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Dwayne Baker, driving the No.48 Baker Performance Plus/Zancor Homes, utilized the final restart of the evening to make a lap 47 pass by Shane Maginnis (No.03 Budd's GMC) to win his second OSCAAR Super Late Model feature of the season at Sunset Speedway.
Baker, who won earlier this season at Sunset as part of the Don Biederman Memorial, started outside the front row for the 50-lap main event. The Stayner, Ont. based driver ran most of the night in second, until he was finally able to get my Maginnis, who held the lead for most of the night, with three laps to go.
Despite holding off Baker on numerous restarts in the final six laps, Maginnis fell three laps shy of his first OSCAAR victory of the season. Maginnis would finish third after Jeff Hanley (No.70 Raylene Racing) slipped past the No.03 with two to go, but the veteran driver was more than satisfied with his result.
The race was a war of attrition, with a total of 13 caution periods for the 21-car field.
The OSCAAR Super Late Model tour returns to action next Saturday August 3 at Peterborough Speedway as part of the Chase for the Colours for the first of three trips to the 1/3-mile oval in 2013.
The top two finishers in the event will be locked in to the front row for the Autumn Colours Classic.
Stay tuned to www.oscaar.ca for more information regarding gate times and ticket pricing.
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Sitting cross-legged, a Mona Lisa half-smile playing on her lips, the Llullaillaco Maiden looks at peace. When she was unearthed in 1999, the lump of coca in her teeth and her icy mountaintop tomb were the only clues that she was part of an Inca child sacrifice ritual 500 years ago.
Now the latest studies of her perfectly preserved body offer an unprecedented glimpse into her life in the months leading up to her death ? possibly from hypothermia ? and raise questions about the extent to which she was aware of, and accepted, the fate that had been mapped out for her.
The frozen body of the 13-year-old Maiden was entombed in a small chamber 1.5 metres underground near the summit of Volc?n Llullaillaco in Argentina, together with the bodies of two 4 or 5-year-olds. With the blood still visible in their hearts and their lungs inflated, the three are probably the best-preserved mummies anywhere in the world, says Andrew Wilson at the University of Bradford in the UK. "They look very recognisable as individuals, which adds to the poignancy of their story."
The children were the centrepiece of an elaborate capacocha ritual ? the Inca practice of child sacrifice used to mark important events in the emperor's life. What we know about the ritual comes from 17th-century Spanish accounts, but they reveal little from the children's perspective. The mummies, in particular that of the Maiden, help fill that gap.
"She has fantastically tightly braided hair, which effectively acts as a timeline stretching back almost two years before her death," says Wilson. With colleagues, he has analysed how chemical traces in the hair differ from root to tip. The results show the Maiden experienced important dietary changes in those final two years.
Around 12 months before her death, for instance, the Maiden's diet changed markedly from simple to much richer food ? perhaps indicating the moment that she was plucked from humble surroundings and elevated to a higher status as someone chosen for sacrifice.
The chemical markers also show she consumed large quantities of alcohol and coca ? from which cocaine is extracted ? in the final months of her life. Her coca use peaked when she had six months to live, possibly coinciding with a hair-cutting ritual she underwent at the time. The final six weeks of her life, meanwhile, were marked by her consuming more alcohol than usual. This was not seen in the two younger children sacrificed alongside her, who almost certainly both played some subordinate "attendant" role in the capacocha ritual.
This difference intrigued Wilson and his colleagues, who speculate that it may reflect a greater need to sedate the Maiden as the capacocha ritual approached.
It's certainly a possibility, says John Verano at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. "We can only hypothesise, but being older, she might have had more of an idea of what was going on around her," he says. And although she may have considered her imminent death an honour ? as we know the Inca were encouraged to do ? it may equally have caused her anxiety. "Was she nervous and using drink as a way to deal with it?" asks Verano.
However, Verano points out that the Maiden's increased intake of alcohol may simply reflect her involvement in more rituals before the capacocha ? maize beer being an important component of Inca ceremonies.
Charles Stanish at the University of California, Los Angeles, offers another interpretation: rather than the alcohol and drugs being used to sedate the Maiden to make it easier for her carers to manipulate her, they might have been for her benefit ? to numb her to her fate. "Some would say that within this cultural context, this was a humane action," he says.
There may be a way to throw more light on the issue, says Verano. Hair also contains the stress hormone cortisol, so it should hold clues to the Maiden's stress levels. "If [cortisol] also increased towards the end of her life, that would certainly be interesting," he says.
Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1305117110
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THE Diamond League meeting had been set for Hampden next year but now the UK capital's mayor has intervened in a bid to keep it down south.
Andrew Winning
GLASGOW could lose out on staging a star-studded Diamond League athletics meeting next year after London mayor Boris Johnson launched a last-minute bid to land the event.
This year?s showpiece, held on Friday and Saturday, attracted more than 120,000 fans to the Olympic Stadium to see superstars such as Mo Farah and Usain Bolt take part.
The Anniversary Games were a massive hit with spectators who saw Olympic heroes Bolt ? who arrived on a rocket ? and Farah storm to victory in the 100m and 3000m respectively.
With the Stratford venue unavailable next summer due to building work, Hampden Park had emerged as the hot favourite to plug the gap, using the track which is being installed for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
But Johnson is now trying to push Glasgow out, tabling the idea of turning the event into a London street games using Pall Mall and Horse Guards Parade as a temporary home.
UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner said: ?We?re talking to the Greater London Authority about that.
?The mayor would like to keep the event in London for obvious reasons.
?
?It was a London Olympics and Paralympics.
?We?ve pretty much got a green light from Glasgow to go there.
?So we?ve got some interesting choices. It will come down to a variety of things. Not just money.?
A final decision must be taken by November but Glasgow chiefs have a trump card up their sleeve ? with stars such as Bolt able to cash in on a tax exemption for athletes jetting in for the 2014 Games.
And Warner said: ?There is a window that would make Glasgow an easy opportunity.
?And the organisers of the Commonwealth Games want to do all they can to ensure the world?s greatest athletes are there.?
Mid Scotland and Fife Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: ?It sounds perfectly sensible for the Diamond League to be held in Glasgow.
?The facilities are already in place in preparation for the Commonwealth Games.
?It would also help to build a profile for Glasgow as a venue for holding major sporting events.
?I can understand Boris Johnson?s view on this ? he is protecting his own interests. He was elected to look after London.
?I think it would be great if it came to Glasgow.
?It?s a fantastic opportunity for the city.?
Source: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/london-mayor-boris-johnson-moves-2101142
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By Alan with comments July 29, 2013 11:51
The 21-year-old man was arrested in London by Scotland Yard.
Scotland Yard said that a 21-year-old man was arrested in London on Sunday for sending rape and murder threats to a female activist on Twitter.
Caroline Criado-Perez had become a target on Wednesday after she organized a successful campaign to have author Jane Austen appear on a newly-designed British bank note.
?Everybody jump on the rape train . . . [Criado-Perez] is the conductor,? one Twitter user wrote, according to The Age.
?Wouldn?t mind tying this bitch to my stove. Hey sweetheart, give me a shout when you are ready to be put in your place,? another tweet said. ?Rape threats? Don?t flatter yourself. Call the cops, we will rape them too.?
A Scotland Yard spokesperson said on Sunday that the arrest of a 21-year-old man was ?in connection with an allegation of malicious communications received by officers in Camden on Thursday, July 25.?
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Gary Player says Rory McIlroy has ?talent galore? to become ?the man? -- if he finds ?the right wife.?
Gary Player has become the latest in a growing line of golf's elder statesmen to tell Rory McIlroy that he?s squandering his otherworldly talents by following girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki around the world from tennis match to tennis match rather than dedicating himself to his own craft.
"I love Rory McIlroy, he?s got such talent like you can?t believe it, and I got quite perturbed [to] see him win the U.S. Open and then the next tournament he plays is one month later, the Open Championship. You can?t do that," Player, sounding the same theme that Sir Nick has expounded on incessantly, told My Sporting Life on Saturday (via Geoff Shackelford). "What he should have done was taken a week off after winning the U.S. Open to settle down and then play two tournaments in a row and then come into the Open. You?ve got to prepare properly."
McIlroy, who lost golf's top ranking to Tiger Woods in March and slipped from No. 2 to the third slot after Phil Mickelson won the British Open earlier this month, appeared to be the second coming of Eldrick Tont after lapping the fields at the 2011 U.S. Open and 2012 PGA Championship. Along the way, he picked up the 2012 PGA and European money titles and player of the year honor, which were preludes to his megabucks contract with Nike to start the 2013 season.
Nick Faldo and Johnny Miller, among others, have criticized McIlroy for ditching the Titleist gear that helped him reach the top of his game. They have also opined that the 24-year-old?s love life has distracted him from his true calling.
Player concurred, adding that the "right wife" would put the young lad back on course.
"When you?re in love as a young man, naturally golf seems to take second place for a while," said the nine-time major champion. "That?s natural. Love is still the greatest thing that ever happened in our lives. He?ll come back strong.
"Now the thing is, for a man like Rory, the talent galore, he?s got to make sure he has a woman like I?ve got, who has been married [to me] for 56 years, that has only encouraged me to do well and made all the sacrifices," Player said. "He?s got to be intelligent and find the right wife. If he finds the right wife, if he practices and if he?s dedicated, he could be the man."
? Anchor Down: Snedeker's ascent continues in Canada
? Golfing on the toilet | Golfing in total darkness at The Senior Open
? Phil adds to the legend
? PGA to let fans choose pin location for season's final major
? Dustin Johnson gives it away with late triple-bogey | Holding lead, Mahan withdraws from RBC as wife goes into labor
? Phil credits technology for Open win
Source: http://www.sbnation.com/golf/2013/7/29/4567410/rory-mcilroy-gary-player-golf-before-love
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Posted on: 9:48 pm, July 27, 2013, by John Sears, updated on: 10:47pm, July 27, 2013
The 3rd ranked Van Meter Bulldogs held off Remsen St. Marys in the state baseball quarterfinals, 6-4 Saturday night at Principal Park.
Brandon Brittain had 2 RBI?s for the Bulldogs.
Van Meter, now 34-8, will face the winner of Van Buren and Don Bosco Thursday afternoon in the 1A semifinals.
Source: http://whotv.com/2013/07/27/state-baseball-van-meter-headed-to-semifinals/
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Pilgrims and residents gather on Copacabana beach before the arrival of Pope Francis for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, July 27, 2013. Francis will preside over an evening vigil service on Copacabana beach that is expected to draw more than 1 million young people. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Pilgrims and residents gather on Copacabana beach before the arrival of Pope Francis for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, July 27, 2013. Francis will preside over an evening vigil service on Copacabana beach that is expected to draw more than 1 million young people. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A bishop watches live video on his tablet of Pope Francis at an event as he waits for Francis to arrive for a meeting with Brazilian cardinals and bishops at St Joaquim Palace in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, July 27, 2013. Pope Francis took his message to shake up the Catholic Church to bishops from around the world on Saturday, challenging them to get out of their churches and go to the farthest margins of society to find the faithful and preach. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Pope Francis celebrates Mass at Rio de Janeiro's Cathedral, Saturday, July 27, 2013. Pope Francis on Saturday challenged bishops from around the world to get out of their churches and preach, and to have the courage to go to the farthest margins of society to find the faithful.. Pope Francis is on the sixth day of his trip to Brazil where he attends the 2013 World Youth Day in Rio. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Pope Francis delivers his homily during a Mass at Rio de Janeiro's Cathedral in Brazil, Saturday, July 27, 2013. Pope Francis on Saturday challenged bishops from around the world to get out of their churches and preach, and to have the courage to go to the farthest margins of society to find the faithful. (AP Photo/Luca Zennaro, Pool)
A pilgrim rests under an umbrella decorated with images of the Christ the Redeemer statue as she waits on Copacabana beach for an evening vigil with Pope Francis during World Youth Day events in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, July 27, 2013. Francis will preside over an evening vigil service on Copacabana beach that is expected to draw more than 1 million young people. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ? Pilgrims staked out spots on the sand of Copacabana beach for an all-night slumber party ahead of the final Mass of Pope Francis' stay in Brazil, a trip that has drawn rapturous crowds of up to 3 million faithful.
Francis headed into the final hours of his first international trip riding a remarkable wave of popularity: By the time his open-sided car reached the stage for the vigil service Saturday night, the back seat was piled high with soccer jerseys, flags and flowers tossed to him by adoring pilgrims lining the beachfront route.
"I'm trembling, look how good you can see him!" gushed Fiorella Dias, a 16-year-old Brazilian who jumped for joy as she reviewed the video she shot as the pope passed by. "I have got to call my mother!"
The vigil drew a reported 3 million flag-waving, rosary-toting faithful, who overflowed Copacabana beach's 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) of white sand on the final evening of World Youth Day. The attendance figure, given by local media citing the mayor's office, is higher than the 1 million at the last World Youth Day vigil in Madrid in 2011, and far more than the 650,000 at Toronto's 2002 vigil.
Many of those watching the vigil had tears in their eyes as they listened to Francis' call for them to build up their church like his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, was called to do.
"Jesus offers us something bigger than the World Cup!" Francis said, drawing cheers from the crowd in this soccer-mad nation.
On the beach, pilgrims staked out their spots on the sand, lounged and snacked, preparing for the all-night slumber party ahead of Sunday's Mass. Francis leaves Brazil Sunday evening.
"At church, it can be a bit tedious, but here it's amazing," marveled Anna Samson, a 21-year-old college senior from Long Beach, California.
"Seeing the pope, seeing the Stations of the Cross acted out live, seeing all these young people from all over," she said as she and two friends plied the beach in search of a place to spread their sleeping bags. "It's overwhelming, just amazing."
Rio's mayor has estimated that as many as 3 million people might turn out for Sunday's Mass.
Saturday night's vigil capped a busy day for the pope in which he drove home a message he has emphasized throughout the week in speeches, homilies and off-the-cuff remarks: the need for Catholics, lay and religious, to shake up the status quo, get out of their stuffy sacristies and reach the faithful on the margins of society or risk losing them to rival churches.
In the longest and most important speech of his four-month pontificate, Francis took a direct swipe at the "intellectual" message of the church that so characterized the pontificate of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. Speaking to Brazil's bishops, he said ordinary Catholics simply don't understand such lofty ideas and need to hear the simpler message of love, forgiveness and mercy that is at the core of the Catholic faith.
"At times we lose people because they don't understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity and import an intellectualism foreign to our people," he said. "Without the grammar of simplicity, the church loses the very conditions which make it possible to fish for God in the deep waters of his mystery."
In a speech outlining the kind of church he wants, Francis asked bishops to reflect on why hundreds of thousands of Catholics have left the church for Protestant and Pentecostal congregations that have grown exponentially in recent decades in Brazil, particularly in its slums or favelas, where their charismatic message and nuts-and-bolts advice is welcome by the poor.
According to census data, the number of Catholics in Brazil dipped from 125 million in 2000 to 123 million in 2010, with the church's share of the total population dropping from 74 percent to 65 percent. During the same time period, the number of evangelical Protestants and Pentecostals skyrocketed from 26 million to 42 million, increasing from 15 percent to 22 percent of the population in 2010.
Francis offered a breathtakingly blunt list of explanations for the "exodus."
"Perhaps the church appeared too weak, perhaps too distant from their needs, perhaps too poor to respond to their concerns, perhaps too cold, perhaps too caught up with itself, perhaps a prisoner of its own rigid formulas," he said. "Perhaps the world seems to have made the church a relic of the past, unfit for new questions. Perhaps the church could speak to people in their infancy but not to those come of age."
Francis asked if the church today can still "warm the hearts" of its faithful with priests who take time to listen to their problems and remain close to them.
"We need a church capable of rediscovering the maternal womb of mercy," he said. "Without mercy, we have little chance nowadays of becoming part of a world of 'wounded' persons in need of understanding, forgiveness and love."
The Argentine pope began Saturday with a Mass in Rio's beehive-like modern cathedral where he exhorted 1,000 bishops from around the world to go out and find the faithful, a more diplomatic expression of the direct, off-the-cuff instructions he delivered to young Argentine pilgrims on Thursday. In those remarks, he urged the youngsters to make a "mess" in their dioceses and shake things up, even at the expense of confrontation with their bishops and priests.
"We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities when so many people are waiting for the Gospel!" Francis said in his homily Saturday.
Francis' target audience is the poor and the marginalized ? the people that history's first pope from Latin America has highlighted on this first trip of his pontificate. He has visited one of Rio's most violent slum areas, met with juvenile offenders and drug addicts.
He carried that message to a meeting with Brazil's political, economic and intellectual elite, urging them to look out for the poorest and use their leadership positions to work for the common good. He also called for greater dialogue between generations, religions and peoples during the speech at Rio's grand municipal theater.
___
Associated Press writer Marco Sibaja contributed to this report.
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
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The ongoing trial of Li Tianyi, a 17-year-old boy accused of participating in the gang rape of a woman in Beijing, spurred some vomit-inducing comments from Yi Yanyou, a professor at Tsinghua University. As the blog Shanghaiist reported, in defending the accused rapist, Yanyou posted to his Weibo account that since ?a bargirl, a dancing girl, an escort or a prostitute? is more likely to consent to sex, it isn?t as bad to rape them.
In an attempt to clarify his comment, Yanyou continued (but probably should have kept his mouth shut):
?To emphasise that the victim is a bargirl doesn?t mean it?s OK to rape a bargirl. It only means that a bargirl is more likely to agree to a sexual act. Besides, even if it is a rape, to rape a bargirl does less harm than to rape a good woman.?
Oh, so many reasons why this is horrible! First, it implies that the bodies of some women are more valuable than others. Second, it also implies that men are going to rape women no matter what, so it?s better if they rape the ?bad? women. No, that is so wrong, Professor Yi. At the very least, Professor Yi has received a healthy dose of heat from the internet for his ignorance.
[Shanghaiist]
[Photo via CCTV]
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Community Media Lab is a public outreach project launched by Heritage.com providing a learning-based and collaborative environment where community contributors can experiment, learn and grow.
Stephen Frye has covered the police beat and courts for The Oakland Press and now serves as online editor for www.theoaklandpress.com.
Jerry Wolffe works as the disability rights advocate for the Macomb-Oakland Regional Center and is a former reporter with The Oakland Press. He still writes the Voices of Disability column and created a blog for those who miss reading his articles in the paper. In his blog, he writes profiles of extraordinary people with disabilities, civil rights and inspires his readers and to help others find the way to a world where no one is judged by how they look or their talents but are loved because they are alive.
Pat Caputo is a sports columnist for The Oakland Press who covered the Tigers from 1986-98, and the Lions from 1998-2002.
Source: http://www.heritage.com/articles/2013/07/28/saline_reporter/news/doc51f01b9ec3044082253154.txt
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From upset consumers whose gadgets broke prematurely to stranded air travelers stuck on the tarmac, Twitter has been an effective outlet to publicly shame companies, sometimes resulting in VIP treatment.
Those days may be over.
Some recent incidents suggest tweeting is starting to resemble being stuck on hold, or worse yet ? trapped in an automated telephone system pressing #1, #2, or #3.
The most extreme example involved Bank of America's @BofA_Help account, which last month repeatedly responded to a vitriolic cycle of foreclosure criticism with robotic-sounding, "Please let us know if you need assistance," messages. Public embarrassment soon followed. When an account called @OccupyLA wrote, "You can help by stop stealing people's houses!!!," @BofA_Help responded, "We'd be happy to review your account." And on it went from there.
Frank Eliason, often considered the founder of Twitter-based customer service as the voice behind @ComcastCares and author of "@YourService," said the latest trend is "breaking my heart." (NBC News is part of NBC Universal, which is owned by Comcast.)
"Companies are really looking at this more as a PR play as opposed to fixing the root cause of the problem, and that makes me really sad," Eliason said. "Companies do not want to talk to you, and it shows. The fact is most do not want to tweet with you either."
Cheesy stunts
As the
Twitter customer service channel has matured, companies have turned to
automated "bots" and scripted responses, ruining the personal touch that
had made Twitter help so valuable, Eliason said. Rather than trying to
be purely helpful, and enhance customer relationships, Twitter has
become the land of cheesy public relations stunts, such as Chipotle faking that its account had been hacked to gain more followers.
"They haven't devoted the staff it would take to respond in real time with real answers," said Carri Bugbee, a social media expert, discussing Twitter failures in general. "Whether it's a bot or a person with a script, it's a failure, and it's tantamount to outsourcing customer service to the lowest-level employee."
There's a pretty straightforward reason that Twitter help might be in trouble. When the channel was narrow, and the number of potential users was small, a single tweeter like Eliason could handle the volume. As success stories have proliferated, more consumers have tried, forcing firms to replace single agents with teams and processes.
In other words, the personal touch is hard to scale.
"Obviously, large companies that have a lot of relationships to manage are looking for ways to make it scale, to automate, but it really doesn't work," Bugbee said. "(Companies are) looking for cheap or easy ways to do things that aren't cheap or easy."
Making things worse?
Social
media is hard work, and many companies aren't getting it right. Simply
Measured, which studies Twitter response, says 32 of the Interbrand top
100 companies have a dedicated customers service Twitter handle,
meaning they have gone over and above the others to invite tweets.
Even among those 32 Twitter-focused firms, performance isn't great: The average response time to a tweet is 4.6 hours, and the average response rate is 45 percent, says Nate Smitha of Simply Measured.
"We have seen those continue to improve every time we take the study," Smitha said. "But the numbers do come across as low."
Of course, simply responding to a tweet doesn't equal a successful customer service exchange, as Bank of America proved. In fact it's easy to imagine that companies targeting improved response metrics by using bots or scripts actually make things worse.
"Those canned
responses have to go the way of the past because (companies) will become
a laughingstock ... and it will reach Wall Street," said Marcia
Collier, author of several books on social media customer service.
Turn down the temperature
Failures
come when company cultures won't allow Twitter agents to do the right
thing, limiting their responses to scripts and legalese.
"These are large corporations who [are] bogged down in silos, who do not give their social media team the latitude to decide on the fly how to handle things," Collier said.
Collier says good Twitter responses also require deft hiring. Twitter agents must have a good sense of humor, be willing to take a punch, and be artful in written responses, she said ? a skill set over and above what companies are used to hiring in call centers.
Studies show most consumers who take to Twitter are
already angry ? they've probably tried and failed using traditional
channels ? so being able to deftly turn down the temperature of a
conflict is a must.
"You have to know customer service, but you also have to understand marketing, understand corporate communication, human resources ? you have to understand all these components," she said.
'One of the crowd'
But Collier disagrees that Twitter help is dying out. The mistakes, she says, are a bump in the road.
"I argue that it isn't a death knell. We are observing an education," she said. "We are in our infancy ... We will always have examples of companies that don't do it right, but the tools are getting better and better." Tools like HootSuite help firms do a better job of not missing angry tweets and managing responses, she said.
Still, Eliason is worried because he thinks there's only one way for Twitter help to work ? when consumers know they are working with a real human being who genuinely cares about their problem. And it also helps it the person behind the accounts is, as Eliason puts it, "humanized." When he tweeted for Comcast, he would also tweet personal pictures and thoughts, and just generally act like any other Twitter user.
"I was one of the crowd," he said. "There's an aspect to that that is actually important if you want to be a trust agent ... it's about being one with the community, not being the center of it. "
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Source: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/fossils
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