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Back in the saddle and ready to blog
Long, long day. Really long. I spent it with my mother, an experience that always exhausts me. Age has sucked everything but the life out of her. There's no vestige anymore of the person she once was. That saddens me, even though I know it's the way of things. A day spent with her is no longer a day with Mom, which used to be my delight, but is, instead, a day spent with a very frail, very slow, somewhat confused, usually grumpy, very passive-aggressive, lovingly narcissistic, obsessive compulsive person.
I don't regret the time. I still love the person she was, so I care deeply for the person she is, but I always arrive home completely drained. It takes energy for me to slow down to her speed (which is the same reason I never enjoyed toddlers) and it takes even more energy for me to deal with her relentless negativity and to track, and respond appropriately to, her often obscure conversation. I'm a grumpy person myself, so I've told both the kids to kick me in the tuchus if, when I'm old, I whine endlessly. I've told them to feel free to threaten me with their absence if I don't clean up (or cheer up) my act.
Thankfully, I've now had a couple of hours to decompress. My husband took my daughter and her friends to the movies, the dogs are washed and resting nearby, and the mouse is making music on its creaky little wheel. Everything is peaceful. I like peaceful, since it gives my brain freedom. And with that mental freedom comes the urge to share my thoughts. Here goes:
The new Nazi salute rises in Europe. Its practitioners say it's a joke, because they angle their stiff arm downwards, not upwards. Their claim that it's a joke is a lie, of course. They pair this neo-Nazi salute with the same venomous anti-Semitism that led the Nazis to create the gas chambers. Also, it's very bizarre to see black men do this salute, since the Nazis believed firmly in black racial inferiority Hitler, as many recall, was livid when Jesse Owens swept the races during the 1936 Munich Olympics. How dare he prove false one of the Nazi's racial theories.
Andrew McCarthy has penned one of his best posts. In addition to shredding the purported facts in the now-infamous New York Times whitewash of Benghazi history (which I won't dignify with a link), McCarthy zeroes in on the real purpose behind the story — and it's not just to salvage Hillary's reputation:
[T]he objective of Kirkpatrick's novella is not to persuade; it is to shrink the parameters of newsworthy inquiry to a punctilious debate over nonsense: The cockamamie trailer and the dizzying jihadist org chart.
Coherence and historical accuracy are not what the Times is after. The aim is to drag our consideration of a jihadist act of war down a rabbit hole of nitpicking over which jihadists did what. Meanwhile, the Obama administration's derelictions before, during, and after the massacre — the matter of greatest consequence — remain studiously outside this wearying crossfire.
Remember, the Times-Clinton tag team has run this play before. Start with a president using a young intern to turn the Oval Office into a brothel and then perjuring himself over it. Ought to be a removable offense, right? But the next thing you know, after some epic media investigation dictated by Democratic talking points, we find ourselves kvetching over whether it was really sex; whether she was of consenting age; whether he really lied; whether the lies were really "material"; whether a president's Oval Office trysts are really part of his "private life"; and "what the definition of 'is' is."
See? None of the ever tinier questions or answers matter. The idea is to exhaust the American attention span until enough people are persuaded that it's time to — all together now — move on.
McCarthy ends his post with dozens of the big questions, the ones that need to be asked. The tragedy of those questions, a tragedy in many ways greater even than those four lonely, violent deaths in Benghazi, is that no one will ever ask them. The media surrounding Obama and Hillary doesn't want to know the answer to those questions, and Obama and Hillary will be careful to avoid every coming into contact with the people willing to ask them.
Caroline Glick sees a silver lining to that same New York Times article. She believes that the Times, while trying to whitewash Obama and Hillary, accidentally admitted an important truth: Radical Islam, which is a worldwide phenomenon made up of many groups and individuals, is the problem. Al Qaeda is just one tiny drop in the Islamist ocean. This reality runs counter to Obama's own narrative.
Since bin Laden's death, as you know, Obama has been boasting that al Qaeda is dead, meaning that America no longer need fear massive terrorist attacks or global warfare. With that fiction in place, Obama has felt free to pal around with Iran, the Taliban, the Turkish government, etc. The New York Times just blew that fiction to smithereens. Either al Qaeda was the main actor in Benghazi, which means that Obama lied when he said it was defeated, dropped the ball in Benghazi, and lied after the fact; or al Qaeda didn't commit the Benghazi massacre, which means that Obama lied when he said al Qaeda was the only Islamic enemy, and that he's been exposing America to terrible danger by refusing to acknowledge terrorists other than al Qaeda.
I agree with Glick in principle, but believe that only a small subset of Americans will appreciate these subtleties. Either they support Obama and Hillary or they don't. Nothing else matters.
Jonathan Marks writes a brilliant take-down of the antisemitic American Studies Association.
And speaking of the travesty that is modern academia, if you can get behind the Wall Street Journal's paywall, please check out Heather MacDonald's masterful exposure of the rot at the heart of UCLA's English literature department. Shakespeare is out and now English majors must take "a total of three courses in the following four areas: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Disability and Sexuality Studies; Imperial, Transnational, and Postcolonial Studies; genre studies, interdisciplinary studies, and critical theory; or creative writing."
It sure sounds as if the English Lit department has been transformed into the Marxist Social Issues department. The students will learn how not to think. Well, they're actually learning how not to think in every department at every major American university. (In years past, I might have excluded the sciences from that blanket statement, but the sciences' impassioned embrace of the global warming hoax reveals that academia is tainted in toto.) Worse, these English majors will never learn learn about the beauty of their mother tongue nor will they be exposed to big ideas about human kind. Instead, their prose, and the thoughts underlying that prose, will be like this:
At its most intimate, colonization involves bodies, altering how subjects experience and conceive of desire, hunger, touch, comfort, pleasure, and pain. This panel seeks participants from all disciplines engaged with the objects of early American studies to contribute to a discussion of method and theory for understanding early American carnality. In particular, it is concerned with the intersection of bodily sensation with evolving understandings of empire, nation, encounter, and resistance. How was colonization effected through and affected by sensation? How do theories of affect and intimacy impact current early American historiographies, and vice versa? How might Americanists reconceptualize our understandings of the significance of empire and colonization through attentiveness to early American sensation? Proposals that consider race, gender, and/or sexuality dynamically or that explore economic status, religion, local conditions, or ethno-cultural identities as part of carnality strongly encouraged (though naming some themes is not meant to exclude other possibilities).
Each panelist will present a 10 minute paper and be paired with a respondent who will provide prepared comments. Respondents will ideally be non-early Americanists in order to foster temporal interdisciplinarity.
Mr. Bookworm doesn't understand why I'm resistant to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to send my children to big name colleges. It's not just that they're rife with antisemitism and anti-Americanism. It's because major universities such as UCLA are neutering and Marx-icizing their English departments, meaning that the universities' ultimate goal is for America's "best and brightest" (or at least, her "A" and "B" students) to be taught to think and write in the way of American academics.
Everything you need to know about the Obama administration: It frees from prison Lynne Stewart, an unrepentant Communist who actively aided Islamist terrorism against the US, even as it gets ever-more-deeply involved in a down and dirty fight with nuns who refuse to let the government force them to violate their religious conscience. My money is on the nuns. Obama may have a rigid ideology on his side, but the nuns are members of God's army, and they will not give up the fight. Fortunately, the Archdiocese of New York is not playing nice but is, instead, telling the world exactly what the Obama administration is doing — and what it's doing is discriminating against traditional religion.
Mary Tudor (1516-1558) lost Calais, the last English outpost in France. She found that loss so horrifying that she said, "When I am dead and opened, you shall find `Calais' lying in my heart." Barack Obama has lost Fallujah, the city that American troops, especially Marines, bled and died for, probably in greater numbers than in any other geographic site in our decade long battle against Islamists in Iraq and Afghanistan. He hasn't said a single word about this terrible loss, nor does he seem to care that he's allowed ten years of hard-fought military victories to vanish in the blink of an eye. When Obama dies and is opened, not only will no one find 'Fallujah' lying in his heart, no one will find a heart.
Tom Blumer details the five myths people have to believe in order to accept the Obama presidency as anything other than a disaster. Two involve the economy, one involves Obamacare, one involves climate change, and the last is about national security. 2014 may well be the death of all these myths, but we'll still be saddled with two more years of Obama.
The Democrat party used to have genuine liberals in its numbers — people with a broad, classic education who envisioned a world that was better with America, not a world better off without America. They may have been useful idiots who were unaware that they represented the pretty front of hardcore Leftism, but they were real.
These old-time liberal Democrats were the people who believed in equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. They believed that men and women were different (and viva la difference), but that women were entitled to equal treatment under the law. They would have scoffed at the notion that men, and all their biological impulses, are dangerous and perverse, and should therefore be destroyed. They believed wholeheartedly that blacks were their brothers and sisters, and deserved full standing under the law. They would have been shocked to hear that the blacks were to be treated economically as marginally intelligent infants and sexually as uncontrolled adolescents. That's how the KKK and Jim Crow viewed blacks, and true liberal Democrats fought against those demeaning stereotypes.
Old-time liberal Democrats believed that Israel was a feisty nation, rooted in the Bible, burnished in the terrible crucible of the Holocaust, and to be applauded for fighting against the forces of Communist and Arabist darkness. They would have been unable to comprehend a world in which their party mouthpieces bellowed loudly that Jews are the new Nazis, simply because they are trying to protect their whole country and their individual citizens from being overrun by genocidal, anti-Christian, misogynistic, homophobic, medieval minds.
Those old-time liberals Democrats, who did truly exist, are gone now. To those of you like myself who were once Leftists, but now identify as conservatives, you're not imagining it: the political party you left beyond has truly gone 'round the bend. They're all Marxists now.
When seconds count, the police are always minutes (74 minutes in this case) away. Thank God for legal guns.


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South St. Paul, along with the communities of Mendota Heights, and West St. Paul have been participating in the Safety Camp program since 1992. Safety Camp is held every July at Kaposia Park in South St. Paul. Over 130 children of the approximate age of 10 are invited to participate in the three-day event. Parents drop their children off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon.
The children are monitored by camp counselors who lead them from station to station. At each station, the campers learn about varying aspects of everyday safety. Some of the topics include:
In between learning sessions, the campers play games or practice their safe camp songs. On the last day, the campers and their parents are treated to an outdoor barbeque. At this gathering, the campers discuss what they've learned and perform their songs for the parents.
Safety Camp is organized by your local Parks and Recreation Department and is supported by the South St. Paul VFW Post 295. Many local businesses donate funds and/or resources to make the Safety Camp experience a memorable one. If your child would like to participate in next year's Safety Camp, or your organization would like to make a donation, please contact the local Parks and Recreation Departments in South St. Paul, West St. Paul, or Mendota Heights

subset: commoncrawl


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THE debate about the existence of extra-terrestrial life in the universe has been brought closer to home after this crop circle appeared in a field near Highworth .
The square-filled circle, which features a square is in what is thought to be a wheat field near Hannington, and has led some to speculate about who created it or what it might mean.
Circle hunter Matthew Williams, 42, flew over the field in a microlight to enable this photo to be taken after he was alerted to the formation by the Crop Circle Connector website.
He said: "It's superb. It was very well done because it looks very crisp. It's got good detail in it, so it looks like whatever entity or human made it certainly knew what they were doing.
"If you notice in each square it's actually got a kind of swirl and that's quite an achievement. It's not just the design you are seeing, if you look down into the squared areas there's a second design."
Matthew, a computer engineer from Market Lavington, said he made crop circles himself from 1991 to 2000, until he was arrested for damaging crops, and turned his hand to spotting the formations instead.
He and his photographer, who prefers to remain anonymous, set out from their air base near Melksham on Sunday shortly after snapping another new circle at Etchilhampton, near Devizes.
He said that the Highworth area normally has one crop circle a year, but the hotspot is the region around Alton Barnes, near Pewsey, where there is usually about 50 or 60 a year.
Matthew said he suspected most of the circles were made by humans, many of whom are well-known among enthusiasts, but the original simple circles might have been made by aliens.
Commenting on the provenance of the Highworth circle, he said: "I don't know who did it so I cannot say for certain but I would say a certain amount of intelligence has been involved.
"Whether people want to believe that intelligence is human or alien, that's for them to decide.
"There's probably a message in there and the message might be from aliens but it could be from humans saying Hello Mum."
The Crop Circle Connector website records 16 formations across the UK in late July, including one at Wanborough Plain, near Liddington, and another at Windmill Hill, near Avebury .
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Public transportation
"Public Transportation's for jerks and lesbians."
"This job is great. I show up an hour late and still get paid!"
Public transportation is a technique for improving government employment statistics. The more direct benefit is the employment of bus drivers, administrative staff. Since Public Transport is slower than other popular forms of transport, such as walking, swimming and helicopter it also reduces the amount of free time for the average worker. Since each worker works fewer hours per week, more are required (see France and their 35 minute working week). The first Land's End to John 'o' Grotes journey by local bus began in 1930 and is expected to be completed in the next decade.
It also contributes to air pollution in cities and to discouraging walking and cycling. This reduces life expectancy during next government's rule so as to look favourable in comparison and be voted again. By supplementing the existing congestion, it reduces the fuel efficiency of private cars which increases revenue via fuel taxation.
Public transportation makes it possible for people to travel without paying for their own car and gasoline. Public transportation is, therefore, a crime against the DMCA and should, according to some experts, be considered Unamerican.
In some countries, mostly those in the third world that do not need to support oil companies and car manufacturers, public transportation is (unlike in USA) not given the role of giving the homeless a place to urinate. This is why the streets of France run yellow with pee.
It is important to realize that not all societies can accept a system where even the suburbs of large metropolitan areas are served by a network of bus traffic and subway systems. Quite the contrary; when such a system makes it possible for people to travel, and have shelter, in a relatively cheap and efficient way, the economic implications are too terrible to consider (again, see France). To protect the economy, all civilized nations that have been forced by Communist infiltrators to implement public transportation systems ensure that the physical infrastructure of the transportation facilities is made painful to use, and reinforce the inconvenience with extensive mind control radiation and terrorism threats.
The term transportation comes from the ancient practice of throwing trannies into doors ("portus"). The basic idea, back in the Iron Age, had been to expel them from one's building. Trannies looked weird, and scared off customers, in those days, so the bouncers threw the trannies out the door. This was known as "portating the trans-sexual", which became shortened over time to "trans-portation".
In later years, people applied the word to the tossing out of anyone from a building, and then to the sending of a person from one building to another. Now, of course, it just means moving from point A to point B, the chucking of transsexuals out the door having fortunately died out.
Mind Control and Public Transportation[edit]
The traditional means of placing advertisements in public areas was proven by Oscar Wilde to be not effective enough to make up to the economical loss of people not consuming any products while traveling. Only in the last decade or so telecommunication devices have slowly made it possible for people to consume while sitting on a subway train.
This consumption is usually consisting of the travelers making phone calls or browsing the Intarweb on their cell phones or listening to music or ebooks purchased from the iTunes music store on iPods. This change has been welcomed by environmentalists who previously have insisted that the consequences of having large percentages of the populations of major cities sitting in their own vehicles in traffic jams for hours with the engines running (thus consuming at least some gasoline) not being acceptable.
How to use public transportation[edit]
Welcome to the fine world of public transportation. The first step to enjoying this service is to go to a designated station. These stations can be found in the most inconvenient places possible. Some of the larger stations feature a hot dog stand but mostly you must be content with a half-roofed shelter. You would have noticed at least one sheet of broken glass. These art exhibitions are donated by the local homies and assure you of the station's credibility. It is a requirement for you to scratch your name into the station somewhere so the government knows who to overtax for your unpatriotism.
Then you must wait for the bus/train/whatever. Depending on your luck you will have to wait anywhere between 10 minutes and 3 weeks. The public transport company decides when to send trains down the track while sitting in their office. This depends on whether or not they have hired anybody. If they have hired someone, which is rare, then they let him go. The length of time this temp has spent on the job then becomes the length of time between trains. If they have not hired somebody, which is the usual case, they use the magic 8 ball to decide when to send trains and what tracks to send them down, due to the incredibly low budget.
While on the train or bus, you must pay the bus driver 7 cents. finding the bus driver is quite tricky as he looks very similar to the rest of the passengers on the bus (especially the bums). He will be drunk, have 4 teeth, 5 words of English and half his lunch down his shirt. However, unlike the rest of his passengers, he has not yet accepted that driving is beyond his mental capabilities, and will most likely be at the front of the bus, talking to one of his few, unfortunate friends on his cell phone. Many bums live on public transport. They are usually asleep. It is best if you don't wake them up. If they ask you for money, don't give them any. They will identify you as a easy target and never stop following you. Bums can be identified as follows: smelly clothes, torn clothes, missing half of his or her teeth, and always asking for money (or sleeping on cardboard).
It is recommended that you hold onto the seats as tight as posable as using seatbelts is strictly prohibited on the bus. Do not wear your best trousers on the bus/train. All the seats are coated with a thick layer of piss and chewing gum in order to deter the homeless from eating them. Do not sit at the back of the bus or train unless you are a bogan or wish to be beaten up by them or worse, mistaken as one and be forced to listen to AC/DC and have a conversation about beer using a limit of 5 different words. It is against the law to speak to anyone on public transport. This gives extra time for the users of public transport to stew in their sorrow and hopefully die of cholera.
Recent legal battles[edit]
During the early 00s large American companies like General Motors and Ford have with some success lobbyed against laws making it legal for car owners living in communities offering public transportation to do some travelling with vehicles not owned by themselves.
Legalisation of driving free days is still a controversial political issue in parts of the western world, due to the common fear of that some people might forget how to drive safely if not praticing to improve their driving skills every day. This particular belief have however been discovered to be an urban legend started by corrupt journalists.
Japan and the Netherlands are in talks with the United States to legalize driving-free days in America, in exchange for the legalization of driving in the first two countries. Toyota was reportedly tired of having to go abroad to sell its cars. (Currently, driving in Japan is mainly allowed in the Barbarian Gaijin Trade Zones by the Shogun. That is, driving is limited to Nagoya and Hokkaido. This was done because Japan Rail East and Japan Rail West have lobbied against allowing driving elsewhere.) In the Netherlands, the roads were turned over to bicycles long ago, and it may be tough to convert them back to car roads.


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The Senior Pet Podcast
Stacey Bone
Visit website
Help your young pets live longer and your older pets live better. Veterinarian, Dr. Stacey Bone and Pet Industry insider, Ron Devries offer sound commentary and real-world guidance on issues surrounding Senior Pet Health. Listen in and learn why Old Age Isn't a Disease.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
Sep 15, 2021
NEW Senior Cat Guidelines PART 2
Dr. BOne and Ron are back! Rounding out part two of the new senior cat guidelines just released by the Association of Feline Practitioners! If you have a senior cat, you'll want to listen!
41 min
Aug 18, 2021
NEW 2021 Senior Cat guidelines (part 1)
In this episode, Dr. Bone and Ron break down the brand new guidelines for the care of Senior Cats. The things they discuss are important for any cat owner!
47 min
Jul 28, 2021
Bite Sized Pawd: Cognitive Disease (Doggy Dementia) recap
Dr. Bone and Ron give you a quick recap of the past two episodes focusing on what you need to know to both prevent Cognitive Disease in your senior pets and what to do if your pet has been diagnosed.
23 min
Jun 30, 2021
What are the symptoms of cognitive disease and how do we treat it?
In the second part of this series, we are going over the symptoms of cognitive disease that many of you see in your senior pets. We end it with the all-important discussion of how we can treat this disease in our pets.
43 min
Jun 16, 2021
What is Cognitive Dysfunction?
We are back! After a bit of a break we are releasing the first of two episodes on Cognitive Dysfunction in our senior pets. This is a VERY common disease and it is very helpful to know the signs and symptoms.
38 min
Mar 10, 2021
Dr. Bone and Ron Take on your Google Questions Part 2
In the second part of this series, we take a look at some of the most common google questions you have about your senior pets and give our answers.
23 min
Feb 8, 2021
How do we treat kidney disease?
Join us for our final episode discussing therapies and strategies for treating kidney disease with a lot of emphasis on dietary therapy.
42 min
Jan 27, 2021
Does my pet have kidney disease?
In our second episode on kidney disease, Dr. Bone and Ron discuss the signs of kidney disease and how we diagnose it with a special focus on WHY and how we can diagnose it early.
37 min
Jan 13, 2021
What is Kidney Disease?
Dr. Bone and Ron start the first of a 3 part series: What is kidney disease and how common is it? Have you ever wondered what causes kidney disease in pets? We cover it all on this episode!
37 min
Dec 15, 2020
Dr. Bone and Ron vs. Google
In this episode, our hosts google the most commonly asked questions about senior pets and answer them! What does my dog shake? Why does my cat yowl at night? Figure out the answers to these and many more.
22 min
Dec 1, 2020
What is this lump on my pet?
Dr. Bone and Ron discuss the various lumps and bumps that senior pets can develop. Tune in to learn what these lumps are, what they look like, and how you can deal with them
37 min
Oct 22, 2020
Should I exercise my senior pet and how??
Dr. Bone and Ron discuss how to keep your senior pet, both dogs and cats, active. Activity is important for physical and mental well being and this is great advice for all senior pet owners.
36 min
Sep 2, 2020
Arthritis Recap: Bite-sized Pawd
Dr. Bone and Ron do a quick recap of everything they have covered on arthritis in our senior pets over the last few episodes.
11 min
Aug 19, 2020
Supplements and CBD for Arthritis??
After a bit of a break, Dr. Bone and Ron are back and covering their next installment in the arthritis series looking at using CBD and supplements for arthritis. There are a lot of products on the market and discuss the most common forms and evidence for their use.
36 min
Jul 8, 2020
How Can I Treat My pet's Arthritis?
Dr. BOne and Ron continue the arthritis conversation with what most pet owners want to know: How can I treat Arthritis. From medications to alternative therapies, your hosts cover the good and bad and what evidence exists to use it as a treatment.
40 min
Jun 9, 2020
Does my pet have arthritis? What are the signs?
Dr. Bone and Ron discuss what symptoms a pet with arthritis will show; sometimes it isn't what you think! And they discuss how we diagnose arthritis if there are symptoms.
30 min
Jun 2, 2020
What is arthritis and how common is it?
Dr. Bone and Ron start the series on the single most common condition that affects senior pets, osteoarthritis. They cover the disease itself, how common it is in our senior pets, and what causes it.
30 min
May 28, 2020
Anxiety and Your Pets
Dr. Bone and Ron discuss the dreaded anxiety with a focus on feline anxiety and urinary issues, separation anxiety in dogs, and how to treat anxiety in your pets.
33 min
May 3, 2020
What pain meds can I give my pet and what is going on with the pets testing positive for Covid 19?
In this Bite-Sized Pawd, Dr. Bone is answering the question of what pain medications can I give at home for my pet if they are hurting? He goes through the do's and don'ts of home pain med treatments. He also gives a quick overview of cats testing positive for coronavirus and what this all means.
17 min
Apr 15, 2020
Do Veterinarian's Pets Get Sick?
Have you wondered if veterinarian's pets get sick? Do vets miss things on their own pets? Dr. Bone and Ron discuss some stories of issues with their own pets and some pet stories from other veterinarians. The hot spot of this episode is about incontinence in our pets.
41 min
Mar 26, 2020
Is this an Emergency? AND a quick Coronavirus Update
Should I go to an emergency clinic? This is an often asked question and, with the help of ER vet Dr. Stabler, Dr. Bone discusses the symptoms and conditions that we consider an emergency. Also, a quick update on the new findings with COVID19
18 min
Mar 11, 2020
Why Cats Aren't Small Dogs
Cats are creatures all their own. Dr. Bone and Ron compare and contrast the behaviors and origins of the cat as a household pet and why we approach them differently in veterinary medicine. The hot spot is all about senior pet adoption.
39 min
Feb 28, 2020
Let's Talk About Coronavirus and Your Pets - Bite Sized Pawd
Dr. Bone discusses what we know about the Coronavirus and our pets including the latest news about a dog testing positive, facts about the disease, and what we know currently. Also including are some practical tips for prepping with your pets.
11 min
Feb 26, 2020
What are diagnostics, anyway?
*Dr. Bone and Ron take this episode to discuss diagnostics in veterinary medicine; what they are and why they are recommended. The Hot Spot covers deafness in our senior pets. *
42 min
Feb 12, 2020
The Senior Pet Physical Exam
*Dr. Bone and Ron discuss what happens once you get to the vet and the exam starts. Our hosts take us through a guided tour of the physical examination including just what your vet is looking at/for during the exam. The Hot Spot for the episode is dental disease.*
41 min
Jan 29, 2020
What Happens At The Vet?
*Have you wondered what it is like to take a senior pet to the vet? *Dr. Bone and Ron discuss senior veterinary visits, some tips getting to the vet, and what happens when you get there. The Hot Spot is all about preventative medicines and vaccines in our senior pets.
35 min
Jan 15, 2020
Why old age is NOT a disease.
*What happens to us and our pets as we age?* Dr. Stacey and Ron Devries discuss the biology of aging and what that means for our senior pet care. This episode's Hot Spot is all about the importance of exercise in our pets, even as they age.
32 min
Dec 31, 2019
Is my pet a Senior & Why does it matter?
*How old is my senior pet in "human years?" *Join our hosts as they dive into this topic and why it matters that we know how old are pets truly are. The Hot Spot discusses pet spending and how we should maybe rethink where we spend it.
25 min
Dec 31, 2019
Meet Your Hosts
*Who are Dr. Stacey Bone and Ron DeVries?* In this podcast, the two spend the time getting personal and discussing their pets, careers in vet and the pet industry, and how everything led them to the importance of Senior Pet Health. Today's "Hot Spot" discusses new methods for determining the "human age" of your four-legged family members.
31 min
Nov 29, 2019
Teaser - S1E1 Coming January 2020
Teaser episode - Information about the podcast series and what to expect in the coming months! Senior Pet Podcast is a show dedicated to giving our Senior four-legged family members they're happiest and healthiest lives. Join our Senior Pet Experts - Dr. Stacey Bone & animal health insider Ron Devries as they discuss the issues that aging pets face today and sharing vetted information to safely navigate this part of your pets life.
4 min


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Often, the best way to avoid a rip-off is to know what others are paying for things. What did the guy sitting next to me on the plane pay for his ticket? How much did the neighbor pay for his kid's wedding? That emergency dental procedure? The water pump replacement on her late-model foreign car?
Retailers use big data to maximize revenue—that is, to take as much of your money as they can. Why shouldn't you have the same power?
Increasingly, websites and apps are giving consumers access to incredibly detailed aggregate price information, holding out the promise that the scales of bargaining power might tip back their way. There are now hundreds of online tools—most of them unbiased and data driven—that tell consumers the prices others have paid for everything from flowers to bathroom renovations. Enter a ZIP code, select a few criteria and faster than a shopkeeper can say, "High profit margin," you can say, "Not so fast!"
The price calculators—many are called "cost estimators"—are fun to play with, but they pack a real punch. None of these tools will prevent a bait-and-switch estimate, or keep you from getting nickel-and-dimed. But they do something just as important: They give you a reference point (what economists call an anchor) so you always know you are in the right ballpark, if not sitting in the right seat, when paying for something.
I'll divide the tools into three categories: Regret tools, bargaining tools and anxiety tools. Let me explain.
Regret tools
Data are always backward looking, and as we all know, the past is no guarantee of future performance. So it is with prices others paid. This is most obvious in airline tickets, where knowing your friend got a good deal on a flight to Ireland last week is almost useless as a predictor of your price, other than the near certainty that you will pay more.
Still, longer trends offer some insights, and that's what I love about FlightAware's beta product, "Insight for Airlines." FlightAware is known for giving passengers and their loved ones up-to-the-moment geographic and speed data on planes in the air.
But click around, and you'll find the Insight product, which tells users the median price paid for tickets on that route, by airline, during a 12-month period. It also includes the maximum and minimum prices for that route. If you're on the plane, you'll either feel smart or stupid, based on what you paid.
Flightaware's director of software development, Jeffrey Lawson, notes that the data tool comes with a long list of qualifiers. For starters, the data, which are acquired from the airline industry, is about two years old. Second, it's not fair to compare cost of a ticket purchased the day before a flight with a ticket purchased 11 months prior to the trip. It's not even fair to compare a February ticket to a May ticket.
But, if you fly a route frequently—say, Seattle to New York—you get a good idea if you are overpaying regularly. Insight also makes it easy to compare airlines, which is particularly useful. For example, on a Seattle to Newark run, United carries the most passengers, but Alaska charges about 10 percent less. Scheduling concerns aside, it sure looks like some of those United passengers should consider Alaska.
Lawson, by the way, says FlightAware is considering an update to the product, which would be a boon to travelers. But since you can't use the FlightAware's data to bargain for lower fares, it's mostly a "regret tool," as in, "Wow, I'm kind of a sucker for paying that much."
(Read more: Traditional grocers poised to join e-commerce boom)
I'd put wedding cost calculators into the same category. One of the best I found is at CostOfWedding.com. It allows lovebirds to enter all kinds of specifics, such as what kind of table gifts they expect to buy, and how fancy the reception food will be.
Still, weddings involve so many details and decisions that wedding calculators are really only useful for after-the-fact comparisons. For example, CostOfWedding.com says a 75-person affair in suburban Washington should cost $21,700. That won't save you money if you are planning an event there, but it probably will make you feel good or bad if you've done so recently.
Another regret tool is the "Location Affordability Portal," released in the past week by the U.S. Department of Transportation. It's supposed to help homebuyers more accurately predict the real costs of moving by adding in transportation costs—in other words, that "drive until you qualify" home in the exurbs might not be as much of a bargain as it seems, once you add in the price of gas.
The tool is very hard to use, however, and requires a lot of specialized inputs from users. At the moment, it's more useful to inspire "what might have been" daydreaming.
Bargaining tools
Calculators that predict near-term costs are far more practical. Most of us have no idea what installation of a home electric circuit panel should cost, so plugging your ZIP code and your preferences into a tool before getting bids is incredibly useful. Use it to throw out a bidder who's asking for the moon. I like both HomeAdvisor and Homewyse.com. (In Columbia, Mo., upgrading a panel costs $866-$1,224, Homewyse says.)
RedBeacon.com offers an even wider range of cost calculators for home services like landscaping or housecleaning.
The most useful estimator I found unmasks the mystery of the costs of auto repairs, offered by RepairPal.com. Not only does RepairPal offer ZIP-code level pricing—a water pump replacement should cost between $263 and $368 in north-suburban Seattle—it also offers additional necessary information, like this: Water pump repairs often require belt replacement, particularly if fluid leaked on the belts.
Getting a repair cost estimate takes only a moment, and it can save you hundreds at a repair shop.
"We have had consumers tell us that, after they showed a RepairPal estimate, a shop lowered their price," said Bret Bodas, director of RepairPal's automotive professional group. Not surprisingly, auto mechanics weren't thrilled about the tool when it was first made public several years ago.
But Bodas says fair pricing information helps honest mechanics, and the industry has slowly warmed to the idea of transparency. Napa Auto Parts actually licenses data from RepairPal for its own tool now.
(Read more: Why you shouldn't wait on frequent flier awards)
With both home and auto repairs, the data behind the calculator come mostly from cost estimation tools already used by contractors and repair shops. For example, automakers publish a list of labor times required for various repair jobs. Shops use those for estimates; RepairPal uses the same data, then adjusts for labor rates by ZIP codes, Bodas said.
Naturally, consumers with broken-down cars aren't always in a great bargaining position. Still, RepairPal can make sure you aren't being taken for a ride, and it can even suggest you might be better off paying to have a vehicle towed to another shop for a second opinion, if the first shop's quote price is wildly off the mark.
Sick consumers have even less bargaining power; for that reason, health-care cost calculators like the helpful one you'll find at FairHealthConsumer.org almost qualify as regret tools. Still, it's worth knowing what medical procedures should cost before having those conversations with your insurance company and your doctor's office.
And there are times when knowing you overpaid the dentist for your last crown gives you the power to pick a new dentist, so we'll call this a bargaining tool. And it's sometimes possible to negotiate price after the fact with providers; price comparison tools are useful in those discussions.
By the same logic, the various taxi price calculators are also helpful in real time. No, you can't get a cab driver to negotiate a metered trip. But before visiting any new city, it's worth visiting a site like TaxiFareFinder.com and plugging in various trips you expect to take. You'll get a map of your route and an expected cost, so you'll know if your driver makes an unexpected wrong turn, and you can demand an adjustment.
Anxiety tools
Predicting long-term future costs is fraught with peril; still, it's a good idea to know what you will be up against in 2020 so you can plan for the future. Before clicking on any of these sites, however, you might want to pour a nice cup of hot tea. They are likely to make your blood pressure rise.
There's plenty of tools for calculating the cost of children, in the near and far future. Let's start small, like they do. Uncle Sam offers his own tool at USDA.gov, where the first-year cost of a kid in the Northeast is pegged at about $14,000.
Look further into the future, and you may think twice about having a baby. Or at least about training that baby to be a scholarship athlete. BabyCenter.com thinks a child born in the Northeast today will cost $400,000 if she or he attends a private college.
If you dial up cost of college calculators, you will conclude that the BabyCenter number is low. At CollegeSavings.org, you'll get an even starker splash of reality. Assume 5 percent tuition inflation—and why not, that's how much colleges raise tuition each year at the moment—at a four-year private school will cost $316,000 by the time today's babies graduate. (That's just tuition—with room and board, the cost is $430,000!)
(Read more: New airline seats still put the squeeze on fliers)
Speaking of anxiety, you'll find hundreds of tools on investment sites offering to guesstimate how much money you will have, or will need, at retirement. Among the assumptions you'll see: average 12 percent market returns, spending levels remain at 80 percent after retirement, etc. You're already anxious enough.
Fortunately, here's one piece of pretty solid math. Every dollar you save today will be worth roughly $16 in about 30 years, if it's saved well. So the best way to ease your anxiety about all those big future costs is to use big data now to save money, and avoid getting ripped off.
—By Bob Sullivan, is an author and consumer reporter. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter @RedTapeChron.


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We are very happy that today the newest build 7554 was released.
This update introduces three widely requested features and also aims to further enhance the gameplay, usability, as well as performance.
Trams finally get their long awaited catenaries. Players can now upgrade streets with electric tram tracks. Next to presenting a visual eye catcher, catenaries are also an optional new gameplay element.
The newest build introduces catenary for electric trams.
A very flexible and highly modable asset placement tool opens a wide range of new possibilities to polish and decorate maps with any objects. Because we have observed that the modding community wants to snap assets to tracks, we have also implemented track-aligned assets.
A new tool allows for placing both track-aligned and free assets.
With the new option to use height maps for generating landscapes, player are now able to create truly realistic and beautiful sceneries. In combination with the possibility to include predefined seeds, this allows for creating various challenging and diverse scenarios.
Heightmaps from grayscale images can now be imported.
In addition to these new features, based on the feedback of players many improvements have been made:
Trains behave more predictable when changes are made to the track and stations. Industries grow twice as fast than before and decline much slower, making them less sensitive to fluctuations in the transport network. We also optimized city development resulting in an increased performance and reduced lags at the end of months.
The modding possibilities have been significantly widened, giving content creators more control over how the game behaves and looks.
Our volunteers from the community put much effort into improving the translations and Swedish was added as a completely new language.
There is also a long list of various small improvements and bug fixes. Please find the complete list in the release notes.
More information on how to use height maps and an example map can be found in the release hints.
We put as much effort as possible into this build and we did our best to consider as many wishes and suggestions as possible.
Let us express a big thank you to all players, modders, testers and fans. Without all the suggestions and testing effort contributed by the community, Train Fever would not be where it is today. We hope you enjoy this final update and we very much look forward to see even more great contributions from the modding scene.
At the moment we are working very hard here at Urban Games and we look forward to soon share some very exciting news with you.


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What is RHIMES?
RHIMES is an acronym for a spiritual lineage of ministries, teachers, and programs.
R: Radically Inclusive. All RHIMES programs and agencies are radically inclusive, by which we mean that all people without exception are welcome to participate fully in all aspects of our communities.
H: Heart-centered. Our spirituality does have what might be called a theological basis or an underlying philosophy. That being said, far too much religion and spirituality in the west dwells only in the intellect. For a spirituality to be holistic, it must move from the head into the heart. Heart centered spirituality holds primary values such as compassion, loving kindness, forgiveness, mercy, caring, hospitality, and a host of other similar values. It is far more important to feel the right thing than to believe the right thing and it is far more important to act from a place of kindness than doctrinal certainty.
I: Interspiritual. Interspiritual refers to spiritual practice which blends elements from more than one tradition. Most often in the west, it involves a person taking the Abrahamic (Christian, Jewish, or Islamic) spiritual tradition they were raised in and expanding their understanding of it through the teachings and practices of another, non-Abrahamic, tradition. See also Interspirituality - Dual Citizenship.
M: Meditative. By this we mean that our tradition endorses what is called Meditation in Eastern spirituality and Contemplation in Western spirituality. It means that we spend dedicated, intentional time in the silence as a part of our individual and collective spiritual practice.
E: Engaged. Engaged practice is concern with spiritual justice and other social and political concerns. We recognize that very few of us live in a cloistered monastic environment and even fewer of us are hermits. Healthy spirituality does not lead us to become isolated from the world, rather it leads us to engage our world and work for healing and justice.
S: Spirituality. Spirituality can be a part of religion, but most often it is not a part of institutional religion. Spirituality emphasizes practice over performance and isn't afraid of questions. In fact, spirituality values questions even more than answers and recognizes that the opposite of faith isn't doubt but rather certainty. Where religion often claims to dispense truth from on high to the faithful groveling below, spirituality employs a "journeying with" model of spiritual teaching that encourages free thought and free questionings. We aren't afraid to say "we don't know" when that is the case. There are no tests of orthodoxy in spirituality because there are few doctrines. We realize the path is the goal!


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Here are a few things I've learned over the years about the best ways for entrepreneurs to interact with the press (by press I mean blogs as well as traditional media).
- Don't be afraid to ask what the rules are. Is this on or off the record? If they are writing an article about your company, do they require exclusivity? What is the angle of the story?
- Don't use a PR firm unless you are so successful that you need someone to help you manage inbound press interest. Most journalists, when talking candidly, will tell you they'd vastly prefer getting an email from the founder of a startup than a PR firm. If you're Bill Gates, it is understandable that you have someone reaching out for you. If you are a small startup, having a PR rep contact a journalist says "I'm not competent enough to reach you" or "I don't respect your time enough to reach out directly."
- Treat journalists with respect. Tech/business journalists often interact with rich and powerful people, some of whom treat them disrespectfully. Like entrepreneurs, journalists are usually interesting people with diverse interests. You'll probably like them if you talk to them and might even become friends.
- Unless you're a super hot startup, the existence of your company is not a news story. Exclusives of launches, financings and acquisitions are usually news stories. Trend stories that you are part of could be a news story. Relating your startup or data your startup generates to something already newsworthy (journalists call this "pegging") can dramatically increase your chances of getting covered.
- Whether you like it or not, the press will put your company into a category, and might run "horserace" stories comparing how the companies in your category are doing. The best you can do here is to try to choose which category you'll be put into. Arguing that you have no competitors or are creating a new category is pretty much impossible.
- Try to put yourself in the mindset of the journalist. How will this story get them on Techmeme or featured by their editors? What were their most successful recent stories? Do background research on any reporter before talking and read a bunch his/her articles.
- Don't just contact reporters when you need them: try to be helpful even when you don't. Sometimes, I get calls to talk about, say, the state of the venture market or asking for some background on a tech sector that is new to the journalist. My guess is they appreciate this and are more responsive when I contact them about a possible story.


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José Manuel (Juaki) Sánchez García, co-organizer, is proud to announce that for July 2014 the 19th FAI European Hang Gliding Championship will take part in Arangoiti - Navarra – Spain. Therefore this year the test event, Pre-European HG championship in Class 1, is ran.
The dates for the Pre-Euros are in August, 2013 from 12th to the 18th both inclusive.
The website that is holding all the information of the event is www.arangoiti2014.com
This year is run an International Open, tagged as a category 2 event in the CIVL calendar, that is open to all pilots. The entries are already available at the web site in the Registration section.
All are invited to join and fly in one of the best flying sites of Spain.
For any further detailed information please contact Juaki.


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Increased Presence: British, American and Bahrain navies took part in Exercise Falcon Defender this year to protect high-value units during transits at sea. (UK Royal Navy)
Mar. 24, 2014 - By ANDREW CHUTER – Defense News
LONDON — Britain is adding new headquarters and engineering buildings in Bahrain to better support its growing Arabian Gulf operations.
Tucked away on the large US base that houses the 5th Fleet, the British facilities have failed to keep up with the UK's burgeoning maritime footprint in the region. As of the start of March, gulf operations account for nearly one-third of all Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels deployed around the globe.
Now a construction firm is preparing to build a larger headquarters for the British UK Maritime Component Command (UKMCC), as well as facilities to provide engineering and logistics support for four Royal Navy mine countermeasures vessels based in Bahrain.
"The UKMCC headquarters was formed in November 2001, with just eight people. ... Today, with a command spanning an area of operations across the entire Middle East, command of 14 ships and aviation assets, a significantly larger and increasingly multi-national and coalition mission, and 41 people in the UK headquarters, the original building is no longer fit for our purpose," the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) said in a statement released late last month.
The UK effort, worth nearly $10 million, is dwarfed by the US 5th Fleet's own $580 million expansion. Still, the British investment signals continued commitment to one of the most sensitive and busiest stretches of international water in the world.
"The two projects for an HQ and the waterfront support group were brought together in 2012 and a contract worth $9.7 million has just been awarded to American International Contractors. Building work will commence in a few months' time, and it is anticipated that both buildings will be finished early in 2015," said PJHQ, the Northwood-based organization that plans and controls UK overseas military operations.
Besides its large role in gulf security and cooperation with regional allies, UKMCC leads Britain's counterpiracy and maritime anti-terrorism efforts in the region.
The government, responding to a parliamentary question March 7, reported that 10 out of the 32 British warships and support vessels on duty and at sea were in the Middle East. Only Royal Navy operations in and around UK waters, with 12 vessels of various sizes, including small offshore patrol vessels, sport a larger number of ships. The numbers do not include nuclear submarines, the movements of which the British keep under wraps.
The Royal Navy has been patrolling the gulf region for decades. Despite handing over its Bahrain naval facilities to the US Navy in 1971 — part of a withdrawal from its bases east of the Suez Canal — the British presence in the region has largely endured. The Royal Navy, which has maintained a continuous presence in the gulf since 1980, is the second-biggest Western maritime force there, after the US.
Royal Navy assets in the Middle East, principally the gulf, include a frigate, one of the latest T-45 destroyers, four mine countermeasures vessels, a multirole survey ship and three Royal Fleet Auxiliary support ships including the landing ship dock Cardigan Bay.
The mine countermeasures vessels are the key Royal Navy presence in the gulf, alongside four similar US warships that would provide the main counter to Iranian mining in a crisis.
Cardigan Bay, which acts as a mothership to the mine countermeasures ships, can keep eight UK and US vessels at sea for up to three weeks at a time.
The critical importance of countermine capability in the gulf was demonstrated by last year's exercise, the largest ever held in the region. More than 40 nations sent 35 ships and 18 unmanned underwater vehicles for a two-week test of coalition maritime forces' ability to keep sea lanes open in the face of mines.
France, Europe's other significant naval power, doesn't maintain a permanent naval presence in the gulf, but it does regularly deploy warships to the region. Most recently, a task force led by its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle traveled to the Arabian Gulf in December for a three-month mission.
Dubbed operation Bois Belleau, the deployment saw the first landing on the French carrier's deck of an F/A-18 fighter, which was flying from the carrier Harry S. Truman, a French Navy spokesman said. A Rafale fighter also landed on the US carrier, part of an effort to boost interoperability between the two naval units.
The French unit consisted of the carrier capital ship, the frigate Forbin of the Horizon air defense class, the antisubmarine frigate Jean de Vienne, a supply ship and oil tanker and a nuclear-powered attack submarine.
Italy sends ships to the region as well. In February, the Italian frigate Libeccio pulled into Salalah in Oman at the end of a four-month anti-piracy mission, handing over duties to the destroyer Francesco Mimbelli, which will operate as part of the NATO operation Ocean Shield.
More unusually, in November, four Italian Navy ships set off on a tour of the gulf and Africa to promote Italian defense and civilian sales.
Firms such as Finmeccanica, Fincantieri, Elettronica and Beretta turned the carrier Cavour into a "large defense show like Le Bourget," according to Italy's defense minister, with calls to ports in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.
Sailing with the Cavour were the patrol vessel Comandante Borsini, the support ship Etna and the multimission frigate Bergamini. The Italian Navy asked the firms on board to pay fuel costs, allowing the trip to become a low-cost method of training sailors.
Tom Kington in Rome and Pierre Tran in Paris contributed to this report.
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Amanda Bynes -- Stability Comes at a HIGH Price
Amanda Bynes Stability Comes at a High Price
Amanda Bynes is ensconced at the UCLA Medical Center -- where she'll be for at least 60 days and worst case scenario a full year. And guess what it costs ... $3,500 a day.
Sources involved with Amanda's treatment tell TMZ ... the cost is so high because it covers not just treatment, but living expenses as well. To put this in perspective, you can get a deluxe executive suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in nearby Beverly Hills for $815 a night.
TMZ broke the story ... a judge ruled on Friday that doctors could keep Amanda on a long-term hold for up to a year, although the goal is 60 days ... after which she'd go home to her mom.
Now for some lump sums. 60 days at UCLA Med Center will cost $210,000. A full year would cost $1,277,500. As for Amanda's insurance, she's a member of SAG but we're told the policy will only cover a small portion of the cost.


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Hastings Entertainment Inc. has announced its plans to host a midnight release party for both Battlefield 4 and Assassin's Creed IV on October 28. Battlefield 4 is a sequel to 2011's Battlefield 3 and the 13th installment of the Battlefield first-person shooter video game. Assassin's Creed IV is a sequel to Assassin's Creed III and is expected to introduce a full cast of historical pirate characters.
Festivities for the night will begin at 9 p.m. local time and will end with the release of the games at midnight. Only select stores will participate in the midnight release party, so check with your local store to see if they are among those participating. All participating stores will also host a Pirates vs. Soldiers costume contest. The winner at each store location will win a Hastings $25 gift card.
While awaiting the release of the game, Hastings will also have a number of offers going on throughout the store. These offers will include 30 percent off all used video game accessories, video games, vinyl, books, and CDs; 20 percent off select headphones; and $10 off first party XBOX 360 and PS3 controllers. In addition, all energy drinks during the midnight release party will be two for $4, fountain drinks will be $0.99, and candy will be "buy two and get the third free."


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In partnership with:
This website is owned and maintained by the non-profit arm of the Sierra Avalanche Center. Some of the content is updated by the USDA avalanche forecasters including the forecasts and some observational data. The USDA is not responsible for any advertising, fund-raising events/information, or sponsorship information, or other content not related to the forecasts and the data pertaining to the forecasts.


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Friday, May 30, 2014
Confirmed, and Still Ignored
A news story on the website of RTE, Ireland's national broadcaster, confirms that Gerry Adams discussed his arrest with American officials during his visit to Washington. While the PSNI pursues new subpoenas, the RTE headline tells the whole story: "Adams arrest discussed at Washington briefing."
An email to Adams' office this morning produced a list of officials who met with Adams: In addition to a sizable group of Congressmen -- gendered term intended, because he somehow only met with men -- Adams met with some moderately well-placed officials at the State Department. The White House took relatively little notice of the meeting, sticking Adams with an official from the Office of the Vice-President. Imagine flying four thousand miles and then finding yourself in a meeting with the vice-president's staff.
In any event, yes: Gerry Adams was in a foot race with the PSNI, talking to U.S. government officials about his arrest and the foolishness of the police investigation at exactly the moment the police are trying to get new subpoenas of the Boston College archival material that they hope to use against him.
Besides RTE, which news organizations noticed the presence in the capital of a foreign official engaged in a lobbying effort against a criminal investigation that the United States is helping with? Take a look:
When I picture the American news media, I imagine a little ring of saliva around the spot on the desk where they put their heads during nap time.
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Expense Form
Expense Form
helps you to monitor and control expenses within your business.Expense Forms provide a way of recording business expenses incurred by staff. They enable you to submit, review and approve all expenses within the business, both before and after the expense has actually been incurred.
By using this Expense Form, you can control expenditure within your business.
This expense report form will help you:
- Monitor and control your business expenses
- Implement an approval process for all expense items
- Gain special approval for large expense items
- Inform your manager of any expense issues
- Ensure you remain within budget
On this Expense Form, you can record such information as the:
- Activity against which the expense has occurred
- The nature and type of expense
- Date the expense has been or will be incurred
- Invoicing and approval details
This Expense Form will help you to record all of you business expenses, including contractor, supplier, equipment, materials and administration expenses. By accurately recording expense information using this Expense Form, you can easily calculate your total expenditure to date and ensure that you're always operating within budget.
What is an Expense Form?
An Expense Form allows you to identify and record business expenses for approval. Expense Forms are used by most organizations, as they help managers to control expenditure against their budget. An Expense form will be completed by a team member, to request expenditure on a particular item. The Expense Form will then be approved by the line manager and the item requested will be ordered.
When do I use Expense Forms?
Expense Forms are used to control the expenditure in an organization, by ensuring that staff fill-in an Expense Form prior to an expense being incurred. For expenses such as client lunches, travel and entertainment, Managers often allow staff to complete their Expense Form retrospectively. By using this Expense Form template, you can control your team's expenditure and ensure you remain within budget.


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What's bread of the wilderness?
This is a follow up to an article I posted about making this perfect primal stick-to-your-ribs survival food a few months ago. Like most things survival related, it's best to experience it first hand before counting on it with your life. Here you'll find my mistakes and successes making pemmican. "Doing the stuff" is more important than talking about or reading about the stuff.
Why pemmican?
Charles Washington's Zeroing In On Health blog has a great primer on the importance and history of this survival ration. He writes,
"Pemmican has been described by many famous and influential people as being the most concentrated and nutrient-dense ration known to man yet became a marginal and even forgotten item."
Frontiersmen, polar explorers, American Indians, fur traders, soldiers, hunters, and mountain climbers all understood the importance of carrying a lightweight, compact, food to sustain them on physically taxing adventures. Little is needed to prepare tasty (with the right recipe) "bread of the wilderness." Just a few ounces was said to keep soldiers marching for several days. Also, with no time to cook with an open fire that might give up your position to the nearest looter population, packing pemmican is a great fuel to help get you to your hideaway.
Pack Pemmican and Less TP
Another advantage, according to Washington, is you poop less and with less offensive odor. Unless you've never wiped your backside in the woods with leaves, sticks, or a shirt tail, you won't appreciate this point. Eating the low-carb, primal/paleo diet that I do, my family can confirm the odor claim. Yeah, whatever Walker! We all know your sh#t don't stink…
There are many recipes online for pemmican. Here's what I used.
- 9 oz. of beef jerky: I would have preferred to use homemade jerky (venison or beef) but I'm out. So I went with 6.2 oz. and 3.0 oz. bags.
- 3 oz. of dehydrated blue berries and maybe a couple of ounces of cranberries. I didn't measure.
- About two inches of melted tallow in a pint mason jar. Again, not exact measurements. I buy my organic beef fat from a local butcher and render it myself. Frying with tallow beats veggie oils and Crisco which is only a few molecules away from plastic.
You want to grind the jerky into as fine a power as possible. I used a food processor. NOTE: If using store bought jerky, you'll want to dehydrate it in the oven (or dehydrator) until it is brittle when bent. I tossed this batch in the processor and it didn't give me the desired powdery texture. I dumped the chopped meat into a pan and placed it in the oven at 175° with the oven door cracked slightly to vent moisture.
I loaded the fruit into the processor thinking I'd create fruit dust. Wrong! All those little individual pieces turned into one huge glob of fruit. Not what you want to happen. You're going for a powdery mixture on the fruit as well. Some say a few chunks are okay. To remedy this, I rolled the fruit ball out into a thin layer on a cookie sheet and tossed it in the oven with the jerky.
I stirred the jerky every hour and poked the fruit. After about 3 hours and no more patience, I took both out and let them cool. The fruit tasted like a fruit roll-up. Very yummy! The fruit hardened after cooling. I then added these two back into the processor at the same time and let her rip. With more moisture evaporated, both the meat and fruit broke down into smaller pieces.
Now comes the best part. Add the liquefied tallow in small increments in a container with the ground jerky and fruit. Hand mix as you go. You want enough fat in the mixture to be able to hold the ingredients together. Too much liquid fat will cause a soupy mixture that won't hold together. Too dry and it crumbles.
Once you're satisfied with the consistency, give it a test. Take a scoop into your hand and form it into a ball. I squeezed mine into a log shape. Dirt Road Girl said that the shape I created was very unappetizing. It reminded her of cleaning up after our two mongrel mutts in the backyard. A good buddy of mine who cooks in BBQ competitions told me that we eat with our eyes. If that's the case, you may want to spread your pemmican out in a Pyrex dish and cut them into more appealing brownie shaped bars – for your eye's sake.
Either way, they turned out fine to me. They will store without refrigeration – if I don't eat them beforehand. My next batch, I'm adding a little spice like cayenne pepper. Kick it up a notch!
On my last pemmican post, Matthew from Jimmy Cracked Corn, asked me for an honest assessment on the taste. Here's what I think Matthew. It's not something I'd serve at the dinner table with company. It is very tasty, nutrient-dense, and long-lasting – both as a storage food and fuel in the body. It's an acquired taste I'd say. It's a survival food.
Other recipes:
Keep Doing the Stuff,
If you find value in our blog, Dirt Road Girl and I would appreciate your vote on Top Prepper Sites! You can vote daily by clicking here or on the image below. Check out all the other value-adding sites while you're there…
Thanks for Sharing the Stuff!
Copyright: Content on this site (unless the work of a third-party) may be shared freely in digital form, in part or whole, for non-commercial use with a link back to this site crediting the author. All links in articles must remain intact as originally posted in order to be republished. If you are interested a third-party article, please contact the author directly for republishing information.
by Todd Walker


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Fallbrook Government Office
Things to Do in Fallbrook, CA
Fallbrook is a CDP located in northern San Diego County, California. Fallbrook's population was 30,534 at 2010 census. This is an increase of 29,100 from 2000 census. Fallbrook's downtown is not on a major highway route. It is 5.5 miles west of Interstate 15 or 6 miles north of State Route 76.
Aurora Heights, Aviara, Brookhills Homeowner Association, Calavera Hills Village, Carlsbad Village, Carmel Valley, Central Escondido, Citro by Tri Pointe Homes, Country Rd Estates, Crestview Estates, Dixie Village, Fallbrook Airpark, Fallbrook Estates, Fallbrook Historical Society, Fallbrook Homes


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We Get Gutters Clean Buffalo
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Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It lies in Western New York, at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, near the United States border with Canada. With a population of 278,349 according to the 2020 census, Buffalo is the 78th-largest city in the United States. Buffalo and the city of Niagara Falls together make up the two-county Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which had an estimated population of 1.1 million in 2020, making it the 49th largest MSA in the United States. Before the 17th century, the region was inhabited by nomadic Paleo-Indians who were succeeded by the Neutral, Erie, and Iroquois nations.
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Facebook is launching a new initiative called "2G Tuesdays" that will give all employees an opportunity to see what using the app with an incredibly slow connection feels like and help close the "empathy gap" between Silicon Valley and emerging markets.
For most people, the stark differences will likely be jarring.
Engineering director Tom Alison remembers the first time he opened Facebook on a phone with a 2G connection.
"I felt like, 'Whoa!'" Alison tells Business Insider. "It definitely tested my patience — it felt like parts of the product were just broken."
Although most people with smartphones in the US use faster 3G or even 4G connections, millions of people all over the world are coming online for the first time with 2G. With that kind of connection, a webpage can take over two minutes to load.
That's why Alison and his team of emerging-markets engineers have spent so much time reworking Facebook's News Feed to optimize it for super-slow network speeds. As part of their job, they regularly use phones that simulate 2G and actually take trips to places like India and Kenya to get a better understanding of how people there use the product.
But because not all employees get to go on international trips, Facebook is instituting "2G Tuesdays."
When a Facebook employee logs in to the app any Tuesday morning, they'll see a prompt at the top of their News Feed asking whether they want to try out the slower connection for an hour.
"For that next hour, their experience on Facebook will be very much like the experience that millions of people around the world have on Facebook on a 2G connection," Alison says. "They're going to see the places that we need to improve our product, but they're also going to see the places where we have made a lot of progress."
Earlier this month, Facebook highlighted some of the updates and improvements that it's made for the app in emerging markets.
For example, Facebook developed an open-sourced Network Connection Class system that lets its app figure out a user's connection speed on the fly. It will then show different News Feed stories — for example, favoring status updates and links versus videos and photos on a super-slow connection — and prioritize loading things that the user is looking at versus partially loading a dozen pieces of content at once.
"You really experience your own Facebook in a much different way on 2G," Alison says. "It's really a visceral feeling when you see your own content on this type of connection."
He anticipates that many employees will opt in to 2G Tuesdays — 2G Mondays just didn't sound nearly as catchy, he jokes — to get a better understanding of what the internet feels like for people in different parts of the world and to help report issues and make suggestions that his team might not have thought of.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Conficker seizes city's hospital network
Network-wide update ban invites worm infection
Exclusive Staff at hospitals across Sheffield are battling a major computer worm outbreak after managers turned off Windows security updates for all 8,000 PCs on the vital network, The Register has learned.
It's been confirmed that more than 800 computers have been infected with self-replicating Conficker code. Insiders at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust said they suspect many more machines are affected but have not been reported to IT.
The Trust told The Register it now has the outbreak under control and is engaged in "clearing up" remnants. Non-urgent appointments in the medical imaging department had to be cancelled while its computers were disinfected. A Trust spokeswoman said no other direct impact on patient care was known.
The decision to disble automatic security updates was taken during Christmas week after PCs in an operating theatre rebooted mid-surgery. Conficker was detected on December 29.
David Whitham, the Trust's informatics director, said in a statement: "We do not know how the virus entered the network but at around the same time as the virus became evident the automatic update process had been temporarily disabled following problems with a number of PCs in theatres.
"This decision was taken by the IT Change Advisory Board to prevent further disruption in theatres which could have affected patient care." No individual was responsible for the move, the Trust added.
People close to the incident criticised the management decision to disable updates across the entire network rather than only where the reboots caused a problem. "Don't you just hate it when your boss is so computer illiterate yet has the power to veto the simplest of ideas to catastrophic end," said one, who asked to remain anonymous.
In internal emails seen by The Register, staff were warned not to make details of the outbreak public. "Please note that this incident could over the next few days attract outside interest from the press... If you are at any time approached by anyone to give information relating to the current problem then please refer them to me in the first instance," IT services manager Carol Hudson wrote.
A source said executives had not contacted Microsoft or other external security professionals for help eradicating Conficker, but the Trust disputed this. "Our IT team have been working very closely with external anti-virus specialists to remove the remnants from the network," Whitham said.
The trust argued that the consequences of its decision making had not cost public money, "just time and effort by the IT teams". It added: "A lot of lessons have been learned during the outbreak and they are being fully documented and discussed to prevent a repeat."
A Conficker outbreak is also currently affecting the Ministry of Defence. It's thought the worm acts to make infected machines vulnerable to further malware and harvests private information, though experts have warned its full purpose may not have been revealed yet.
Microsoft released a patch for the Conficker exploit in October, so updated machines should be unaffected. Until late December, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust had a policy in place that would apply security updates across its network a few weeks after the patch release, and enforce a reboot.
Yesterday it was reported three in ten Windows PCs remain vulnerable to Conficker. ®


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A well-decorated golf cart in the Golf Cart Parade to Spy Coast Farm (SusanJStickle.com)
Lexington, Ky. – The 2014 Adequan/FEI North American Junior & Young Rider Championships presented by Gotham North (NAJYRC) will play host to 216 young athletes from Canada, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, and the United States across four disciplines. The riders have converged upon the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky., for the competition running July 15-20. Today, the NAJYRC festivities kicked off with the Golf Cart Parade to neighboring Spy Coast Farm, followed by the Opening Ceremonies and Exhibitor Party.
Four disciplines (a total of seven championships for Juniors and Young Riders) will take part in the only FEI Championship held annually in North America. The NAJYRC is the premier equestrian competition in North America for juniors and young riders, ages 14-21. This year, young equestrians have come to vie for Team and Individual FEI medals in the three Olympic equestrian disciplines of jumping, dressage, eventing and the FEI World Equestrian Games disciplines of endurance. Unfortunately, due to insufficient entries, the North American Junior and Young Riders' Reining Championship was cancelled, but is anticipated to return in 2015.
This year is an exciting one for the NAJYRC, as 2014 marks its 40th anniversary. The Championships began in 1974 as an eventing challenge between the United States and Canada. A dressage championship was added in 1981, and jumping was added in 1982. The first complete Young Riders championship was held in British Columbia, Canada, in 1982. The Championships were expanded to officially include a championship division for juniors in 2006. The discipline of reining was added to the official schedule in 2008; endurance joined the championship for the first time in 2011. At the NAJYRC, athletes learn valuable information about international rules and regulations that will serve them well when they represent their country at senior-level events.
Returning individual medalists from the 2013 NAJYRC include:
Bebe Davis – Junior Freestyle Bronze medalist
Naima Moreira Laliberte – Junior Individual and Freestyle Silver medalist
Devon Wycoff – Young Rider Team and Individual Bronze medalist
Cassandra Roberts – Individual Gold medalist
Nicole Doolittle – Junior Individual Gold medalist
Eugenio Garza Perez – Junior Individual Gold medalist
The NAJYRC begins tomorrow morning at 9am with the Junior and Young Rider Team Tests to open the competition in the USDF/Platinum Performance North American Junior and Young Riders' Dressage Championship. There are 74 riders who hope that their teams will claim a medal in the afternoon and hear their national anthem played, if they should end up atop the podium. On Friday, the Individual Tests are held, with the riders returning Saturday for their Freestyle Tests.
A total of 61 eventing competitors will begin their quest for a medal on Thursday morning, with the CCI1* riders performing their dressage test in the morning, followed by the CCI2* riders in the afternoon. The heart of the USEA North American Junior and Young Riders' Eventing Championship, the cross country phase, will take place Saturday across the rolling bluegrass landscape of the Kentucky Horse Park. The championship will culminate on Sunday with riders tackling the show jumping phase in the Rolex Arena.
The USHJA North American Junior and Young Riders' Show Jumping Championship will begin Thursday morning with 67 riders participating in the first individual qualifier. Competition continues Friday with two rounds for the team finals to determine the Team medalists. The riders will return Sunday morning to determine who claims Individual honors.
A field of 14 riders is set to race in the North American Young Riders' Endurance Championship on Friday morning. The competitors will set out at 6:30am across a 120 kilometer CEI4* course in hopes of finishing strongly and claiming Team and Individual medals.
Stay connected with all the action at the 2014 NAJYRC at http://usefconnect.com/najyrc.
To learn more about the Adequan/FEI North American Junior & Young Rider Championships presented by Gotham North, visit: http://youngriders.org/.
USEF Network presented by SmartPak will live stream the entirety of events taking place July 18-20 in Rolex Stadium. Visit www.usefnetwork.com to find out more and watch!
NAJYRC showcases the best young rider and junior horse/rider combinations in dressage, eventing, jumping, reining, and endurance. Young equestrians from across the continent will descend on the Kentucky Horse Park to vie for FEI medals at these Championships.
For sponsorship information, visit www.youngriders.org/Sponsors.aspx.
By Kathleen Landwehr


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By Vince Chadwick
LIA McCrae-Moore just laughs at Families Minister Jenny Macklin's claim she could live on the dole.
''Good luck!'' says the 26-year-old, who will start receiving the $35-a-day Newstart payment for the second time in three years this week, after being made redundant from her job at the Australian Film Institute.
Ms McCrae-Moore did well at school, got into Melbourne University, received first-class honours in her arts degree, majoring in cinema studies, and began job-hunting in 2010.
She lived on Newstart for three months before finding work as a membership co-ordinator and says it was a difficult existence.
''You are living on the poverty line or just above,'' she says. ''It is great that Newstart is there but it no longer reflects the true cost of living.''
When she lost her job in October she had just moved into a share house in North Fitzroy, where she pays fortnightly rent of $455.
She may have to consider cheaper accommodation but says her inner-city location makes it easier to bike-ride to job interviews, proof of which is required before receiving each fortnightly payment. Newstart is not enough to run a car.
Without rent assistance, for which Ms McCrae-Moore also intends to apply, the $492.60 Newstart allowance would leave her $37.60 each fortnight to cover her phone bill, utilities, food and discretionary spending. An additional $80.67 rent assistance would leave her about $65 a fortnight to pay for food and small luxuries.
But the real trap is unforeseen costs.
''Any out-of-the-blue expense is likely to hit you the hardest,'' she says. ''You would have to get a loan, which is why a lot of people forgo things like dental work and glasses.''
It is a precarious existence but Ms McCrae-Moore says she is fortunate to be able to dig into her $3000 savings and rely on limited support from her parents. To save money she might go to friends' homes for dinner and shop at op shops.
If she goes out for breakfast, she will order only a coffee. On the weekend, a bike ride replaces a film.
''Having lived on the dole I know I will need to compromise. There is no room for the little things in life that make people feel good about themselves - social things, the things that get you out of the house.''
Ms McCrae-Moore says she has known of people taking low-paying, cash-in-hand jobs, with no employee protection, which they do not declare so as not to reduce their dole payment.
She says she cannot imagine how anyone could survive on Newstart alone without rent assistance, savings and the support of a family.
''I am someone who has a lot of support and I find it difficult, so I can't imagine how someone who does not have that would feel,'' she says.
''People on the dole are not getting an easy ride.
''You can live in the essential definition of the word but I can't imagine anyone wanting to live that way for very long.''


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I'm going to make some barbeque pulled pork in a slow cooker. I've done it a few times with some good results, but I'm always looking for ways to improve.
Here's what I've been doing:
1. Brine pork for a few hours
2. Slow cook all day with carrots, celery, and onions
3. Shred and toss with Montgomery Inn or Hickory Brown Suger Sweet Baby Rays bbq sauce
Here's the question: Would browning the pork help in any way? Could the pan drippings be used to jazz up the bbq sauce?
EDIT: this also popped into my head: Should I sautee the onions ahead of time?


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• ubiquity •
Pronunciation: yu-bi-kwê-ti • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun, mass
Meaning: The status of being common, found everywhere, not rare.
Notes: First, remember that this Good Word does not begin with Y even though you can hear this sound in the U. It has an adjective, ubiquitous, that is more ubiquitous than the noun. The adjective wears the adverb suffix -ly comfortably for things that pop up ubiquitously wherever you go.
In Play: The English adverb everywhere does not have a correlate adjective or noun, though we often need them. We speak of iPods that you see everywhere. Today's word and its adjective fills that lacuna nicely: "The ubiquity of iPods is a recent phenomenon that looks to last, perhaps forming a triumvirate with death and taxes."
Word History: Today's Good Word is built around the Latin compound adverb, ubi-que "everywhere", made up of ubi "where" + -que "and". Ubi started out in Proto-Indo-European, the language that most Indian and European languages developed from, as kwo-bhi "where to?" This word became cubi in Latin but somewhere along the way the [k] sound was lost, leaving ubi "where?" The original *kwo turned out to be who in English but kto in Russian, two words that sound totally different today but 6000 years ago were the same.
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!


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Curricular Practical Training
New School for Social Research: Creative Publ & Critical Jrnl
Credits: 0
This course provides the opportunity to receive credit for professional training related to the degree. Students are expected to engage in such training for at least five hours per week. Training should take the form of teaching, research, or other work relevant to the student's program of study. It may take place at institutions of higher learning, with government agencies, or at other sites as appropriate. Students meet regularly with an advisor and submit a written report at the end of the training. Grading is pass/fail.
College: New School for Social Research (GF)
Department: Creative Publ & Critical Jrnl (CPJ)
Campus: New York City (GV)
Course Format: Practicum (U)
Modality: In-Person
Max Enrollment: 5
Add/Drop Deadline: February 4, 2024 (Sunday)
Online Withdrawal Deadline: April 16, 2024 (Tuesday)
Seats Available: Yes
Status: Closed*
* Status information is updated every few minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 4:12pm EST 3/1/2024


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Published 12:00 am Saturday, September 21, 2013
One Salisbury woman won $40,000 and another won $10,000 in the state's lottery.
Jenise Fischer bought her $40,000 winning ticket at the Bostian Heights Grocer, 2910 N.C. 152 E., China Grove.
Sarah Leach got her ticket worth $10,000 at the Kangaroo Express, 2270 Statesville Road.
Since Sept. 12, more than $18.6 million was awarded to lottery players in North Carolina. More than $13.6 million of that was paid to players of instant scratch-off games.
Tonight's Powerball players have the chance to win a $40 million jackpot if taken as an annuity or $22.4 million if taken as a lump sum. The jackpot was reset after a ticket sold in South Carolina matched all six numbers and won Wednesday's $399.4 million jackpot.


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Filed under: Company News, Technology, Retail, Shopping, Wal-Mart
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIONEW YORK -- Walmart thought shoppers would jump at the opportunity to use a smartphone app to scan items they want to buy as they walk through store aisles. In theory, they could speed through self-checkout.
But customers had trouble using the "Scan & Go" app during tests in 200 stores, so Walmart nixed it.
Instead of looking at the app as a failure, though, Walmart took what it learned from "Scan & Go" to create another service: It found that customers like being able to track their spending, an insight that became the impetus for a program that enables shoppers to store electronic receipts.
The story behind "Scan & Go" illustrates how traditional retailers increasingly are using the nimbler approach to innovating that Silicon Valley startups are known for. Rather than perfecting a program before rolling it out -- as most retailers do -- they're doing more testing and refining as they go along. If the tests work, they're rolled out nationally. If they don't, retailers shutter them and incorporate what they learn into other projects.
The test-and-learn approach comes as retailers face intense competition for U.S. shoppers, many of who are still struggling financially. Walmart, for instance, has had sales declines at its established U.S. discount stores for over a year. The industry also is fighting to keep pace with rapidly changing technology and online retailers like Amazon.com that lure customers with low prices and beefed up services.
"Retailers need to fail often and learn quickly and adapt and then adopt," said Lori Schafer, executive adviser at SAS Institute, which creates software for retailers.
Here's a look at some Walmart tests and what it's learning from them:
The Details: Walmart is testing same-day delivery of groceries, fresh produce and other products in San Jose and San Francisco in California and Denver. Shoppers select a time slot and their items are delivered on the same day if ordered by 8 a.m. Delivery fees range from $3 to $10.
It's also testing same-day delivery of only general merchandise like toys and TVs in Northern Virginia, Philadelphia and Minneapolis if ordered by noon. Customers pay $10 for an unlimited number of items.
In January, Walmart began offering customers the option to order online and pick up their items in stores in Denver.
What Happened: Walmart Stores (WMT), which is based in Bentonville, Arkansas, said that same-day delivery has been well received. But in Denver, the pickup option is growing faster than home delivery. Executives reason that shoppers don't want to be holed up at home waiting for deliveries. It doesn't have any plans to roll it out nationally yet.
Lessons Learned: Ravi Jariwala, a Walmart spokesman, said the retailer is encouraged by the results of the tests. "We're trying to understand how we can provide convenient options for customers to shop online for groceries," he said.
Subscription Service
The Details: In late 2012, Walmart launched Goodies.co, a mail snack subscription service that lets shoppers taste five different surprise snacks that weren't sold on the discounter's shelves for a monthly fee of $7. Walmart then solicited feedback from customers in the site's social community so that it could use the responses to spot food trends.
What Happened: Goodies.co closed down a year after it was launched even as the subscription business has been a hot area as companies test shoppers' appetites to have everything from socks to razors to beauty products delivered on a regular basis. For some services, the exact products remain a mystery until they're shipped.
Walmart declined to elaborate, but analysts say Walmart customers weren't interested in paying for surprise items.
"I think any subscription service Walmart puts forth has to be aimed at the sweet spot of their shopper -- straight up groceries and toiletries," said Scott Shamberg, a managing director at Chicago-based TPN, a retail marketing agency.
Lessons Learned: Walmart said it learned how to interact with customers in soliciting feedback on new products and launched an invitation-only review program for the winter holidays to get input on a curated list of products. It's working on another iteration of product reviews.
3-D Printing
The Details: Last November, Walmart's U.K. operation, ASDA, began testing 3-D printing technology that allows shoppers to get 8-inch figurines themselves. The cost: 60 pounds, or $100. The service moved around from various stores, but in June, was officially launched at one in Manchester.
What Happened: ASDA spokesman Russell Craig said the test has been so popular that the retailer is considering rolling it out to other stores. "It's become the new family portrait," he said.
Some of Walmart's Sam's Club stores also are testing 3-D programs. Last month, at the newly opened Sam's Clubs in Montgomery, Illinois, and another outside Fort Worth, Tex., 3-D printers scanned shoppers' faces and then they had resin printouts of their heads placed on action figure-sized bodies of one of three Marvel characters.
Lessons Learned: Walmart says the tests are the beginning of customization. Walmart's CEO Doug McMillon told shareholders in June that he can imagine a day when the retailer can print small household items or replacement parts in a store or a distribution center.