light! Works with Canon/Sony/Nikon/Sigma lenses! Product Review

December 27, 2011
By

NEEWER® Macro Ring LED Light - Works with Canon/Sony/Nikon/Sigma lenses

  • 6 x Adapter Rings Included! (49mm/52mm/55mm/58mm/62mm/67mm)
  • Specially designed ring shape is perfect for MACRO photography (close-up).
  • This light has a double-duty power supply design which allows you to use 2 x AA batteries or DC power
  • This lighting unit provide a continuous lighting (not flashing), the continuous lighting allows you handle exposure easily.
  • Also great for portrait photography.
This LED Macro Ring Light is specifically designed for close shots. It will constantly emit light and provide permanent lighting for subjects. With the LED lamp mode controller, you can adjust the three modes: all light, half left light, and half right light; With the power mode controller, you can choose two different power input modes to offers you continuous light: 2 AA batteries that is convenient for outdoor shooting or AC adapter input. In addition, it includes 6 different thread adapter rings (49mm, 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 62mm or 67mm) to fit wide range of lens models on the market.

Specifications:

Weight of Ring Flash Body: 125g
Weight of Control Unit: 60g
Weight of Electricity Charger: 115g
Weight of Step Ring: 100g
Size of Step Rings: 49mm/52mm/55mm/58mm/62mm/67mm
LED Index: Approx. 15GN (all light on)
Coiled Cord Length: Approx. 100cm
Voltage Range: 100-240V/50-60Hz
Electric Power Consumption: Approx. 5w (all light on)
Power Source: AA batteries×2, or DC3V
Working Hours: 1.5 hours with 1.5V alkaline batteries , 1.0 hour with 1.2V rechargeable batteries

List Price: $ 129.99 Price: $ 30.42

New York Library Lion

November 8, 2011
By

A few nice New & Notable images I found:

New York Library Lion
New & Notable

Image by Bogdan Migulski
The Humanities and Social Science Library of New York Public Library, more widely known as the library system’s "Main Branch" or simply as New York Public Library, is the flagship building in the system and a prominent historic landmark in Midtown Manhattan. The branch, opened in 1911, is one of four research libraries in the library system.

The famous main reading room of the library (Room 315) is a majestic 78 feet (23.8 m) wide by 297 feet (90.5 m) long, with 52 feet (15.8 m) high ceilings. The room is lined with thousands of reference books on open shelves along the floor level and along the balcony, lit by massive windows and grand chandeliers, and furnished with sturdy wood tables, comfortable chairs, and brass lamps. It is also equipped with computers providing access to library collections and the Internet as well as docking facilities for laptops. Readers study books brought to them from the library’s closed stacks. There are special rooms for notable authors and scholars, many of whom have done important research and writing at the Library. But the Library has always been about more than scholars, during the Great Depression, many ordinary people, out of work, used the Library to improve their lot in life (as they still do).[3]

The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
Source: Wikipedia

New York City, Midtown Manhattan, New York Public Library NYPL, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 1897-1911
New & Notable

Image by Vincent Desjardins
www.nypl.org/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Public_Library_Main_Branch

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library, more widely known as the Main Branch or simply as "the New York Public Library," is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system and a prominent historic landmark in Midtown Manhattan. The branch, opened in 1911, is one of four research libraries in the library system. It is located on Fifth Avenue at its intersection with 42nd Street.

The Library’s famous Rose Main Reading Room (Room 315) is a majestic 78 feet (23.8 m) wide and 297 feet (90.5 m) long, with 52-foot (15.8 m) high ceilings. The room is lined with thousands of reference works on open shelves along the floor level and along the balcony, lit by massive windows and grand chandeliers, and furnished with sturdy wood tables, comfortable chairs, and brass lamps. It is also equipped with computers providing access to library collections and the Internet as well as docking facilities for laptops. Readers study books brought to them from the library’s closed stacks. There are special rooms for notable authors and scholars, many of whom have done important research and writing at the Library. But the Library has always been about more than scholars; during the Great Depression, many ordinary people, out of work, used the Library to improve their lot in life, as they still do.

The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965

The building

Bronze bust of John Merwen Carrère, Carrère and Hastings, architects of the New York Public Library
Marble on the library building is about three feet thick, and the building is marble and brick all the way through. The exterior is 20,000 blocks of stone, each one numbered in preparation for a renovation announced in 2007. It stretches 390 feet along Fifth Avenue.
Two stone lions lie at either side of the stairway to the entrance. The famous lions guarding the entrance were sculpted by Edward Clark Potter. Their original names, "Leo Astor" and "Leo Lenox" (in honor of the library’s founders) were transformed into Lord Astor and Lady Lenox (although both lions are male), and in the 1930s they were nicknamed "Patience" and "Fortitude" by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who chose the names because he felt that the citizens of New York would need to possess these qualities to see themselves through the Great Depression. Patience is on the south side (the left as one faces the main entrance) and Fortitude on the north.

Two bronze flagpole bases, sculpted by Raffaele Menconi to a sketch by Thomas Hastings (1912) and cast at Tiffany Studios exemplify the attention to detail in the structure’s fittings
Before the end pavilions are flagpoles, whose sculpted bronze bases designed by Thomas Hastings in 1912 were realized by the sculptor Raffaele Menconi, who often worked closely with New York architects of the Beaux-Arts generation and had a deft command of the 16th century Italian Mannerist classical idiom that was required by Hasting’s design.
The bronzes were cast at Tiffany Studios in Long Island City. They were rededicated to New York’s former Reform mayor, John Purroy Mitchell.

La New York Public Library (NYPL) est l’une des plus importantes bibliothèques américaines. Son bâtiment principal est situé sur l’île de Manhattan, à New York, le long de la 5e avenue. Il a été construit par le cabinet Carrere and Hastings.
Aujourd’hui, sa dotation (ou endowment) est d’environ 462 millions de dollars1. Sa directrice est actuellement Elisabeth Rohatyn, épouse de Felix Rohatyn.

Collections

Actuellement, la bibliothèque publique de la ville de New York comporte 89 bibliothèques : 4 bibliothèques de recherche sans prêt, 4 bibliothèques de prêt principales, 1 bibliothèque pour les aveugles et personnes handicapées, et 77 bibliothèques locales dans les 3 quartiers desservis. Toutes sont gratuites.

En 2007, les collections de recherche comptaient près de 44 millions de documents, dont près de 16 millions de livres. Les bibliothèques locales comptaient plus de 7 millions de documents, dont plus de 4 millions de livres. Au total, les collections se montent à plus de 50 millions de documents, dont plus de 20 millions de livres, un nombre qui n’est dépassé que par la bibliothèque du Congrès et la British Library.

New York City, Midtown Manhattan, New York Public Library NYPL, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 1897-1911. 5th Avenue
New & Notable

Image by Vincent Desjardins
www.nypl.org/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Public_Library_Main_Branch

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library, more widely known as the Main Branch or simply as "the New York Public Library," is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system and a prominent historic landmark in Midtown Manhattan. The branch, opened in 1911, is one of four research libraries in the library system. It is located on Fifth Avenue at its intersection with 42nd Street.

The Library’s famous Rose Main Reading Room (Room 315) is a majestic 78 feet (23.8 m) wide and 297 feet (90.5 m) long, with 52-foot (15.8 m) high ceilings. The room is lined with thousands of reference works on open shelves along the floor level and along the balcony, lit by massive windows and grand chandeliers, and furnished with sturdy wood tables, comfortable chairs, and brass lamps. It is also equipped with computers providing access to library collections and the Internet as well as docking facilities for laptops. Readers study books brought to them from the library’s closed stacks. There are special rooms for notable authors and scholars, many of whom have done important research and writing at the Library. But the Library has always been about more than scholars; during the Great Depression, many ordinary people, out of work, used the Library to improve their lot in life, as they still do.

The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965

The building

Bronze bust of John Merwen Carrère, Carrère and Hastings, architects of the New York Public Library
Marble on the library building is about three feet thick, and the building is marble and brick all the way through. The exterior is 20,000 blocks of stone, each one numbered in preparation for a renovation announced in 2007. It stretches 390 feet along Fifth Avenue.
Two stone lions lie at either side of the stairway to the entrance. The famous lions guarding the entrance were sculpted by Edward Clark Potter. Their original names, "Leo Astor" and "Leo Lenox" (in honor of the library’s founders) were transformed into Lord Astor and Lady Lenox (although both lions are male), and in the 1930s they were nicknamed "Patience" and "Fortitude" by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who chose the names because he felt that the citizens of New York would need to possess these qualities to see themselves through the Great Depression. Patience is on the south side (the left as one faces the main entrance) and Fortitude on the north.

Two bronze flagpole bases, sculpted by Raffaele Menconi to a sketch by Thomas Hastings (1912) and cast at Tiffany Studios exemplify the attention to detail in the structure’s fittings
Before the end pavilions are flagpoles, whose sculpted bronze bases designed by Thomas Hastings in 1912 were realized by the sculptor Raffaele Menconi, who often worked closely with New York architects of the Beaux-Arts generation and had a deft command of the 16th century Italian Mannerist classical idiom that was required by Hasting’s design.
The bronzes were cast at Tiffany Studios in Long Island City. They were rededicated to New York’s former Reform mayor, John Purroy Mitchell.

La New York Public Library (NYPL) est l’une des plus importantes bibliothèques américaines. Son bâtiment principal est situé sur l’île de Manhattan, à New York, le long de la 5e avenue. Il a été construit par le cabinet Carrere and Hastings.
Aujourd’hui, sa dotation (ou endowment) est d’environ 462 millions de dollars1. Sa directrice est actuellement Elisabeth Rohatyn, épouse de Felix Rohatyn.

Collections

Actuellement, la bibliothèque publique de la ville de New York comporte 89 bibliothèques : 4 bibliothèques de recherche sans prêt, 4 bibliothèques de prêt principales, 1 bibliothèque pour les aveugles et personnes handicapées, et 77 bibliothèques locales dans les 3 quartiers desservis. Toutes sont gratuites.

En 2007, les collections de recherche comptaient près de 44 millions de documents, dont près de 16 millions de livres. Les bibliothèques locales comptaient plus de 7 millions de documents, dont plus de 4 millions de livres. Au total, les collections se montent à plus de 50 millions de documents, dont plus de 20 millions de livres, un nombre qui n’est dépassé que par la bibliothèque du Congrès et la British Library.

Notabene: mind body spirit music by Kinski: as well as reviewing notable new CDs as they come to our attention, Kinski’s Notabene page also aims to investigate … spiritual.: An article from: Kindred Spirit

November 6, 2011
By

Notabene: mind body spirit music by Kinski: as well as reviewing notable new CDs as they come to our attention, Kinski’s Notabene page also aims to investigate … spiritual.: An article from: Kindred Spirit

This digital document is an article from Kindred Spirit, published by Kindred Spirits on May 1, 2005. The length of the article is 778 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Notabene: mind body spirit music by Kinski: as well as reviewing notable new CDs as they come to our attention, Kinski’s Notabene page also aims to investigate what it is that might make some music spiritual.
Author: Kinski
Publication: Kindred Spirit (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2005
Publisher: Kindred Spirits
Issue: 74 Page: 66(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

List Price: $ 5.95

Price: $ 5.95

Related New & Notable Products

Cool New & Notable images

November 4, 2011
By

Some cool New & Notable images:

New Yorker Hotel
New & Notable

Image by Michael McDonough
*The 43-storey New Yorker Hotel was built in 1929 and opened its doors on January 2, 1930. Much like its contemporaries, the Empire State Building (opened in 1931) and the Chrysler Building (opened in 1930), the New Yorker is designed in the Art Deco style that was popular in the 1920s and 1930s. The building’s pyramidal, set-back tower structure largely resembles that of the Empire State Building, which lies just a couple blocks due east on 34th Street. For many years, the New Yorker Hotel was New York’s largest hotel.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s the hotel hosted a number of popular Big Bands while notable figures such as Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford and even Fidel Castro stayed here. The inventor Nikola Tesla spent the last ten years of his life in near-seclusion in Suite 3327 (where he also died), largely devoting his time to feeding pigeons while occasionally meeting dignitaries. However, by the late 1960s, with both the passing of the Big Band era as well as the construction of more modern hotels, the hotel slowly lost profitability and closed its doors in April 1972.

Different proposals were offered for the use of the building, and in 1975 it was purchased by the Unification Church, who converted the 30th floor into individual apartments for the True Children. Under new management and following extensive renovation, the New Yorker Hotel finally re-opened its doors as a hotel on 1 June 1994. Since 2000 it has been part of the Ramada franchise. The hotel is currently undergoing another phase of major renovations as evidenced by a large stuffed Polar Bear holding a sign that reads "Please Bear Wittus".

The New Yorker Hotel is located at the corner of 8th Ave and 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan. It is a fully functioning hotel, featuring spectacular panoramic views of midtown Manhattan from its 39th floor dining lounge. Diners get a sweeping view of landmarks such as the Chrysler Building to the north, the Empire State Building and One Penn Plaza, due east, and lower Manhattan, due south. It is in proximity to Madison Square Garden, Penn Station, Macy’s and the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Visitors can come by bus, arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, just a few blocks north on 8th Avenue, or by train, as Penn Station is across the street.

The New Yorker Hotel also featured pro wrestling from the Ring of Honor promotion, featuring one of pro-wrestling’s most famous matches, Kenta Kobashi (representing Pro Wrestling NOAH from Japan) facing Samoa Joe (representing Ring of Honor) in the Grand Ballroom on October 1, 2005. They would hold their final New Yorker show on June 17, 2006.

*Wikipedia

New & Notable
New & Notable

Image by superkimbo
Cool! Checking out iTunes on my iPhone and what do I see under the New
& Notable K12 section? Our ISB podcast channel!

[Irish colleen] (LOC)

April 26, 2011
By

Some cool irish images:

[Irish colleen] (LOC)
irish

Image by The Library of Congress
[Irish colleen]

[between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900].

1 photomechanical print : photochrom, color.

Notes:
Title from the Detroit Publishing Co., catalogue J–foreign section. Detroit, Mich. : Detroit Photographic Company, 1905..
Print no. "12122".
Forms part of: Views of Ireland in the Photochrom print collection.

Subjects:
Ireland.

Format: Photochrom prints–Color–1890-1900.

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Part Of: Views of Ireland (DLC) 2001700656

More information about the Photochrom Print Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.pgz

Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.09946

Call Number: LOT 13406, no. 119 [item]

[Irish colleen] (LOC)
irish

Image by The Library of Congress
[Irish colleen]

[between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900].

1 photomechanical print : photochrom, color.

Notes:
Title from the Detroit Publishing Co., catalogue J–foreign section. Detroit, Mich. : Detroit Photographic Company, 1905..
Print no. "12121".
Forms part of: Views of Ireland in the Photochrom print collection.

Subjects:
Ireland.

Format: Photochrom prints–Color–1890-1900.

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Part Of: Views of Ireland (DLC) 2001700656

More information about the Photochrom Print Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.pgz

Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.09945

Call Number: LOT 13406, no. 118 [item]

[Irish jaunting car] (LOC)
irish

Image by The Library of Congress
[Irish jaunting car]

[between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900].

1 photomechanical print : photochrom, color.

Notes:
Title from the Detroit Publishing Co., catalogue J–foreign section. Detroit, Mich. : Detroit Photographic Company, 1905..
Print no. "*".
Forms part of: Views of Ireland in the Photochrom print collection.

Subjects:
Ireland.

Format: Photochrom prints–Color–1890-1900.

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Part Of: Views of Ireland (DLC) 2001700656

More information about the Photochrom Print Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.pgz

Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.09947

Call Number: LOT 13406, no. 120 [item]

Irish Coffee – A Brief Discussion  

March 29, 2011
By

Irish Coffee – A Brief Discussion  

Article by Bercle George







Although there are a few variations on the way to make Irish coffee, there is a classic version that seems to be known by Irish coffee lovers worldwide. Classic Irish coffee contains hot coffee, Irish whiskey and sugar with double cream. The double cream is whipped until it reaches the point where it begins to stiffen and is then placed on top of the Irish coffee. Irish coffee is thought to be one variation of the classic hot toddy drink. The Irish Pubs in San Francisco have declared that they were the ones that originally invented Irish coffee. However, extensive research has shown that this is not true.

Starting in 1939, all the way to 1945, air travel from America was done by flying boats. These flying boats landed at Foynes, Co. Limerick. The flight took 18 hours and the passengers were cold from the trip that took them from the seaplane to the terminal. Often the weather conditions were cold and rather damp. These passengers wanted to warm themselves upon arrival at the terminal with a hot cup of coffee or tea. However, the manager of the Foynes catering service at the time, Brendan O’Regan, thought that these passengers would appreciate something stronger to drink. Mr. Joseph Sheridan, who was the head Chef at Foynes, obliged and after a significant amount of research, created Irish Coffee

A plaque marking this moment was erected at Shannon Airport. Although traditionally Irish, Irish coffee is enjoyed by many people throughout the whole world. The recipe for this original Irish coffee is as follows:

o Heat a stemmed Whiskey goblet.o Pour in one shot of good Irish Whiskey.o Add three sugar cubes.o Fill the goblet with a very strong blend of coffee, stopping about one inch from the top.o Stir gently to dissolve the sugar.o Add a large dollop of heavy cream that has been slightly aerated.

It is important to remember that you should not stir this mixture after adding the cream. To appreciate the full taste of Irish coffee you need to sip the coffee and whiskey mixture through the cream. Also note that many whipping creams contain additives that allow it to stay good on shelves longer. These additives take away from the whipping creams ability to stay on top of the Irish coffee. If you have the ability to purchase your cream from a farmer, you will be amazed at the difference it makes in your Irish coffee.

There is of course other Irish coffee recipes that can be found. Your favorite Irish coffee will depend on your personal taste preferences. For another Irish coffee recipe that is designed to delight, you will need:

o A glass that holds about 5 oz.o One shot of very good espresso.o Two fingers of good Irish Whiskey.o Two tablespoons of brown sugar.

Heavy cream that is fresh. Lace this cream with a small amount of sugar, and beat until it has the texture of custard. Stop whipping before the cream is fluffy. Assemble all of your ingredients together; prepare your whipped cream mixture leaving it refrigerated. Combine the Whiskey and the brown sugar together in the glass. Use an espresso heater to warm the whiskey allowing the whiskey to get hot and the brown sugar to dissolve.

Very carefully, put a match or a lighter to the glass and allow the whiskey to flame for a few seconds. Although this step can be skipped without compromising the flavor, it does add an extra special touch. It also eliminated a portion of the alcohol allowing the whiskey and coffee to compliment one another better. Pour your espresso shot into the Whiskey and brown sugar mix. Gently place a dollop of your whipped cream mixture on the top of your beverage. All that is left for you to do is to enjoy your wonderful Irish coffee.



About the Author

For information about all things coffee – be sure to visit: http://www.coffee-information.com/

Find More Irish Articles

The Ultimate Home Brewers Recipe Book, 641 Home Brew Recipes

March 11, 2011
By

The Ultimate Home Brewers Recipe Book, 641 Home Brew Recipes
Instantly download 641 home brew recipes. Clone your favorite beer or try one of the hundreds of original, mouth watering home brew recipes.
The Ultimate Home Brewers Recipe Book, 641 Home Brew Recipes

Irish Leaders Castigated As Greatest Traitors Of All Time

February 10, 2011
By

Irish Leaders Castigated As Greatest Traitors Of All Time

The Irish Government has recently passed the harshest budget in the history of the State with further austerity promised for the next three years and perhaps for decades. Prime Minister Brian Cowen and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan have steered Ireland from the booming prosperity of a Celtic Tiger to a ruined shell of a country where unemployment, poverty, emigration, and despair are proceeding to destroy a once proud, industrious people.

Cowen and Lenihan also bear the ignominy of having brought in the International Monetary Fund who, along with EU banksters, are now dictating Irish fiscal policy. The IMF has long had a vulturish reputation for plundering weaker countries by stripping the flesh of its victims down to the bare bones. This repulsive scavenger is well known for promoting austerity and misery, grabbing national assets for its bankster and corporate friends, and leaving the skeleton of a country’s economy in its wake. The first piece of offal to be plucked from the Irish carcass by this opportunistic carrion eater was the nation’s €20 billion pension fund, the life savings of working people.

As a result of Ireland’s dramatic reversal of fortune the names of Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan are now being reviled as the villains who inflicted horrendous financial disaster upon the Irish people and forced the enslavement of future generations to a criminal cadre of International Banksters.

The words ‘treason’, ‘traitors’, and ‘treachery’ are being increasingly used not only by ordinary citizens but also by certain politicians, economists, business leaders, and celebrities. ‘Economic treason’ was a term used by the leader of the Labour Party to describe Cowen and Lenihan’s blanket guarantee to the banks. And, incredibly, even the country’s ostensibly non-partisan police association, the GRA, accused the government of ‘treachery’ and denounced it as a ‘government of national sabotage’.

Today, Cowen and Lenihan are being compared to other traitors in history like Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian politician who assisted the Nazis to conquer his native country; General Benedict Arnold, an American soldier who changed sides during the Revolution and betrayed his country to the British; and even Judas Iscariot, who betrayed his Master for 30 pieces of silver.

In Ireland, the names of Cowen and Lenihan now evoke the same revulsion as that reserved for Dermot MacMurrough, a 12th century King of Leinster who has been loathed for over 8 centuries as the man who brought the first English invaders to Ireland. In 1167, after a dispute with other Irish kings which led to his forced exile, MacMurrough persuaded an English army under the command of the Earl of Pembroke, known as ‘Strongbow’, to invade Ireland and help him take his kingdom back.

MacMurrough died 3 years later and Strongbow declared himself the King of Leinster. Thus began the beginning of a British military occupation that would last for over 800 years and cause countless thousands of Irish deaths and condemn many generations of Irish men and women to utter misery, slavery, famine, and financial and religious tyranny. It is not easy for anyone to incite more odium in the hearts of the Irish people than that of the back-stabber Dermot MacMurrough.

And yet Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan are reviled with the same detestation as that accorded the traitorous 12th century King of Leinster.

What did Cowen and Lenihan do to earn such public loathing?

On September 29th, 2008, a momentous event occurred. That evening, four of the most senior executives of Ireland’s two largest high street banks, Dermot Gleeson and Eugene Sheehy of Allied Irish Bank (AIB) and Brian Goggin and Richard Burrows of Bank of Ireland (BOI), called to Government Buildings for a hastily convened meeting with the Prime Minister, Brian Cowen, and the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan. Also present was the Irish Attorney-General, Paul Gallagher.

The banksters were frantic. As the property bubble was beginning to burst, their main rival, Anglo Irish Bank, was in serious trouble and the huge loss of liquidity could bring down the country’s entire financial system. Like Anglo Irish, AIB and BOI also had massive exposure to the developers and all were in danger of imminent collapse. The banksters implored the Government to do something, immediately, before the money markets opened the following morning.

Having received such stark news from the banksters, Cowen and Lenihan knew they had to move quickly and decisively. They would have to act, and be seen to act, without bias and without favouring any special interest groups. Their first duty was to ensure the welfare of the nation as a whole and to safeguard the financial interests of all the Irish people.

But in this they failed utterly. One special interest group, the banksters, prevailed spectacularly over the interests of the Irish people. How did the banksters manage to wield such inordinate influence over crucial governmental policy?

A key disturbing fact about this meeting was never commented upon in the mainstream media. On the government side of the table sat Paul Gallagher, the Attorney-General, legal adviser to the Irish Government. On the banksters’ side of the table sat Dermot Gleeson, the AIB chairman and himself a former Irish Attorney-General. But, apart from both men holding the senior law office of the land, a more sinister connection between them remained undisclosed. They were both Bilderbergers.

For those who haven’t heard of the Bilderbergers, they are a brotherhood of unelected international banksters, corporatists, politicians, and others who meet secretly every year to formulate and manipulate world policy in finance, economics, trade, and any other area that they can control for their own selfish, globalist interests.

It may well be that the presence of the two Bilderbergers, Gleeson and Gallagher, was just a coincidence but, considering such incredibly high stakes, it can be argued that Gallagher’s attendance as Attorney-General at such a crucial meeting generated a monumental conflict of interest. His Bilderberger connection clearly compromised him as legal adviser to the Irish Government, especially when his Bilderberger pal, Gleeson, was about to be on the receiving end of a whopping government bailout.

After a surprisingly short discussion with some members of the cabinet, the Attorney-General, and top civil servants, Cowen and Lenihan arrived at an ominous decision. They decided that the Government would guarantee all the liabilities of six Irish banks – not just customer and interbank deposits but also the full exposure of all bondholders! This amounted to some 450 billion euro, an astronomical figure which, if ever called upon, would destroy the country.

With the stroke of a pen Cowen and Lenihan shifted hundreds of billions of private debt incurred by greedy, fraudulent banksters and dumped it onto the backs of the Irish people. This was an incredible act of treachery against the Irish nation. What could possess these two politicians to put their people into impossible debt and penury – perhaps for generations – just to save a few mega-rich banksters from taking a loss on their reckless gambling? Was it utter ineptitude or was it something more sinister than that?

As Marcellus said to Horatio in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, ‘Something is rotten in the State of Denmark.’ He said ‘Denmark’, but he might well have been describing present-day Ireland. This bank guarantee deal stinks to high heaven!

Inflicting a risk exposure of €450 billion on the Irish nation was tantamount to state suicide. The willing and needless placement of an entire people into such peril could only be the result of criminal incompetence or criminal collusion. There could be no other explanation, except, of course, criminal insanity. Take your pick. Are Cowen and Lenihan criminally inept, corrupt, or insane?

To put the enormity of the hazard to the nation into perspective let’s compare it to U.S Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s 2008 bank bailout of 0 billion which was then strenuously opposed by the great majority of the American people. The Irish bailout was the equivalent of more than 5 billion dollars, not a far cry from the 0 billion that so appalled and angered most Americans. Consider that the U.S. has a population of 300 million while Ireland only has a population of less than 4.5 million, much the same as the state of Louisiana.

At 3.30am the four bankers left. According to Shane Ross, author of Bankers, they had ‘put the gun to the Government’s head and the ministers had delivered.’

Ireland was aghast. Cowen and Lenihan said the bailout was necessary to preserve Ireland’s creditworthiness with ‘the markets’. This was hogwash and was said so by many people at the time, including leading economists. (The fallacy of the ministers’ thinking is borne out by the approach of the plucky Icelandic people who refused to take on private bankster debt and whose economy is now in a much healthier position than that of Ireland.) But Lenihan persisted with the bailout declaring that it would be ‘the cheapest bailout in history’. Those words, like the ghost in Hamlet, would soon come back to haunt him.

Cowen and Lenihan then proceeded to pour taxpayers’ money into the banks, capitalizing the high street lenders to the tune of some €13.5 billion. This figure did not even include the requirements of Anglo Irish Bank, the biggest culprit of fraudulent lending, who Lenihan said could be saved with a €4 billion bailout. As time progressed the Minister of Finance continually revised his figures upwards, going to €12 billion, €18 billion, €24 billion, and now the figure is hovering around €35 billion. The Irish people will never see a single cent of the tens of billions poured into that black hole that is Anglo Irish Bank. This cannot be described as anything other than an act of outrageous criminality.

Another fiasco in the making, the brainchild of Lenihan and Cowen, is NAMA (National Asset Management Agency), set up to restore the banks’ balance sheets by buying their toxic loans to the tune of some €54 billion of taxpayers’ money. This is another huge and needless risk that is likely to go disastrously wrong and which hangs eternally over Irish taxpayers like the Sword of Damocles. The slightest miscalculation and the sword falls – with devastating effect.

This writer, and many others, pointed out at the time that there was a much better short-term solution to the Irish banking problem. The Government could have let the banks fail – that’s what happens in capitalism when businesses are reckless or make mistakes – and set up a state bank. A state bank could have created all the credit the country needed with a much, much smaller outlay. Through fractional reserve lending, a bank can create some twelve and a half times the amount of credit that it holds in assets. For example, if a state bank is capitalised with €10 billion it can lend out €125 billion. With only €20 billion in capital a state bank could create and lend out €250 billion. This would have boosted Irish businesses and given the economy a huge injection and would have obviated the need to go back to the exploitative money markets.

(It is important to point out that this would be a short-term solution only. The real cause of global financial chaos and prohibitive national debt is the permitting of private banking cartels to create a nation’s money, money that is based on debt and bears interest and which makes an immense fortune for the international banksters – to the impoverishment of the people.)

But Cowen and Lenihan seemed not to be focussed on what was good and efficacious for the people of Ireland but on how to save a few criminal banksters from incurring gigantic losses.

Before the bank guarantees, Ireland had a manageable sovereign debt. But after taking on the private debts of reckless, fraudulent banksters Cowen and Lenihan drove Ireland into insolvency. Interest on Irish government bonds rose dramatically and threatened to destabilise the Euro. Uncertainty about Ireland’s ability to handle its deficit caused unrest in Portuguese and Spanish bond markets. There were concerns too about Belgium and Italy. The EU, fearful that panic and contagion would spread and collapse the Euro, bullied the Irish Government into taking a joint EU/IMF bailout. The high placed members of the self-serving Brussels elite were willing to impose hardship and needless austerity upon the people of Ireland in order to save their precious Euro and to preserve their positions of opulence and power.

The Irish economy per se did not need a bailout, but Irish banks did. The IMF does not lend to banks but only to sovereign countries. (That way, they can force a country to bleed its taxpayers to get their money back.) Cowen and Lenihan then proceeded to sell the idea of an EU/IMF loan to the country as a ‘rescue package’ for the Irish nation. This was a complete lie. It was a rescue package mainly for German, British, and French banks who had recklessly and greedily loaned billions to Irish banks during the Celtic Tiger boom.

David McWilliams, Irish economist, broadcaster, and writer, says of the IMF, ‘It is not here to bail us out; it is here to bail [the banks] out. The bailout is a bailout for the banks of Germany and France and the Irish taxpayer foots the bill. It is that simple. And where will the EU and IMF money come from? It will be borrowed from the very investment banks that will be bailed out. So they will get interest payments from us, in order that we pay for their mistakes.’

This view is echoed by Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev, adjunct lecturer in Finance at Trinity College, Dublin, who likens the ECB/IMF bailout to ‘corporate welfare’ (as opposed to social welfare). ‘It’s worse than corporate welfare, it’s corporate welfare with a massive moral hazard loaded on top. This is an undemocratic, corporatist transfer of wealth from ordinary citizens to a tiny group of people: bank bondholders…’

Just who are these precious bondholders that Cowen and Lenihan would bind and bankrupt the country in order to make up their ‘gambling’ losses?

Senator and presidential hopeful David Norris tried to read out their names under parliamentary privilege in the Irish Senate but was quickly silenced. It seems that Cowen and Lenihan and the Irish Government do not want the people to know that they have been put into debt slavery for the benefit of some of the wealthiest, most fraudulent banksters in the world. The names of these bondholders are now a matter of public record, thanks to investigative journalists like Guido Fawkes (www.order-order.com).

Some of the more familiar names among the four score or so major bondholders are Goldman Sachs, one of the most despised banks on Wall Street whose name is synonymous with greed, sleaze, and fraud. Max Keiser, broadcaster and former broker & options trader, says, ‘Goldman Sachs are scum. I mean that’s the bottom line. They have basically co-opted the U.S. Government, they have co-opted the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve functionality. They’ve co-opted the Obama administration. And Barack Obama dances to Goldman Sach’s tune. They are really crooked and abominable in what they’ve done.’

Keiser continues, with remarkable candour, ‘Just remember, Hank Paulson held Congress hostage, took them in the back room and said give us 0 billion or we’re gonna crash the market. He’s an arsonist; he’s an outlaw. And yet he’s given praise. If you go down the list, they’re all Goldman Sachs scum, whether it’s Hank Paulson, whether it’s Geithner…you know Geithner has very strong ties to Goldman Sachs…and of course all these banking bonuses are paid out to all their cronies who are Goldman Sachs scum.’

Another Anglo Irish Bank bondholder is the Rothschilds Bank, Zurich; the Rothschild family are reputed to have owned half the wealth of Europe a century and a half ago – how much do they own now? And most of the remaining bondholders are worth an accumulation of some twenty trillion euro. An Irish default would involve such an insignificant fraction of their wealth that it would hardly cause them to raise their eyebrows. Yet Cowen and Lenihan forced crippling debt upon the Irish people for many years to come in order to repay the banksters every single cent of their reckless investments.

One great irony amid all this debt and despair is the great wealth recently discovered in the gas fields off the west coast of Ireland. The Corrib gas field alone is reckoned to be worth well over €420 billion, enough to pay off all of Ireland’s debts and make the country vastly rich. According to the Petroleum Affairs Division there is even more gas and oil off the west coast, perhaps as much as 13 trillion euro or beyond, enough to make millionaires of every man, woman, and child in Ireland.

What did the Irish Government do with this €420 billion windfall from the Corrib field? They gave it away to Royal Dutch Shell for nothing. Yes, nothing! In an incredible move, the government cut the State’s share from 50% to zero on all its offshore oil and gas and abolished all royalties.

Why would they do such a crazy thing?

For an answer to that you’ll have to ask the then minister, Ray Burke, who was later convicted and jailed for political corruption on other matters.

Royal Dutch Shell, with its monthly revenues fluctuating between billion and billion, certainly doesn’t need the money as much as the Irish people do. Royal Dutch Shell is a key Bilderberg asset; its principal shareholder is Queen Beatrix of Holland, a long-time member of Bilderberg which was founded by her father, Prince Bernhard, a former officer of Hitler’s SS. Giving these plutocrats billions, and perhaps trillions, in oil and gas for absolutely nothing is criminally obscene and utterly enraging. These energy resources rightfully belong to the Irish people and it’s not for individual politicians, whether corrupt or incompetent, to give them away for nothing.

Looking forward, there will soon be a new government in Ireland. It is now time for the Irish people to take a firm stand. In the coming election campaign they must warn incoming government hopefuls that there HAS to be radical change. The criminal pledges of an outgoing government of traitors MUST be dismantled and consigned to the trash can, along with their authors. The people will not stand for more of the same old bullshit gombeen politics; they are in no mood for mealy-mouthedness or ineffectual tinkering with a failed system. They demand nothing less than clear, decisive, and even ruthless change. They demand leaders of integrity, innovation, and courage. And they demand a decent living for themselves, their children, and future generations yet unborn. There can be no going back!

Actions that should be taken as a matter of urgency:

•    Defaulting on private bankster debt which is not a just or proper debt of the Irish people.
•    Leave the Euro and return to the Irish Punt. (And consider leaving the EU altogether and take back control of our seas which have been plundered of hundreds of billions of euro of fish stock by other EU nations.)
•    End Fractional Reserve Banking and take the power of money creation back from private, criminal banking cartels. The Government would then issue debt-free, interest-free money for the benefit of all the people.
•    Spend this debt-free money on hospitals, education, sustainable green energy, ports & harbours, transportation, roads, and infrastructure such as the 100+ year old water and sewage systems that are about to collapse.
•    Take full control of all oil, gas, and mineral deposits on land and within our territorial waters.
•    Pay a monthly dividend, or basic income, to every adult and child, such as that described in Social Credit or as explained in ‘The Cook Plan’ by Richard C. Cook.
•    Promote organic farming so that we are more self-sufficient and need to import less and less foreign foodstuffs.
•    Encourage the use of natural medicines and natural health therapies so that the people have real freedom of choice.
•    Reduce the number of seats in parliament, abolish the senate and useless quangos, and use the internet more to interface with our politicians and government.
•    Make the Mainstream Media truly independent so that they will return to being the proper watchdogs of the people.
•    Promote the arts and artists so that we may discover our true spiritual nature and live in peace and harmony and abundance on this wondrous planet of ours.

If a new Irish government implements the actions listed above, the country will quickly achieve unrivalled prosperity and contentment and could well become a guiding light for momentous reform in other nations of the world.

Pecunia, si uti scis, ancilla est; si nescis, domina. (If you know how to use money, money is your slave; if you don’t, money is your master.)

http://foolscrow.wordpress.com

Current incarnation – Gabriel Donohoe: Writer, Natural Health Therapist & Educator, and Shamanic Counsellor. Located in Ireland.

At present walking the Earth Path to heal, to learn through teaching, and to help fellow embodied spirits raise their levels of consciousness and to connect with The Great Mysterious.

Wakan tanka nici un mitakola (Walk in Peace).

Blog: http://foolscrow.wordpress.com/


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New York City’s First Irish Brigade 1849-1857

January 21, 2011
By

New York City’s First Irish Brigade 1849-1857

American male citizens between 18 and 45 were subject to military service in the state militias and nation. American Irish leaders adopted the idea that service to New York State and by extension the United States, could be used as a vehicle to create an Irish liberation army within the ranks of the militia.

The Irish Republican Union formed in New York City for the purpose of aiding those of their countrymen who arrived sick and starving as a result of the Great Famine find food, shelter and work. The Union formed a military company in 1848. The leaders of the Union began to lobby for membership in the New York State Militia undergoing reorganization during this period.Their effort received a boost when the escaped leaders of the Young Ireland Movement arrived in New York and began their efforts to free Ireland from England. They found sympathy and support from the American Irish in the city.

Michael Doheny, a principal leaders of the Young Irelanders, saw that if these uniformed, trained Irishment had been In Ireland in 1848, the outcome of the failed rebellion might have been decidedly different. A lawyer by trade, Doheny gained admittance to the New York bar and founded several Irish newspaper that agitated for Ireland’s independence from England. He melded with American Irish leaders such as James Huston and Michael Phelan to push efforts to create an army for service in Ireland when the time was right for another try at revolution.

The Union’s military organization had grown to muster a regiment regularly organized according to the Militia Law of New York. Michael Phelan, one of the best-known Irishman in America, handled negotiations with the division commander of New York City, Major Charles W. Sandford and their provisional brigade commnder Brigadier General Charles Yates. Both officers recommended inclusion of the Irish in the militia and Governor approved the petition 21 December 1849; the regiments was designated the Ninth Regiment (1st Irish). The Ninth New York had organized in 1799 and had a long and distinguished career of service to the state and nation. The Ninth, in common with many other militia regiments, numbers had fallen so it was a regiment in name only. The Militia Act of 1846 consolidated or disbanded companies and regiments that were no longer viable organizations.The old Ninth disbanded and the Irish Regiment assigned its number. The First Irish Regiment, “The Michell Guard,” became the first all Irish regiment in the New York State Militia. Benjamin Fenton Ferris commanded the regiment. Doheny commanded Company C “Irish Pike Guard.” Phelan commanded a company of the Ninth also.

The Ninth Regiment was the first regimental sized unit in the New York Militia. Irish companies could be found in almost all militia regiments of the state. Brooklyn, an independent city during the years prior to the Civil War, located across the East River in King’s and Queen’s Counties, had a substansial Irish community. The Fourteenth Brooklyn Regiment boasted three Irish companies and the Seventieth Regimanet (Cavalry) had an Irish artillery company. The State Legistlature authorized a new regiment for King’s and Queen’s Counties to be numbered Seventy-second, eventually becoming the “National Gurd” and later the “National Rifles”

Irish patriot leaders decided to form a second Irish regiment following the plan to create an Irish Brigade within the New York Militia. The Second Irish Regiment opened recruiting offices in October 1851. The new regiment mustered into state service 1 November 1851and numbered Sixty-ninth. Dohney left the Ninth Regiment and was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the new regiment. Phelan remained with the Ninth. These two regiments technically formed a brigade as the state militia statues stated brigades could be from two to four regiments. The Ninth and Sixty-ninth served in the Second Brigade of the First Division, whose headquarters were in the city. The Seventy-second served in the Second Division.

By 1852 six thousand men were enrolled in the uniformed milita. Twenty-six hundred, one-third were Irish serving in the Ninth, Sixty-ninth regiments and companies in other regiments within the city.

The milita regiments of the first division played host to visiting dignataries stopping the city. Lajos Kossuth, leader of the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1848, stopped in the city on his tour of the United States. Major General Sandford invited Kossuth to review the division Twuesday 16 December 1851. Many leaders and participants of failed revolutions that erupted across Europe in 1848 making their way to the United States for refuge and new opportunities. The Irish viewed their exile as temporary and had undertaken the task of building an Irish Liberation Army within the framework of the various state militias.

This effort received a powerful boost when Thomas Francis Meagher, the leading orator of the movement, escaped from his exile in Australia and reached New York’s welcoming arms. Doheny and the other exiled Young Irelanders as well as American Irish leaders in New York and elsewhere embraced Meagher. Meagher also received an invitation from General Sandford to review the first division which he accepted.

Meagher stood on the reviewing stand with Sandford. His chest swelled as the Irish companies and regiments of the division’sregiments passed in review. Meagher’s agile mind quickly grasped thescene unfolding before him. If these men had been Ireland four years ago, the revolution possibly would have succeeded rather than fizzle out as the Crown forces moved to arrest the leaders and drove others into exile. Meagher determined to call for a general muster of all Irish companies and regiments of New York City and State.

Tuesday 27 July 1852 was the time and Battery Park the place chosen to parade New York’s Irish military organizations. America had never seen such a gathering of Irish soldiers. New York City mustered all its companies and regiments; Brooklyn and Williamsburg ( a separate city) sent their Irish units across the river; Jersey City, Newark and Paterson represented New Jersey’s Irish companies. The parade completed, the officers of the Irish regiments reparied to Castle Garden to deliver an address honoring Meagher. The Sixty-ninth’s Lieutenant Colonel Michael Dohany delivered the address.

Meagher’s reply called for an increase in Irish military organization in New York and other states with large numbers of Irish.The officers from New York’s First Division initiated steps to enlist another Irish rifle regiment, the Fourth that day.

Michael Phelan joined Doheny in agreeing to recruit and train the new regiment. Phelan had a reputation for his military acumen among the more militant members of the Irish Confederation.He had a hand in organizing the Irish regiments in the city. The nucleus for the new regiment was the “Mitchel Light Guard” commanded by Captain Joseph Brennan; the officers and men of the company, except for Brennan himself, hailed from County Waterford, meagher’s home. The Smith O’Brien Cadets were prevailed upon to join the Mitchel Guard in the new regiment. This company had formed with the intention of joining the Ninth Regiment. The new regiment numbered Seventy-fith in the New York Line, became known as the “Republican Rifles” with Meagher as Colonel and Doheny Lieutenant Colonel in 1852.

The year 1852 was significant for the foundation of the “Silent Friends,” later known as ”Sinn Fein” (Ourselves Alone). The movedment was founded by James Huston, a captain in the Ninth Regiment; the idea and society rapidly caught on in the Ninth and Sixty-ninth Regiments and other Irish units in the city and spread across the East River to the Irish regiment and companies in the Second Division. All the Young Irelanders joined with American Irish in the new society.

The Irish brigade began to unravel in 1854. The Seventy-second had become a predominantly German as Irish members left the area for other parts of the state and nation. One all Irish company remained in the regiment. The Fourth Irish languished as Meagher, its titular commander frequently left New York for speaking engagements to Irish citizens in other states and cities of the Union. Meagher’s message hammered home the creation of a liberation army created by Irishmen forming armed and uniformed companies for the state militias where they resided. Doheny was the defacto commander of the regiment. December 1854 the regiment was reorganized. The Christmas Day edition of New York Times carried an article on the accpetance of the reorganized regiment once commanded by Colonel Doheny. The retained the number Seventy-fifth, but the nom de guerre was “Irish Rifles.” The regiment had seven full companies, about 350 men; John H. McCunn was commissioned Colonel.

The Adjutant General’s Report to the State Assembly stated that the Ninth and Seventy-fifth regiments were amalgamated. The reports usually detailed is silent on the reason of consolidation. It might have been caused by the Panic of 1857 or the migration of Irishmen to the California and Colorado goldfields. It is also possible that the declared intention of the Irish militia was the liberation of Ireland, may have triggered a diplomatic protest from England to the U.S. government.

The final blow to the First Irish Brigade was the decision in 1858 to consolidate the Ninth and Sixty-ninth regiments; leaving the Sixty-ninth the only all Irish regiment in the city militia district. The Irish Republican Brotherhood was founded t the same time in the law office of Michael Doheny. Meagher, Phelan, Huston and others were founding members. The Brotherhood took firm hold in the Sixty-ninth.

Three years later the Irish Brigade would rise again as Civil War gripped the nation. All the Irish or predomiantly Irish regiments contained members of the original brigade in its ranks

William O’Neill was born in New York City and has a lifelong interest in military history;the Civil War has been a passion since 1960 when I saw my first Civil War reenactment in 1961.


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Room: A Novel

January 16, 2011
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Room: A Novel

  • ISBN13: 9780316098335
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Amazon Best of the Month, September 2010: In many ways, Jack is a typical 5-year-old. He likes to read books, watch TV, and play games with his Ma. But Jack is different in a big way–he has lived his entire life in a single room, sharing the tiny space with only his mother and an unnerving nighttime visitor known as Old Nick. For Jack, Room is the only world he knows, but for Ma, it is a prison in which she has tried to craft a normal life for her son. When their insular world suddenly expands beyond the confines of their four walls, the consequences are piercing and extraordinary. Despite its profoundly disturbing premise, Emma Donoghue’s Room is rife with moments of hope and beauty, and the dogged determination to live, even in the most desolate circumstances. A stunning and original novel of survival in captivity, readers who enter Room will leave staggered, as though, like Jack, they are seeing the world for the very first time. –Lynette Mong


To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough…not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son’s bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

List Price: $ 24.99

Price: $ 13.43

Finding Your Career Fit

January 3, 2011
By
Careers
by heraldpost

Finding Your Career Fit

Have you ever had a job that just wasn’t a fit? I sure have, and I was miserable.  Even when I really liked the work, there were some days I barely had the energy to get up and go to the office. I wasn’t happy to be there. I didn’t feel like my work was making a big impact. I lost my enthusiasm and creativity. At the end of the day, I was so drained. Then, I’d go to bed and get up to do it all over again. I felt like a hamster on a wheel and dreamed of escaping, but I felt stuck. Maybe you’re in that job now and you’re miserable.

So, what do you do when you feel stuck and miserable in your career?

Figure out what isn’t working. Usually, there is one aspect of the job that isn’t working for you. It could be that the work you’re doing isn’t interesting, you’re in the wrong role, or you’re in the wrong environment.

When the work isn’t interesting, and you’re struggling to keep up
Sometimes, the work you’re doing just isn’t interesting anymore. I see this a lot when people get stuck using skills they’re good at but don’t enjoy using. For example, I’ve had highly creative clients, who are also organized, get stuck in project management roles. In those roles, they have to focus on details and information. But, what excites them is coming up with new ideas for products or programs and handing the details over to someone else. Working against your interests is a stressful place to be, often leading to burnout. Before long, your enthusiasm and engagement in the job will go away. That will lead to poor performance and ultimately, you could get fired.

When you’re in the wrong role, and you’re heading in the wrong direction
Your career could also be heading in the wrong direction. When someone performs well, there is always the pressure of seeking out advancement. But, not everyone wants that level of responsibility. When you advance up the management ranks you become removed from the work you enjoyed to managing people doing the work you enjoyed. It’s a very different skill set that doesn’t come naturally to most people. At some point, you have to decide if you want to advance or not, or even if you want a traditional career path. For example, many people opt out of the traditional job progression in favor of portfolio careers or business ownership.

When you’re in the wrong environment, and you’re feeling out of place
This is a little harder to pinpoint, but it’s the cause for a lot of frustration at work. It has to do with a mismatch of values and personality. You might be an introvert who likes to get work done alone and in silence but are working in an environment where you’re expected to work on groups projects to get work done. Or, maybe you like to have a fun, open environment yet people are often working behind closed doors. Even harder is when you work in an environment where your cultural, religious or personal values are not valued and respected by your co-workers. All of those scenarios and many more often lead to misunderstandings.

If any of this describes your situation, it’s time to do something about it. Personally, after a series of bad jobs, I had the chance to go through a career assessment process. It was the best thing I could have done for me and my career. I already knew that I was a helper, and that was confirmed. I discovered that I need a lot of autonomy, independence, and challenge in my career. I wasn’t getting that in my previous jobs. I tuned in to my skills and found that many of them were not being used in meaningful ways. Much to my surprise, I also realized the profound importance of being in the right work environment. I always thought that I could do work I loved anywhere. I was wrong!

If you’re struggling now and want to know how to change your career situation, I suggest you also take some time to reflect on your current situation to figure out what’s out of sync. Go through a career assessment process so you can have a better understanding about how you want to use your skills, what role you want to have and the best environment for your personality. Career tools such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Skillscan, and StrengthsQuest provide good insight. Of course, there are tons of books out there, too. You can work through the process on your own, but I think it’s helpful to get guidance and support from a career counselor or coach. When I went through my career assessment process, I had a career counselor and mentor who helped me sort through the reports and come up with an action plan.

What I’ve come to learn through my bad job experiences is the importance of doing work that is fulfilling, in the right place in alignment with my career vision. While it’s not always easy, you have to stay true to your goals and dreams. For me, when I’m working within the right circumstances, I can make the biggest impact, and I’m happier, overall. That realization inspired me to write my career guide, Fast Track Your Career: Three Steps for Finding Work You Love and create my career transition programs. By sharing my experiences and the steps I’ve taken to stay on the right career track, I’ve been able to live my career vision.


Other articles by Markell on this topic:
4 Ways to Pursue Your Passion
http://futures-in-motion.com/articles/article_archive_4_ways_pursue_passion.php

Getting Unstuck: One Action that Can Change Your Career
http://www.futures-in-motion.com/article-detail.php?DocumentId=83

The Job Seeker’s Dilemma: Is it Time to Change Career Direction
http://www.futures-in-motion.com/article-detail.php?DocumentId=77

Markell Steele is a career counselor, owner of Futures in Motion, Inc. and author of Fast Track Your Career: Three Steps for Finding Work You Love. She helps frustrated job seekers find career direction so they can get the job they want in less time with less stress.

Find more career and job search articles at http://www.futures-in-motion.com/article_archive.php.


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Careers worth working towards  

January 3, 2011
By
Careers
by The Cleveland Kid

Careers worth working towards  

Article by Talent Ocean





With so many careers to select from, it’s no wonder that our choice of careers is one of our dominant life themes, right from our earliest years. Children as young as two can often be found playing around the theme of careers. At this tender age, career selection is one of the many ways to demonstrate our human need to participatemeaningfully in our community. Of course, awareness of careers at this time is limited and so favourites – like fireman, ballerina, cowboy, police officer and pop star – outstrip other careers. For most, these early choices represent just one of many careers considered over a lifetime. However, some are so passionate in their early choice of careers that the decision remains firm well into adulthood.

Earning potential begins to play a bigger role in the preference of careers during high school, particularly when children enter career guidance and are required to choose subjects to focus on in their last three years of school. Indeed, it’s not rare to hear teenagers debating the earning potential of a variety of careers, careers that were unimaginable in toddler years.

This period is unfortunately the only time that the majority of us spend on investigating careers, selecting a career path and planning towards its fruition.

During this time, we receive focused career advice, as we embark on a career search that could hopefully bring us adult satisfaction. The advent of the Internet has eased this process, with a wealth of information available on careers online, providing greater insight into the many careers that exist.

As adults, focus on careers and career planning is commonly relegated to rare moments of contemplation. And many consider job selection to be the same as assessing career opportunities. However, the stepping from one job to another is rarely a considered career move. Rather it is frequently the pursuit of immediate status, environmental and/or financial improvements. Those concentrating on their careers, focus on the long term advances the move brings to their career plan.
So are you following a career plan? Ask yourself that standard interview question: “Where do you see yourself in five years time?” A vague response could indicate that you are neglecting your career plan or in need of one! Sit down, start investigating careers, weigh benefits and suitability, and plan your career to be the best of all the careers for you.

Luckily, it’s never too late to start the careers game and plotting your career path. After all, most will have around three careers in their lifetime.

source: http://www.talentocean.co.za/article/careers

About the Author

Talent Ocean is a South African career portal for job seekers and recruiters. It includes career development, and one of the highest databases of candidates in the country.
Your career plan is important because it will determine how you develop your career as you identify opportunities that will develop your career.

How to achieve a better career as a career counsellor  

December 31, 2010
By
Careers
by FUNKYAH

How to achieve a better career as a career counsellor  

Article by James Copper





Securing the help of a career counsellor if you are thinking about changing your career makes great sense. Lets explore what a career counsellor is all about, what she or he can offer in the way of help changing career, and what services are provided.

If looking for a career counsellor to help you in changing your career is fraught with anxiety, consider this. A licensed career counsellor is very qualified to objectively help you find a great career path for you. Each licensed career counsellor is especially qualified for changing career services, with a graduate degree in counselling and a further specialization in career counselling.

Not all career counselling services are the same. There are varying levels of career counselling that including career counsellor fellows, master career counsellors, registered professional career counsellors and master career development professionals. Generally changing a career is exactly what theyre trained to help with. They help folks make these career changing decisions and help get them on their way to the new career. They help people determine the education and skills that are required of the career theyre thinking of changing to, and help them find the educational facilities and tools to acquire that training.

Specific techniques and strategies for career changing that counsellors practice include group and / or individual counselling session that help clients clarify their life as well as their career goals.

Career counsellors carefully listen to the situations and circumstances that bring the individuals to the point in life that theyre thinking about changing their career.

Career counsellors administer tests that help assess career interests and skills. They interpret the results of the tests, and explain to the client what the tests suggest in the way of interests and abilities. Based on the test results, the career counsellor can advise the client on career changing goals.

Career counsellors encourage their career changing clients to complete exploratory assignments and activities that assess career appropriateness. They provide the opportunities that will help their client improve their own skills in decision making. They help the client draw up career plans and teach job hunting and resume development skills and strategies.

Before suggesting changing careers the counsellor may help the client resolve personal conflicts in the current job situation, or the potential for conflict in any new job situation through the improvement of human relations skills.

A career counsellor can also help the client and the clients family improve their work / life balance to the betterment of family and personal relationships. The counsellor can also be supportive to the person who is experience stress due to job loss, changing career due to forces beyond their control such as downsizing or termination, and just the fear of the unknown career and work environment.

To help those changing their career a counsellor must have at least a Masters degree in counselling, which includes the completion of at least two years of supervised counselling experience.

About the Author

James Copper is a writer for http://www.newcareerskills.co.uk where you can help yourself get a better career

Wooden Photo Frame Christmas Ornaments – box of 12

December 19, 2010
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Wooden Photo Frame Christmas Ornaments – box of 12

  • set of 12 assorted
  • snowman, santa, snowflakes, train, christmas tree,gingerbread man

Wooden Photo Frame Ornaments. Assorted styles. Each 4 1/2″ frame will hold an approx. 1 5/8″ photo, each has plastic photo cover, new in box, set of 12

Price: $ 19.95

Freeze Young Mens Clubber Lang Photo Real T-Shirt

December 17, 2010
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Freeze Young Mens Clubber Lang Photo Real T-Shirt

  • Cotton
  • Short sleeve

Mr t-photo real

List Price: $ 12.99

Price:

Coby Dp700Blk 7-Inch Digital Photo Frame

December 17, 2010
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Coby Dp700Blk 7-Inch Digital Photo Frame

  • 7″ Tft LCD Display
  • Displays Jpeg Photo Files
  • Photo Slideshow Mode
  • Calendar & Clock With Alarm Timer

Coby Dp700Blk 7″ Digital Photo Frame

List Price: $ 49.99

Price: $ 38.29

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December 16, 2010
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3M Command 17505 Photo Clips

  • 6 clips and 8 strips

Command, 6 Count, 3.875″ x 6.75″ x .8125″, Small Transparent Quick Clip Hooks, For Hanging Memos, Photos, Children’s Art Work, Coupons, Phone Lists, The Opportunities Are Endless, An Easy & Affordable Way To Organize & Decorate, Contains 6 Clips & 8 Strips Per Pack.

List Price: $ 4.59

Price: $ 2.99

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December 16, 2010
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Ten-Photo Mobile

  • Design Wil van den Bos
  • Stainless steel wire with 10 clips
  • A fantastically modern way to display your favorite photos
  • use it to display kid’s artwork
  • or as a funky way to offer your business cards at your store or office

This mobile is great for hanging photos or flash cards. Stainless steel wire with 10 clips. It will hold 5 flash cards when held with 2 clips per card. Width 16″ Height 22″.

List Price: $ 8.99

Price: $ 7.75

Coby DP700WD 7-Inch Widescreen Digital Photo Frame (Wood Design)

December 9, 2010
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Coby DP700WD 7-Inch Widescreen Digital Photo Frame (Wood Design)

  • 7 inch widescreen TFT LCD color display
  • Displays JPEG photo files, Calendar and clock display
  • SD/SDHC, MMC, and MS memory card support
  • Full-size USB port for use with flash memory drives
  • Wall-mountable design with detachable stand

With the Coby DP700WD 7 inch widescreen digital photo frame you can display all of your fondest memories. Displays JPEG photo files, calendar and clock display. SD /SDHC, MMC and MS memory card support, full size USB port for use with flash memory drives, wall-mountable design with detachable stand, wood design • Resolution: 480×234 Resolution: 480×234 • Contrast Ratio: 300:1 • Brightness: 200 cd/m2 • Removable Memory Support SD/SDHC, MMC, MS, USB flash drive • File Format Support Photo: JPEG • PC Interface USB 2.0 Hi-speed • Power AC 100-240V.

List Price: $ 49.99

Price: $ 37.99

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