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A Literary Giant Passes

May 18, 2012

Dear Friends,

A few days ago I received an email from Distinguished Professor Ray Williams: ?Dear Tim, The major Mexican writer of the twentieth century, Carlos Fuentes, died today in Mexico City. National Public Radio will be airing a piece? Fuentes lectured on the UCR campus? and UCR students have been reading his work since the 1960s. [Former Chancellor] Tom?s Rivera was a great admirer of Fuentes? Our loss of Carlos Fuentes [is] a huge loss for the Hispanic community and readers worldwide??

I could stop writing here, but rather choose to share a few more insights to help understand the magnitude of the man, and the loss.

Carlos Fuentes was a giant of Latin American literature, perhaps the greatest contemporary Latino intellectual and writer to emerge in the Americas. He published more than 30 works.

In addition to his literary career, he was a Mexican diplomat who was sharply critical of his government and authoritarian regimes throughout the world.

His novel The Old Gringo was the first book by a Mexican novelist to become a best seller in the U.S., and was made into a movie with Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda. The novel was inspired by the real-life disappearance of American journalist Ambrose Bierce during the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution.

In the late 1980s, the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS), which operates out of UCR?s Olmsted Hall, brought him to speak at the University Theatre. He read from his newest novel, Christopher Unborn (an indictment of the corrupt, polluted Mexico City).

Poet and author Rigoberto Gonz?lez, now an associate professor of English at Rutgers, was a freshman at UCR at the time. Professor Gonz?lez blogged earlier this week about that encounter: ?I simply sat there mesmerized . . . His forehead glistened, and the spittle leaping off his lips was made visible in the stage lights. He held a copy of the book in one hand and chopped the air with the other, accentuating his delivery of a lengthy, winding road of sentences.?

Gonz?lez was so taken by the man that he bought paperback editions of two of Fuentes? novels to be signed. ?When I finally had my chance in front of Mr. Fuentes, whatever I had rehearsed to say had flown right out of my head. He appeared broken down, fatigued, but he smiled back anyway? I said to him before I was turned away, ?Yo soy de Michoac?n. Yo tambi?n voy a ser escritor (I?m from Michoacan and I?m going to be a writer too).? He humored me and answered, quite gently, ?Pues, suerte, muchacho. Nada m?s cu?date los dedos (Well good luck kid. Just take care of your fingers).? He raised his hands up to show me and I was stunned: he had crooked index fingers.?

And it was our Professor Williams that many in the media turned to Tuesday for comment and perspective. Professor Williams knew Fuentes well, having hosted him on campus, written about him (The Writings of Carlos Fuentes, University of Texas Press, 1996), and taught his work extensively throughout his career.

Professor Williams remembers Fuentes as an extremely generous person both to Williams personally and to the students who flocked to hear him speak. After one lecture, Fuentes, exhausted from a long day of travel and lecturing, spent hours late in the evening talking with students and signing books. Williams recalls, ?He really made a special effort because there were undergraduates and working people at the event.?

Juan Felipe Herrera, California Poet Laureate and UCR professor of creative writing, said that Fuentes was an essential component of the literary environment when he was a student at Stanford and afterwards. He recalls a man both deeply intense and yet playful, and attributes to Fuentes a broadening of his vision of the Latino experience.

Professor Herrera also incorporated into his writing, especially his poems, Fuentes?s diversity of voices, and his monologues reflecting multiple points of view with their richness of detail and texture and place. Fuentes inspired Herrera to reach for the big picture in his work, and now as California?s Poet Laureate, the gift is now being passed on to others.

My condolences to the Fuentes family, and his friends and colleagues. He was truly a gift.

Sincerely,

Tim

Tim White, Chancellor

Share your thoughts: http://fridayletters.ucr.edu/leavefeedback

Black holes
Associate Professor Gabriela Canelizo is living the promise of UC Riverside with research on black holes that requires the use of highly advanced telescopes like those housed at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
http://promise.ucr.edu/profile-technology-canalizo.html

Uniting to make a difference
UCR?s new student chapter of the United Way has blasted out of the gates in high gear. It won national level awards in the first year of existence. Kudos to a group that is communicating the importance of good works.
http://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/6215

Toasting the flowers
The 14th annual wine and food tasting event set for this Sunday is a fundraiser for UCR Botanic Gardens? education program for school children.
http://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/5712

Keep up with the latest at UCR Today

What else is going on at UCR? http://www.ucr.edu/happenings/

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Good HDTVs aren’t always good-looking. You can have a bright and colorful screen capable of reaching inky blacks while not being visually stunning in its design. As more features become available in less expensive HDTVs, it’s design flourishes that become part of the justification for premium prices. The Panasonic TC-L47DT50 is an ideal example of this premise. At $1,899.99 (direct), this 47-inch, LED-edgelit LCD HDTV is more expensive than our budget Editors’ Choice, the 55-inch Vizio M3D550KD ($1,429.99, 4 stars), but offers a similar feature set. What you get for the extra $500: active-shutter 3D, a better-than-average sound system, and one of the prettiest bezels we’ve seen on an HDTV yet.

Design
Simply stated: The L47DT50 is gorgeous. Its bezel is constructed of metal with a glass overhang on the bottom edge that houses a glowing Panasonic logo in the middle its transparent surface. The design is clean and a refreshing change from the usual black bezel on most HDTVs. Behind the bezel, the right edge holds the standard power, input, channel up/down, and volume up/down buttons, and four HDMI inputs and two USB ports are lined up behind the left edge. The composite, component, cable, Ethernet, and optical audio ports face down on bottom edge, and all are easily accessible even if the HDTV is mounted on a wall.

The 9-inch remote is large and fairly simple, with big, rectangular buttons and a large, easy-to-find direction pad. It illuminates with the touch of a button, and has playback controls that even work with online services. It also has dedicated 3D, Internet Service, and SD/USB storage buttons for accessing useful features like 3D conversion, the Viera Connect menu, and media on an SD card or USB drive.

You can connect to online services and apps through Panasonic’s Viera Connect service, which accesses the Internet through the HDTV’s built-in Wi-Fi or Ethernet port. It supports Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube, and several other streaming video and music services. You can download apps and set up additional services through the Viera Connect store. It even includes a Web browser that supports HTML5, and you can make video calls with Skype if you purchase the optional $130 TY-CC20W Webcam. The browser loaded PCMag.com almost perfectly, though the font looks slightly different than it typically does on computers.

Performance
We test HDTVs with the Konica-Minolta CS-200 chromameter and DisplayMate test patterns, and we analyze color accuracy with Spectracal’s CalMAN software. We perform basic brightness, contrast, and color temperature adjustments pretest, but don’t otherwise calibrate the screen. Based on our tests, the L47DT50 reached a satisfying but not record-breaking peak white level of 275.58 cd/m²?and a black level of 0.03 cd/m², for a contrast ratio of 9,186:1. The Vizio M3D550KD , on the other hand, reached respective levels of 364.75 cd/m²?and 0.02 cd/m², for a nearly double contrast ratio of 18,237:1. Color levels were very accurate, with red and blue spot-on and green edging just slightly toward blue as seen in the chart below. The color squares are the ideal red, green, and blue values, and the colored circles are the screen’s measured red, green, and blue values.?

I watched the?Piranha?Blu-ray on the L47DT50, and was suitably impressed by the color balance and contrast. While the dark colors of the deep don’t get quite as inky and black as the high-end Editors’ Choice Sharp Elite Pro-60X5FD ($5,999.99, 4 stars), it gets satisfyingly dark. The edge lighting resulted in some slight bloom on the left edge of the screen, but not significantly more than similar edge-lit LCD HDTVs.

While the L47DT50 supports 3D, it doesn’t come with any glasses. You need to get a pair of active shutter glasses from Panasonic for $80 each, adding to the cost of the HDTV if you want to use it as a 3D TV. I watched a demonstration video of Gran Turismo 5 for the PlayStation 3 in 3D, and the HDTV showed noticeable depth and little crosstalk, but the picture didn’t quite pop off the screen like the Pro-60X5FD .

We don’t usually consider HDTVs for their sound, because generally even very good HDTV speakers pale in comparison to add-on speakers or even an inexpensive soundbar. However, the L47DT50 is notable for its “8-Train” speaker system, a row of eight dome speakers and a subwoofer mounted on the back of the screen. It can’t replace a high-end soundbar and it doesn’t offer surround sound, but it’s markedly louder and clearer than most other HDTV speakers, with the exception of the Bose VideoWave ($5,349, 4 stars), which is known for its audio prowess.

The L47DT50 consumes an average of 96 watts with no energy saving features enabled and an average of 83 watts with energy saving set to “Standard,” which slightly dims the screen but is otherwise very watchable. This is a solid showing, but it doesn’t quite hit the 66- and 48-watt levels of the 46-inch Sony KDL-46EX620 ($809.99, 3.5 stars) or the 55-inch LG 55LM6700 ($2,299.99, 4 stars), both LED-backlit LCD HDTVs like the Panasonic.?

Sure, there are more impressive HDTVs than the $1,900?Panasonic TC-L47DT50 . The?LG 55LM6700 , for one, offers up glasses-included passive 3D and a cool motion-controlled remote, or there’s the Sharp Elite Pro-60X5FD with its best-in-class picture, but they’re both more expensive. You’ll need to add to the L47DT50′s?price if you want 3D glasses, and it doesn’t get quite as bright or dark as the larger, less expensive passive-3D Vizio M3D550KD. Still, if you value design and high-quality build, but don’t want to spend more than $2,000, the L47DT50 is definitely worth considering. But if your main concern is getting more screen for less money, the Vizio stands as the best low-cost, big-screen option we’ve tested.

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by Joseph ? Business, Communication, Internet, Marketing, Popularity, Small Business

If you want to develop a new business on the Internet or expanding your current business onto the global information superhighway, then it?s important to develop a business plan as part of your preparations. Like a regular business plan, your Internet business plan must give details of the proposed venture, along with expected needs and results.

If you want to achieve a rapid massive success in your web start-up, then you need to discover someone who will show you the light till the end of the tunnel. Below we can see few techniques & ideas required.

Internet Business Issues:

First, most many people don?t know exactly what is Internet or what businesses, it can offer. Electronic commerce on the Internet is relatively new and poses many unique challenges. This is a hurdle that you must know to, overcome in your business plan.

Secondly, resources that are taken for granted in the real world often do not exist in online; the same process differs in formative stages in the on-line world. For example, payment systems, ad page pricing, &market demographic tracking are all in various stages of development in on-line, & based on the brand or product they differ.

Thirdly, the pace on the Internet is dizzying. Keeping track of the rapidly changing trends, technology, and competitors is crucial to the success of your business.

Make a Decision:

Make a steady decision with the following questions, to start a right internet business,

*What interests you?

*What have you accomplished in your past?

*What others have told about you, that comes naturally for you?

*What have you learned in your career or through your job history that others will pay to know?

*What annoys you?? If there is something that annoys, then find a solution for it.

Make a list of every possible idea for creating a business. Don?t judge your ideas at the first place itself. Write them all down, think, & make the right decision.

Choose & Follow the Right Consultancy?s advice:

Choose the right internet business consultancy for your business. You can do this by looking at how well are some other businesses are performing that have taken or have been taking the services from a particular consultancy to formulate marketing strategies. After selecting the right consultancy, all you need to do is follow what they say.

Your internet marketing consultants have the key to success of your online venture. If they are enjoying the same success that you want for your business, it?s better to let your consulting firm doing the same trick on you.

Keep on Tracking:

Once you start following the plan your internet business strategy developer provided you. Then you need to involve yourself into tracking whether it?s getting successful or not.

If not, then that?s your time to come into the picture. You need to instantly communicate with the consultancy group and ask them to check out what?s going wrong.

Design the Product:

When you design a product, it should probably be something you?re interested in. If you choose something that is closer to your heart, then it will be easier for you to put the hours into it that it requires.

Below are few ideas of, what kind of products should you do?

*Developing ecommerce sites for aspiring entrepreneurs.

*Providing search engine optimization services.

*Providing Facebook services, such as designing Facebook fan pages, etc?

*Providing simple WordPress websites to small businesses.

*Specializing in websites for a highly targeted audience, you could even build sites for welders, carpenters etc?

*Managing adwords campaigns.

So, try to develop a product rather than a service.

Fix the Cost:

When you design your product, you must probably have some idea of the price that you can charge for your product. List down your work identify all the costs you have spend & fix a price.

Usually fix at least 50% of the asking price, but this again goes with the provider who is willing to work for a low price, compared to how much you think your potential customers are willing to pay for the product/service.

Conclusion:

Now you may have a better idea of what is involved in developing & winning a Internet business plan. Remember, the most important points are:

*Addressing the uniqueness of the Internet,

*Explaining its business advantages and potential, keeping your audience in mind.

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It goes without any objection that nowadays there are plenty of pretty beneficial car leasing solutions you can come across and it is in some events not pretty easy to choose the relevant one. It is generally pretty vital that you do a little bit of your own research to get to know which car leasing option is the most beneficial for your business, your job, or personal situation.

Contract Hire
It is worth mentioning that contract hire, leaseback, contract purchase and finance leasing are the basic types of car leasing facilities available. Generally, contract hire is a particular type of long term rental negotiation which can be opted for by great majority of business people and individuals. In the majority of cases such kind of car leasing fits best for those people who prefer to pay some tiny payments initially per month, as in this event there is no risk of depreciation or the challenges of disposing of the auto, for the user.

Contract Buying
It is necessary to admit that the leasing facility known as contract purchase is a form of automobile leasing opted for by many organizations or businesses. The truth is that they generally hire some type of costly and expensive vehicles and wish to be offered the choice of either giving back the automobile at the final stage of the contract, or to purchase the automobile considered. This type of contract does away with a considerable risk of potential depreciation. In this type of vehicle leasing, the auto is shown as an asset. In the end of the contract, the business or organization can purchase the car with a pretty beneficial amount and enjoy the ownership of it, or on the other hand it can return the vehicle and go in for a new negotiation for another vehicle.
Leaseback
It is absolutely true fact that leaseback is one of the most beneficial types of car leasing. This form of vehicle leasing is often used by businesses. Different organizations generally go in for this type of contract. The companies then leases back the same autos to the company which sells it, and this can be done with VAT in mind.

Finance Lease
In general, finance lease is a type of commercial car leasing facilities that are made use of by different companies which lease out an automobile for a fixed period of time, from a finance organization that owns the vehicle. When a finance vehicle lease is taken, the organization which goes in for the negotiation, has to pay for the cost of taxes, insurance, and various services. Resale and depreciation risks might be borne by the clients. All this is to be checked before deciding on the relevant alternative for your organization or yourself.

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Hearthstone Health and Fitness, Inc. (?Hearthstone?), the new fitness and wellness center in Easton, announces that it opened for business on May 21.

Hearthstone Health and Fitness has taken up residence at 102 Marlboro Avenue in Easton. Hearthstone?s owners, Dave and Martha Tuthill of Oxford, have transformed the former Blockbuster Video location into a state-of-the-art facility that will bring together the very best in exercise and nutritional science, fitness equipment and highly qualified expert staff. First and foremost, Hearthstone will provide a superior client commitment to deliver an integrated and complete wellness experience for the individual just starting his wellness journey to the elite athlete looking to improve their performance.

Dave Tuthill, Hearthstone?s President and CEO, was inspired to create Hearthstone following his own wellness journey. In 1991, Dave weighed more than 330 pounds. By 2011, he was down to 280 but now suffered from Crohns Disease and Type 2 Diabetes and was dependent on over 15 medications. Mr. Tuthill finally saw results in the winter of 2011 after working a science-based wellness program that integrated fitness, nutrition, his personal physician and his own knowledge growth. ?To date I have lost more than 70 pounds, no longer need insulin to manage my Diabetes and have made many positive changes in my life because I aligned myself with a team of professionals that were all aware of my goals and worked together to help me achieve them,? comments Mr. Tuthill. ?I realized there are so many people out there like me ? they want to be healthy and be an active participant in their own health journey. That?s when I decided to ?pay it forward? to those who need to find their way to better health and fitness by being part of a supportive, integrated and like-minded community.?

The Hearthstone approach takes a 360-degree look at all the factors affecting wellness: physical fitness, nutrition, balance and mental health. The company will be led by a seven-person management team that includes a Director of Fitness, Life Coach and Registered Dietitian. Hearthstone will also partner with many area physicians and guest medical professionals to provided a ?total lifestyle? concept to their clients.

Mr. Tuthill remarks, ?Many gyms employ non-degreed staff with a training certificate they got off the internet. At Hearthstone, we are putting a significant amount of resources into ensuring we employ individuals who have undergraduate and, in most cases, graduate degrees in exercise and health-related disciplines like exercise physiology, exercise science, physical education and kinesiology. All of our front-line staff are also credentialed from the industry?s leading certification organizations like the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Council on Exercise, the American Fitness Professional and Associates and the National Academy of Sports Medicine. And, unlike so many facilities, our staff have current certifications rather than just getting that certification once in their lifetimes.? Mr. Tuthill continues, ?the industry is changing so rapidly that keeping current on the latest science and latest techniques is critical to helping clients work smarter and more efficiently rather than just harder.?

Both Mr. and Mrs. Tuthill were clients of personal trainers, regularly, over the last 20 years with minimal and sporadic success. ?So often,? Mrs. Tuthill says ?the trainers are only focused on selling memberships and training packages to achieve their bonuses. Somewhere in that formula, the needs and goals of the client gets diminished or forgotten.? Mrs. Tuthill continues, ?At Hearthstone, our team is salaried. They are compensated based on their performance and customer satisfaction rather than how much they sell. This allows the team to really care about whether members achieve their targeted results. Measuring customer satisfaction is almost unheard of in this industry.?

The Hearthstone team will offer a wide variety of services from individual to group exercise training. Clients may also choose just to exercise on their own and the company will also provide support to those members. The Hearthstone philosophy stresses education and making informed choices. Clients may learn how to eat ?clean and healthy? from their Registered Dietitian and can also learn how to bust through success roadblocks with the help of their Life Coach. These clients can also participate in frequent medical lectures from local and guest physicians and learn the latest scientific trends in wellness care. Hearthstone also wants their clients to have fun and encourages the social aspect found in most public fitness settings. The company takes this a step further and will organize group dinner parties at local restaurants featuring healthy food options.

Hearthstone will also offer the best in traditional and innovative fitness equipment for the improvement of cardiovascular health, functional training and resistance training. Members and non-members will have access to state-of-the-art scientific tests such as VO2 Max, Resting Metabolic Rate, Spirometry and Body Composition featuring the industry leading BOD POD. These quality tests are normally only found in university and major hospital settings.

Clients may also purchase nutritionally-balanced ?meals and snacks to go? prepared in partnership with Mason?s Restaurant in Easton. These may be either pre-ordered or can be purchased from a rotating stocked inventory. All the meals are fresh, not frozen, and made from top quality ingredients. Hearthstone will also offer free ionized water and coffee to its clients.

Finally, Hearthstone will offer concierge services. Clients who want to eat healthy while traveling can have Hearthstone make their dinner reservations at restaurants featuring healthy food options. Hearthstone is a member of IHRSA and offers its clients a 50 percent day-pass discount on participating member clubs around the country. Similarly, local obstacles to exercise can be overcome through the help of Hearthstone?s talented staff.

Membership fees will be competitively priced starting at $60 per month with a one-time membership fee of $50. Periodically, Hearthstone will donate all or a portion of the one-time fee to local charities. Memberships are paid month-to-month with no long-term commitment. As Mr. Tuthill states, ?we want our members to WANT to belong to Hearthstone. We don?t want to have them frustrated at having signed a long-term commitment to a facility they no longer enjoy or that doesn?t support their individual goals. We succeed only when our clients succeed.?

Further information can be found on Hearthstone?s website at www.HearthstoneHealthandFitness.com or by calling the facility at 410.690.3838.

About
Hearthstone Health and Fitness, Inc. (?Hearthstone?) is a cutting-edge health and fitness center in Easton, MD employing ?lifestyle? concepts to improve health, reach new performance heights and slow the aging process for its members. Hearthstone?s credentialed staff will work with members to help them achieve their health goals. The facility provides state-of-the-art equipment and the latest in technology to help members see how their body responds, from the inside out, to focused exercise and a regimen of healthy eating. Hearthstone caters to everyone from the elite athlete looking to improve his or her performance to an individual just beginning his or her fitness journey. To learn more about Hearthstone, please visit http://www.hearthstonehealthandfitness.com or contact Dave Tuthill, president at Dave@HearthstoneHealthandFitness.com or 410.690.3838.

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