Florida State, Watkins claim ACC preseason honors

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- It's an annual rite of summer in the Atlantic Coast Conference: Picking Florida State and Virginia Tech to meet in the league championship game.

For the fourth straight year, the Seminoles and Hokies are the preseason favorites to win their divisions and face off with a spot in the Orange Bowl on the line.

In voting results announced Monday during the second day of the league's two-day media blitz, Florida State was picked to win its first ACC championship since 2005 - the second straight year media members covering the event have anointed the Seminoles as the league favorites.

"That's why I say I like being at Florida State - you have expectations," coach Jimbo Fisher said. "That's why I wanted to coach there, and that's why people want to come there."

Of the 95 media members who voted, 72 put Florida State on top in the Atlantic Division. Defending league champion Clemson was second and had 17 first-place votes, followed by North Carolina State (5), Wake Forest, Boston College and Maryland.

The Hokies were chosen to win the Coastal by 83 voters with second-place selection Georgia Tech receiving 10 first-place votes. North Carolina (2) was third, followed by Virginia, Miami and Duke.

"From my standpoint, what I see is, we've got a team that can be good, but we've got work to do," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "We're not there right now."

Florida State was then selected as the eventual league champion on 60 ballots. The Seminoles return 18 starters from a team that finished 9-4 and beat Notre Dame in the Champs Sports Bowl.

Last year's team had designs on claiming its first BCS bowl since Bobby Bowden's 2005 team lost to Penn State in the Orange Bowl. But a three-game losing streak - which partly coincided with a shoulder injury to quarterback EJ Manuel - wound up leaving Florida State on the outside looking in.

"We've learned some vital lessons," Fisher said. "Everybody says, 'Talk about potential.' Potential's three things. It's talent, and we are physical, we have good size, good speed. It's knowing what to do. We know what to do, we know how to do it.

"But I think the key is, the third element, which is very important, is the consistency you do it with and the detail you do it with," he added. "I think that comes from time and experience. Two things will give us that, guys being in the program for the third year ... and just the overall experience and knowledge of just going through what we've been through."

Clemson receiver Sammy Watkins received 25 votes to win preseason player of the year honors ahead of Virginia Tech quarterback Logan Thomas, who had 21 votes, Manuel (19) and Tigers quarterback Tajh Boyd (18).

Watkins, the ACC's rookie of the year in 2011, set league single-season records for freshmen with 82 catches for 1,219 yards and 12 touchdowns and led Clemson to its first league title in 20 years and a berth in the Orange Bowl.

The Tigers were picked second in the Atlantic for the fourth straight year.

"And we've won it twice" during that span, coach Dabo Swinney said. "So, you know, that stuff is fun for everybody to talk about and predict. I'm much more interested in how it ends up in December. That's really the only concern I have."

The bottom of the balloting had a familiar feel, too.

Bringing up the rear in the Coastal Division, once again, was Duke - which was picked to finish last either in its division or overall for the 13th straight year. The Blue Devils' 104 poll points were the fewest in the league.

Maryland, which was coming off a 2-10 finish in Randy Edsall's first year, was picked last in the Atlantic Division for the second time in three years and has not been picked to finish higher than fifth since 2006.

"Sometimes you have to take two steps back to move forward," Edsall said. "In terms of having the kind of program that I want to have, that's going to stand the test of time and is going to fight through those issues, sometimes you've got to have some of those things that we had in order to get where you want to get to."

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/23/2908457/florida-state-watkins-claim-acc.html

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Tenzin Norbu: Aspiring and Engaging Bodhicitta

Bodhichitta abides in two precious ways; Keep both of these in mind. The goal to become a Buddha for all Is what we first must find.
But having a goal bereft any Effort Will always leave us behind. With Effort seek the goal in practice; Employ the engaging kind.
Just as the difference between wishing to go and Truly going is known. Strive to possess the two Bodhichittas; Both of them must be shown.

As these verses of Ocean of Compassion state, there are two forms of bodhicitta -- aspiring bodhicitta and engaging bodhicitta. Aspiring bodhicitta is a complex cognitive and emotional pattern of feeling and believing. It is the pattern of feeling universal, unbiased love and compassion, and the belief that Buddhas have the greatest possible ability to lead everyone to true and lasting happiness and freedom from all suffering. The emotional elements of universal, unbiased love and compassion are strong motivating factors to act so as to benefit all others, but, unless one knows how to bring real benefit to others, one will not be able to help others effectively. Not knowing how to bring true benefit to others is like seeing someone who is drowning and strongly desiring to save that person but not knowing how to swim. Just as learning and practicing how to swim and do proper cardiopulmonary resuscitation are parts of the training that leads to becoming an effective lifeguard, each of the six perfections of patience, generosity, joyful effort, moral discipline, concentration and wisdom are parts of the training that leads to becoming a Buddha. Cultivating and practicing these six perfections until one becomes a Buddha is called "engaging bodhicitta."

In my last blog post, I explained that a patient person does not overcome anger by suppressing it -- rather, he or she eliminates the dysfunctional patterns of thinking that cause anger. Not every patient person is practicing the perfection of patience. A mother, for example, who responds with biased love rather than with anger to her child's misbehavior does not perform an act expressing the perfection of patience. This kind of behavior is an example of an imperfectly patient act, because it springs from the motive of biased love rather than the universal, unbiased love and compassion of bodhicitta motivation. Such an action is certainly commendable, but it is not meritorious to the same degree that a bodhisattva's actions are.

To practice any perfection, the thoughts and behaviors consistent with perfect behavior are intentionally chosen because they are steps on the path to becoming a Buddha. When bodhisattvas respond to someone's "outrageous behavior," they react lovingly and helpfully, because they know that by responding lovingly to someone's outrageous behavior they are building the capacity to become Buddhas and help everyone. Reacting lovingly to someone's non-virtuous behavior does not mean responding imprudently -- a bodhisattva very carefully protects his or her body, because a bodhisattva's body is a powerful tool to help others, and because universal, unbiased love includes loving oneself. Protecting one's body from harm out of bodhicitta motivation is actually an example of the perfection of generosity. So, interestingly, a bodhisattva who responds to someone's "outrageous behavior" without anger and with love for all acts both patiently act and generously. Each of the other five perfections of engaging bodhicitta must be understood in the same way -- each act is a perfection of any kind if and only if it is both a way to perform one of the six virtuous types of action and is chosen from bodhicitta motivation.

A generous act, obviously, is an act of giving something to someone other than oneself. An act of the perfection of generosity is an act of giving something to someone that one knows will advance both the giver and the receiver along the path to true and lasting happiness. To express the perfection of joyful effort, you must have the disposition to rejoice spontaneously whenever performing any perfect action, much like the immediate experience of joy felt by an athlete upon scoring a goal. Moral discipline is a combination of having made the decision, out of bodhicitta motivation, to renounce all moral flaws and drawing upon mental resources, when necessary, to block a desire to act non-virtuously. Concentration is resting the focus of one's mind upon a virtuous mental content, such as compassion, out of bodhicitta motivation. With concentration, our meditation sessions are very effective in developing virtuous states of mind and eliminating non-virtuous states of mind. The perfection of wisdom is the ability, acquired from bodhicitta motivation, to perceive the interdependent arising of all things and the understanding that the objects of our consciousness are like dreams, in that they have no reality independent of the mind perceiving them.

In summary, aspiring bodhicitta is the aspiration to become a Buddha for the benefit of all, and engaging bodhicitta is, with bodhicitta motivation, cultivating all six of the perfections and acting as the perfections require whenever relevant circumstances arise. In order to become a Buddha, you must employ engaging bodhicitta until you master all six of the perfections. The six perfections, collectively, are the necessary and sufficient causes of becoming a Buddha. The first five perfections are steps to Buddhahood, because they prepare the mind to be able to acquire wisdom, and, with the acquisition of wisdom, one becomes a Buddha.

For more by Tenzin Norbu, click here.

For more on the spirit, click here.

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Follow Tenzin Norbu on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TenzinNorbu

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tenzin-norbu/bodhicitta_b_1680465.html

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Report: Google?s Nexus 7 Is Already Posting ?Impressive Usage Figures,? Could Catch Up With Kindle Fire Soon

Google's Nexus 7 tablet is off to such a good start that Google can't keep up with demand for the 16GB model. The company hasn't released any sales data yet, so its hard to gauge whether Google is selling out because it just grossly underestimated demand and didn't produce anywhere close to enough devices, or whether the Nexus 7 is really selling at unprecedented levels (for an Android tablet, that is). To get a better grip on how well the Nexus is doing after just over a week on the market, the folks at ad networks Chitika provided us with some data about what they are seeing on their network. According to Chitika's engineers, the Nexus 7 is posting "impressive usage figures" across the company's network. It currently accounts for 0.3 impressions for every 100 iPad impressions. That doesn't sound like much, but the Nexus is actually on track to quickly catching up with other popular Android tablets like the Kindle Fire and Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eGlETKPxCd8/

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msnbc: Mayor Bloomberg on @Morning_Joe just now: When was the last time you saw a deer with a flak jacket on?

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Source: http://twitter.com/msnbc/statuses/227379684881604608

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Collinsville OK Real Estate - 732 E Spring Collinsville OK 74021 ...

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Source: http://www.davenportcompany.com/blog/732-e-spring-collinsville-ok-74021-1222050.html

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3 Obvious Issues With Network Advertising And Multi-Level ...

Multi-Level Marketing, described by the acronym MLM, or conditions like ?Network Marketing? or ?Home-Based Business,? has been around in some form for years at this time. However million of people have already been associated with one (or maybe more). In fact, I guarantee either you, or someone you know has been ?in? one of the subsequent companies: Avon, Mary Kay, Tupperware, Melaluca, Costal Vacations, Fortune High-Tech Marketing (FHTM), Xango, Monavie, Pampered Chef, Cutco, Scentsy, Amway, etc.From the well-known ring of ?Avon calling,? to the famous pink Cadillacs of Mary Kay, to the garage-fulls of Amway many folks have foisted down upon themselves, thousands of people have tried MLM and very few if any have done a lot more than break even.Let us be clear about some things. First, this site will probably be brutally truthful about MLM, and that means declaring what doesn?t work.That, and what does work mentioned, Second: I like MLM. I think that the idea works ? when all the parts are in place. I?ve been involved in a few, and I?ve made thousands with them.However, I also believe there are an of companies out there which fail to meet a few key evaluation items and which force them to fail.I have personally been involved with one of the above mentioned companies, am currently working with two others, used items from at least 3, and known dozens of people who?ve been involved in such firms before (nearly all of them failed). Almost something has been purchased by half of the people in the US through primary sales/network marketing/MLM. This being the situation, why are so many so unsuccessful?Well, there are a number of reasons. Here?s three.1) Inability To Judge A Business Or Business ModelIf you?ve never been in business before, or had to think like a business manager, it is easy to get tempted in to smooth pitches about small effort and maximum incentives. If you?ve an incredibly gregarious personality, and normally network well with others, it could be very easy to create a huge business (or ?Down Line? ).But most people can never see the ?levels? or ?matrices? filled beyond a few degrees, and if they do not have an interpersonal personality, they do not actually stay an is in part because?2) Poor TrainingThe number 1 factor that kills network marketing firms is lack of training.The number-one evidence of this is the super-abundance of ?gurus? and ?trainers? and ?elite techniques to generating leads/sales/distributors/associates? and ?turn-key, automatic systems? that are out there, getting millions of dollars from the millions of acquaintances trying to make these products work.We have all seen the individual who ?gets into? a, and then spams their friends and family, either in actual life, or now in the digital community (e.g., Facebook), with an endless battery of ?buy my stuff? or ?come join my business so we can get rich? messages. These individuals are fluttering in the water like damaged ducks, trying to get their grounding as they gradually sink in to debt paying for their new business while they try to get another person to join them.Of class, all the training and methods in the world won?t help if you?ve got?3) Non-Unique, Non-Competitive, Over-Priced Products.The special attraction of the MLM business is that, supposedly, these organizations are ?cutting out the middle-men? in marketing and transport connected with traditional firms, and allowing independent providers to reap the lucrative profits.In practice, however, most of these products are glorified versions of products you can get at Wal-Mart or Target or Amazon.com. The prices are inflated to yield a profit for the organization and a sequence of entrepreneurs who all get a cut of the fee from each sale.Thus your pals and family get to pay the premium price to obtain from you what?re (often) only slightly improved versions of store-bought items. That?s not a sound organization model.4) Their ?Business? IS A Scam!Okay, here?s a last, ?bonus? position, furthermore to one other three, which has to be stated. This is simply not a statement about all MLM firms. Several are great, but a number of them are accumulated must less as companies and much more akin to a standard ?pyramid? plan. What is wrong with these? The Federal Trade Commission says:?Steer clear of multilevel marketing plans that pay commissions for getting new distributors. They are basically illegal pyramid schemes. Why ispyramiding dangerous? When no new distributors may be recruited because programs that pay commissions for recruiting new distributors undoubtedly fall. And when a strategy breaks, most people ? except perhaps those at the very top of the pyramid ? wind up empty-handed.?NOTE: ALL businesses have prices, and the mere fact of having to pay money to start a company is not enough to qualify as a scheme, and shouldn?t require making you leery.However, after you appear at the ?pay plan? or ?compensation plan,? when much of the money comes either from dues the new associates pay, or from the consumption of the products/services of the new associates and NOT from actual sales, then you have probably got a dud product at best, or a scheme at worst.Getting Past The HypeAll this being explained, there are a number of businesses out there which are at least ?okay? as area sources of income. And that?s what the promise of MLM or Network Marketing is all about, really.It is a, done on the side, to generate a little extra money. And it is the sort of business that, if done professionally (meaning having examined your product( s) to make sure that they are in fact appropriate, distinctive, un-inflated products that are worth buying), you may make an living in some MLM companies.

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Source: http://map.smithvisual.com/?p=103314

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WHY WE SHOULDN'T RAISE PROPERTY TAXES IN REDMOND ...

This?Letter from Redmond Councilmember Hank Myers (truncated by Yoder)?was published in the?Redmond Reporter's July 20th edition (this weekend).??The Letter?wasn't published?in Reporter's online edition:? www.Redmond-Reporter.com.? To read the?entire Letter which includes?a compliment?to the Marchione Administration, please read the newspaper edition delivered to your home.? The?Redmond Reporter?is available from newspaper dispensors at bus stops, apartments, Redmond Town Center, the post office, at select businesses, the Redmond library, City Hall and Old Redmond School House Community?Center.

WHY WE SHOULDN?T RAISE PROPERTY TAXES IN REDMOND NEXT BUDGET, By Councilmember Hank Myers,? Redmond Reporter, 7/21/2012

At Tuesday night?s City Council Meeting, Finance Director Mike Bailey outlined the state of the current Redmond budget as we passed the 75% mark of the biennial period. The highlights are that Redmond?s cash on hand position is $9.5 million better than projected for this point in time. Even excluding a $4.0 million sales tax special payment from the State, we are still well over $5.0 ahead of our own projections. This strong cash position is due to our recovering sales tax revenue, as well as property tax collections that are about $1.5 million better than projected. On the expenditure side, Mayor Marchione and his Director team are under-spending the budget by 7.63% (compared to 7.08% last quarter). The City Council is the most frugal department, under-spending its budget by over 23.5%.

Last week Mr. Bailey presented an analysis of overall economic trends which show a strengthening recovery, particularly locally. If sales taxes follow the economic trends, we should see significant improvement in our single largest revenue source. Unlike other cities in our area, Redmond continued to raise property taxes in each of the last four years of the great recession. In dollar terms it is not a big amount, but it is not the only tax increases our residents have had to pay, and it came during a time when real income was declining.

Looking at all this, there are three excellent reasons why we should not raise property taxes in the next budget.

First, we don?t need the added revenue. We are looking at a budget-end cash surplus approaching $12 million. This is the third cash surplus in three budgets. At the end of the last budget we added a new multi-million dollar reserve fund that puts our reserve capacity well above city averages in our state. At the end of 2008 we created an innovation fund to encourage more efficient service delivery out of that surplus. By contrast, increasing property taxes the allowed 1% raises just under a million dollars for the biennium. Our residents rate city service delivery at impressively high levels. Conservatism is a laudable virtue in budgeting, second only to accuracy.

Next, how a government considers its citizens is vital. Except for a small amount of development services, all of the general fund revenue comes from taxing the productivity of the community. There are easy rationalizations for tax increases: ?it?s not a lot of money? or ?other governments are raising taxes more?. The bottom line is that any government that puts its own needs ahead of those of its citizens is not worthy. Besides, the property tax is the only general tax within the direct control of the city.

Third, the budget will be structurally balanced without a tax increase. We did not need the property tax increase in the current budget to assure a six-year structurally balanced budget, nor did we need it in the previous one. The question is how do we use our current surplus to create the most sustainable benefits for our residents? We have spent the last two surpluses creating innovation funds and super-safe reserve levels. Now is the time to use our surplus outside of city hall, almost literally putting it on the streets for the benefit of everyone.

My suggestion is....(please read the newspaper edition for Mr. Myers's?closing remarks).?

Hank Myers
Redmond?City Councilmember
P.O. Box 7151
Bellevue, WA? 98008-1151
(425) 892-4820

Source: http://redmondcity.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-we-shouldnt-raise-property-taxes-in.html

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