What: Wake County Public Libraries’ annual storytelling festival, now in its 26th year, featuring two days of storytelling.
When and where: Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at Historic Oak View County Park, 4028 Carya Drive, Raleigh; 1 and 2 p.m. Sunday at Marbles Kids Museum, 201 E. Hargett St., downtown Raleigh
Who goes: All ages.
What to know before you go: The festival’s main event is the afternoonlong program at Historic Oak View County Park. It features continuous storytelling on the park’s spacious lawn for five hours.
Willa Brigham, host of the TV show “Smart Start Kids,” which airs on WRAL-TV on Saturday mornings, is the featured teller. But others also will be there to entertain kids of all ages.
For the hearing-impaired, there will be American Sign Language-interpreted stories from noon to 2 p.m. And tellers will offer some special stories for the youngest listeners. So if you’ve got young children in tow, be sure to check the program when you get there to find out where they are.
A hay ride shuttle with more storytelling will take you the short distance from the parking lot to the festival. Food will be sold on site, but feel free to bring a picnic, blankets and chairs to spread out and enjoy the stories. The event is free and open to the public. It will take place rain or shine.
If you can’t make it Saturday, or don’t get enough storytelling then, you can find Brigham performing at Marbles at 1 and 2 p.m. Sunday.
For more information about the storytelling festival, call Wake County Public Libraries at 250-1200 or go to www.wakegov.com/libraries/events/storytelling.
Read More:News & Observer
Fallout from U.S. economy feared
RALEIGH - Gov. Mike Easley has told state agency leaders to cut their budgets by 2 percent in case the national economic downturn takes a toll on the state’s revenues.
So far the state’s finances are faring well considering the economic crisis facing the nation. But top advisers to Easley said Thursday that cutting back now would make it easier to react if the state’s sluggish revenues worsen.
“Given the problems with the national economy and given the volatility in the markets, it would be irresponsible to just think everything would be fine,” said Dan Gerlach, a senior budget adviser to Easley, who has a few months left in office. “It is the fiscally responsible action to make sure that the next administration has sufficient reserves to manage the potential situation.”
The cut is actually a reversion, which means the state holds back 2 percent of current agency budgets. A 2 percent reduction amounts to roughly $400 million from the $21.4 billion state budget that lawmakers passed in July. The total will probably be lower because public schools, college financial aid and Medicaid are exempt from the cuts.
The reductions could mean fewer classes for students at community colleges, which typically see a spike in enrollment during tough economic times.
Wake Tech President Steve Scott said full-time enrollment is up roughly 10 percent over the previous academic year. He said state officials gave him advance warning two months ago that budget reductions could be on the way. The college is looking to trim expenses and reach out to private donors for help. It also has received an additional $500,000 from the county to help with the opening of new facilities.
But Scott said that likely won’t be enough to prevent cuts in the spring semester.
“We went ahead and offered the classes in the fall with the assumption that we would have a million dollars more than it looks like we’re going to have come springtime,” Scott said. “So that could be exceptionally problematic, and we’ll have to turn people away. That is what it boils down to.”
Read More:News & Observer
Survey Highlights The Importance of Teaching Children Good Social Skills
(ARA) – Your 4-year-old may already know how to tie their own shoelaces and spell out their first and last names. But as preschool looms around the corner, are you worried how well they’ll fit in with the rest of the classroom?
According to a nationwide survey conducted of 1,000 parents by Mom Central Inc. on behalf of Hasbro Inc., the majority of parents feel the same way with 90 percent considering social skills to be vital to their children’s happiness and confidence.
Nearly eight out of 10 parents also think social skills are more important than academic skills when it comes to their child’s overall happiness. As a matter of fact, parents gave social skills a higher ranking than academic skills on the survey in nearly every area of child development.
“More than ever, our children must get along with others to function effectively,” says Stacy DeBroff, chief executive officer of Mom Central, found at www.momcentral.com. “In this age of team sports and structured play, it has never been more critical for our children to master socialization skills. From children’s play groups to collaboration in the classroom, kids today engage in significantly more structured group activities, raising the profile and the necessity for good social skills.”
According to the survey, one in five parents feel overwhelmed with teaching social skills and more than one-third say that teaching social skills leads to frustration. In response, Stacy DeBroff has developed some tips parents can use to help their child learn social skills in a positive and reinforcing way:
* Lead by example.
Children are excellent observers. If they see Mom and Dad using polite language, sharing and being respectful, they will follow their parents’ guidance.
* Play with them in an educational way.
Children love to play games with their parents because it provides them with direct attention. Noodleboro by Hasbro is a new line of board games, which includes storybooks and audio CDs that nurture preschoolers’ social skills through laughter and play.
* Take a problem-solving approach.
If a situation becomes stressful, encourage your child to talk about the issues they might have with saying “please,” and “thank you” or sharing their toys with their friends. By allowing children to talk, they often discover for themselves what’s causing the problem while also coming up with unique ways in which they will be able to handle themselves.
“It’s more than just manners… it’s sharing, it’s listening, and it’s engaging with others. The Noodleboro games offer an innovative way to use a classic board game to reward and challenge kids as they learn valuable social skills,” says DeBroff.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
Passing the Buck . . . and the Doe and the Fawn
(ARA) - Sipping coffee on your back deck on a beautiful fall morning, you look up and gasp — there in your suburban oasis stands a small herd of deer. For a moment you pause, enchanted. An instant later, as the deer begin to munch on your landscape, you realize they’re just not as awestruck by the encounter as you are.
You don’t have to be a wildlife expert to know that after generations of dwelling in close proximity to humans, modern deer aren’t afraid of us anymore. What’s more, they no longer fear many of the traditional repellents some homeowners still use to protect shrubs, trees and landscaping. So when cool weather comes along and the natural landscape dies, deer have to start foraging for food sources. And they aren’t afraid to walk right into your yard and help themselves to your well-watered, well-established evergreens.
Even just a few deer can cause significant damage to your landscaping. “A single whitetail deer can consume, on average, 8 to 12 pounds of foliage a day,” says James Messina of Messina Wildlife Management. “In many areas of the country, deer overpopulation is a serious problem. With nowhere to go and not much left to eat in the dead of winter, deer can wreak havoc on shrubs, trees and gardens, and destroy new buds and leaves before they have a chance to grow, ruining your prospects for any spring growth.”
Hungry and bold, deer move into residential areas in the winter, and the damage they do in the cold weather will affect your landscape’s health next spring. Traditional animal repellents are also less effective than they were decades ago, Messina notes.
“That’s because those repellents rely on a bad smell — like the stench of a rotting carcass — to fool animals into thinking a predator’s kill is in the area and the predator may be returning for it,” he says. “But the number of predators has actually declined, and deer know it. They’re less afraid of predators, so relying on scare tactics has a greater tendency to fail over time.”
Some wildlife has also built up a resistance to chemical deterrents. Plus, increasingly eco-conscious homeowners prefer not to put potentially harmful chemicals into the environment. Other more lethal alternatives are not only inhumane but illegal in most parts of the country.
More homeowners are turning to organic alternatives, like Deer Stopper, a repellent formulated from plant extracts. This organic option works because it confronts deer by using their natural repulsion to certain plant smells and tastes rather than relying on fear.
“We know that deer will eat over 500 different types of plants,” Messina says. “Normally, they’re quite discriminating. But in fall and winter, when food is harder to find, they become less picky and much more of a threat to suburban landscapes. Still, like many wild animals, deer rely on taste and smell to judge if a food may be harmful to them. If your backyard foliage tastes or smells unpleasant to them, one bite and they’ll move on.”
An effective taste deterrent, Deer Stopper is 100 percent organic and completely safe for use on all types of plants — from vegetables to trees, flowers to shrubs. The Organic Materials Review Institute lists it as approved for use by organic growers. The smell- and taste-based technology also eliminates the need for a foul odor, so Deer Stopper actually smells good to humans. Lightly mist vegetation once a month, even during the cold and snowy winter to keep deer away all season long. To learn more, or to find retail locations, visit www.messinawildlife.com.
“In the early 1900s, there were probably only about half a million deer spread out over the country,” Messina says. “Today, there are more than 15 million. Deer, it turns out, adapt quite well to life in suburbia. Keeping them away from residential and commercial landscaping can help everyone — deer and homeowners — co-exist more happily together.”
Courtesy of ARAcontent
(NewsUSA) - Maintenance costs are up, home values are falling and states are seeing more foreclosures than sales. But terrible times for homeowners make for terrific investment opportunities.
Why? The market sees constant ups and downs. Buying when the market’s high means greater upfront costs. And because the market cannot rise indefinitely, property investors must constantly watch for the bubble to pop.
In a down market, the question is not “if,” but “when” the market will improve. If investors can buy properties at rock-bottom prices, they can afford to maintain the home until the market improves. At that point, the investor can sell the home both to recoup their buying and operating costs and to make a profit.
Some companies are looking to profit on the down housing market. Deer Park Development Corporation, a Nevada-based company, is purchasing foreclosed homes in Arizona, Nevada, California and Florida, some of the areas most affected by the down market. Nevada, for example, sees more foreclosures than any other state -; million-dollar properties can be bought for half their building costs. Between May and June, Californian banks foreclosed on 40 percent of the homes on the market.
Deer Park Development Corporation’s agents and brokers draw on 35 years of experience -; they have seen down markets before, so they can easily identify promising properties.
When Deer Park Development Corporation finds a home that it wants to acquire as an investment, it works with the homeowner or bank to purchase the home at a 50 percent discount.
But the company does not profit at homeowner’s expense. It negotiates with homeowners so that people can rent their homes after the sale. When the original homeowner’s lease expires, Deer Park Development Corporation allows former homeowners to repurchase their properties for a predetermined price. In this way, the company invests in the down market while also helping down-and-out homeowners.
Currently, the company is searching for investors. For more information, visit deerparkdevelopmentcorp.com.
CARY, N.C. — Guitar Hero enthusiasts will get the chance to compete over two days at the visitRaleigh.com Benefit Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the John Entwistle Foundation for the chance to win a pair of tickets to the 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio. The overall winner will have the opportunity to test their skills against 16-year-old Raleigh Guitar Hero whiz, Blake Peebles. The concert is slated for September 19 & 20 at Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary, N.C.
Competitors will perform an already selected challenge song and each score will be recorded. One winner will be declared on Friday and one on Saturday with each victor claiming a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame membership package. The two champions will battle on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. for the ultimate prize of two tickets to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The final contest winner will face Peebles on Saturday at 8:45 p.m. in an attempt to beat Guitar Hero’s fastest fingers.
A registration table will be set up for the contest just inside the amphitheatre entrance. Registration will begin on Friday, September 19 at 6:00 p.m. and Saturday, September 20 at 12:00 p.m. Once the competitor has registered, they may perform the challenge song and try to earn their best score.
Winning the contest isn’t the only way to get a ticket to rock and roll’s biggest night. A random drawing consisting of all registered Guitar Hero participants will take place for another chance to win a pair of tickets to the 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
So, sharpen those skills on expert and bring it to the visitRaleigh.com Rock Hall Benefit Concert at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre for an opportunity to win rockin’ prizes.
Last March, Madonna, John Mellencamp, The Ventures, the Dave Clark Five, Leonard Cohen, and Gamble & Huff were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the Class of 2008. The 2009 finalists will be announced late this fall.
Tickets to the September 19-20 festival are on sale at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre box office and via Ticketmaster. The visitRaleigh.com Rock Hall Benefit concert is presented by the Town of Cary and sponsored by SunTrust Bank, American Airlines, Harris Wholesale, Raleigh News & Observer, 96 Rock, 850 The Buzz, Paragon Commercial Bank, Prime Mortgage Lending, French/West/Vaughan and Black Diamond Capital Group. Proceeds from the concert will benefit both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum’s educational outreach and the John Entwistle Foundation’s program of providing musical instruments and music lessons to disadvantaged youths through the public library systems in communities across the country. For more information, visit www.rockhallbenefit.com.
Read More:CarolinaNewsWire
CARY, NC — Ultimus, developer of one of the most widely-deployed business process management software suites in the world, announced a strategic global partnership with JFE Systems, a Tokyo-based user systems integrator specializing in the manufacturing sector.
This partnership allows JFE to develop margin-rich revenue streams with the Ultimus BPM solution while utilizing their own manufacturing integration expertise and development teams. Ultimus can now more effectively target the Japanese BPM market, which as part of the larger Asia-Pacific region has demonstrated positive growth.
In a recent report, Gartner indicates that the total software revenue in the portal, process, and middleware software market (including business process management suites) in Asia/Pacific and Japan is estimated to have grown to nearly $2.1 billion in 2006. Gartner forecasts the market will grow to $3.4 billion by 2011, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 10.4%.
“The growing demand in the Japanese marketplace for workflow automation drove our decision to team with the foremost global provider of BPM solutions,” said Syuji Aoki, General Manager, IT Solution Sales, JFE Systems. “Our product and service portfolio and experience with large enterprise deployment provide a natural extension of the Ultimus BPM solution.”
Firmly committed to the world’s second largest economy, Ultimus has many years of experience in Japan. Ultimus boasts a prestigious Japanese customer base, including enterprise customers such as Ajinomoto, Nissan, Sanyo, Bausch & Lomb, Synthes, Volkswagen Group Japan, Mistui Oil, Yamashita, and Optrex.
“As a pioneer in next-generation information technology, JFE Systems offers our Japanese customer base exceptional customer service and rapid application system development,” said Samuel Bateman, Director, International Business Development, Ultimus. “The award-winning Ultimus Adaptive BPM Suite provides a business process backbone with extensive and adaptive capabilities that set JFE apart from their competition.”
The Ultimus Partner Program aims to forge relationships with leading organizations around the globe. The program empowers partners with access to the tools, information, and resources needed to successfully use, sell, deploy, and support the Ultimus Adaptive BPM Suite on mission-critical, high-value business processes.
About JFE Systems, Inc. (Tokyo Stock Exchange, Second Section/Code No.4832)
JFE Systems, Inc. (name changed from Kawatetsu Information Systems Ltd. on December 1, 2004) was formed as an independent company in 1983 from the former information systems division of Kawasaki Steel Co., Ltd. (the present “JFE Steel Corporation”). In March 2001, it became the first user systems integrator born out of the manufacturing sector to be listed on the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. For more information, please refer to http://www.jfe-systems.com/eng/index.html
Read More: CarolinaNewsWire
SAS is going to high school.
The Cary software company is expanding a pilot programming course taught at Apex High School to nine other high schools this academic year.
Seven of the newly added schools are in North Carolina, including Cary High School and the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, and one each is in Florida and Alabama. The course will be available to high schools across the country beginning in January.
“I do think it is something that can be successful nationwide,” said Julie Oster, director of Apex High’s information technology-oriented curriculum. “It’s a skill that is in high demand … because SAS is used in so many industries. Statistical analysis is now everywhere.”
John Garrison, a senior at Apex High who took the SAS course last year, said it opened his eyes to the power of data. “It really allows for a lot of statistical analysis,” he said. “It’s a great platform for learning.”
The teen said he found the “syntax” of SAS — the basics of the programming language — easy. But it was harder to determine the best ways to process and manipulate data, which is at the heart of the company’s business intelligence and analytics software.
SAS, which has more than 4,000 workers in Cary, views the course as a way of doing good — enriching student curricula — as well as helping itself by spreading the word about the company and training what is potentially a new generation of SAS programmers.
That’s important because demand for SAS programmers exceeds supply. Demand is especially high at pharmaceutical and financial services companies that use SAS software.
The high school program is an extension of the company’s efforts to teach SAS skills at the university level.
That includes helping to develop N.C. State University’s master’s degree program in analytics and a data mining certificate program at Oklahoma State University.
Nor is SAS’s push into high schools unique. More schools are offering information technology curricula, and IT companies are eager to work with them. Cisco Systems courses were taken by 2,939 students at 47 high schools in North Carolina from October 2006 to October 2007, the company said.
“The same courses I’m teaching at high school, you can actually take at a community college or university,” said Geof Duncan, who teaches two Cisco courses — network engineering technology I and II — at Knightdale High School.
The first course teaches students to set up a wired or wireless network in a home or small office. The advanced course teaches skills such as configuring routers. Combined, the two courses are the equivalent of one college course.
Leslie Keller, the Apex teacher who worked with SAS to adapt its adult certification program for the high school level, views the course as useful even for students who don’t pursue a career in IT.
“All programming language is problem-solving and critical thinking, regardless of what the programming language is,” she said. “In addition, SAS offers a broader perspective and appreciation of data and how it can be beneficial and how it can be used.”
SAS’s sophisticated business intelligence and analytics software isn’t easily explained in a few words, but Keller has a pat description: “SAS takes data and turns it into useful information. It analyzes the data, creates reports from the data in many, many different ways.”
For years SAS has been approached by high schools interested in teaching SAS programming. Until now the company didn’t have a course to offer them, said Caroline McCullen, director of SAS education initiatives
Read More:News & Observer
Tar Heels dominated game against Rutgers after so-so win over McNeese State
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - North Carolina coach Butch Davis was pleased by his team’s dominating Thursday night performance at Rutgers Stadium.
But what might bode the brightest for the Tar Heels’ continued rebuilding effort — and their ACC opener against Virginia Tech next weekend — is what they did before the 44-12 victory.
“The preparation we had prior to tonight’s ballgame was about as good as we’ve had in the 18 months I’ve been a head coach,” Davis said after his team broke its 20-game losing streak outside the state of North Carolina.
“We were very disappointed in ourselves and the way we played a week ago against McNeese State, and I think our players really responded.”
Davis said the coaches were tough on the players after UNC’s unimpressive season-opening victory Aug. 30. The Tar Heels went full speed, he said, and “we had four practices last week that were probably harder than any practices we had during training camp. It was old-school football; we went out and we worked and we hit and we tackled; we did a lot of stuff. And they responded.”
Indeed, the Tar Heels players credited the focused, sometimes grueling workouts for their most lopsided victory since beating Duke 52-17 in 2001.
Although the defense gave up 383 yards, the Scarlet Knights didn’t convert a play of more than 25 yards and finished 0-for-9 on third downs. Most important: UNC’s secondary was noticeably more physical than in Week 1, making hard hits and snagging four interceptions — something they focused on during the previous 10 days on the practice field.
“If the scout team gained one yard, we got blessed out about it,” said cornerback Kendric Burney, who grabbed one of the picks.
UNC still didn’t have an individual 100-yard rusher, but the offensive line was more cohesive and consistently opened more holes. The Tar Heels gained 157 yards on the ground, and quarterback T.J. Yates was sacked only once.
Another product of some intense workouts.
“Coach Davis was jumping everybody,” tailback Shaun Draughn said after a practice several days after the McNeese State win. “All that losing — that mentality — we need to get it out of our head.”
Read More:News & Observer
DURHAM - In years past, Duke’s football team would not have defeated Navy on Saturday in Wallace Wade Stadium.
Instead of a 41-31 Duke win, here’s what would have happened:
* Navy would have forced a couple of turnovers late.
* The Blue Devils defense would have gone into a surrender posture during the fourth quarter.
* What few fans in the stadium at kickoff would have found relief from the steamy heat at halftime, never to return.
* The little things would have gone the other way — the Navy way — and Duke would have gladly settled for the consolation of a competitive loss.
But Duke is no longer the Duke of old, and certainly not the Duke football program of the past several years. Such is the influence of first-year coach David Cutcliffe, who quickly has convinced one of the country’s most downtrodden programs that there can be no real comfort in defeat.
“We’re a different team,” star receiver Eron Riley said. “Last year, when we played them, we lost [46-43], but we thought we were the better team. It’s about how you close the deal. We didn’t do that then. Now, we can.”
So different are the Blue Devils that they now will take a 2-1 record into this week’s open date.
The one loss — 24-20 against Northwestern — hardly was the sort of embarrassment that Duke fans have come to expect, and accept, and there’s not strong reason to think the Blue Devils can’t move on to 3-1 and 1-0 in the ACC when they face Virginia here on Sept. 27.
Heck, Cutcliffe is probably no more than three or four more wins away from wrapping up ACC Coach of the Year, and he’s doing it without Sarah Palin serving as an assistant or with a single pit bull wearing lipstick on the defensive line.
“They’re getting it done; give them credit,” said Navy’s first-year coach Ken Niumatalolo. “Coach Cutcliffe has done a great job of getting them to believe in what they’re doing.”
What Cutcliffe is doing isn’t all that exotic. Yes, he has opened up the passing game more than was the case under previous coach Ted Roof, but Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis is still a ball-control passer who looks first to Riley (three touchdown receptions against the Middies) and then to various other short-route receivers.
The Duke ground game still doesn’t scare anyone, but it is productive enough to keep opponents honest.
Read More:News & Observer
