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What are the future e-Government trends? Pointing to the future, one key point came out of the lively discussion from the floor. Not enough is being done at the moment to bridge the divide between the local politicians and chief officers who have to drive e-Government policy and practice, and the IT practitioners who understand the more technical aspects.

Getting the data infrastructure right is important and having access to citizen information is half the battle in providing excellent e-Government support. How this is presented at the front-end, however, is just as important in ensuring the organisational issues are resolved.

The e-government resulting benefits can include less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and cost reductions. e-Government has a great role in offering services to citizens and promoting democracy brought by the integration of the Internet in the process of governance.

The return on investment on e-Government provides the impetus for increased levels of investment to harness the potential ongoing benefits to both citizens and Government.

e-Government opens up many possibilities for innovating and improving government services. Many governments are working toward providing citizens with access to information and services 24 hours a day, seven days a week from the convenience of their home or office PC.

Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your website or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required.

By S. Maurer

S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of http://mba-open-university.net and http://distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.net.

Going vegetarian is easy. Grocery stores are always stocked with colorful vegetables and plenty of other vegan foods. Almost all grocery stores now carry delicious faux meat products, too – from veggie burgers and veggie hot dogs to vegetarian chicken nuggets, ribs, steak strips, and more. With all these great products available, it’s easier than ever to whip up delicious meat-free meals at home. Going out to eat couldn’t be easier too! With more and more people becoming vegetarian these days, most restaurants now offer great-tasting, healthy vegetarian selections.

Vegetarian foods can be classified into several different types:

1. Traditional foods that have always been vegetarian (Cereals/grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc.)

2. Soy products including Tofu and Tempeh are common protein sources.

3. Textured vegetable protein (TVP), made from defatted soy flour, is often included in chili and burger recipes in place of ground meat.

4. Meat analogues, which mimic the taste, texture, and appearance of meat and are often used in recipes that traditionally contained meat. Vegans may also use analogues for eggs and dairy products.

5. Food usually regarded as suitable for all types of the vegetarian cuisine usually include:

6. Cereals/grains: maize, corn, wheat, rice, barley, sorghum, millet, oats, rye, triticale, buckwheat, fonio, quinoa; derived products such as flour (dough, bread, pasta, baked goods) (assuming they have been made without dairy products, such as butter-crust bread).

7. Vegetables (fresh or pickled) and mushrooms (though some strict Indian vegetarians do not eat mushrooms); derived products such as vegetable fats and oils

8. Fruit (fresh or dried)

9. Legumes: beans (including soybeans and soy products such as tempeh, tofu, soy milk, and TVP), chickpeas, peas, lentils, peanuts)

10. Tree nuts and seeds

11. Spices and herbs

Food suitable for several types of the vegetarian cuisine:

Six Tips To Make The Transition

1. Make vegetarian versions of your favorite meals.

2. Explore thousands of delicious vegetarian recipes.

3. Try some tasty faux meats and dairy alternatives.

4. Sample vegetarian microwaveable meals and convenience foods.

5. Search online for the best vegetarian-friendly restaurants in your area.

6. Explore the amazing variety of meat-free ethnic

Cruelty To Animals

Animals on factory farms are treated like meat, milk, and egg machines. Chickens have their sensitive beaks seared off with a hot blade, and male cattle and pigs are castrated without any painkillers. All farmed chickens, turkeys, and pigs spend their brief lives in dark and crowded warehouses, many of them so cramped that they can’t even turn around or spread a single wing. They are mired in their own waste, and the stench of ammonia fills the air. Animals raised for food are bred and drugged to grow as large as possible as quickly as possible many are so heavy that they become crippled under their own weight and die within inches of their water supply.

Animals on factory farms do not see the sun or get a breath of fresh air until they are prodded and crammed onto trucks for a nightmarish ride to the slaughterhouse, often through weather extremes and always without food or water. Many die during transport, and others are too sick or weak to walk off the truck after they reach the slaughterhouse. The animals who survive this hellish ordeal are hung upside-down and their throats are slit, often while they’re completely conscious. Many are still alive while they are skinned, hacked into pieces, or scalded in the defeathering tanks.

Vegetarian Stars

Alicia Silverstone notes how much better vegetarian diets are for your health: “Since I’ve gone vegetarian, my body has never felt better and my taste buds have been opened up to a whole new world. It’s one of the most rewarding choices I’ve ever made and I invite you to join me in living a healthy, cruelty-free lifestyle.” Indeed, studies show that a vegetarian diet promotes a healthy heart and that helps stars maintain a youthful vigor and boundless stamina while on stage, in the studio, and on the field.

Sir Paul McCartney sums it all up: “If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That’s the single most important thing you could do. It’s staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty.”

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for Krishna art, religious gifts from India, and Hare Krishna books. You can find the best marketplace for Krishna art, religious gifts from India, and Hare Krishna books at these sites for Krishna art, vegetarian gifts, and vegetarian cuisine books.

Before we start, a warning, obvious teacher speak coming up: we all know the legalities of this. Keep the CD for yourself and therefore you are not going against copyright.

Step 1.

Create a new playlist

This will allow us to group together all the tracks that we want on our CD, and also allows us to arrange them in an order. Go to file > New Playlist. When it appears in the source list on the left hand side, click on it and give it a name (it will also be the CD name).

Step 2.

Add some tracks

The first tracks are the ones that are already in our iTunes library (ripped from CD or downloaded before hand). You can add tunes by using iTunes search box, type in the artists name and track name into the box. When the track appears in the main window drag and drop it into the new playlist.

Step 3.

Source tracks from CD

That is getting tracks from your own collection of CDs and they are not in your iTunes library. Put your CD into your CD-ROM drive and load up the Internet, then wait for it to appear in iTunes. The track names will appear in the library. If they dont? Make sure you are on the Internet, goto Advanced menu and select Get CD Track Names.

Step 4.

Rip your CD tracks

Goto Edit/Preferences and click on the Importing tab. From the Import Using menu choose AIFF encoder and leave Setting at Automatic. Leave the three boxes unclicked, unless you want to hear the tracks while importing. Drag the now ripped tracks to your playlist.

Step 5.

Add tracks from your Hard Drive

If you have any tunes hiding around on your drive, you need to add them to the library. iTunes can play MP3 or AIFF files, but it converts (non protected) WMA files to MP3 after importing them. Locate your songs, and then drag them onto the Library icon in iTunes source window. From there you can add them to your playlist.

Step 6.

Place tracks in order

This is a case of dragin files to the place where you want them and then drop. You could have similar themes, styles or even beats coupled together. Slow tunes at the start, dancy track at the end?

Step 7.

Set burning preferences

Select Edit menu > Preferences > Advanced > Burning. Set the speed of your CD burner to the max and click the Audio CD button. Now select the gap you would like between tracks. If you want iTunes to force all the tracks to play at the same level, tick Sound Check.

Step 8.

Burning

Double check everything, track order etc. The total time is displayed at the bottom of the iTunes window (dont exceed 72 mins as it wont fit onto a normal CD). Insert a blank CD in your drive and then click on Burn Disk.

Step 9.

CD case insert

This is an insert for your CD case, complete with track listing. Go to File > Print. Select Jewel Case insert and pick a theme. If you have album art on iTunes you can use it to create a cover. Standard is White Mosaic. Click page set-up and check everything is ok, especially the paper for printer use. Then Print.

Want your own Techno tracks to put on iTunes? No money, no kit and no theory and in just 14 days? Author, Dominic Hough has devised a simple “3-in-1″ formula. The complete Beginners Bible to Making, Marketing and Selling your own Techno Tracks…easy, simple and it works.

http://www.make-top-techno-songs.com

I just learned that April 19, 2008 was Record Store Day, an opportunity to celebrate independent record stores. As record stores slowly vanish across the country, it is revealing that April 19 came and went with little fanfare. Perhaps, like me, the event was invisible to you, too. And I’m sorry I missed it, because I value the place of music stores in our culture. But it got me thinking about how music is accessed and sold these days.

I’m not fond of vinyl — I don’t miss the pops and clicks, or the way that dust balls would build up in front of the needle and cause the sound to crackle — but those large album sleeves allowed for some wonderfully inventive packaging back in the day that can’t be done with CDs. I remember the surprise of opening Alice Cooper’s School’s Out. The cover was the surface of one of those old grammar school desks and lifted up like the lid of the desk to reveal the interior. The record was nested inside a slinky pair of pink girl’s paper panties, which you had to slip off to play the record. Then there was Jethro Tull’s Thick As A Brick, packaged with a fictional small town paper, “The St. Cleve Chronicle.” It was a crafty satire of a provincial newspaper replete with articles, TV listings, advertisements, a crossword — even a lascivious connect-the-dots puzzle — all oozing with irony. It read like a novel, with the same characters reappearing in different sections.

The Internet offers a wonderful way to discover, sample and purchase music, no doubt about it. It’s a great improvement over the experience most of us have had of buying a new CD and finding out you only like two of the ten songs. And the Internet has really expanded the opportunity for independent artists to reach a wider audience than ever before. But in making snap judgments after listening to a snippet of music online, we also lose the ability of songs to grow on us. We’re like kids dazzled by neon crayons, and we risk passing over subtler but richer hues. There is the danger that music becomes less about artistry and more about commodity.

Another problem is the reduced audio quality of MP3s, a digital format whereby much of the original audio signal is discarded in order to compress the file size and facilitate digital storage, downloading and other transfers. We’ve sacrificed quality for convenience. I confess, though, I love being able to shuffle songs on my iPod. The unpredictability keeps the music fresh for me. But it’s not without a price.

As we increasingly rely on downloadable music, I worry about what we lose. I still like the experience of going to record stores: the physicality of the merchandise, the role of chance and being exposed to something accidentally. Erykah Badu has a marvelous music video of the song “Honey” from her recently released album. An anonymous customer (actually Erykah, but her face is never shown) browses vinyl in a record store, and different classic album covers come alive with images of Erykah. It’s a witty video that captures the magic of the experience. The video ends with a message scrolling across the bottom of the screen: “Support your local record store!!!!!” I couldn’t have said it better.

More music articles at Song of Fire (obergh.net/songoffire)

Why are there so many movies about gangsters? It’s because they are so popular. Here is a list of arguably the top ten gangster movies of all time. Is your favorite among them?

1. The Godfather

This 1972 film was based on the bestselling book by Mario Puzo – is the story of an aging patriarch of a crime family who transfers control of his family to his son.

The film is directed by Francis Ford Coppola and features Marlon Brando, Al PAcino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Diane Keaton. This film won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Leading Actor (Brando) and Best Screenplay

2. The Godfather II

This 1974 classic is the sequel to The Godfather. Much of the original cast returns. Robert De Niro is cast as the young Vito Corleone. The film combines scenes from the 1920′s, when Vito Corleone’s career began, interspersed with scenes from the 1950′s and 1960′s with Michael Corleone leading the family’s move to Nevada.

The film won six Oscars including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (De Niro) and Best Director (Coppola)

3. Pulp Fiction

Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino, this 1994 film follows four intertwined stories: the lives of two mob hit men; a boxer, a gangster’s wife; a couple who rob a diner. The film stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, and Uma Thurman. Mr. Tarantino was recognized by the Academy and was awarded the Best Writing for a Screenplay for this film.

4. Goodfellas

This 1990 classic is directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Nicholas Pileggi. It is an adaptation of the true story of the life and times of the people involved in the 1978 Lufthansa Heist in New York. The film stars Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, and Paul Sorvino. Joe Pesci won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in this film.

5. The Departed

This 2006 film became an instant classic. This film has an all-star cast including such notables as Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin. An Irish Mob boss places an informant within the Massachusetts State Police, while simultaneously, the police assign an undercover cop to infiltrate the mob.

6. Scarface

Directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone, this 1983 film stars Al Pacino as Tony Montana (Scarface). Scarface is released from Cuba, along with 125,000 others and sent to a refugee camp in Miami. The film details his rise and fall in Miami’s underworld.

7. Casino

This 1995 film was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Nicholas Pileggi. The impressive cast includes Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, and James Woods. De Niro and Pesci portray mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark. Sharon Stone is sensational as De Niro’s wife. She was nominated for Best Leading Actress for this role.

8. Donnie Brasco

Directed by Mike Newell, written by Joeseph Pistone and Richard Woodley, this film follows an FBI agent as he infiltrates the mob. Al Pacino and Johnny Depp star.

9. Carlito’s Way

Al Pacino and Sean Penn star in this 1993 film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Koepp, adapted from the book by Edwin Torres. It is the story of an ex-con who was recently released from prison, and pledges to stay away from his old life of drugs and violence despite the pressure surrounding him.

10. A Bronx Tale

This 1993 film is directed by and stars Robert De Niro. It was written by Chazz Palminteri. It is the story of a father who becomes concerned when a local gangster befriends his son in the Bronx in the 1960s.

Lane Wright is an avid movie buff and sports fanatic. He has a library of several hundred movies on DVD. Read more at MovieFree.org

Are you too busy to make money? Perhaps, you might think that is an odd question to ask. However, it is a simple question to answer. Are you moving forward in business or just constantly moving?

Time management can be a critical issue for successful entrepreneurs. Time is a finite resource. There is only twenty-four hours in a day. One can not turn back the clock. To be successful in business, entrepreneurs must become a good time manager. No one can get back an hour, 45 minutes, 30 minutes or one minute and redo it! You can not turn back time!

Recently, during a coaching session, I asked this question to one of my clients. I asked him about his priorities? He responded, “Directing employees and keeping them on track, follow-up on emails and telephone calls, completing projects and generating revenue.”

What constitutes busy work here?

I was surprised. I expected that he would have first said, “Sales, sales and more sales! “
Instead, generating revenue was his last response! I wondered, if is it his last priority too? Perhaps, it is not a fair question. Many times, it is unintentional. Business owners do not decide to be unproductive with their time.

Sometimes, entrepreneurs are more reactive than proactive. They react to what comes first to their desk!

• Read and respond to their emails.

• Take a telephone call.

• Listen to their voice mail.

• Counsel an employee.

• Complete administrative tasks.

• Attend a networking event.

• Conduct prospect research.

• Add a page to their website.

• Create a new sales brochure.

All these things take entrepreneurs off their focus! They should stop reacting and start being more proactive. Entrepreneurs should know their priorities, have a daily action plan, work it and never stray from it! Business owners should conduct their non-revenue and administrative duties and responsibilities during non-money hours! Perhaps, during the hours of 9:00 to 10:00am, 2:00 to 3:00pm and 5:00 to 6:00pm one can complete all your administrative duties.

Unfortunately, his focus on is the other activities that do not directly contribute to the bottom line of his business. It is interesting that was one of his main concerns was time management! His own response validated his concern. Most of his time was focused on non-revenue generating activities.

Every entrepreneur’s priorities should be activities that generate new business, sales and profitability. That is revenue generating activities. These are activities that will generate business and sales! In business, someone has to sell something to stay in business! A business owner can not remain in business unless she is making a profit! Who is accountable for the success of a company? The sales team might be responsible for sales but, ultimately it is the business owner who is accountable. The buck stops with the entrepreneur and nobody else! She still has to pay the bills, whether a sale was made or not!

I remember my experience with as a financial planner in the 1980s. One of the training managers asked me what my job was. I quickly responded, “I show couples how to save for retirement, build an education fund for their children and investment portfolio on stocks and bonds.” He shouted back, “Wrong! You are in sales and the sooner you realize that, the better off you will be!”

He was right! I was in sales! It was a lesson that I will never forget. Yes, I still am in the sales business! In fact, most business owners and entrepreneurs are in sales! Whether they like it or not! What did Alec Baldwin’s character say in the movie, “Glen Gary Glen Ross”? “A B C: Always be closing! Always be closing! Always be closing!”

We all have the same amount of time in a day. Some people just do more with it then others! How are you leveraging your time to get more accomplished? The average person might judge her time based on the hours spent. However, an entrepreneur should analyze her day based on results, sales and new business! What is your time management system? Is it profitable for you?

Helpful Tips and Hints:

• Evaluate your current situation.

• Create your own time management system.

• List your top priorities everyday before your day starts and grade them: A, B or C.

• Focus on your A priorities.

• Focus on your activities that will bring more sales, new business and profits.

• Accomplish your work in 2 hour time blocks.

• Define your money hours. (These are the best hours where you can connect with your prospects and clients face to face or on the telephone.)

• Focus your revenue activities during your money hours.

• Do all your administrative activities during your non-money hours.

• Seek to become a better manager of your business time.

Kenneth Darryl Brown is President and CEO of E3 Capital Resources, LLC (E3C), a business development company that specializes in business success systems, leadership, sales, communication and technology. Ken is a passionate entrepreneur and coach. He embraces the servant leadership philosophy and serves as a catalyst for free enterprise, small business and economic development. Ken works with growth-oriented companies in technology, health care, manufacturing, financial and business services industries. E3C stands for Entrepreneurship, Empowerment, Evolution, Connect, Collaborate and Create…. as in greater opportunities for all entrepreneurs worldwide!

Check out the company website: http://www.BetterSalesandProfitsNow.com Ken’s Business Community website: http://www.my-business-community.com and Ken’s Podcast: http://www.E3C.podOmatic.com

It has taken me a while to really come to terms with what we have experienced from West Ham these past few months. I personally was never Curbishley’s biggest fan, I felt that his methods were out-dated and his tactics misguided. I realise that he was a Hammer, but I never really felt he quite understood us fans. Maybe an odd thing to say, but I think Pardew just ‘got’ us. I was reminded of the home-leg of our first play-off semi-final against Ipswich (the year we failed in the final), Pardew organised the bugle player to play the teams out. He excited the crowd, he drummed up the support and got the team playing attractive football that won us games and got us to three finals.

Pardew understood what we expected from a group of people representing West Ham. I know sometimes he got it wrong and when he finally departed we really wasn’t playing our best football….but he was a young manager and will learn from that. I suppose I expected more from Curbishley being that he was vastly more experienced.

I remember the year that we nearly got relegated and for a period of the season (namely the beginning of Curbishley’s employment) I was left wondering why Carlos Tevez was not on the pitch….we had a world-class striker at our disposal and Curbishley wasn’t playing him. When he did finally play him, our seson began to slowly turn around. So to the people, mainly in the press, who always like to remind us ‘fickle’ West Ham fans that Curbishley has done a brilliant job with us, keeping us up and steering us towards 10th, I like to mention that Curbishley was in no rush to field Tevez and was it not for the fans, I’m not sure he would have done. As for finishing 10th, yes it was a respectable position, but the manner in which we achieved it was not encouraging in the slightest. Had the 10 teams below us been of a better standard (as in the year we did actually go down), I really think we would have been in real trouble.

All in all, based on what I knew about Curbishley as a manager, I didn’t want him. Had I known what is now coming out of the wordwork regarding the board decisions and attitude towards our club, I would have been far more sympathetic to his cause. So Curbisley, I apologise. I apologise for the criticisms you have unduly taken for things that were well out of your control.

My mind hasn’t changed with regard to Curbishley not really being the right man for the job, but the manner in which he continually had his legs swiped from beneath him is unacceptable.

Ambition and Eggs

I have mentioned this before, but I will say it again because I think it holds even truer with what we know now. There is currently a lot of cristicism floating about for Eggert Magnusson, but what is so clear now is that he oozed ambition. Eggert wanted Alan Curbishley and West Ham to succeed, so he parted with his (probably BG’s actually!) cash. The problem unfortunately once again lies with Curbishely…he famously said “I only recommend the players”, as if to try and pass the blame onto the board for the signings of players like Dyer, Ljungberg and Quashie. I’m sorry Curbs but those players that were quite frankly awful signings are solely your responsibility….is there any wonder whatsoever that BG didn’t want to give him anymore money?

What we need really is someone like Eggert to be the face (ha!) of the Icelandic board and fro BG to be responsible for handing out sweets. I don’t think BG would have agreed as readily as Eggert did when Curbishley recommended the signing of Quashie. Raw ambition without control is a dangerous as well, something really dangerous. And too much control without any ambition (the situation we find ourselves in now) is equally devastating.

What we need is a manager who actually has a pair. A manager who has ambition and passion. Someone who will get the very best out of a depleted squad. And a manager who adopts a zero tolerance policy towards the board. Someone who’s first priority is West Ham Football Club.

The team we have currently isn’t actually that bad at all, in fact when fully fit is pretty good (on paper). Any team that includes Ashton, Bellamy, Parker, Upson and Green is off to a good start….get someone in who can motivate and inspire these sort of players to perform to their very best. (Dyer is also a pretty decent player too, we just forget that because we have never seen him play!)

It’s Science

Unfortunately, Curbishley was in the dark ages when it come to Sports Science. It is such a major factor in equipping players for performing to their peak. (I know I am a little biased on this!) What Pardew installed at our club was an ethic for hard work alongside the very latest in Sports Science techniques. How many injuries did we have under Pards? Not many at all. In fact this was the main reason I think that we performed so well in our first year back….a stable team.

Curbishley stepped up and took all that away…it’s a real shame he didn’t know what he was destroying. Look at the impact that had on our injury record. Maybe it is just a massive coincidence, but that does not rub well with me at all.

We need to invest in an extremely high quality team of people who work behind the scenes, preparing players each week. So important.

Biscuits

As for the recent behaviour of BG and the gang….disgraceful. Horrendous treatment of the manager and lying to the fans, two things you really don’t want to do at West Ham. I don’t think much more needs to be said than that, and unless their PR skills dramatically improve, I can just say now that BG you should expect to receive a welcome of ‘David Beckham’ (when he came back from the world cup) proportions. We need to see that you are making steps to employing a manager who can take us to the next level, we need to hear truthful reasons for flogging off some of our valuable assets, It is unacceptable and Curbishley I really do feel sorry for you.

And as ‘Mrs. Curbishley’ said in yesterday’s post, I just hope this isn’t the beginning of a demise for our beautiful club.

The latest situation on Di Canio becomming our next boss is that he has said that he would “love to manage West Ham”. He has the relevant coaching badges but no top flight experience. It’s a very interesting possibility, I personally feel he fits the bill I described earlier pretty well….but lack of experience is a big problem. Hhmmmmm.

Sam
http://www.whufc.com/page/Home
http://onyahead.com