Juniper Networks and IBM announced that they would continue to expand their relationship through joint technology solutions.

It is as if IBM has put itself to the task of  mentoring the younger and more inexperienced Juniper Networks.  IBM has the unique credential of being an IT company that can anchor its roots back in the 19th century.  The company has gone through a great depression (perhaps more than one) and  two world wars.   Juniper was formed in 1996 and still has much to learn about the information technology space.  As a mentor, perhaps IBM can not only advise the younger company but also build its stock through tried-and-true IT standards.

On the flip side of the coin, Juniper can provide a youthful and cutting-edge standard to IBM’s hardware.  Juniper will also add more flexibility to IBM customers through additional measures of IT service and security.

From Yahoo Finance News:  “IBM and Juniper share a common vision to continually evolve information infrastructures as a strategic element of business success, and together, we are committed to delivering superior networking solutions to customers,” said Hitesh Sheth, executive vice president and general manager, Ethernet Platforms Business Group, Juniper Networks.  “We’ve been very pleased with our progress to-date with IBM in our seven collaborative solutions and shared sales goals, especially in the data center. As we look to the next phase of our relationship, we remain focused on delivering optimal joint infrastructure solutions for our customers.”

Juniper and IBM have collaborated extensively to provide customers ethernet switches and routers, as well as more recently highlighting enterprise technologies that allow companies to extend ‘private data-center clouds.’    IBM primarily acts as a systems integrator for various Juniper switching, routing and security products.

“Juniper is an important supplier of networking products,” said Jim Comfort, IBM vice president, enterprise initiatives. “IBM is already a reseller of Juniper’s Ethernet switches and routers, and we continue to look for opportunities to expand this relationship to provide increasing choice for our customers and the flexibility to support their dynamic infrastructure needs.”

Although Juniper and IBM have been partners since 2007, they more recently have begun collaborating on several high-tech projects that could only come out of the collective resources of the two companies.    One such endeavor is called the ‘Stratus Project’, which has the goal of building a cutting-edge data center with superior performance and the flexibility to support virtual environment.

The two companies also have a priority to work on security measures for cloud computing environments.  As more data moves ‘into the cloud’, the possibility of attacks on corporate and personal information becomes a very likely situation.  Ideally, the brainpower of the two corporations will be able to shield users and companies from this sort of cloud security breach.

At the base level however, Juniper and IBM is a great partnership because it has created a well-crafted line of standard network hardware products.  Whether it be new, pre owned or used juniper routers or switches IBM’s input into the equation adds a level of integrity, confidence, and quality that would otherwise be unattainable.

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Times are hard for the American currently. My goal is to start a conversation about how we can use eachother’s knowledge to better our lives and country. Now is the time for us to stand together, and the internet is the perfect vehicle for us to traverse this difficult path and emerge to a bright new era.

There are many valuable youth baseball conditioning techniques to increase your players’ abilities by maximizing their strength, range of motion, and flexibility. Just as a car can only travel as fast as its engine will allow, in like manner, baseball players can only perform to the degree that their bodies will allow. If coaches, parents and mentors ensure that their players are involved in recommended youth baseball conditioning training, they will be increasing their players’ chances to fulfil their maximum potential.

Here are some advised youth baseball conditioning techniques that are recommended for youth baseball coaches for the development of their players:

• Pitching Better through Swimming - Swimming can actually strengthen the shoulder muscles and enable pitchers to throw the baseball harder while protecting pitchers from devastating shoulder injuries. It is recommended that pitchers swim in free style for two minutes with a series of 4 repetitions. If the player can not swim, then the pitcher can stand waist deep in water under adult supervision and push the water away from the body with a hard thrust and fingers spread apart. This should be repeated for 2 minutes at a time.

• Sprint to Success - One of the traditional youth baseball training programs remains the best. Players need to build up their endurance in order to play the entire game with strength and energy. Wind sprints are the best way for youth baseball players to build up their endurance and, at the same time, bond with their teammates. If your players run wind sprints as a team or in bunches, such as pitchers, catchers, infielders and outfielders, you will be building up their endurance and the team will become closer as a unit. Ten 60 yard sprints are a good way to start, and you can lengthen the distance and repetitions over time.

• Squeeze that Ball - Another simple youth baseball conditioning exercise can be done everywhere from the ball field to the schoolyard and even to bed. Baseball players can increase their wrist strength by squeezing a rubber Spalding ball. Yes, these pink balls are still of infinite value to baseball players – pitchers, to increase the speed of their pitch; hitters by increasing their bat speed and, therefore, the distance of their drives; and fielders by increasing the strength of their throws.

• Stretch Before Games – Stretching and warm-ups are a key element of baseball conditioning training protocols to prevent injuries. Prior to every game and practice, baseball coaches should lead their team in a regular series of stretching and warm-up exercises for at least 10-12 minutes. Before the players begin playing baseball, make sure to cover all major muscle groups including shoulders, legs, arms, hips, and back.

Of course these are just a few, simple youth baseball conditioning exercises among many. Baseball coaches should be familiar with a wide variety of exercises and should weave these into a more holistic conditioning training plan that is appropriate to the age of their players.

Combined with a variety of baseball drills that make the game fun and build the fundamental skills needed to play, a strong baseball conditioning training regimen will ensure that players reach the top of their game and avoid unnecessary injury.

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Now in its fourth year, the Red Sox Mentoring Challenge is an initiative designed to recruit more mentors in MA and refer them to official campaign partner mentoring programs in the Mass Mentoring Partnership network.

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By Trevor Sumner who works for Weplay.com, a  youth baseball community dedicated to providing parents, coaches and athletes the tools and information they need to celebrate the love of the game.  Weplay has one of the most comprehensive baseball drill libraries in its active baseball community.

iMantri is an online mentoring platform venue for finding and interacting with mentors and a platform that facilitates the mentoring process.
 
iMantri’s structured mentoring process is facilitated by a framework and a set of tools for planning, interaction, feedback, and ratings. The members will have a choice to follow an unstructured and ad-hoc mentoring process. While the application allows for subject experts and professional mentors to offer their services, it is built to unlock the peer-to-peer mentoring potential.
 
There is enough evidence that mentoring works and makes a positive impact on participants in particular and the eco system in general. In corporations mentoring programs have shown to reduce attrition rates, boost employee morale, foster diversity and enhance career progression. In society, mentoring programs such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters have proven their efficacy in preventing youth from pursuing an errant path and in helping provide a positive role model.
 
iMantri encapsulates the peer-to-peer paradigm of the emergent business social networking space and aims to foster mentoring connections between members who can be mentors and mentees at the same time. More than a listing of a mentoring classifieds, iMantri provides a framework for mentoring as well as tools to facilitate the process.

iMantri applies the best of both mentoring and social networking to create a non-hierarchical mentoring relationship based on individual expertise. This means that mentors and mentees can both give and receive advice and acquire new skills based on their areas of knowledge and goals.
 
“Mantri” (pronounced as “Man” “Three”) is a Sanskrit word and means a minister, wise man, a counselor, a trusted advisor and a mentor. In addition to Sanskrit, the word has similar meaning and connotation in other languages such as Malay, Indo-China, and Arabic cultures.

iMantri’s core features include:

* Competency Assessment: Users will be able to assess their competencies and generate a mentoring needs analysis which pinpoints areas of strength and weakness

* Goals/Issues based Mentoring: While competencies are building blocks, some of the users who want to focus on a specific goal or resolve a specific issue can find content, context, resources and mentors based on their area of interest

* Mentor-Mentee Matching Engine: Users will be able to search for a mentor or a mentee and be intelligently matched with the right people

* Mentoring Framework and Tools: Mentors will be able to define needs in detail, create a mentoring process and implement it using tools for planning, interactions, feedback, and rating

* Mentoring Resources: Individual users will be provided contextual resources such as books, articles, news and related products and services that they can use in their mentoring process

Join iMantri to find mentors who can help you achieve your goals and objectives and/or mentor others who might tap into your wisdom and expertise. Either way it is intellectually rewarding and life enriching experience.

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We are an internationally renowned youth mentoring programme that forms friendships between a young person (10-18) and an adult volunteer. … Youth mentoring non-profit volunteer programmes aid youth support

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iMantri is a peer-to-peer social network for mentoring and coaching. The site facilitates connections between mentors and mentees and also provides a framework and tools for fostering mentoring relationships online. iMantri is founded by veterans in the field of management and technology and with a strong advisory board of experts from the coaching, mentoring, training and leadership development worlds. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley. Visit iMantri at: www.imantri.com

Since the early 60’s, our educational system for our children has been slowly eroding.  Our government has been notorious for promising better education, not one child left behind and yet in 2009 many college students and high school graduates are unable to pursue a higher education due to the horrific increase in cost. 

High school graduates are faced with several complex problems and at this time no relief is in sight.  Job availability this summer for this age group is a farce – the few jobs available are being snatched by the middle class who is in a survival mode trying just trying to exist.  

The  American dream of getting a college education for many is just a dream; colleges throughout the Nation have raised tuition fees once again and of course the economy is getting all of the blame. 

Possibly colleges have become strictly bottom line institutions and like many corporations those in charge can’t budget or utilize their monies in a responsible manner.   

High school drops appear to be increasing at a rapid rate, not because our children are stupid but these children are pretty logical in their decision.   College education for them would only come via a very expensive loan and even if they received a diploma that still wouldn’t  guarantee employment in their chosen field. 

After talking with several of these students, I realized they have analyzed the employment playing field for young people their age; regardless of education there’s a good chance that they’ll be flipping burgers and pancakes.  Our youth refuse to buy into the “what if” or “maybe” promises of what a college education will do for them.  

Our dropouts are aware that during the difficult economic times, there is a huge increase in the unskilled labor market.  Some of these jobs do pay well and our youth have decided to dominate the unskilled markets. 

So when and how did Americans allow their children’s education to be compromised?  There are more than a few factors that have contributed to the rapid decline or our educational system.  Here are but a few contributing factors.

The new child psychology started back in the good old days with Dr. Spock and friends – parents were criticized, made fun of and bashed for being the heads of the household. 

Over time the children became the dominant figures in the household and the parent/child relationship was weakened.  Discipline, guidelines and responsibility were relegated to the ancient history shelf. 

At the same time, “they” and I use this similar to Glenn Beck when referring to groups of people who worked 24/7 to change our educational standards.  Parents turned into their child’s best friends and along with that new role, discipline, respect and student responsibility evaporated little by little from the schools. 

Schools, teachers, superintendants were put in the line of fire via lawsuits and the media crap.  We stripped our school system down to nothing but a few pieces of scraps.  

Teachers are expected to raise our children, but lord forbid if they discipline Johnny or Susie!   Why did we decide it was the teacher’s job to mentor, counsel, comfort and raise our children?  Where is it written that our children should be in charge?

So we’re faced with an educational system where the children rule, make out on the campus, wear clothes that don’t cover bosom, crotches or butt cracks because parents have relinquished their “God” given rights. 

Morality is no longer dominant on our horizon.  The bottom line remains the same, “Our children need us – not the gifts and material junk we extend to them. 

Why are we allowing our school curriculum to slip below the norm of many other countries world-wide?  Frankly, I believe our curriculum has taken a beating in order to appease a very few – words removed, paragraphs eliminated and many books removed from the shelves just because of a small group of misinformed people.  “They” have peddled, meddled and taken control of our children’s education. 

Our Nation’s education should always be a priority for it is the backbone of our country!  America can’t raise their hands on educational excellence anymore –other countries are leaving us in the dust.  This isn’t acceptable and hopefully parents will return to a few basics.

Fathers and mothers can return to their homes as head of the household, mentors to their children.  Know where your child is, who she or he is hanging out with, restore order to your homes.  The child is a member of the household who needs guidelines, rules and structure.  

It’s unfair to ask teachers to take over parental tasks – you are the parents and if you can’t assume that awesome responsibility therein is the problem.  

Teaching should be one of the highest paying professions in our United States – along with higher pay; discipline should be restored to our educational structure.  Curriculum needs a heavy overhaul at the same time …

Over the years, we have seen a few bad teachers, just like bad cops or bad parents, but the majority remain good moral people so we can’t let the liberal news media turn our heads.  Quit babying your children; give them the tools needed to become young responsible adults with high self esteem and many beautiful dreams in their hip pocket. 

May God Bless America and help all citizens return our Nation to a strong foundation.  As Always, Annie

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www.MentoringAssociates.com Mentoring inner city at risk kids in Fallbrook (San Diego Co), or any community, volunteers make a difference & high school grad rates soar. Info on free videos.

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