text:
Top Items:
Russell Berman / The Hill:
Boehner tells Senate to 'get off their ass,' pass sequester bill — A salty Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday told members of the Senate to "get off their ass" and pass a bill to replace the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that will kick in on March 1. — "We have moved a bill in the House twice.
Discussion: ABCNEWS, Taegan Goddard's …, The Democratic Daily and The Spectacle Blog
Ross Kaminsky / The Spectacle Blog: Boehner Tells Senate to "Get Off Their Ass"
Jake Sherman / Politico:
John Boehner's big bet — House Speaker John Boehner has dug in. — If the let-the-cuts-happen approach on the sequester seems risky — especially with President Barack Obama blaming Republicans for everything from kids not getting vaccines to long lines at the airport — the alternative for Boehner is worse.
Discussion: CNN, The Maddow Blog and The Hill
Steve Benen / The Maddow Blog: Boehner starts to lose his cool
Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
I don't understand the Republican position on the sequester — What's the plan? (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst) — As I understand it, the GOP has five basic goals in the budget talks: — 1) Cut the deficit. — 2) Cut entitlement spending. — 3) Protect defense spending, and possibly even increase it.
Discussion: Washington Examiner, Prairie Weather, Daily Kos and Mother Jones
Hunter / Daily Kos: The sequester is stupid and contractionary, but Republicans can't stop themselves
Sabrina Siddiqui / The Huffington Post:
Ron Johnson: John Boehner Would Lose Speakership If He Caves On Taxes To Avert Sequester
Ron Johnson: John Boehner Would Lose Speakership If He Caves On Taxes To Avert Sequester
Discussion: Fox News, Business Insider and Alan Colmes' Liberaland
Jake Sherman / Politico:
John Boehner: Let Senate get 'off their ass' this time
John Boehner: Let Senate get 'off their ass' this time
Discussion: National Review and Washington Monthly
Robert Costa / National Review: House Republicans Amused by Obama's Sequester Tour
Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly: Learning To Embrace the Stupidity
New York Times:
The States Get the Bad News
The States Get the Bad News
Discussion: Washington Post, The Moderate Voice, Esquire, The Confluence, Cincinnati.com and Daily Kos
Prairie Weather / The Moderate Voice: The Blame Game Continues
Charles P. Pierce / Esquire: TONIGHT ON EYECENTERWITNESS NEWS
Riverdaughter / The Confluence: Well, Duh — What motivates Republicans? Winning. That's all they care about.
Georgia Logothetis / Daily Kos: Abbreviated pundit roundup: Republicans to blame for sequester pain
David Jackson / USA Today:
Obama's day: Sequester in the Virginia shipyards
Obama's day: Sequester in the Virginia shipyards
Discussion: msnbc.com, Politico and First Read
Reid J. Epstein / Politico: Republican Rep. Rigell to travel with Obama on Air Force One
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage — WASHINGTON — Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry …
Discussion: Little Green Footballs, BuzzFeed, American Foundation …, CNN, Poliglot, msnbc.com, Towleroad News #gay, Advocate, Hot Air, The Hinterland Gazette, The Maddow Blog, Taking Note, Truthdig, Business Insider, Althouse, U.S. News, Taylor Marsh, Gawker, The Hill, The Raw Story, Prairie Weather, Good As You, The Daily Caller, Joe. My. God., The Reaction and AllThingsD
Little Green Footballs: GOP "Rebranding" Watch: Some Republicans Support Gay Marriage, RW Base Goes Nuts
Matt Baume / American Foundation for Equal Rights: Conservative Leaders File Amicus Brief Calling for Marriage Equality
Lana Schupbach / msnbc.com: GOP tide turning on gay marriage?
Andy Towle / Towleroad News #gay: Here's the Full List of 75+ Republicans Urging the Supreme Court to Strike Down Proposition 8
Michelle Garcia / Advocate: 75 Prominent Republicans Say Marriage Is Constitutional Right
Allahpundit / Hot Air: Dozens of prominent Republicans sign Supreme Court brief supporting legalized gay marriage
Janet Shan / The Hinterland Gazette: 5 Things You Need to Know Today Feb. 26: Dennis Rodman Peace Mission …
Andrew Rosenthal / Taking Note: Republicans Against Proposition 8 — Sheryl Stolberg reported …
Erin Fuchs / Business Insider: Republicans Could Convince The US Supreme Court's Conservative Wing To Vote For Gay Marriage
Ann Althouse / Althouse: Which prominent Republics are signing a Supreme Court brief supporting same-sex marriage?
Miranda Leitsinger / U.S. News: Once 'inconceivable,' Republican leaders sign pro-gay marriage brief
Joyce Arnold / Taylor Marsh: Queer Talk: 75 Republicans File SCOTUS Brief Supporting Overturn of DOMA
David Edwards / The Raw Story: Meg Whitman and 74 top Republicans urge Supreme Court to back marriage equality
G-A-Y / Good As You: In equality vs. discrimination debate, writing is on the wall; 70+ leading conservatives put it in a brief, too
Matt K. Lewis / The Daily Caller: Has Obama finally broken the GOP's will?
Richard K. Barry / The Reaction: A.M. Headlines — (New York Times): "Republicans sign legal brief …
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Influential Republicans Champion Same Sex Marriage
Influential Republicans Champion Same Sex Marriage
Discussion: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, msnbc.com and The Hinterland Gazette
Kevin McDermott / St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Party leader's rebellion over gay marriage rocks Illinois GOP
Court Harson / msnbc.com: Let Me Start: Chuck Hagel's Moment
Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
Lesbian Widow Urges Supreme Court To Declare DOMA Unconstitutional
Lesbian Widow Urges Supreme Court To Declare DOMA Unconstitutional
Discussion: Joe. My. God. and Towleroad News #gay
Chris Moody / Yahoo! News:
Nikki Haley slams Washington after meeting with Obama — During President Barack Obama's meeting with U.S. governors at the White House Monday, the president dismissed members of the press to hold a private, hourlong discussion with the visiting state executives.
Discussion: Washington Monthly and Hot Air
Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly: Ghosts at the CPAC
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air: Haley, GOP governors blast Obama after sequester meeting
Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Right cheers Bob Woodward 'fact check' — Conservatives in the media have found themselves armed with political ammunition in their battle with President Barack Obama over the impending sequester from a surprising source — Bob Woodward. — The journalism icon's fact check on the sequester …
Discussion: Esquire, PERRspectives, National Review, NewsBusters blogs, The Daily Caller and About.com US Politics
Charles P. Pierce / Esquire: THE WOODWARD MYTH — There was a lot of buzz over the weekend …
Deroy Murdock / National Review: Obama Caught Lying about Sequester
Matt K. Lewis / The Daily Caller: The myth of Bob Woodward as a liberal hero
Carrie Budoff Brown / Politico:
Obama plan: Divide and conquer GOP
Obama plan: Divide and conquer GOP
Discussion: Reuters, Right Wing News and The PJ Tatler
New York Times:
A G.O.P. Plan to Give Obama Budget Cut Discretion
A G.O.P. Plan to Give Obama Budget Cut Discretion
Discussion: The Page, New Republic, Wall Street Journal, msnbc.com, Washington Wire and CNN
Mark Halperin / The Page: A Day in the Life of the Republican Party's Search for Newness
Nate Cohn / New Republic: Americans Are Asleep on the Sequester. The GOP Better Hope They Don't Wake Up.
Abby Borovitz / msnbc.com: Today on The Cycle: The sequester
Franco Ordonez / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
In face of coming budget cuts, U.S. frees illegal immigrants from custody — WASHINGTON — The federal government released groups of illegal immigrants from custody across the country Monday at the same time the White House was making its case that impending budget cuts would harm efforts …
Discussion: Weasel Zippers, TheBlaze.com, The Daily Caller, The Raw Story and Post Politics
ZIP / Weasel Zippers: Unreal: Obama Uses Pending Sequester Cuts As Excuse To Release "Waves" Of Illegal Immigrants From Detention Centers...
Meredith Jessup / TheBlaze.com: Sequester warning: Illegal immigrants will run free
Jim Treacher / The Daily Caller: Subtlety is not one of the keystones of this administration. — McClatchy:
Arturo Garcia / The Raw Story: Activists say immigration releases highlight 'aggressive, reckless enforcement system'
Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
Illegal immigrants set free from detention centers as sequester approaches
Illegal immigrants set free from detention centers as sequester approaches
Discussion: The PJ Tatler and The Gateway Pundit
Bryan Preston / The PJ Tatler: Barack Obama Pulls a Move Almost Worthy of Saddam Hussein
Arshad Mohammed / Reuters:
Kerry defends liberties, says Americans have "right to be stupid" — (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry offered a defense of freedom of speech, religion and thought in the United States on Tuesday telling German students that in America "you have a right to be stupid if you want to be."
Discussion: The Hill, Mediaite and Weasel Zippers
Julian Pecquet / The Hill: Kerry defends Americans' 'right to be stupid' in speech to students in Germany
Meenal Vamburkar / Mediaite: John Kerry Defends Liberties During Berlin Trip: In America, 'You Have A Right To Be Stupid'
Hayley Peterson / Daily Mail:
John Kerry says Americans 'have a right to be stupid' …
John Kerry says Americans 'have a right to be stupid' …
Discussion: The Daily Caller and The Gateway Pundit
Patrick Howley / The Daily Caller: Yearbook: Gun control advocate John Kerry was in his high school's rifle club
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Surveillance Law — WASHINGTON — In a 5-to-4 decision that broke along ideological lines, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turned back a challenge to a federal law that authorized intercepting international communications involving Americans.
Discussion: Reuters
Kevin Robillard / Reuters: Supreme Court dismisses surveillance case
Krissah Thompson / Washington Post:
Edward Blum defies odds in getting cases to Supreme Court
Edward Blum defies odds in getting cases to Supreme Court
Discussion: PointOfLaw Forum
Ted Frank / PointOfLaw Forum: American Express v. Italian Colors
Salvador Rizzo / New Jersey Online:
Gov. Christie to announce expansion of Medicaid in budget speech, sources say — Gov. Chris Christie, pictured last month, will deliver his 2013 state budget address today at 3 p.m. at the Statehouse in Trenton. (Photo by John Munson/The Star-Ledger) — TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie …
Discussion: Wonkblog
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Chris Christie to take Obamacare Medicaid expansion — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is preparing to announce he's accepting Medicaid expansion under the president's health care law, becoming the eighth GOP governor to buck his party and align himself with President Barack Obama on the issue, according to POLITICO sources.
Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …
Numbers / Pew Research Center for the People …:
GOP Seen as Principled, But Out of Touch and Too Extreme — Images of the Parties: A Closer Look — OVERVIEW — At a time when the Republican Party's image is at a historic low, 62% of the public says the GOP is out of touch with the American people, 56% think it is not open to change and 52% say the party is too extreme.
Discussion: American Prospect, Liberal Values, The Moderate Voice, The Fix and Taegan Goddard's …
Jamelle Bouie / American Prospect: Does the GOP Have a Forward Vision?
Ron Chusid / Liberal Values: Republicans Seen As Out Of Touch, Losing Support Of Voters Concerned About Science And The Modern World
Chris Cillizza / The Fix: The Republican party's family feud, exposed.
Numbers / Pew Research Center for the People …:
Most Say Spending Cuts Would Have Major Impact on Economy, Military
Most Say Spending Cuts Would Have Major Impact on Economy, Military
Discussion: Politico, Business Insider, Outside the Beltway and prairieweather.typepad.com
Kevin Robillard / Politico: Poll: More will blame the GOP
Brett LoGiurato / Business Insider: Another Poll Shows Why Democrats Are So Confident Of Winning The Sequester Battle
Doug Mataconis / Outside the Beltway: Poll: Republicans Would Get Blame For Sequester Cuts
There's A Conservative Parody Of Michelle Obama's Evolution Of Dance Video — It was made by popular conservative blogger Michelle Malkin and it's definitely something. — Ryan Broderick — a half hour ago — 15 responses
Discussion: The Atlantic Online
David A. Graham / The Atlantic Online: Can Someone Please Explain How This Michelle Malkin Video Is Funny?
Charlie Spiering / Washington Examiner:
ABC broadcast edits out Michelle Obama claim that Chicago teen was killed by an 'automatic weapon'
ABC broadcast edits out Michelle Obama claim that Chicago teen was killed by an 'automatic weapon'
Discussion: ABCNEWS, Mediaite and Weasel Zippers
Noah Rothman / Mediaite: Did ABC News Edit Michelle Obama's Claim An 'Automatic Weapon' Killed Chicago Teen? ABC Responds To Charge
Phillip M. Bailey / WFPL:
Liberal Super PAC Goes After Mitch McConnell's 'Chinese' Wife — A Democratic group is under sharp criticism for controversial online messages about Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's wife. — For months, the liberal super PAC Progress Kentucky has attacked McConnell and held demonstrations at his offices and home.
Discussion: BuzzFeed, The Hill, Mediaite and Post Politics
Noah Rothman / Mediaite: Liberal PAC Attacks Sen. Mitch McConnell's Asian Wife: 'May Explain Why Your Job Moved To China!'
Tim Mak / Politico:
Chuck Hagel clears Senate hurdle toward confirmation — The Senate voted 71-27 on Tuesday to end debate on Chuck Hagel's nomination to become secretary of Defense, ending a Republican campaign that forced Democrats to fight for every step toward confirmation, which is expected later in the day.
Discussion: New York Times, Booman Tribune, Red Alert Politics, Outside the Beltway and Lynn Sweet
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times: Hagel Survives Filibuster, Last Big Roadblock to Defense Post
BooMan / Booman Tribune: Hagel Filibuster is Defeated
Doug Mataconis / Outside the Beltway: Hagel Nomination Passes Cloture
Luke Johnson / The Huffington Post:
Walter Jones, GOP Congressman, Hits Dick Cheney Over Iraq War — Dick Cheney, Video, HuffPolitics Blog, Walter Jones, Dick Cheney Water Jones, Walter Jones Dick Cheney, Walter Jones Iraq, Walter Jones Iraq War, Politics News — Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), an outspoken critic of the war in Afghanistan …
Discussion: The Hill, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, The Raw Story and TheBlaze.com
Justin Sink / The Hill: Republican congressman says Cheney will go to hell
Meenal Vamburkar / Mediaite: GOP Congressman: Dick Cheney Will Probably Go To Hell For The Iraq War
Eric W. Dolan / The Raw Story: Republican congressman: Dick Cheney is going to hell for the Iraq war
Meredith Jessup / TheBlaze.com: GOP congressman: LBJ is 'rotting in hell'
Andrew Stiles / National Review:
GAO Report: Obamacare Adds $6.2 Trillion to Long-Term Deficit — Obamacare will increase the long-term federal deficit by $6.2 trillion, according to a Government Accountability Office report that will be released today. — Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), who requested the report …
Discussion: Hot Air, Weasel Zippers and Watchdog.org
David Brooks / New York Times:
Our Second Adolescence — In Friday's column, I wrote that the Obama administration has no plan to avoid the sequester save raising taxes on the rich. That was unfair. The White House approach is not what I would like, but it is more balanced than I described. — Humiliation is a good teacher.
Discussion: The Plum Line, Mother Jones and msnbc.com
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line: The Morning Plum: The false equivalence pundits are part of the problem
Kevin Drum / Mother Jones: David Brooks Has a Deal for President Obama
Rick Bosh / msnbc.com: What we're reading: Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Michael Doyle / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Who should pay to defend Larry Craig's bathroom antics? — WASHINGTON — A federal judge this week will confront the surprisingly important fallout from former Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig's 2007 bathroom arrest. — Craig's own money may be on the line Wednesday, but that's not all.
Discussion: Joe. My. God., Towleroad News #gay and The Raw Story
Joe / Joe. My. God.: Larry Craig: Toe-Tapping In An Airport Restroom Is A Legitimate Senate Activity
Andy Towle / Towleroad News #gay: Federal Judge to Determine Whether Larry Craig Improperly Spent Campaign Funds to Defend His Toe-Tapping Antics
Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:
In Cannibal Case, Officer's Wife Testifies About a Chilling Discovery — One day last September, the wife of a New York City police officer opened her laptop computer and discovered that her husband had used it to visit a fetish Web site on the Internet. She said she went to the site and saw a photograph of a dead girl.
Discussion: Gothamist


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So You Wrote a Stereotyped Character…9 Ways to Fix Your Story
I've recently been doing a blog post series on How to Write Well-Rounded Female Characters, which included a list of 19 Female Character Stereotypes to Avoid.
Since Nicohle and I are swapping blog posts today, I would love to take that list one step further and show how I would fix a stereotyped female character (but the same concepts apply to any character).
Why You Don't Have to Start Over
If your female character falls into a stereotype, it's not so much that you've written her wrong as that you're just not done writing her.
Writers revert to stereotypes or tropes rather than fully articulating what makes a character unique. It's tricky because you may not feel lazy as you write a stereotypical character. You're still sitting in the writer's chair fulfilling your daily word count or time quota, but essentially you're being creatively lazy about who you are writing about.
1. Rearrange what you've got. A lot of creativity is a matter of how you arrange the disparate parts of something to make a whole. Which aspect of your character is the focal point? By restructuring which personality traits are pivotal, you could create a more fresh character.
2. Add something to the character that scares, stretches, or otherwise challenges you. If writing about a certain characteristic your character possesses makes you think about the world in a new way, it likely will do the same for many readers.
3. Change how long your character stays a stereotype. Maybe your character can start out as a character but be changed by a new event. Maybe reveal they were hiding their true nature for some good reason. Think: Scarlet Pimpernel.
4. Look around you. Think of the most unique people you know and add some part of their personality to your character.
5. Add more weaknesses, flaws, fears, and losses! I like the trick of thinking, What is the worst thing that could happen to my character? Then consider adding that to your plot so your character has to really solve and struggle.
6. Put your character in strange situations. Brainstorm several seemingly unrelated scenes and put your character in them. Consider crossing genres with this exercise. Put your fantasy heroine in a murder mystery and see how she behaves, etc. You may stumble upon an interesting nuance to add to your story.
7. Change your character's past or future. If the character seems flat or one-dimensional, hook the audience into caring based on something terrible or wonderful they went through or will go through.
8. Give your character a unique motivation. Most of humanity is motivated to some degree by love of family, romance, personal gain, or moral/spiritual paradigms, for example. But what if you made your character also motivated by something kooky like a love of snails, and wanting to save those snails from extinction, for example?
9. Create personality contradictions. I love giving a character two characteristics that seem paradoxical or at odds with one another, then showing why they are this way.
Both fixing characters or scrapping them will require a lot of editing, so I figure you might as well refurbish your stereotyped character rather than starting from square one.
While it takes more effort, it's more fun and interesting to write well-rounded characters. For me, this comes down to asking, But who else is she/he?! By consciously steering clear of stereotypes, writing becomes more adventure. More fun.
Cindy Grigg writes speculative fiction and instructional non-fiction. She is the author of the HULDUSNOOPS series, a middle grade mystery and fantasy adventure about Icelandic Huldufolk or "hidden people". As About.com's Office Software Expert, Cindy also writes about technology and productivity (www.Office.About.com). Find her writing advice, blog, and other projects she's working on at www.CindyGrigg.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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Home Page > Fuel Consumption and CO2 > Find fuel consumption and CO2 data for cars
Car fuel consumption and CO2 tools
The carfueldata, CO2 and tax calculator tools - formerly available on VCAcarfueldata.org.uk, Business Link and Direct Gov, are now available on the www.gov.uk website. Please click on the image below to go to the tools.
If you have any difficulties accessing the tools, please email us:
|Last Updated: Tuesday 12th November 2019 | Crown Copyright | Disclaimer | How to link to this website | Privacy and Cookies


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Many of today's real estate headlines remark on median home sale prices. In Las Vegas, the median single-family home price reached $300,000 in September, nearly thirteen percent higher than the same month one year ago. What fewer recognize is that the rental market has been similarly heated over the past year. It's important to cast some light on the rental market, which lives somewhat in the shadows of the for-sale market.
The median rent per-square-foot has also climbed meaningfully, rising by over seven percent year-over-year. More remarkably, the average days on market fell to a new low of eighteen days on average over the summer. This coincided with an all-time low in inventory, as measured in the multiple listing
While many have correctly observed that home prices have outstripped wages and salaries, a missing component in the popular literature is home prices relative to rents. The fact is, many have been forced to commit more of their incomes to
Krainer (2004) examines housing similarly to stock price-dividend ratios. That is, homes are fundamentally valued in part by rental income streams and expectations of future rents or potentially, changes in housing supply. Based on rent growth since 2012, it's not surprising that investors and possibly owner-occupants, baked in a certain amount of rent increases into their decisions. Additionally, cap rates relative to many other yielding instruments has remained favorable for some. The chart below plots prices relative to rents. Since 2012, prices have advanced much more than rents but looking at the history, we are landing roughly in line with the early 2000's. The key lesson here is that we have two related markets and we cannot look at home prices in isolation.
For those of you on the fence about homeownership, these are the rent prices you can expect to pay in the Las Vegas Valley:


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Hops and Pie Brewing Co. in the works
Hops and Pie, the northwest Denver craft beer and artisan pizza place, is seeking to accelerate plans to open its own brewery and put its own product alongside the murderer's row of beer always on tap there.
Brewing in-house has been part of the vision since day 1, said Drew Watson, who co-owns Hops and Pie with his wife, Leah. The establishment opened on Tennyson Street in the Berkeley neighborhood to raves from local beer snobs in 2010 and completed a much-needed expansion in January.
To speed things up, the Watsons are seeking start-up costs though a small business grant program overseen by Chase Bank and Living Social that will award up to 12 grants of $250,000 to 12 small businesses. Fans can help the cause by voting for the application here.


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An official for Madonna's African charity says the star has arrived in Malawi to visit the girls school she is building in the impoverished country where she adopted two children.
The official who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter said Madonna arrived Sunday at about 2:30 p.m. (1230 GMT; 830 EDT) on Ethiopian Airlines.
The 51-year-old celebrity was accompanied by her four children — her daughters Lourdes and Mercy, and sons Rocco and David.
Madonna adopted the Malawian-born Mercy this year after she adopted David in 2008.
The official said Madonna would take part in a groundbreaking ceremony for the girls school on Monday.
Madonna's Raising Malawi charity helps care for some of the country's 1 million orphans.


text: Here's all the stuff that came to mind when James was talking about holding a performance-based event at Noisebridge. This will go on the wiki. Please do comment, add, discuss. EVENT PRE-PLANNING 1. How many people do you expect at the event? How big of a space does it require? 2. Within the required space, do you have to move furniture out of the way? Where will it go? 3. Is any furniture required by the event (e.g. merch table, "bar", entrance table?) 4. Does the event require a fee? If so, how much? How will you approach those who were at NB ahead of the event that day if they don't want to be at the event and/or don't believe they should have to pay the fee? 5. If the event calls for a donation rather than a required fee, is there some piece-of-swag you can hand to donators to make them feel good and create "conspicuous consumption" to encourage more people to donate? (Examples: assembled LED badges, very simple musical instruments, stickers, buttons, etc) 6. Should the event be considered a de facto introduction to Noisebridge itself? If so, perhaps designate 2 or 3 "staff" to give people tours in small groups as needed. 7. Since Noisebridge's ethos revolves around hands-on experiences, is there a way the event can provide some small microcosm of that experience to event-goers? 8. Is it possible that the event will push people away from their projects? Make sure you have thought through some reasonable suggestions for where people might move. "Visualize" the conversations you might have with hackers who have just as much a right to the space as you do, regardless of how far ahead you put your stuff on the calendar. 9. What kind of A/V equipment do you need? Do you plan to livestream the event to the internet? If so, make sure you connect with someone who has the password to the noisebridge livestream account. (Or set up your own account.) Plan to broadcast the link to the livestream via social media channels like Twitter, FB, etc. No point in livestreaming if nobody has the link. 10. Does the event require a "green room" and/or "backstage" for performers? If so, where will that space be? How will it be segmented off (made apparent that it's not part of the event for the audience)? How much "stuff" will your performers and volunteers have that needs to be kept apart from the audience? 11. Which spaces will be explicitly *not* part of the event? (I would suggest that at least 2 spaces, one classroom and the machine shop, always be available to non-event-goers.) How will you corral event-goers away from these spaces? (This is sort of a question of your level of trust in your audience.) Keep in mind that the presence of alcohol makes people a little more likely to break social contracts and cross implied barriers, so in many cases, a physical barrier might be a good idea. 12. All of the equipment currently sitting in the space that you want to use for the event needs to be handled with respect. Make contact with as many stake-holders as possible to see if there are any special concerns or considerations regarding moving/handling the equipment. Try emailing to the list first, then perhaps leaving notes on top of stuff with instructions on how to contact you. K WEEKS OUT (where K = as many as you have, b/c it's never too early to plan well): 1. Make fliers and/or a poster that can be left on the table at the front of Noisebridge. Include as much detail as necessary (and no more): * Event NAME * Event STYLE that lets people understand what type of experience to expect. ** (e.g. "a lecture on subatomic particle physics", "hands-on experiments in phospholuminescent DNA tagging", "lolcats: the musical") * Sublocation within Noisebridge, e.g. "Turing classroom" * Time of Day * Day of the Week * Calendar Date (including year) * Contact person and/or website 2. Put your event on the noisebridge.net wiki among the Upcoming Events. Keep it updated by checking the page every few days or at least once a week. 3. Spread the word. AT LEAST ONE WEEK OUT: 1. Post to the NB-discuss list that the event will happen that week. 2. If machine-shop noise would disrupt the event, post a separate message to NB-discuss with a title like, "ABC Event this week, kindly do machining before N pm" (where N=time that event will start, or time during event during which machine noise would disrupt proceedings.) 3. Line up all A/V equipment needed. Do a dry run of camera and PA operations. Make sure you have all the cables you need for microphones and guitars and whatnot. 4. If livestreaming, make sure it's going to work. It's OK to test by using the real livestream. Try the recording function. Watch it to see if the camera angles and lighting are going to be good enough for your purposes. 5. Rally your people. Volunteers are variably punctual, so if you can, arrange lots of overlap amongst duties, shifts, and quantities of "staff". Tell most volunteers to get there about an hour before you actually need them. 6. If you need a separate box to take fees or donations, make sure you have one. 7. Think through all of the "day of event" planning. Envision the amount of "stuff" that will be involved in the event and where it needs to go. 8. Acquire booze, snacks, and other provisions. Make sure volunteers can keep their energy and spirits up. Remember to ask them if they have dietary restrictions or preferences. Take allergies seriously. (If you need some perspective on which foods are life-threatening for some people even to be in the presence of, like peanuts, and which you should simply remember to label, like gluten and dairy, ask Naomi.) 9. Think about how many waste receptacles will be needed, what kind (recycling, compost, etc) and in how many places. Stock up on trash bags. 10. Bathroom supplies: get LOTS of toilet paper. Might want to also keep a stack of clean dry towels handy in case of leaks and overflows. DAY OF EVENT: 1. Early in the day, make sure you write on the whiteboard what's going to happen later that day. Make it big, bold, and legible. 2. How early are event-attenders likely to show up? Should they be given a tour of Noisebridge? 3. Set up food, booze, etc. Think through the likely walking patterns and noise profiles of the event. Typically it's best to set up a "bar" near the kitchen when the event is at the front. If the event is going to be rather large, keep in mind that areas near the "bar" will get pretty noisy. 4. At what time do you need to start setting up? You'll have to tell the people who are using the area that it's about to be used for a special purpose. 5. Cordon off event-space and non-event-space as needed. 6. Make a map of where any stuff you had to move out of the way used to be, so that it's easy to get it all back to its original places. DURING THE EVENT: 1. Monitor the waste receptacles well. When a trash bin starts to overflow, a recycling bin will start acquiring regular waste, even if a waste bin further away is nearly empty. 2. Make sure there's a knowledgable person near to the door at all times to help people understand what's happening and make them feel welcome. Hackers just looking for a place to hack should be informed of where they can do that. 3. Keep tabs on the bathrooms. Hopefully you don't run out of TP or require a plumber, but these things happen. END OF EVENT: 1. Clean, clean, and double-clean. Food waste especially needs to be dealt with swiftly, lest we continue breeding Rats of Unusual Size. 2. If PGE trash bins are overflowing, something will need to be done about that. (Find a dumpster? I'm not sure what people do in these situations.) 3. Put everything back the way it was. 4. If anything important/expensive/dangerous got broken, make a note of it and send it to the NB-discuss list, or send an email directly to the concerned parties. -- Naomi Theora Most naomi at nthmost.com +1-415-728-7490 skype: nthmost http://twitter.com/nthmost


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FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - A California outdoorsman who led crews of volunteers through the Sierra Nevada mountains repairing trails and cleaning up marijuana grow sites has died after falling from a helicopter, authorities said.
It's unclear how Shane Krogan, executive director of the High Sierra Trail Crew, fell from the aircraft on Thursday or whether he was properly restrained.
He was with a group helping the California Department of Fish and Wildlife cleanup up an illegal grow site east of Tulare in California's Central Sierra. Officials with the agency did not immediately return telephone calls and emails seeking information.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the helicopter pilot declared a medical emergency prior to landing in Visalia, about 30 miles south of Fresno. The pilot radioed that a crewman had been involved in a fall.
Krogan was a popular figure among California environmentalists and the wildlife agencies his crews assisted. In July he was quoted in an Associated Press story about the volunteers who help the U.S. Forest Service maintain trails during tight budget times.
"Most of us sit at a desk all week and at the end of the week have no tangible outcome for our effort,'' he said. "Whether they are cutting out a tree or building rock steps, they have a sense of pride and ownership.''


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Another pretty big piece (a 7-foot-3-inch-tall piece, in fact) of the "Star Wars: Episode VII" casting puzzle is reportedly in place.
Following news that production on the hugely anticipated reboot of the famed George Lucas-created franchise was quietly under way, sources have told The Hollywood Reporter that Peter Mayhew is returning as Han Solo's No. 1 wing-Wookie, Chewbacca.
The rumor mill started churning at high speed after Mayhew had to cancel a May appearance at Comicpalooza in Texas "due to filming."
And that's gotta be music (lyrics charmingly unintelligible, of course) to big-time fans.
PHOTOS: Cast of "Star Wars": Where are they now?
Mayhew joins reported returnees Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill, confirmed returnee Carrie Fisher, series newcomer Adam Driver and...
That's all anyone really knows at this point, though surely the super-secretive J.J. Abrams, who cowrote the script and is directing, can't keep a lid on his entire cast for long.
Oscar winner Michael Arndt started penning the screenplay but Abrams ultimately took over along with "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" scribe Lawrence Kasdan.
Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn told THR last week that, as far as actors go, the production has "a lot of them. We're just not completely done yet."
But cue the epic fanfare when that announcement is made! May the force continue to be with the casting department.
PHOTOS: Best Star Wars movie moments ever...so far


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Review: Halo 4 returns the series to its origins
With Halo 4, 343 Industries has accomplished the impossible.
The relatively new developer had a heavy burden to carry after taking over the development of the Halo series a few years ago. Fans have been sceptical of 343 since Halo 4 was announced; after all, Bungie, the Halo franchise's creator and original developer, has done a competent job with almost all of their Halo titles.
During my interview with 343 Industries' managing editor, Kevin Grace, he emphasized the amount of pressure 343 Industries has felt over the course of Halo 4's development. Fan expectations for Halo 4 are astronomical and it almost seems like there is no way for the developer to please everyone.
Well, I think they have.
Halo 4 is a return to the franchise's simple roots and in many ways, a re-imagining of the 11-year-old Halo: Combat Evolved. The game takes the series' two main characters, the iconic Master Chief and his artificial intelligence companion, Cortana, and throws them on an unknown planet, fighting a new enemy. Sound familiar? Well it should. This is the basic plot line behind the original Halo.
This time the new enemy that Cortana and the Chief are fighting against are called the Prometheans. Prometheans fit perfectly into the Halo universe and are appropriately terrifying and difficult to take down; especially Promethean Knights.
The fact that Brutes, the one enemy that hasn't ever really fit into the franchise, aren't included in Halo 4, is great. Also, interestingly, the Covenant no longer yell English words during battle. Instead, they scream in their own gibberish language. This makes them seem like a formidable enemy and also more terrifying than in past Halo titles.
Halo 4's story is much more emotional than past games in the series and places a heavy emphasis on the Master Chief and Cortana's relationship. The game's voice acting is also superb, partly because actors performed their lines together in a recording studio.
For instance Cortana, voiced by Jen Taylor, comes alive in Halo 4 and as rampancy (her mind essentially deteriorating) takes hold of her, Taylor's performance is appropriately erratic and emotional. With Halo 4, 343 Industries is also trying to humanize the Master Chief and much of this is accomplished through Steve Downes' emotional performance. Halo 4's soundtrack, produced by Neil Davidge and not Marty O'Donnell, is appropriately epic and is arguably the series' best yet.
The game's story is delightfully simple and straight forward. It follows Cortana, the Chief and a small cast of supporting characters, as they try to save earth from the Prometheans and the Didact. Fans of the series will notice a number of small touches that harken back to past titles in the series and the Halo web film, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn.
Much of the game is also spent hunting down forerunner artifacts and taking out waves of enemies in an effort to reach a specific way point. Some players might find this boring, but as a gamer who has been a fan of the series since the beginning, I loved this back-to-basics approach to Halo 4's campaign.
It's also expertly paced and avoids desensitizing the player to exciting set pieces and cinematics like the Call of Duty franchise often does. There are portions of the game's single player campaign that feel desolate and areas of the story that are slow, but 343 is only preparing you for an onslaught of action that's just waiting around the corner.
There is also an excellent balance in terms of environment and level design variety. The wide open spaces, ripe for vehicular combat, that the Halo series is known for are present, but so are close combat oriented tight corridors .
Graphically, Halo 4 might be one of the most impressive titles on this generation of consoles. Hard core Halo fans will notice that the entire game has a very different visual feel than previous Halo titles. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what gives Halo 4 this feeling, whether it's the character models, colouring or environments; everything looks refreshingly different. The heads up display (HUD) has also received a significant overhaul and actually resembles the Master Chief's helmet now.
Rest assured though, Halo 4 still feels like a Halo video game, mainly due to the ridiculous amount of testing 343 Industries did during the game's development process. Aiming, jumping, beat downs – everything feels exactly as it should.
The game's story is delightfully simple and straight forward.
The multiplayer portion of Halo 4 is a little more polarizing. The franchise has obviously borrowed features from the Call of Duty series and other popular modern first person shooters, infusing them into Halo's formula.
Players level up, unlocking weapons and "perks" called support upgrades with spartan points that are earned by gaining levels in multiplayer. This gives the gamer something to continue playing for, but some of the support upgrades and tactical packages, particularly the ability to constantly run and reload faster, have the potential to cause balance issues, ruining simplicity that makes Halo's multiplayer fun in the first place.
Just like in Halo: Reach, dual-wielding is gone, simplifying significantly the various weapon combinations you have at your disposal. Promethean weapons feel strange at first, but most of them feel like they belong perfectly in the Halo universe. Long-time fans of the series will recognize the return of the series' mainstay weapons like the plasma pistol, battle rifle and BR, but there area also new weapons like the saw and the promethean scattershot thrown into the mix.
The inclusion of Call of Duty-like rewards called ordinances in Infinity Slayer, the game's traditional team death match mode, feels natural and doesn't really shake the Halo multiplayer formula up that much. Initially, I hated Halo 4's ordance system, but after awhile, it starts to grow on you. Infinity Slayer also scores the game a little differently, offering up points for assists and other accomplishments.
This too, I hated at first. After a while though, it starts to make sense and solves a number of the problems first person shooters often have and actually encourages team work. Are your kills constantly getting stolen by your team mates? Don't worry, at least you're still collecting 5 points for every assist. Small touches like this could potentially innovate first person shooters for the better. It will be interesting to see what other shooter franchises pick up on features like this.
The franchise has obviously borrowed features from the Call of Duty series.
Hardcore fans will definitely have issues with the "perks" system, but just like past Halo games, a vanilla Slayer Pro gameplay variant is available. Unfortunately, Halo 4 only features an overall ranking system and doesn't have a specific rank assigned to individual playlists like in past Halo titles.
This is disappointing because part of what kept me playing Halo 2 and Halo 3 for so long was watching that little number beside my name rise. It sounds silly, but the overall score that awards you with points simply for playing the game, doesn't have the same effect or give me the same sense of accomplishment that individual performance-based ranked playlists did.
Watch me get pwned online in this video.
Other subtle changes to Halo 4's multiplayer are equally polarizing. The fact that the game now utilizes loadouts that allow the player to select what weapons and equipment upgrades they start with, lets players use the guns they want right away. But it also takes most of the strategy of weapon control and memorizing item and weapon spawning locations. The few weapons that do appear on the game's map have way points attached to them that let players locate them instantly.
Also, in Call of Duty fashion, grenades now have arrow indicators that let the player know how close they are to them. This makes Halo's multiplayer mode more easily accessible to the average player, but also removes some of the skill that was required to be successful in past games.
The inclusion of cooperative story driven spartan ops missions is also welcome. Following Halo 4's release, 343 intends to continue releasing new missions on a weekly basis, extending the life of the game significantly. Don't expect these missions to be deep though. For the most part, they involve simple, "kill this," or "fetch that," tasks.
When playing offline with three other people, occasionally the game did lag. It's difficult to fault Halo 4 for this though as it's one of the most polished video games I've ever played.
Halo 4 is an extremely solid first person shooter. It has a level of polish that's practically unseen in most modern video games. It's single player campaign harkens back to a time when first person shooters were simple, but it also places a heavy emphasis on narrative and character development. In the multiplayer department, Halo 4 has been stripped down to its core, but new Call of Duty-like features have also been added that make it more accessible. However, these could potentially create balancing issues and annoy hard core fans of the series.
343 Industries has delivered the best Halo title in years; one that's certainly worthy of the iconic Halo name.
Halo 4 is set to be released on November 6th on the Xbox 360.
For more Halo related coverage, check out my interview with 343 Industries' Kevin Grave. Also, the Halo franchise has had a profound effect on my life and this is what Halo means to me 11 years later.


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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Boston Scientific Corp's new leadless implantable heart defibrillator, hailed by some as a breakthrough, should be used on a limited basis until more data are collected, a prominent cardiologist wrote in an editorial of a top medical journal.
Leads, or wires that carry electrical pulses from the defibrillator - which is implanted in the chest - to the heart have always been the weak link in these systems, used to treat irregular heart beats. All of the device makers have had problems at one time or another with leads.
Boston Scientific bought the leadless technology, known as a subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or S-ICD, when it acquired Cameron Health last year. The Cameron device was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the fourth quarter.
"The S-ICD has not yet been shown to be safe and effective in a diverse patient population," Robert Hauser wrote in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Hauser, of the Minneapolis Heart Institute, who has been a vocal critic of medical device companies, also noted that the leadless ICD has not even been shown to be as good as the traditional ICDs that use leads.
He said the technology is a promising one that could fill important gaps, especially by bringing it to countries where facilities to implant traditional devices is not available, but more data are needed first.
"Unless critical questions with regard to safety and efficacy in primary and secondary prevention are addressed, the S-ICD should be confined to certain subgroups," he said.
Dr. Ken Stein, Boston Scientific's Chief Medical Officer for Cardiac Rhythm Management, said there was more in Hauser's editorial that he agreed with than disagreed with.
"But it was approved by the FDA as being safe and effective," he noted in a telephone interview. "It's an alternative for physicians to consider. We agree there are absolutely some patient populations that shouldn't get it," he said.
For example, patients who have a slow heartbeat or uncoordinated pumping function should not get it because the S-ICD cannot pace a slow heart beat or resynchronize contractions of the heart's ventricles. On the other hand, the S-ICD may be a better choice for patients who are at risk for sepsis, a severe blood infection.
"For some patient populations, this is the best option," Stein said. "Somewhere in that middle ground is where the line should be drawn."
Stein said the company is currently running clinical trials and registers that will render more data, some of which will be presented in the spring at the Heart Rhythm Society meeting.
Wells Fargo analyst Larry Biegelsen called the S-ICD technology "transformational" but said this first generation device is likely to be a niche product.
"We estimate the eligible S-ICD opportunity is currently about 14 percent of the total worldwide ICD market, but estimate penetration will be low due to limitations of the first generation device," he wrote in a research note.
Biegelsen estimated worldwide sales of the S-ICD device to be $46 million in 2013. Boston Scientific had sales of $5.4 billion in the first nine months of 2012.
(Reporting By Debra Sherman; Editing by Bernard Orr and Nick Zieminski)


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Assembling the Double Helix: The Structure of DNA
Nucleotides are the true building blocks of DNA. There are three components of a single nucleotide: one deoxyribose sugar, one phosphate, and one of the four bases. To make a complete DNA molecule, single nucleotides join to make chains that come together as matched pairs and form long double strands. This article walks you through the assembly process.
DNA normally exists as a double-stranded molecule. In living things, new DNA strands are always put together using a preexisting strand as a pattern.
Starting with one: Weaving a single strand
Hundreds of thousands of nucleotides link together to form a strand of DNA. But they don't hook up haphazardly. Nucleotides are a bit like coins in that they have two "sides" — a phosphate side and a sugar side. Nucleotides can only make a connection by joining phosphates to sugars. The bases wind up parallel to each other (stacked like coins) and the sugars and phosphates run perpendicular to the stack of bases. A long strand of nucleotides put together in this way is called a polynucleotide strand (poly meaning many).
Because of the way the chemical structures are numbered, DNA has numbered "ends." The phosphate end is referred to as the 5′ (5-prime) end, and the sugar end is referred to as the 3′ (3-prime) end. The bonds between a phosphate and two sugar molecules in a nucleotide strand are collectively called a phosphodiester bond. This is a fancy way of saying that two sugars are linked together by a phosphate in between.
After they're formed, strands of DNA don't enjoy being single; they're always looking for a match. The arrangement in which strands of DNA match up is very, very important. A number of rules dictate how two lonely strands of DNA find their perfect matches and eventually form the star of the show, the molecule you've been waiting for — the double helix.
Doubling up: Adding the second strand
A complete DNA molecule has
- Two side-by-side polynucleotide strands twisted together.
- Bases attached in pairs in the center of the molecule.
- Sugars and phosphates on the outside, forming a "backbone."
If you were to untwist a DNA double helix and lay it flat, it would look a lot like a ladder. The bases are attached to each other in the center to make the rungs, and the sugars are joined together by phosphates to form the sides of the ladder. It sounds pretty straightforward, but this ladder arrangement has some special characteristics.
If you were to separate the ladder into two polynucleotide strands, you'd see that the strands are oriented in opposite directions. The locations of the sugar and the phosphate give nucleotides heads and tails, two distinct ends. The heads-tails (or in this case, 5′-3′) orientation applies here. This head-to-tail arrangement is called antiparallel, which is a fancy way of saying parallel and running in opposite directions. Part of the reason the strands must be oriented this way is to guarantee that the dimensions of the DNA molecule are even along its entire length. If the strands were put together in a parallel arrangement, the angles between the atoms would be all wrong, and the strands wouldn't fit together.
The molecule is guaranteed to be the same size all over because the matching bases complement each other, making whole pieces that are all the same size. Adenine complements thymine, and guanine complements cytosine. The bases always match up in this complementary fashion. Therefore, in every DNA molecule, the amount of one base is equal to the amount of its complementary base. This condition is known as Chargaff's rules.
An important result of the bases' complementary pairing is the way in which the strands bond to each other. Hydrogen bonds form between the base pairs. The number of bonds between the base pairs differs; G-C pairs have three bonds, and A-T pairs have only two. Every DNA molecule has hundreds of thousands of base pairs, and each base pair has multiple bonds, so the rungs of the ladder are very strongly bonded together.
When inside a cell, the two strands of DNA gently twist around each other like a spiral staircase. The antiparallel arrangement of the two strands is what causes the twist. Because the strands run in opposite directions, they pull the sides of the molecule in opposite directions, causing the whole thing to twist around itself.
Most naturally occurring DNA spirals clockwise. A full twist (or complete turn) occurs every ten base pairs or so, with the bases safely protected on the inside of the helix. The helical form is one way that the information that DNA carries is protected from damage that can result in mutation.
There are a few additional details about DNA that you need to know:
- A DNA strand is measured by the number of base pairs it has.
- The sequence of bases in DNA isn't random. The genetic information in DNA is carried in the order of the base pairs. In fact, the genes are encoded in the base sequences.
- DNA uses a preexisting DNA strand as a pattern or template in the assembly process. DNA just doesn't form on its own. The process of making a new strand of DNA using a preexisting strand is called replication.


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The studio where painter Winslow Homer derived inspiration on Maine's craggy coast and produced some of his most notable seascapes isn't heated by wood or illuminated by oil lamps the way it was in Homer's day.
But in most other ways, the studio has now been restored to what it was like when Homer lived there, from 1883 until his death in 1910, following a multiyear, $2.8-million restoration by the Portland Museum of Art.
With the renovation complete, the museum will begin offering public tours this month, giving visitors a firsthand look at where Homer became one of America's foremost 19th-century painters and an esteemed figure in American art. Museum officials unveiled the studio Monday to members of the media and museum supporters.
There are only a small number of studios of famous artists — Andrew Wyeth, Jackson Pollock, Claude Monet and Frederic Church among them — that are open to the public and allow people to experience what the artist experienced in his day, Museum Director Mark Bessire said.
The Homer studio, located on the Prouts Neck peninsula 12 miles south of Portland, is significant because it's where Homer's artwork matured and where he created some of his masterpieces, he said.
"When Homer comes to Maine, Maine changes the way he painted," Bessire said. "You have artist studios where artists worked, but then you have artist studios where the place actually changed the artist."
Homer was born and raised in Boston and moved to New York as a young man. In his mid-40s, he moved to his family's estate in Maine and lived in a remodeled carriage house with a second-story balcony and an unobstructed view of the ocean.
Homer was already an accomplished artist, but it was here where he created his well-known works focusing on man versus nature, showing the angry tumultuous ocean crashing against shore and weather-beaten fishermen.
After Homer died, the studio passed down among family members until it was inherited by Homer's great-grandnephew, Charles "Chip" Homer Willauer, who for many years lived in the studio in the summer months.
Willauer, 74, was concerned about the future of the building, worried that it would deteriorate over time and be lost to future generations. In 2006, he sold the structure to the Portland Museum of Art for $1.8 million.
The museum spent $2.8 million renovating the structure, including stabilizing the foundation, replacing the balcony, restoring a chimney, replacing windows and returning the exterior to its original green with brown trim. In all, the museum has raised $10.6 million in a fundraising campaign to pay for the purchase and renovation, an endowment, educational programs and exhibitions.
Willauer said he's thrilled with the finished work and happy he doesn't have to worry about the future of a building that was instrumental in Homer's life. But he's not so sure his great-great-uncle would have understood all the attention.
"I think that Winslow, who liked his privacy, would have been surprised by all the interest," Willauer said outside the studio.
The studio will be open for public tours beginning Sept. 25. To celebrate the opening, the museum is presenting an exhibition, "Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine," featuring 38 of Homer's oils, watercolors and etchings that he produced in his studio. The exhibition opened on Saturday and runs through Dec. 30.
The museum will offer three tours of the studio a day, 10 people per tour, in the spring and the fall. Tickets are $55 per person and $30 for museum members. Details at http://www.portlandmuseum.org/ .
Because there's no public parking on Prouts Neck and the studio is located in a private residential neighborhood, visitors will have to take a shuttle van from the museum. Fewer than 4,000 people are expected to visit each year.
"This is a shrine," Bessire said. "This is really about a pilgrimage, and we always meant it to be that way."


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Health & Medicine
Low premiums may mean high out-of-pocket health costs
If you buy one of the less expensive insurance plans sold through the new health law's marketplaces, you may be in for a surprise: Some plans won't pay for doctor visits before you meet your annual deductible, which could be thousands of dollars.
"This could be the next shoe to drop, as people don't realize that if they're buying a bronze plan, they may have to pay $5,000 out of pocket before it contributes a penny," said Carl McDonald, senior analyst with Citi Investment Research, speaking at a conference last month in Washington.
Experts are worrying that some new enrollees will be discouraged from seeing doctors if they have to pay the full charge, rather than simply a copayment. In Miami, for example, 40 percent of bronze plans require consumers to pay the full deductible before coverage kicks in, according to an analysis by online broker eHealthinsurance.com, a private online marketplace, for Kaiser Health News. The average deductible among the examined bronze plans in Miami is $5,735.
Patients in those plans who haven't yet met their annual deductibles would have to pay the full cost of the visits, unless they were for preventive services mandated by the law. A typical office visit can run $65 to $85, while more complex visits may cost more.
The analysis didn't include plans by Florida Blue, which offers a variety of policies in the Miami area. Florida Blue didn't respond to requests from Kaiser Health News for information about which of its plans cover doctor visits before the deductible is met.
People who buy their own insurance have always had to pay a set annual sum, called a deductible, before policies begin paying their claims. But first-time insurance buyers may not realize they're on the hook for those costs before benefits kick in, and might choose plans based solely on the monthly premiums.
Bronze and silver plans, which have the lowest monthly premiums but typically some of the highest deductibles, are the most likely to require consumers to spend that amount themselves before the insurer pays any claims.
There's no nationwide data on how many plans do that. But in seven major cities, including Miami, half of bronze plans, on average, require policyholders to meet the deductibles before insurers will help with the cost of doctor visits, the eHealthinsurance-Kaiser Health News analysis found.
Silver plans, which generally have higher monthly premiums than bronze, are more generous, with more than three-quarters paying for doctor visits before the deductibles are met. The analysis included most or all of the plans available through the health law marketplaces in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., Miami, Chicago and Phoenix.
In Florida, 90 percent of silver plans offered in Tampa and 89 percent in Miami allowed coverage for at least some doctor visits before the deductibles were met.
Meeting the deductible before most coverage kicks in is common in the individual market, but it differs sharply from job-based health insurance. More than three-fourths of the insurance plans offered to Americans with coverage through their jobs pay a substantial chunk of the cost of doctor visits without the workers having to meet the annual deductible first, according to an annual survey of employers by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
All plans must cover preventive services
Under the law, Congress granted insurers leeway in how they design their plans, so long as bronze plans cover at least 60 percent of the costs of a typical policyholder, silver plans cover 70 percent, gold plans cover 80 percent and platinum plans cover 90 percent – with consumers on the hook for the remainder. Gold and platinum plans weren't included in the eHealthinsurance-Kaiser Health News analysis because they generally cover more services with less cost-sharing by consumers.
All new plans must cover some defined preventive services with no copayment by the consumer and without having to meet the deductible first. Those include some vaccinations, mammograms and other cancer screenings, contraception _ including birth control pills _ and periodic physicals. But prevention services don't include treatment for an illness, such as the flu. Charges also might apply if, during a preventive care visit, the patient also is treated for a medical condition or a minor injury. In addition to doctor visits and preventive care, some plans may offer limited coverage for some prescription drugs.
So policyholders get some coverage simply by paying their monthly premiums. But "consumers need to look closely at plan design," said Nancy Metcalf, senior program editor at Consumer Reports. "If you have someone without a lot of money and they have a $4,000 or $6,000 deductible before anything (beyond preventive services) is covered, I have concerns about access to care."
Plans that list prices for doctor visits followed by the phrase "after the deductible is met" mean that consumers must pay the full deductible before getting doctor visits for small copayments. Additional information may be found by clicking the "details" button and reading the summary of benefits. Consumers also may call insurers directly or look up the information under the policy names on insurers' websites.
Sixty-four percent of bronze plans offered in Dallas require policyholders to meet the full deductible before coverage kicks in, according to the analysis, which included all insurers except Molina Healthcare. The average deductible in those plans was $5,400, according to the data insurers provided to eHealthinsurance.
In Philadelphia, by contrast, 33 percent of bronze plans require policyholders to pay the deductible first, the smallest percentage among the cities studied. The average bronze deductible there was $5,689.
Among silver plans, the analysis showed that far more provide some coverage before the deductible is paid. Of 14 plans examined in Chicago, for example, only one required the deductible to be fully met before the consumer could see a primary care doctor for a small copayment. All but one insurer, Land of Lincoln Mutual, were included in that analysis.
Don't assume lowest-premium plan is best
Cigna spokesman Joe Mondy said the insurer sought to offer consumers a range of choices. Some of Cigna's plans, for example, allow in-network visits with primary care doctors before the deductible is met, typically for a $30 to $45 copayment, while others do not.
"We structured the plans with the recognition that a lot of the new customers have never had a primary care or family doctor," Mondy said. Plans that allow primary care visits for small copayments are expected to foster doctor-patient relationships, he said.
Under the law, there are special provisions for lower-income Americans who purchase silver plans but not bronze plans. People who earn less than 250 percent of the poverty level – about $28,700 for an individual – will get extra help from the federal government in the form of lower copayments for doctor visits and smaller annual deductibles. For the lowest-income residents, that can mean plans with little or no deductibles and copayments as small as $3 for primary-care doctor visits.
"Be very careful before you take a bronze plan over a silver plan" if you are in the subsidy-eligible income range, said Linda Blumberg, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a social and economic research center. Those who earn less than twice the federal poverty level, about $23,000 a year for an individual, get the most help, with subsidies ratcheting down sharply after that.
Consumer advocates say shoppers should consider a wide range of plans – and not assume that the ones with the lowest monthly premiums are the best for them. Still, finding out what services – other than preventive care – are covered before the deductible is met can take some digging.
Generally, any plan that can be linked with a "health savings account" _ a way to put money aside tax-free to cover medical costs _ won't cover much except preventive care before the deductible is met because of the rules governing those accounts. For all other plans, consumers can check insurers' websites for details or log on to HealthCare.gov, the federal marketplace that covers residents of 36 states. A new feature added to HealthCare.gov shows each policy's monthly premium, annual deductible and the copayments required for doctor visits, drugs and emergency room care.


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Compared to the old, stock Gen I/LT1/LT4 small-block valvetrains, the LS engines are head and shoulders above their ancestors when it comes to factory equipment. Where the old engines (except the LT4) used stamped steel rocker arm bodies that had wide ratio tolerances around the centerline of 1.5, the LS engines use cast steel bodies with much less variance from the specified 1.7 factory ratio. LS rockers use a roller trunnion, where Gen I/LT1/LT4 used a pivot ball assembly. LS engines also use a net-lash, non-adjustable system for securing the rockers and setting lifter preload, where the old engines used an adjustable system that could be used with either hydraulic- or solid-lifter camshafts.
But the LS system isn't without its own weaknesses, the most critical being the bearings on the rocker arm trunnions. For those not versed in valvetrain terminology, the trunnion is the shaft the rocker arm pivots on. On older small-blocks, the factory stamped steel rocker arm would rotate against a pivot ball, with a film of oil between the two for lubrication. This was a high-friction design that left a lot of room for improvement, creating the market for high performance roller rockers.
Note: When someone says "roller rockers" there's a common misconception this refers to the roller tip on the rocker arm body. Roller refers to the roller bearings used on the rocker arm trunnion to reduce friction and increase high-rpm durability and horsepower.
In stock applications, the factory LS rocker bearing does just fine. But when higher-lift camshafts, higher spring pressures, and stiffer pushrods are used, the amount of stress exerted on the factory trunnion bearings increases substantially, especially in high-rpm situations. Under these stresses, the factory roller bearings can fail, and because of their uncaptured design (explained in the photos ahead) the needle bearings are ejected into the engine oil, leading to complete valvetrain and engine failure.
Previously, the only way to prevent this from happening was upgrading to either aftermarket roller or shaft-mount rockers. Both options involved considerable expense, and also required extra parts because they eliminated the net-lash system and required the installation of new rocker arm studs and adjustable rocker nuts. Converting an LS engine to an adjustable valvetrain is an advantage of this, but for most guys with mildly modified engines, unnecessary.
To fill the gap between stock rockers and fully adjustable roller rockers, the valvetrain gurus at Comp Cams came up with this nifty trunnion upgrade kit. With a retail price of just over $100, the kit comes with upgraded trunnions, captured needle roller bearing assemblies, and works with any factory LS rocker. That's right, this kit works even with the offset LS3/LS7/LS9/LSA rockers. And because the factory net-lash system is retained, you don't have to worry about resetting lifter preload, making the job that much easier, especially for novices.
Follow along as we show you just how simple this upgrade really is. And to see a quick video of this swap taking place, point your web browser at http://youtu.be/IcLAh8J6tPs.


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'Once Upon a Time' Casts Elsa from 'Frozen'by Maggie Malach | PopCrush
More exciting news for 'Frozen' fans! After announcing the 'Once Upon a Time' casting decisions for Anna and Kristoff, news broke that Georgina Haig will play ice queen Elsa.
TVGuide.com reports that the 28-year-old actress, best known for her work on 'Fringe,' will play the Queen of Arendelle. Georgina joins Elizabeth Lail and Scott Michael Foster, who have been tapped to play Anna and Kristoff, respectively.
According to TVGuide.com, Elsa made a brief appearance during the 'Once Upon a Time' season 3 finale, when she fell out of an urn and seemed prepared for an icy battle!
We don't know much about what the TV show has in store for the 'Frozen' characters, but we do know that Georgina looks an awful lot like her animated counterpart. From her ice blonde hair to her big blue eyes, we totally see a resemblance!
Check out the photos below to see how Georgina compares to Elsa! Are you excited for the upcoming season of 'Once Upon a Time'?
See Celebs Who Look Like Disney Characters


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Hey All,
I am new to Java. I have a 2 phase assignment to make a craps game. In the first phase I have to implement two classes, Die and PairOfDice. The public methods of Die are Die(), int getTopValue() and void roll(). The public methods for PairOfDice are PairofDice(), int GetValue() and void roll().
The implementation of the PairOfDice class must use two Die objects. It must not make direct use
of the Random class.
I am just not quite sure where to start. Any ideas and hints would be appreciated.


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