The International Photography Hall of Fame is moving to St. Louis.

The organization will bring with it thousands of historical cameras and images.

Those include iconic photographs like Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square," Ansel Adams’ “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico,” and Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" - all of which you can see above.


http://news.stlpublicradio.org/term/international-photography-hall-fame

“This project isn’t about making images. It’s not about creating the world’s largest camera. It’s about doing what you love. If you had been searching your whole life for something you love, what would you be willing to sacrifice?” ~Ian Ruhter, from Silver & Light

http://blog.onbeing.org/post/21444829988/what-would-you-be-willing-to-sacrifice-by-trent

There is more interest in food now than ever before, yet, no one is talking about the people who pick our food, the hundreds of thousands of hard working individuals to whom we are all connected through our purchases at supermarkets, farmers' markets and restaurants.

FOOD CHAIN explores the state of labor within the agriculture sector in the US and the immoral practices that affect the lives of countless thousands of farm workers.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/illumine/food-chain

I believe this is worth a few moments to watch.

The following is a guest column by Kevin O'Connor, the president of User Insight, a user experience strategy firm.

The idea of putting customers first is not a new one. In fact, it was the start of the 20th century when Harry Gordon Selfridge coined the phrase "The customer is always right."

But customers have never been as powerful as they are today in the social media age.

The potential damage that can be done to a reputation on social media raises the stakes higher than they've ever been. A new era means new ways to collaborate with and serve valuable customers. It's time for companies to stretch beyond customer satisfaction surveys and stop relying on demographic research to determine how their brands should interact with their customers. It's time to start talking to customers, one on one, in order to understand who they are and how to wow them with a product or service.

Today, more and more companies realize they must spend time and effort to really get to know their customers. If one person has a bad experience, news travels at lightning-fast speed. They will post their woes to their friends, contacts and Twitter followers.

"If we knew someone had 50,000 Twitter followers, our call centers would escalate their call for support," someone once told me.

More at link
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/04/in-the-age-of-social-media-the-customer-really-is-king109.html?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=pbs

BOISE, Idaho — Albertsons LLC here said Monday it plans to close 13 of its 17 stores in Florida, as well as a limited-line distribution center.

The retailer said it plans to operate the four remaining stores, which it described as its healthiest in the state. The four stores it will keep are in Altamonte Springs, Clearwater, Largo and Oakland Park.

The 13 locations set to close encompass two stores in Apopka and single units in Bradenton, Key West, Lake Mary, Longwood, Port Saint, Orlando, Sarasota, Valrico, Venice, Vero Beach and Winter Springs. All but the Key West store will begin liquidation sales May 9 and close around June 9, the company said; the Key West store, which will reportedly be acquired by Publix Super Markets, Lakeland, Fla., has already started its liquidation sale and is scheduled to close April 28.

The in-store pharmacies will close between April 21 and April 24, the company said.

http://supermarketnews.com/albertsons-llc/albertsons-llc-close-13-florida-stores

Not very good news especially for the some 1100 soon to be out of work.

LAS VEGAS — Supervalu-owned Albertsons announced that 30 stores located in the greater Las Vegas area, Henderson, Nev., and Boulder City, Nev., have diverted more than 90% of all store waste from local landfills.

Through recycling, organic composting and food donations, the stores combined to keep more than 21 million pounds of waste out of local landfills and donate 3.5 million meals to local food bank and hunger relief efforts in the past year.

At the end of 2007, the 30 Albertsons stores were generating an average of 1,588 pounds of waste each day per store, but today each store is averaging just over 100 pounds of landfill waste per day, a 93.2% reduction. Albertsons has thereby eliminated 978 full garbage truck trips annually to the landfill, equivalent to a line of trucks stretching five miles long.

http://supermarketnews.com/sustainability/albertsons-stores-cut-waste-90

Interesting, it appears that this business has made some great strides in a positive direction on this topic.

Stores are increasingly adding self checkouts, which can make it more convenient for many people to shop and steal.

According to a USA Today Report, Walmart and CVS are among the chains adding self-scanning lanes. But at least two grocery chains Albertson's and New England-based Big Y have abandoned their self service moves. Both cited customer service as the reason, although Big Y says shoplifting played into the decision.

Theft intentional or not is up to five times higher with self checkout than when cashiers are working, says Malay Kundu, founder of Stoplift Checkout Vision Systems, which sells store video analytic software.


More at
http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=224176

Thank You. Your form has been submitted.

Do you support the President's Health Care Law?

Yes
71.43%

No
28.57%

It would appear that this may not have been the results the esteemed Congresswoman was perhaps hoping to see based upon the first part of her email.

"Preserving America's Freedom
Several weeks ago I asked my 15-year-old grandson about what makes America different from other countries in the world. After thinking about the question for a few moments he answered, “Freedom.”
Sometimes as adults, we try to make the answer to this question more complicated than it needs to be. Our country’s founders wrote the Constitution with the word “freedom” at the forefront of their minds and since that day over 200 years ago American men and women have been fighting to preserve that same freedom.
You can’t think about America’s status without counting freedom as the major factor of our success. However, among us today are those who promote a big government philosophy that forgets our foundation and threatens to take away our freedom.
The President’s health care law is one example of this big government philosophy. Since the law’s passage over two years ago I have seen multiple reports and heard first hand the disastrous effects of the law that allowed the federal government to take over our health care system.