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warc | 201704 | The Zoning Board of Adjustment heard testimony Wednesday afternoon concerning the proposed development of ten new townhomes at 1901 Lombard Street, a project that has been subject to negotiations between the developers and the Center City Residents Association since early this year.
Developers Noah and Harvey Ostroff are seeking variances related to height and lot coverage, and are hoping to subdivide one existing lot into ten separate lots for each of the proposed homes. The zoning board did not decide the case immediately.
The project calls for eight four-story houses fronting on Lombard Street, with a two-story house fronting on 19th St. and another two-story house fronting on S. Uber St. The four-story houses will be just over 43 feet tall, with “pilothouses” adding another ten feet on top of each, according to the developers’ attorney, Hercules Grigos. The project would also include 20 off-street parking spaces, and each house would have a green roof and a roof deck.
If approved, the project will replace an existing multi-unit apartment complex and surface parking lot on the north side of Lombard Street between 19th and S. Uber streets. The same developers have another project one block east of the site on Lombard.
Grigos said that the height variance is necessary because the developers want to provide adequate parking without installing garages in front of the houses. He said that if they were to use street-facing garages, they wouldn’t need to put parking amenities in the rear portions of the properties. But because they want to avoid street-facing garages, which would interrupt the pedestrian environment, they need to build parking in the rear, which is what caused the project to miss the minimum rear yard depth. To make up for the square footage they say they’ll lose by putting garages in the back, they want to build taller. The current proposal includes only one curb cut.
Neighbors and members of the Center City Residents Association have negotiated with the developers for certain concessions. For example, the current proposal contains four less parking spaces than the original, and the scale of the houses on either end has been reduced.
But some neighbors still have concerns about the height of the buildings and their impact on access to light and air. Some, acknoweldging that they like the developers’ nearby project and that they had been responsive to several of the neighbors’ concerns, oppose the variances because they feel the project could diminish the value--both monetary and personal--of their own properties.
One neighbor, Richard Dickinson, said that the backyard of his Waverly Street house is a “tranquil oasis,” and that if the project is built, he’ll get a view of a brick wall marking off the parking area for the new homes. Dickinson said he has put his house on the market and plans to move if the project is built.
“The aggrievement I have is that I will lose light and air,” Dickinson said.
Hercules Grigos said that many of the neighbors concerns would not be resolved even if the project were built completely by right, and thus they are not directly related to the zoning variances being sought. He also noted that over the course of the negotiations some neighbors have asked for the developers to dedicate part of the property as an alleyway, or to compensate them financially for the loss of light and air they say it will bring.
Others support the proposal. Ann Frumkin, who lives a block and a half west of the sites, said that the houses would be a “wonderful” and “gorgeous” addition to the neighborhood, and reproached some of those who opposed the project for not recognizing what she sees as a positive change for the area.
“If you want lots and lots of sunlight,” Frumkin said, “you have to go into the suburbs.”
Jared Brey covered development, zoning policy, historic preservation, and city government for PlanPhilly from 2011-2016. |
warc | 201704 | By ABBY EVANS
Recent levee ruptures in Iowa and Missouri may reflect larger failures of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) raised by whistleblower Maria Garzino. And there may be more tragedies on the horizon: in 2007, USACE released a list of 146 levees across America that are at risk of failing. In an article this week in
Politico, Harry Shearer gave a curtain raiser to a letter Garzino sent to the Obama Administration earlier this year that fully exposes the degree of deception by USACE. The letter reveals not only a shockingly detailed portrait, but also the attempts of government officials to prevent Garzino from blowing the whistle at all.
Garzino details how the Corps knowingly installed equipment that cannot adequately protect the city of New Orleans from flooding; duplicated work that cost US taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars; and deliberately deceived Congress as to the nature of and reason for this work.
In March of this year, POGO held a special screening of Harry Shearer’s
The Big Uneasy, which follows Maria Garzino, as well as the leaders of two scientific investigation teams, as they reveal the true story of why New Orleans flooded in 2005. The film shows why Hurricane Katrina evolved into a disaster that could have been avoided, focusing in particular on the poor science and management decisions made by USACE. The Big Uneasy offers an urgent reminder for all U.S. citizens to learn from the tragedies of New Orleans and ask their representatives to reform USACE—and not to wait for disaster to strike again, either in New Orleans, Iowa, or elsewhere.
We need to push Congress to investigate the documented failings of the USACE and determine what can be done to protect the rest of the leveed cities from a Katrina-like catastrophe.
If you're interested in getting involved or being a part of the whistleblower discussion, stay tuned for our upcoming 3rd annual Whistleblower Film Series (in association with the DC Labor Film Festival) in October 2011.
Abby Evans is a Development Associate at the Project On Government Oversight Image of Abby Evans, Harry Shearer, and Maria Garzino by Bruce Guthrie |
warc | 201704 | Poisonous Plants affecting Dogs
Dogs are very inquisitive. Sniffing, smelling, and usually tasting almost anything in sight are natural behaviors for a dog. For that reason, we commonly see dogs ingest items that are not their food and at times can be very dangerous poisons.
There are two major areas where such danger may occur: inside the house, and outside of it. These areas are different in terms of what types of poisons the dog may be exposed to. In the house, dogs usually get themselves in trouble when they are bored. Outside it's usually the dogs' curiosity that endangers them.
The most common problem in the house is the ingestion of rat poison, which can be very tasty to your dog, but has a compound that can cause a life-threatening bleeding. However, there are many other poisonous things in the house that your dog can ingest. Such things as: human medication, all kinds of cleaning solutions, chocolate, antifreeze, yard chemicals that are stored in the house and, of course, some house plants. To avoid this problem you can follow the
ten tips for a poison-safe house.
However, we will mainly concentrate on the toxicity of poisonous plants affecting dogs in these pages. In order to prevent poisoning by house plants, you should not buy and place house plants in your home that will put your dog in danger. Outside, there is a constant problem of ingesting poisonous plants. Try adding bran flakes to your dog's food or switching its diet to one higher in vegetable fibers. If that helps, then perhaps the chewing of plants was due to a lack of fiber in your dog's diet. The only other thing to do is to monitor your dog's 'picking' behavior when walking outside. When you see symptoms such as: vomiting, diarrhea, difficult breathing, abnormal urine (color, smell, frequency, etc.), salivation, weakness, and any other abnormal condition - take your dog to the veterinarian because it may be poisoned. You can also call the
ASPCA animal poison control center for help - it's open 24 hours a day.
Categories of plants affecting dogs House Plants Flower Garden Plants Vegetable Garden Plants Plants Found in Swamps or Moist Areas Plants Found in Fields Trees and Shrubs Plants Found in Wooded Areas Ornamental Plants
Click "Search Database" link to the left to see a detailed list of plants affecting dogs. Please do not assume that a plant is "safe" if it is not listed here. If your pup has eaten something you are not sure is safe, check with your veterinarian. |
warc | 201704 | Stepping up to tackle larger technological and social challenges, Samara’s first venture is a communal housing project designed to revitalize a small town in Japan. Yoshino Japan, located in the Nara prefecture, offers a rich history, is Japan’s most famous cherry blossom spot, and is home to the country’s most famous cedar forests. Yet, rural towns in Japan, like Yoshino, are hollowing due to the rapidly aging population and the trend of younger people moving to bigger cities. This inspired the creation of the Yoshino Cedar House — a community center where travelers can stay and soak up the surrounding culture.
The design and building process of this project has occurred hand in hand with the surrounding community. Designers, architects, and community members were hired by the Samara team to create the final product. In the end, this project hopes to draw in new people, serve as a community meeting place for residents and visitors, and encourages residents to open their own homes to Airbnb.
Is the Samara concept the creation of a tiny hotel, or could this be a traveler’s ticket to a vacation style of co-living? Aside from the bedrooms, all rooms of the Yoshino Cedar House are intended to be shared with other travelers and community members. Joe Gebbia’s hope for the Yoshino Cedar House is that visitors will be interacting with the community from the minute they arrive. Visitors will become immersed in the community and interact with other visitors on a daily basis.
This project merges the well being of residents and visitors. Money from visitors will be used within the community to strengthen the cultural legacy and future of the area. The project hopes to develop social change within and around the Airbnb community. Currently the Yoshino Cedar House is on display at a concept home exhibit in Tokyo. The building will be transported to Yoshino when the exhibit closes and is due to open after its arrival in October.
Similar issues have been seen in the UK, Korea, Spain, France, and Italy. By monitoring the progress made in Yoshino, Samara can then consider scaling the project to help rejuvenate rural communities and small towns around the world. This new venture allows Airbnb to expand home sharing while becoming a force in urban planning. Their investment has the possibility of creating desirable co-living destinations for travelers, drawing more people to Airbnb for their wanderlust needs. |
warc | 201704 | Behav. Sci. 2013, 3(2), 253-272; doi:10.3390/bs3020253
Systems Biology as a Comparative Approach to Understand Complex Gene Expression in Neurological Diseases
Leticia Diaz-Beltran 1,3, Carlos Cano 2, Dennis P. Wall 3 and Francisco J. Esteban 1,3,*
1 Systems Biology Unit, Department of Experimental Biology, University of Jaen, Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, Jaen, 23071, Spain
2 Department of Computer Science, University of Granada, Daniel Saucedo Aranda s/n, Granada, 18071, Spain
3 Center for Biomedical Informatics & Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, 10 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 9 April 2013 / Revised: 8 May 2013 / Accepted: 16 May 2013 / Published: 21 May 2013
Source/Fonte:
Institute for Systems Biology
Abstract
Systems biology interdisciplinary approaches have become an essential analytical tool that may yield novel and powerful insights about the nature of human health and disease. Complex disorders are known to be caused by the combination of genetic, environmental, immunological or neurological factors. Thus, to understand such disorders, it becomes necessary to address the study of this complexity from a novel perspective. Here, we present a review of integrative approaches that help to understand the underlying biological processes involved in the etiopathogenesis of neurological diseases, for example, those related to autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) endophenotypes. Furthermore, we highlight the role of systems biology in the discovery of new biomarkers or therapeutic targets in complex disorders, a key step in the development of personalized medicine, and we demonstrate the role of systems approaches in the design of classifiers that can shorten the time for behavioral diagnosis of autism. View Full-Text
Keywords: systems biology; neurological diseases; gene expression; autism; autism spectrum disorders; network analysis; protein-protein interactions; translational bioinformatics; behavioral diagnosis
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0).
FREE PDF GRATIS:
Behavioral Sciences |
warc | 201704 | Sydney, Australia (PressExposure) June 30, 2011 -- Residents of Cronulla have known Dan Clay as the man behind their fitness success. For the past nine years, Clay has been guiding people across Sydney with weight problems and low fitness levels toward a healthy life. The personal trainer Cronulla sheds light on the problems of overweight and obesity and what one can do to control their weight.
Dan Clay manages his brainchild Dangerously Fit boot camp fitness program, which has been delivering effective results using fitness techniques based on tested scientific approaches. The fitness program has a team of skilled instructors and diet specialists who create fitness plans customized to clients' needs. Participants in the boot camp program can expect to lose fat fast and get back in shape provided they are committed to the diet and exercise plan, promises the personal trainer Cronulla. For more information on Clay and his fitness team, visit http://bootcampsydney.com.au/.
The statistics for 1999-2000 by Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study reveal that more than seven million people in Australia in the age group 25 years and above are overweight and two million of these people are obese. The Study also reveals that 67 percent of men and 52 percent of women in the above-stated age group are overweight. There has been an increase in overweight statistics from 1980 to 2000 with the percentage of overweight women increasing from 27 to 47 and overweight men from 47 percent to 66 percent. (See Reference 1)
People tend to become overweight when their intake of calories exceeds the calories they expend, says Clay. Genetic factors may play a role in a person being overweight or obese by serving to increase the individual's risk for these conditions, and the risk becomes reality when the individual follows an unhealthy lifestyle. Once can combat overweight arising out of an improper lifestyle comprising sedentary behavior and poor eating habits by making appropriate lifestyle changes, says the personal trainer Cronulla.
Being physically active is important to maintaining a healthy weight, stresses the personal trainer Cronulla. Inadequate physical activity levels increases the risk of individual to many diseases including ailments of the heart and bone, and cancers of the colon and breast. A National Physical Activity Survey report in Australia reveals that more than seven million people in the age group of 18 to 75 are not involved in adequate physical activities essential to be healthy (See Reference 2).
Clay suggests integration of physical activities into one's daily routine. Taking a walk in the morning while walking the dog; pursuing a physical hobby such as gardening; and biking instead of using a car to nearby shops or even office if possible, are some steps. Using stairs instead of elevators is a well-known and easily implementable physical activity. In addition, include plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables in everyday diet, suggests Clay. An effective personal training program can help to reduce over-weight, adds the personal trainer Cronulla. |
warc | 201704 | great dane puppy - puppy ears - All the different types of dog breed, and their photos - Different dog breed
First you should accumulate calm and asses the bearings properly; over-worrying will could could could could could could could could cause you to overlook things that accept accepted faculty to others. Alpha by closing all the doors in your abode and appropriately analytic your home. Dogs can acquisition their way into a lot of places doubtful to us bodies so attending in every abode accessible and places you anticipate would be impossible. All creatures have some sort of defense mechanism. Dogs have three ways of dealing with an aggressor: fight, flight, or avoidance. In protection dog training a good trainer will utilize a dog's defense drive to build on what he has learned with prey drive. The trainer will show the dog that in certain situations a person is a threat and can be dealt with using the skills taught in prey drive. In this way, prey drive and defense drive work together. In essence, a dog is taught that when given a command that the aggressor is a real threat and he should use his skills to fight the threat. As with prey drive these skills are taught only under command and with high levels of control and safety. |
warc | 201704 | It is easy to see that digital signage has gone mainstream. The market is growing by over 35 percent and industry experts expect more than 22 million digital signs to be deployed by 2015. That’s one digital display installed every 3.5 seconds.
The growth of digital signage is no surprise considering the many benefits it delivers. To read more about the digital signage market, check out this Digital Signage Infographic. Can you guess how much digital advertising was sold in 2011?
So, what are the drivers behind the growth in digital signage? Here are three contributing factors:
1. It has never been more affordable.
Prices of LCD displays — even larger flat screens and videowalls — have come down dramatically. It has never been more affordable to deploy digital signage.
2. Displays have never been easier to install.
Displays are getting lighter, thanks to advances in edge-lit LED technology. Mounting options have been simplified through VESA standards or purpose-design mounts from some display manufacturers. Plus, embedded media players, which available in a growing number of displays, make installation less complex.
3. Digital signage advertising has never been easier to create.
Media players can play back PowerPoint files or jpg images taken from cell phone cameras. Your clients’ marketing teams can put together professional graphics, or you can sources common messages (think “Sale”, “Grand Opening” or “Breakfast Specials”) from a growing number of stock photography sites (some of our favorites are iStockPhoto, Getty Images,Pond5 and Artbeats). Many of these sites also have high-quality video and animations that you can use as-is, or further customize to your needs.
In short, deploying digital signage is easier than ever. Easier on the wallet. Easier on the back. And easier on the nerves. We will continue to see aggressive market growth as more and more businesses see the benefits of digital signage.
How much digital signage business is your company doing? |
warc | 201704 | Life Insurance Corporation of India
The insurance sector in India dates back to 1818 when first insurance company, The
Oriental Life Insurance Company, was established, at Calcutta. Thereafter, Bombay
Life Assurance Company in 1823 and Madras Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1829
were established.
In 1912, the Indian Life Assurance Companies Act was enacted as the first statute
to regulate the life insurance business. In 1928, the Indian Insurance Companies
Act was enacted to enable the Government to collect statistical information about
both life and non-life insurance businesses. The Insurance Act was subsequently
reviewed and a comprehensive legislation was enacted called the Insurance Act, 1938.
The nationalisation of life insurance business took place in 1956 when 245 Indian
and foreign insurance and provident societies were first amalgamated and then nationalised.
The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) came into existence by an Act of Parliament,
viz. LIC act, 1956, with a capital contribution of Rs.5 Crores from the Government
of India
General Insurance Corporation Of India
The General insurance business in India started with the establishment of Triton
Insurance Company Limited in 1850 at Calcutta .In 1907, the first company, The Mercantile
Insurance Ltd. Was set up to transact all classes of general insurance business.
General Insurance Council, a wing of the Insurance Association of India in 1957,
framed a code of conduct for ensuring fair conduct and sound business practices.
In 1968 the Insurance Act was amended to regulate investments and to set minimum
solvency margins. In the same year the Tariff Advisory Committee was also set up.
In 1972, The General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act was passed to nationalise
the general insurance business in India with effect from 1st January 1973. For these
107 insurers was amalgamated and grouped into four company’s viz., the National
Insurance Company Ltd., the New India Assurance Company Ltd., the Oriental Insurance
Company Ltd. And the United India Insurance Company Ltd. General Insurance Corporation
of India was incorporated as a company.
Current Scenario In new economic policies formulated since 1991, globalisation,
privatisation and liberalisation have become new buzzwords. Under new economic policies,
many economic and financial reforms took place. Like liberalising licensing policy,
attracting FDI, allowing foreign equity in public sector undertakings. The financial
reforms restructured banking sector by allowing entry of new private and foreign
banks. They also allowed private sector and commercial banks in mutual funds investment
business, rationalising the EXIM policy and so on.
Liberalisation of Insurance markets
Liberalisation of Insurance involves transformation of the industry from a Government
monopoly to a competitive environment. Free markets allow for better resource allocation
and creation of wealth and prosperity of people and the country. It enables development
of health care, education and infrastructure of the country. In a liberalized insurance
market, consumers are able to choose from different insurance providers having a
wide range of products.
A liberal insurance market is one in which the market determines who should be allowed
to sell insurance, what, how and the prices at which these insurance products should
be sold. The issues like market access and equality of competitive opportunity and
national treatment will decide who will be allowed to sell insurance. Second and
fourth items commonly deal with issues such as product, price and market conduct
regulation.
There are certain pre-conditions to make liberalisation of insurance effective:
-Sound competition law
-Efficient and reliable regulation
- Phased liberalisation
-Consistency and impartiality between competitors -Optimum quantum of regulation
-Efficient disclose and dissemination of information to the society.
-Insurance markets in India possess certain imperfections justifying the need for
competition as well as regulation. |
warc | 201704 | I feel like I’m losing my son
My first born child is 22 years old and living with (engaged to) his girlfriend and they have a 1 year old little boy (my first grandchild). I have been a single mom for 14 yrs and we have always been very close. He works full time and was going to college till this past semester, when it just became too much for him with his new family responsibilities. I support him 100 % in his decisions and I have tried to butt out of their lives and give them space. However, it has backfired. Everything has always been her way, with her family and anything I have ever suggested or questioned is always shot down. I don’t get to see my grandson very often, maybe once a week and we live in the same town. My son calls about once a week and it is usually just quick hi and bye type conversation. I truly try to respect their lives and not interfere, however I have always willingly handed over money when needed or paid for something they might need if they couldn’t afford it (she does not work). She stays home with the baby and usually my son comes home to a meal he has to prepare himself and laundry, etc that he has to help with. She does nothing. This has truly become a thorn in my side and not being able to see my son and grandson often is tearing me apart. His dad and I are divorced and he is pulling away from him too. So I know it’s not just me. I don’t know how much more of this I can handle what do I do? I have tried stepping out of the picture and I’ve tried the other way, nothing seems to be the right thing. Please help me!
A: I’m sorry you are feeling so distressed. As a single mom with an only child, you have always been especially close to your son. This must be very hard indeed.
What you are experiencing, though, is a very normal transition. Your son and his wife are struggling to figure out how to be a family. Most young people pull away from their parents during this process. They intuitively know that if they keep their relationships with their parents the same, the new family won’t jell. The fact that they are also taking distance from your son’s father tells you it isn’t personal. It’s part of a stage. It’s also natural for a young woman to be more comfortable with her own mother than her mother-in-law (much to the distress of mothers of sons everywhere).
Your son and daughter-in-law are also working out how to handle chores and childcare and money and a thousand other things, big and small, in these early years of their marriage. If you judge their choices, they will need to separate from your even more. They need to own whatever arrangement they come up with. It’s wonderful that you’ve been able to help them out financially. But a gift doesn’t entitle you to anything except gratitude. Only give what you can give open-heartedly, with no expectations. That will keep your relationship free of resentment.
As painful as the current situation is is for you, it is better for you to accept some distance for awhile. That doesn’t mean stepping out of the picture. It means embracing the part of the picture that you have. You are seeing your grandbaby once a week and getting at least a weekly phone call from your son. As little as that seems to you, it is more contact than most moms of sons get at this stage. That tells me that you’ve done a good job as a mom and that you can probably count on more contact as the young people settle into their relationship.
Meanwhile, please take this time as an opportunity for you to do some of the things you couldn’t do while your son was growing up. Follow an interest or take some classes or spend more time with friends. Perhaps your career can get a new boost with the extra time and energy you have for it.
Please find a way to focus on the positive.What the young couple needs most from you is your support and love, not pressure.
I wish you well.
Dr. Marie APA Reference
Hartwell-Walker, D. (2009). I feel like I’m losing my son.
Psych Central. Retrieved on January 22, 2017, from https://psychcentral.com/ask-the-therapist/2009/02/15/i-feel-like-im-losing-my-son/ |
warc | 201704 | PTEN: the Treg's handbrake
Naturally occurring CD4+CD25+ Tregs are a specialized subpopulation of T cells that function to prevent other T cells destroying self-tissues. But harnessing the therapeutic potential of Tregs -- for example, to treat autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis -- is hampered by problems generating sufficient cells to be therapeutically effective. This is because, unlike non-regulatory T cells, Tregs do not proliferate in vitro when stimulated through either their TCR or IL-2 receptor alone.
Now, in a study appearing online on August 17 in advance of print publication in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Laurence Turka and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania have shown that Tregs from mice with T cells that lack phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) proliferate in response to IL-2. Importantly, PTEN-deficient Tregs retained their suppressive function in vitro and in vivo, indicating that loss of PTEN by Tregs only affects their proliferative capabilities in response to IL-2 and not their other functions. These results identify PTEN as a key protein that regulates the lack of responsiveness of Tregs to IL-2 and could provide researchers with a way to overcome one of the biggest obstacles to harnessing their therapeutic potential.
TITLE: PTEN inhibits IL-2 receptor–mediated expansion of CD4+CD25+ Tregs
AUTHOR CONTACT:Laurence A. Turka
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Phone: (215) 898-1018
Fax: (215) 573-2880
E-mail: [email protected].
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=28057
Last reviewed:By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Apr 2016 Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved. |
warc | 201704 | When Corning® Gorilla® Glass asked me to put together a workout, I started thinking of all the ridiculous ways in which I endanger my cell phone’s life every day. I don’t have an armband, so I’ll put it in the back of my sports bra sometimes when I do HIIT workouts. I know water damage isn’t covered by insurance, but what about back sweat sweat? Or how I “waterproof” my phone for beach days and boat trips by putting it a Ziploc bag. Or how I’ll bring it on roller coasters, ski slopes, four wheelers and zip lines if it means I might be able to capture an Instagram-worthy picture (hashtag obnoxious millennial).
Even if you’re not quite as irresponsible as me, we all know that stomach-dropping feeling of watching your phone drop to the pavement and the nauseating feeling of hesitantly picking it up and turning it over to see if the screen has shattered. Side note: Just took me 10 failed attempts and a Google search to correctly spell “nauseating.” There were literally 14 vowels in my first try.
Gorilla Glass 4, used for smartphones, tablets and notebooks, allows for the sleek, thin smartphone design we all want while also providing top-notch damage resistance to scratches and bumps and dramatically improved drop performance. In fact, in laboratory tests, it survives up to 80% of the time when dropped from 3 feet high, and is up to two times tougher than competitive glass designs. I like those odds! You can find out if your device uses it here.
So on to today’s workout! Stick your Gorilla Glass-protected phone in the back of your sports bra and let’s get to it. 😉
Legs & Butt Kettlebell Workout with Cardio
Yes, this is a lower body circuit, but oh MAN is your back going to get a fantastic workout as well. A lot of these exercises are very similar, just changing the movement enough to continually challenge the muscles,
really working them effectively. Equipment I Used: 25-lb kettlebell Gymboss Interval Timer
You focus on one side of your body at a time for this workout: Right / Cardio Blast / Left / Cardio Blast. Repeat a total of
3 times. The leg/butt sequence is just over three minutes long in total. Set an interval timer for 5 rounds of 30 sec work and 10 sec rest. If you’re advanced, try eliminating the rest time between exercises, going one right into the other, only resting when you’ve finished all five moves on that leg.
And just to be super clear, here’s a breakdown of the entire workout:
HIIT circuit on the right leg
Cardio blast HIIT circuit on the left leg Cardio blast HIIT circuit on the right leg Cardio blast HIIT circuit on the left leg Cardio blast HIIT circuit on the right leg Cardio blast HIIT circuit on the left leg Cardio blast HIIT CIRCUIT Bell-to-Floor Single-Leg Squat |As far as upper body goes, I want you to think “deadlift.” Lower body, think “single-leg squat/curtsey lunge.” Start standing on your right leg holding the kettlebell in both hands in front of your body. Start to squat down on your right side, sending the left leg behind you into a hover. Make sure your right knee doesn’t jut out farther than your toes by thinking about sending your hips and butt backand down. Weight should be in your right heel at the bottom of your squat. Lower until the kettlebell lightly taps the ground and then stand back up. As you do this, make sure you’re engaging your abs to avoid undue stress on the lower back. Bell-to-Floor Side Lunges |As far as upper body form goes, this is essentially the same movement as the previous exercise (think deadlift—keep your back flat, chest open; don’t let the weight of the bell cause you to hunch your shoulders). Start standing with feet hip’s width apart, holding the kettlebell in both hands in front of your body. Keep your right foot where it is as you step the left foot out wide to the left, lowering into a side lunge. As you lower, bend into your right knee and shift your bodyweight into the right heel as you slide your hips backand down. The right knee shouldn’t jut forward of the toes; you are sitting backinto the lunge. As you lower, bring the kettlebell to lightly tap the floor on the inside of your right foot, hinging from the hips and keeping your back flat as you lower. From here, power up through the right heel to return to standing. Here a side view of the bottom so you can really see how you sit backinto it: Single-Leg Deadlift |Start standing with the kettlebell in both hands in front of you, weight in your right foot, and left toes lightly touching the ground a few inches behind you. From this starting position, start to lower the kettlebell towards the ground in front of you, keeping your chest open, spine straight, and lifting your back left leg off the ground behind you as you do. Right leg shouldn’t be completely locked out straight (keep a little micro-bend in the knee). When you reach your lowest point (bell touches floor if possible), slowly, with control, return to standing. Imagine your body is a seesaw as you do these: from your head to your left foot is the board and your right leg is the base from which it teeters back and forth. Form cue:Pay attention to your back hip. You want to keep your hips square to the ground—if there were headlights on each hip bone, they’d be shining directly down to the floor. Sometimes as we do these, the back hip wants to open up to the side; don’t let it. Side Lunge Figure 8s |Begin standing with kettlebell in your left hand. Lunge out to the side onto your right leg, sitting your butt back to prevent the knee jutting forward of the toes. As you lunge out, gently swing the kettlebell around that right leg in a partial figure 8 movement, passing it off to your right hand as you continue to circle it around that right leg. Pass it back off to the left hand as you push off the right leg and return back to the starting standing position. Hold Low: Step Lunge, Squat, Back Lunge |Start in a lunge with your right foot forward and ball of the left foot lightly behind you. Hold the kettlebell at your chest with bent elbows. The right leg is the target and you’re going to keep that knee bent the whole time—stay low! From here, bring your left foot forward into a low squat. Immediately step it out to the side, again stepping it to the floor in a side lunge position. Continue: squat, back lunge, squat, side lunge. Keep your weight on the stationary leg and stay low the whole time. CARDIO BLAST 10 Jump Tuck – Jump Squats |Feet about shoulder-width apart, squat down, sending your hips and butt back and down (not the knees forward!). Bring your hands in front of you as you sink down. From there, explosively jump straight up, swinging your arms back behind you as you do. Land softly and sink right back into a squat, hands swinging forward. The next time you power up, do a jump tuck: Jump up into the air, using your core to pull your knees up towards your chest. Lower them quickly in time to land, sinking right back into a squat. That’s one rep. 20 Kettlebell Swings |Start with kettlebell on the floor between your legs and lift it up to starting position with both hands, flat back, using your legs to lift. With kettlebell hanging between your legs, use your arms as a pendulum, and swing the bell to chest-to-eye level by thrusting with your hips while keeping your core tight as you stand up straight. Swing back down and repeat. Your knees should remain slightly bent, but the main source of movement is hinging at the hips—not so much squatting. I use a 25-lb bell (but need to go up!). Taylor recently put together the most thorough kettlebell swing tutorial ever—check it out if you’re new to these!
Corning® Gorilla® Glass has been used on nearly 4 billion devices from 40 major brands. Is it on yours? Click here to find out.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Corning® Gorilla® Glass. The opinions and text are all mine. |
warc | 201704 | Controller expands up to 22 stations to help contractors grow their businesses TUCSON, Ariz. (November 26, 2012) Residential and commercial irrigation sites can vary greatly in both size and complexity. Most contractors have to learn to install and program two or more different irrigation controllers to meet the needs of their diverse customer base. Others keep things simple by specializing in either residential or commercial systems—but end up limiting their growth and new job prospects in the process. Now, there’s a solution that offers contractors the best of both worlds—the all-new Rain Bird® ESP-Me modular controller.
The ESP-Me controller builds upon all of the best features of its trusted predecessor, the ESP Modular, including Rain Bird’s legendary Extra Simple Programming. However, while the ESP Modular was limited to 13 stations, the ESP-Me offers the highest station count in its class with a capacity of up to 22 stations. Simply install the optional 3-station or 6-station modules and expand the ESP-Me from its standard four stations all the way up to 22 stations.
“Because of its expandability, the ESP-Me can be used to control both residential and light commercial irrigation systems,” said C. Todd Green, product manager for Rain Bird controllers. “This controller’s versatility allows contractors to serve a broader range of customers and gives them confidence that any crew member can program the controller.”
The ESP-Me doesn’t just help contractors make more money—it helps them save money. There’s no need to stock multiple controllers or teach crew members how to install and program them. This saves space on work trucks, ties up fewer dollars in inventory and decreases labor costs. These factors, combined with the ESP-Me’s highest-in-class station count make this controller the best value in the industry. “The more stations added to the ESP-Me, the better the savings when compared to competitive controllers,” Green said. “Other controllers on the market that can accommodate 22 stations are considerably more expensive. By using the ESP-Me, contractors can save money, pass those savings on to their customers and win more jobs as a result.”
The ESP-Me also offers a number of new, useful features that save contractors time and money. The Delay Watering feature allows users to easily postpone irrigation for up to 14 days and then automatically return to their normal watering schedule. Some landscaped areas aren’t easily reached by rainfall—like those shadowed by a deck or an overhanging eave. ESP-Me users can simply choose to bypass the rain sensor for those stations. The Seasonal Adjust by Program feature allows users to reduce watering to as little as 5 percent of the scheduled program times in cooler, wetter conditions or increase it by up to 200 percent during warmer, drier weather. The Total Run Time Calculator automatically tallies up the total amount of time a system is scheduled to run for any given program. In the rare occasion that the ESP-Me experiences electrical or programming issues, a bright red LED will either stay illuminated or flash, depending on the condition. Scrolling messages across the display alert users to a problem.
“Contractors are faced with many tough challenges every day,” Green said. “We designed the ESP-ME to gives them a controller option that doesn’t limit their job prospects and is easy enough for any crew member to program. By combining practical features with a versatile station count, the ESP-Me helps contractors keep things simple while serving a larger customer base.”
For more information about Rain Bird’s ESP-Me modular controller or to view the new ESP-Me video, visit ESPMeNews.rainbird.com or call 1-800-RAIN BIRD.
ABOUT RAIN BIRD CORPORATION:
Based in Azusa, Calif., Rain Bird Corporation is the world's leading manufacturer and provider of irrigation products and services. Since its beginnings in 1933, Rain Bird has offered the industry's broadest range of irrigation products for farms, golf courses, sports arenas, commercial developments and homes in more than 130 countries around the globe. Rain Bird has been awarded more than 450 patents worldwide, including the first in 1935 for the impact sprinkler. Rain Bird and The Intelligent Use of Water™ are about using water wisely. Its commitment extends beyond products to education, training and services for the industry and the community. Rain Bird maintains state-of-the-art manufacturing assembly facilities in the United States, France, and Mexico. www.rainbird.com. |
warc | 201704 | My pitch at the SXSW panel was this. In creating a start-up, you’re going to be faced with a thousand seemingly inconsequential decisions. Tucked amongst those thousands of decisions are five decisions that actually matter. These decisions will change the face of your company. What I didn’t say was that I believe it’s next to impossible to figure out which decisions matter and which ones do not.
How depressing.
Here’s the deal, you can spend a lot of energy deciding what the big decisions might be, but that’s much less important than making the decision… educated guess or gut instinct. There’s a pile of thoughts on creating decision friendly environments in the Taking Time to Think piece, but that article focuses on the idea of thinking in a team scenario and I want to talk about when you choose to take your thinking solo.
Let’s start with the most infuriating email you’ve ever received. I’m not talking about that jerk in Tech Support who is simply stupid, I’m talking about the email from someone you trust… a peer… pissing you off in email. You’re going to want to react to this email in the same manner as if I came into your office and punched you in the face. It’s your animal brain at work and it served you well when you were living in a cave doing the hunter-gathering thing because reacting slowly meant you were eaten or punched again.
Now. You have time to soak.
The soak is when you plant the seed of a thought in your brain and let it bump around in a rich stew of ideas, facts, and whatever other random crap that seems to relate. The soak is a protected activity that will rarely occur during your busy day because you’re busy reacting to the familiar never-ending flood of things to do. The goal of the soak is simple: an original thought. Whatever the problem is your stewing on, you want to find an glimmer of inspiration which transforms your response from a predictable emotional flame-o-gram into a strategic considered thought.
Emotion and Ignorance
At a prior gig, I was finally hitting my stride. After a two year awkward getting-to-know the company phase, I was in the groove. I knew who was doing what, who was hungry, and who was coasting. I’d turned a small bright idea of a product into a successful money maker, so my boss decided to saddle me with something completely different. An entirely new product built on technology I’d never used. It was a strategic-shift product for the company which meant everyone would be watching. This visibility would amplify potential fuck-ups. This was the career defining product for me.
Having no clue where to start on a new project and want to rip someone apart in email share one important characteristic. The best move in both cases is to start with a good long soak.
I break soaking activities into two buckets: Active Soaks and Passive Soaks. The Active Soaks are activities that you can direct and usually involve gathering content where as Passive Soaks are activities when you just point your brain in a random direction and pray. Passive Soaks are were the real work gets done. Let’s start with the first:
Active Soaking Ask dumb questions. Your first job when faced with ignorance is information acquisition and, hopefully, there are folks out there who’ve already done some soaking. These folks have some facts, ideas, and opinions regarding whatever the problem might be and you need to hear them all. The first five of these conversations can be awkward for managers because it’ll be obvious after your first two questions (“What is it?”, “How does it work?”) that you have absolutely no clue what’s going on and a manager’s job is be clueful.
Suck it up, pal. Soaking starts out uncomfortable, but with each ignorant question you ask, you’re adding content to that managerial brain of yours. Ever sat in a meeting with your VP where they were presenting product strategy? Ever sat there, unblinking, shocked and thinking, “This guy, our leader, has absolutely no clue what doing”? That’s you in ten years when you’ve a modicum of success and decided that success is a result of your MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY policy.
Asking dumb questions is the best way to start figuring out what is actually going on. Furthermore, asking any question of your team is a handy way to indirectly say, “I care about what we’re doing enough to ask you what you think.”
Pitch a stranger. Once you’ve asked enough dumb questions, a picture will start to form in your mind about what exactly you’re doing. It’s a not a complete picture, it’s more a rough sketch coupled with the mild relief that accompanies the sudden absence of ignorance. Now you’ve got to test your understanding with a qualified someone who is willing to listen to you ramble. Pitch this person on your picture and see what happens. Lots of nodding? Great, it’s coming together. Blank stare? Ooops, time for more dumb questions starting with the person you just pitched.
What I find when I pitch a stranger is that the words coming out of my mouth have very little to do with the picture that’s in my head. The act of linearly mapping my thoughts into words and sentences exposes flaws or gaps in my thinking that I never find when the ideas are swirling around my head. This leads me to our next step.
Write it down, throw it away, write it down again. Once your stranger is no longer totally confused by your idea, it’s time to write it down. This is the same process as pitching the stranger in that you’re find another medium to capture your idea. Like the pitch, seeing the words on a piece of paper or flat panel monitor will, once again, expose gaps you can’t see in the picture in your mind. Those gaps prove you’ve got more dumb questions, so go ask them, write it down again, and then throw it away. That’s right, don’t just close the document window, you need to get rid of everything you just wrote down. Toss it, empty the trash, and step away from the computer.
I know you’re attached to some part of that document that you wrote. Some witty thought that elegantly captured an angle on your problem, but remember what we’re trying to solve here. This isn’t whether or not you should get a blueberry-orange muffin on the way to work, this a decision that matters and solving it elegantly means you want to visit and revisit your response as many times as possible. Consigning your first written draft to the ether might forever lose a piece of wit, but if that wit shows up in the second draft, I guarantee that it belongs there and you’ll never lose it again.
Passive Soaking
Once you’ve done all your active content acquisition, once you’ve pitched some strangers, once you’ve you’ve written it down a few times, you need to stop actively working on the problem. Remove that sticky from your screen, hide those second drafts on your desktop, and just stop working on it. Yes, you need to make a decision, you need to respond to whatever the problem is, and while I am saying you should remove all the physical artifacts of your active soak, you’re not going to stop. You can’t. Your brain won’t let you.
Back to the original flame mail from your friend. You’ve received these before and you know the absolute wrong thing to do is immediately respond. Of course, your animal brain is dying to do so because IT FEELS SO GOOD TO PUNCH BACK, but it’s never the right move because your animal brain is defending itself, it’s not resolving anything other than proving BOY CAN I PUNCH BACK OR WHAT? My advice regarding flame-o-grams and hard decisions is the same. Sleep on it.
A night’s rest is one best ways to calm and alter your perspective on a problem. Ever gone to bed at night when the sky is falling and awoken to a blissfully simple way to easily prop the sky up? How’d that happen? The answer is, your brain never stops working. Better yet, it has the unique ability to subconsciously construct elegant solutions to hard problems when you least expect it. Call it inspiration, call it intuition, but don’t stare at it too long because it’s a shy ability. It does it’s best work when no one knows it’s there.
Soaking Takes Time
Don’t tell anyone I work with, but I earn a majority of my pay during the forty minute drive to work in the morning. I get in the car with my cup of coffee, hit the road, and let my mind wander to whatever music is playing. Never do I think, “Ok, Phil flamed me pretty hard yesterday… how am I going to deal with this?” My mind stumbles, it strikes out in random directions, and I never know where it’ll end up. Still, if I’ve spent time actively soaking on the Phil problem the day before, my wandering often ends up somewhere Phil-like and, sometimes, the mental journey reveals a nugget of inspiration.
As practical advice goes, the soak is pretty thin. If your boss is waiting for you to weigh in on a critical decision I am not advising you to say, “I have no clue what to do, I’m going to go ask dumb questions, pitch a stranger, write it down and then throw it away, and then forget everything I did”. What I am saying is that any big decision, any big problem deserves time and consideration. If you’ve got years of experience under your belt, you can probably wing it pretty well, but you’re still going to be faced with situations where the right decision is to not decide, but think.
The soak is, hands down, the favorite part of my job. What I’m doing when I’m soaking on something is an act of creation. It’s design work. It’s strategy. It’s removing the emotion and ignorance from a problem and then constructing an original solution that shows those I work with that I’m actively caring about what I do. |
warc | 201704 | It must be great to be President. No matter how spectacularly wrong you are about why you support certain policies, the policies themselves are always correct. We saw this first with the Bush administration when he campaigned on the idea that the huge revenue surpluses the federal government was enjoying should be returned to the people in the form of tax cuts, after all, it’s their money. Well, as we all knew at the time, the economy was entering a tailspin and those surpluses were merely hypothetical. When the inevitable happened and the future surpluses went the way of the dinosaur, tax cuts became necessary in order to stimulate the flagging economy. Isn’t it cool how that works?
This week, we saw the same thing on the topic of global warming. Up until the EPA released a report this week saying that global warming was real and that it was our fault, President Bush simply refused to acknowledge that it was a problem. Hence, our energy policy was predicated on ignoring global warming. Confronted with this report from his own EPA, Bush simultaneously dismissed it as coming from the “bureaucracy” and saying that the problem is so severe that there’s nothing we can do about it anyway. Hence, our energy policy is predicated on ignoring global warming. Wouldn’t a rational, intellectually honest person say something like, “We’ll have to reexamine our energy policy in light of this report.” Then you could come out in six months and say, “Well, we looked at it and decided not to change a damn thing.” That would still be sleazy, but at least you could pretend to actually put some thought into the issues before deciding policy. I find it incredibly depressing that our President doesn’t even bother with that pretense. |
warc | 201704 | Equilibrium is a very tempting state in setting design. I has lots of fun trappings like a balance of power and broad opportunities for commerce and travel, and more importantly it lets the author really drill down into the things that make the setting interesting (at least in his eyes) without them getting all broken or overly complicated. The problem is that while this is very compelling from a perspective of creation, it’s a bad approach from the perspective of play.
Interesting things when systems fall out of equilibrium. Change, wars, revolutions, reformations and pretty much everything else, and all of these things are fertile grounds for play. When a game takes place someplace out of equilibrium, it has a sense of inertia and movement that is what many railroading games are trying to capture without realizing it. It’s a sense that the world if a moving, and you better keep up. By leaving things in equilibrium, that energy goes to waste. As with many failings in setting design, I tend to pin this one on the terrible nature of social studies textbooks, which are the only model that many people have when it comes time to write up a setting. Having history presented in clean, digestible chunks warps the mind into thinking that’s how things should be, and overlooks both the narrative (which moves) and the reality (which is messy) in favor of simplicity and the least common denominator. The trouble with equilibrium is, of course, that it has no trouble at all. If there was no game, things would proceed pretty much as they have, and even if there is a game, it’s likely to have a small impact as things play out. Now, a low-impact game may be desirable. Many styles of play emulate fiction where the main characters mostly drink and fight and while they may do hugely heroic things or even save the world, they’re likely to do it in ways no one particularly notices. Thinks like the earlier stories of Fafhrd an the Grey Mouser. But in such games, setting is usually designed very loosely, in broad strokes, with whole swaths of territory easily summed up in a sentence or two. Adventure is found in the exceptions and anomalies. Such a setting may well be at equilibrium, but it would also be almost silly for it to be more than a collection of notes, and maybe a really cool map.[1] It is also possible to bring change to a system in equilibrium through the agency of the characters, especially if they’re the chosen ones or whatnot, but it’s a very brute force solution. It’s very nice and empowering, but it’s also not much of an improvement - unless the world responds to the change in a way that creates tension and problems, it’s just a kind of showpiece. There’s been one interesting trend in setting design to address this, something I’ll call aftermath design. The idea is that in the setting, something big has just happened, such as the emperor being killed or whatnot, and the setting is going through changes as it sorts this out. This is a promising idea, but it bumps up against old habits. Too often, that change occurs (before play begins, natch) and it is then the ONLY change that’s going to ever happen. It’s just a push towards a new equilibrium. And that, there, reveals the true rub. There is absolutely a tendency of system to move towards equilibrium, but even if they reach it, they don’t sustain it. Change is ongoing. For a GM, this is intensely liberating. For a setting designer, this creates a challenge of how to express that dynamic in a useful. Which is the thing I now find myself chewing on. 1 - Not to say this stops people from getting encyclopedic about it, but it’s a different beast. |
warc | 201704 | The United Nations increasingly finds itself at the center of world events in an age of rapid globalization. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that we understand its structure and functions. In this highly readable book, a prominent news correspondent at the UN provides a colorful introduction to its activities and goals.UN correspondent Linda Fasulo draws on her own observations as well as on the insights of other individuals who have been active in the UN, including US ambassadors Richard Holbrooke, Madeleine Albright, and John Negroponte. She explains how the UN came into existence, what governing principles guide its operation, and what it is like to be a participant. She describes the organization, responsibilities, and often-tense politics of the Security Council. Surveying the many humanitarian, crime-fighting, and peacekeeping programs of the UN, Fasulo concludes that there are important reasons for Americans to give the United Nations their support. |
warc | 201704 | Angry protesters set the scene for the Bank of America’s annual meeting at their headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Shareholders were eager to tell CEO, Brian Moynihan, about the disastrous effect foreclosure has had on their communities.
Losses due to foreclosures and their associated costs have affected the banks’ profits for several quarters, and were responsible for a 39% loss of income during the first quarter of this year. Figures show that residential and commercial customers with $24 billion worth of loans were late by 90 days or more, and the bank already owns $2 billion of foreclosed properties.
Moynihan tried his best to reassure shareholders with a tale of two banks; one consisting of the mortgage business and the other being made up of other business concerns. It doesn’t exactly make a reassuring story as the bank is amongst the worst performers of the S&P 500 index this year, and was the only large bank out of the big four to fail the Federal Reserve stress test.
One shareholder, Michael Garland, who was there representing the New York City Comptroller’s Office, as well as several large public pension funds had written to the bank requesting an independent review of foreclosures and mortgages, to ensure that all conform to current laws. He didn’t receive a reply until five days before the meeting. The New York Comptroller’s Office had also proposed that the bank conduct an independent review at the shareholders meeting, but failed to get enough votes to force the bank to comply.
Still at least the shareholders were sitting comfortably on plush red velvet seats, as the meeting was held in the brand new auditorium in recently opened 32-storey Bank of America Tower. |
warc | 201704 | Two orange pigments have been produced by two different bacterial strains. They have been isolated from soil of West Bengal, India. Upon 16s rRNA analysis, one strain named as PNSMO has been identified as Pseudomonas geniculata deposited at NCBI with GenBank accession number, KU726551. Another one named as PNSLO has been identified as Deinococcus soli with GenBank accession number, KU726552. Optimum temperature and pH have been adjusted for maximum pigment production. Moreover, pigment productions by the two bacteria have also been increased by using Magnesium Chloride (MgCl2) as the catalytic agent. The two orange pigments have been extracted from two different bacteria by methanol extraction procedure. Those pigments have been identified as Carotene, when passed them through HPLC and UV-Vis spectrometer. The Rf values of those pigments have been found to be around 0.88. It is probable that the carotene pigments, produced by those two bacterial strains, have been reported for the first time by us. In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to find the characteristics of the two orange pigments produced by the different bacterial strains isolated from soil. The results have been tabulated, shown graphically, and discussed.
Ritasree Mandal et al.2016, Study of the Biological Activities of Orange Pigments, Produced By Bacteria Pseudomonas Geniculata, and Deinococcus Soli. Int J Recent Sci Res. 7(12), pp. 14704-14708. |
warc | 201704 | Fishermen are facing tougher quotas and declining populations for some of the most popular fish species, most notably Cod, a New England favorite. That’s one reason why environmentalists and fishermen have been working to promote more locally-caught seafood. Some, like lobster, quahogs, and other shellfish are catching on. But there are other fish that teem the waters of Narragansett Bay. There's one effort underway to raise awareness about scup, an abundant local catch. |
warc | 201704 | D rugs sure are funny critters, aren't they? Scummy folks, in lieu of any other tangible reason to live, risk their lives and the lives of others by running illegal varieties across U.S. borders every day and every night on behalf of far scummier people who bask in the profits of destroyed lives and death. Border agents do their best to keep the pathway narrow, of course, but shackled as they are by Washington hacks (many of whose lives are probably infested with drugs when they make vital national decisions) and regulations friendly only to drug runners and illegal aliens, the welcome mat for criminal activity hasn't budged much.
Me, I never tried marijuana in any form, nor sampled the other illicit drugs. I tend to believe life is horrible enough, and we should just tolerate it the way nature intended in order to get that truthful hit of, you know, absolute emotional misery. But drugs? That's not to say I could avoid illegal drugs.. I served in the Air Force during the Vietnam Era, when it was common to find pretty much any drug you wanted, either on or off base. We, the medical corpsmen (or
corpse men, in President Obama's words, bordering upon illiteracy) worked in hospitals, and off-base drug parties among some medical personnel were not uncommon -- not that I could blame them, because they really needed escape from the human agony and stress encountered every day, thanks in no small part to LBJ's ongoing indecisive self-panic regarding the seemingly endless Southeast Asian conflict.
One of my roommates, "busted" off base for drugs, was hospitalized for a while and then kicked out of the Air Force. To this day, I'm not altogether sure he didn't want it that way all along. Remember, these were years when the military draft was in effect, and -- unlike the wonderful, dedicated military members whom today enlist of their own accord -- a good many servicemen weren't exactly serving because we were patriots, we were there to avoid draft-dodger prison sentences. The vast majority performed assigned duties expertly.
But just because I never indulged in illegal drugs doesn't mean I wasn't addicted to a medication. My final 15 months of service occurred at an Air Force base hospital where I was the one and only medical person trained in a particular specialty -- physical therapy -- and I operated my own clinic, and my entire chain of command was the chief of surgery, followed by the hospital commander. Their first impression of me may have been lacking, because the very day I breezed into town, outside the base I got a speeding ticket from a local cop (I contend this was only because my car had NY plates and this was Georgia, no fan of northerners. . .), and though I paid a fine right away there was still a chance that the entire chain of command would be called into court. As if. Didn't happen, seems physicians were needed at the hospital more than at some kangaroo court of the deep South. Not to digress. . .
At some point I developed a nasty cold or viral infection, and after days of illness ended up with an overbearing cough. By then, I knew all the hospital physicians and routinely treated patients referred by each, so it was no trouble to get a prescription -- in these less-regulated times -- for anything I wanted. So, I needed something for the cough, and a script for a brand-name cough syrup
containing codeinewas provided. Oh yeah, that stuff did the trick. The syrup, brown like Coca Cola, curbed the cough until I didn't care about the cough anymore -- but I cared about the codeine in the syrup. A lot. That was some pretty decent cough syrup. So decent, in fact, that I went from hospital doctor to doctor, none knowing of my similar requests of their colleagues, for extra prescriptions. For a few weeks I downed a fair amount of "cough syrup" both on and off duty and achieved a bit of very nice tranquility. The mild addiction was brief and I eventually knew enough to extract myself (and my precious liver) from its joys, but I entertained a better appreciation for harmless medication addictions gone wild.
That was a lesson I should have learned during a duty assignment at another Air Force base, when a pharmacy specialist airman (and friend) who filled a prescription for me replied, when I asked if a particular medication was "good" for me, "Bob,
noneof the stuff in this room is goodfor you." I knew what he meant right away. Wrong word, good. He was always witty and intellectual and right to the point -- and, not too much to my surprise, in later years I discovered that he held a high position with a U.S. government cabinet-level department.. Apparently, his talents extended far beyond an occasion where, despite my protests, he easily picked two locks on my locked briefcase in less than one minute. Maybe in less than 30 seconds.
Though not having much interaction with the hospital pharmacy at my final USAF base, I did make some very basic observations. First, the staff displayed a large jar in which was deposited one each of every pill in stock, and even in 1971 that glass jar, stuffed with capsules and pills of all shapes, sizes and hues, reflected rainbow colors like a kaleidoscope. Why so many pills in the world? What's the cost and who makes the money?
Second, I frequently witnessed the arrival of what I almost assumed were fashion models, a never-ending cavalcade of impeccably attired young men, routinely making their way to either the pharmacy, physicians' offices or administrative areas. These, I was to learn from folks who knew, were the pushers -- the sales people representing various drug companies. And they brought presents -- not only medication samples, but little forget-me-not gifts such as pens, posters suitable for framing, paperweights and the like. Things to keep visits and drugs fresh in the minds of those with the power to purchase and prescribe medications. I still have a series of artists' adventure scene posters -- given to me by the chief of surgery (my boss), who received them from a salesman, and probably would have thrown them out otherwise because such "gifts" materialized constantly.
More? Okay. As my final Air Force weeks wound down in 1972, I started collecting my own personal pharmacy to take into civilian life. Just in case.
Just in case. It wasn't difficult. I simply visited the emergency room up the hall from my clinic and grabbed whatever I desired from the medicine cabinet (yes, life was socarefree back then. . .) with the approval -- make that nonchalance -- of fellow corpsmen who were counting their own days until exit. By this time the military was really cracking down on illegal drugs, but nobody was really watching the legal medicationtreasure chest.
When my discharge day arrived at last, I had already packed up my personal belongings, and at customary Air Force expense they were shipped back home by a major moving company. Among several cardboard boxes of stuff accumulated over four years of service -- and, fortunately, not searched for by
them-- was, I guess you could call it, a generous pirate's booty of Darvon, Librium, Valium, Compazine and a wealth of enough other bottled goodies to make a street corner drug fiend lapse into ecstasy. Just in case.
Alas, there really is no exciting climax to this story. My ill-gotten collection of colorful capsules and pills remained concealed and safe for a few years, untouched.
Just in casenever came, but I stayed ready, just in case. I nearly forgot about them, but one day I simply gathered the tokens of just in casetogether and threw them out, no longer even sure why I shipped them home (over multiple and forbidden state lines, yet, wha-hoooooo!).
Okay, so much for my personal tour of memory lane's "drug dynasty." Next time, we'll fast-forward to the future. The
pharmaco-now. |
warc | 201704 | What if your car could tell you the nearest, cheapest, or safest place to park as you approach your destination? What if a jet engine or gas pipeline could predict its own potential future failure and trigger remediation in advance of a catastrophic disaster? These kinds of innovations are now possible thanks to SAP HANA.
With SAP HANA, developers are given a platform with the capabilities they need to create applications that would not have been feasible before now. And SAP has been positioning SAP HANA to make it as accessible as possible for developers, providing free trial licenses, making SAP HANA available in the cloud with SAP HANA One, and creating the SAP Startup Focus program, which lends development support to innovative startup companies.
The response has been tremendous. Startups and developers all over the world are building advanced and creative solutions on the SAP HANA in-memory database platform, creating an entirely new breed of applications and services that can turn the ever-growing mass of big data into high-value, insightful, relevant, and actionable insight.
To set the context for how SAP HANA has become the enabler of big data innovation, let’s take a look at what makes it tick.
Data Without Limits
The first thing that jumps out to the discerning eye when looking more closely at SAP HANA is that it is not a narrow platform or specialty solution. The SAP HANA platform brings together core innovations, like being 100% in-memory at runtime and possessing a column-store architecture that underpins everything it does (see
Figure 1).
SAP HANA removes the limits of traditional database architecture, enabling you to perform near real-time online application processing (OLAP) analysis on an online transaction processing (OLTP) data structure. As a result, developers can create business applications that support the real-time needs of today’s businesses. With SAP HANA, main memory space has now become practically unlimited, with the ability to hold all the business data of enterprises of every size.
There are many components that make up the SAP HANA platform. Here, we’ll take a closer look at a some of these key pieces.
DBMS Backbone
SAP HANA incorporates a full database management system (DBMS) with a standard SQL interface, transactional isolation and recovery capabilities, and high availability. This DBMS is the only technology available on the market today that can perform both data warehousing and transactions in the same database.
Another unique feature of the SAP HANA DBMS is the in-memory capabilities, which leverage the appliance concept and multicore hardware capabilities to boost scanning speeds from hours to seconds. This feature presents the perfect opportunity to save development cycles by providing a baked-in solution that ramps-up speed and doesn’t require the integration of additional tools.
Analytical and Special Interfaces
In addition to SQL, SAP HANA supports business intelligence (BI) clients using multidimensional expressions (MDX) for products such as Microsoft Excel and BI consumer services (BICS), an internal interface for SAP BusinessObjects solutions. This means that, for analytical planning, you could iterate values on aggregated analytical reports. Then, after this value iteration, SAP HANA can immediately recalculate any value with its in-memory planning engine to greatly reduce query time.
Parallel Data Execution Capabilities
SAP HANA manages SQL processing instructions into an optimized model that allows parallel execution and scales incredibly well in multicore processors. This optimized model involves partitioning the data in sections so calculations can be executed in parallel. SAP HANA also supports distribution across hosts, allowing large tables to be partitioned and processed in parallel by multiple hosts.
The parallel-data-flow computing model is also extended with application-specific logic that is executed in processing nodes as part of the model. Support includes SQLScript as a functional language and “L” as an imperative language, which means you can call upon the prepackaged algorithms available in the predictive analytical library of SAP HANA to perform advanced statistical calculations.
SAP HANA Application Function Libraries
Within SAP HANA, functions for a particular functional area are grouped into an application function library (AFL), such as the predictive analytical library (PAL) and the business function library (BFL).
These libraries deliver pre-packaged functionality, enabling you to spend fewer cycles building information models. They are also particularly useful when you need to fill in the gaps of a large data set to make a business prediction.
Predictive Analytical Library
PAL contains a number of universal predictive algorithms that can execute directly against the data in SAP HANA. PAL also provides support for an array of clustering, classification, association, and time series functions.
Many of the standard algorithms used in data mining and predictive analysis would be too onerous or even impossible to implement yourself in SQLScript. On the other hand, if you want to perform real-time predictive analysis, you need to avoid exporting your data to an external application server to run the predictive analysis function. That’s where PAL comes in.
The idea behind PAL is to make it very straightforward to execute, for example, a clustering calculation (like K-means) on your data in SAP HANA with just a few lines of SQLScript. In most cases, users identify an input table, populate a parameter table (setting up the parameters of the function), identify an output table, and let SAP HANA and PAL do the rest.
Business Function Library
BFL is another SAP HANA native application library. It contains pre-built parameter-driven functions in the financial area. BFL business functions follow the same basic approach as PAL functions in that you create an input table, parameter table, and an output table to receive the results. The user interacts with each function via SQLScript, but the bulk of the work is done in SAP HANA’s high-performance calculation engine.
BFL extends the computation ability of SAP HANA with complex and performance-critical algorithms that fit a wide array of business needs. Examples of common business functions enabled by BFL include “rolling forecasts from current forecast and actual sales data” and more fundamental functions like “moving average” and “moving sum.”
R Integration
SAP HANA supports integration with R — a free software environment that supports statistical analysis — and makes leveraging R easy for developers. R itself is distributed through a free GNU license and is a completely separate offering from SAP HANA. But SAP HANA’s integration with R means that users can take advantage of the massive library of statistical packages that R and the R community have generated.
SAP HANA uses the external R environment to execute R code similarly to how it would handle native database operations like joins or aggregations. This allows developers to embed R function definitions and calls within SQLScript and submit the entire code as part of a query to the database. An efficient data exchange mechanism supports the transfer of intermediate database tables directly into R’s vector-oriented data.
SAP HANA Extended Application Services
Traditional applications often use JDBC or ODBC to interact with their data; SAP HANA supports this too. However, one performance-limiting aspect of this approach is that it involves the application taking a copy of the data into the application server for further processing and preparation for rendering in the user interface.
To avoid this, SAP HANA provides extended application services, which allow for more of the model-based, data-intensive execution to occur within SAP HANA itself. Application services are written in server-side JavaScript and server-side JavaScript Libraries. SAP HANA also natively supports OData and XMLA data interfaces — developers need only include service descriptor files to ease development of native applications.
The result of supporting all of these options in one broad platform is that it allows you to perform a large percentage of data processing and shaping right on an in-memory projection of the data, in real time, without the need to extract, duplicate, transform, load, and process it elsewhere. This reduction of layers or “hops” goes a long way to simplifying and optimizing the landscape and improving performance.
SAP HANA: An Ideal Platform for Developers
Developers around the world — including those who work within the SAP ecosystem and those who are entirely new to the SAP space — are now innovating with SAP HANA. I strongly encourage all companies and developers to take a closer look at SAP HANA and see where the platform could fit into your future.
For more information on SAP HANA, visit
www.saphana.com. Or, if you’re a developer ready to see what you can create with SAP HANA, get started by visiting the SAP Community Network SAP HANA Developer Center at http://scn.sap.com/community/developer-center/hana.
David Sonnenschein ( david.sonnenschein@sap.com; Twitter: @dsonnen) is part of the SAP Startup Focus program’s Development Accelerator, helping early stage companies adopt the SAP HANA platform across a broad spectrum of domains. |
warc | 201704 | Title Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Status
Accepted
Abstract
For over 150 years, federal copyright law in the United States reflected and reinforced the model ofmusic as a two-stage art of composition and performance. Copyright protected scores, the stable, visually perceptible result of the deliberative activity of composition. It did not protect performances, theevanescent, unrepeatable, purely aural realizations of scores. Even as protection was extended tomusical sound recordings, copyright law has maintained a strong distinction between composition andperformance. In the last several decades, however, developments in sound technologies and their uses by musicians and listeners have substantially undermined that distinction. Written notation often no longer figures in any stage of producing a musical recording, and the roles of composer, musician andproducer are blurred as composition, performance, recording, synthesizing, sequencing, sampling, editing, processing, and mixing are accomplished iteratively within a digital environment. An empirical study of 4.5 million copyright registrations presented as part of this article demonstrates that while 86%of musical work registrations in 1978 were accompanied by deposits of written notation, by 2012 only 17% were. Copyright law, however, is still routinely interpreted to require the isolation of compositionaland performance elements of sound recordings.
This article argues that copyright law should cease trying to divide musical sound recordings intocomposition and performance elements, and should recognize phonorecord-embodied musical works as a distinct category of works of authorship. It makes the case that the 1976 Act could be interpreted to accomplish that change, but it also argues that the Act should be amended if necessary. An approach that recognizes that phonorecord-embodied musical works are distinct from notated musical works andare protectable on their own terms, can potentially better serve the purposes of copyright law in at least three ways. First, such an approach would be more consistent with the basic understanding that substantial similarity in music is to be evaluated through the comparative aesthetic appeal of listening experiences. Second, it would help to enable creators of all aspects of those listening experiences to enjoy the incentives and benefits of authorship. Third, it could be a step towards recognition of unitarycopyright in some musical audio works. GW Paper Series
GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2014-4; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2014-4
Recommended Citation
Brauneis, Robert, Musical Work Copyright for the Era of Digital Sound Technology: Looking Beyond Composition and Performance (February 23, 2014). |
warc | 201704 | Results In this study, genotypes from Human Genome Diversity Panel populations were used to further evaluate a 93 SNP AIM panel, a subset of the 128 AIMS set, for distinguishing continental origins. Using both model-based and relatively model-independent methods, we here confirm the ability of this AIM set to distinguish diverse population groups that were not previously evaluated. This study included multiple population groups from Oceana, South Asia, East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, North and South America, and Europe. In addition, the 93 AIM set provides population substructure information that can, for example, distinguish Arab and Ashkenazi from Northern European population groups and Pygmy from other Sub-Saharan African population groups. Conclusion These data provide additional support for using the 93 AIM set to efficiently identify continental subject groups for genetic studies, to identify study population outliers, and to control for admixture in association studies.
AIM = ancestrally informative markers. You are probably aware of the fact that most variance on any given gene is found within populations, and not between. Therefore, the chestnut of conventional wisdom that 85% of variance is within races, and 15% is between races. But not all genes are created equal. For example, on SLC24A5 almost all the variance among Europeans and Africans is between the races; if you know the state of
SLC24A5, then you can establish with a high degree of certainty whether the person is African or European in origin if these are your only two options (Asians and Africans cluster on SLC245, though if you find the “European” variant you can be assured of an individual’s provenance, at least partially, from North Africa or Western Eurasia). The logic then is that a small number of highly population informative markers (i.e., those markers which are good at distinguishing between populations) can allow one to discern population stratification within medical studies. If, for example, you are looking for disease susceptibility alleles and different populations have different disease susceptibilities, then naturally those alleles which are correlated with particular populations will show up on an association (though the “causal” connection is population identity in terms of both disease and allele). This is why Ashkenazi Jewish genetics are of more than genealogical interest, if Jews have a unique suite of genetic diseases (this is true) then it might best to exclude them from studies using other Europeans. Sniffing out of this sort of “cryptic” structure isn’t that hard, in the early 2000s Neil Risch et al. pointed out that as few as 20 AIMs may be sufficient to distinguish continental populations.
This study uses 93 markers to distinguish HGDP groups, along with a few other supplemental populations which were not well represented in HGDP sample. For example, since the government of India was rather restrictive of genetic research when the HGDP population samples were being collected the “South Asians” are generally from Pakistan. A study which surveyed Indian Americans (that is, Americans whose family are of Indian origin) provided the data to “plug” that whole. Clusters were displayed through two primary methods, Structure and principal component analysis charts.
(I’ve reformatted this figure a bit)
These figures aren’t too special, you’ve seen better. But,
instead of tens thousands of SNPs these are just 93 markers. So the bang-for-the-buck is rather big. Both the Structure and PC charts aligned with intuition and previous findings. In fact they compared their results to those of 3,500 random SNPs (remember, randomly selected markers will show a lot less between population variance, so less bang-for-the-buck).
The r
2 is the square of the correlation, and describes how much of the variation of Y can be explained by variation of X. As you can see the 93 AIMs don’t do too badly when judged against 3,500 random markers. This check is necessary because local adaptation can give a distorted impression of total genome content if selection is driving allele frequencies toward convergence among disparate populations. Consider if LCT, the locus which controls lactase persistence, were used. It seems as if there is a fair amount of ecologically driven variance at odds with the rest of the genome on some genes which exhibit a lot of between population variance, so one must be aware of this problem.
But there’s a big exception:
the 93 AIMs don’t seem too good at classifying the South Asians as a distinct group when set against more markers. In other words, these 93 AIMs don’t seem too “ancestrally informative” when it comes to brown folk. At K = 5 (five putative ancestral populations) the admixture of South Asians is rather evident in the Structure chart. They note that using a 85% cut-off for ancestry within a “South Asian” cluster results in in only 25% of South Asians in their own category (at K = 6). Dropping to 50% increases the proportion to 60%. South Asians should of course be excluded from studies which are majority European because there are clear genetic differences. I just assume that part of the issue is that these ancestrally informative markers were selected in the context of a much larger literature which relied on Europeans, African Americans and East Asians (combined with the fact that South Asians are closer to Europeans & Middle Easterners than other population clusters, but still distinctive). Cite: BMC Genetics 2009, 10:39 doi:10.1186/1471-2156-10-39 Related: Genetic maps. |
warc | 201704 | Army-ants storm through the jungles of Panama a million strong devouring any and every living creature in their path. Some clever birds have found a way to capitalize on the mayhem: Stay close to the ants and eat the leaping, running, and scampering insects that attempt to escape.
Antbirds and ovenbirds, the main ant-following species, have different strategies for using the ants to their advantages. Some birds only follow the ants within their own territories, but stop when they reach the borders. Others dabble in ant following, hitting them up for an easy meal but supplementing this by foraging on their own. Finally, the true loyalists rely solely on the ants to scare up their prey.
One species of ant-following antbird in the Thamnophilidae genus
Rob Brumfield, an Assistant Curator of Genetic Resources at the Museum of Natural History at Louisiana State University has studied the ant-following birds’ behavior.
He describes the process of locating army-ants in the dense jungle: “I can hear in the distance the snap, crackle and pop of a million marauding army-ants marching through the leaf litter. They are consuming every insect, spider and lizard in their path. And traveling with the army-ants is a boisterous flock of birds.”
Army-ants are routinely found in the birds’ stomach contents, but scientists are split on whether or not the birds intentionally eat the army-ants or if the ants just happen to be attached to the prey. |
warc | 201704 | Platinum - Pt.
Sperrylite - PtAs 2.
The platinum-group metals (PGMs) are iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, and ruthenium. In general, PGMs exhibit high density, high electrical conductivity, high melting points, and low reactivity. Platinum is commercially the most important of the PGMs. Platinum occurs in dark silicate rocks with minerals that contain iron and magnesium. It is usually found as fine grains or flakes scattered throughout the rock or as thin layers of metal ores called sulfides. In rare instances, platinum is found as nuggets in stream placer deposits. Platinum is the most commercial of the PGMs. The largest platinum producers are Canada, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. Platinum is used in automobile pollution abatement systems and jewelry and as catalysts to produce industrial chemicals.
The name
platinum refers to a mineral, an element and a group of
elements. As an element, platinum (chemical symbol Pt) is a
silvery-gray metal with an atomic number of 78. It belongs to a group
of elements that are in the second and third triads of Group VIII of the
Periodic Table of the Elements.
The platinum group of elements consists of metals with similar
physical properties. They are among the rarest elements in the Earth's
crust. They have high melting points, are dense or heavy (mineralogists
say they have a high
specific gravity), and are very
non-reactive to other elements and ions. The platinum group elements
include: ruthenium (44), rhodium (45), palladium (46), osmium (76),
iridium (77) and platinum (78). Of these elements, only platinum and
palladium are found in a pure form in nature. The others occur in
nature as natural alloys with platinum and gold, for example. In
industry people refer to this group of elements as the platinum group
metals, or simply as PGM.
As a mineral, platinum occurs in dark silicate rocks with minerals containing iron and magnesium. It is usually found as fine grains or flakes scattered throughout the rock and rarely as large nuggets. It crystallizes in the cubic crystal system, but rarely forms actual crystals. The crystal drawings here are of very rare platinum alloy crystals from Russia. Platinum is metallic and, like gold and silver, is malleable (it can be hammered into sheets) and ductile (it can be drawn into wire). Most naturally occurring platinum is actually a mixture of platinum and iridium.
Platinum has been known and used since antiquity in South America, where the
use of platinum by the natives was discovered by Antonio de Ulloa of Spain in
1735. Because it is silver-gray in color, it was named after the Spanish word
for silver,
plata.
In the United States, the only mines producing platinum group metals (PGM) are in what geologists call the Stillwater Complex of Montana. In recent years, old mines have been enlarged and a new mine has been established in this complex. Small amounts of PGM are recovered from copper processing in Texas and Utah.
In 1822 large amounts of platinum were discovered in the Ural Mountains in Russia. Russia continues to be an important world source of PGM to this day. The most productive PGM mines are in South Africa in a geologic region known as the Bushveld Complex. Canada, Zimbabwe, and Australia also produce PGM.
Significant amounts of platinum are recovered annually through recycling. In 1999, for example, 70 metric tons was recovered through recycling. This will continue to be an important part of PGM supplies in the future.
Most platinum is used to produce catalytic converters in automobile
exhaust systems. The goal is to limit the smog-producing chemicals that
come from burning gasoline. When an internal combustion engine burns
gasoline, nitrogen oxides (NO
x) are produced. The exhaust
passes through the catalytic converter that contains platinum and
iridium. The gases are in the converter for 0.1 to 0.4 seconds and in
that very short time, 75% of the nitrogen oxide is converted into
nitrogen and oxygen. In addition, more than 95% of carbon monoxide and
other hydrocarbons in the exhaust are oxidized. The platinum works by
lowering the energy needed to cause these chemical changes. The result
is a dramatic reduction in pollution.
Although about one-third of all platinum is used by the automotive industry, there are various other uses. It is alloyed with gold, silver and copper for dental uses. PGM is used in chemotherapy, particularly to fight leukemia. Platinum-iridium compounds are used to make biomedical devices. An alloy of platinum and osmium is used in pacemakers to regulate heart function and in heart replacement valves.
Some manufacturers are using less expensive palladium in place of platinum in catalytic converters. As a catalytic converter component in diesel engines, palladium is proving to be a better than platinum. |
warc | 201704 | SAN FRANCISCO -- IBM will make a series of security announcements at the 2009 RSA Conference this week to further...
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what Big Blue calls its Information Security Framework. Security professionals, even those that do not use IBM products, can benefit from the framework -- which includes a foundational information security program reference model, a maturity model for self-evaluation, an assessment tool for measuring current posture and IBM-provided training -- by copying IBM's mindset to ensure security is built into new business initiatives rather than layered on as an afterthought.
Stay ahead of evolving threats.Prioritizing threats and proactively reducing the risk to business operations is the nuts and bolts of security programs. New threats usually involve new products to attach to the infrastructure and new vendor relationships to maintain before established vendors are sure the threats are real. Smaller vendors are usually the ones evangelizing evolving threats; it is important to understand their security issues, determine the risk to the business, and decide on a level of urgency. Take advantage of new business opportunities.Every IT security team hates being looped into an IT project too late in the process to properly secure it. Use the opportunity to get ahead of business initiatives by exploring the security implications of mega-trends such as virtualization (data center and desktops), cloud computing, smartphones for the workforce, as well as other forms of wireless communication. Take advantage of the conference to learn not only about new security capabilities, but also how that research can help the company open new business opportunities so security can get ahead. Pursue more efficient IT business models.Many IT organizations, especially in this economy, are charged with driving 10% or more of the annual costs out of the existing technical infrastructure. This usually translates to cost savings in labor that come from automating security processes, consolidating security into switches and multifunction security devices, virtualizing security products for concentrated server utilization and endpoint protection, and simplifying complex compliance processes. Look closely at the ability of security innovations to reduce labor costs to meet operational goals.
About the author: Eric Ogren is founder and principal analyst of the Ogren Group, which provides industry analyst services for vendors focusing on virtualization and security. Prior to founding the Ogren Group, Eric was a security industry analyst for the Yankee Group and ESG. Ogren has also served as vice president of marketing at security startups Okena, Sequation and Tizor. He can be reached by sending an email to eric@ogrengroup.com. |
warc | 201704 | The explosive growth of data storage is causing IT organizations to consider, even if only wistfully, making a case for the purchase of new storage resource management (SRM) tools.
A TechTarget survey completed this month showed that nearly a quarter (22%) of the 374 respondents plan this year to increase spending on storage management software. The main drivers cited were the need to manage more storage with existing staff and the hope of simplifying the management of different storage environments.
Many storage administrators continue to get by with homegrown tools or the element managers that ship with the storage devices they buy. But, the built-in element managers are designed to manage only a specific device, and the homegrown approach can be challenging to sustain over time, especially if the staff member who wrote the scripts leaves the company.
Determining which of the commercial management tools will be most beneficial depends in large part on an organization's size, infrastructure design, and the degree to which the IT environment changes.
In this special report, we look at the storage tools that can assist with the management, monitoring and reporting of potential trouble spots in five major areas: data backup, capacity, configuration, performance, and disaster recovery.
Watching your data backup's back
The built-in reporting and monitoring features that ship with data backup applications are adequate for many IT organizations. But an independent backup reporting tool can become a critical add-on purchase for anyone using more than one backup product or overseeing an especially large environment.
GSI Commerce Inc., for instance, uses Aptare Inc. StorageConsole Backup Manager for a single-pane view across multiple data centers. StorageConsole Backup Manager's reporting engine helps the storage team meet audit requests for compliance purposes, said Tim Malfara, storage architect at the King of Prussia, Penn.-based e-commerce technology and services provider.
GSI uses Symantec Corp.'s Veritas NetBackup to provide critical and detailed information, but the data can be overwhelming and difficult to review, Malfara said. The Aptare software allows the storage team to customize reports based on key criteria that the business units need, he noted.
"Prior to having that tool," Malfara said, "we would have to spend a significant amount of time going through the backup product, pulling information out and putting it in a format that was easy to read."
Stan Horwitz, a senior systems manager at Temple University, said the school's EMC Corp. NetWorker software offers no obvious way to filter failures and successes or warn his team when a successful backup takes too long. He said he wants alerts only about problems.
"I get loaded with reports," said Horwitz, "and it's damn near impossible to read through them every day."
Until now, cost has kept Temple from buying a backup reporting tool. But, in connection with the replacement of its oldest tape library, the university is evaluating EMC's Avamar data deduplication device in a bundle with the vendor's Data Protection Advisor (an EMC acquisition from WysDM), which would help to solve not only the reporting/alerting issue but also pave the way for a potential chargeback system for backups.
Specialized reporting and monitoring tools for backup environments also include Bocada Inc.'s Enterprise, NetApp Inc.'s Protection Manager, Rocket Software Inc.'s Servergraph Data Protection Expert, Symantec's Veritas Backup Reporter and Tek-Tools Inc.'s Backup Profiler.
Enterprise Strategy Group senior analyst Lauren Whitehouse contends this class of tools is strategic, not simply a utility. She claims that's especially true for organizations delivering backup as a service, whether internally to the business or externally as a service provider, since the specialized reporting products assist with setting expectations, auditing and understanding budgets. The built-in reporting features of the major backup applications from vendors such as Symantec, EMC, CA Inc., CommVault Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co. and IBM Corp. provide administrators with error logs, built-in reports and dashboard views into backup/recovery job status. But, they "don't always take the information provided to a level of problem solving, or problem avoidance," Whitehouse wrote in an email interview.
Whitehouse said that many of the specialized tools provide details that can help to resolve the issue, and they also assist with "predictive analysis," such as gauging when more storage needs to be provisioned or when a tape drive requires maintenance.
Improved features in data backup applications
Ed Delgado, the storage architect at RiskMetrics Group Inc., cited capacity planning as the most pressing issue in his data backup environment. He said he wants to be alerted days in advance when a backup could fail due to a lack of tapes or disk space. He claimed the company's backup application is no help, and he has yet to find a special tool to meet his needs.
Organizations with more basic needs will find improved features in the backup applications. IBM, for instance, in February released a major upgrade to its Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) backup software that adds reporting and monitoring capabilities and revamps the database to streamline administration. Richard Vining, a product marketing manager of IBM's TSM portfolio, said the goal is to eliminate the need to purchase extra tools.
"When we see customers struggling with reporting and monitoring of their environment, we build that into the product," Vining said.
One thing missing from all but a few early tools is the ability to manage and forecast data deduplication systems. That absence is felt more strongly now that deduplication is an intrinsic part of backup systems, said Valdis Filks, a research director in Gartner Inc.'s storage management and strategies group.
"In the old days, we had one tool to monitor the disk system, one tool to monitor the tape system, one tool to monitor the file systems. Then we pulled it all together with SRM dashboards," Filks said. "Now deduplication comes along and we're back to the old days where we have a separate tool to monitor data dedupe systems. You have to use the tool that comes with the hardware to monitor it."
The second part of this report looks at managing capacity. |
warc | 201704 | In my previous article Analyzing The Logic Of Tesla Bears, I presented a takedown of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) bears' objections to the growth story. And with this one I will attempt to summarize additional key objections to my previous analysis and also a simple method to come up with a valuation for Tesla extending some thoughts in the comments.
There is a general misunderstanding about inconveniences, range, maintenance and service for electric cars. There are people who are worried that the one or two long trips they take in a year are an inconvenience for Tesla owners. However they choose to ignore the inconvenience of a gas car which I will list below
Gas Electric Twice monthly gas fill-ups Full Charge every morning Annual (?) oil changes Annual checkup
Periodic replacement of belts and other miscellaneous maintenance such as fluid leaks, changes etc.
Very few moving parts, minimal maintenance
Service hassles such as cheating dealers and mechanics. If you haven't had a mechanic recommend unnecessary maintenance or a dealer try to gouge you, you are in the minority
Minimal maintenance = minimal hassle with dealers/mechanics
With Tesla, one more added headache is taken care of you. When my wife and me leased our Leaf, to get a decent price, I contacted every dealer within a 100 miles of us for a quote. The initial quote on the lease started at 30% more than what we are paying now. So after spending about 30 hours online chatting, calling and emailing the dealers, we finally picked one and got the car. Only one dealer offered to find the car with the colors/options we wanted. I still get emails from the other dealers. In fact I got calls for at least 5 years from a Honda (NYSE:HMC) dealer after we picked our Nissan (OTCPK:NSANY) Murano over a Honda 10 years ago.
Considering the above, it would be a lot less hassle to rent a car for the two times a year that you need to go beyond the range of a Tesla in case you didn't own another car.
I started out this article listing every car that is a competitor to Tesla and how Tesla is very competitive with other luxury cars even ignoring that it is an Electric. But to make things simple I will go about it differently giving you what exactly it is about Tesla that the other competitors do not have
2. Most important component (battery) is upgradeable easily. Try to upgrade the engine of your 2013 BMW with that of the 2016 when it comes out.
3. The safest car on the road. The best crash test rating ever - the car actually busted some testing equipment. Nearly impossible to rollover. I will repeat from my previous article, it makes me wonder what car makers have been doing all these years.
4. Amongst the quietest, if not the quietest car on the road.
5. Performance. The Tesla outperforms almost any ICE car in its class, almost equaling a more expensive Porsche. Electric drive is just snappier. Also any driver can get the performance as opposed to the experienced driver with perfect shifts.
6. Very good looks. This is subjective but the Tesla is amongst the nicest looking cars on the road.
Now for the meat of this discussion. Putting a value to the stock. For that we need to project sales. The numbers I use below are not overly optimistic, nor are they pessimistic.
2013: 22,000 Model S 2014: 40,000 Model S, Model X is introduced 2015: 60,000 Model S, Model X 2016: 80,000 Model S, Model X 2017: 100,000 Model S, Model X, Gen 3 is introduced 2018: 150,000 Model S, Model X, Gen 3 2019: 200,000 Model S, Model X, Gen 3 2020: ? Model S, X, Gen 3, New Gen 3 based SUV?
In 2019, I expect Tesla to have revenues of at least 15 billion from cars alone. Tesla will also have additional revenue from licensing to Toyota, Mercedes etc. and I would guesstimate a total of 20 billion.
Up until Tesla hits a million cars, half that of BMW group's total current annual production, the Tesla growth story should stay intact, which would lead me to believe that Tesla will carry a high P/E ratio. Also being electric, better margins are expected than gas cars. At a 15% net margin, Tesla would have earnings of 3 billion. And at a P/E of 50 (since the growth is still not done) that is a valuation of 150 billion.
That is more than 7X the current valuation. If you add in some dilution and delays, let's say 5X in six years. Does $200 a share sound more reasonable now? Another take was presented here by Aswath Damodaran, a finance professor and his valuation was 67$/share. In his presentation he gives Tesla a revenue of $65 billion in 2022, however he assumes that Tesla's margins will be similar to those of other automakers.
My argument is that Tesla will command bigger margins than other automakers just like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) commands bigger margins on iPhones. I would also argue that until the growth story is closer to being done (when Tesla sells half as many cars as BMW), we will see a higher P/E and thus higher stock price.
I will say that $20 billion is a very high valuation for Tesla and calls for expectations of perfection, but they do have a history of doing things well. I'm excited not only about Tesla but also about our EV future.
One last point of contention from my previous article was the math about superchargers. It is in fact quite simple:
$2000/car for supercharger access. If 50% is used to fund the construction and 50% to pay for lifetime maintenance and electricity for the superchargers for that car, we would have easy coverage.
For 2014 with an estimate of 40,000 cars, even if only 20,000 opted for the supercharger option we would have $20 million for construction which would pay for between 70 and 140 superchargers, based on whether the station has solar panels or not. How often would an average Tesla use a supercharger? 4 times a year? That is 40 charges in 10 years. The other $1000 seems sufficient to cover the electricity (10$/charge * 40 = $400) for the lifetime of the car and any maintenance on the superchargers.
Disclosure: I am long TSLA, AAPL, OTCPK:NSANY. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. I plan on taking partial profits in Tesla at $200 and add more if it hits $100. |
warc | 201704 | You, as a U.S. citizen, are jointly and severally liable for $19,688,681,856,198.07, please pay ASAP. The total U.S. Federal government debt has grown to almost $20 trillion from "only" $8.995 trillion in early September 2007 and the M2 money supply has increased to $13.1259 trillion from $7.370 trillion during the same period. With growth like that you would think that our country's primary product was bananas and that we had exponential inflation. The inflation rate has actually been very low, which also has resulted in historically low interest rates. What happens if interest rates increase sharply? Bondholders, especially those owning long-dated bonds, could get killed.
Background
In this macro-economic analysis I am using September 4, 2007, as the start of the economic collapse. It was the Tuesday after Labor Day when I had lunch with some friends in the rag business (the fashion industry), who told me about very negative reports for back -to-school and Labor Day retail sales that they received that morning. Over the prior weekend, I also discussed with two real estate brokers in Florida about not being able to sell some condos even at much lower than the listed prices. The Federal Reserve's September 5, 2007, Beige Book confirmed my anxiety from the previous day with statements such as: "Several retailers reported that they planned to or had already heavily discounted merchandise to move inventory...Vehicle sales were described as slow or subdued in many Districts...Residential real estate and construction weakened further in most Districts."
The Federal Reserve had three programs of Quantitative Easing (l,ll,lll) over a number of years to aggressively buy debt, and thus dramatically increase the money supply assuming that this would help economic growth. According to a study (1960-2007) by the St Louis Federal Reserve Bank, annual inflation increases 0.54% for every 1.0% increase in the money supply. That did not happen this time. Actually the opposite happened - low/no inflation. There was a "liquidity-trap" and anemic economic growth. ("
A liquidity trap is defined as a situation in which the short-term nominal interest rate is zero. The old Keynesian literature emphasized that increasing money supply has no effect in a liquidity trap so that monetary policy is ineffective.")
Either the Federal Reserve members flunked their second semester macro-economics class, which often spends a lot of time on the issues associated with "liquidity-traps" or they are actually very smart and created a Machiavellian plan to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor/debtors. The "QEs" and income taxes are effectively a combined 90% tax on many high income investors. For example, the yield on a one-year U.S. Treasury note in early September 2007 was 4.39% and now it is only about 0.69%. Using an income tax rate of 35%, the after-tax yield is 0.45% or about having a 90% combined tax on a "normal" pre-tax one-year yield. Trillions of dollars have been transferred via lower yields over the last 8 years from those that have money and own bonds to those who are in debt/poor. Many investors got wise to this high effective tax and bought equities instead, which is one reason why the stock market has done so well over the last few years.
Reviewing basic macro-economics:
MV=PQ
M= money
V= velocity
P= price level
Q= quality of goods and services produced
In theory, V is a constant so that an increase in M increases P and/or Q. That did not happen during the QEs. Velocity decreased sharply.
Velocity
The velocity stayed fairly stable for decades, but then increased sharply partially because technology dramatically changed the payment methods/speed. It leveled off at a new higher "normal" only to plunge as the Fed increased the money supply too quickly.
Aggressively trying to increase money/capital is counter-productive during a "liquidity-trap" period. It is like watering a plant too much. Even if you do not kill the plant with excessive watering, it takes a long time for the plant to dry out. It is therefore, better to water in moderation. While the Fed has stopped its QE programs, it still makes open market trades to keep the Fed Funds rate at their current targeted 0.25-0.50%. (No wonder why the plant still looks like it is dying from too much watering.)
As the Fed raises its targeted Fed Funds rate, there will be less buying by the Fed's trading desk and if velocity increases with the same level of money, the price level and/or production will increase. That could also mean higher interest rates. So what would cause an increase in velocity? Actually velocity is just a reflection of a change, you can't force velocity to increase.
Economists often assert that when there is a dramatic increase in the money supply without an corresponding increase in prices or production, that the money is being horded. I would also add that how the money/capital is being used has a significant impact production. There is a large impact difference on the economy when money/capital is just used to replace cracked sidewalks versus a new factory. The sidewalks only have a short-term static impact, while the new factory has a continuous impact on the economy. The "shovel ready" projects used cash without long-term impact on economic activity. This also helps to explain the current low velocity. In addition, the Federal government borrowing and the Fed buying the debt, "crowds out" the private sector from borrowing for more productive uses of capital.
So how does all this economic theory impact investors?
Besides the Fed, other buyers helped keep interest rates unrealistically low, such as local governments that can only hold U.S. treasuries under local statutes. These are captive buyers of treasuries. In addition, many banks, both domestic and foreign, hold U.S. treasuries to meet reserve requirements. Some individual investors who were hurt by the plunge in stock prices from 2007 to early 2009 now fear the equity market and do not want to assume the risk of losing money, especially seniors who are not able to earn money to replace any losses. Some are also chasing the yields by going further out on the yield curve or buying lower rated securities, but they are forgetting that when interest rates increase, the bond prices drop. Low coupon long-dated bonds dropped sharply as rates increase. While U.S. treasuries do not have default risks, they do have price change risks if sold before maturity.
Interest rates and debt prices are not stable as seen from these charts.
2-Year Note Yields
10-Year Note Yields
When trying to push a car, it takes an extra effort - initial inertia - to get the car rolling, but after it starts to move it is easy to push. I think the same will happen with interest rates. It will take the Fed some time to adjust its Feds fund's targets higher, but once the rates move higher, the credit market will have a dramatic shift towards more normal interest levels. Because the current rates are so low, this adjustment to normal levels will seem like a "melt-down" in bond prices. Prices may drop more than few years' worth of interest income in a very short period of time.
Prices and interest rates could move higher as the excess money created by the Fed's actions finally gets put to a more productive use by entrepreneurs creating new private businesses. The change in attitude by those currently holding the "sacks of money" to invest in or lend to new/expand businesses could be caused by a change in presidents. What is really needed is some type of catalyst such as a reduction in business regulations or a major new invention (Back to economic theory, this would cause V to increase.)
Current Federal Reserve Statements
The release of the minutes of the latest Fed meeting seems to indicate a possible increase in the Fed Funds target rate at the December meeting, but that still will not be enough force to get the "car rolling." A speech on Oct.14, by Chairman Yellen, however, hinted that they would let the economy and inflation strengthen before raising rates. Some economists take the view that if the Fed is too lax, then inflation will creep up causing long-term interest rates to increase. This could explain why long-dated treasuries rose after Yellen's speech. (Editorial: Personally I have the opinion that the Fed members are inept and incompetent. Their policies are counter-productive and are hurting the economy: 1. Keeping rates artificially low is an indicator to entrepreneurs that the forecast for the economy is weak, which discourages them from creating or expanding businesses. 2. Low rates take money from investors who depend upon fixed income, such as seniors, who have had to cut expenditures. Higher rates could actually stimulate the economy as seniors have more money to spend.)
Conclusion
We are still caught in a liquidity trap and need a catalyst to get velocity of money to increase. While forecasting for exactly when interest rates will increase, the increase could be slow at first but then move quickly higher. These higher rates may cause a "melt-down" in the bond market with few years of interest income wiped out by plunging bond prices. U.S. treasuries are not risk-free investments. In theory, investors could buy higher coupon and shorter maturity bonds because they are less price sensitive to interest increases, but for risk-adverse investors I would recommend owning only short-term debt and
sell long-term debt. Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Additional disclosure: I am only long bonds that are associated with restructuring and bankruptcies. |
warc | 201704 | In light of nearly record high prices at the pump, as well as new technological advances such as horizontal drilling, energy companies are racing to capitalize on new opportunities that are developing in the drilling sector. They seem to be capturing more reserves than ever before, growing their asset bases at an extreme rate. In fact, the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced "proved reserves of U.S. oil and natural gas in 2010 rose by the highest amounts ever recorded". Increasing proven reserves no doubt provides profit potential for these companies, but it also can allow raising of additional capital needed to increase production budgets.
In recognition of such big developments in the upstream oil and gas sector in the US, many companies are looking to get a piece of the profits and enormous growth potential in this exciting market. Perhaps a surprise to some, one such company is General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE).
GE's website reads:
"
GE Oil & Gas is a world leader in advanced technology equipment and services for all segments of the oil and gas industry, from drilling and production, LNG, pipelines and storage to industrial power generation, refining and petrochemicals. GE Oil & Gas also provides pipeline integrity solutions, including inspection and data management, and designs and manufactures wire-line and drilling measurement solutions for the oilfield services segment."
This portion of GE has been performing well but has gone unnoticed to some investors because of GE's conglomerate profile. As per the 2nd quarter July 20th earnings report, GE highlighted their growing oil and gas segment with astonishing results:
$4.1 Billion in orders $9.1 Billion Equipment Backlog ( an increase of 6% ) +11% Segment Profit Growth
But can this segment impact GE as a whole? Let's compare the 2Q results of this lesser known segment with GE's more popular industrial divisions:
($ in millions) Orders Order Growth Equipment Backlog Backlog Growth Revenue Rev Growth Profit Profit Growth Oil and Gas 4,100 1% 9,100 6% 3,658 5% 535 11% Energy (non oil/gas) 7,800 -6% 13,300 8% 8,559 19% 1,282 15% Aviation 5,600 5% 21,900 unkn 4,855 3% 922 -4% Health Care 4,700 1% 4,200 unkn 4,500 0% 694 -2% Transportation 1,400 2% 3,600 unkn 1,565 27% 282 58% Home & Business Solutions unkn unkn unkn unkn 2,204 2% 91 -14%
GE's industrial segment as a whole has done rather well. Out of these 6 businesses, GE Oil and Gas ( call it GE O&G ) alone accounted for nearly 14.5% of total revenue, and around 14% of total profit. In addition, this portion experienced growth in all 3 measures: order growth, backlog growth, and profit growth. Perhaps the most notable comparison in my opinion is GE O&G versus the popular GE Healthcare. Although around 20% smaller by profit, GE O&G seems to be growing at a faster pace by both revenue and profit statistics.
To highlight GE O&G even further, let's compare its last quarter's performance to that of several well known companies in the same sector:
($ in millions) Revenue Profit GE O&G 3,658 535 Weatherford International Ltd. (NYSE:WFT) 3,599 276 Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL) 7,234 737 Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE:BHI) 5,326 439 Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) 2,575 -304
GE's other industrial businesses seem to dwarf GE O&G in size. However, when put into perspective with other popular companies in the same industry, we can get a better feel as to how large GE O&G really is. There is no doubt GE O&G will flourish alongside these competitors, and is also large enough to impact GE as a whole.
Key analyst recognizes growth potential:
JP Morgan analyst, C. Stephen Tusa, Jr. recently said "The GE growth story, missing for over a decade, starts here...we see 15-20% plus profit growth at GE Oil & Gas over the intermediate term..."
New Deals:
GE has aligned itself with some of the richest assets in the world, by successfully teaming with big players in the oil and gas industry.
GE recently inked a deal to supply $1.14 Billion with 380 subsea wellhead systems to Bazil's Petrobras (NYSE:PBR). Petrobras plans to install the systems in various oil and gas fields off the coast of Brazil.
In addition, GE teamed with Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) July 20th. GE will supply "mission critical services" at CVX's massive Gorgon LNG project in Australia for the next
22 years. "The underlying mega-trends of the oil and gas industry play to our strengths," said Dan Heintzelman, President and CEO of GE Oil & Gas.
CVX and PBR are very big global players, providing not only revenues but industry recognition for this growing segment of GE.
Summary:
The oil and gas boom has hit the US, and the rest of the world is no doubt rivaling its huge discoveries and technologies. With GE's notable reputation already respected globally, it will be easy for GE to grow one of its most underrated industrial businesses-oil & gas equipment and services. Strong earnings and growth results, positive analyst opinions, and alliances with important asset holders makes GE a formidable player in this quickly growing sector. Even though GE is a rather large conglomerate, growth from this segment will still strengthen earnings and revenues. In time, the market will appreciate this gem, which for now is still hidden deep within GE's formidable arsenal of industrial businesses.
Disclosure: I am long GE. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. |
warc | 201704 | Every senior at Middlebury is required to complete some kind of senior work, in the form of an independent project, production, or thesis. There are a couple of guiding principles here: First is the idea of challenge by choice. Students have the option of choosing an independent study or an honors project depending on the level of commitment they choose. Second is the concept of student choice. Students choose a project appropriate to their departmental focus: a music major might write a piece of music; a theater major might direct a production; a science major might conduct laboratory experiments; and a political science major will write a thesis.
How do you choose a thesis topic? After all, this is a project you’ll be working on for at least a semester, if not a year. Of course, you hope that the topic that is both interesting to you personally, and also one that has some academic value and is worth your time. Often students will find inspiration from a paper or project during sophomore or junior year. Others will find inspiration from their time abroad, summer experiences like internships or volunteer work, or some long-held interest. Still, many students will come into their senior with little idea of a topic that inspires them—this is why we have advisors!
I’m a political science major, and for me it was clear I wanted to write about some element of my time in China. Since a political science honors thesis is a three semester/yearlong project, I knew I had to find a topic that could keep me engaged for a full year. My internship this summer at the US Department of Commerce gave me the opportunity to learn about the importance of the Internet in various contexts. And having lived in China and learned about the uniqueness of the Internet censorship that exists there, I knew that this would be an interesting topic for me. My advisor helped me to narrow the topic to something focused, academic, and worthwhile.
So now it’s research time! The first stages of the thesis involve reading as much as you can about the topic of your choice. It is an exciting, humbling, and terrifying stage of the project. And by the end of J-term, amazingly, the bulk of my project will (hopefully!) be written.
People say that writing a thesis is simultaneously the best and worst thing they do at Midd, and the easiest and hardest, too. You have the opportunity to explore a single topic in depth, to become a real expert in an area, and to hone your research, writing, project management, and analytical skills. At the same time, a thesis requires self-discipline and a long-term commitment. Overall, though, it is a project that, after eight months, you can look back on with some pride.
I’ll have some more reflections on what the process is like come spring, but for now I’m excited to learn as much as I can about my topic and to begin outlining my work for the rest of the year. |
warc | 201704 | Homelessness – What’s happening in Northern Ireland? Everything at once! ( and not a lot of it good) The Three Main Events Homelessness Strategy for NI 2012 -2017 Housing Strategy for NI 2012-2017 Housing Related Support Strategy 2012-2015 Homelessness Strategy - Objectives To place homelessness prevention at the forefront of service delivery To remove the need to sleep rough To reduce the length of time households & individuals experience homelessness by improving access to affordable housing To improve services to vulnerable households and individuals Housing Strategy - Themes Ensuring access to decent, affordable sustainable homes across all tenures Meeting housing needs and supporting the most vulnerable Driving regeneration and sustaining communities through housing Housing and Welfare Reform Getting the structures right Housing Related Support Commissioning Quality and outcomes Drive efficiency and value for money Early intervention Client involvement and personalisation Accessing and exiting services And the rest.... Review of the NI Housing Executive Review of Temporary Accommodation Review of Social Housing Allocation Review of the Administration of Supporting People Review of Housing Associations Homelessness Very little overt mention of Supported Temp. Accommodation Strategic function moving to DSD away from NIHE Possibility of most of SP funding transferring to Health Homelessness Strategy not integrated into the Housing strategy Introduction of competitive tendering for SP funding Move towards floating support and the re-modelling of hostels Any new allocation policy social housing likely disadvantage singles for to The Elephant in the Room Excess Payment Award 7,000 households Under-occupation in Social Housing 32,000 applicable households LHA drop to 30th percentile 53,000 households, with approx 30,000 new applicants per annum SAR 5,300 claimants January 2012, 3,000 new claims p.a. Non-dependent deductions 3,500 Benefit Cap 3,000 claimants The housing market Social housing 119,000 homes 90% of social housing stock in single identity estates 20% of stock in PRS 84 HMOs in rural NI 5% of stock 1 bedroom across all tenures 8,400 HMOs 70% for students 15.2% of stock 2 bedrooms across all tenures continued Banks not lending House prices continue to fall 80% of HB paid directly to landlords in both sectors DHP potentially to be subsumed into new Social Fund. No mention of ringfencing housing costs increased competition for PRS and no need to reduce rents £6.8m DHP to cover £24m shortfall in just SAR &underoccupation which are current priorities. Homeless presentations up 21% in 1st quarter 2012/13surprise! The overall picture 24% of workers in NI below the living wage of £7.20 per hour. Highest in UK 60% population have IT access. Lowest rate among unemployed Lowest rate of broadband coverage in the UK 12% households do not have bank account which allows money to be paid in or DDs to be paid out. 36% of social tenants have NO bank account 32,500 households Estimated NI will take 10 1600 public sector jobs to go due to Universal Credit more years to come out of recession continued 46% of private landlords were unaware of the changes to LHA after it was introduced No tenants in social housing have been formally made aware of the change in HB for under-occupation 60% of tenants knew nothing of LHA changes at all, until they were informed of a drop in their entitlement WR Bill aiming for Royal Assent March 2013 Under-occupation to be implemented April 2013 A little good news.. Direct payment of housing costs to landlords to continue Universal credit delayed for 6 months Split payments in households Consideration of 6 month delay in implementing Under-occupation Fortnightly payments of universal credit May chuck it completely! The disconnect Very little acknowledgement of the impact of WR on the new Strategies – or even mature reflection Severely restricted budgets, ideological change and the prevention agenda Dependency on the PRS in a time of housing ‘bust’ Rhetoric of affordability as unemployment rises, there is no more work or better paid work – or even a work programme for NI Likely consequences Homelessness will increase Temporary accommodation will change in form and function Policy development likely to ‘follow the money’ Housing policy in NI will be adapted to fit Westminster legislation New vision for the purpose of social housing |
warc | 201704 | Several factors impact job performance and satisfaction, such as compensation and the attitudes of staff, but a comfortable environment can also play a role in performance and satisfaction. This type of environment helps retain employees and keeps your staff motivated. You can create a more pleasant environment by making improvements to the physical space or area where an employee works.
Comfort and Clutter
Working in a cluttered, unorganized space can frustrate your employees and reduce productivity. Uncomfortable office furniture might delay or slow productivity as workers take breaks to avoid physical aches. Address clutter by bringing in additional filing cabinets or shelves to store papers, folders and documents. Position shredders or recycling receptacles throughout the office to encourage disposable of unwanted papers. Tackle workplace comfort by replacing old or worn office chairs with comfortable alternatives, such as chairs that offer padded seats and ample back support.
Office Lighting
The wrong type of lighting in an office can also impact job performance and satisfaction. Keeping the office light too low tends to create an overly relaxed environment and can induce drowsiness in some workers. Low or dim lighting also often reduces an employee's ability to read documents or concentrate on certain tasks. Avoid bright office lights, though, in areas where your employees work on computers. Bright lights can produce a glare on computer screens and trigger eyestrain.
Sounds and Noise
Loud noise and constant sounds can distract employees and decrease productivity in an office environment. Encourage employees to keep idle chatter to a minimum, especially in open work areas. If you permit employees to play music at their desks, establish ground rules to avoid distracting others. For example, you might allow only certain stations and limit the volume. If you're holding a meeting or conference with certain employees, close the conference room or office door to avoid distracting your staff.
Office Temperature
Keeping the work space at a reasonable temperature helps improve job performance and satisfaction. You can't please everyone, but you can attempt to choose a temperature that's comfortable for the majority. Keeping the office too warm might promote sluggishness, whereas keeping the office too cold can distract employees from their work. To compensate for varying preferences, permit employees to use desk fans or space heaters to keep their areas comfortable.
Photo Credits Ablestock.com/AbleStock.com/Getty Images |
warc | 201704 | Why use solar site services?
You buy tomatoes for $ 3.00 at the market and then as you're pulling out the supermarket driveway you notice an open-air
market has better looking tomatoes for $ 2.00. Rule 1: you didn't spend enough time to consider more alternatives...
but you aren't too disappointed since 'what's a buck'?
You buy a solar electric system for $ 50,000, after incentives, then receive a call from a vendor two weeks later that
has excess install capacity and would have dealt for $ 40,000, and their warranties are better. Rule 2: those aren't tomatoes.
Why leave site surveys and consulting advice to selling vendors when the subject is a complex technology, discount incentives
change erratically, forecasts are a risk proposition, price levels vary widely, vendor material lists and offer packages vary widely
and the expenditures can be significant? For a small amount much of this valuation homework can be done for you and you can rest at ease...
The Solar Site Survey
A solar site survey is used to answer several questions for a potential buyer of solar electric equipment:
1) is solar electric feasible for the particular property, and, if so,
2) where should the equipment be optimally placed, and
3) how much equipment can be accommodated
A Solar Site Survey is performed at the prospective physical location of the potential buyer. Various measurements are taken
to determine where solar insolation can be maximized, taking account of various surfaces, their pitch angles from horizontal, and
obstructions. An "image based" approach is used to illustrate where the solar modules should be placed. These images and
parameters can be used to inquire about price and delivery options from qualified solar installation vendors and/or for Do it Yourself
consideration.
An added feature is a Pro Forma illustration of solar system size showing anticipated energy generation in kWHRS.
A narrative is included noting various financial subsidies from State and Federal sources that can effect both the system
sizing and financial worthiness of the solar investment.
Site Survey Deliverables
The Site Survey results are primarily delivered in machine readable form via email attachments. This facilitates the client soliciting
multiple installation vendor bids electronically. Importantly, each installation vendor will be proposing a solution on an 'apples to apples' basis
so the client
need not be faced with the problem of comparing a wild array of design configurations.
Using the Solarsiteservices benchmark design, vendors will propose a spectrum of technologies, components and prices. Availability of solar product
inventories, vendor backlog, and desireability of obtaining the solar job have significant impact on final price and installation lead time.
Below are some sample outputs* delivered to the client after the Site Survey is completed.
Residential
Roof Segments for Solar Sample Home
Dimensions A
Dimensions B
Dimensions C
Straw Man Module Layout Roof B
Commercial
Targeted Surfaces for Solar Area A
Targeted Surfaces for Solar Area B
Dimensioned Areas
Straw Man Module Layout Sample
In 2009, the
Solar Training Institute, San Jose, Ca., selected the 'Solarsiteservices' photoshop based approach
to site survey presentation format (used in these samples) for their training courses in PV design.
Solar Advisory Services
In many organizations, especially in the public sector, procurements for products or services are awarded to the lowest evaluated bid.
Unless the product is a commodity and understood to be a commodity, lowest price is not always the best measure of cost. For example,
buying a $ 100 tire with tread warranty for 80,000 miles is actually better than a $ 50 tire with a 25,000 mile warranty. Wherever there
is complexity in a buying decision, numerous variables should be considered. Solar PV is one such case.
There are numerous solar vendors in the marketplace.
While most consumers would not commit to make a capital purchase receiving
only one vendor's estimate, a complication is that soliciting proposals from multiple vendors will result in multiple system size configurations, varying price
levels, multiple economic payoffs each with their own interpretation, small and large required deposits, friendly and unfriendly
contract language, varying warranties, and different financing options, to name a few of the buying considerations in an evaluated review process.
Solar Advisory Services assists the consumer decision making process by acting as an 'independent' liaison between the buyer
and vendors. Being able to communicate in the language of the solar vendors with a better understanding of forecast variables
and assumptions, will help a buyer to make an informed decision based on fact rather than vendor sales speak.
Economic proposition of solar electric
In many cases, buying a solar electric system at retail without State and Federal incentives to reduce the capital or generation costs is currently a poor value
proposition and is likely to remain so in the short run. There are several exceptions including DIY systems which
have good value even with limited financial subsidies but they require some installation skills, know-how in various Permit and Approving
authority Codes and self-confidence in integrating a diversity of components. In the long run all solar cell/panel costs will continue their long term decrease (experience curve) as electric rates rise so what may not
appear economically attractive for a buyer today inevitably will be cost effective at a future point.
Lowest
Evaluated Cost should be the key objective in a solar electric system buy. Lowest Evaluated Cost
considers many factors like initial cost, product warranty, module and mounting type, time value of money to compare
financial returns and financing considerations. In some cases, the best acquisition option may not be system ownership at all but
a lease-like approach.
There are also times when a buyer may want to pay more for their solar equipment than an apparent equivalent.
Perhaps the modules need be on the front street facing roof and the consumer desires a more aesthetic appearance,
at a price premium. Or perhaps, spatial area is limited so more productive premium priced solar modules might be
more desirable to achieve greater power from limited space. In some case 'less' productive modules of a different technology might
also make sense where there is an abundance of space. For example, film type panels are less efficient and cost less
per watt but may have greater installation costs. Tradeoffs abound!
Government subsidies are needed to make solar electric financially worthy.. the State of NJ, for example, has targeted
a current dollar capital payback of about 10 years. What a buyer actually 'achieves' in payback terms leaves much to
interpretation and assumption, however, since the benefits are all futures.
As state and federal programs evolve, it may make sense to commit early to take advantage
of a good subsidy program now since electric prices may rise while incentives decline. On the other hand, a new technology breakthrough might mean a decision delay makes more sense. These are risk analysis
variables that will be addressed in an upcoming white paper.
Geographic Service availability
Solar Site surveys are currently being performed in south/central New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania
White Papers
1) Evaluation of Residential Solar Electric (Photovoltaic) Systems in New Jersey February 2007
2) Economics of Solar Electric systems in New Jersey, Modeling for success - January 2008
3) Basic Shading Concepts for PV Arrays - March 2010
Credentials and Design Sampling
Richard Barbarics is a principle advisor and has over 25 years technical experience in the technical arena including
application engineering at General Electric, systems development at Network Services Division of ADP, Management
at Wang Labs and 4 years of solar site surveying and PV system design. He has performed over 300 site surveys and
has his BS in Physics from Virginia Tech and MBA from Widener University.
Kenneth Bolton is a principle advisor with over 25 years technical and management experience including General Electric
and for the past twenty years as CEO for Management International, a provider of various environmental services
for the public and private sectors. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of New Jersey.
Walter Behnke is a principle advisor with over 25 years technical and management experience including Honeywell and multiple startups. He is patent holder for a remotely monitored BAS (Building Automation System) (US # 7183899) currently being configured for solar tenant
sub-metered applications. He is also a Principle with Global Gate Technologies and Energy Planning Solutions.
Design Sampling
Solar PV applications come in many sizes and configurations with NO generalized rules based on square footage. For example,
a large home may have 'solar appropriate' roofs that have numerous dormers and gables, precluding an efficient solar design
configuration. Likewise, large trees, that a buyer does not want to trim of remove, may cause substantial shading even when they are
located in east or west directions relative to the 'solar appropriate' roof. Unshaded building flat roofs offer numerous
possibilities for design, with varying investment economics and solar productivities. The following sampling of designs is indicative
of before-after appearance.
Commercial Barn
Multi-faceted Residential rooftops
Metal Roof
Residential Groundmount
Buying Services and Pricing of Solar Site Services
Solar Site Services offers 2 programs to consumers:
1) Solar Site Survey
Onsite Solar Site Surveys are scheduled over a 10 day period. These are confirmed by email or telephone as to
designated date and time. Time is given in a range of several hours.
Data Collection
It is not necessary for the client to be onsite for the Survey Data Collection Phase but the client should be aware that
the service provider may scale the roof to take appropriate measurements. Data Collection takes about one hour for residential surveys and longer for
buildings, particularly with significant roof obstructions (A/C, vents, piping, etc).
It is important for the client to pre-determine that there is a southerly or east/west solar exposure that is not shaded by trees
or other nearby obstructions. Solar arrays are not practical on north facing roof surfaces.
Relevant data is collected regarding surface dimensions, degrees pitch, true azimuth readings, roof assessment,
meter(s) location, partial shading and other factors which will determine the potential for solar array placement and where.
A client should indicate in advance to Solarsiteservices if 'groundmount' structures are viable. Usually groundmounts require
large open areas; they are often not applicable to residential lots. If the residence is over 40 years old, the client should check
or have the Solarsiteservices technician examine the electric distribution panel, usually in residential garages or basements, to insure there
is one available 30 amp circuit breaker or space for one, for system connectivity. Likewise, for such older structures, a
check should be made of roof rafter structure, noting rafter size ( e.g. 2X6 or 2x8) and approximate distance between rafters.
Data Analysis and Presentation
The data are analyzed and presented showing the applicable dimensioned roof sections for solar. This information can be used to
directly source bids from numerous solar installation contractors. In addition, a pro forma solar installation design and financial
estimate is provided to give the client a benchmark against which installation vendor proposals can compared.
Price and Billing
(for Philadelphia County and Southern NJ counties south of Rt 195)
End User Residential Solar Site Survey & Analysis ........................................................................ $ 185
End User Non-residential building Survey & Analysis ...................................................................$ 350
(for single buildings < 75,000 ft sq. For multiple buildings please inquire for quote)
Site Survey fees are prepaid. Survey results are emailed with attachment detail including roof segments, dimensioned areas,
obstruction notation, pro forma layout and notes. For some solar installation vendors, this fee might be deducted from an installation vendor's bid. This is especially true if the install vendor is some distance away from
the client site and would prefer bidding on a potential install via email or phone, based on the Solar Site Services survey. The client
should ask if the vendor(s) will make a deduction for the survey.
Sub-contracted solar site survey services are available to solar system integrators and/or installers. Please email for further information.
2) Solar Advisory Services
Advisory Services facilitate the buying process for a solar PV system. Once a client has a solar site survey in hand, they may opt to
work directly with any number of install vendors to obtain bids for a solar installation. Some clients may want to continue the relational process
with a more turnkey approach to help select an installation vendor. Advisory Services
will solicit proposals and pricing from a number of vendors, usually 3, and then perform an evaluated cost analysis to compare vendor proposals.
A report with recommendations helps insure a client receives the best value for their expenditure.
Solar Advisory Services for residential end user.................................................................. $ 350 prepaid
Solar Advisory Services for end user non-residential buildings ..........................................$ 60 per hour
(Retainer required and fixed statements of work provided)
For further information regarding services and pricing, email Information@Solarsiteservices.com
Links
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency
Florida Solar Energy Center |
warc | 201704 | Heal your body, heal your life
Energy healing helps to bring harmony to the mind, body and spirit. Shelley can help awaken your body’s natural healing power by releasing old patterns and trauma – leaving you free to experience the benefits of wellness and a balanced life.
Experience joy About Shelley Timoffee
Shelley is a deeply compassionate and grounded energy practitioner who believes laughter and pragmatism deserve equal honour in her practice. Her unique blend of Energy Medicine, Core Shamanism and Regression services sets her apart from other natural health practitioners.
In practice since 2007, Shelley’s energy healing services help clients release old patterns stored in their mental, physical and emotional body so they can create a more positive and joyful life. Offering both distance and in-person sessions from her office in Guelph, Ontario, Shelley facilitates health restoration with people across North America.
Shelley is licensed by the City of Guelph and is a member of the Canadian Association for Integrative and Energy Therapies (CAIET) and The Therapeutic Touch Network of Ontario (TTNO)
What Clients Are Saying
“I just feel better and my mom talks to me different cause I’m not yelling back.”
“Shelley Timoffee’s gift to remain grounded in unconditional acceptance creates a level of comfort and safety that so many of us need in order to heal.”
“I always look forward to seeing you – you are definitely a rock and a safe place for me, for that I’m truly grateful! Though I know I’d always find the strength to get through hard times on my own, I don’t think I would be able to be in such a great space in my life without your warm support and guidance.”
“The best thing is that you don’t even have to talk about what you are feeling.”
Blog
Stress is a normal and natural part of everyday life. Stress occurs when demands placed upon us exceed our body’s ability to cope. The body’s response to stress, often referred to as the “flight-or-fight” response, kicks in automatically at these times. The adrenal glands release stress hormones, including cortisol, adrenaline and corticosterone, which give you… (Read More)
Here are just seven evidenced-based reasons to eat more garlic every day. Garlic Cuts Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke by 50%In a prospective four-year clinical trial in Germany, researchers found that because garlic has so many effects on the body, it resulted in a reduction of relative cardiovascular risk for infarction (heart attack) and… (Read More)
“To get some distance from this, you first need to get some perspective. Walk outside on a clear night and just look up into the sky. You are sitting on a planet spinning around in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Though you can only see a few thousand stars, there are hundreds of billions of… (Read More)
“Clinical evidence and preliminary research suggest that combining “energy” interventions, such as tapping on acupuncture points, with cognitive and other therapeutic approaches is potent. The technique shifts the neural pathways that underlie targeted psychological problems with greater speed and precision than psychological interventions alone.” – www.epccanada.ca In other words, tapping on specific body points and talking about… (Read More) |
warc | 201704 | It was a short evening trip to get us started on the way home - we'd head east from Reno in the morning rather than starting back in Mountain View - but it turned into one of those 'white knuckle' journeys at the beginning of this old "Overland Route."
There is something about the name "Donner," of course, which focuses the mind on a winter night.
I can't help thinking about history as I drive Interstate 80 between San Francisco Bay and Council Bluffs, Iowa. This is the ruggedest of the rugged pioneer trails across the American West. It crosses unbelievably steep mountains, vast deserts, unending grasslands, the Salt Flats. It is fiercely hot and unbearably cold. And people walked it alongside primitive wagons. And people - using hand tools - built a railroad across it in the second half of the 19th Century. Cheyenne, Fort Bridger, the Platte River, Reno, the Mormon Trail - these are places which define America's myth of tough independence, this is the wilderness Americans fought through, and the nation hewn from "nothing" with strong, free hands.
In 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner produced his Frontier Thesis, in which he saw that in this individualistic belief in the conquest of "the west" was the definer of the American character. And yet... though those quoting him later missed the point, Turner knew these individuals were never alone, were never doing it "on their own":
"Thus civilization in America has followed the arteries made by geology, pouring an ever richer tide through them, until at last the slender paths of aboriginal intercourse have been broadened and interwoven into the complex mazes of modern commercial lines; the wilderness has been interpenetrated by lines of civilization growing ever more numerous. It is like the steady growth of a complex nervous system for the originally simple, inert continent. If one would understand why we are to-day one nation, rather than a collection of isolated states, he must study this economic and social consolidation of the country In this progress from savage conditions lie topics for the evolutionist."
The Donner Party was not one man, but a thinking, challenging, risk-taking group that came face-to-face with disaster and used their collaborative skills to find a solution.
In our classrooms today - in our society - we prize individual achievement. We see in each student the "Mountain Man" crossing the plains of grammar, facing the deserts of math equations, climbing through the rugged gaps of reading decoding, all independently. We view individual work, and all proving their worth in all the same skill sets, as the heart of our practice.
Yes, we do work together, but our goals in working together are individual. We take tests individually, we get graded individually, we don't accept the answer from Student "A" very often if Student "B" answers for him. Groups and collaborative efforts are addenda to raising the individual who can (get ready for the Americanisms here), "stand on her own two feet," "make his way in the world," "pull himself up by his bootstraps."
Now, individuals are wonderful, and I am a huge proponent of individualized education. But the cult of "individualism" - that mainly American and Australian disease of making oneself believe that they are successful on their own - is a huge problem for me.
Because we take the wrong lessons from our pioneers. Nobody did it alone. Nobody did it all themselves. And every group had people of differing abilities contributing differing things in differing ways. And, one might note, those first pioneers were sent out exploring by "big governments" who financed their way.
Lewis and Clark did not assemble their team because they all passed the same high school proficiency exam. Some could navigate, some could cipher, some could climb, some could write and draw, some could lift huge amounts, some could translate. Those who came after them not only built on the knowledge of those who came before, they brought their own assortments of skills, from reading the stars to cooking whatever could be found, from repairing wagons to sensing weather shifts. Meriwether Lewis didn't get flunked because he wasn't good at building canoes. Nor were other team members "left back" because they could not write. But alone, none of those people would have made it out of what is now Missouri.
So, damage from myth number one: Everyone must do the same things in school because we'll all be on our own when we "grow up." When we create one required skill set - our graduation cum NCLB "standards" - we make most, if not everyone, into a failure of some sort. But we should not be making failures, we should be finding ways to leverage every human talent.
Every explorer and every pioneer depended and depends on the tools crafted by those who came before them. Columbus did not invent the kind of ship he sailed in or the quadrant. John Fremont had dozens of maps on which to base his "pathfinding." Those travelling to the California gold fields did not build or design their Conestoga Wagons, make their weapons, or found the US forts which offered shelter at the start of the path. What makes human history amazing is our ability to build on the previous invention of our predecessors, and rarely can this be seen more clearly than in the spread of Europeans across two distant continents: it is a kind of evolution run wild. Verrazano's maps lead to Dutch explorers, fur traders lead to the need for farming, and roads. Farming and roads lead to the need for wagons suited to those roads. Bad roads lead to canals, canals lead to a new kind of boat, which brings farmers to new kinds of land, which requires new kind of plows, which requires new kind of factories which make those plows, which... It is a stunning story - a story based in the rapid adoption of new technologies no matter what the investment in the old. I passed Pony Express stations on this trip. The Pony Express was a brilliant solution to an immediate problem. It lasted less than two years before a better technological solution was found (telegraph wires).
Damage from myth number two: Humans all need to "go back to basics." Students can not deal with the technologies of their own time until they master the technology of the past. The problem here is that "the basics" are always "where the last generation began." Nobody teaches quill cutting anymore or filling a fountain pen, but "handwriting still matters." It is our obligation to give our students the world they have inherited, so they can move forward. Not the world you inherited, because we hope you have already moved forward.
The Spanish Government sent Columbus. Jefferson's Administration sent Lewis and Clark. Dewitt Clinton's New York State Government built the Erie Canal. Abraham Lincoln - the first really "big government" president - financed the Trans-Continental Railway, created the Homestead Act, and the Land Grant Colleges Act. US Administration after US Administration sent soldiers out to protect settlers and travellers, and built roads and canals, while publishing maps. In other words, our accomplishments are not those of individuals, but those of a society working together - building, exploring, educating together from the first forays into North America to the Moon Landing. The thing that matters most is creating a place where individual creativity flourishes and nurtures group learning and group action. On the Oregon coast Lewis and Clark took a vote - a vote which included a Black Slave and an Indian Woman. The Donner Party made the horrific - but essential - group decision to suspend conventional morality, to adopt situational ethics, in order to survive. Western towns banded together and enforced gun prohibitions to build their communities. Learning is not individual, action is rarely individual, both are part of the social construction which makes us human.
Damage from myth number three: Children who attend school sitting and working only or primarily individually will be ill-prepared to function in our society. If only individual goals are measured, our students will not learn to function effectively in the world as it really exists. Our classrooms must be about group learning, group dynamics, and group decision-making. Collaboration, the ability to make those around you better, the ability to allow those around you to make you better, is the essential human skill. The ability to effectively lead and to effectively follow, is critical, as is the ability to form groups for study and action, as is the ability to move effectively into new environments and the ability to welcome newcomers from unfamiliar environments. When these are not the priority in our schools, when they are not taught and modelled in our schools, we have failed our students.
Meriwether Lewis was constantly surprised. So were many pioneers. They looked around and were astonished. Imagine a thousand mile tall grass prairie broken only by cottonwood edged flat rivers. Imagine mountain ranges which dwarf the Alps in every dimension. Imagine a three or four day hike across a surface of pure salt, white and so flat it literally curves with the earth. Imagine a million buffalo rushing across a plain. Imagine meeting people with nothing culturally in common with yourself. Now move in and settle down.
The adaptive skills of our pioneers were remarkable. No wood? Build houses of sod. Grow crops in a salt earth? Carry dirt from the mountains and dig irrigation channels to move the snow melt. Develop new engineering methods, new bridge types, new forms of social organization, new clothing, new professions. It is that art of adaptation, as Frederick Jackson Turner saw, which truly created the identity of the young United States.
Damage from myth number four: "We are a conservative nation." Well, not when we are good. When we believe we are a conservative nation we idolize a past rather than celebrating it. Only someone with no actual understanding of American history could argue for "strict construction" views of the national constitution, or think that something is a good method simply because it was done in the past. If those who built our history thought that we'd still be a tiny nation clustered around the Atlantic Coast and our open hearth stoves. And so our students need to be honored for their adaptive capabilities, for their invention, for their challenges to the system. When we honor compliance and storing of old knowledge we tell our students they have abdicated their position of global leadership.
By the time we sat down to dinner in Council Bluffs, Iowa, not so far from where Abraham Lincoln selected the start point of the great Union Pacific Railway, not far from where the Mormon Exodus outfitted its wagons, I knew the history of America's rise lay not in individualism, but in the wonder of creative, adaptive, flexible, forward-looking, future-accepting, dynamic groups.
If I looked into your classroom today, is that what I would see in progress?
- Ira Socol |
warc | 201704 | Notoriously thrifty people requiring their own automobiles almost always inevitably purchase a vehicle used rather than new. "Why should I be the one to take the initial 10-25% depreciation hit?" the educated saying goes. This is the philosophy I held for years, purchasing five second-hand cars before deciding to shell out the bucks for a new Honda Odyssey a few years back (albeit one that I was able to negotiate over $5000 off the sticker price at the end of the model year). It turns out this decision to purchase a new people mover (as they like to call it over in the UK) was among the most prescient ones I've made in my adult life. I tell you this now to warn you why you should not buy our minivan when we sell it later this year or next when the next version of the Odyssey goes on sale and we decide to buy a new one.
As I hope our story will show, next time someone tells you to buy a used minivan, think again. As my wife will attest to, our house is largely spotless. But the Odyssey is another story. It's where we tend to let our fastidious standards go for weeks at a time, where the "no-McDonald's inside" rule is tossed out the still-working sunroof just as fast as a three-year-old can whine (after being hit by his older brother), and where university biology students could conduct experiments on the residual growth of bacteria even after all manner of germ rubs and Lysol have been sprayed time and time again.
Not convinced yet? Read on. Heck, even I agree that there are a good many reasons that buying a secondhand minivan appears to make similar sense to buying a used car -- on the surface. After all, they depreciate like any other vehicle. In addition, they're probably more superficially banged up as well, which can lead to a lower valuation and more negotiation wiggle room. But the reasons against far outweigh the decisions for. And it takes a family man (or woman) to tell you why.
Over the course of 45,000 miles and nearly four years of service, our Honda has been all but bulletproof on the outside (aside from the dozen or so dents and scratches that grace its suburban exterior). It's the first time in my life where I can say that I feel ripped off on buying a negotiated extended warranty for a product simple because the underlying product its protecting is so good it won't be necessary.
But the interior and non-mechanical side of the vehicle is another story. Like most families with young kids, there's a better than certain chance -- I can't confirm or deny -- that our vehicle has gotten to know (in some cases quite intimately) most bodily fluids and functions that typical fast-growing babies and children carry out over the course of the day (and over the course of stomach bugs). It's also capable of swallowing quite large amounts of breakfast cereal, dried fruit, small candies and just about any other sustenance or treat that children drop within its many crevices.
Sure, it cleans up fairly well. And the "new leather" smell still permeates the cabin to some degree. But now it fights with less attractive olfactory opponents -- long banished from the battlefield yet still lingering -- that somehow permanently mark their territory. Speaking of marking territory, most minivans are the part-time home of family critters, which also have been known to do their duty at 75 MPH on the highway. But kids can be far worse than dogs, as anyone 40 miles in between rest stops on a rainy day will tell you.
Quite often, the decision to let thriftiness be your guide -- in a smart, total cost way -- strongly outweighs all other merits of an argument in a purchasing situation, especially on the vehicular front. But sometimes you need to go with your gut (versus the remnants of some previous child's gut) when it comes to purchasing that family truckster. And it might make sense to spring for that Scotchguard option while you're in a free spending mode. After all, in certain cases, spend does not matter quite as much as it does in others.
And if you happen to be the one responding to my Craigslist advertisement in a few months time, I'd like to remind you that this essay was based entirely on the experience of another minivan parked next to ours. Disgusting family, I tell you. Really. I mean it.
Jason Busch |
warc | 201704 | Top 10 Kid Sports
Participation in youth sports has grown for boys and girls. Sports provide benefits of exercise and companionship with teammates. Allowing children to compete in a safe and fun environment allows kids to develop skills of perseverance, training, work ethic, and at a young age body kinesthetics (ability to know how to move one’s body). Let’s check out the Top 10 Kid Sports.
Top 10 Kid Sports 10. Golf
It is the most rapidly growing among Top 10 Kid Sports in current times. Golf is a club and ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.Golf is one of the few ball games that do not require a standardized playing area.
9. Frisbee Golf
Frisbee golf is a relaxing game that you can play for free and explore a park full of trees. All you do is pick a target 100-400 yards away, then keep track of how man Frisbee throws it takes for you to hit it. Make a course throughout a large park and keep track of your score on a piece of paper. It’s just like golf but way more creative and fun!
8. Tennis
Singles and doubles tennis is fun if you know how to get a good rally going. If you’re not that good, you can try to play tennis with teamwork and try to help each other rally the ball 20 or 30 times without a miss. Then once that gets to easy, it’s time to try and make each other miss.
7. Floor Hockey
At 7th , of Top 10 Kid Sports, there is floor hockey . If football is the ultimate American game, hockey is the ultimate Canadian game. Floor hockey is much more fun on rollerblades if you don’t feel like running all the time.
6. Outdoor Track and Field
This sport allows a youth to still participate individually and as a team at the same time. Track and field allows participation across a broad spectrum of athletic capabilities. Youths have a chance to compete in many events from sprinting to distance runs and throwing to jumping. Track and field can provide an opportunity for most any youth to get out and compete.
5. Volleyball
Popular among female youths, volleyball also provides a team opportunity. Volleyball at a young age does not require skills that some other sports may require, making it easy for someone to begin playing. As with most sports though, as age progresses so does the skill level and competition. Volleyball ranks as a top five sports for girls.
4. Football
This is the fourth of Top 10 Kid Sports with more than 1 million interscholastic participants as of 2012. This excludes youth league participants. Football allows for kids of any shape and size (variation of positions) to compete in a team atmosphere. Parents tend to be concerned about this sport because of the contact. However, if taught properly, football can be one of the safest sports to play because of padding and helmets.
3 Soccer
Perhaps one of the fastest growing sports in the world among the youth is soccer. Soccer is the last sport to cross both gender groups top five for youth. It is an easy sport to begin learning and to play, which makes it exciting for youngsters almost immediately. Although it is simple at first, strategy and advanced skills develop over time making the game more competitive as they grow older.
2. Baseball/Softball/Tee Ball
Termed America’s favorite pastime, baseball and its variations are popular sports among America’s youth. At a young age, boys and girls begin by playing tee ball. As they age, they may enter a league where the balls will be pitched from a machine. Beyond that, the sport will split into baseball for boys and softball for girls. Both sports rank second among the top five organized sports for their gender among youths.
1. Skateboarding/Biking
OK the most popular sport is probably riding a bike, but skateboarding is just as much fun if not more. Some kids like to cruise, others are into tricks, but either way it’s awesome exercise and a great way to get around town in the summer!
Kid sports are a great way to have fun and play outside in the sunshine and devlop teamwork ,leadership skil all at once. Maybe the ONLY bad thing about Kid sports is choosing which one to play!
Top 10 Kid Sports – For Boys and Girls
1. Skateboarding/Biking
2. Baseball/Softball/Tee Ball 3 Soccer 4. Football 5. Volleyball 6. Outdoor Track and Field 7. Floor Hockey 8. Tennis 9. Frisbee Golf 10. Golf |
warc | 201704 | Letter by Plas et al Regarding Article, “Smoking-Thrombolysis Paradox: Recanalization and Reperfusion Rates After Intravenous Tissue Plasminogen Activator in Smokers With Ischemic Stroke”
To the Editor:
With interest we read the article by Kufner et al
1 in which they investigated whether smoking is independently associated with recanalization and better functional outcome in patients treated with tissue-type plasminogen activator. They concluded that smokers had a better response to tissue-type plasminogen activator than nonsmokers. In the past decade, several studies have been published regarding this smoking–thrombolysis paradox. 2–7 These studies reveal conflicting results. We performed a meta-analysis of studies that investigated this smoking–thrombolysis paradox.
We searched PubMed with combinations of the following terms: outcome, smoking, stroke, and thrombolysis. We selected only studies from which we could extract data for an unadjusted meta-analysis. On the basis of the abstracts, we included relevant studies. References of the included studies were searched to find relevant citation.
We collected unadjusted data, such as current smokers, nonsmokers, and modified Rankin Scale scores at 3 months. Favorable functional outcome was defined as modified Rankin Scale score ≤2. Odds ratios were calculated using the Mantel–Haenszel method with fixed-effect models. The statistical analysis was performed with Review Manager 5.2 (Copenhagen, The Nordic Cochrane Centre, The Cochrane Collaboration, 2011).
With our search strategy we found 27 studies, of which 9 were relevant. Three were excluded because data for smokers versus nonsmokers could not be extracted. In total, 7 studies were included, and of these, 4 were in favor of smoking.
A total of 7494 patients were included, of whom 2156 (28.8%) were smokers. In total, 4184 patients (55.8%) had a modified Rankin Scale score ≤2 at 3 months, of which 31.7% were smokers. The overall unadjusted odds ratio was 1.38 (95% confidence interval, 1.24–1.53;
P=0.02) in favor of smokers.
This suggests that smoking is associated with a better functional outcome at 3 months in patients who received tissue-type plasminogen activator. This smoking–thrombolysis paradox also has been seen in patients with myocardial ischemia.
This meta-analysis has some limitations. First, the analysis is unadjusted. In earlier studies, there was no better functional outcome in smokers after adjusting for possible confounders. Second, there is a heterogeneous group of data extracted from studies with different inclusion criteria with possible selection bias, various definitions of smoking, and data collection. Third, we split the patient group into current smokers versus nonsmokers. In the non-smokers group, ex-smokers were included because of records of pack-years smoking were not available in all articles. This is a heterogeneous group, unfortunately a specific analysis of pack-years and functional outcome was not possible.
In summary, this meta-analysis suggests that smokers who receive tissue-type plasminogen activator with acute stroke had a better functional outcome versus nonsmokers. However, we agree with Kufner et al
1 that smoking is an important risk factor for stroke and that no stroke is always better than a recanalized stroke. Gerben J.J. Plas, MD Maarten Uyttenboogaart, MD, PhD Gert-Jan Luijckx, MD, PhD Department of Neurology University Medical Center Groningen Groningen, The Netherlands Disclosures
None.
Footnotes
Stroke
welcomes Letters to the Editor and will publish them, if suitable, as space permits. Letters must reference aStroke published-ahead-of-print article or an article printed within the past 3 weeks. The maximum length is 750 words including no more than 5 references and 3 authors. Please submit letters typed double-spaced. Letters may be shortened or edited. Include a completed copyright transfer agreement form (available online at http://stroke.ahajournals.org and http://submit-stroke.ahajournals.org). © 2013 American Heart Association, Inc. References 1.↵ Kufner A, Nolte CH, Galinovic I, Brunecker P, Kufner GM, Endres M, et al 2.↵ 3.↵ 4.↵ 5.↵ 6.↵ 7.↵ Wahlgren N, Ahmed N, Eriksson N, Aichner F, Bluhmki E, Dávalos A, et al |
warc | 201704 | Most people would agree that raising the minimum wage sounds like a good idea, but arguments arise concerning if this increase would benefit the economy. Jared Bernstein believes that a minimum wage increase would positively affect the American economy. He argues that the economy is driven by consumer spending and lowincome workers are very likely to spend their extra earned money. On the contrary, Douglas HoltzEakin strives to make the point that raising the minimum wage would not be beneficial to the economy. He argues that there would be no reduction in poverty because only a small percent of minimum wage workers are in poverty, while most are unemployed. An examination of raising the minimum wage will reveal why it will benefit American society. According to Jared Bernstein raising the minimum wage would help. Bernstine suggests that the American economy is made up of 70 percent consumer spending. He argues that an extra dollar earned by a wealthy person is less likely to be spent than an extra dollar earned by a lowincome person.
In addition Bernstein points out that this leads to the lowincome worker being much more likely to consume their extra dollar of earnings. Similarly one might argue that a minimum wage increase that directly raises the pay of a relatively small share of the workforce by a small amount is unlikely to be a big deal. Raising the minimum wage is a growth strategy and should be used to try to revive our economy. The wage increase would help families struggling on minimum wage salaries. These families would see these new earni ngs as a chance to spend on new things and will slightly help macroeconomic growth. Helping the economy on the margin while also helping these families make ends meet. One should conclude that raising the minimum wage will help families in need and in terms help the economy. According to Douglas HoltzEakin Raising the federal minimum wage will neither reduce poverty nor boost growth. HoltzEakin suggests that increasing the minimum wage would ensure that millions of Americans got raises that they would presumably turn right around and spend. He argues that unfortunately the money for a raise has to come out of the wallet of another American.
In addition HoltzEakin points out that the minimum wage hike for one lowwage worker comes directly out of the pocket of another. In contrast one might suggest that the wage increase is neither antipoverty nor stimulus. According to Holtzs article companies may not be able to hire as many workers if the wage is increased. The money may not come directly from another working americans pocket but it has to come from somewhere. Businesses may suffer from the increase. Some businesses may not even be able to hire as many employees as necessary, taking away jobs. One should conclude that increasing the wage may harm other americans not directly affected by the increase. According to Jared bernstein the moderate increases in the minimum wage boost the earnings of most lowwage workers without leading to large employment losses. He argues that The increase favored by the president and congressional Democrats, would place the real value of the wage floor back where it was in the late 1960s.
In addition Bernstein suggests that this increase would directly affect about 13 percent of the workforce. He argues a vast majority of low wage families would benefit from the increase. Similarly one might suggest that some families struggling to make ends meet have 2 or 3 minimum wage jobs. These families with multiple minimum wage jobs will greatly benefit from the increase. This research does not put into account that many families struggling on minimum wage have multiple minimum wage jobs. Now these families would have extra earnings to make ends meet and stimulate the economy.
Since minimum wage workers are more likely to spend their extra dollars,the american economy will benefit from extra consumer spending. One should conclude that raising the minimum wage would help lower class families who depend on minimum wage. According to Douglas HoltzEakin the minimum wage is a poor tool to fight poverty because it does not target those in poverty. HoltzEakin suggests that only 2 percent of workers earn the minimum wage, and only 20 percent of those are in poverty. He argues that the reality is that the dividing line between being poor and being nonpoor is having a job. In addition HoltzEakin points out that only 7 percent of those who have a job are in poverty, while more than 27.5 percent of those without jobs are poor.
Courtney from Study Moose
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warc | 201704 | ● a sudden onset. Leukemia, multiple rapid-onset, short duration, particularly for multi-children and young people.
● the first symptom of fever in acute leukemia, mostly fever, can be expressed as remittent fever, missed fever, intermittent fever, or irregular fever, body temperature at 37.5 ~ 40 ℃ or higher. A sense of when cold, but not chills. ● bleeding. Is a common symptom of leukemia. Bleeding sites over the entire body, especially in the nasal cavity, mouth, gums, skin, fundus common and may also have brain, inner ear and internal organs bleeding. ● anemia. Early stage of anemia, manifested as looking white, dizziness, palpitations and so on. ● hepatosplenomegaly. 50% of leukemia patients appear hepatosplenomegaly with acute lymphoblastic leukemia Hepatosplenomegaly the most significant. ● lymph nodes. Body a wide range of lymph nodes, with acute lymphoblastic leukemia is more common, but not as acute lymphocytic CLL significant. Superficial lymph nodes in the neck, lower jaw, armpit, groin, etc., deep in the mediastinal lymph nodes and viscera in the vicinity. Swollen lymph nodes in general texture of the soft or medium hardness, the surface smooth and no tenderness, no adhesion. ● skin and mucous membrane lesions. Associated with leukemia, skin damage manifested as nodules, lumps, maculopapular rash and so on. Manifested as nasal mucosal damage, respiratory mucosa and oral mucosa and other places, such as swelling and ulcers. ● nervous system inflammation. Subarachnoid space, meninges, etc. leukocyte infiltration can occur, performance resembling brain tumors, meningitis, etc. will appear in patients with increased intracranial pressure, meningeal irritation, limb paralysis and other symptoms. ● bone and joint disease. Infiltration of bone and joint disease after bone and joint pain often occurs, performance of the sternum, humerus and the shoulder, elbow, hip, knee pain, etc. occurs, pain, occasional pain. Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia occur more than bone and joint tenderness. ● Other. Infiltration of leukemic cells can breath, digestive and urinary and reproductive systems, as well as the eyes, the lacrimal gland and fundus, etc. can occur in patients with diffuse or nodular changes in the lungs, accompanied by pleural effusion, digestive disorders, proteinuria, hematuria, amenorrhea or excessive menstrual flow, proptosis, vision loss and other symptoms.
Tags: Leukemia |
warc | 201704 | The launch of cheap Android smartphones, especially in the last few years, has definitely benefited consumers in India at large. However, the state of the industry now tells a different story (though not openly).
The invasion of Chinese smartphone brands has hurt indigenous brands, which failed to gauge the impact of the foreign entry beforehand.
While the global brands like Samsung and Apple have largely managed to hold their grip over the market, it’s a different story for others. Here are 7 harsh realities of the smartphone market in India
1. Over 100 brands struggling for attention
The budget smartphone market sees the maximum competition. There are over 100 smartphone brands in India selling handsets under Rs 10,000.
Counterpoint Research analyst Tarun Pathak states that the precise number is around 130. Most brands are unheard of, but they all have a nearly identical Android smartphone to offer to consumers
2. Companies ‘boasting’ losses
When LeEco first launched its Le 1s budget smartphone they had two ‘successful’ stories to share. First, the brand had announced that it had sold over 2 lakh Le 1S units.
Second, the Le 1S costs Rs 16,042 to make (bill of materials) while it is sold for Rs 10,999. Mathematically, that’s a huge loss to boast just to grab consumer attention.
While LeEco might have deep pockets, analysts reveal that most budget Android smartphone (under Rs 10,000) offer an average margin of maximum 7% of the cost. The minimum margin could be around 2% or even nothing, depending on marketing expenses. So, where are the profits?
3. It’s no longer ‘just phones’
India’s top smartphone brand recently announced a brand overhaul. The company said it aims to become a services brand (so where are the smartphones).
Anticipating the fall in growth from smartphones alone, Micromax has diversified itself into a electronics brand selling laptops, TVs, and tablets. For smartphones, content partnerships are the only way ahead.
Most brands have already realised that selling smartphones in this highly competitive market alone cannot deliver the desired growth in revenues. Software, via partnerships, will drive growth. The hardware edge is dead.
4. Flat growth
For the first time in recent years, IDC has reported negligible in the smartphone market globally. The flat growth is attributed to hardware saturation in developed markets.
The new market dynamics have put customer loyalty behind as brands like Lenovo, Xiaomi, are now replace by Oppo and Vivo in the top 5 vendor list.
5. Race to grab mind share
When Xiaomi entered India, they had categorical said no to any sort of advertisements and relied on word of mouth advertisement. But soon they had to go the traditional way.
The race to grab consumer attention is so intense, that endorsements by smartphone brands are found everywhere — in cricket, movies, TV shows, etc. The desperation caused by intense completion is inevitable.
6. Virtual Reality is the new gimmick
Cheap Virtual Reality headsets are the new found accessory to attract consumers. Following Lenovo, domestic brand Karbonn has also joined the VR headset bandwagon.
A cheap VR headset along with an affordable smartphone definitely makes the deal sweet. But it reminds us of the time when magazines survived by attracting readers with freebies
7. Super cheap smartphone threatening quality
The likes Freedom 251 or Docoss X1 have put a question mark on the quality of cheap smartphones. With impossible prices, these brand further dilute the market leaving a bad taste for first time smartphone buyers.
Source: The Economic Times
Tags: India, lenovo, Mobiles, samsung, smartphones |
warc | 201704 | Social Product Collaboration is the intelligent use of social computing and social media techniques to improve performance in a business setting. It leverages the
free-flowing information found in social media and couples it with the control necessary to protect information in an environment where there is sensitive data, such as new product development in a manufacturing firm. This is something we call the “Social Collaboration Conundrum.”
This episode of Tech-Clarity TV is based on the paper Issue in Focus: Social Business Collaboration and the Product Lifecycle: Combining the Collaborative Power of Social Media with PLM and is sponsored by Nuage. |
warc | 201704 | At the recent Technology Salon on “How Can We Get Beyond Access and Really Empower Women and Girls with Mobiles?” we had a room full of thought leaders and decision makers in the gender and mobiles space debating how women and girls can be truly empowered through mobile technology.
The discussion was informed by Henriette Kolb, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, and Chris Locke, GSMA Mobile for Development who were our lead discussants. I am Dan Mount and here is the summary of our collective conversations:
Be sure to sign up to get invited to future Salons. Role of the mobile industry in driving development
In a context where mobile technology is increasingly ubiquitous in the developing world – the mobile industry can maximise its developmental impact through a) supporting the dissemination of health and agricultural information; and b) by leveraging the scale of the industry to foster development (M4D).
For example, across both rural and urban areas mobile networks frequently represent the predominant infrastructure in emerging markets, which presents opportunities to leverage that network to achieve inclusion for underserved populations and communities. Advances in Machine to Machine (M2M) communication solutions and the processing of mobile micro-payments have supported the development of pilot projects offering pre-pay and “pay as you go” access to affordable energy and water (see 2013 GSMA report on Mobile Enabled Community Services).
Pathways to increasing female access to mobile
In terms of increasing female access to mobile technology, much can be achieved by persuading mobile operators to continue with existing marketing and demand driving strategies – but including a specific focus on engaging women. In April 2011 Asiacell (the second largest mobile operator in Iraq) launched the Almas Line product line which exclusively targeted the female market, supported by a television advertising campaign and a free “bye-bye service” which allows users to block abusive texts and calls from up to 20 mobile numbers. Since the 2011 product launch the number of Iraqi women with mobile subscriptions has risen from 20% to 40% – an increase of 1.8 million.
Mobile financial services
A report published in February 2013 on Women and Mobile Financial Services in Emerging Markets looks at the barriers to female access and specific needs of women across five countries (Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Tanzania). In Tanzania 34% of women reporting an interest in using mobile financial services cited the lack of a mobile phone as the main reason for not having done so.
During the salon discussion it was also suggested that increasing the presence of women within mobile industry sales channels (as sales agents) would have the dual benefit of boosting female employment, as well as allowing women to purchase mobile products and services from other women (instead of predominantly dealing with men which can represent a dissuading factor in certain cultures).
Key barriers
Key barriers to female mobile adoption were listed as:
Cost/affordability Cultural barriers (including prevailing perceptions of the appropriate/traditional role of women in Muslim society) Fear of technology Lack of perceived need or appreciation of the benefits of mobile technology The impact of telecommunications market maturity
The maturity of the domestic mobile market is also an important factor. Mobile operators are not usually incentivised to analyse or segment a national market when mobile penetration levels are at 50-60% as phones are already flying off the shelves. The incentives usually increase as the market reaches saturation. However, smaller operators seeking to build market share will often see a business case in conducting such market research/analysis at an earlier stage.
Tackling affordability/cost
In terms of business models and approaches aimed at tackling the affordability barrier – the Community Phone initiative (whereby local entrepreneurs share the cost of purchasing/renting mobile internet enabled devices to offer fee-based access to communities) and discounted tariff plans have been the most effective thus far. Aside from these approaches, the most scope for innovation remains in the sales, distribution and marketing channels.
It was also suggested that smart phone costs are already being driven down by market forces. In a context where building an industry consortium to agree a common feature set and bulk purchase of mobile devices for discount sale would take at least 12 months – the market is likely to deliver similar cost reductions on its own under current circumstances. It was also noted that while the cost of devices and mobile tariffs are a factor – issues surrounding access to electricity (and the cost of charging a phone) are also significant. According to research by the World Bank many users in emerging markets often have to decide between purchasing additional calories (food) and charging their mobile phones.
Business Women service case study
In August 2012 the Cherie Blair Foundation in partnership with Nokia launched the “Business Women” service – providing essential business tips to female entrepreneurs delivered via SMS to mobile phones within the Nokia Life platform. While initial signs suggest the project has been a success, a number of questions have also arisen.
What is the appropriate balance between scale and evidence? How extensively should the impact and usability for female entrepreneurs be assessed before further roll out? When is the product good enough?
It was suggested that there is a need to maintain iterative improvements to the platform supported by on-going feedback loops – as well as to integrate female entrepreneurs into the process of designing new products and applications. In Tanzania, Ghana and Rwanda Millicom are partnering with USAID to provide over 4,000 women with support and training to become mobile money agents with the objective of increasing female employment and financial inclusion. It was also noted that a deficit of women in managerial positions in the mobile industry is not just a developing world problem.
Scale versus evidence
On the subject of measuring impact versus up-scaling projects, it was argued that sometimes there is a trade-off between evidence collection and rolling out the benefits of a project quickly. On certain occasions there may be a case for rapidly up-scaling a project with demonstrable value in advance of an in-depth impact assessment. One example of this is DFID’s involvement/support for M-PESA in Kenya.
More resources on women, girls, and mobiles
There are also challenges surrounding processing the volume of evidence produced by some projects and zeroing in on those elements associated with development outcomes. One solution is to use mobile technology as means of collecting evidence electronically as opposed to paper based surveys which require more resources to administer and process.
On the topic of evidence collection, GSMA has built up an online repository of horizontal studies about the impact of mobile on development which includes a dedicated section on Women and Mobile impact pathways.
Why is gender differentiation important?
The question was posed – in what ways are women different from men in the context of mobile? Is a gender differentiated service really necessary? One response was that the focus should be on equality of opportunity. Access to mobile technology and services tends to be dominated by those groups who are already well represented in other existing social and economic spaces. There is a need to address this imbalance.
A mobile phone is a tool to access services, but there is a need to address the human aspects of the delivery infrastructure (such as through hiring female sales agents or marketing/branding mobile products and services in ways which are attractive to women). Mobile technology is gender neutral – although the different uses, structures and cultures associated with mobile technology may not always be neutral.
Gender balanced access to mobile technology has implications for ensuring equal access to opportunities for political discourse, economic empowerment and civil society participation which increase social inclusion. Education remains a key factor in overcoming barriers to female adoption of mobile technology.
The role of governments, green technology and language
Governments also have an important role to play in supporting the roll out of mobile network coverage – although in many instances universal service funds have not been properly administered. It was also pointed out that base station technology was initially designed to work alongside developed world electricity grids.
In many developing markets 80% of the cost of administering a mobile network originates from running diesel powered base stations. However, this issue is on its way to being solved with advances in solar powered and wind powered base stations (30,000 new green base stations will be connected in 2013).
In relation to the accessibility and provision of mobile services and applications in local languages – this is not necessarily expensive to deliver – but that functionality does need to be incorporated at the design stage for the platform/device. It was also stressed that one of the challenges with application design competitions is they need to build in more elements of long term sustainability as opposed to just incentivising people to chase a $30,000 prize.
More coordination/project flexibility?
It was contended that a key objective should be to successfully cross pollinate discussions surrounding access and use with development programmes seeking to promote examples of mobile usage. How can all the different pilot projects be more effectively coordinated? It is also important to leverage multiple communications channels including mobile, social networking (Facebook and Twitter) as well as radio broadcasts).
A further challenge exists in relation to promoting and marketing platforms as opposed to specific applications on a sector basis (e.g. business, agriculture, health). Information technology and mobile technology are horizontal services which naturally support the integration of multiple services. However, donors who are committed to a specific project aimed at health (for example) will not necessarily support the migration of that project into other related areas (such as financial inclusion).
Cultural barriers to access
In some instances women with access to mobile phones will share that access with a parent, guardian or husband, who may have the ability to confiscate or restrict access to that device. Sometimes the most effective way to communicate towards women is to contact their partners/husbands (e.g. sending maternal health SMS’s to men’s mobiles at a specific time in the afternoon when mobile generators arrive at the village allowing them to charge/switch on their phones – and pass them to their wives/partners).
The use of language can also have significant implications. According to research sponsored by VISA into mobile financial services, telling users to “put” money is more understood than asking them to “save” which does not appear to be a readily grasped concept.
Dematerialisation of communications and assets
Discussion turned to the issue of violence against women. Some were concerned that female empowerment can occasionally provoke physical repercussions from men. Others suggested that the dematerialisation of communications and assets fostered by mobile technology (in terms of less visible/monitored access to people, conversations, information and electronic payments) represents a clear trend towards the empowerment of women in traditional societies.
Closing comments
It was commented that the primary role of the mobile industry is in the provision of accessible infrastructure using affordable devices and data charges/tariffs. Once this is successfully achieved, it is predominantly the responsibility of other players to leverage that environment to take this process forward in the pursuit of wider societal and economic outcomes.
In a context where academic research has confirmed that natural disasters have a disproportionate impact in relation to female life expectancy (see London School of Economics study) mobile technology has the potential to play a part in reducing this imbalance through increasing awareness, communication and serving as an informal early warning system.
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warc | 201704 | By Tim Hipps
Special to American Forces Press Service March 20, 2009 - The National Amputee Golf Association's First Swing program's mission is twofold: to help military golf instructors learn how to work with wounded warriors and to encourage wounded servicemembers to get back into the swing of an active lifestyle. The Army Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command has partnered with the United States Golf Association to take the tour to Fort Belvoir, Va., on March 22 and 23. On the first day, military golf instructors will receive instructions on how to work with disabled athletes -- everything from dealing with psychological setbacks to overcoming physical challenges. On the second day, they will put their newfound knowledge into play by conducting a workshop for wounded warriors. With more disabled servicemen and women remaining on active duty, more military professionals need training in areas that once were considered exceptional. Amputees who formerly would have been discharged or forced to retire are continuing their military careers. The exceptions of yesteryear are flooding today's mainstream -- and the number of disabled soldiers in search of physical activities likely will continue to rise. The First Swing program was designed to encourage wounded warriors to return to an active lifestyle as soon as they are capable by assisting them in adapting their golf game to compensate for their injuries. "This program is to help give the soldiers an alternative," said FMWRC program analyst Trace Kea, a Professional Golfers' Association member who brought the First Swing program to the Army. "Rehabilitative benefits of golf can improve the mental and physical condition of each and every soldier returning -- not just those with visible injuries. "I've seen nearly every type of injury on the driving range, from double- or triple-amputees playing with state-of-the-art prosthetics, to others with shrapnel wounds, spinal-cord injuries and neurological deficits. Seeing those men and women playing touched me, and I knew we had to get involved." After launching a pilot program last summer at Fort Carson, Colo., FMWRC joined forces with the USGA and National Amputee Golf Association to open the 2009 First Swing campaign Feb. 2 and 3 at the Navy's Admiral Baker Golf Course in San Diego, followed by a clinic Feb. 21 to 23 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Following the event at Fort Belvoir, more stops on the circuit are set for Fort Bragg, N.C., April 19 and 20; Fort Campbell, Ky., May 17 and 18; Fort Lewis, Wash., July 18 and 19; and Fort Jackson, S.C., Sept. 13 and 14. The train-the-trainer portion of the program helps military golf professionals learn adapted techniques for teaching people with disabilities how to golf. It also offers tips on how to better communicate with wounded warriors, who many folks seem uncomfortable approaching. First Swing instructors Bob Wilson, Rick Monroe and Marty Ebel are veteran amputees who can relate with wounded warriors, and they all golf better than most able-bodied hacks. They understand the challenges of golfing on prosthetics or with just one arm, or even from specially built golf carts that accommodate players without legs, like Ebel. "I struggled for years learning how to golf as a disabled person," said Ebel, 50, a self-professed "cruddy golfer" who lost his legs after flipping a front-end loader while landscaping when he was 25. Seven surgeries later, both of his legs were amputated. "I never broke 100 before I lost my legs, and the first 10 years [as a seated golfer] were just brutal," he said. "I tried everything and didn't do much of it well." Ebel now scores in the 80s and inspires others to follow his path. "I take it a little more seriously now because I don't have as many recreational activities," he said. "If I can help just one person with the frustration that I went through, to help them figure it out for themselves, then it's worthwhile. If one guy just decides not to give up. "When we can help somebody new who is truly disabled play golf, and we see them strike the ball and make the ball go airborne for the very first time, the smile on their face is just wonderful." Navy veteran Monroe, 57, of Austin, Texas, lost the use of one arm 30 years ago through an accident on the USS Enterprise. He said he derives more satisfaction from giving back to the troops than they could ever imagine. "I always feel like I get more out of it than they do, absolutely, because if I can communicate anything to these guys, it is that a good life is still possible for them," Monroe said. "Obviously, golf is a great game, but it's also a lifetime game, so by communicating that they don't have to sit on the couch -- that they can be active, productive and live a good life. "Bob and I are both disabled veterans, so we like to give back to that community." Wilson, director of the National Amputee Golf Association, is a retired Navy lieutenant commander who lost both of his lower legs while serving aboard the USS Kitty Hawk. "The pros have been very receptive to the training," said Wilson, who founded and remains the driving force of the NAGA. "I think it's something that they were really looking for, not maybe that they needed or wanted, but at the end of the day they realized that it was something they needed to round out their bag of tricks as far as being a professional golf pro and being able to teach. It just expanded their horizons as far as what they are able to do." Wilson pointed out that there are 54 million disabled people in America, including 65,000 from the conflict in Iraq alone. "We've got the program and we're here," he said. "We're inviting those guys to come out." Wilson has worked with more disabled golfers than he can remember, yet he remains sensitive to instructors who are new to the drill. "I can spot a leg amputee with long trousers on from about 15 miles away," he told the military instructors in San Diego. "But I've been living with it for 30 years, so I can see those things. But when you're interfacing with those guys, you're entering into an uncharted territory, so I would look at it as a learning process and just assume it that way." Wilson also warned the instructors not to underestimate the wounded warriors. "Amputees seem to be more intense about the game than say an able-bodied person," Wilson said of the whacky game that is a reflection of daily life. "They are more focused on getting better, whereas with an able-bodied person who is 50 or 60 years old, the drive may not be there to improve. They just use it as recreation." (Tim Hipps works in the Army's Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command public affairs office.) |
warc | 201704 | To be honest, we weren’t particularly wowed by the most recent UCA Board of Trustee meeting agenda. The most important item seemed to be another increase of fees and various rates on campus, but as we all know, fees and rates are increasing everywhere all of the time, so while it is important to note, it’s not exactly earth-shattering news.
Another item amused us enough to at least bring attention to it: the possible banning of e-cigarettes and “vaping” on campus. Usually, a potential problem might have to reach epidemic levels before being considered ban-able, but in this case, UCA thought enough of it to give it the once over. So we let people know this was a possibility.
And then the major media took over.
One television station in Little Rock jumped on the story, and on the day of the meeting, multiple media outlets were on the scene. An assumption that they were there for the fee increases would be wrong.
Apparently the e-cigarette fad is no longer just a fad. It is a full-blown lifestyle. The lure of these devices is that they do not contain tobacco. Instead, there’s a mechanism that heats up liquid nicotine, which turns into a vapor that smokers inhale and exhale.
Because they contain no tobacco, e-cigarettes aren’t subject to U.S. tobacco laws. So while UCA cannot treat e-cigarettes like they would tobacco products, there are those who are worried that the unknowns of direct or secondhand nicotine vapors are enough to recommend that they be stricken from campus.
The board agreed and banned the substance. It seems fair enough, if for the simple fact that e-cigarettes, like real cigarettes, do create an environment that can affect those in close proximity to the user. Although they may not be blowing smoke in your face, what they are blowing may be hazardous to your health.
So while the act of “vaping” may be helping those who are trying to get away from traditional tobacco and the health concerns they pose, the questions are enough to keep this new smoking sensation away from campus.
We just didn’t realize it was that big of a deal. |
warc | 201704 | Depositional conditions and revised age of the Permo-Triassic microbialites at Gaohua section, Cili County (Hunan Province, South China) Authors: Wang et al Abstract: In many tropical shallow water regions the end-Permian mass extinction event occurs at the top fossiliferous packstone beds and is immediately followed by the development of microbialite facies. Both the age and redox conditions of the microbialite have been debated and both factors are addressed here in a study of the Gaohua section (Cili County, Hunan Province, China): specifically the size distribution of pyrite framboids and high-resolution conodont biostratigraphy. The framboids populations show a broad size range with examples up to 30 microns in diameter, and indicating dysoxic but not anoxic depositional conditions. More intense dysoxia is recorded in interbedded laminated micrites but not beds of giant ooids. Both the Hindeodus parvus zone and Isarcicella isarcica zones were established with the microbialite beds being confined to the H. parvus zone. Therefore, the formation of microbialite postdates the end Permian main mass extinction and records oxygen-poor conditions even in a shallow-water setting such as Gaohua section at Cili. |
warc | 201704 | The search for happiness is universal. People from everywhere and in all circumstance seek this illusive thing called happiness.
Can you remember the last time you were happy?
Was it hours ago?
Days? Weeks? Years?
What was happening in your life at the time?
What made you happy? Happiness is a goal for many people.But there are different ideas floating around about what exactly makes people happy.
Is money the key to happiness? It’s been studied and determined that, for people who are struggling to provide for their basic needs (food, clothing, shelter), more money can make them happier, but only up to a point.
When a person is able to provide for themselves and their families at a basic but comfortable level, more money doesn’t increase their happiness.
So, if you earn $50,000 a year, earning $300,000 a year isn’t going to make you happier.
What about beauty, or dressing well, or having people look up to you? These qualities, like money, focus on external values, and can make some difference in the level of happiness a person experiences, but not much.
What many studies have shown is that happiness is increased by things that are more internal: having close friends and family, being loved, feeling needed, doing or witnessing acts of kindness.These things all increase a person’s feeling of happiness. Recently, many articles and books have noted a connection between kindness and happiness.
A study in 2005 by Hebrew University in Israel noted that there is a link between kindness and a gene that releases dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical in the brain that makes us feel happy. So, not only does kindness make the person on the receiving end feel good, it makes the person being kind feel good as well.
When my daisies were in full bloom, my daughter went and delivered bouquets to several neighbors. The look on her face (and theirs) was one of pure joy. If you’ve ever done an act of kindness, be it buying someone coffee, helping at a shelter, or shoveling a neighbor’s driveway, you understand the rush of good feelings that occur.
The connection between kindness and happiness is real.
This doesn’t mean paying someone’s library fine is immediately going to fix the world. It can, however, bring a little bit of light into a dark space. And that light may multiply and grow.
Kindness has a way of reaching far beyond the original act of benevolence and morphing into something much bigger.
Years later, the acts of kindness people experience live on. |
warc | 201704 | The dollar strengthened and stock futures fell as investors awaited President-elect Donald Trump’s first press conference since July. Oil climbed from the lowest level in a month.
Trump’s impending address is helping boost bets on U.S. economic growth that already sent the dollar to a decade high in the past month. The three worst-performing major currencies of 2017 — the pound, Mexican peso and Turkish lira — extended their slide and the yen snapped a two-day advance. Oil rose as investors weighed production cuts from OPEC members against a projected gain in U.S. crude output. European stocks climbed.
Trump’s election sparked euphoria across global markets amid bets his policies would boost growth and inflation, and investors will today seek details of his agenda and assess his prospects for success. Political risk weighed on the pound, meanwhile, which dropped to its weakest since October before Theresa May’s first Prime Minister’s Questions of 2017 and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s appearance before lawmakers.
“There’s quite a lot of positioning that Trump delivers at least part of the stimulus he promises,” said Christopher Jeffery, asset allocation strategist at Legal & General Investment Management in London, who has recently adopted neutral weighting on the dollar from a more-bullish stance. “We worry that positioning has become stretched and that he doesn’t deliver.”
Read more from our Markets Live blog here.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, a gauge of the greenback against 10 major peers, gained 0.4 percent as of 8:19 a.m. in New York. Turkey’s lira slumped 2.3 percent, retreating for a fifth day as investors awaited signs the central bank will support the currency. The euro fell for a second day, while the pound dropped below $1.21 for the first time since October. S&P 500 Index futures were 0.1 percent lower, signalling a third day of declines. West Texas Intermediate crude advanced 0.7 percent to $51.15 a barrel. U.S. Treasuries edged higher, with the yield on the 10-year benchmark declining one basis point to 2.37 percent.
ArcelorMittal (MT) ended last trading session with a change of 7.86 percent. It trades at an average volume of 18.18M shares versus 22.11M shares recorded at the end of last trading session. The share price of $8.1 is at a distance of 176.45 percent from its 52-week low and down -8.37 percent versus its peak. The company has a market cap of $25.13B and currently has 3.1B shares outstanding. The share price is currently 6.29 percent versus its SMA20, 9.29 percent versus its SMA50, and 34.44 percent versus its SMA200. The stock has a weekly performance of 7.86 percent and is 10.96 percent year-to-date as of the recent close.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCAU) recently recorded 2.27 percent change and currently at $10.81 is 98.35 percent away from its 52-week low and down 1.31 percent versus its peak. It has a past 5-day performance of 13.19 percent and trades at an average volume of 10.5M shares. The stock has a 1-month performance of 27.93 percent and is 18.53 percent year-to-date as of the recent close. There were about 1.29B shares outstanding which made its market cap $13.93B. The share price is currently 18.32 percent versus its SMA20, 32.65 percent versus its SMA50, and 49.82 percent versus its SMA200. |
warc | 201704 | Sunday, February 22, 2009
By contrast Near Eastern archaeology is simply the archaeology of the Ancient Near East without any particular consideration of how its discoveries relate to the Bible.
Biblical archaeology is a controversial subject with differing opinions on what its purpose and goals are or should be.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Christian views of Jesus (known as Christology) are both diverse and complex. Most Christians are Trinitarian and affirm the Nicene Creed, believing that Jesus is both the Son of God and God made incarnate1, sent to provide salvation and reconciliation with God by atoning for the sins of humanity (see also Christian worldview).
Monday, September 10, 2007
Here are some of the most important towns and cities mentioned in the bible.
Jerusalem Rome Tarsus Jericho Damascus Hebron
Monday, September 3, 2007
"Apocalypse" is from the Greek word for "revelation" which means "an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known and which could not be known apart from the unveiling" (Goswiller 1987 p. 3). The poetry of the Book of Revelation that is traditionally ascribed to John is well known to many Christians who are otherwise unaware of the literary genre it represents.
The apocalyptic literature of Judaism and Christianity embraces a considerable period, from the centuries following the exile down to the close of the middle ages. In the present survey we shall limit ourselves to the great formative periods in this literature--in Judaism from 200 BCE to 100 CE, and in Christianity from 50 to approximately 350 CE.
Amos Zechariah Daniel Jeremiah Ezekiel Book of Revelation
Monday, August 27, 2007 Mountains cover 54% of Asia, 36% of North America, 25% of Europe, 22% of South America, 17% of Australia, and 3% of Africa.
There are numerous mentions of various mountains in the Bible.
Monday, August 20, 2007
As the time of Jesus' own death neared, this is what He said to His disciples to offer them comfort:
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going." 5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. -John 14:1-6 (NIV)Christian eschatology Preterism Postmillennialism Dispensationalism Olivet discourse Premillennialism Monday, August 6, 2007
The renewal of learning in Europe, that began with 12th century Scholasticism, came to an end about the time of the Black Death, and the initial period of the subsequent Italian Renaissance is sometimes seen as a lull in scientific activity. The Northern Renaissance, on the other hand, showed a decisive shift in focus from Aristoteleian natural philosophy to chemistry and the biological sciences (botany, anatomy, and medicine).
Louis Pasteur Gregor Mendel James Clerk Maxwell William Thompson James Prescott Joule Michael Faraday William Herschel Antony van Leeuwenhoek Blaise Pascal Isaac Newton Johannes Kepler Nicolaus Copernicus
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warc | 201704 | Mount Apo - Philippines' Highest Peak
Mount Apo is a large solfataric, potentially-active stratovolcano in the island of Mindanao, Philippines. With an altitude of 2,954 metres (9,692 ft), it is the highest mountain in the country and is located between Davao City and Davao del Sur province in Region XI and Cotabato province in Region XII. The peak overlooks Davao City 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the northeast, Digos City 25 kilometres (16 mi) to the southeast, and Kidapawan City 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the west.
Apo, which means "ancestor", is flat-topped mountain with three peaks and is capped by a 500-metre-wide (1,600 ft) volcanic crater containing a small crater lake. The date of its most recent eruption is unknown, and none are verified in historical times.
The volcano is one of the most popular climbing destinations in the Philippines with the summit, on the average, takes two days to reach. The first recorded climb was on October 10, 1880, by a party led by Joaquin Rajal, then Spanish governor of Davao.
Conservation Mount Apo Natural Park
On May 9, 1936, Mount Apo was declared a national park with Proclamation no. 59 by President Manuel L. Quezon, followed by Proclamation no. 35 of May 8, 1966 then Proclamation no. 882 of September 24, 1996. On February 3, 2004, the approval of Republic Act no. 9237 established Mount Apo as a protected area under the category of natural park with an area of 54,974.87 hectares (135,845.9 acres); with two peripheral areas of 2,571.73 hectares (6,354.9 acres) and 6,506.40 hectares (16,077.7 acres) as buffer zones, provided for its management and for other purposes.
Although a declared a Natural Park, the current climbing trails are littered with rubbish by irresponsible climbers, opening paths for soil erosion across the already denuded mountain sides. Some mountain and social climbing groups conduct climbs after the Holy Week/Easter, the peak climbing season, to clean the affected areas.
UNESCO World Heritage list
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) submitted Mount Apo on December 12, 2009 for inclusion in the UNESCO world heritage list. The mountain is considered by DENR as the center of endemism in Mindanao. It has one of the highest land-based biological diversity in terms of flora and fauna per unit area. It has three distinct forest formations, from lowland tropical rainforest, to mid-mountain forests, and finally to high mountain forests.
A portion of the eastern slopes are also within the scope of the UNESCO Hydrology Environment Life and Policy (HELP) Network. The Davao HELP Network is focused on building collaboration among watershed stakeholders.
Flora and Fauna
The mountain is home to over 272 bird species, 111 of which are endemic to the area. It is also home to one of the world's largest eagles, the Philippine Eagle, which is the country’s national bird.
Fruits like durian, the king of fruits, grow abundantly in Mt. Apo.
Geothermal energy
Mount Apo is an excellent source of geothermal energy. Located in Barangay Ilomavis, Kidapawan City, North Cotabato is the Mindanao Geothermal Production Field with a power output of 106 MW, currently the only power plant of its kind in Mindanao.
The Philippine National Oil Company geothermal plant supplies electricity to Kidapawan and its neighboring provinces, its completion boosted the city's economy.
Indigenous peoples
Six indigenous peoples - Manobos, Bagobo, Ubos, Atas, K’Iagans and the Tagacaolo consider Mt. Apo as their ancestral domain and their home. These tribes have lived since time immemorial, around the mountain that they also consider as sacred ground, their place of worship and burial ground of Apo Sandawa, their great forefather. A number of genealogies of known Lumad leaders in South Central Mindanao trace their roots to Mt. Apo. For the Lumads, the term Apo was coined from the name of their great grandparent Apo Sandawa. Mt. Apo is the source of their continual supply of food and medicine, their spiritual and cultural way of life.
Hiking activity
At 2,954 meters (9,692 ft), Mount Apo is the highest mountain in the Philippines. This majestic peak is one of the country's most popular climbing destinations.
Several trails lead to the summit, coming from North Cotabato and Davao provinces. Arguably the easiest route to the National Park is through Kidapawan City with an average hike taking 3–4 days roundtrip. In the classification system used by local popular mountaineering website PinoyMountaineer.com, the difficulty of the hike is 7 out of 9. Various sights along the trail include Lake Venado, one of the highest lakes in the Philippines, the solfataras and the old crater near its summit. The mountain may be climbed year-round or one can register and join the city's Summer Climb or the Annual October Trek / Climb. |
warc | 201704 | I’ve become a big fan of harvesting lessons from both successes and failures. One of my favorite tools for doing so is the formal After Action Review. (This is also sometimes called ‘hotwash’ or ‘hot wash’.)
Keys to a good After Action Review meeting:
Only include the people who took part in the action (including planning it) No names, no ranks – everybody speaks their mind, and past performance is referred to by title or position, never by name. No ego, no fear, just truth and openness. Everybody is subordinate to the mission. Focus is on fixing the future (not assigning blame for the past) Put the needs of the firm above your need to be right, to be perfect, to be safe – approach the task of improving our process with humility and candor. The seven stages of the debrief are STEALTH:
[S] Set time, location, and prepare
assign roles: timekeeper, scribe, data input person, discussion leader (same as mission planner) inform everyone what they need to bring prepare the room with flip charts, clean table tops start on time / keep on schedule / end on time
[T] Tone is nameless, rankless
lead by example; be open talk in the third person – never “I” or “you” but “the lead carpenter”, “the estimator” don’t care about WHO is right – care about WHAT is right
[E] Execution vs. Objectives –
were objectives SMART? reconstruct the sequence of events did we accomplish the mission?
[A] Analyze execution
list errors and successes for each error/success, list cause(s) identify underlying root cause(s) of each
[L] Lessons Learned
prominent or recurring root causes
[T] Transfer Lessons Learned – make part of future process
[H] High note – positive summation
Source: “Flawless Execution” by James D. Murphy, ISBN 0-06-083416-1
(http://www.afterburnerseminars.com/ ) |
warc | 201704 | Spring semester is upon us, and we all know what that means — your mom finally stops asking you about the mysterious charges on her credit card in favor of discussing what kind of internship you’ll find for the summer.
Ideally, the perfect internship involves you going to Instagram-worthy business events, staying in a kick ass city, and partying with a cool yet industry-connected #girlboss, whose professional philosophy is that nothing is truly complete without a glass of Rosé (or five). Your boss would also supply an unlimited selection of designer clothes, an amazing apartment where you could stay rent-free and be totally chill with you wanting to arrive at noon and leave by two. Since this is a fantasy, you also have a very committed boyfriend who never watches porn and surprises you with a puppy and engagement ring at the end of the summer.
That’s right. That “dream internship” is a total joke. Apparently,
real internships aren’t all innocent day drinking and lounging around in designer clothes while meeting cool people who work in whatever field you want to be in. The best industry party you will attend is the company’s annual family picnic and the coolest person you’ll meet is your boss’s boss. Being a real intern is basically like being someone’s servant. It’s like pledging a fraternity, but without the mixers, parties, or day drinking.
It’s the worst. It destroys any chance of visiting your little, reduces your tanning potential, and laughs in the face of your whirlwind summer romance plans. We do them, though, because internships are probably necessary for finding a job one day, or so strangers keep telling us. They pad your résumé, make you seem qualified, and convince unsuspecting potential employers that just because you skipped sixty percent of your calc class and were hungover at the other forty doesn’t mean you’re lazy. You clearly already know percentages, so going would have been a waste of time.
So, to appease our parents and maybe help us find jobs one day, here’s how to get yourself a banging internship.
The first step to getting any internship is, obviously, to lie. If you’re anything like me, you joined one club freshman year that would have related heavily to your major, if you hadn’t changed it yet. But you didn’t, so time to work those “creative problem-solving skills” you claim to possess. To help collaborate these lies, list your sisters as fake references. Just make sure to list the ones who have no problem pretending that not accepting a shot from a creepy stranger counts as advocating for SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions).
At this point, you’ll probably have to keep up the appearance of internship hunting somehow. Look up random companies that you “applied to” and can name drop when your parents ask. Maybe even send your résumé around a little, hopefully on scented paper, à la Elle Woods. Or better yet, ask your parents to float your résumé around the office. Believe me, parents
love nepotism.
Once your mostly-false-but-very-impressive résumé scores you an interview, call your mom to brag. Then ask her to send you money because you’re definitely gonna need a much nicer, more professional wardrobe if you want to actually get hired. And a visit to the salon to fix your roots. And get a manicure. And facial.
You will nail the interview and be offered the job because you’ve done recruitment exercises thousands of times. You can politely converse, smile, and fake-laugh your way into anyone’s heart. It doesn’t matter how dull an interviewer is, it will never be worse than the time you were stuck talking to a PNM about how she couldn’t choose between sandals or wedges for fifteen minutes.
And if you don’t? Well, you tried and failed, and now, you can pull the “Mom, you just don’t understand. The interviewer was
so mean and belittled everything I’ve accomplished. It’s like he didn’t understand how much attention to detail is required to tweeze the perfect eyebrow arch! I had to buy myself that Michael Kors purse just to feel human again!” all summer long.
Happy job hunting!.
This featured image is a stock photo from our database. The people photographed are not in any way associated with the story. |
warc | 201704 | This web map was designed at the Huxley Spatial Institute at Western Washington University and funded through a grant from the Environmental Council of States. The concept for this web map application was introduced in 2011 in the book, Coming Clean, by Michael E. Kraft, Mark Stephan, and Troy D. Abel. Coming Clean puts forth the idea that information disclosure can be a policy strategy for environmental protection. This web map is designed to use a visual representation of environmental information to provide access to a larger audience of citizens so that they may be able to influence the environmental policy directly affecting their health and the health of their communities.
This web map visually represents the chronic health relative risk to communities from toxic chemical industrial air releases and how those potential risks might change over time (figure 1). Facility pollution information comes from the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) dataset collected by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA collects and processes data annually on releases and transfers of certain toxic chemicals from industrial facilities. TRI facilities are depicted as circles with colors that correlate to a risk screening value that is based on modeled output data from the EPA's Risk Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) model for assessing TRI data. RSEI is a screening model, not a risk assessment that allows one to make a direct link to a facility’s chemical releases to potential harm being caused to a specific population in a location. As with any model, a number of simplifying assumptions are made.
Circles representing TRI facilities have been classified into 7 sizes and 7 colors to reflect changes in pollution performance and amount so the map user will be able to see if a certain facility has been getting better or worse over time, or, if their neighboring industrial plants are getting safer and cleaner. Smaller circles indicate fewer pounds released; larger circles indicate more pounds released. Each increase in size represents an order of magnitude increase of pounds of pollutants released (Figure 2). Lighter circles represent facility releases that are posing less risk to human health based on the RSEI model risk screening value; darker circles represent polluters who are posing more potential risk. Each shift in color represents an order of magnitude change in potential risk (Figure 3). Gray circles represent facilities that did not report any diffuse or point source air emissions for that year. Users are also able to click facilities to get information about the facility, including emission trends over time, specific chemicals released and related health information, as well as comparisons of the facility to other similar facilities in its state and in the United States. There are currently more than 17,000 facilities reporting to TRI and viewable in the web map for the years 1988 to 2015. |
warc | 201704 | Tracy's Running Journal Who am I?
Hi, I'm Tracy.I'm a fitness trainer and health nutritionist. I'm an enthusiastic marathon runner and love spending time with my dog on the beaches of L.A.!
STUFF I'M REALLY GOOD AT: Fitness & Running
I have a passion to make people more passionate about running and working out. Running is often associated with pain. A big part of being a personal trainer is not to teach people how to run or work out. It is make them enjoy it so they eventually can motivate themselves. Most of my clients still work with me though as they enjoy my company. But apart from that working out should be something that you want to do forever. So you should enjoy it. That's especially true if you are a beginner.
I decided to share a few of my running tips for beginners: 1. Deal With Your Negative Associations
Whatever anxieties or feelings you connect with jogging…you have to deal with them. Identify them. Simply because running was not pleasure for you in the past does not mean it can not be now. It’s about the mindset.
2. Share Your Running Success
You don’t have to start your own blog, there is an even bigger jogging community out there which will help you with your journey. They will share your success and encourage you. And do not forget to take pictures!
3. Set a Goal
Creating a goal for every run creates an awareness of achievement as well as is most likely going to set new or better standards of your improvement.
4. Slow down.
A lot of people get discouraged with the very first few attempts because they expect too much. Take it slowly! Enjoy every bit of it and be proud of the little successes!
5. Take a friend with you
It is easier to get motivated if you take a friend with you. It can be a neighbor, your best friend or your dog! Running together is always more fun than running alone and definitely something to look forward to.
6. Find your perfect time for running
Changing the time of day up may have an enormous effect on your performance. According to people who work out in the morning research shows that they do have a curbed desire, more energy and better sleep. But you have to try and see whatever works for you!
7. Stop when you are injured.
When people start to really feel the thrill of running, they usually get addicted to it! But when you are injured it’s time to take a step back. If you are constantly tired it’s time to give your body a break. If you have pain in your feet, for example in your heel, you might have developed a heel spur/plantar fasciitis. In that case it is very important that you rest your feet and don’t run for at least a week! After that make sure you are well equipped to not put further strain on the affected area. So, for example, if you actually developed plantar fasciitis, make sure to buy running shoes for plantar fasciitis for your foot type to avoid further stress on your heel. Same goes for knee problems. Try to buy running shoes that are well cushioned with great motion control and shock absorption.
8. Find new running trails!
If you eat the same food for dinner every single day you eventually will get bored. It’s the same with running. The same running trail will look very boring to you after a while and you won’t be so motivated anymore to go running. Mix it up once in a while and explore other places in your area. Or get in the car and go running somewhere complete else. Sometimes it’s really worth to take a little trip for a run that is more fun. MapMyRun is a great resource!
9. Give back.
We are not convinced there is another sport out there that is as jogging as non-profit. In case you can not find the private motivation to keep putting one foot before the other, do something that makes it more worth it! There are many races that look for participants that are willing to run for charity!
10. Challenge yourself.
Perhaps you've would like to take running to another stage. Then challenge yourself! Sign up for a half marathon for example! Of course sign up in advance so that you can train for it and look forward to it. You will get a lot more motivation to go outside, explore new trails and start running longer and faster!
Getting Nutrition Right
Perfect nutrition is almost impossible. But you certainly can get it right to improve overall well-being and performance. Here is a list of my top foods for runners!
1. Wholegrain
Runners want a lot of carbs to fuel workouts, and pasta and breads are clear picks. But not all pasta and not all breads are made equal. Whole grain foods are more unprocessed and for that reason include more of the natural nourishment within the grain. As compared to bread and white pasta, you will get more nutrients from the increased fiber. Whole grains will allow you to feel fuller longer.
2. Healthy Fats: Coconut Oil & Co
Let’s face it. We need fat. Our body needs healthy fats to be healthy, it needs it for various essential body functions, in particular for our brain. Forget what you learnt for years and years about avoiding fats at all costs! But opt in for healthier options such as coconut oil (which is by the way also a great beauty oil. coconut oil helps with keratosis pilaris aka chicken skin and some say even with acne.) Olive oil is another healthy option. Just make sure not to use olive oil in cooking. It’s not a heat-stable oil so you can only use it in cold form, e. g. in salad.
3. Bananas
Bananas are an excellent supply of carbs. Bananas additionally include potassium, which helps to prevent cramping and improves regulate muscle contraction. Bananas are perfect as a snack or just as part of breakfast. Add it to your cereal or make a smoothie with bananas and dark chocolate!
4. Eggs
One egg meets about 10 percent of your day-to-day protein wants, as well as the amino acids will help with restoration and muscle repair. |
warc | 201704 | The SPiDER is a scanner that can calculate its position in the manhole shaft by using its sensor data to measure its incremental motion. This technology frees inspections from problems associated with inaccurate, poorly calibrated cable counters and poorly managed cables.
SPIDER weighs less than 30 lbs. and can be hand carried to easements or other previously difficult to access sites. This portability is possible because the processing computer and battery supply are integrated into the scanner. Additionally, SPiDER does not require an inspection truck or other piece of equipment (other than the included tablet) for operational use.
SPiDER collects millions of 3D measurements during each manhole inspection. The raw data is post processed to a 3D point cloud that provides engineering and survey quality information on manhole geometry and condition that can be used for structural assessment, pre- and post-rehabilitation analysis (i.e. lining thickness), hydrological surveys, as well as general condition assessment.
SPiDER also provides live-video stream and recorded video making it an ideal tool for Infiltration and Inflow (I&I) studies which depend on live video to detect moving water.
According to CUES Manhole Inspection Division director, Pierre Mikhail, the SPiDER scanner will provide a new outlook on how manhole data is collected and applied.
“CUES has a long-standing reputation for innovation and excellence in manhole/pipeline inspection and rehabilitation technology,” he says. “It currently offers a range of tools from hand held pole mounted units to automated truck mounted units that provide unsurpassed productivity in manhole inspection and measurement. The SPiDER scanner is the future of making intelligent choices and prioritizing investment decisions using color three dimensional point clouds.”
CUES is a leading manufacturer of pipeline TV inspection and rehabilitation equipment. With headquarters and a new manufacturing facility located in Orlando, Fla., Cues continues to design, build and support its product line with an experienced and dedicated team. |
warc | 201704 | Chocolithophore From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia Not to be confused with Cockolithophores, which are a lot less tasteful if you ask me. Chocolithophores—or M&M's of the sea, as they are known by consumers—are a single celled, chocolate based algae. The unique chocolate plate or scale structures, called "chocoliths", make chocolithophores easily identifiable under magnification. This species is one of only two known to produce cocoa substances, the other being Theobroma cacao. Genetic evidence suggests these species developed their cocoa production genes independently, suggesting a niche common to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Chocolithophore aquaculture has been attempted since the late 1970s, but has not proven to be economically viable for industrial chocolate production.
Recently, a team of scientists have discovered that chocolithophores may play a vital role in managing our climate. In their CLAW hypothesis, they posit that chocolithophores can directly influence the global weather system.
edit CLAW hypothesis
The CLAW hypothesis—CLAW being an acronym for Chocolithophores Like to Alter the Weather—suggests that different flavours of chocolithophores can each alter the weather in their own unique way.
However, several fringe scientists have come up with an alternative hypothesis, which they call the 8==DLAW hypothesis. They claim that droplets of a mysterious fluid produced by cockolithophores can absorb infra-red light, thus causing global warming. However, most scientists agree that it just smells funny. |
warc | 201704 | © Elena Elisseeva | Dreamstime.com
Our bodies, as many say, are like cars; they need the right kind of fuel to run well. That means an energy diet that provides the proper vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to keep your strength steady throughout the day.
You may already adhere to a high-energy diet. But if you find yourself routinely dragging through the day, consider the five following common-sense tips.
1. Build in balance Protein has 4 calories per gram. In a healthy diet, according to Group Health (www.ghc.org), about 12 to 20 percent of your total daily calories should come from protein. Your body needs protein for energy and can store it for use when needed (mostly by your muscles). Carbohydrates also have 4 calories per gram. Keep your carb intake steady, focusing on healthy ones; slow-digesting whole grains (like multigrain bread and brown rice), lentils, and legumes work to steady your blood sugar and insulin levels, keeping your energy level at a constant. These healthy carbs also help to keep you from feeling hungry for long stretches. And remember to back off not-so-healthy carbs: soda, juice, and sweetened beverages (more on those in a minute) as well as candy, cookies, and cake. Fat has 9 calories per gram; in a healthy and balanced energy diet, “about 30 percent of total daily calories should come from fat,” according to Group Health. “This means eating about 50 to 80 grams of fat each day.” Limit saturated fats (found in foods—dairy and meats—that come from animals) and trans fats (found in processed foods and many fried fast foods). Instead, opt for mono-unsaturated or poly-unsaturated fats, which are liquid at room temperatures (think olive, canola, and nut oils).
Download this expert FREE guide,
Chronic Fatigue and Low Energy: Diet, exercise, sleep, and stress reduction advice to boost your vitality.
Learn how to boost your energy with improved diet, sleep, and exercise.
2. Don’t skip meals
How often do you rush out the door in the morning with just a cup of a coffee? Not a good idea. Give yourself natural energy foods to start your day; if you don’t have time for a vegetable omelet or eggs, at least grab an oatmeal to go, some banana slices topped with peanut butter, a yogurt with berries, or a fresh-fruit smoothie.
And there are times when you feel like you don’t have lunch time, but you shouldn’t deprive your body of mid-day nutrition. Typically, bypassing lunch means pigging out at dinner time… and who needs to load up on protein, carbs, and calories before going to bed?
“Skipping meals may make you feel hungrier and lead you to eat more than you normally would at your next meal,” according to the National Institutes of Health. “In particular, studies show a link between skipping breakfast and obesity. People who skip breakfast tend to be heavier than people who eat a healthy breakfast.”
3. Forget the “three squares” tradition
Not only should you avoid skipping breakfast or lunch, but it’s a good idea, experts say, to expand upon the classic “three square meals” custom. Make a mid-morning snack and a mid-afternoon snack part of your daily energy diet; they’ll help keep your energy level on an even keel.
For healthy choices, keep a small low-fat yogurt, a couple of whole-wheat crackers with peanut butter, veggies with hummus, or a bag of almonds, walnuts, or pistachios in your bag and replenish your body’s supply of carbs and proteins.
4. Hydrate wisely
Diet and nutrition advice often focuses on food. But don’t overlook fluids. “What you drink is as important as what you eat,” the USDA advises. “Many beverages contain added sugars and offer little or no nutrients, while others may provide nutrients but too much fat and too many calories.”
One smart move for an energy diet is to drop soda—cold-turkey. A single 20-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola will put 65 grams of sugar in your body along with 240 calories from sugar, according to SugarStacks.com, while a 20-ounce Mountain Dew has 77 grams of sugar and 290 calories from sugar. Small 8-ounce cans of energy drinks like Red Bull and Rockstar give you around 30g of sugar.
Apple juice and orange juice, for the vitamins they promote, have around 25 grams of sugar in an 8-ounce bottle, as do non-diet bottles of iced tea.
And don’t be swayed into thinking that diet soda pop is “healthy”; a well-publicized study at Purdue University in 2013 found that artificially sweetened diet sodas are linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. A single can of diet soda every day, according to researchers at Purdue, “is enough to significantly increase the risk for health problems.”
So give up soft drinks and opt for water, which is more accessible, will keep you better hydrated, and will help you avoid extra calories and sugar. Oh, and don’t forget dairy; choose low-fat or fat-free milk or fortified soymilk, the USDA recommends: “Older children, teens, and adults need three cups of milk per day.”
Almond milk is a good alternative, but opt for the unsweetened and unflavored variety. It typically tastes just as good but doesn’t load you with extra sugar—and provides you with 25 percent of your daily vitamin D needs. Soy milk has more calories, typically—around 150, vs. 85 to 90 in almond milk, in an 8-ounce glass. But it does give you 7 grams of protein, vs. 1 gram in almond milk. As with almond milk, opt for unsweetened, unflavored soy milk.
5. Be vitamin-conscious
Consider the 13 essential vitamins we need in a worthy energy diet: Are you getting the types of energy-boosting foods that provide them? Balancing your diet with the right vitamins will help keep your energy level steady. Here’s a sampling of food sources that supply each of the 13 essential vitamins:
Vitamin A:sweet potato, cooked carrots, dark leafy greens, squash, cantaloupe melon, sweet red peppers, tropical fruit (including mango). B1/Thiamin:pork, ham, dark green leafy vegetables, fortified whole grain cereals, lentils, almonds and pecans. B2/Riboflavin:milk, yogurt, cheese, fish, chicken, eggs, and asparagus, spinach and other green leafy vegetables. B3/Niacin:chia seeds, sprouted beans, fortified cereals, whole wheat, legumes and peanuts, chicken, turkey, pork, and such fish as cooked yellowfin and Bluefin tuna, swordfish, mackerel, salmon, and halibut. B5/Pantothenic acid:sweet potato, cauliflower, broccoli, beet greens, asparagus, turnip greens, bell peppers, cucumber, celery, chicken, turkey, salmon, beef, eggs, dried peas, lentil, mil, raspberries, pineapple, grapefruit, oranges, and tomatoes. B6:seafood, poultry, potatoes, fortified cereals, and green leafy vegetables. B7/Biotin:turkey, pork, beef, mushrooms, eggs, avocados, Swiss chard, sunflower seeds, tuna, salmon, whole-wheat bread, peanut butter, almonds, bananas, and berries. B9/Folate:leafy greens, all-grain breads, and all-grain rice and pasta. B12:animal foods like beef plus seafood fare like clams, mussels, crab, and “fin” fish. Vitamin C:oranges, grapefruits, and citrus fruits, cantaloupes, strawberries, kiwi, papayas, tomatoes, bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, and peas. Vitamin D:oily fish, cod liver oil, Portobello mushrooms, fortified cereals, eggs. Vitamin E:raw seeds, hazelnuts, almonds, dark leafy greens like kale, turnip greens, and Swiss chard, avocados, shellfish, salmon, swordfish, herring, kiwi, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, nectarines, and apricots. Vitamin K:green leafy vegetables including kale, spinach, collards, and beet greens, herbs like dried basil, parsley, and thyme, salad vegetables, pickles, soybeans, olive oil, dried fruits like blueberries, prunes, peaches, and pears. Originally published in May 2016 and updated. |
warc | 201704 | Hunting occupies that rare place in our cutlural lexicon whereby it exists as both recreational sport, and as a way to provide food for oneself, and one’s family.
But has hunting become a wedge issue, an identity checkmark on the battlefield of partisan politics? Does tofu equal liberal while venison equates with conservative?
Maybe. Then again, maybe not.
“Hunting is undeniably in vogue among the bearded, bicycle-riding, locavore set,” Emma Marris writes in her recent Slate.com article “Hipsters Who Hunt: More liberals are shooting their own supper.” “The new trend might even be partly behind a recent 9 percent increase from 2006 to 2011 in the number of hunters in the United States after years of decline.”
Hunting, many non-traditional hunters are discovering, can be quite earthy-crunchy.
“If you eat meat,” notes Marris, “eating animals you hunt yourself is a more ethical alternative than eating those from the current industrial agricultural system.”
“Getting your meat from outside the industrial food system is also better for the environment,” Marris continues. “Wild game isn’t fed on tons of grain that used excessive water, land, and fossil-fuel-based synthetic fertilizer.”
Both the environmental and ethical concerns, however, may be easier for the localvore set to digest than the political perception of hunting as viewed in our popular culture.
“There’s another facile belief that the new kids in the duck blind need to jettison,” says Marris, “the idea that all hunting is somehow the cultural property of jerky guys with big trucks and a fondness for the country music and Republican candidates.”
It is a worthwhile observation, but the fact that this even needs to be stated, and is receiving prominent placement at a site like Slate.com, is sorry commentary on our society indeed. Regardless of one’s subcultural leanings, we all lose when passions are whittled away in such a simplistic manner. |
warc | 201704 | Abstract
This was a cross sectional study, which aimed to determine the interaction between situational, factors, role stressors, hazard exposure and personal factors among 246 nurses consisting most of females (78.5%) from the different wards and units in the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). The dominance of female sin the profession reinforce the prevailing notion that the caring professions such as nursing are relegated to women. This gives the study its gender perspective. Almost half (49.6%) of the respondents reported being ill due to work in the past year, and 56.1% missed work because of an illness. Correlation statistics using the Spearman’s
rho showed organizational role stressors was most significant in burnout among nurses in the Philippine’s largest tertiary hospital. Organizational role stressors consisted of ten dimensions, namely: 1) Inter-role Distance (IRD); 2) Role Stagnation (RS); 3) Role Expectation Conflict (REC); 4) Role Erosion (RE); 5) Role Overload (RO); 6) Role Isolation (RI); 7) Personal Inadequacy (PI); 8) Self-role Distance (SRD); 9) Role Ambiguity; and 10) Resource Inadequacy (RIn). The contribution of the study is in advancing new concepts in the already existing framework of burnout, and thus, can assist nurses and hospital administration on how to control this problem. Recommended Citation
Lu, Jinky Leilanie (2008). Organizational Role Stress Indices Affecting Burnout among Nurses.
Journal of International Women's Studies, 9(3), 63-78. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol9/iss3/5 |
warc | 201704 | Le 6 juin 2016, 03:18 dans Humeurs • 0
They can also be used to Watering Can pesky weeds and unwanted plants. The pointed corners can also be used as a light duty pick. Pruning shear
Your pruning shears will see a lot of action in the garden. They are used for trimming branches, overgrowth grass and foliage.
It is important to buy a pruning shears, which fits your hand well and is easy to operate. There are different types of shears for different functions.
For example, do not use a hedge shears for cutting big branches, they are for detailed shaping of hedges only.
Finally, do not overlook the importance of proper attire.
You will need good work gloves to protect your hands and kneepads to make kneeling more comfortable.
Protect your eyes with a pair of safety glasses or face shield when using your string trimmer or pressure washer or when working with any power tools.
Bacho products are the highest-quality, safest, and most skillfully designed garden tools on the market.
Every product in their line is updated at least once a year to keep it on the cutting edge of Garden Shears technology. |
warc | 201704 | I'm here because I love genetics and football, but why have our other participants turned out? Matt Mealiffe MD is here because there's nothing worth watching on TV. Live results of genetic tests for breast cancer susceptibility really are a new low in televised entertainment, and going outside to play is a much more sensible way to spend your time.
Wenchypoo is here for the health benefits of exercise. Knowing your family's history of potentially genetic disease, and passing that information on to your kids, makes perfect sense in a world where health care is not universal. Good diet and lots of exercise are great ways to minimise the effects of any unhealthy genetic programming. If all else fails, we can always hope that the recent advances in biological data mining that David Hamilton has been telling us about will fulfill their promise of a better understanding of cancer and other diseases.
So that's one vote for football-better-than-TV, and one vote for exercise. Does no-one else want to share? Fair enough. Eric Michael Johnson points out that a person's involvement in processes such as voting may be genetically determined, so we shouldn't blame ourselves too much. The motivation to participate in democratic processes may be a byproduct of our evolved ability to co-operate with others, so it will be interesting to see whether the people that spoke up just now will make better team players.
It's getting cold out, so let's get this game started! It's Mendel's garden, so we'll let him kick off, even though I'm the only one who thought to bring a ball. (Luigi Guarino brought beer though. What a star! We're all very appreciative that barley, like some other crop and livestock species, was domesticated multiple times by our ancestors.) The maverick monk gets us started, and he's showing some nifty footwork for a religious man. Not quite the Hand of God, but some divine ball skills nonetheless. But the local favourite runs into a cloud of fruit flies and loses sight of the ball. He doesn't look too happy, in fact he seems to be taking the non-Mendelian mode of
Drosophila transposon inheritance a wee bit personally.
Greg Laden cues up the ball for the restart and plays a nice ball into the box. He's a very creative player, this one - or is he just reassembling existing moves into something that looks more creative than it is? Kind of like Craig Venter and artificial life? Hmmm. Let's just admire Greg's contribution to the beautiful game and leave the big questions to the philosophers on the next field over.
Eric picks up Greg's pass and plays a nice little one-two with David. He turns on a dime in the box. He shoots, he scores! 1-0. What a great demonstration of teamwork and inter-primate co-operation. Our intrepid goalie, Grrl Scientist, protests that she was distracted by a gang of wasps who were showing their own kind of co-operation and scaring the bejeesus out of her and the rest of the defense. Wasps have evolved group maternal and reproductive behaviour, switching between the two as their gene expression patterns change, and now they've evolved the ability to disrupt major international sporting events. They're worse than the bloody fruit flies. Maybe a garden is not the best place for this game.
The goal stands, regardless of insect interference, and the game resumes with a renewed passion as the other team tries to make amends. Dr Matt passes back to Grrl, who feeds the ball out to Luigi. Luigi nutmegs Mad Hatter - apparently defending against this feisty forward is almost as difficult as playing whac-a-mole with the constantly evolving polio virus - and threads the ball through to Wenchy, who's in acres of space.
Sudip Ghosh makes an impressive sliding tackle that gets the ball but unfortunately knocks Wenchy over. It looks like he may have mistaken Wenchy for James Watson, but instead of getting a Nobel prize rescinded, all he achieves is a free kick for the opposing team. Wenchy takes a shot at goal, it looks good, oooohhhh! Jesus saves, but I score on the rebound. 1-1.
That goal seems to have taken the competitive edge out of the game, and it's all gone a bit flat here in Mendel's garden. A few missed passes and long waits for the ball to be retrieved from behind the pea plants are making everyone feel that November cold and start thinking about the after-match hot chocolate.
But wait - Greg Laden has the ball again! The man from Minnesota is making maneuvers and heading for goal. Ohhhh, but he got distracted by some birds messing about in the pea plants. Avian adulterers might go for the best-looking mates, but that's no excuse for taking your eyes off the ball.
Luckily for Greg's team, Mendel picks up the ball in midfield (midgarden?) and gives us another glimpse of that magic footwork. He's round Matt, he's round Wenchy, he's bearing down on an open goal... but if I stretch and put in a sliding tackle, I can juuuuust put a toe on it... the ball careens off, Mendel goes flying, and ball and monk each take out a whole row of pea plants. Oh no! Decades of work ruined - who's going to be the father of modern genetics now? - and Mendel's gone off in a huff. Hey, don't look at me like that, it was a fair challenge.
Well, if you're going to be like that, I'm going home. And I'm taking my ball with me. Game over.
Rematch in December at The Inoculated Mind. |
warc | 201704 | An excellent way to achieve a well rounded workout is to do exercises that use two opposing muscle groups, such as the back and chest. The muscle you were formerly working will certainly be allowed to rest while you are working the other muscle. This will certainly help you increase the strength of your workout given that your time in the gym will be restricted. Adjust your diet plan in function of just how much you work out. Eat the quantity that you need to obtain a weekly pound. Discover some methods to take in more calories. If you have actually not acquired any weight within two weeks, attempt eating much more. just click the next post Research the exercises you are doing to ensure they will really assist you increase your muscle mass. Each set of muscles can be exercised differently, so do not assume that one size fits all. You have to have a diverse muscle exercise in order to develop the numerous muscle groups. If you wish to construct muscle, provide yourself enough time for recuperation. It may appear tempting to go complete steam ahead, but your body requires time off so you do not hurt yourself. Stick to a muscle-building regimen that has to do with three times a week; novices may have to start with twice a week. Watch for rip-offs that assure the ultimate level of success with one workout. Muscle Building requires that you switch up your routine in some cases, and do workouts that will certainly work a range of muscles. If all you are doing is dealing with one machine or on one separated regular, you will certainly never see the outcomes that you are really looking for. When trying to get muscles, you must attempt to have a diet plan rich in fresh, whole foods. Keep away from boxed and pre-packaged foods because these have a lot of chemicals, chemicals, and fillers which can reduce your immune system and trigger condition. By taking in the healthiest of foods, your immune system and muscle focus will certainly be much improved. Attempt to do bench presses and squats in the very same way that you do deadlifts, which is from a total stop. Use bench and squat activities in the power rack, and allow the safety bars to be set at a particular point where this bar is at the bottom of these moves. You have to let the bar choose this point. This assists you to get rid of any elastic stress, which helps you in increasing your strength. building review, weight loss http://www.naturalnews.com/038698_muscle_building_foods_proteins.html |
warc | 201704 | A Marshall plan for FATA
The News, July 21, 2008 Ayaz Wazir The new government has announced major reforms in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. The prime minister made the historic announcement of abolishing the draconian Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) in his inaugural speech and his administration is now planning the nitty-gritty of reforms in the areas. The FCR and the legal and governance regime it perpetuate are the biggest hurdle in the way of progress and prosperity in the Tribal Areas. It kept FATA backward in the past six decades of our independence. With a population of nearly seven million, the Tribal Areas form a 27, 220 sq. kilometre arch along the Afghan border. This region, was divided by the British Raj and subsequent Pakistani governments into somewhat artificial seven units called agencies and the adjoining Frontier Regions. Each tribal agency is headed by an administrative officer called the political agent who represents the central government in Islamabad and its regional representative – the governor NWFP. Though some line agencies under the NWFP government provide services to FATA, it has no authority or say in the affairs of these regions. The political agents have absolute powers with little checks and balances. They are not public servants rather they have a master-slave relationship with the local tribesmen. All of the political agent’s powers stems from the FCR, which makes him the local administrator, judge, jury, police chief and head of all service delivery institutions. To elaborate his absolute authority let’s look into a few specific examples. The political agent can arrest any one under his jurisdictions for three years without assigning any reason. The period can be extended for as long as he wishes. It cannot be challenged in any Pakistani courts of law. Under sections 20 and 21 of the FCR, the political agent can put behind bars the entire tribes and seize, confiscate or demolish their properties. The PA often engages in invoking the collective tribal and territorial responsibility to punish the whole tribe or community for the crimes of an individual. The part of establishment and bureaucracy that benefits from the governance regime in the Tribal Areas has also perpetuated a lot of negative myths and propaganda about these regions and its inhabitants. For instance, an impression has been created that the tribal area is inaccessible and its people are difficult to govern. Nothing can be further from truth. This region is home to historic passes that connected the Subcontinent and Central Asia for thousands of years. Poverty and other circumstances in the tribal areas have forced its people to become on of the most mobile communities in Pakistan. Today thousands of tribal families are living in the urban centres of NWFP and other major cities, which testify to the fact that they want a peaceful emancipated existence like other citizens of the land. The current security situation in FATA is the result of complex regional and international geo-politics. In fact, tribesmen are the worst victims of the prevailing situation in their homeland. The Pashtun society in the tribal areas is inherently egalitarian and thus best suited for practicing modern representative democracy. One of the first political reforms in the Tribal Areas will be to extend the Political Parties Act to FATA. This is perhaps the only region in the world where people have adult franchise but political parties are banned. As the bureaucracy in Peshawar and Islamabad is one of the biggest hurdles in bringing meaningful reforms to the Tribal Areas, this should be thoroughly streamlined and reoriented to be the true servants of the tribesmen. Some past and present bureaucrats are too attached to the colonial notions of keeping FATA in the dark ages. They need to learn lessons from the mess they have created and have a mercy on the impoverished tribesmen. The basic concern of the new system should be the welfare of the border tribes rather than serving some misguided notions of grandeur strategic designs. Tribesmen deserve all the rights and privileges guaranteed by the constitution. However, it is highly unlikely that any political reforms will succeed without a compatible economic package. In reality, FATA needs something on the scale of Marshall Plan to be implemented on urgent basis. If our government can get it right, reforms and development in FATA will not only transform Pakistan but the entire South and Central Asian region. The writer is a former ambassador. Email: waziruk@hotmail.com. |
warc | 201704 | Michalis, Maria (2010)
Is the public interest under threat? Public service broadcasting, market failure and new technologies: the view from the European Union. Interactions: studies in communication & culture , 1 (2). pp. 185-202. ISSN 1757-2681 Abstract
This article examines the status of public service broadcasting in the European Union, focusing on the extent to which State aid rules prescribe its scope in particular in the new media environment. Although its substantive policy output is centred on economic and competition priorities, the European Union has been increasingly sensitive to public interest considerations. Moreover, it is argued that the European Commission has generally supported public service broadcasters in its decisions and, even if critical at times, has overall respected the balance between economic and sociocultural aims struck at the national level. The revised Broadcasting Communication (2009) endorses market arguments, but at the same time it rejects some potentially restrictive approaches implied in earlier investigations and strengthens subsidiarity in the field of public service broadcasting. The Communication reaffirms that the member states are primarily responsible for promoting democratic and public interest objectives, but, and here lies the tension, the European Union has effectively a vetting power in ensuring that these objectives do not unduly distort competition. The precise impact of the Communication on the public interest now hangs on how member states will implement it.
Item Type: Article Subjects: University of Westminster > Media, Arts and Design Depositing User: Miss Nina Watts Date Deposited: 25 May 2011 08:45 Last Modified: 25 May 2011 08:45 URI: http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/id/eprint/9444 Actions (login required)
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warc | 201704 | Zena Forest and Farm is many things to many people.
It’s where fires are deliberately set to restore the oak savanna, which dominated the area centuries ago. It’s where students practice organic farming, and it’s where a powerful telescope is used to inspect the heavens.
In a new book, “Finding a Sense of Place: An Environmental History of Zena,” 25 Willamette University students present the first coherent and comprehensive history of Zena — exploring details of its geological past and plans for the property’s future.
The book retails for $20 and is available at The Willamette Store and Amazon.com. Royalties will benefit the Willamette Sustainability Institute, which provided the funds for the book’s publication through a Faculty Fellow Research Grant.
“One of the benefits of a liberal arts education is you get to do your own exploring,” says Morgan Gratz-Weiser ’13, one of the book’s authors.
“It was a tough process in a way to find the information you needed and to work on your own writing style, but now, it’s great to look back to see how your writing has progressed.”
History Lesson
Zena Forest and Farm is a 305-acre property in the Eola Hills of the Willamette Valley, 10 miles northwest of Willamette University. Willamette purchased the land in 2008 to develop educational programs and to “protect, restore, manage and enhance the natural resources and ecosystem services of Zena.”
Visiting History Professor Bob Reinhardt assigned the book project through his course, “The Environmental History of Zena,” helping guide students as they examined everything from studies of the Willamette Valley’s geology to church and state archival records.
“The main objective of the course was to learn about the approach, method and tools of environmental history,” says Reinhardt, who recently received a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University.
“I chose Zena as the place for the beginning of this process (but) the students decided what should go into the book, who would write which chapters, etc. …This book is the product of the students, not me.”
During the recent Student Scholarship Recognition Day at Willamette, about half of the student authors discussed the rewards and challenges of writing the book.
Most said the project helped them improve their writing and editing skills while also giving them a greater appreciation for Zena’s rich history.
“It was a fun puzzle to piece together, but definitely a challenge,” says Andrew Splittler ’14. “This process is something I’ll definitely remember.” |
warc | 201704 | While innovation is a constant in today’s business world, many MBA programs still follow 20th-century models. Philadelphia University, however, puts innovative thinking at the core of its new Innovation MBA program, which allows students to earn their degree in just 12 months.
The iMBA features an integrated curriculum that helps students become dynamic problem-solvers and entrepreneurial thinkers, learning to navigate new, more valuable realities for their businesses and careers. With its unique curriculum, the iMBA gives students the opportunity to earn the kind of MBA heralded by
The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company and Wired Magazine as the degree innovative companies are looking for.
“The iMBA program was designed for those who want to kickstart their career with the type of education and experiences needed to lead in the 21st century work world,” said Sue Lehrman, dean of the School of Business Administration. “With its unique curriculum and focus on creative problem solving, the iMBA experience is unlike any other. It gives students a skillset that will serve them in many ways throughout their careers.”
The program is open to students with varying backgrounds, from recent graduates to mid-level professionals. It is designed as a flexible program that allows students to study either full-time or part-time during late afternoons and evenings. Classes are administered through Philadelphia University’s collaborative Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce in the new LEED Gold-certified DEC Center.
Built into the program are core components that give iMBA students an edge, including top internships to deepen the learning experience and professional networking opportunities throughout the program. Students learn to identify problems and seek out opportunities. The curriculum teaches students to think beyond the boundaries of existing disciplines, working both independently and collaboratively to create valuable, feasible and marketable ideas, systems, products and services.
With a faculty of industry experts bringing real-world experience to the classroom, the iMBA utilizes PhilaU’s signature approach to teaching and learning, Nexus Learning, which is active, collaborative, real-world and infused with the liberal arts. It’s an approach that inspires market-driven innovation through teamwork, collaboration and industry connections.
Students also will have the opportunity to gain valuable international business experience through faculty-led short courses in China, India and Europe. These experiences will allow students to immerse themselves in a foreign culture and gain the sophistication that innovative industries and firms demand. PhilaU iMBA graduates are exceptionally well-prepared to be leaders in the exciting, challenging global marketplace.
“Innovation MBA students become masters of business solutions in a globalized world,” said D.K. Malhotra, professor of finance. “Our collaborative curriculum challenges students to approach business problems by thinking in uniquely different ways, using both business and design thinking to develop unique solutions.”
The iMBA has five specialty tracks, including Marketing, Management, Accounting/Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Finance/Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and General Business. The CPA and CFA tracks include expert external preparation for certification exams. Each track builds on the iMBA’s core innovation-focused courses such as Business Models Development, Competitive Technical Intelligence, Managing Innovative People and Teams, Qualitative and Quantitative Marketing Research, Operations from a Systems Perspective, Global Product Development, International Business Innovation Trip and a Career Jumpstart Internship. |
warc | 201704 | the Original Online Biz Boomer Babe. the Original Online Biz Boomer Babe.
Throughout my life, I've enjoyed numerous booming careers in a mishmash of industries: Project Manager, Application Developer, Business Analyst, Human Resource Specialist, Interior Decorator, College Instructor and now Online Biz Boomer Babe. My secondary monikers are Mindset Makeover Queen + Tech Maven.
After almost two decades of career exploration, I found myself asking
“What am I doing when I am the happiest”?
If you're like me, you were taught to make money–not worry about what makes you happy.
But now you're in a place where you're wondering what will make you happy for the next phase of your life.
Maybe you: Are bogged down in your business and left without time for things you love Feel stuck in your business and uncertain of next steps for growth To get out of corporate and blaze your own trail To fund your Second Actwith a business To use your skills and expertise to help people Need someone to just tell you what to do Need to know how to get your first clients Want to consistentlymeet your income goals
Let's face it. As Boomers, we weren't raised to believe we could have fun while making a living doing what we love.
And yet this is exactly how I came into my own business. After much soul searching, I recognized that part of what makes me buzz is working with people. I had always used a coaching approach in my interactions with clients, drawing out what was important to each of them. But unless we get specialized education, we did not learn how to run a business. So, in my ignorance, I started my consulting business.
Was it easy? Heck no! I often felt stuck and overwhelmed. I did not own a business…my business owned me. I wanted my business to grow; however,
something was stopping me. I eventually learned that business success has two general components: knowledge of actions that build a business, and the mindset to take those actions. Knowing the actions alone will not create success. Most of us don’t start out knowing how to market, or organize, or many other activities that are important. But even greater are the number of solopreneurs who have ideas that they know they should pursue, but somehow don't get around to it. It is essential for success that we work in both areas.
Today, I have the business I always wanted–coaching people into being the best that they can be while launching a booming online business. I now mingle the personal development with online marketing strategies + helping boomers overcome tech overwhelm. What an adventure!
When I am not working, I love to spend time with my family and friends. Aside from that, I love globetrotting and all things outdoors (tennis, hiking, skiing, beach volleyball and more). And cheesecake.
How I Work
I bring to our mentoring a first-rate infusion of marketing savvy, intuition, and good old-fashioned results. Plus I can get techy with it, so you don't have to! I love helping midlife women, whether they are just starting out or struggling, build an online business step by step to success. We work together on mindset, systems/structures, and attraction marketing because all three impact business profitability.
You have your pick from many life coaches and mentors out there (it has become quite trendy, yes?). I realize this is serious stuff and you want to make sure that the person
you are trusting your life with has the goods to support you–in a legit way. The following facts may help you confidently decide if I am the type of coach you can feel good about: I’m certified. I earned my stripes as a life coach at LifeSuccess Consulting, an accredited program. I have been personally mentored by Bob Proctor and currently partner with him to deliver personal development coaching. I’m educated. I hold a dual Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Computer Information Systems and recently completed MBA degree requirements. I’m committed. I am serious about wanting you to flourish and boosting you to fund your freedom. I am a straightforward, tell-it-like-it is kinda woman. People who work best with me really want to move forward and want to hear it like it is. I do this because I am wild about helping you step into your dream life…an unrecognizable, awe-mazing life!
Sound
first class? Then check out my complimentary training course, Savvy Steps to Get Your Online Business Booming, below and let's get started! |
warc | 201704 | If you’re like a lot of small businesses and organizations, you may be using a personal email account — like Gmail, Outlook, AOL, or Yahoo — to communicate with a group of email contacts.
Chances are you’ve also noticed some limitations in what you can and can’t do with a personal email account.
One of the biggest limitations of using a personal account is in the design of your emails. If you’re not a professional designer, it’s tough to create emails that actually match your brand and make your business look professional. Other limitations include: Problems getting messages delivered:Has anyone ever told you they didn’t receive your email? Sending mass emails from a personal account can result in more emails being sent to the spam folder. Difficulty keeping track of your email contacts:Manually keeping track of new email addresses and people who have asked to be taken off your list can cause headaches and take up hours of your time. No understanding of who opened an email or clicked a link:You hope your emails are getting opened and read, but personal accounts don’t provide that information. Email marketing services like Constant Contact or netCORE are built to make it easy to create beautiful emails that drive real business results.
They have the tools you need to manage your email contacts and provide in-depth reporting tools to track important metrics like opens, clicks, and shares for your emails.
They also provide tools and training to help you stay compliant with important email laws, which are easy to violate if you’re trying to do marketing from a personal email account.
One of the best ways to see how an email marketing service can benefit your business is to try it for yourself.
You can try Constant Contact free for 60 days.
Still have questions about why an email marketing service is right for you?
Here are 10 things you’re missing out on by not using a service for your email marketing. You’re not prepared to send bulk emails
Many email accounts and most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) limit the number of emails that you can send at one time. This means that as your email database grows, you could run into more and more problems with getting your emails delivered.
Email providers like Constant Contact work diligently to maintain strong relationships with ISPs and establish reputations for sending permission-based emails. As a result, our customers see more of their emails delivered to their recipients’ inboxes, and less emails in the spam folder.
You’re putting relationships at risk
When someone joins your email list, they trust you to protect their information. They also trust that you’ll respect their privacy and give them the option to opt-out.
But as hard as you try to fulfill these obligations to your audience, when sending email using Outlook or another email account, mistakes can happen. Perhaps the biggest mistake is exposing your entire list in the To: line of your email.
Another mistake is failing to offer an easy way to unsubscribe. This can not only damage your reputation as a business, but can also put you at risk of violating email laws, which require an unsubscribe link in every message you send out.
You can’t host and manage your list from one location
An email marketing service hosts your email list and automatically performs critical list management functions. These functions include sign-up for new subscribers, editing capabilities so that subscribers can edit their own profiles, and the ability to unsubscribe with one click.
An email service will also manage bounced emails for you, differentiating between reasons for the bounce (including full mailbox, vacation message, non-existent address or blocked).
You’re on your own
Email marketing services like Constant Contact are built to make it quick and easy to do email marketing for your small business.
If you’re switching from a personal email account, we’ll give you the tools and training to help you get started — from uploading your existing email contacts to setting up your first email campaign.
If you do run into any problems or have questions about how to improve the look of your emails, simply pick up the phone and give us a call. Our award-winning support team is committed to your success.
You’re unable to deliver emails in the right format
Emails can display differently, based on the email client and device a recipient is using.
With an email service like Constant Contact, you’re able to send both a text and HTML version of each message you send out. This means that your emails will be delivered to your subscribers in the correct format every time.
In comparison, your email account can’t tell which email format each recipient is able to receive — which can make your email unreadable or send it to the spam folder.
You can’t create professional-looking emails that match your brand
With an email marketing service, you’ll have access to hundreds of professionally-designed email templates that make it easy to create great looking emails.
We handle the design work for you — you just need to customize the template with your colors and branding, choose the images you’d like to include, and add your content. These templates will make your message look great in any inbox, whether someone is reading on a desktop or a mobile device.
You can’t protect yourself from delivery problems
A good email marketing service maintains strong permission policies and has an active anti-blocking team working with ISPs on your behalf to ensure that your email is delivered.
At Constant Contact, we monitor all outgoing email to ensure that all major ISPs and corporate domains are successfully accepting your email. If there is a “blip” on the receiver’s end when your email campaign is being sent, an email marketing service makes continued attempts to send your email while quickly addressing the problem with the ISP.
You can’t see who opened or clicked
Using an email marketing service like Constant Contact gives you access to in-depth reporting to see key metrics like emails sent, opened, who opened, who clicked through, and which links they clicked on. You’re also able to see important details like spam reports, bounces, and opt-outs.
This will allow you to see what’s working and identify opportunities to make improvements, or identify potential issues that could put your business at risk.
You don’t have the newest tools and features
Here at Constant Contact, we have a team of people who are focused on staying on top of the latest trends in the industry. We provide regular updates and new features to enhance functionality, comply with the law, and optimize email delivery though ISPs.
In addition, we are members of groups like The Email Service Provider Coalition (ESPC). The goal of the ESPC is to provide unique and effective spam-fighting solutions that will optimize your email delivery and response and minimize the spam in your subscribers’ inbox.
You could be breaking the law
You don’t have the time or resources to stay up-to-date with the latest email laws and regulations. Unfortunately, if you’ve been using a personal email account to send your marketing emails, there’s a good chance you’re already in violation of some important laws like Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) and the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).
Email marketing services like Constant Contact are responsible for ensuring that your emails are compliant with these legislations. We provide the tools you need to follow the laws, and let you know when there’s a change that could impact your business.
Don’t wait to make the switch.
Email marketing is the most effective marketing tool available to small businesses today.
Consider the following: 91 percent of U.S. adults like to receive promotional emails from the companies they do business with. (MarketingSherpa, 2015) 66 percent of consumers have made a purchase based on an email marketing message they’ve received (Direct Marketing Association, 2013) Email is almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined in helping your business attract new customer (McKinsey, 2014)
If you want to get the most from your email marketing investment, you need a partner that knows how to make email marketing work for your business.
To find out more about any of WSI’s digital solutions, |
warc | 201704 | The Locally Grown Food Diet is one which requires that all food ingested by the dieter is grown within a 100-mile area of where she lives. An amazing amount of energy, especially fossil fuel, is conserved by not transporting food over long distances to deliver to the various regions around the country. Vitamins and minerals are also far better conserved with locally grown products because they are eaten in such a timely manner; they don’t sit on a delivery dock waiting to get to the market.
Some locally grown foods should be avoided on this plan. There are no “bad” locally grown foods; the products to avoid are based on processing and seasonal timing rather than specific food items. Here are four foods to stay away from while on this diet plan:
1. Processed Food
Processed food can contain specific ingredients that are not found locally but are included in a locally made food. This breaks the
basic Locally Grown Food Diet rule. Be sure that any processed food that is eaten contains only local ingredients and that the product is made locally.
2. Out-of-Season Produce
Produce that is “out-of-season” should be avoided. If it is not “in season,” it has been shipped into the area and is not
“locally grown.” If you reside in New England, strawberries and zucchini in December are absolutely not locally grown. On the
other hand, if you live in southern California, go ahead and indulge in a fresh fruit salad in February. Shop at a local farmer’s
market to be sure the dietary rules are followed.
So called “exotic” foods are rarely grown locally, unless it is a greenhouse growing situation for these foods. Bananas and pineapples do not typically grow in New England but can be harvested in a climate controlled greenhouse to keep them “local.”
4. Boxed Items
Avoid mass produced, boxed and packaged items such as processed cookies, crackers, dairy products, coffee and chocolate. The bottom line about foods to avoid on this particular diet is simple; if it isn’t wholly grown within 100 miles of where you live, do not eat it.
While the Locally Grown Food Diet does provide healthy food choices because processed, sugary choices are eliminated, it can be a challenge to keep food choices interesting. Remember, where you live determines your dietary choices. Avoid the above foods, and you will be in compliance with the plan. |
warc | 201704 | Software that will make it more difficult to mistakenly sell a new General Motors vehicle that is being recalled will roll out this month. These software tools will be phased in during the third quarter. Tim Turvey, GM global vice president of customer care and aftersales, said that the company looks at safety as “a core value, a core priority.”
The first step is an “incentive lookup block.” GM said that with this software, dealerships will have to first perform the recall work as needed.
Dealerships won’t be able to look up the incentives that apply to a specific vehicle if it is part of a recall and no record of work is seen. It can be recalled that in the U.S. last year, GM issued its biggest-ever recall of 27 million vehicles in the wake of its ignition-switch safety predicament.
So far, the compensation for 84 victims of deadly crashes related to the switch has been approved by GM's claims administrator. Experts said that dealerships are able to look up vehicle identification numbers to see if a vehicle is subject to a recall.
However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website allows them to do this one vehicle at a time. A huge dealership will have a difficult time of determining which of the vehicles on its lot are involved in the recall.
Turvey said that linking the recall information to incentives makes it very unlikely for the dealerships to make a mistake. Turvey said that inquiries on incentives could reach up to 50,000 a day. At the World Traffic Safety Symposium in New York last Friday, NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind was asked to comment on GM’s move.
He replied that GM isn’t legally required to make the changes and so, he is acknowledging GM’s innovation. Rosekind said that GM is responding to a case wherein a dealership in Pennsylvania was penalized for selling units without doing the warranty work first. Actually, the case referred to Chapman Chevrolet in Philadelphia.
NHTSA records show that a $50,000 civil penalty was to be paid by the dealership for having sold 23 new vehicles without required warranty work. This case reached a settlement on October 1.
Rosekind cited a “carrot” and “stick” aspect in what GM is doing. The carrot is GM’s move to find a way to emphasize to dealerships how much revenue they will gain as compensation from GM for doing recall work. He pointed out that the stick is the inability of the dealership to apply incentives until the recall work is accomplished. |
warc | 201704 | Font Size:
Detecting Falls with Location Sensors and Accelerometers
Last modified: 2011-08-04 Abstract
Due to the rapid aging of the population, many technical solutions for the care of the elderly are being developed, often involving fall detection with accelerometers. We present a novel approach to fall detection with location sensors. In our application, a user wears up to four tags on the body whose locations are detected with radio sensors. This makes it possible to recognize the user’s activity, including falling any lying afterwards, and the context in terms of the location in the apartment. We compared fall detection using location sensors, accelerometers and accelerometers combined with the context. A scenario consisting of events difficult to recognize as falls or non-falls was used for the comparison. The accuracy of the methods that utilized the context was almost 40 percentage points higher compared to the methods without the context. The accuracy of pure location-based methods was around 10 percentage points higher than the accuracy of accelerometers combined with the context.
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warc | 201704 | What the HIPAA Transactions and Code Set Standards Will Mean for Your Practice
If there’s a silver lining to the HIPAA regulations, it’s here. These standards can save your practice time and money.
Fam Pract Manag. 2001 Nov-Dec;8(10):28-32.
Imagine that your practice could submit all claims electronically, track the status of claims with the push of a button and communicate online with payers to confirm patient eligibility and determine what services will be paid when. Now imagine that payments could be received electronically and automatically posted to your practice’s accounting software. Finally, imagine that your office could analyze payment data so that you could determine what procedures, payers and contracts were most or least profitable for your practice. And moreover, what if what I’ve described could actually lower your overhead costs?
This kind of breakthrough automation of the medical practice’s business processes – computerized eligibility checking, claims submission and payment, and data reporting – is the “holy grail” of practice management. And it may be just around the corner if the uniform transactions and code set standards mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) go into effect in October 2002 as scheduled. [ Editor’s note: Small health plans will have an additional 12 months to comply.]
KEY POINTS
The purpose of the HIPAA transactions and code set standards is to simplify the processes and decrease the costs associated with payment for health care services.
The transactions and code set standards apply to patient-identifiable health information transmitted electronically. Physician practices will continue to be able to submit paper claims.
When the regulations take effect in October 2002, standard formats and code sets will take the place of any payer-specific or location-specific formats or requirements.
What are the HIPAA transactions and code set standards?
The HIPAA transactions and code set standards are rules to standardize the electronic exchange of patient-identifiable, health-related information. They are based on electronic data interchange (EDI) standards, which allow the electronic exchange of information from computer to computer without human involvement.
Prior to the passage of HIPAA in 1996, Congress determined that to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system and decrease administrative burdens on providers (i.e., medical practices, hospitals and health care plans) it was necessary to have national standards for the electronic exchange of health care transactions. These standards apply to nine types of administrative and financial health care transactions used by payers, physicians and other providers, including claims submission, claims status reporting, referral certification and authorization, and coordination of benefits. (See the box below for a complete list of the transactions and the standard formats required.) HIPAA also requires that medical data code sets be standardized and all local and proprietary codes be eliminated. Conforming to the code set standards is not expected to pose much difficulty for most practices since many of the code sets that have been adopted are already in common use. (For a list of code sets adopted by HIPAA, see the box on page 30.)
All practices will be affected in some way by the HIPAA transactions and code set standards, whether their claims are submitted electronically or on paper. Why? Because all the payers, health plans, clearinghouses and insurance plans you deal with will have to convert to using the standards in order to comply with HIPAA.
UNIFORM CODE SETS
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) specifies that the health care industry use the following five code sets when submitting health care claims electronically. Adopting a uniform set of medical codes is intended to simplify the process of submitting claims electronically and reduce administrative burdens on health care providers and health plans. These code sets will replace all local or proprietary codes used by insurers and health plans:
International Classification of Diseases, 9th Edition, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). Available from the U.S. Government Printing Office at 202-512-1800, 202-512-2250 (fax) and from many other vendors, including Amazon.com.
Current Procedural Terminology. 4th Edition. (CPT-4). Available at www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/3113.html.
HCFA Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS). Available at www.hcfa.gov/medicare/hcpcs.htm.
Code on Dental Procedures and Nomenclature. 2nd Edition. (CDT-2). Available from the American Dental Association at 800-947-4746 or www.ada.org.
National Drug Codes (NDC). Available at www.fda.gov/cder/ndc/index.htm.
HIPAA rumor and reality
As was the case with Y2K, there is much uncertainty about exactly what HIPAA will require of us – and much conjecture. Have you heard that HIPAA will force practices to computerize their claims submission processes? That’s not true. In fact, the HIPAA transactions and code set standards currently say nothing at all about paper claims.
What the HIPAA regulations do say is that somewhere in the exchange between provider and payer, a non-standard transaction must be translated to the HIPAA standard format. Medical practices may continue to submit claims on paper or in non-standard electronic data formats, but this translation may ultimately be something you have to pay for. Practices that submit information electronically using the HIPAA standards will have some advantages: A payer may not refuse to accept a HIPAA-standard transaction, must respond to the provider with the appropriate electronic message standard format and may not delay payment because the transactions are submitted electronically. The HIPAA rules do seem to give the advantage to medical practices that submit claims electronically, as they guarantee those practices prompt responses from payers. Because of this, more physician practices may want to use computers instead of paper for submitting and receiving claims.
Finally, despite what you may have heard, you can continue to store data in any format as long as they can be translated into the standard transaction format when being transmitted.
Simplified processes, decreased costs
Most third-party payers already process claims electronically. The problem is that electronic claims transmission and processing developed in an environment where information systems and software were designed to handle specific payers’ formats and coding requirements – not to communicate with other information systems. To better understand the nightmare this has created for the health care industry, imagine yourself traveling on a train from Boston to San Francisco and having to stop and re-board another train at each state border because every state’s railroad track gauge was of a different width. Under HIPAA, a handful of standard formats will replace the hundreds of proprietary and local formats currently in use, enabling health care providers to submit the same transaction to any health plan in the United States.
Of course, electronic transmission is only part of the story. There is a difference between how claims are transmitted and how third-party payers process them. The vast majority of electronic claims are still being processed manually because they lack necessary data and are complicated. This step is called “adjudication.” Some of the questions that payers have to answer when adjudicating a typical insurance claim include the following: Is the patient a member of a plan, and is the particular service covered by the benefits of that plan? Was the service authorized? Is the provider a member of the provider network? Has the patient met his or her deductible? Automating such a complicated process is difficult, even when all of the data are provided. Standardizing the automated transmission between provider and payer is an important step toward even larger cost savings down the road.
This administrative simplification that this portion of HIPAA will bring about is expected to save the health care industry billions of dollars. Physicians and other providers will be among those saving money. Because you’ll no longer have to deal with innumerable payer-specific or location-specific formats and instructions, you should save money on overhead. According to a survey of 20 medical groups (most had eight or more physicians), the average administrative savings resulting from implementation of the transactions rules was estimated to be $7,200 per physician annually.1
If you are still transmitting paper claims – and many of you are – you may want to consider converting your paper claims into electronic claims and submitting them yourself. The standard formats required by HIPAA will make sending clean claims much easier and could save you a large portion of the fees you may now be paying to clearing-houses, third-party administrators or billing services.
STANDARD TRANSACTION FORMATS
To simplify the electronic exchange of financial and administrative health care transactions, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) transactions standards will require all health plans, health care clearinghouses and health care providers to use or accept the following electronic transactions. The following formats will replace the hundreds of proprietary and local formats used throughout the health insurance industry when the transactions standards take effect in October 2002:
1. Claims submission: The X12-837 HIPAA format will be used when a physician or other health care provider (e.g. hospital) files an electronic claim for payment for the delivery of care. This format is similar in many respects to the UB-92 and the HCFA-1500 formats.
2. Enrollment and disenrollment in a health plan: The X12-834 format will be used to establish communication between the sponsor of a health benefit and the health plan.
3. Eligibility: The X12-270 (inquiry) and X12-271 (response) formats will be used to inquire about the eligibility, coverage or benefits associated with a benefit plan, employer, plan sponsor, subscriber or a dependent under the subscriber’s policy.
4. Health care payment to provider (with remittance advice): The X12-835 format will be used by a health plan to make a payment to a financial institution for a health care provider (sending payment only), to send an explanation of benefits or remittance advice directly to a health care provider (sending data only), or to make payment and send an explanation of benefits and remittance advice to a health care provider via a financial institution (sending both payment and data).
5. Premium payment to health insurance plans: The X12-820 format will be used by employers, employees, unions and associations to make and track premium payments to their health insurers.
6. Claim status request and response: The X12-276 and X12-277 formats will be used by health care providers and recipients of health care products or services (or their authorized agents) to request the status of a health care claim or encounter from a health plan.
7. Referral certification and authorization: The X12-278 format will be used to transmit health care service referral information between health care providers and health plans. It will also be used to obtain authorization for certain health care services from a health plan.
8. Claims attachment: Some insurers also require additional records for each claim submitted. For example, the insurer may wish to review subscriber, patient, demographic, diagnosis or treatment data. A standard format for electronic health claims attachments is expected soon.
9. First report of injury: This transaction will be used to report information pertaining to an injury, illness or incident to entities interested in the information for statistical, legal, claims and risk management processing requirements. A standard format is expected soon.
A very large “if”
Implementing the transactions and code set standards is nothing less than a major business process re-engineering effort within the health insurance industry – a complex and expensive undertaking that no one is certain can be accomplished in the time frame established by the legislation. As one industry expert recently told me, “In terms of programming, getting ready for HIPAA is a thousand times more complicated than what we faced with Y2K.”
Furthermore, during the transition period the complexity and friction between payers and physicians and other providers might get worse. Claims processes could be delayed due to errors and miscoding, re-coding or loss of information. This could lead to unexpected adjustments to accounts receivable, delay third-party payments and put some practices in financial peril. Consider what happened to hundreds of doctors who didn’t get paid during the information technology system failure and the subsequent near-collapse at Oxford Health Plans in 1998. My advice? Start preparing now for a set of changes that will shake the industry for several years to come, and work with your software vendor, billing service and/or clearinghouse so that your practice is prepared to handle the new standards. (For information about implementing the guidelines in your practice, see the box below.)
RECENT FPM ARTICLES ON HIPAA
This article is the third in a series designed to educate and prepare family physicians for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which was signed into law in 1996. Every practice, hospital and health plan in the United States that electronically transmits patient-identifiable health care information will have to comply with the HIPAA regulations, starting with the transactions and code set standards in the fall of 2002. Other articles in the series are listed below. The series is available online.
Working toward compliance
Physician practices that transmit claims electronically will have to work closely with their practice software vendors to comply with the transactions and code set standards. Vendors will need to program their software so that it can “translate” the non-standard output from the office’s practice management software into the HIPAA-standard formats and complete this process in reverse when HIPAA standard transactions are sent back to the practice from the payers. Some questions to ask your current software vendor regarding HIPAA readiness include:
When will the software upgrade be ready?
When are you going to start the necessary testing of the software, and who will be certifying the results of the testing? (Certification is required by law.)
Will you be working directly with any insurers or clearinghouses to ease the transition to HIPAA standards and to test the messaging systems?
Will you be notifying physician clients of your progress?
Will there be any additional cost for this software upgrade?
Can you assure me that all transactions and data transmitted will be handled according to the HIPAA privacy and security regulations? (Remember, the data in the transactions you will be transmitting electronically contain patient-identifiable health information. Under HIPAA you are required to have adequate safety measures in place – including technical ones – to protect this information from breaches of privacy.)
HELP WITH HIPAA TRANSACTIONS AND CODE SET STANDARDS
Implementation guides for the HIPAA transactions and code set standards can be obtained from the Washington Publishing Company. They may be downloaded free from the organization’s Web site at www.wpc-edi.com/HIPAA_40.asp. Bound volumes are available for purchase. For more information, contact WPC at PMB 161, 5284 Randolph Road, Rockville, MD 20852-2116; 301-949-9740 (voice); 301-949-9742 (fax).
For answers to frequently asked questions about the transactions and code set standards go to the Department of Health and Human Services Web site at aspe.hhs.gov/admnsimp/.
The bottom line
The purpose of the HIPAA standards is to simplify the processes and decrease the costs associated with the payment for health care services. The savings to payers, physicians and other providers could be enormous, but only if there is collaboration between all parties involved. A concerted effort by software vendors and their clients is needed to replace the current labyrinthine systems with updated and streamlined versions that have been tested and certified to work properly. This is not an impossible task, but it is one of massive proportions. I urge physicians and their practices to embrace the effort. Why? Because the transactions and code set standards is the only part of the HIPAA regulations that promises on balance to save rather than increase office expenses and simultaneously improve the quality of service you provide to your patients. If you can control the data output from your practice management system and send claims electronically in the standard formats, your practice will have gained significant control in the administrative tug-of-war between providers and payers and decreased your office overhead in the process.
Reference
1. Lazarus SS. HIPAA tips for the physician office. Available at: www.hipaainfo.net/ahima040601.htm. Accessed October 10, 2001.
Copyright © 2001 by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
This content is owned by the AAFP. A person viewing it online may make one printout of the material and may use that printout only for his or her personal, non-commercial reference. This material may not otherwise be downloaded, copied, printed, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any medium, whether now known or later invented, except as authorized in writing by the AAFP. Contact fpmserv@aafp.org for copyright questions and/or permission requests.
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warc | 201704 | Posted Dec 01, 2011 09:00 am CST
Arthur C. Clarke famously said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Well, there’s a new technology becoming more popular that is almost magical both in how it works and in its impact on computer users. Let me introduce you to the amazing world of solid state hard drives.
Solid state drives are electronic flash memory hard drives that replace traditional hard drives. They represent a category different from thumb drives or flash memory cards used in digital cameras. SSDs typically range from 64GB to 256GB.
Hard disk drives have mechanical components—spinning disks and movable read/write heads. They take a few seconds to spin up to speed, can be noisy, require defragmentation from time to time, and can crash catastrophically. They also offer huge amounts of storage at low prices. It doesn’t take much effort to find a 2-terabyte version for less than $100.
SSDs, however, do not have moving parts. They generally use NAND-based flash memory (in simplest terms, a memory chip). This memory is nonvolatile, which means that it retains memory even if there is no power. As a result, SSDs are very fast, start instantaneously, run silently and will not suffer the traditional mechanical hard drive crash.
SSDs cost much more than hard disk drives: A careful shopper can now find a 128GB SSD for around $200. A bargain shopper might be able to get 6TB of hard drive storage for the same $200.
So why might you pay a premium for SSD storage? Take a test drive of a computer using an SSD. I found myself recently saying I will never again buy a computer for myself without an SSD. The difference is, well, magical.
Think about the annoyances you have with your current computer. Coffee-break-inducing slow boot-up time? A noisy hard drive? Slow-loading documents?
All of these annoyances go away with an SSD. Computers can be lighter and use less power. And whether or not the time you save covers the extra cost, you will definitely feel the benefit every day.
The harder issue is whether you can live with a drive having less storage. I struggled with that before buying mine, and I decided SSDs force us to rethink how we use hard drives.
In 1998 I was at a law firm with 100 people (40 attorneys) on our network. All of the firm’s data totaled about 2GB and fit on a 4GB hard disk drive. Today one person commonly has a 1TB or 2TB drive (and for $80, why not?)—1,000 times as much data as my whole firm had. Yes, we now have audio, video and much larger files, but do we really need to hold that much data on the computers we carry?
We typically have two types of data—active data, including documents we are working on and other files we want to have immediate access to, and archival data. Archival data is everything else. With online backup, storage and file-sharing tools, we can keep archival data on the Net and external backup drives.
The smaller size of an SSD can be more than sufficient for what we need, and we get all the benefits an SSD brings. Less storage indeed can be more useful.
It’s worth mentioning that litigators and e-discovery professionals are finding SSDs to be a new frontier. SSDs store, move, erase and access data in completely different ways than do hard disks, often with significant implications and almost magical explanations.
Solid state drives give us a glimpse into the superfast, quiet future right now, and trends are running in the SSD direction. The benefits are significant and satisfying. Especially for a new laptop, money spent on an SSD will be money very well spent.
Dennis Kennedy is a St. Louis-based legal technology writer and information technology lawyer.
Dennis Kennedy is a St. Louis-based legal technology writer and information technology lawyer. |
warc | 201704 | Problem solving skills are part of everyday life. For a developing child, learning how to catch a fly ball, use a spoon, turn on the television, put together Lego blocks, or tie a shoelace, are just a few examples where these skills come in handy. According to new research, parents can help facilitate this learning process by simply asking them to “imagine” the solution. “Several studies have shown that without such verbal prompts, many children have difficulties with this sort of spatial reasoning until they are a little bit older (about 4 years of age), and make same types of errors consistently, even after training,” says Dr. Amy Joh, Assistant Professor Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University and lead researcher of the study. “However, in our study, without providing prior training and without giving children any answers, a simple prompt to imagine the solution helped children to solve the problem.”
Dr. Joh and her team tested the spatial reasoning skills of forty-eight toddlers, three years of age. During the test, Dr. Joh dropped a ball down one of three intertwined tubes and then asked the preschoolers to predict the location of the ball. To find the ball, children needed to follow the path of the relevant tube, a problem that young preschoolers often find difficult. The tube task requires children to use imagery to solve the problem since there are only three possible tubes to track, and the tubes lead to only three possible outcomes.
She asked a first group of toddlers to imagine the ball rolling down the tube before making their prediction. She gave a second group of toddlers the same instructions but did not ask them to imagine which tube the ball would fall into. As a control, she asked a third group of toddlers to make their predictions without giving any instructions. She then ran two different types of trials. On half of the trials, the tubes were transparent, and on the other half, the tubes were opaque. Half of the preschoolers in each of the three groups received the transparent tube trial before the opaque tube trials. The other half of toddlers were given the opaque tube trials followed by the transparent tube trials. The transparent tubes gave the toddlers visual feedback so they can watch the ball move through and emerge out of a particular tube; in contrast, toddlers who received the opaque tube trials first, did not receive this visual feedback. Dr. Joh's team used a statistical model to analyse the results.
The statistical analysis showed that preschoolers who were asked to use visual imagery performed significantly better on the test compared to other groups, including preschoolers who saw the ball fall through the transparent tube.
“The ‘imagine’ instructions appear to have provided participants with a mental problem-solving strategy that was more effective than visual feedback.” says Dr. Joh, who published her findings in the May 2011 issue of
Child Development.
She plans on directing future research efforts to understand how and why prompting children to “imagine” triggers problem-solving ability. “We are very excited about several new future directions, such as examining what happened when children "imagined" the path of the moving ball, how the visualization strategy compares to other strategies such as giving children more direct cues. For example, by using three different coloured tubes. We also want to examine how much help children need with the different strategies.”
For more information on how children learn, visit the series on Executive Function, in Part Two: The development of executive function in infancy and early childhood.
Nira Datta Medical Writer/Editor, AboutKidsHealth |
warc | 201704 | Welcome to the website of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), a non-profit, professional society dedicated to advancing the scientific understanding of and facilitating communication about disorders of the brain and behavior in order to advance their prevention and treatment.
The ACNP Membership comprises scientists from multiple fields including behavioral pharmacology, brain imaging, chronobiology, clinical psychopharmacology, epidemiology, genetics, molecular biology, neurochemistry, neuroendocrinology, neuroimmunology, neurology, neurophysiology, pharmacology, psychiatry, and psychology. ACNP members are among the leaders in these fields of science, and include Nobel Laureates, Presidential Medal of Science awardees, Lasker Awardees, members of the National Academy of the Sciences, and the winners of many other prestigious awards. Their work is in both the clinical and pre-clinical areas. The ACNP emphasizes translational research, the science that moves new knowledge on fundamental disease mechanisms into clinical application. The ACNP provides for a rich dialogue between clinical and basic scientists, which enables basic scientists to understand clinical concepts and unmet needs for new and better treatments for mental illnesses. This dialogue also enables clinical scientists to appreciate new opportunities for applying advances in basic neuroscience to human studies, such as early clinical trials. The ACNP has also played an important role in helping to develop the careers of outstanding young scientists and support their interest in joining the fields of basic and clinical neurosciences and the development of new drug treatments.
The ACNP website is meant to serve the membership of the ACNP, non-member scientists of all persuasions, as well as the public at large. Most, but not all, of the material on the ACNP website is available to non-members. We would particularly like to draw your attention to the Public/Media Resources and Education sections that contain many scientific resources, including videos of plenary talks presented at our annual meetings, news releases, a Science Discussion forum, and blogs from our College Presidents. Much of this information can also be found directly via links on our home page with some of the most recent and most interesting material appearing in the homepage spotlight. We hope that as you navigate these pages, you will find our website interesting and educational.
David R. Sibley, Ph.D.
ACNP Website Editor |
warc | 201704 | In the News for the Week of 2-9-10 Highlights Proteinuria predicts mortality in kidney patients Federal government expands mental health parity coverage Test yourself MKSAP Quiz: diagnostics for viral hepatitis Neurology Antidepressant may help cognitive recovery after stroke Menís health Internists should follow up with prostate cancer patients receiving ADT FDA update From the College ACP EVP stays on with National eHealth Collaborative as board member New trivia game by ACP on Facebook Fellow chosen by New Jersey governor For the record Cartoon caption contest Put words in our mouth Physician editor: Darren Taichman, FACP Highlights. Proteinuria predicts mortality in kidney patients
Proteinuria is a useful predictor of outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease, a new study found.
The Canadian cohort study included more than 900,000 adults who had at least one outpatient serum creatinine measurement and did not require dialysis at baseline. Data were gathered in a 2002-2007 registry that included estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFRs) and proteinuria measurements. The study was published in the Feb. 3
Journal of the American Medical Association.
Over the median follow-up of 35 months, 3% of the patients died. Although mortality rates were higher overall in patients with lower eGFRs, adjusted mortality rates were more than twice as high in patients with heavy proteinuria and eGFR of at least 60 mL/min/1.73 m
2 compared to patients with normal protein excretion and eGFR of 45 to 59.9 mL/min/1.73 m 2. Similar results were observed whether proteinuria was measured by urine dipstick or albumin-creatinine ratio. The study also found similar trends for the outcomes of hospitalization with acute myocardial infarction, end-stage renal disease and doubling of serum creatinine level.
Based on the results, it appears that patients with heavy proteinuria and normal eGFR have worse outcomes than those with moderately reduced eGFR and no proteinuria, the study authors concluded. Although current guidelines call for staging chronic kidney disease (CKD) based on eGFR, they should perhaps be revised, given that use of that measurement alone may miss clinically relevant gradients in risk. The authors also suggested that consideration be given to subdividing CKD stage 3, since their study found significant heterogeneity of risk among this population..
Federal government expands mental health parity coverage
Group health plans will be required to provide coverage for mental and substance use disorders that is equivalent to their medical benefits under a new rule issued by the Obama administration.
The rule, which was jointly issued by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury last week, prohibits group health insurance plans from restricting access to care by limiting benefits and requiring higher patient contributions, according to an HHS press release. The rules implement the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA).
MHPAEA expands on an earlier law, the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, which required parity in aggregate lifetime and annual dollar limits between the categories of benefits and did not extend to substance use disorder benefits. The new law, which applied to employers of 50 or more workers, requires that any group plan that includes mental health and substance use disorder benefits along with standard medical and surgical coverage must treat them equally in terms of out-of-pocket costs, benefit limits and practices such as prior authorization and utilization review.
The mental health and substance use coverage must be based on the same level of scientific evidence used by the insurer for medical and surgical benefits. For example, a plan may not apply separate deductibles for treatment related to mental health or substance use.
The new rules will come into effect for plan years beginning on or after July 1, 2010. Comments on the interim final rules are being solicited for the next 90 days. Sections where further comments are being specifically sought include non-quantitative treatment limits, such as those that pertain to the scope and duration of covered benefits, drug formularies, and the coverage of step-therapies. Comments are also being specifically requested on the regulation's section on scope of benefits or continuum of care. Comments may be e-mailed through the federal rulemaking portal.
Test yourself. MKSAP Quiz: diagnostics for viral hepatitis
A 44-year-old man was recently found to have abnormal serologic test results for viral hepatitis when he attempted to donate blood. The patient is asymptomatic. He used injection drugs and drank alcohol excessively for two years 25 years ago but has not used either drugs or alcohol since. Medical history is otherwise unremarkable, and he takes no medications.
Physical examination discloses a BMI of 23, no stigmata of chronic liver disease, and a normal-sized liver.
Laboratory studies
Serum aspartate aminotransferase 53 U/L Serum alanine aminotransferase 64 U/L Serum alkaline phosphatase 89 U/L Serum total bilirubin 0.9 mg/dL (15.39 Ķmol/L) Hepatitis B surface antigen (HbsAg) Negative Antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) Positive IgG antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (IgG anti-HBc) Positive IgM antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (IgM anti-HBc) Negative Antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) Positive
Abdominal ultrasonography is normal.
Which of the following diagnostic studies should be done next?
A) Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)
B) Hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV DNA) C) Hepatitis C virus RNA (HCV RNA) D) IgM antibody to hepatitis A virus (IgM anti-HAV)
Click here or scroll to the bottom of the page for the answer and critique.
Neurology. Antidepressant may help cognitive recovery after stroke
Treatment with the antidepressant escitalopram may enhance cognitive recovery after stroke, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Iowa conducted a single-center study to determine if therapy with escitalopram would affect cognitive outcomes after stroke. Within three months of an index stroke, patients were assigned to a double-blind, placebo-controlled arm that compared escitalopram with placebo or a nonblinded arm involving problem-solving therapy, a psychological treatment that teaches patients how to deal with their problems. The main outcome measures were changes in several neuropsychological tests, including the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), performed at baseline and at the end of the intervention period. The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and was published in the February
Archives of General Psychiatry.
One hundred twenty-nine patients were randomly assigned--43 to escitalopram, 45 to placebo, and 41 to problem-solving therapy--but 12 withdrew before beginning treatment and seven withdrew after treatment began. Patients who were randomly assigned to problem-solving therapy were older than patients in the other two groups. At 12 months, the authors found that escitalopram had a significant effect on total RBANS score (adjusted mean change, 10.0 in the escitalopram group vs. 3.1 in the nonescitalopram groups;
P<0.01) and RBANS delayed memory score (adjusted mean change, 11.3 in the escitalopram group vs. 2.5 in the nonescitalopram groups; P<0.01). Rates of adverse events did not differ among groups.
The authors acknowledged their study's limitations, including the limited generalizability of their findings and the difference in age between patients who received escitalopram and those who did not. However, they concluded that escitalopram was associated with improved global cognitive function, specifically verbal and visual memory, in patients who had had a stroke, independent of its effects on depression. "The utility of antidepressants in the process of poststroke recovery deserves to be further investigated," the authors wrote.
Menís health. Internists should follow up with prostate cancer patients receiving ADT
Studies that suggest a possible association between androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) and an increased risk of cardiovascular events, including myocardial infarction and cardiovascular mortality, may be driving more consultations between patients, internists, endocrinologists and cardiologists.
To inform these consultations, a multispecialty group assembled a science advisory, a strictly informative paper that should not dictate clinical practice or supersede the clinical judgment of a physician. The paper was published online in the Feb. 1
Circulation.
ADT is widely used for prostate cancer. It's a mainstay for overt metastatic disease, and the standard of care for high-risk prostate cancer when combined with external-beam radiation therapy. ADT is also often used for prostate volume reduction in men before definitive local therapy with brachytherapy, or to treat rising prostate-specific antigen levels after definitive local treatment.
Observed cardiovascular effects noted in the literature include:
decreased lean body mass and increased fat mass, increased serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and increased fasting plasma insulin levels, a marker of insulin resistance in men with prostate cancer.
The advisory states that patients do not need to be referred to internists, endocrinologists or cardiologists for evaluation before starting ADT. They should see their primary care physician within three to six months after starting ADT to assess blood pressure, lipid profile and glucose level. However, no data guide further follow-up intervals.
The physician treating the patient for prostate cancer should decide whether to start ADT in patients with cardiac disease, and should weigh benefits against potential risks, specifically for patients with known coronary artery disease.
Cardiologists in particular should not feel compelled to perform any specific testing or coronary intervention before starting ADT. No data suggest that stress testing can predict potential future cardiac risks, or that revascularization before ADT would decrease future cardiovascular risk, the advisory says.
FDA update. Some H1N1 vaccine to expire next week
The expiration date for Sanofi Pasteurís 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine in pre-filled syringes has been moved up to Feb. 15, 2010, the CDC announced last week.
The expiration date is being changed to ensure that the vaccine meets potency standards, according to the CDC. The vaccine does not pose any safety concerns and people who received vaccine from the lots with shortened shelf life do not need to take any action. The lots had previous expiration dates ranging from March to June 2011. The change does not include Sanofi Pasteurís 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine in multi-dose vials. A full list of affected vaccine is online..
Didanosine gets labeling change
Patients taking didanosine (Videx/Videx EC) have a newly recognized risk of non-cirrhotic portal hypertension, the FDA notified health care providers last week.
The medication, which is used to treat HIV infection, has been found to be associated with the liver problem based on reports submitted to the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System. Because of the potential severity of portal hypertension, including death from hemorrhaging esophageal varices, the FDA has revised the warning and precautions section of the drug label.
The FDA believes the clinical benefits of didanosine for certain patients with HIV continue to outweigh its potential risks. The decision to use this drug, however, must be made on an individual basis between the treating physician and the patient, the agency said..
Hemodialysis system recalled
The Aquarius Hemodialysis System is being recalled due to reports of clinically significant fluid imbalance and the potential for users to repeatedly override the fluid imbalance alarm, the FDA announced last week.
The class I recall includes model numbers GEF08200, GEF09500, GEF09600, GEF09700, and GEF09800, using software version 6.00.04. The product was distributed from July 12, 2007 through March 18, 2009. A software upgrade will be made to prevent users from bypassing the fluid balance alarm more than five times in a 20-minute period.
From the College. ACP EVP stays on with National eHealth Collaborative as board member
ACP Executive Vice President and CEO John Tooker, MBA, FACP, continues his commitment to the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) as one of nine newly elected members of the Board of Directors.
Dr. Tooker was one of three founding incorporators of NeHC, and served as the founding board chair until December 2009. The NeHC was created as the planned successor to the American Health Information Community (AHIC), a federal advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) until 2008. The current objective of the NeHC as a public-private partnership is to improve individual and population health by developing a secure, interoperable, nationwide health information system. Present NeHC Board Chair Laura Adams said new board of director members were elected to better facilitate the level of engagement and collaboration among stakeholders that the organization feels is necessary to achieve its goals. The elected members will be introduced at a stakeholder forum on Feb. 22 in Washington, D.C. More information about the forum and the NeHC is available online..
New trivia game by ACP on Facebook
Test your knowledge and have fun at the same time. Try out ACP's new Facebook trivia game, ďAre you an internist?Ē
The game features 10 questions derived from ACPís popular Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program (MKSAP). Take the quiz now, invite your friends and see how you rank. Check back monthly for updated questions..
Fellow chosen by New Jersey governor
Last week, Poonam Alaigh, FACP, director of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, was named commissioner of the New Jersey Health and Senior Services Department by Gov. Chris Christie.
Dr. Alaigh has previously served as national medical director for GlaxoSmithKline and is an assistant professor in the department of family practice at UMDNJ/Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School, according to the New Jersey Newsroom..
For the record
The "Test yourself" item in last week's
ACP InternistWeekly contained an error. The last sentence of the critique should have read "Thiazide-type diuretics should generally be used as initial therapy for most patients with hypertension, either alone or in combination with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, an angiotensin receptor blocker, a Ŗ-blocker, or a calcium-channel blocker," not "and angiotensin receptor blocker Ö". The sentence has been corrected. Cartoon caption contest. Put words in our mouth ACP InternistWeekly wants readers to create captions for this cartoon and help choose the winner. Pen the winning caption and win a $50 gift certificate good toward any ACP product, program or service.
E-mail all entries to acpinternist@acponline.org. ACP staff will choose three finalists and post them online for an online vote by readers. The winner will appear in an upcoming edition..
MKSAP answer and critique
The correct answer is C) Hepatitis C virus RNA (HCV RNA). This item is available online to MKSAP 14 subscribers in the Gastroenterology and Hepatology section, Item 12.
ACP's Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program (MKSAP) allows you to:
Update your knowledge in all areas of internal medicine Prepare for ABIM certification or recertification Support your clinical decisions in practice Assess your medical knowledge with 1,200 multiple-choice questions
To order the latest edition of MKSAP, go online.
Answer and Critique
This patient has elevated serum aminotransferase values and positive antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV). In a patient with a history of injection drug use, these findings are highly suggestive of hepatitis C, and an HCV RNA study should be done to confirm the presence of viremia.
Positive tests for antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) and IgG antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (IgG anti-HBc) are consistent with immunity from prior infection, and determination of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and HBV DNA is therefore not necessary. Testing for IgM antibody to hepatitis A virus (IgM anti-HAV) is not indicated because acute hepatitis A tends to cause systemic symptoms, jaundice, and more marked elevations in serum aminotransferase values.
Key Points Elevated serum aminotransferase values and a positive assay for antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) in a patient with risk factors for HCV are highly suggestive of the presence of hepatitis C. Patients with a positive assay for antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) should be tested for HCV RNA to determine if viremia is present.
Click here to return to the rest of
ACP InternistWeekly. About ACP InternistWeekly
ACP InternistWeekly is a weekly newsletter produced by the staff of ACP Internist. It is automatically sent to all College members who have an e-mail address on file with ACP.
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Copyright 2010 by the American College of Physicians.
Test yourself
A 67-year-old man is evaluated for a 6-month history of worsening exertional dyspnea. He has severe COPD, previously with minimal exertional symptoms, but now notes activity-limiting shortness of breath when walking short distances. He does not have chest pain, gastrointestinal symptoms, or sleep-related symptoms. Medical history is otherwise unremarkable. Medications are a twice-daily fluticasone/salmeterol inhaler and an as-needed albuterol/ipratropium metered-dose inhaler. He has a 55-pack-year smoking history but quit when COPD was diagnosed. Following a physical exam, chest radiograph, and transthoracic echocardiogram, what is the most appropriate diagnostic test to perform next?
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A New Way to Ace the Boards!
Ensure you're board-exam ready with ACP's Board Prep Ace - a multifaceted, self-study program that prepares you to pass the ABIM Certification Exam in internal medicine. Learn more. |
warc | 201704 | The European Central Bank is almost certain to cut interest rates next week after startling evidence that the sovereign debt crisis may have pushed the euro zone into recession.
With uncertainty crippling economic activity and investment, it emerged last night in Berlin that the euro zone's main bailout fund, the €440 billion EFSF, is likely to have its firepower boosted to €1 trillion to €1.5 trillion at this week’s second summit, due to kick off on Wednesday.
Prime Minister
As Italy emerged as the euro zone's latest core problem country,
But while Italy has been singled out as the zero-growth, unreformed problem child of the euro zone, fresh evidence emerged that the entire area is in trouble.
The key euro zone PMI composite output index, measuring both manufacturing and services, plunged this month at its fastest pace for two years - from 49.1 to 47.2. Economists united in arguing that the zone is now in recession, although the official data is not out until next month, putting pressure on the ECB to send a strong pro-growth signal at its first meeting without Jean-Claude Trichet as president for eight years.
Mario Draghi, his Italian successor, was expected to stay his hand on rates but the speed of deterioration in the real European economy is so rapid that analysts now expect the ECB governing council to reverse this year's rises and slash borrowing costs to 1 per cent before the New Year.
Both Germany and France have officially downgraded their growth forecasts for 2012 and the European commission's autumn forecast, due on November 11, is likely to confirm wintry prospects for the euro zone and for the EU as a whole.
In its interim forecast last month the EC said that, while growth in 2011 would still be 1.6 per cent in the euro zone and 1.7 per cent in the EU, a "pronounced deceleration" was expected in the second half.
GILLARD’S G20 PITCH
Ms Gillard wrote to French President
“European leaders will need to stabilise the situation by resolving sovereign debt issues and ensure there are safeguards to avoid contagion," Ms Gillard is to say in a speech in Perth on Tuesday morning, according to a draft.
“Europe also needs to ensure that its private banks are adequately capitalised to ensure stability. This is no time for further delay."
CONFIDENCE AT ‘DANGER POINT’
Monday's figures from Markit prompted economists to say the destabilising effects on confidence of the debt crisis had reached danger point. RBC Capital Markets said: "[The figures] convey an unambiguous message that the risks of a recession in the euro area are both material and increasing."
The prevailing gloom was lifted only by signs that, while German manufacturing is suffering, service sector activity enjoyed a surprising surge. Figures for August showed new orders for eurozone industry jumping by an astonishing 2 per cent.
But this was effectively ignored by economists. "All in all, this [PMI] is a miserable report, highlighting the fact that the euro zone is falling into recession again," said Peter Vanden Houte, chief euro zone economist at ING. He expects the ECB to delay rate cuts until the new year and only 0.5 per cent growth in the euro zone as a whole in 2012. But Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight said the surveys "pile pressure on the ECB to cut rates at its 3 November policy meeting".
Senior researchers at Brussels-based thinktank Bruegel called for temporary wage-price subsidies, tax breaks and reinvigorated industrial policies among other growth-enhancing measures. "Without growth, Europe is at risk of struggling permanently with debt sustainability and it is at the mercy of stagnation and a debt overhang," they said.
Wednesday's twin summits at both EU-27 and euro zone level are meant to endorse measures to promote growth and jobs but all eyes are on whether the leaders can adopt a three-pronged package to recapitalise banks, write-down Greek debt in an orderly fashion and further boost the EFSF.
Christian Noyer, Bank of France governor, reckoned France's banks needed only €10 billion of the €108 billion expected to be needed for Europe's banks. German's banks are expected to need €5 billion.
BANK DEBT DEAL ‘RELATIVELY CLOSE’
Negotiators from the European Union and banks, meanwhile, are “relatively close" to a deal to write off around half of Greece’s €350 billion debt pile, an EU official said.
“We’re relatively close to a deal," said EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn’s spokesman, Amadeu Altafaj.
While talks are ongoing, he underlined that the EU’s “preference" was “clearly for a voluntary approach", but then batted away questions on whether the so-called ‘haircut’ of “at least 50 per cent" sought by euro zone finance ministers could somehow yet be made unavoidable for the banks.
A source close to the negotiations told AFP that the EU has asked banks to agree a 60-per cent write-down but that banks are so far sticking to their offer of a 40 per cent cut.
“It will probably end up somewhere in the middle," a diplomatic source told AFP.
A negotiator for a major French bank that was a key player in negotiations for a 21-per cent cut originally agreed in July that turned out to be hugely insufficient, said “nothing has yet been decided."
Pro-government Greek daily
Ta Nea also warned that with a “major haircut" the Greece was “playing with fire" given there was “still the risk of both a default and that (Greek) banks would be kept out of the market due to a lack of financing."
Greek banks hold about €44 billion in sovereign debt bonds, and pension funds another €8 billion.
GREEK DEBT WRITE-DOWN CONCERNS MOUNT
The Athens stock exchange lost 4.51 per cent on Monday as leading banks tumbled more than 20 per cent after EU leaders on Sunday proposed a massive Greek debt restructuring as part of efforts to contain the euro zone debt crisis.
EU leaders held a series of meetings over the weekend in Brussels and will meet again on Wednesday to agree on a comprehensive accord - although many are sceptical they will do that after so many failed attempts.
“If decisions are again like previous ones, filled with asterisks, then the ground we are building on will be unstable," said Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos, a close associate of Prime Minister George Papandreou.
“While markets are wagering against Europe’s success, Europe responds with slow and ambiguous steps. This is no way to solve the problem," he told state radio NET.
ITALIAN ANGER AT ‘MERKOZY’ SMIRK
In neighbouring Italy, a smirk shared by
Leading daily
Corriere della Sera, which has criticised Berlusconi for delaying the economic stimulus package demanded by Europe, called the behaviour of Merkel and Sarkozy "excessive" in a front page editorial, adding: "For an Italian it was not great, and it matters little if you are pro- or anti-Berlusconi."
The French and German leaders - now dubbed 'Merkozy' - exchanged glances and smiled when asked if they were confident Berlusconi would come up with reforms, prompting a gale of laughter from journalists.
"No one is authorised to ridicule Italy, even after Berlusconi's obvious and embarrassing delays in tackling the crisis," said Pier Ferdinando Casini, the head of the opposition UDC party, adding: "I didn't like Sarkozy's sarcastic smile."
La Repubblica summed up the general discomfort at seeing Italy put on par with Greece at the Brussels summit being held to thrash out a solution for the European debt crisis, calling any parallels with Italy's neighbour "ungenerous".
Berlusconi appeared to blame Sarkozy's behaviour on his unhappiness over Italy's over-representation on the board at the European Central Bank, now that Italian Mario Draghi has been appointed chairman and Italian board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi is refusing to step down to make way for a French appointee.
"Sarkozy has started to get annoyed," said Berlusconi. "At a certain point I said to Sarkozy, 'But what am I supposed to do? Kill him?'"
BRITISH PM FACING EU REBELLION
Across the English Channel, tensions are also running hot as David Cameron seeks to head off the biggest rebellion of his leadership, urging eurosceptic MPs in his Conservative party to reject a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.
Cameron said that while he sympathised with those who wanted a new relationship with Brussels, the euro zone debt crisis meant now was not the time for a national vote which could lead to Britain leaving the European Union altogether.
Between 60 and 100 of the party’s 305 MPs were tipped to defy Cameron and back a referendum in a non-binding vote later in the day, in a resurgence of divisions that threatened to tear the Tories apart in the 1990s.
Defeat for the government is unlikely, because the Liberal Democrats - the Conservatives’ euro-friendly junior coalition partners - and the main opposition Labour Party are expected to vote with the government.
But the rebellion is politically significant, particularly as polls suggest it has public support. A YouGov survey for the
Sunday Times at the weekend found that 66 per cent of Britons back a referendum on European Union membership.
“It’s not the right time, at this moment of economic crisis, to launch legislation that includes an in-out referendum," Cameron told the House of Commons at the start of a lengthy debate.
“When your neighbour’s house is on fire, your first impulse should be to help him put out the flames. ... This is not the time to argue about walking away."
Guardian, AFP and David Crowe The Australian Financial Review |
warc | 201704 | Avoid Estate Sale Scams.
Estate sale companies appraise, price, and sell the personal property of people who have passed away or wish to downsize their households. Estate sale companies routinely handle estates valued at thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, and they are required to be bonded in Minnesota. It can be difficult to sort out reputable estate sale companies from untrustworthy ones, and consumers are encouraged to take precautions when selecting and contracting with estate sale companies.
“Jane”is seeking assistance selling items and property that her recently deceased father left behind when he died unexpectedly. She locates an estate sale company on the internet that claims it has been in business for decades with thousands of satisfied customers. She contacts the company, and its representatives promise that its “experts” run professional and transparent estate sales so that their clients have nothing to worry about and are quickly paid within weeks. The company promises to provide detailed itemizations of all sales so that the value and sales of all of the property is transparent and easily documented. Jane is grieving and there is so much to do in the aftermath of her father’s sudden death, that she immediately agrees to let the company operate the estate sale without closely reviewing the contract or shopping around. Three months after the estate sale, Jane still has not received the proceeds of the estate sale, which she was hoping to use to defray some of the costs of the funeral. She has received only minimal paperwork regarding what items were sold and for how much, and the company, which initially made vague excuses about the “delayed” payment and accounting documents, has now stopped returning her calls altogether. Now Jane is struggling to find recourse to resolve the matter, and is considering having to hire a lawyer which she fears will only add more expense and worry to her situation.
The Attorney General’s Office provides the following tips for people seeking the services of an estate sale company:
Shop Around
Interview more than one company before you make your decision who to hire. Take your time and compare the companies’ rates and terms. You may wish to obtain a recommendation from a realtor, banker, or other trusted source.
Research the Company
Do your homework on a given company before you agree to sign a contract. Find out how long the company has been in business in Minnesota, and whether its employees have specialized credentials or are members of professional associations. Ask the company for references of multiple clients and contact them to inquire about the company’s prior performance.
Bonding and Insurance
Minnesota law (Minn. Stat. § 325E.70) requires that an estate sale company be bonded, and some companies may represent in their marketing materials that they are bonded and insured. Ask the company for copies of the bond and any applicable insurance policy so that you may review them. An estate sale conductor bond must be approved and endorsed by a county treasurer, and filed in a county treasurer’s office. Ask the county treasurer’s office to confirm any details. (The bonding requirement does not apply to licensed certified public accountants or licensed attorneys.)
Review the Contract
Take time to closely review the terms and conditions in the contract. Make sure that each promise the company has made to you orally is set forth in plain language in the contract. Remember, the company may not honor any promise that is not specifically spelled out in writing in the contract. If a term is missing or unclear, demand that the contract be revised before signing it. Don’t be rushed and make sure you get everything in writing. If there are provisions that you do not understand or are concerned about, you may wish to consider having an advisor or an attorney review the contract for you.
Compare Rates and Fees
Closely scrutinize the company’s commission rates, and inquire about any and all fees, including moving expenses, appraisals, security, trash removal, cleaning, advertising, or other sale related expenses. Commissions can range as high as 30-40 percent and customers may not be aware that they can be charged additional fees on top of that. Request all the details related to proposed commissions and fees, and shop around and compare them to the rates of other companies to make sure that you are getting the best deal.
Pricing the Items and Operating the Sale
Before agreeing to the contract, discuss in detail how prices will be set and insist on having the authority to change prices or remove items from the sale if you do not agree with the price set by the company. Demand that prices marked on items will not be discounted except as provided in your contract or with your express consent. Insist that you be given a subtotal of sale proceeds at the end of each sale day. Require that the company and staff working the sale obtain your express consent before purchasing sale items or bringing in their own items to sell at your sale. You may wish to reserve the right to be present at the sale, or to have a neutral third-party monitor the sale on your behalf.
Demand Immediate Payment
Before you sign any contract, discuss how and when you will receive payment, and insist on being paid your share of cash proceeds immediately after the sale has concluded. Insist that the contract provide specific deadlines by which the company must make payment and supply sale-related documentation, and provide penalties for the company’s failure to comply. Insist that the contract specifically bar the company from utilizing your share of sale proceeds for any purpose prior to payment.
Require the Company to Provide Detailed Records and Documentation
Before hiring a given company, insist that following the sale you will be given an itemized list identifying each item or group of items marked for sale and the actual price collected. Insist that following the sale you be given sales receipts and documentation of credit card and check transactions to substantiate the sales process.
Consumers who would like to check on a company’s status with the Better Business Bureau may contact the Bureau as follows:
Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota 220 South River Ridge Circle Burnsville, MN 55337 (651) 699-1111 or (800) 646-6222 www.bbb.org/minnesota
For more information, or to file a consumer complaint, contact the Attorney General’s Office as follows:
Office of Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson 445 Minnesota Street, Suite 1400 St. Paul, MN 55101 (651) 296-3353 or (800) 657-3787 TTY: (651) 297-7206 or TTY: (800) 366-4812 Related Posts:
Seniors Legal Rights
This Handbook is designed to provide Senior Citizens with information regarding legal rights covering topics as consumer protection, consumer rights, charitable giving, investments, healthcare, and more.
Probate and Planning
The process of planning ahead for the end of life is something that many want to avoid. Although planning for such a time may not be comfortable, it is an important step to help those who will care for you and your affairs. This handbook addresses wills and the probate process. Next, it describes living trusts, conservatorships, and powers of attorney. Finally, it addresses health care directives and planning a funeral.
Seniors' Guide to Fighting Fraud
This guide will inform you about the common scams aimed at seniors and the steps consumers can take to thwart the swindlers. |
warc | 201704 | SF: Meditation Mondays and Sexy Salad :) Sorry -- you may have to turn up the volume.
Then I talked to members of the National Ground Water Association [30 min 22 MB MP3]
Title: Unsustainable groundwater management: Robbing from your neighbors or yourself? Summary: Aquifers are complicated, but groundwater management institutions are more complex. Sometimes they match the complexity of the aquifer, but it's more common to have mismatched institutions that reflect past conditions, asymmetric power relations, and external influences. I will discuss a typical profile of unsustainable management, some simple economic tools for managing groundwater, and speculate on why those tools are not often used. |
warc | 201704 | Ocean life could collapse by 2048
New scientific data going back to the 1960s predicts that the aquatic
fauna populations could collapse by 2048 if current trends in habitat
destruction and overfishing continue.
This study was published in the November issue of the journal
Science. Boris Worm, lead author of the study stated, "In losing species
we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems. I was
shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are -- beyond
anything we suspected."
To read the full article please visit
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/
newsid/38799/story.htm
Abundant scientific data is available of the tremendous damage human
activity is causing on already fragile ecosystems. We are called to be
good stewards of all of God’s creation, but reality shows that we are
not. The transition to a plant-based diet could have a dramatic positive
effect in restoring the environment, reducing animal suffering and
benefiting our health.
Your question and comments are welcome |
warc | 201704 | Bitcoin ushered in and empowers the golden age of cybercrime. The Dark Net, the Dark Web are real networks of cybercrime where using Bitcoin you can transact your purchase; ransomware, malware, stolen credit card numbers, bank accounts, financial data, and intellectual property. Terrorists troll the Dark Net to associate, communicate, plan and execute attacks both physical and cyber. The Dark Web is an easy place to get to using “TOR.” Google and Microsoft Internet Explorer log browser activity. Honest citizens of the world use TOR to escape network surveillance.
Cybercrime is increasing and ever changing, smart, intrusive, profitable via Bitcoin, ruinous to companies and individuals with no target too small or too large. Cybercriminals invade computing infrastructures and morph seamlessly into administrative status. They grant themselves administrative accounts and privileged accounts, validated and almost undetectable. With the DBA account comprised, ransomware is enabled and the hacker owns the data. “Get your decryption key. Send payment to the Bitcoin link.”
The World is at War, the CyberWar, the cyber enemy; unknown, nameless, stateless and rogue state funded. Cybercriminals sneak and assimilate into company networks. They wait and steal and attack company assets. Cybercriminals have nothing to defend. Cybercriminals hit without fear or concern of retaliation.
For Security in the Cyber-World companies identify their assets, implement prevention and detection, plan internal response and reactive policies and procedures and they purchase cyber insurance. The best defense is a good offense, not when it comes to cybersecurity.
The United States and Israel apparently launched a cyber-attack known as Stuxnet against Iran’s nuclear program. Alleged state funded hacking to safe guard countries and citizens and national security.
As Cybersecurity evolves, the cybercriminal adjusts, frequently steps ahead. Requirements for cybersecurity call for a radically different approach to engage cybersecurity companies to provide software for proactive pre-emptive strikes, retaliation against known cybercriminals to destroy their criminal cyber assets? The tenor of cybersecurity is high profile; even CNN does cyber-attack stories.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is now the chairman of cybersecurity and crisis management at the law firm of Greenberg Traurig. Retired US Air Force Lt General and Former Director of the NSA Ken Minihan is a Managing Director at Paladin Capital Group with a laser focus on Security in the CyberWorld. The best defense is a good offense.
Image Credit: CC by Perspecsys Photos |
warc | 201704 | U.S. Election results encourage North America to continue expansion of its Renewable Energy Portfolio and welcome the Fourth U.S. Solarpraxis PV Power Plants Conference Revived interests in continued development of large-scale PV plants will bring together industry experts to discuss the most pressing and relevant topics for establishing, maintaining and generating new and existing projects.
PV Power Plants Conference
BERLIN--Solarpraxis AG, one of the leading organizers of conferences in the renewable energy sector, will host its fourth annual conference focusing exclusively on large-scale solar power plants on November 28 & 29 in Phoenix, Arizona. The conference will provide project developers and decision makers with essential technical and financial information on the following topics: smart grid, LCOE, utility-interactive control, BOS, quality assessment, bankability, plant operation, energy storage, data management, inverters, project restructuring and community solar. These essential issues will be covered by thought leaders from companies such as First Solar, SEPA, E.ON, PG&E, Gestamp, Chevron, UL and many others. Greg Stanton, the Mayor of Phoenix, will open the program which will also include a series of sessions called ‘Learning Excursions,' and feature industry experts such as John Balfour, John Parsons (Clean Power Group) and Kent James of Martifer, all providing vital insight.
With the election behind us, it is time to acknowledge the rapid development of the North American PV market and the fact that the U.S. solar industry has grown over 13.2 percent over the last year (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). All of this demonstrates that the future of the PV market in the Americas is bright, and will remain at the forefront with continued strategic efforts and the knowledge of other solar markets.
In addition to the conference, on November 27th Solarpraxis will host a golfing tournament to increase networking in the relaxed environment of the putting green.
More information regarding the U.S. Solarpraxis PV Power Plants 2012 Conference can be found by visiting http://www.solarpraxis.de/en/conferences/4th-pv-power-plants-conference-usa-2012
About Solarpraxis AG: Solarpraxis AG is one of the leading knowledge service providers in the renewable energy sector. The Berlin-based company provides clients with expertise and professional services in the fields of engineering, conference organization and publishing. Its B2B magazines include pv magazine and photovoltaik. |
warc | 201704 | Membership ABA Groups Diversity Advocacy Resources for Lawyers Publishing CLE Insurance News About Us
Francine Bailey is an Associate Editor of The Affiliate and an Associate with The Bellows Law Group, P.C., in Chicago, Illinois.
By Francine Bailey
Beginning on April 20, 2010, attorneys from all over the nation descended on Washington, D.C., to participate in the fourteenth annual ABA Day. The purpose of ABA Day is to provide an opportunity for bar leaders from the ABA and state and local bar associations to participate in meaningful, effective “Hill visits” with elected officials.
“Active participation is vital to successfully educate the Administration and Congress about issues of importance to lawyers,” says this year’s Chair of the ABA Day in Washington Planning Committee, Laurel G. Bellows, of Chicago, Illinois.
Priorities During these visits, a limited number of pre-selected ABA legislative priorities are presented to members of Congress. Participants are expected to include most, if not all of these issues in visits to their representatives and senators. By using this process, the ABA has been successful in enacting or advancing several legislative priorities.
This year, one priority was funding for the politically independent Legal Services Corporation (LSC). The LSC currently awards competitive grants to 137 independent local legal services programs and serves every congressional district in the country. In addition to requesting funding, participants also advocated for the reauthorization of LSC for the first time since 1977. Currently, similar bills are pending in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The ABA strongly supports the reauthorization of LSC, which will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the delivery of legal services to the poor.
A second priority promoted was the Civil Rights Tax Relief Act of 2009. It was introduced by Representatives John Lewis (D-Ga.) and James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Susan Collins (R-Me.). This legislation is necessary because the 1996 Small Business Job Protection Act made non-economic damages in employment discrimination cases taxable, while non-economic damages in personal injury cases are tax-free. ABA Day gave attorneys the opportunity to discuss how this change has made settling employment cases more difficult and addressed the differences in the amounts of settlement payments before and after the legislation.
Past legislative priorities have included preservation of the attorney-client privilege, enactment of portions of the Civil Rights Tax Relief Act, and passage of the McDade/Murtha law requiring government lawyers to adhere to state ethical standards.
Participation Regardless of political affiliation, lawyers from all over the nation can benefit from participation in ABA Day. The ultimate goal of ABA Day is to bring to the forefront the issues that are of importance to lawyers everywhere.
Experience with lobbying is not necessary to participate in ABA Day. Organizers of the event have prepared training sessions so attendees get the greatest benefit out of the Hill visits. ABA Day participants can attend workshops and an issues-training session to help them prepare for the Hill visits. These sessions prepared participants for the face-to-face meetings with their representatives and senators.
ABA Day is not limited to Hill visits, however. Participants also had the opportunity to attend a “Welcome Dinner” at the Canadian Embassy, a “Congressional Reception” at the Library of Congress, and a Capitol Hill breakfast at which invited leaders of Congress and representatives from the President’s staff were in attendance.
A wide range of opportunities were available during the short weekend, from catching up on CLE credits to intensive training on strategies for lobbying members of Congress.
Opportunity for Young Lawyers ABA Day is not just for more established attorneys. During the 2008 presidential election, the participation of young lawyers substantially increased. This is a trend that ABA Day Committee members hope to continue.
The “great thing about ABA Day is that attorneys are able to unite behind a common vision: public policy that impacts us,” said Angela Rye, the ABA Day Liaison to the ABA YLD. She told
The Affiliate that ABA Day is an opportunity for young lawyers, regardless of political affiliation, to get involved with the legislative process. “It is a worthwhile endeavor for young lawyers,” said Rye. She explained that “participation will assist in a young lawyer’s development into an excellent attorney.”
ABA Day will contribute to a solid foundation and allow the opportunity for connections in the courtroom, offices, and the halls of Congress. If you or any of your members are interested in learning more about ABA Day, go to
www.abanet.org/poladv . |
warc | 201704 | In recent years, as employees have increasingly brought smart phones and tablets and even their own laptops to work, hoping to connect them to their employers' networks, a raft of challenges have ensued. Chief among these have been the numerous security concerns raised by having to allow unverified devices to access the network, as well as the potential for sensitive business data to leave the network on those devices.
But as vexing as the BYOD phenomenon has been for IT leaders, it has been a mere appetizer to the main course: The widespread adoption of the Internet of Things...
Read More |
warc | 201704 | Animal Protection >Actions - Index >Canada
By Rod Coronado Open the Cages!
On October 23, 1995 the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.) opened the cages on the Dargatz Mink Farm in British Columbia, Canada freeing 2,400 mink into the surrounding countryside. The liberation from the Dargatz Mink Farm was the first in what now has become 12 liberation raids by the A.L.F. of fur farms in North America in less than a year. The result has been the release of approximately 11,000 mink, 30 fox and one coyote from the intensive confinement that would have lead to death for all prisoners.
The release of animals from fur farms is nothing new. In the former Soviet Union, Iceland, mainland Scandinavia, Western Europe, Britain and Newfoundland, Animal Liberation raids as well as accidental and intentional escapes from fur farms have resulted in mink and some fox being introduced successfully into the natural environment.
In Britain, the ecological impact of these releases has been measured, and as liberated mink conveniently fill the ecological niche left by Britain's now extinct otter population, the negative impact has been minimal. In Iceland's island ecosystem, and in parts of Scandinavia, mink has been slightly more destructive to the ecological balance. Never has the question of formerly captive minks survivability been questioned by those in the know, only the level of impact these beautiful fierce predators have as they successfully readapt to a wild life.
NORTH AMERICAN MINK
In North America, its a whole different story. Although there is a Eurasian species, mink are believed to be native to North America with the theory that the Eurasian species originated from North American ancestors who crossed the ice bridge between this continent and Asia. Previous to the "discovery" of the "New World", mink were one of the many aquatic animals that flourished in virtually every lake and waterway in North America except the desert regions.
The war against the mink nation that continues today, began when the first Europeans invaded their homeland. When the Mayflower first rounded Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1620, already Jamestown, Virginia was the hub of an extensive fur trade. A price list from 1621 records mink among other animals fetching up to ten shillings apiece on the market to which modern day fur farmers can claim as their bloody lineage.
The fur trade can also accept responsibility for causing the extinction of the native minks salt water cousin, the sea-mink. Nearly twice the size of their freshwater relations, and recorded as inhabiting the whole Northeastern North American Seaboard, and all that remains of this being are two skins and a pile of bones. That and of course the memory of one furrier who before the American Revolution recalls the pelt of the sea-mink selling for five guineas. And so it is, by the end of the 19th century, fresh-water mink were severely depleted from their former range in all of North America by a fur industry thirsty for the blood of this continents fur animals.
BEGINNINGS OF MINK CAPTIVITY
Unlike their European and Scandinavian counterparts, mink farmers in the United States and Canada began the attempted domestication and economic exploitation of mink often from live captured wild mink populations. In the 1920's this new element to the fur trade began.
In 1925 Kent Vernon's family in Northern Utah (now president of the Utah fur-breeders Co-Op) live-trapped chicken-killing mink from the wild and began breeding them in captivity. In 1927 the U.S. Government opened its Experimental Furbearer Research Station in Corvallis, Oregon (shutdown by an A.L.F. raid in 1991) and began experimentation in different techniques to breed wild mink in captivity. With overexploited mink populations unable to satisfy the demands of an increasing demand for fur, trappers across North America began to captive-raise wild mink, and in the 1930's discovered fur mutations that altered the minks fur color. Now just 70 short years later, mink farmers are still battling the still dominant wild DNA of captive mink that causes these normally free-roaming solitary animals to contract diseases from close confinement, self-mutilate and even cannibalize their own kind. All for the price of a fur coat.
MINK INDUSTRY RESEARCH
Beginning in 1990, I researched mink farms by visiting over 25 in Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Michigan. What began as a quest to document conditions and killing techniques on fur farms quickly turned into the study of the first ever attempted domestication of a North American predator. What I learned both by my research and by the rescue rehabilitation, and release of sixty mink from a Montana farm leads me to conclude that all captive mink should be released, in one way or another, from their prisons we call fur farms.
Highly intelligent, fierce and very adaptive, mink are anything but successfully domesticated. Arguments by the fur industry that mink are domesticated are ludicrous. Like all wild animals held in captivity, some mink when released from their cages will fare better than others. Many factors will contribute to successful mink reintroduction as does the impact they will have on their surrounding eco-system. These are issues that I will address in this article.
INFILTRATION
In 1990-91, I spoke with many mink farmers and researchers who, believing I was a mink farmer, instructed me in ways to avoid my mink from losing their recessive genetic structures that gave them the fur quality and color variation that separated them from their wild relations. Captive mink are genetically 95% similar to their wild counterparts. The only difference besides behavior being fur color and quality which is solely maintained by a scientifically controlled diet, which is key to maintaining their genetic differences from wild mink. Black and dark mink being the closest genetically to wild mink.
Jim Leischow, a second generation mink farmer from Kenosha, Wisconsin described to me in a discussion at the 1991 Seattle Fur Exchange auctions how without a scientifically controlled diet, mink on any fur farm would lose their recessive genes, and over-powered by their dominant wild genetic structure, return to their wild roots in just a few generations. Leischow also detailed how a mink escapee that breeds with a wild mink would produce offspring that in one more generation would have lost all traces of any altered genetic structure.
IMPRISONED MINK STILL WILD
The difference between mink and other animals raised in intensive confinement is totally incomparable. Not only are all other domesticated livestock ungulated and herbivorous but they have also been domesticated for well over a thousand years. The closest comparison, which is hardly applicable, but for the sake of argument will be used, is the domestication of the common house cat. Originating in ancient Egypt, the cat has had over two thousand years of domestication, yet still this feline predator is proven capable of surviving in the wild as feral populations in the U.S. and Britain will attest to.
Once again, survivability is not the issue but impact on their native species. Captive mink are so far away from successful domestication that they are rarely caged together unless with their own off-spring, and then only until they reach sexual maturity. Self-mutilation and cannibalism, which is not uncommon on mink farms, is yet further proof of a wild animals' behavior as it attempts to deal with the neurosis caused by intensive confinement. Anyone who has ever been on a mink farm has heard the incessant scratching mink will make as they attempt to escape or attack their captive neighbors, separated only by a plastic or metal divider. This also is common behavior of a wild predator unfamiliar with close proximity to others of its own species. The psychological as well as physical torture associated with the confinement of mink naturally accustomed to solitary wandering is beyond our comprehension.
Genetically speaking mink are predominately still wild. Separated from their wild ancestors only by a controlled diet. Physiologically they are identical. What remains as the greatest division between wild and captive mink is predatory instincts and natural behavior which dictates how they hunt, find shelter, build nests and forage. Fear of other animals is minimal as mink are renowned for their fearlessness.
MINK REHABILITATION PROJECT
These separations were the basis of personal research into the potential for rehabilitation and release of the 60 mink I had purchased in Montana in 1990. The Coalition Against Fur Farms (CAFF) began as a rehabilitation project, the objective being to determine the feasibility to reintroduce native mink from fur farms back into their natural habitat. In January of 1991 the trials began as CAFF volunteers placed mink in cages four times as large as their previous enclosures and introduced natural objects such as logs, rocks, plants, and gallon baths.
Fur farmers had assured me that escaped captive mink had at least a 50% chance of survival, and CAFF hoped to increase that figure as much as possible. The introduction of a 12"x6" bathtubs allowed the mink their first opportunity to acquaint themselves with water besides that which came from a small water nozzle or dish. Their response was to fully submerge themselves and spin in a cycle that quickly splashed all water out of their baths. This would be followed by grooming sessions in which the mink dried themselves and maintained utmost cleanliness, yet another sign of a healthy wild animal.
Once the mink had built up muscular strength after their time in a fur farms cramped conditions, we began to nurture hunting instincts. Though morally opposed to the killing of animals, CAFF felt that the survival of our captive mink could not be guaranteed without a minimal amount of live-animal feeding. We knew that our project would later be used by others to determine the potential for successful reintroduction of fur farm prisoners, and so chose to do everything possible to ensure not only their survival but also their survival without human dependency. This also meant live-feeding which would teach them how to hunt rather than scrounge near or where humans were. This would ensure greater independence and less likelihood of human/mink interactions.
The mink in our project dug into their instinctual memory to remind themselves how to first seize the prey with one bite, then without releasing it, crush down until the skull or neck was broken. Then the mink would scour the logs and rocks for others that may have gone unnoticed. Once assured of no other present prey, the mink would return to the kill and eat everything or place the remainder in its nest just like wild mink. Once the mink had learned to kill and had tasted live food, they refused to eat the scientific diet we had been supplied by National Fur Feeds.
THE RELEASE
Finally, we released the mink to natural waterways across the Northwest's many forest lands. Always far from human habitations. And never within a 5-mile radius of another captive released mink of the opposite sex. We wanted to ensure the breeding only with wild mink. We also waited until the natural breeding season had passed so as not to burden the mink with the upbringing of offspring in their first season of freedom.
Our mink releases were filled with encouraging signs that the mink would survive. On one release a mink quickly found an abandoned animal burrow, and as we left we could see its head peeking out watching our departure. Another release had a young female mink burrowing under a log, gathering twigs and grass building a nest. Still another mink found a mouse hole, and burying its nose in it began to dig frantically. On many releases near streams the mink were quick to explore the shore of the water, eventually plunging in and swimming completely submerged playing with pebbles and rocks with their forepaws. Returning to one release site weeks later I quickly found mink droppings and tracks near the creek and the dropping contained hair from a preyed upon animal. Most of the behavior exhibited by our mink was not learned, but simply returned to them as they found themselves in their natural element.
THOUGHTS ON LIBERATIONS
It is my belief that the liberator becomes responsible for the lives of the liberated when she/he endeavors to free them. Ideally, the liberated will become truly independent of human needs and achieve complete liberation. But until then, there are a number of factors that liberators can influence to increase the possibilities of a liberated mink's survival.
The time of year the liberations take place is the highest priority. The best time being May and January, the worst being during the breeding and kit-bearing season. Releasing an impregnated mink increases the needs of the liberated mink for food and shelter, female mink naturally raise their kits alone. Releasing mink once they have given birth to a litter will also mean abandonment of kits, although some might be foster-raised by another mink mother.
Of course, it cannot be over-looked that all captive minks are destined for death, and there is room for debate as to which kind of death is more desirable, a mink being the only one to surely know. Still I have hesitated to release mink from fur farms near heavily traveled roads knowing a large number would become road kills. This is yet another moral dilemma the liberator must face when they decide to open the cages. Personally, I have seen mink watching as the gas-chambers are wheeled down the rows of cage, and seen them screech frantically and attempt all manner of last minute escape as it becomes painfully evident that they will die.
There is also the very compelling argument for liberation that even with the recapture of 100% of all released mink from a targeted farm, that the breeding has still been completely disrupted as farmers have no way of separately identifying their breeder mink from their pelter mink. A mink raised to be pelted will often be in a much smaller cage than a breeder mink. For this reason, liberators would do best by releasing mink from both large and small mink cages so as to confuse the two. As of yet mink farmers have not devised methods of tagging, branding or tattooing individual animals except for labeling on the cage. For this reason it is always advantageous to remove all record-keeping cards from cages when releasing mink.
Transportation of mink either a short distance from cage to guard fence or a larger distance is best achieved by securing the mink individually in its nestbox. A small flat piece of sheet metal is often used to divide and block the hole leading from the nestbox to cage at which point the nestbox can them be removed and the hold blocked with a gloved hand or more permanent means for long transportation. Despite the average liberators aversion to leather, nothing protects human skin better than a thick pair of leather welding gloves which usually can be found lying around a mink farm. With criminal DNA testing liberators should take every precaution not to leave a blood trail of their own. Remember, you are dealing with a wild predator unfamiliar to kind human hands.
Often given the choice, a mink will leave the immediate area once outside of the guard fence, which usually is a 5-6 foot fence lined with sheet metal to prevent escape should mink get out of their cage. If left inside the guard fence often a mink will linger simply because of the smell of food or other mink cages, and also because of the familiarity of its own nestbox which is all it has ever known.
Once a large number of mink have left the guard fence area the quickest method of natural distribution is waterways. Without interference from the irate mink farmers attempting to recapture his furry investments, mink will not overcrowd themselves in the wild. It is not uncommon for a mink to travel 5 miles in one night (they are mostly nocturnal) and a large number of mink released in one area will not stay concentrated but will travel until they establish a territory all their own, searching out other mink only to breed.
ECOLOGICAL IMPACT
This leads us to the issue of ecological impact caused by mass mink liberations on their new environment. There will be noticeable impact on local prey populations, and for this reason, liberators should research target areas to guarantee that the sensitive habitat of a vulnerable endangered species is not nearby. Mink will attack almost anything, I've seen mink chasing large dogs and heard a story of one seen flying through the air attached to the leg of a large heron, the mink unwilling to release its targeted prey.
Mink will kill beyond their need, and for this reason caution should be taken when releasing mink near large concentrations of small animals. Mink are ferocious. Long persecuted at the hands of man, native predators are continually routinely killed by ranchers and other gun-toting humans. Much like the coyote has filled the ecological niche the wolf has left behind and by doing so extended its own historical range, so also do mink have the potential to fit nicely into the niche otters and other predators have left as their numbers are continually reduced by humans. Native mink populations are still drastically reduced, and given large-scale mink liberations, individual mink are sure to redistribute themselves to their former habitat with a little help from their two-legged friends.
There should not be hesitation to reintroduce captive mink into their native habitat. The ideal environment being underdeveloped areas with a nearby water source and infrequently used roads. As A.L.F. liberators open the cages, they not only liberate an individual animal but the whole species. Mink, fox, bobcat, and lynx farm liberations are not only a blow to a fur farmers' profits, but also a boost to North America's ravaged environment. With an absence of natural predators, prey populations often explode causing undue harm to their environment. By releasing fur farm prisoners, liberators are guardians of healthy eco-systems.
Before one single animal abuser can argue the merits of a captive fur animal's impact on the natural environment, they must first address the overall impact the whole domestic livestock industry has had on the earth. It is no coincidence that the number one reason behind predator eradication is the protection of politically powerful livestock interests. Still it remains that for the mink nations of North America the shortest path on the road to animal liberation lies from the opened cage to the outlying guard fence.
Now it is time for liberators across the continent to follow the lead of the A.L.F. in British Columbia, Washington, Utah, Wisconsin, Tennessee, New York, and Minnesota and take action to liberate the four-legged prisoners from the war on nature.
Until all fur farm prisoners are free.... Open the Cages!!!
Rod Coronado is currently serving a 57 month prison sentence for his involvement in destroying mink research facilities. He can be reached by writing: Rod Coronado #3895000, FCI, 8901 South Wilmot Rd., Tucson, AZ 85706. Assume all letters he receives are read by federal authorities. |
warc | 201704 | Common Dolphin
Common dolphin is the term used for two dolphin species, from the genus Delphinus. According to some sources, there might as well be another third species by the name of Arabian common dolphin, which is debatable. These are medium sized playful dolphins, living in tropical and warm temperate waters.
Table of Contents Common Dolphin Scientific Classification
Animalia Chordata Mammalia Cetacea Delphinidae Delphinus Table Of Content Table of Contents Scientific Classification Common Dolphin
Animalia Chordata Mammalia Cetacea Delphinidae Delphinus Scientific Name
Common Dolphin is the name of 2 species of dolphins that are scientifically known by the Latin names given below:
Delphinus delphis (Short-beaked common dolphin). Delphinus capensis (Long-beaked common dolphin).
Some studies suggest the existence of a third species known as Delphinus tropicalis but recent studies consider it as a regional variety.
Description
There are stark similarities in the appearance of the 2 species of common dolphins except a few dissimilarities. Take a look at their physical characteristics:
Size : The 2 species of Common Dolphins have a medium size, growing as big as 8.2 ft, with an average of 6 ft approximately. Naturally the only point of differentiation is the size of the beak which is longer in the long-beaked common dolphins. Weight : Their weight varies between 80 and 150 kg, but it might as well be as heavy as 235 kg. Males are heavier compared to the females. To be precise, Short-beaked ones may weigh around 440 pounds and the long-beaked ones between 170 and 500 pounds approximately. Color : It is primarily dark on its back and the abdomen is white. On the sides of these common dolphins, there is a pattern in the shape of hourglass composed of yellow and grey at the front and dark grey at the rear. Rostrums : Their rostrums are thin and elongated with interlocking sharp teeth on every side. Distribution
In east Atlantic waters, they inhabit from West Africa to Norway’s southern parts and in West Atlantic, from Florida till Newfoundland. In Pacific, it stretches from Japan till Australia. They are commonly spotted in Australian waters (Tasman Sea and south-east Indian Ocean) barring North Australian regions. They are also seen in Galapagos waters.
Habitat
Long-beaked ones prefer living in shallow habitats but the short-beaked ones can be found at a depth of around 590 feet as well. Level of shallow water isn’t lesser than 180 m. They can live in cool temperate or tropical offshore waters. They live in open oceans and coastal regions in the Mediterranean. Basically, areas where they can forage on epipelagic fishes are their territories.
Behavior
Some of their behavioral characteristics are:
They hunt in schools and generally dives more than 250 meters to bring their prey down. They form huge groups known as pods, made of hundreds and thousands of individuals. These social creatures indulge in games and activities including bowriding, breaching, pitch poling, porpoising and somersaulting. They can swim very fast, often speeding at 65 km per hour maximum and 11 km/hour minimum. They can move over escarpments and ridges in the oceans. In New Zealand, they have been found to feed along with Bryde’s whales and Australasian gannets apart from which they happen to live with Bottlenose and striped dolphins too. They usually eat during the nights, not by chewing them but swallowing them Sounds
Common dolphins exchange a range of sounds. They whistle and whine during social interactions which can be specific to a certain pod.
Diet
They have a varied diet which chiefly constitutes squids and schools of fishes. Apart from that, they hunt small fishes from the mid water and surface of the ocean. Food behavior is influenced by different locations and seasons. They have been reported to be subsisting on anchovies in the Mediterranean Sea.
Migration
They may move around to hunt for food but they are not typically migratory. Beyond Southern California and eastern Pacific, there have been movements based on seasons. Dolphins from north are south bound in Pacific Ocean, as studies have revealed. They have been noted traveling to warmer waters with the change of season. In the months starting from May till October, they have been found visiting oceanic waters off Scotland.
Predator
Sharks are the worst enemies of the babies while even as adults they face threats from whales and humans. Their life is at risk from parasites and diseases as well.
Adaptation
These are some of their adaptive features:
They are endowed with features like well developed throat and larynx to emit calls in high and low pitches helping in eco-location and communication They have the ability to arrest breathing for several minutes when they are diving. Amazingly, they have adapted the process of blood circulation during diving. To breathe in air from the surface, they make use of the blowhole on their head. They use their sharp interlocking teeth to catch hold of their prey before devouring it whole by swallowing it. Mating Season
Season for mating may vary, but usually it happens during spring and fall.
Reproduction
The common dolphins mature at different intervals at different locations. In the Pacific region, the females mature by the age of 7 and males mature between the age of 7 and 12. Mating takes place when become almost 6 ft long. The mother gives birth to her offspring after a gestation period of 11 months. The ones inhabiting the Pacific, takes an interval of 3 years between another birth and those from the Black Sea takes just a year. Both the species have no such marked difference in reproduction pattern.
Life Cycle
The calf measures around 3 ft after birth with a weight of 10 kg approximately. Weaning period of the babies also varies largely according to location, from 6 months to 19 months.
Life Span
It generally lives for 20 years, which may even exceed to 35 years in the oceans.
Sub-species
No sub-species of these dolphins have been reported yet.
As Pets
They are rarely held in captivity but they are often nursed in zoos only to be later released. Nevertheless, they were exhibited at SeaWorld in San Diego along with Bottlenose dolphins, performing shows like their counterparts.
Conservation Status
They have been marked as Least Concern species by IUCN, hence they are not endangered.
Interesting Facts
Some fun facts for kids are:
In ancient specimens of art and literary works of Rome and Greece, these dolphins were popularly depicted. Maximum time for dives can reach up to 8 minutes but usually it varies from 10 seconds to 2 minutes. Among its species, the short-beaked dolphins are more popular globally. In the Black Sea they have been called pest due to their massive appetite consuming fish even more than their yearly production. Hybrids formed by union of the common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins have also been reported. Their feeding behavior might endanger their lives because during their foraging trips they often get captured by fishing gears. As per estimates, their population is higher in the eastern Pacific. While at sea, they perform different acrobatics by jumping high in the air with their peers. Pictures
Take a look at these playful dolphins in these pictures.
References |
warc | 201704 | New Delhi [India], Nov. 6 (ANI
): The Centre for Biodiversity Policy and Law (CEBPOL) recently organized a workshop with the title "Workshop on Synergies among Biodiversity related Multilateral Environmental Agreements" in Manesar, which is being pursued under the Indo-Norwegian cooperation.
When most people think of biodiversity, they think of verdant Amazonian rainforests or vibrant coral reefs in tropical seas. But even a typical house in the suburbs teems with an amazing diversity of life. The work on biodiversity is being further pursued under the Indo-Norwegian cooperation.
The National Biodiversity Authority of India (NBA) and the Norwegian Environment Agency (NEA) are involved in a bilateral programme on biodiversity with the aim to establish a Centre for Biodiversity
Policy and Law (CEBPOL) as a centre of excellence focusing on biodiversity law and policy.
The topic of the workshop is especially relevant these days when funds are limited and the challenges faced in conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity are vast. Norway and India both have showed initiative internationally.
Now the countries pool resources, draw on each other's expertise, reduce duplication and make joint funding bids and thereby achieve enhanced implementation through strengthened cooperation.
The workshop included presentations on the ongoing work at the international level on synergies between the key multilateral biodiversity conventions.
Further, the representatives shared lessons about their work and all participants discussed possibilities and avenues of increased cooperation and synergies
.
Deputy Minister Lars Andreas Lunde from the Ministry of Climate and Environment in Norway and Norwegian Ambassador Nils Ragnar Kamsvag participated in the workshop
together with Additional Secretary Amita Prasad from the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
The other participants were National Focal Points and associates for the conventions in India, national and international Non-Governmental Organisations in India.
Finally, potential areas of future support to be provided by CEBPOL in this field were discussed. The areas include access and benefit sharing, invasive alien species, nature index and biosafety. (ANI
) |
warc | 201704 | 1703 North Beauregard St.
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Fax: 703-575-5400
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Alexandria, VA (12/13/2012)—ASCD is holding a public dialogue on how best to define and measure teacher and principal effectiveness and encourages educators around the world to contribute. The discussion will commence on January 22, 2013, in an ASCD Forum group on the ASCD EDge® professional networking community for educators.
Ideas and input from this discussion will guide the first ever ASCD Forum, which will occur on Sunday, March 17, from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. central time during ASCD's 68th Annual Conference and Exhibit Show in Chicago, Ill. The discussion, moderated by ASCD President Debra Hill, will be open to conference attendees. Both the public conversation and the forum will help shape the association's positions on this important issue.
To participate, educators can contribute a blog post, build on the contributions of colleagues, or take a brief survey that will capture their views on teacher and principal effectiveness. For more information on the multiple avenues for participation, visit www.ascd.org/ascdforum.
Additional details will be made available during an informational Twitter chat on the @ASCD channel. The chat will be hosted by ASCD Director of Public Policy David Griffith on January 22, 3:00–4:00 p.m. eastern time. Educators can participate and follow along on Twitter using the #ASCDForum hashtag.
"ASCD's Position Advisory Committee selected this topic of global significance as the focal point of the 2013 ASCD Forum to ensure the issue receives the attention it deserves," said ASCD Executive Director and CEO Dr. Gene R. Carter. "For meaningful change to take place, educators must take part in the dialogues that shape our collective tomorrow, and we hope to hear from educators everywhere about how effectiveness should be defined and measured."
For more information about ASCD's public policy work, the association’s 68th Annual Conference and Exhibit Show, or the benefits of association membership, visit www.ascd.org.
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warc | 201704 | Five years from now, you will be a different person. You will have different interests, different tastes, different challenges.
Date, live together, avoid commitment, and you'll be free to move on to a partner who shares your new interests, matches your new tastes, helps with your new challenges.
That's the choice of many who were exposed to unhappy marriages or divorce while growing up or whose own first marriage ended up in divorce.
I think there's a better choice. Commit -- not to a person who shares all your current interests or tastes, but to someone who shares your most important values. Don't just promise to stay -- invest in the relationship. Build wealth together. Invest in each other's dreams. Make each other's family your own. Tend to each other's health and wellbeing. Set some joint goals.
What's the payoff? The excitement of new interests and tastes introduced into your life by someone who shares your values, cares about you, loves to see you happy, and sees the world just a bit differently from you. The grounded feeling that comes from being intertwined and rooted as you grow, instead of being blown this way and that by people coming and going in your life. The security of support through your rough patches from someone who knows they will be just a small part of your time together. The warmth of doing the same for a loved one. The extra time and money freed up by working together instead of independently and self-protectively.
This is big. It's not just worth the risk of divorce; it's the antidote protecting you from divorce. You'll never get even a glimpse of what's possible as long as you're focused on your current needs or on keeping your exit easy if your needs are not met.
You know how to Assume Love, Expect Love, and Find Third Alternatives now -- or you will as soon as you rummage through the archives here. You know how to take care of a marriage. You know how to avoid unmet needs, hurt feelings, and unnecessary anger or worry. You know you can't grow apart when you're growing together, when you're attuned to your spouse and your interests are changing in response to all of the wonderful new things this person brings into your life. You're all set to make the next five years fantastic ones.
And if kids enter your life, planned or unplanned, there's one more huge payoff. You get to offer them what you may never have had: a parent who loves and finds great happiness in the other most important person in their child's life. |
warc | 201704 | Front Wheel Drive vs. Rear Wheel Drive
It is very difficult to say which is better between a front wheel drive (FWD) and a rear wheel drive (RWD). The conception is quite different. Actually, both have nothing in common in road behavior. When you get at the limit of your car, the pros and cons appear the most.
The FWD is famous with its understeer, while the RWD with its oversteer. Both understeer and oversteer are quite shocking in everyday or normal driving conditions and should be avoided. Often the electronic safety systems take care for this, but some old cars do not have them and even in a brand new one, there is always a possibility to get yourself in trouble.
Simply put, understeer is when the car does not turn enough and leaves the road in straight line and the over steer is when the car turns sharper than intended and could get into a spin. For experienced drivers managing with oversteer is easier, because it is more predictable, especially when the car is equipped with limited slip differential (LSD). If the car goes understeering just release the throttle and apply some brakes, if needed. If the car goes oversteering you have two options. First is to powerslide the corner, if the car has enough power and the second option is the same like the understeering situation. Powersliding is extremely hard and should be done only at the racetrack and never on public roads. In a few words, it means to apply the throttle in a turn enough to make the rear wheels break traction and slide out. All this is made with a proper countersteering.
Other very important thing is that the RWD has a lot more losses in power compared to the FWD mainly because of the more moving parts. The FWD layout is engine -> clutch -> gearbox -> differential -> axle shafts and the RWD layout is engine -> clutch -> gearbox -> joint -> driveshaft -> joint -> differential -> axle shafts. As you see, the torque should "go" more way to reach the rear tires, instead of reaching the front. Again, simply written is that you lose about 12% of your engine power, if you have FWD car and about 15%, if the car is RWD. That's why you will see the notion – wheel horse power – WHP. For example often a 150HP FWD car is a lot faster than a 150HP RWD car because the second has a lot more losses in power through the drivetrain.
Obviously the RWD cars are very fun to drive, because each axle has to do its own task – front to steer and rear to power. The FWD cars are safer for beginner drivers, especially in low traction conditions (rain or snow). They are also more economical, because they put more power on the road and often are lighter. Other important thing is that the manufacturers can't make very small RWD cars or they shouldn't because they are very unstable.
So, next time you are seeking a new car be sure what you are searching for. |
warc | 201704 | Many voice artists take good care of their voices by avoiding a number of food and drink items. These include a number of spicy foods and aerated drinks. It also includes drinking chilled water. Here we will take the help of a science experiment to see if a singer’s voice gets adversely affected by drinking cold water.
You will need some equipment to record your voice. You can use a mic with the PC as well. Some cold water. A volunteer to sing or you can do it on your own. The hypothesis that we are testing is that drinking cold water makes it difficult for a person to sing naturally. For this we will have to make two sound recordings of the same person singing the same song.
Once before the person drinks cold water and the second time immediately after the person has drunk a glass of cold water. You can pick any song that the person can sing comfortably. It does not have to be some difficult tune, the alphabet song or happy birthday to you will do. Just make sure that they know that they must sing the same song both before and after drinking the cold water.
Now record the observations you have made of the two different sound tracks. Does the voice quality get affected by the cold water? Now this science project will prove if the singers really need to avoid cold water or not. |
warc | 201704 | Khuphuka Nasingeni A growing number of cellular phones have been rendered useless after they plunged into water as their owners washed clothes or took a bath, or a swim. Dear reader, please do not nudge me in the direction of answers to why one would carry their phone to the bathroom.
They are many and varied, largely of a security nature, in the same manner that residents of a certain suburb whose outside bathroom doors left too much room underneath were rumoured to take a bath while biting their soap, in case it disappeared between blinks.
Those familiar with the field of research will tell you that it is the outcome of tackling research problems that gives birth to solutions. One’s problem inspires yet another individual to overcome and make their lives better.
We all have followed the fascination with cellphones with such unparalleled meticulousness to a point where we know the latest on the market even though we cannot remember our grandmothers’ birthdays! Now Samsung, that ICT firm that has transferred our memory banks from our brains into that tiny contraption, have come up with yet another innovation.
Your boyfriend or girlfriend, or extra friend, can now ring you up in the bathroom as you take a splash with your gadget. The upcoming S7 (ABOVE), in its two versions, according to Samsung, can hold its breath (literally) under water for about 30 minutes without suffering any damage. This does not come cheap though as the phones cost around $700, for this waterproof upgrade and longer lasting battery.
So, next time you hear your better half singing in slow and low tones, what sounds like an Adele tune in the bathroom, it could be a conversation with their extra others, disguised as HELLO! There is an untested theory to the effect that technology has made it quite easy to cheat, and such theorists would want us to believe it was almost impossible in the past to cheat on your partner.
It would appear cheating and communication innovation have run neck on neck for centuries, only nowadays it is easier to be caught than in the past. It’s either they never bothered to seek for baboons in a mountain, or they were so good at it they could have taught a thing or two to this generation’s hopeless cheats.
Where I grew up there were always stories about the milkman and his ways, especially when the husbands were away at work during the day. You see, as uMzo would say, trying to sound slightly older than he really is, these milk men would deliver milk door to door to those that used a coupon system to buy milk in advance and there were those that also did the rounds mostly to us who only afforded milk now and then, or could not be bothered to pay in advance for the milk. I cannot remember any unholy story in my locality that was associated with a postman.
These were the respected guys, guys you could rely on to point you in the right direction as you sought out your new girlfriend’s place. They knew all the house numbers and even houses that were almost always deserted.
However, this veil of piety on the part of the postal network guys is apparently not universal, if reports from the US are anything to go by. An 87-year-old former postman is reported to have sired 1 300 children in Tennessee.
“Contraception wasn’t very popular in those days,” he told local reporters in his defence. “I have nothing to be ashamed of. The 60s were the good old days and I did a great Johnny Cash impression which played out real good with the ladies,” he explained. Johnny Cash was like a Michael Jackson of that generation!
“Some even thought I was Johnny Cash for real,” he recalls laughingly. Warning: Please do not try this at home. It took investigators 15 years to go through DNA samples that uncovered that 1 300 children in the old man’s former operations area were fathered by him, though many of the women were married.
Staying with cheating, it is interesting how it is labelled differently depending on the circumstances, and even sport (no pun intended).
International Women’s Day has come and gone, and this is quite an important day that celebrates women, their struggles for equality and accomplishments over the years. For one woman, Maria Sharapova, her sins of commission caught up with her during this symbolic week. The way sponsors deserted the poor athlete can only compare to the treatment of lepers in Biblical times. She is our loser of the week.
While Sharapova fights her battles, I believe in Zimbabwe we should start serious doping tests, not those tests that check for elitist drugs that are beyond our athletes’ reach. We could, for example, start with locally available performance enhancing drugs like Vuka Vuka and Bronco. I am sure we would get stories like; “I have been taking the Vuka concoction for 10 years for my back problem . . . as for the bronco, my doctor prescribed it for this persistent cough.” I am trying to imagine if any sponsor would be affected should one of our leading athletes test positive for a banned substance . . .
E-mail: nasingeni@gmail.com |
warc | 201704 | A bicornuate uterus is a uterus that has two horns and a heart shape. The uterus has a wall inside and a partial split outside. A bicornuate uterus is the most common congenital uterine anomaly and can impact a woman's reproductive capabilities. In the US, it is estimated that bicornuate uterus is seen in 1-5/1,000 women, though this may be an underestimate since not all are diagnosed, especially when they are not severe.
Several studies show that women with a bicornuate uterus have about a 60% success rate in delivering a living child but have a higher risk of cervical incompetence. The condition is associated with an increased rate of spontaneous abortion, though the miscarriage rate is lower with a bicornuate uterus than with a septate uterus. That's probably because the blood supply to the midline indentation is better. Premature labor, a breech presentation and/or a retained or trapped placenta are also common complaints with a bicornuate uterus.
If necessary, a bicornuate uterus can be corrected surgically. Few studies of the surgery have been published. In three studies reporting on a total of 11 women, approximately 90% successfully carried a pregnancy to term. Diagnostic procedures Pelvic exam:Two horns can occasionally be palpated. Sonogram:A bicornuate uterus can sometimes be diagnosed by ultrasound Laparoscopy:Provides information on the exterior shape of the uterus. Hysteroscopy:Provides information on the interior configuration of the uterus. Treatment Metroplasty surgery: To create a large uterine cavity with minimal destruction of uterine tissue is the treatment of choice. Cervical cerclage: Improved the fetal survival rate in selected patients. Both metroplasty and a cervical cerclage may be prescribed. Pregnancy Outcome With Bicornuate Uterus And Other Anomalies
Live Birth Preterm Birth Ectopic Miscarriage Arcuate Uterus 66.2% 5.1% 3.6% 20.1% Uterine Septum 58.1% 10% 1.9% 75.7% Bicornuate Uterus 62.5% 25% 0 25% Didelphic Uterus 68.6% 24.4% 2.3% 20.9% Unicornuate Uterus 54.2% 43.3% 4.3% 34.4% Controls 82% 9-12% 2% 10-15%
Raga. Hum Reprod 1997;12:2277
Fedele. Eur J Obstet Gynaecol 1995 |
warc | 201704 | Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. If you have not learnt from the data loss disasters that are reported from time to time in the media and made the effort to avert such disasters in your organization or personal life, you will soon be joining the doomed in the disaster bandwagon.
Redundancy of backup is the secret guard against large scale data loss. Many savvy enterprises make sure that their mission critical data is duplicated and re-duplicated for reasons of security and high availability. They use online backup service provider repositories, tape libraries, disk arrays, mirror servers and a host of other backup technologies to backup and store vital information. They create elaborate business continuity and disaster recovery plans that enable them to get the business up and running within a few hours of the disaster.
Let us look at some of the famous data disasters that should be learning to us.
ERP upgrade Disasters that led to temporary data lossERP upgrade disasters of 1999-2000 was the first major indication to the market that enterprise software and data are vulnerable and it terrified everyone into thinking that any upgrade of the software would doom the enterprise to the same fate. It was also clear that enterprise software installations or upgrades affect the company’s business processes temporarily and their revenue can dip for at least six months during the installation or upgrade. Hersheys, Nike, HP and Oracle were some of the worst affected enterprises. They suffered losses to the tune of $100 billion or more in sales and 8-20% dips in stock values.
Why did it happen? Public opinion was that the disasters were “indicative of extremely poor judgment by the management”. However, a survey conducted by the CIO magazine revealed that only 9% of the companies that installed ERP systems had made the effort to house their ERP data in a third party data center for security and disaster recovery. Perhaps, they would not have suffered the losses if they had but put in place disaster recovery and business continuity plans, before they attempted the installation or upgrade.
Infamous Data Loss Triggered by Sinking Online Data Backup CompaniesThe last decade has been traumatic for several business entities when online storage companies like Xdrive, BeInSync, HP Upline, StreamLoad, Omnidrive, File 123 and Yahoo! Briefcase suddenly closed shop and data that was stored in their servers literally vanished into cyberspace. It dawned on many that the so called acclaimed online data backup services were not invulnerable and that one needs to look deeper into the business model of these organizations before entrusting valuable mission critical data to them.
Other Reported Famous Data Losses
Data that Flew out of the Helicopter Window: The most famous case of data loss that has been reported is the one from a global Telecommunications company whose employees dropped a laptop from a helicopter while working on it in flight. Fortunately, for them all the files could be recovered from another data repository and sent through FTP server for a meeting at Hong Kong the next day.
Data that Got Shampooed out: A passenger packed away his laptop along with his toiletries for a flight. The shampoo leaked and ruined the circuits causing the hard drive to fail. Unfortunately the data could not be recovered.
Data that Dropped out of Joly’s World: Dom Joly the creator of Trigger Happy TV, lost all his data when he dropped his laptop. The hard drive was damaged and he could not recover the five thousand photos; six thousand songs; half a book he was writing and all his old newspaper columns.
Data that was Baked in Fire: A UK University lost a large volume of data when a fire broke out in the Computer Science department during a weekend and damaged all the computers and equipment. The fire departments efforts to put out the fire with water added to their woes. A little more than a terabyte of data was recovered from 30 computers was rescued from the wreckage.
Banana Facts: A customer left a banana on his external hard drive. The banana decayed and released its fluids into the circuitry ruining it and causing the hard drive to fail. The circuitry was ultimately repaired.
Not So Hard to Drive Over your Hard Drive: People never seem to learn not to leave their hard drives or laptops where it can be run over. This type of disaster is infamously famous everywhere.
Drives Reformatted: A customer reformatted his hard drive ten times before it dawned on him that he needs to recover some valuable data from the drive.
Greasing the Squeaking Drive: A man sprayed WD-40 on his desktop drive, to prevent it squeaking. It stopped squeaking at once and refused to boot up. All data on the system was irretrievably lost.
Shipping in Old Socks: A customer shipped his hard drive to a data recovery unit wrapped in a pair of old socks. The drive reached the recovery unit with the data completely unrecoverable |
warc | 201704 | Oregon's public records law has long seemed to us to have a curious lack of emphasis on the rights of the public.
We say curious because, after all, the public - which is to say, all of us - is mentioned pretty frequently in the law. We're right there in the title, even.
The concept of the law is admirable - that each of us is entitled to look at and listen to and basically to scrutinize, to whatever degree we please, the records that our public agencies produce.
These are, after all, public records. We paid for them, they were produced ostensibly on our behalf, hence we own them.
Too often, though, the way in which public entities apply the law,
including state agencies as well as cities, counties, school districts
and police departments, falls well short of the ideal expressed in the
statute.
Attorney General John Kroger found plenty of nits to pick in the law when he took office two years ago.
Last week Kroger unveiled a series of changes to the 38-year-old law that he wants the Legislature to make this year.
To his credit, Kroger, unlike several of his predecessors, thinks
government officials ought to have fewer reasons, not more, to keep the
public from getting its hands on public records.
He suggests the Legislature do away with about 100 of the 400 or so
exemptions under which officials can deny records to the public.
But Kroger's proposal, though it would improve the situation, doesn't do enough to ensure that the law lives up to its name.
Our chief complaint is that even with Kroger's revisions the law would
encourage public officials to presume that records should be denied to
people who ask for them.
To put it another way, the burden would remain on the citizen to prove
to officials, who are in essence trained to be suspicious, why he or
she should be able to see a document that, under the law, any citizen
is entitled to.
This is precisely opposite of how things ought to work.
Another major flaw in Kroger's proposal is that although state agencies
would have to comply with the changes as soon as Gov. John Kitzhaber
signs the bill into law, cities, counties, school districts and other
local government agencies would be exempt for two years.
Yet the public records that many citizens are interested in are held by those local agencies, not by the state.
Here's what we'd like to see from Kroger and the Legislature:
Instead of giving public officials 10 working days to decide whether to
give a citizen access to public records (plus the option of adding 10
more days to the waiting period), the state should emphasize to public
officials that the vast majority of public records are not exempt.
Further, Kroger should send a memo to each of those agencies reminding
officials that public records don't belong to the agency, they belong
to the public.
And he should stress that the revised law shields public officials from liability should they mistakenly release exempt records.
Oregon's public records law will fulfill its lofty aspirations only
when the typical response that a citizen receives, on asking for a
record, is "sure, come on over to the office, we're open until 5."
That happens occasionally now, but not nearly often enough.
The scenario that Kroger's proposal would enable - "I'll get back to
you in 10 days - or maybe 20" - makes the records law's purported goal
sound like a cruel tease.
Certain public records should be exempt, of course. Citizens shouldn't
have access to employees' personal data, for instance - the law should
not be an aid to identity thieves or stalkers.
But those records are a tiny fraction of the total. And if a citizen
asks for records that don't contain any personal information, it
shouldn't take 20 days, or 10, to pull the requested files.
The easiest thing for Kroger might be to suggest public officials
pretend they're librarians. Librarians might tell you to keep your
voice down, but they let you take pretty much any book in the place. |
warc | 201704 | The Estonian Banking Association held Money Wisdom Day in approximately one hundred schools throughout Estonia on Feb. 6, reports LETA. Now in its second year, staff from various banks shared financial knowledge with students in their final year at elementary and secondary schools, the Estonia-based division of SEB said in a statement.
The purpose of Money Wisdom Day is to provide students with an introduction to handling money sensibly by using real-life examples and incorporating exercises outside textbooks. "Educating people how to manage their money is one of the priorities of the Estonian Banking Association, which unites eleven commercial banks operating in Estonia," affirmed Katrin Talihärm, Managing Director of the Estonian Banking Association.
According to Talihärm, schools’ high levels of interest in holding Money Wisdom Day suggests that the importance of fiscal responsibility - as part of a rounded educational experience - is increasingly valued. "One 45-minute lesson can provide students in ninth grade with skills in preparing the family budget so they can manage their money matters better and so that graduating students are prepared for independent life as they are given guidance on preparing a personal budget," Talihärm elaborated.
"The Money Wisdom Day, held for the first time last year, confirmed that young people’s knowledge about financial matters requires consistent attention. Financial services do arouse interest; however, often it is unclear for young people where answers to money-related questions can be found. It is this thirst for knowledge that the staff of banks who are members in the Association are going to satisfy today," Talihärm added.
Money Wisdom Day, held for the first time in January 2013, included visits to 109 schools, and 182 training events. This year, schools’ interest in participating in Money Wisdom Day has grown. "This delights us, yet inevitably also imposes constraints. Insofar as the staff of the banks will be giving lessons on top of their principal jobs, unfortunately we have been unable to find guest instructors for all schools interested," Talihärm said. However, the Banking Association is planning to organize events to improve the financial literacy of students in the future. "We are constantly working to ensure that we reach increasing numbers of young people each time," Talihärm added.
Educational materials required for holding lessons were prepared by the Financial Education Working Group of the Banking Association. Banks were not advertised during the Banking Association's Money Wisdom lesson. |
warc | 201704 | Prepare Your Dog for Holiday Visitors & Stress - Dog Training Tips
The holidays are a busy time for many households. Friends and family come and go, deliveries are made to the door, delicious smells emanate from the kitchen, and a general happy hubbub means that something special is happening. Among those affected by these changes is the family dog.
While one dog may revel in the change of pace, another may find it a confusing, stressful time. Your normally placid dog may suddenly begin to exhibit unusual behaviors, such as stealing food, jumping up on people, or growling or snapping at visitors. As pack leader, you need to communicate and demonstrate to your dog that while his world may be different, you will continue to keep him safe and secure.
When an insecure dog-no matter his size or breed-encounters a new situation, he doesn't know what to do. If he feels threatened, he may react defensively with a snap or bite.
On the other hand, a well-socialized dog is comfortable meeting and being with others, both dogs and people. He has been introduced to a variety of situations and knows he and his pack have remained safe through them all.
The following are some tips to help calm your dog and keep everyone in the home safe during the active holiday season.
Children visitors Dogs that live in a household with no children may not be comfortable when kids come to visit. The chaos created by youngsters like grandchildren will inherently raise the energy level in the house, causing the dog to worry or stress. Here are some ways to control such situations if your dog does not cope well with children. Always supervise kids (especially very young children) and dogs when they are alone together. This is when most dog bites to children occur. With a very young child, parents must be vigilant and monitor their tot's interactions with the dog. Parents should teach children of all ages to treat dogs with respect and gentleness. Never invite a child to feed the dog by hand-this teaches the dog it is acceptable to take any food from a child. Because of a child's small size, the dog may view her as an equal and thus may try to take advantage of the situation. Boundaries and security Dogs need to have their own "home," a place where they feel secure and calm. If your dog doesn't already have a place of his own, create one for him. A crate or pet carrier provides a natural safe haven for your dog. Keep his crate or dog pillow in a quiet area of the home, and direct your dog to go there when you need to set boundaries. While he may not like being separated from you, he will still feel secure. If your dog begins to bark or nip at visitors, remove him from the area and keep him in his safe place until your guests have gone. Keep the dog out of certain rooms where he can get underfoot. For example, training your dog to stay out of the kitchen-where most household accidents occur-is a good safety measure. It also helps to prevent your dog from begging for food. If you travel during the holidays, taking his crate/carrier will help your dog feel more relaxed, since "home" is wherever he finds you and his familiar bed. Elderly dogs Elderly dogs may not enjoy the extra hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Be mindful of keeping your older dog comfortable when his routine is disrupted. If your elderly dog gets cranky around visitors, simply take him to his special quiet place where he won't be bothered and can feel secure. Remind children to be respectful of your older dog. Always provide supervision when dogs and kids are together. Front door behaviors A knock on the door can be a stimulating event for a dog, whether he sees it as fun or alarming. It is natural for him to want to know who the visitors are to determine if they are friendly or not. However, a dog that explodes with excitement at the sound of the doorbell is both annoying and unsafe-he may dash out the door and run into harm's way, he may get underfoot and become a trip hazard, he may knock people over, or he may become aggressive to the visitor. To help your dog be calmer, exercise him prior to the arrival of guests. After 30 minutes of walking or playing, your dog will more likely be relaxed or want to nap. As a general rule, don't allow the family dog to greet unfamiliar guests because commotion and unusual circumstances can cause stress for dogs. Consider putting your dog on a leash as guests arrive to maintain better control of him. Teach your dog to sit and stay on command. When the doorbell rings, put him in a sit-stay and do not open the door until he calms down. If your dog gets overly excited with arriving visitors, remove him from the scene ahead of time. Place him in his crate in a quiet room, and then let him join the party later.
By anticipating how your dog may react to new activities and visitors, you can help ensure that everyone-both two- and four-legged-has a fun and safe holiday season. |
warc | 201704 | The purpose of this study was to delineate differences in inpatient service utilization and functional and subjective outcomes between veterans with a serious mental illness (SMI) and those with co-occurring serious mental illnesses and substance abuse (SA) disorders.
This study assessed 2-year inpatient utilization and outcomes for 682 SMI veterans enrolled in specialized psychosocial treatment programs which did not have a substance abuse focus.
Outcomes included psychiatric symptomatology, impairment in activities of daily living, global life satisfaction, days of hospitalization per year, and number of hospital admissions per year.
Of the 682 patients, 198 (29%) had secondary diagnoses of substance abuse/dependence.
Patients with co-occurring serious mental illness and substance use disorders had significantly more inpatient admissions per year than other SMI patients but did not differ in cumulative inpatient stays.
The SMI/SA patients improved more than the other patients in terms of clinician rating of Global Assessment of Functioning.
Patients with SMI/SA had significantly fewer psychiatric symptoms on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, and all patients showed improvement on the BPRS, instrumental activities of daily living, and general life satisfaction rating.
Seriously mentally ill patients with co-occurring substance use disorders fared as well as other SMI patients when enrolled in intensive, specialized state-of-the-art treatment programs.
Mots-clés Pascal : Trouble psychiatrique, Aigu, Association morbide, Dépendance, Boisson alcoolisée, Alcoolisme, Toxicomanie, Utilisation, Service santé, Hospitalisation, Admission hôpital, Activité, Vie quotidienne, Bien être, Santé mentale, Homme, Abus, Drogue illicite Mots-clés Pascal anglais : Mental disorder, Acute, Concomitant disease, Dependence, Alcoholic beverage, Alcoholism, Drug addiction, Use, Health service, Hospitalization, Hospital admission, Activity, Daily living, Well being, Mental health, Human, Abuse, Illicit drug Notice produite par : Inist-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique Cote : 98-0476740
Code Inist : 002B18H05B. Création : 19/02/1999. |
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