Sunday, June 6, 2010

“Steady losses lead to shift in Democratic strategy - KFDA” plus 2 more

“Steady losses lead to shift in Democratic strategy - KFDA” plus 2 more

Steady losses lead to shift in Democratic strategy - KFDA

Posted: 05 Jun 2010 10:10 AM PDT

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Associated Press - June 5, 2010 1:15 PM ET

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - After a steady stream of setbacks in state House and Senate races over the past dozen years, Oklahoma Democrats are changing their approach for trying to regain seats in the Legislature they dominated for decades.

Democrats traditionally took a statewide philosophy to legislative elections, recruiting candidates and spreading resources into political races equally across the state. Now, they are taking a page from the Republican playbook and targeting House and Senate districts with more precision.

Oklahoma Democratic Party spokeswoman Karina Henderson says the previous strategy Democrats employed of targeting each of the state's 77 counties simply isn't as effective as it once was.

Democrats essentially controlled the Legislature since statehood before the GOP took control of the House in 2004 and the Senate in 2008.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Poggenpohl Presents the New +ARTESIO® Kitchen Concept - Big Hollywood

Posted: 03 Jun 2010 10:41 AM PDT

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FAIRFIELD, N.J., June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- New thinking has a tradition at Poggenpohl. At the Eurocucina Furniture Exhibition in Milan, German premium-kitchen manufacturer Poggenpohl  presented +ARTESIO®, a new concept designed in collaboration with Hamburg-based star architect and designer Hadi Teherani. Going far beyond the fitted kitchens typically found in the industry, it provides an all-embracing solution in an architectural melting pot fusing furniture design, wall, floor and ceiling.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100603/NY15224)

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100603/NY15224)

+ARTESIO® is an all-embracing concept in which the aspects of building, architecture, home living and kitchen all coalesce, and continues the Bauhaus philosophy of "form follows function." Bearing the typical Teherani signature, the result is a solution that also builds a visual bridge between cooking and living. Born in Teheran, Hadi Teherani, has been recognized as one of the most creative minds on the architecture and design scene both in Germany and across the globe.

The innovative kitchen concept incorporates three dimensions: from the floor and walls right through to the ceiling. The latter is visually defined by a functional arch that integrates all of the elements necessary for lighting, ventilation and sound. This produces an entirely new feeling of space that turns the kitchen into the center of living at home.

Providing the organizational basis for the new kitchen, a design grid of 130 mm brings together louvred wall and base units in horizontally linear fashion. The uniform style is based on a newly developed carcase that permits identical front and side sections – a unique innovation in kitchen design. And, as a design element, the stainless-steel band that extends all the way around the reveal-accentuated structure of the walls with their exquisite wooden surfaces underscores the desired, integrative impression.

Poggenpohl also treads new paths in the choice of materials, introducing its first-ever textured leather finishes as well as melamine, real wood veneers and lacquered glass in a new range of colors.  

With the new +ARTESIO® concept, designing the kitchen doesn't begin once the floor plan has been finalized, but ideally starts at the same planning stage as the architecture of the home. +ARTESIO® will be available from Poggenpohl in 2011.

Poggenpohl is the world's leading luxury kitchen brand with 30 kitchen design showrooms in the U.S. Based in Herford, Germany, Poggenpohl exports its kitchens to over 70 countries. Since 2000, Poggenpohl has been part of Sweden's Nobia Group, Europe's largest manufacturer of kitchens.

SOURCE Poggenpohl

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Investigate Before You Boycott - Newswise

Posted: 03 Jun 2010 10:55 AM PDT

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Corporations, like individuals, should be given benefit of the doubt, argues philosopher

Newswise — Consumers have a moral duty to investigate any company they decide to boycott, says a Calgary philosopher.

Travis Dumsday is a PhD candidate at the University of Calgary's Philosophy Department. He argues, in a paper a paper presented at the 2010 Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences taking place at Montreal's Concordia University, that consumers have the same ethical and moral duties towards corporations they have towards human beings. And for that reason, he says consumers need to do due diligence by researching companies they decide to boycott or otherwise protest.

That includes exercising the principle of charity, which says that if someone is accused of something, you start by giving the benefit of the doubt. Dumsday says his interest in the topic grew out of his own experience as a student, when he was invited to join in a boycott against Pepsi and PepsiCo products because of the company's activities in Burma.

He says he came to feel that by joining a boycott immediately, he would be shirking his moral duty to give PepsiCo the benefit of the doubt until he had done some research.

"If there's a genuinely heinous activity and the accusation comes from a credible source, there may not be an obligation for the consumer to do more research," he says. "But outside of situations like this, most of the time it would be unethical for most consumers to participate in a boycott campaign because they are going to lack sufficient information."

Dumsday adds that consumers need to assess several things before joining a boycott or attacking a corporation.

The first is the nature of the charge: If a company is accused, say, of deliberately poisoning its products, and they can find evidence of it, then there would be a reason to boycott.

But some boycott campaigns require the consumer to adopt a particular perspective. You can disagree with a call to boycott animal fur if you believe killing animals for meat and fur is not morally wrong.

"Then it's not a matter of trying to do factual research, it's a matter of deciding 'What's my moral position on this issue?'

But either way, he says, consumers should take the time to think things through – and exercise due diligence.

Get more from the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Organised by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences brings together about 9,000 researchers, scholars, graduate students, practitioners, and policy makers to share groundbreaking research and examine the most important social and cultural issues of the day. Montréal's Concordia University is the host of Congress 2010, May 28 to June 4.

The Congress program includes original research from across disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences, providing a great collection of expert sources and innovative story leads. Contact the Congress Media room for assistance connecting with researchers at Congress.


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