text:
Westminster and Work: Some Show Dogs Serve, Search or Soothe
4 years agoon
NEW YORK — From the silky strut of Afghan hounds to poodles with coats sculpted like confections, the Westminster Kennel Club's green carpet spotlights manicured, pedigreed canines vying to be deemed top dog. But they aren't just for show.
Steve, a German wirehaired pointer, showed at Westminster last year and represented his breed before millions of Thanksgiving Day TV viewers at the National Dog Show in Philadelphia in 2018. But he also wears other hats. Or collars, actually.
"He can transition from being a pretty show dog to throwing on his vest on the same day … and do service dog stuff," says owner Shenandoah Ellis-Ulmer, a r etired Air Force master sergeant .
Steve helps her navigate public places with post-traumatic stress disorder by sensing when she's getting anxious and standing on her feet, grounding her emotionally. He's also an ace bird-hunting dog for her husband and fellow Air Force vet, Michael Ulmer.
"We think that certain dogs can only do certain things, but Steve has certainly made me realize that we don't give our dogs enough credit," says Ellis-Ulmer, of Fredon Township, New Jersey.
Not every Westminster dog has a sideline, but there are links between the show ring and the specialized work of service and therapy dogs, animal actors, bomb-sniffers, search-and-rescue K9s, and more.
Many Working Dogs Don't Have a Show Pedigree
Sometimes those connections are family ties.
Rumor, the German shepherd chosen best in show at Westminster in 2017, counts among her puppies two PTSD service dogs that live with veterans. Two more pups are training toward that goal.
"Dogs have always been pretty good to us, so this is the way that we can give back," says Rumor co-owner and co-breeder Kent Boyles.
Boyles, of Edgerton, Wisconsin, says he and partner Liz Oster have always aimed to produce "all-around dogs" for pets and service, not just show champs.
After all, many of the more than 200 breeds and varieties at Westminster this year were originally developed for some function. Even if they no longer do their traditional tasks, "these are purpose-bred dogs that still maintain those instincts," Westminster spokeswoman Gail Miller Bisher said.
Tabitha, a Doberman pinscher, was initially a show dog for retired New York Police Department officer John Marinos, who has handled other dogs at Westminster. Then an acquaintance suggested Tabitha try out as a bomb-sniffing K9.
Now, Marinos handles Tabitha as she checks for explosives at major events and dignitaries' private planes. The job requires a dog with not only a great nose but composure around commotion and strangers, and "the show ring definitely helps" with that, says Morgan Dalis of Maximum K9 Detection, the company that deploys Tabitha.
Many working dogs don't have a show pedigree. The German shepherds, Labs and other pups bred and trained by the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Vet Working Dog Center are "almost like a whole different breed" than their show counterparts, says Dr. Cynthia Otto, a professor.
Some Organizations Train Shelter Dogs for Service, Search and Other Jobs
Looks don't matter much, and the dogs have a "go-go-go-go-go-go-go" drive to seek out scents, she says. "They're not what most would want as your average house pet."
To golden retriever breeder Theresa Yeager, though, it's a point of pride to see a litter produce both show and working dogs. Like Rainier, one of the country's top 20 show goldens, and his siblings that do therapy and search-and-rescue work.
"Ideally, that's what you want — you want the dog that has the beautiful conformation and also has nice, strong working ability," says Yeager, a retired teacher in Bryan, Texas. To her, "that's really the whole point of breeding."
Rainier's brother Cooper and Cooper's owner, Robert Andrews — until recently an Austin, Texas, police officer — trained and searched for missing people with a volunteer organization. Andrews, now working for a state agency, says he was struck by Cooper's dedication and the connection that grew as they learned "how each other worked and what we could tolerate."
Work isn't purely for purebreds. Some organizations train shelter dogs for service, search and other jobs.
'They're Not Just Show Dogs'
"It's probably not the easiest way to do it, but it's certainly wonderful to see that dog go from being in a shelter to then deploying and going out and assisting survivors," says Denise Sanders of the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. Its canine graduates have responded to earthquakes, hurricanes and other catastrophes around the world.
Lacey the Lab responds to a different kind of crisis. She's a champion agility dog with "a very serious day job," says owner, breeder and handler Dr. Colleen Copelan.
The job: soothing and helping draw out troubled young patients in Copelan's psychiatry office in Camarillo, California.
Lacey and Copelan were scheduled to return to Westminster Saturday but had a last-minute change of plans.
Ghost, the Norwegian buhund, is a Westminster veteran and won his breed at the 2018 National Dog Show.
"They're not just show dogs," she says. "At least my guys, they aren't pampered pooches."
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text:
Crowdsourced insights on business travel has been saved
Crowdsourced insights on business travel
Improving the business traveller experience
January 2018
While the number of cross-border business travellers is rising, awareness of compliance issues isn't catching up. Our crowdsourced research highlighted that 51% of business travellers had no awareness of any compliance issues relating to their trips or had even completed pre-travel assessments.
Authorities around the world are increasing their focus on business travellers, placing greater scrutiny on them and their employers.
Within this insight, we took an innovative crowd-based approach that leveraged an AI-powered platform to target cross border business travellers working in companies with more than 5,000 employees. Our survey covered all aspects of business travellers' experiences, including difficulties obtaining visas or passing through immigration border controls. To give representation in each geographic region, we selected 9 countries (i.e. Brazil, China, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, UK and US). We captured both quantitative and real-time insight by asking participants to submit photos and videos relating to their business travel experiences.
Insight highlights
- 51% of business travellers had no awareness of any compliance issues relating to their trips or had even completed pre-travel assessments.
- 40% of our participants had no idea whether their company have a business traveller policy in place.
- More than 1 in 4 of our participants experienced difficulties during their business trip, largely at the point of entry to the destination country, either due to security, customs or immigration.
Our research has brought to light the need to treat business traveller population with an individual level of care, which reflects the fact that no employee's situation is the same as their colleagues.
The key is to have a robust business travel programme in place that is proactively managed and improved. Further, Global Mobility leaders should educate their employees regarding risks and compliance obligations associated with business travel, including their company's policy on taxes, business traveller payroll and immigration processes.
At the same time, the travellers themselves have a duty to properly digest the information they are given prior to travel. Only when all of this taken into consideration will real business travel compliance be achieved.
"Our innovative crowd-based approach allowed us to capture both quantitative and real-time insights. Business travellers working in companies with more than 5,000 employees participated in our survey via an AI-powered crowdsourcing platform. Participants provided both quantitative and real-time insight by submitting photos and videos relating to their recent business travel experiences. This allowed us to see, and hear, for ourselves the issues they faced and gather a deeper, richer level of insight from our community".
- Pichaya Jagger, Tax Lead for Crowdsourcing at DeloittePixel

subset: commoncrawl


text: Take part in an epic battle in which you have to search and destroy your enemies at the wheels of a tank. When you find your opponents, crash your tank into them until they are completely destroyed. Use your arrow keys or your WASD keys to drive and the space bar to brake. Pick up power ups along the way, that will help you in your quest. Try not to hit your own allies, because you will lose life. You also have limited time, so do your best to finish your mission before it runs out. Have a blast!


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Less than two weeks before the space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch on its last flight, uncertainty still remains as to exactly when NASA's very final orbiter mission will fly, bringing the storied shuttle era to a close next year.
NASA has two scheduled shuttle missions, on Discovery and Endeavour, left to fly before retiring its orbiter fleet in 2011. A third, extra shuttle mission has been approved by Congress and President Obama, but still faces review by congressional appropriators later this year.
But NASA's shuttle program manager John Shannon told reporters Thursday (Oct. 21) that definitive plans have not yet been made as to whether the potential third and final shuttle mission will fly to the International Space Station. [Gallery: Shuttle Discovery's Last Launch Pad Trip]
"I told my team it was 50/50," Shannon said.
Discovery is poised to launch Nov. 1 on an 11-day mission to deliver a storage room and humanoid robot to the International Space Station. The mission will be the 39th and last space voyage for Discovery NASA's oldest flying shuttle.
The shuttle Endeavour is set to follow Discovery's final flight with one last mission of its own in early 2011.
NASA's third shuttle in service, Atlantis, is being prepared to serve as a possible rescue vehicle for Endeavour's flight scheduled to launch Feb. 27. Having backup shuttles ready has been standard for NASA since the tragic 2003 loss of shuttle Columbia and its crew.
The fleet is being retired to make way for new missions to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s. NASA will rely on Russian, European and Japanese spacecraft to ferry crews and supplies to the space station until U.S. commercial spacecraft become available.
One last flight
NASA would prefer to shift Atlantis out of standby status and use it for one last cargo mission to the International Space Station.
To do that, the agency needs approval from congressional appropriators in order to set aside the funding required for the extra mission. NASA's space shuttle program costs about $200 million a month to operate, agency officials have said.
Presently, the final shuttle mission called STS-135 would most likely see Atlantis launch on a summer flight no earlier than June 2011.
"Theres going to be a lot of discussions between now and the summer if were going to fly 135 exactly where were going to fly it," Shannon said. "Does it make sense to delay a bit and get the ISS in better shape?"
The potential third and final shuttle flight will be critical in maintaining the space station, officials said.
"I have to point out how important that flight is to the International Space Station," Shannon explained. "From a logistics standpoint, I think 2012 is going to be a real challenge."
For one, after the shuttles are retired, NASA will lack the ability to ferry large payloads to the station.
Russia's unmanned Progress spacecraft routinely hauls about 2.5 tons of cargo to the station per flight. European and Japanese robotic freighters can larger loads, but not as much as the shuttle.
"My operations guy said one shuttle flight is equivalent to roughly seven Progress flights," Shannon said. "So, getting to fly 135 late is going to give the space station margin to keep six crew (members) up, to keep doing research."
Space supply shortage risks
NASA officials also said that if scheduled demonstration of commercial supply ships are delayed between the launch of Endeavour's STS-134 flight in February and the proposed summer STS-135 flight, the space station could face a dangerous shortage of essential provisions.
According to projections, that challenge would likely come at the tail end of 2011, moving into 2012, said Dan Hartman, Integration and Mission Operations manager for the International Space Station Program.
Yet, the final decision will likely be driven primarily by budgetary constraints.
"As far as how far could we push back the June flight? It all depends on money," Shannon said. "Well work with headquarters on the money, then that will define how far out we can stretch this program."
Still, the agencys hands remain tied until congressional appropriations are complete.
"The plan we have put in place allows us to carry through enough money to be able to keep the program going and make the decision on whether we fly 135 as late as possible," Shannon said. "But we really cant make that decision under continuing resolution we need appropriation."


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I am working on a guest post for Lori over at Escape Between the Pages tonight. It's about taking walks on holidays, and I remembered that a writer I greatly admire had some quote on walking and thinking, how walking gets the mind rolling. I was pretty sure it was Henry Miller. I googled and promptly went down a Henry Miller rabbit hole.
Wow, it's been a while since I thought about Henry Miller, who was major favorite of mine in my early twenties. Not for the famous Tropics so much as his personal writings. Sexus, Nexus and Plexus, Black Spring, Collossus of Maroussi.
Then I went to my bookshelf and pulled down a copy of The Wisdom of the Heart, a book of his essays, and flipped through, wondering how I might feel about Miller now that I'm in my 40's. Gah, sorry Lori! I'll get that post done yet tonight!
Anyway, on my google odyssey, I stumbled on a great Henry Miller blog, which featured Miller's list of writing commandments, which Miller made for himself in 1933; You have to scroll down to get the full list, which is three posts from the end. But of particular interest to me these days are:
#3. Don't be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
#8. Don't be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
This is because I am working on two short stories for anthologies. I've been getting into this way of thinking, like, OMG, these stories have to be amazing because they might be the only thing somebody sees of my work. People will read these stories and decide whether they like Carolyn Crane based on them. Shit! Gotta make this count!
And of course that is a terrible place for a writer to be. So, I'm looking at this list, and I especially need to emblazon #3 across my wall!!


text: We still struggle with Sydney and getting her to eat veggies. Chopping up some broccoli and sneaking it into her mac n' cheese never fails, but I am always trying to come up new ideas. She never turns down muffins or cupcakes, so I decided to try and make some veggie muffin cups for lunch the other day. And it worked, she loved them! I just filled the muffin tins with dough; you can use puff pastry, crescent roll, or really any other kind of dough. I then filled them with a concoction of different veggies and added a couple eggs to hold it all together. Filled the cups, and popped them in the oven at 350 for about 15 mins. I have to admit, I quite liked them as well. They are super easy, and you can use whatever you can find in your fridge and cupboards. Get creative!


text:
When the Poor Get Poorer
A great deal of criticism has been directed at the Israel Governments economic policy which is condemned as making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
This weeks Torah portion conveys a most important lesson for governments and individuals alike as to the importance of caring for others and reaching out to them with chessed (loving-kindness).
Our Patriarch Avraham sent his trusted servant Eliezer to find a young woman who would be a suitable wife for his son Yitzchak. When Eliezer arrived in Aram Naharaim, where Avrahams family lived, the only criterion he used was how the girl would respond to his request for a drink of water. When Rivka demonstrates how compassionate she was by generously giving the water she had drawn from the well to him and offering to also supply water for his camels, Eliezer was convinced that she was the one Heaven had chosen to enter the family of the paragon of chessed, Avraham.
As the descendants of Avraham, all Jews are expected to have this characteristic of compassion. Serious thought must be given as to whether government cuts in child allowances, benefits for the elderly and public health care are consistent with the spirit of chessed which must be part of Israel forever.


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Anyone else excited for the Super Bowl this weekend? I love any reason to get together with family and friends. And of course any reason to craft up some party decorations!
I have some new Super Bowl party ideas up over at the Fiskars site here.
Including ways to keep the kids occupied during the big game.
And other ways to add sporty fun to game day!
And lastly, you can find my Super Bowl party ideas from last year here.


text:
VSDC Free Video Editor is a free non-linear video editing suite featuring a complete set of instruments for creating videos of any types: from a family greeting, an action camera clip in the UHD quality to a business presentation with an array of diagrams. VSDC deals with dozens of video codecs and formats, while visual effects, Instagram filters, masking and blending tools help to make the final video look as pro-like as possible.
VSDC Free Video Editor is a light professional non-linear video editing suite for creating a movie of any complexity. It supports the most popular video/audio formats and codecs, including DVD, HD and GoPro videos. Preconfigured profiles make the creation of videos for various multimedia and mobile devices absolutely hassle-free.
Hardware accelerated non-linear editing system allows users to edit several files simultaneously and export even any size videos fast, making the application a real time and effort saving tool that is able to create even large HD videos in a few minutes instead of hours.
VSDC comes equipped with an essential toolset for professional video editing: blending modes, Mask tool, advanced multiple-color Chroma Key as well as a number of adjustable parameters settings. Using a wide array of flexible parameters, video making experts can attach a unique professional style to their videos and create different shaped masks for hiding, blurring or highlighting certain elements in the video.
With VSDC Free Video Editor all multimedia processing gets done from one app: video editing capabilities are reinforced by a video converter, a screen capture, a video capture and a disc burner.


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Why Mega-Projects Always End Up Costing More Than Expected
The people who predict the cost of urban mega-projects do a terrible job.
Last week the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Transbay Transit Center, a massive transportation hub calling itself the "Grand Central Station of the West," will cost at least $300 million more than project officials estimated. One city official characterized the situation as unfortunate but said it wouldn't have a "meaningful impact" on the project. The comment may have been meant as optimism, but it also reflects the fact that enormous cost overruns have become such a normal part of urban mega-projects that they barely even register as a problem.
So how did it get to the point where the only thing we can confidently expect from a big infrastructure project is that it will cost way more than expected?
One thing's for sure: the people who predict the cost of urban mega-projects do a terrible job. Several years ago the University of Oxford scholar Bent Flyvbjerg, who's made a career researching mega-project mismanagement, analyzed 258 transportation infrastructure projects from around the world and found that nine in ten exceeded their cost estimates. The overruns were greater on rail projects than road projects but averaged 28 percent across the board.
What struck Flyvbjerg most about the problem was how very un-random it was. If people were simply very bad at estimating the costs of huge projects, then one might expect some projects to come in under budget and others over. But an under-budget mega-project is about as rare as a dodo riding a unicorn. Instead, wrote Flyvbjerg and some collaborators in 2002, it's more likely that when it comes to mega-projects, public officials engage in "strategic misrepresentation" — aka lying:
Image via Alexander A.Trofimov/Shutterstock.com


text:
by James Scott Bell
The Kindle turns ten next month. My, how that little baby has grown!
When Amazon's ereader first came out (November 19, 2007 to be exact), I sensed most people were skeptical about the future of digital reading. The Sony Reader had been around for years but failed to take hold. "Electronic books" were thought to be the coming thing around Y2K. Publishers Weekly even started a section to cover the subject, but later dropped it due to failure to launch.
Clearly, serious readers preferred paper. So the Kindle would probably sell to some early adopters, but likely would not revolutionize anything.
**clears throat**
In 2008, Oprah Winfrey gave the Kindle her endorsement. Talk about a boost! Then people began to realize they could have all the works of Dickens and Dostoevsky on a single device which they could take on a plane or a train or (in L.A. commuter traffic) an automobile. Pretty doggone cool!
And the biz mavens realized that Amazon was (as always, it seems) making a powerful and forward-thinking business move—selling the Kindle as a gateway to their massive bookstore.
Here at TKZ, we were analyzing all this from the start. On Kindle's one-year anniversary our own Kathryn Lilley wrote:
I think it's time for all of us to stop mourning the nongrowth of paper book sales, and celebrate the new digital age. It's the future. Let's embrace it. For example, last week when I posted, I was freaking out about the changes in the industry. This week, I have decided to reframe my thoughts about the book publishing crisis, and seek out the hidden opportunities in those changes.
Because ready or not, the digital era is here. Kindle products like the Oasis are still going strong. In fact, this review of Oasis is spot on.
And what did all this mean for authors? Well, beginning in 2009 or so, it became apparent that Amazon was presenting a viable new way for writers to get published—by their own selves!
And get this: by offering authors an unheard of 70% royalty split!
The lit hit the fan.
A complete unknown named Amanda Hocking made a cool couple of million dollars publishing directly on Amazon!
This got the attention of many, including TKZ emeritus Boyd Morrison, and a mainstream mystery author by the name of Joe Konrath who, via his blog, began to champion the new digital possibilities.
When I went to Bouchercon in San Francisco in October of 2010, everybody was wondering how to get in on the ebook thing without ticking off their agent or publisher. Agents (and I heard several) were warning writers not to "go there" for fear it would jeopardize their careers. Publishers were not at all sanguine about their authors moonlighting with a company they saw as their biggest threat. Some writers even got sued or terminated over this.
But the money was dropping off Kindle trees! That could not be ignored.
A funny thing happened at that Bouchercon. I was sitting with a couple of writer friends in the lobby of the SF Hyatt Regency, talking about all this, when Joe Konrath arrived and made his way to the bar area. He was flocked by fellow authors peppering him with questions.
The next day, at lunchtime, I was outside the Hyatt and spotted Mr. Konrath and one Barry Eisler walking and talking excitedly along the sidewalk. I thought, "What is that all about?"
A few months later I found out. Mr. Eisler, a New York Times bestselling thriller author, turned down half a million bucks from his publisher in order to publish with Amazon!
It was the talk of the industry. I saw it as a real tipping point. In fact, I gave it a name: "The Eisler Sanction."
Self-publishing was getting serious.
I put my own toe in the E waters in February of 2011. Now I'm all wet.
So ten years after the birth of the Kindle, what have we seen?
1. Kindle devices and apps are awesome. I'm currently reading the two-volume memoir of Ulysses S. Grant, easily highlighting passages I want to review later. The General is bivouacked on my phone. Cost me 99¢.
2. While other ereaders have appeared—notably Nook and Kobo—the Kindle is dominant and unlikely to lose market share. The poor Nook, which is also a cool device, is hanging by a thread.
3. Kindle Direct Publishing has saved the careers of thousands of midlist writers, and created the careers of thousands more who are making good-to-massive lettuce every month. Those who are doing well have mastered some basic practices but also concentrate on the most important thing: quality and production.
4. The traditional publishing industry was hit hard by the digital disruption. There have been mergers, layoffs, shrinking profits and even a DOJ smackdown.
5. But the Forbidden City is still open for business. And while large-advance deals for debut authors are becoming as rare as the blue-footed booby, they still happen.
6. There has been chatter about the "comeback" of print books, but it appears that most of any increase in print sales can be traced to … Amazon. (And here's a counterintuitive development: Millennials may actually prefer print books!)
7. Big bookstores took a huge hit due to e-commerce. The massive Borders chain of stores went down, followed by Family Christian. Barnes & Noble stores have been closing steadily for the last eight years, a trend that will likely continue.
8. However, local independent bookstores may be emerging through the cracks. Oh, and guess who else is opening up physical stores? Amazon.
9. On the other hand, many niche bookstores are closing. The latest is Seattle's Mystery Bookshop.
10. We've reached a period of relative stasis in the "self v. trad wars." From 2010 to 2014 or so, it seemed like we'd get blogosphere firestorms every week cheering for, or predicting the demise of, Big Pub. There was also a lot of "gold rush" talk on the indie side. Reality, as it is wont to do, has settled things down. There's a lot of information out there now (e.g., Author Earnings reports) and the savvy players have a better handle on where they stand.
In an episode of Downton Abbey, when it became clear that the old ways of life were on the way out, never to return, Carson the butler mused, "The nature of life is not permanence, but flux."
Kindle brought the flux. And a decade later, we're living it.
What do you say, TKZers? What are your reflections on the 10th birthday of the Kindle?


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View all calendars is the default. Choose Select a Calendar to view a specific calendar.
The regular meetings of the Normal Town Council are held on the first and third Mondays of each month at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall. Regular meetings falling on a Town holiday is held at the same time and place on the next day that is not a holiday. The purpose of the meeting is to take action on various issues pertaining to the Town of Normal.


text:
1960 Pontiac Catalina
2dr Sport Sedan
8-cyl. 389cid/315hp 3x2bbl
Protect your 1960 Pontiac Catalina from the unexpected.
Model overview
Model description
These were some of the cars developed by GM in a huge rush after the marketing of all-new long, low and finned cars by Chrysler Corporation in 1957 radically changed the expectations in the marketplace. Given the normally long lead-time to tool up cars, it was miraculous that these cars weren't delayed until the 1960 model year.
Pontiac had to work with what GM had available, and that meant that like all the other GM Divisions, the only part tooled up and ready to go were the Buick doors which had originally been planned for 1960. All GM Divisions had to style their all-new 1959s around the pieces which had already been developed, but it was hard to tell. The stylists had done a great job of differentiating the bodies, which did span differing wheelbases and used versions of each Division's own frames and engines. The shared Fisher bodies had rooflines and huge wrap-around windshields which were identical across all GM brands as well. The new 1959 cars were demonstrably lower and longer looking than 1958.
The Catalina, named after an island off of California, was a new name for Pontiac and replaced the prior Chieftan line. The wheelbase was retained from 1958 at 122 inches, but the span between left and right wheels both front and rear (called the track) was increased in all Pontiacs in the USA and heavily promoted as the "Wide-Track Pontiacs". The Pontiacs also probably had the most interesting of the 1959 instrument panels in the industry.
Hydramatic transmissions were simplified with the loss of the rear pump, meaning no more push-starts for cars with dead batteries. Body styles varied all the way from basic two-door sport sedans (starting at $2,633), four-door sedans, Safari four-door six-passenger wagon, Sport hardtop coupe, Vista hardtop sedan, convertible coupe and Safari four-door nine-passenger wagon. Standard was the newly stroked Pontiac V-8 which now displaced 389 cubic inches (up from 370), with this displacement retained through 1967. The base engine produced as much as 245 hp in the interest of fuel economy, but automatic cars were tuned for 280 hp, with a very detuned 215 hp version optional on automatics only. 300 hp and either 315 or 345 hp Tri-Power engines were optional.
In the US, Pontiac (a Division which GM executives were considering dumping in the early 1950's) moved up from sixth place to fourth place, quite a phenomenal showing. In Canada, Pontiac had reached 82% of Chevrolet's sales levels. In percentages this sales level was far higher than in the US.
For 1960, the cars were restyled with exclusively Pontiac outer panels. An all-new front end got rid of the split grille in lieu of a new somewhat pointed and shaped single grille. American Motors' Rambler had blown past Pontiac in the sales race because so many customers were moving to more compact cars. In fact, the existence of the mid-priced makes was threatened, and Edsel and DeSoto met their respective demise on either side of the 1960 calendar year. Pontiac soldiered on, comfortably ahead of competitors Dodge, Oldsmobile and Mercury. Middle class folks were buying plenty of cars new in 1959 and 1960, and clearly not everyone was buying compacts. By 1960, a full 77% of Americans owned a car, and 15% actually owned two cars.
Folks who have fond memories of these cars or those who just like the style are the most common buyers. Naturally, the convertibles bring big money in top condition, but other body styles remain fairly attainable.


text:
Dr. Robert Miller swore he would never again get involved in the cat declawing controversy, but then...
I swore I was never again going to get involved in the cat declawing controversy, but I have been forced to. Debby and I went to visit our son, who lives with his wife and our grandkids in central California.
They have a new cat, an 8-month-old neutered male. The entire family had scratch wounds on their hands, and, while we were there, the dog suffered a bloody nose. I suggested declawing their new cat's forepaws.
They telephoned the veterinarian who had declawed their last cat in 2005—the cat that had escaped the house and disappeared permanently and was replaced by Mister Pawhooks. The charge last time was $157. This time, the veterinarian quoted a fee of $1,000. When I retired, I was charging fifty bucks for the procedure, which took 20 minutes in the O.R.
I uttered an expletive and tried to analyze the fee. Was my colleague trying to discourage onychectomy? It is now outlawed in some areas.
Was he, perhaps, the only member of our profession willing to perform the procedure in his community and, therefore, demanding an exorbitant fee?
Had he recently tangled with a cat owner?
Was his gout or his migraine flaring?
I knew a colleague half an hour's drive away who had interned in my practice way back in 1969. I telephoned him and made an appointment for my grandcat's declawing, which was done at a realistic fee.
The onychectomy technique I was taught in surgery class in 1955 was the Resco nail trimmer technique, which is simple, fast, and efficient. Periodically, some misguided colleague comes out with an "improved" technique that invariably turns out to be more complex and more uncomfortable for the patient. I'm talking about procedures involving the use of lasers, cautery, and deep digital flexor tenotomy—even gluing plastic caps on the nails.
Using the Resco technique, we declawed thousands of cats in my practice. That included dozens of big cats such as full-grown lions and tigers from circus acts, but, of course, we did not use a Resco on these big cats. All of my own cats had their forepaws declawed and all lived a long and happy rural life.
The only time we had complications is when we tried one of the new techniques.
I suspect the problem is the Resco nail trimmer. "What? Do surgery with a simple, inexpensive grooming tool? No way! I'm going to find a way to declaw cats using costly equipment and instruments."
So that's why I'm writing this column after vowing to never again mention declawing.
I want someone to produce and sell a glamorous stainless steel version of the cheap little Resco nail trimmer. They can call it an "onychectomizer," or a "partial digitalectomy severance device." That way, exorbitant fees can be justified in the surgeon's mind.
Robert M. Miller, DVM, is an author and a cartoonist, speaker and Veterinary Medicine Practitioner Advisory Board member. His thoughts in "Mind Over Miller" are drawn from 32 years as a mixed-animal practitioner. Visit his website at robertmmiller.com.
Robert M. Miller, DVM


text:
With sleek railcars sliding along elevated tracks, South Korea's newest light railway is a smooth ride, and the hope is that it can avoid the fiscal train wreck facing similar projects.
But passenger estimates for the rubber-wheeled, driverless light rail transit (LRT) system, which will open to the public in Uijeongbu city north of Seoul on July 1, have already been scaled back.
And government researchers say the 11.1-kilometre (6.9 mile) stretch of line, which was built under a public-private partnership deal, will cost taxpayers 10 billion won ($8.6 million) a year for the next decade on top of the vast sums already spent.
"Other LRT projects in the country went awry but we believe this one will be different," said Lee Myung-Se, vice president of Uijeongbu LRT Co.
"Unlike other LRTs, there will be enough demand as it passes through the most populated areas and carries commuters fast to a station where they can transfer to the main subway line linked to Seoul."
The 15-station line took five years and cost 547 billion won ($469 million) to build -- 297.4 billion won from a South Korean consortium led by GS Engineering & Construction and 249.6 billion won from taxpayers.
The French unit of multinational Siemens won orders worth 157 million euros ($196 million) and hopes the project will pave the way for other LRT contracts in South Korea, one of the world's most densely populated large countries.
"An LRT system is quite ideal for Korean cities because of its flexibility and low costs compared to traditional heavy subway systems," Benoit Pirard, commercial manager of the project, told AFP.
Researchers for the national parliament are not, however, hopeful about the bottom line. The initial forecast in 2006 estimated daily average passengers at 57,000 but this was scaled back to 31,000 last year.
Based on the latest estimate, the National Assembly Research Service (NARS) predicted in April the line would likely lose 10 billion won a year for the next 10 years.
This means the city, with a population of 450,000, will have to pay up to 10 billion won a year to Uijeongbu LRT Co under a minimum revenue guarantee.
"In light of the size of the city's budget, it is true this leaves a considerable burden on us," Lim Hee-An, deputy director of the city government, told AFP.
"However, we think it is worth it to help ease traffic congestion."
With LRTs opening around the country, critics have accused politicians standing in provincial elections of exaggerating demand to push through "pork-barrel" projects in return for support.
And the NARS warned in a separate April report that LRT projects and most other infrastructure projects being privately financed under minimum revenue guarantees from local governments were like ticking fiscal time bombs.
Public-private partnerships were introduced when South Korea was engulfed by the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.
The NARS said they are now set to suck up 41 trillion won of taxpayers' money over the next 20 years, without taking LRT projects into account.
The country's first LRT, extending 24 kilometres (15 miles) between Gimhae and Busan on the south coast, opened last September amid fanfare.
But so far it has carried an average 31,000 passengers per day, just 18 percent of what had been predicted, according to NARS.
Unless usage improves, it will face a 1.6 trillion won bill over the next 20 years to compensate private investors who built the project.
Yongin's LRT, which is due to open in April, has been dogged by controversy over financial haemorrhages, corruption scandals and delays, while daily passenger estimates have been cut from 160,000 to 30,000.
Yongin city faces the prospect of repaying 1.8 trillion won to investors over the next 30 years, NARS said, even under a contract recently amended in the city's favour.
Another LRT line is being built in the northeastern Seoul district of Dobong, while eight other small projects are planned in the capital plus three in provincial cities, according to the construction ministry.
Yun Sun-Chul of watchdog group Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice questioned whether these projects were worthwhile.
"Irresponsible pork-barrel promises, loose oversight and sparse consideration for effectiveness against costs are to blame," he said.
"The country really needs neutral experts to inspect election promises to examine whether they are economically viable and socially justifiable, before provincial authorities blindly set off on them."
Copyright 2008 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Renegade Ops Summary
Renegade Ops Review
When it comes to renegade scum, Chris Capel is the scummiest around..
Latest Updates
Avalanche have "put on ice" a steampunk project, will make it "sooner or later"
Christofer Sundberg from Avalanche Studios, developer of Just Cause and Renegade Ops, has said his recent teasing images via Instagram were of a "steampunk-style game" they had in mind. Of course in the next breathe he then proceeds to rip our steampunk loving hearts out by declaring it 'on ice', until further notice. Being an independent studio at least means they can revisit it.
Avalanche: Triple-A "a stamp of quality," not just big budgets and risks
Christofer Sundberg, co-founder of Avalanche, says there are different definitions for 'triple-A'. Most assume it's to do with "big budgets and huge risks," but for Sundberg it's a "stamp of quality." The Just Cause developer says you "don't have to develop, bigger more expensive games." It's a matter of priorities, he notes, saying you can just "make better games." Bigger isn't always better.
Avalanche: PlayStation 4 will "out-power most PCs for years to come"
Just Cause and Renegade Ops developer Avalanche Studios is very pleased with Sony's decision to include a beefy 8GB of RAM in their latest PlayStation designs. The PS4 will "out-power most" PC rigs. Specifically it's the 8GB GDDR5 RAM that's packed into the AMD APU, which combines CPU and GPU into a single chipset. This tech will likely stay ahead of the majority of PCs "for years to come."
PSN games and content revealed for 18th April
Sony has announced the European PlayStation Network released for this week, and it'll include full game releases like NHL 12 and PSN releases like Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time and The House of the Dead 4. Other content releases include the major UEFA Euro 2012 expansion for FIFA 12.
Avalanche unveiling new game at E3, not Just Cause or Renegade Ops
Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios will be pulling the sheet off a new project this E3 for fans to feast their eyes on, but it isn't a Just Cause or a Renegade Ops sequel. It's a licensed property but not movie-based as they "aren't particularly interested" in that field, says CEO Christofer Sundberg. Tie-in's make for "crappy games" overall.


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Chances are, you've heard the label of being a "right-brained" or "left-brained" thinker. Logical, detail-oriented and analytical? That's left-brained behavior. Creative, thoughtful and subjective? Your brain's right side functions stronger -- or so long-held assumptions suggest.
But newly released research findings from University of Utah neuroscientists assert that there is no evidence within brain imaging that indicates some people are right-brained or left-brained.
For years in popular culture, the terms left-brained and right-brained have come to refer to personality types, with an assumption that some people use the right side of their brain more, while some use the left side more.
Following a two-year study, University of Utah researchers have debunked that myth through identifying specific networks in the left and right brain that process lateralized functions. Lateralization of brain function means that there are certain mental processes that are mainly specialized to one of the brain's left or right hemispheres. During the course of the study, researchers analyzed resting brain scans of 1,011 people between the ages of seven and 29. In each person, they studied functional lateralization of the brain measured for thousands of brain regions -- finding no relationship that individuals preferentially use their left -brain network or right- brain network more often.
"It's absolutely true that some brain functions occur in one or the other side of the brain. Language tends to be on the left, attention more on the right. But people don't tend to have a stronger left- or right-sided brain network. It seems to be determined more connection by connection, " said Jeff Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study, which is formally titled "An Evaluation of the Left-Brain vs. Right-Brain Hypothesis with Resting State Functional Connectivity Magnetic Resonance Imaging." It is published in the journal PLOS ONE this month.
Researchers obtained brain scans for the population they studied from a database called INDI, the International Neuroimaging Data-Sharing Initiative. The participants' scans were taken during a functional connectivity MRI analysis, meaning a participant laid in a scanner for 5 to 10 minutes while their resting brain activity was analyzed.
By viewing brain activity, scientists can correlate brain activity in one region of the brain compared to another. In the study, researchers broke up the brain into 7,000 regions and examined which regions of the brain were more lateralized. They looked for connections -- or all of the possible combinations of brain regions -- and added up the number of connections for each brain region that was left- lateralized or right-lateralized. They discovered patterns in brain imaging for why a brain connection might be strongly left- or right-lateralized, said Jared Nielsen, a graduate student in neuroscience who carried out the study as part of his coursework.
"If you have a connection that is strongly left- lateralized, it relates to other strongly lateralized connection only if both sets of connections have a brain region in common," said Nielsen.
Results of the study are groundbreaking, as they may change the way people think about the old right-brain versus left-brain theory, he said.
"Everyone should understand the personality types associated with the terminology 'left-brained' and 'right-brained' and how they relate to him or her personally; however, we just don't see patterns where the whole left-brain network is more connected or the whole right-brain network is more connected in some people. It may be that personality types have nothing to do with one hemisphere being more active, stronger, or more connected," said Nielsen.
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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
All paints, solvents and adhesives contain chemicals that are harmful to aquatic animals and other wildlife. Toxic chemicals may come from liquid or solid products or from cleaning residues on rags. It is especially important not to clean brushes or painting equipment (buckets, pans, hoses, etc.) in an area where paint or paint cleanup water can flow to a street, gutter, storm drain, ditch or stream. To learn more about proper paint use and disposal, check out our brochure, Proper Paint Use and Disposal (PDF).


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As the tech world awaits an announcement from Yahoo and Microsoft on their web search and advertising partnership, I'm wondering how such a partnership can achieve its end goal — to loosen Google's stranglehold on the highly lucrative Internet search market.
Reports from the Wall Street Journal, WSJ's All Things Digital blog, and Reuters Tuesday said that under the impending agreement (which could be announced Wednesday), Microsoft will provide the search technology for Yahoo web sites. This will presumably put Microsoft's newly-packaged Bing search engine in front of millions of erstwhile Yahoo search engine users. It's not yet clear if Microsoft's search engine will be branded as Bing on the Yahoo sites.
Microsoft technology will also be used to pair the appropriate ads with the search results. Yahoo will continue to manage the sales and support of the search ads on its own sites and possibly on some of Microsoft's sites, the reports said.
The two companies reportedly will share the profits from search ad sales at Yahoo and Microsoft web properties. Previous iterations of a Microsoft/Yahoo deal had Microsoft taking over both the Yahoo search and search advertising businesses. So the reported deal will give a nice boost to Bing's user base.
Meanwhile, Yahoo would get to focus on its core strengths–advertising and content. Great, but how is this deal going to put Microsoft and Yahoo in a position to make a serious run at Google? How will Bing win over substantial numbers of existing and potential Google search users?
I'm not seeing it (and neither does blogger Ian Paul). People often use the search engine that seems familiar to them. For most people today, that's Google. Google has done a lot to integrate search with its other applications, making it even harder for users to defect. I'm ready to believe that Bing is a better search engine than Yahoo's search engine; most of the Yahoo faithful will be pleased with it.
I'm impressed at some of the innovations the Microsoft engineers have brought to search with Bing, an area of innovation Google has dominated for years. For instance, Bing introduced a left-side panel, called the Explorer Pane, that allows you to quickly choose from among a number of different angles on your search. Bing lets you preview videos in the search results by simply mousing over them, and Bing's method of parsing through image search results is far superior to Google's.
But, in the grand scheme of things, these are incremental improvements, not game-changing innovations. As for larger-scale improvements, I've seen no evidence that Bing's algorithm searches the deeper, darker corners of the web any more thoroughly than Google's, or for that matter, Yahoo's. As for the much-hyped "Semantic Search," that technology will indeed drive search's evolution, but over the long term, and it will definitely not be the sole domain of one search engine or other.
If Microsoft and/or Yahoo ever make a serious run at Google in the search business, it will take place over years, not months or quarters. Microsoft will get a quick boost in market share from the addition of Yahoo's search traffic, but after Yahoo, what other substantial search player is left to partner with or acquire? None that I can think of.
Let's look at the numbers to get an idea of what Microsoft and Yahoo are up against. Comscore says Google controls 67 per cent of the search market worldwide, compared with Yahoo's eight per cent and Microsoft's three per cent. Looking at the US market alone, Google controls 65 per cent, compared with Yahoo's 20 per cent and Microsoft's eight per cent.
That's a wide deficit to make up, against a very strong, and deeply entrenched competitor. Microsoft–a software company at heart–may someday get itself into the same league with Google in the search business, but it's going to take a lot of time, money and radical innovation to get there. Its long-awaited partnership with Yahoo may be just the starting gate.


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Back to New York
MONTREAL (AP) — Rene Bourque had a hat trick and the Montreal Canadiens kept their playoff hopes alive with a 7-4 victory over the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday.
Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec and Max Pacioretty also scored for Montreal. David Desharnais scored into an empty net for the Canadiens.
Andrei Markov had three assists.
Derek Stepan scored twice for the Rangers. Rick Nash and Chris Kreider also scored.
Game 6 will be played in New York on Thursday.


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Details e-Book Business Plans For Dummies
🗸 Author(s): Paul Tiffany, Steven D. Peterson & Colin Barrow
🗸 Title: Business Plans For Dummies
🗸 Rating : from 5 stars ( reviews)
🗸 Format ebook: PDF, EPUB, Kindle, Audio, HTML and MOBI
🗸 Supported Devices: Android, iOS, MacOS, PC and Amazon Kindle
"Your one-stop guide to creating a winning business plan from scratch
Whether you're starting a new business or growing an established one, you'll need a solid business plan to get you where you want to go. Revised for today's rocky economic climate, this edition of the UK's bestselling business plan guide gives you what you need to map out your business strategy and stay on course including a complete sample plan that you can easily adapt for your business!
Chart your course assess the current state of your business and where you'd like to take it, and establish clear, achievable objectives
Get to know your customers learn the latest techniques for getting a better idea of who your customers are and what they want
Scope out the competition find out who your competitors are and what it'll take to get your share of the market pie (and theirs)
Sort out your finances construct a value chain, examine your cash flow and calculate a sensible budget
Enter the Dragons' Den convince bankers, investors, venture capitalists and other funding sources your business is a good investment
Read the tea leaves learn to decipher changing cultural, political and technological trends and to alter your strategies as needed
Open the book and find:
Tips on developing a sure-fire business strategy
How to set realistic objectives
Forecasting and budgeting strategies
Keys to writing a motivational mission statement
How to decipher the latest consumer trends
Advice on building your brand and brand loyalty
Tips for seeing and seizing opportunities before the competition
Ways to adapt your plan to economic change
Learn to:
Prepare a watertight business strategy
Assess the marketplace
Devise a sensible forecast and budget


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More and more Americans are seeking out gluten-free options as part of a healthy diet and/or due to certain food allergies. Effingham, Ill.-based Hodgson Mill Inc. introduces Gluten Free Brown Rice Pasta with Milled Flax Seed. While the line meets the dietary needs of gluten-intolerant individuals, it is designed to be a tasty whole grain lunch or dinner option for the entire family.
A delicious alternative to traditional white pasta, the new gluten-free pasta line is also the only one on the market featuring the healthful and tasty addition of milled flax seed, one of the plant kingdom's richest sources of omega-3 oils. Rich in nutrients, varieties include: Penne, Linguini, Spaghetti, Angel Hair, and the always popular macaroni-style, Elbow.
Each variety of all-natural, unrefined, gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free pasta is made with whole-grain brown rice and golden milled flax seed. They are "Made with pride in the USA" in a strictly maintained gluten free manufacturing facility.


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Children should be limited to less than two hours of entertainment-based screen time per day, and shouldn't have TVs or Internet access in their bedrooms, according to new guidelines from pediatricians.
The new policy statement was released by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) today (Oct. 28) in the journal Pediatrics.
The average 8-year-old spends eight hours a day using various forms of media, and teenagers often surpass 11 hours of media consumption daily, according to the authors of the AAP statement. More than three quarters of teenagers have cell phones, and teens ages 13 to 17 send an average of 3,364 texts per month. [Infographic: Texting More Popular Than Talking?]
Several studies have linked high media consumption with poor health outcomes. For example, children with TVs in their bedrooms are more likely to be obese.
But teasing apart cause and effect in those studies is difficult, said Lisa Guernsey, director of the Early Education Initiative at the New America Foundation and the author of "Screen Time: How Electronic Media — From Baby Videos to Educational Software — Affects Your Young Child," (Basic Books, 2012), who was not involved establishing the new guidelines.
New rules
In addition to limiting all entertainment screen time — including TV, the Internet and various smart devices — to less than two hours daily, the guidelines recommend children under age 2 get no screen time.
Parents should watch TV shows and movies with children, and monitor their media usage, according to the recommendations. Finally, families should define clear rules, such as curfews for Internet use, or limits on cell phone use during dinner.
"I think that many parents are clueless about media and the impact of media on their kids," said Dr. Vic Strasburger, the policy statement's lead author and a professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico.
Children shouldn't have Internet access or televisions in their rooms, because that makes it too hard for parents to monitor kids' media use, Strasburger said.
"If you have a 14-year-old son and he has an Internet connection in his bedroom, I guarantee you, he's looking at pornography," Strasburger told LiveScience.
Balanced approach
Unlike earlier AAP policy statements, the new recommendations acknowledge the benefits of media, such as shows like "Sesame Street" that teach children letters and numbers.
That seems like a more balanced approach, Guernsey said.
Families are "trying to understand how to navigate media instead of being told, 'no, no keep it away from their children,'" Guernsey told LiveScience. "Not only is that unrealistic, it may not be the best way to model good media use with children."
The new guidelines may still be tough for most families to follow, she said.
Still, the recommendations are a good starting point, said Oren Amitay, a psychologist in Toronto.
"The part about watching things with kids is important," because otherwise parents have no idea what their kids are seeing, he said.
Limiting all entertainment screen time to less than two hours per day may be difficult given modern life, but "these are best practices, and you can be flexible," Amitay told LiveScience.
Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter and Google+.Original article on LiveScience.
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Tia is the managing editor and was previously a senior writer for Live Science. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Wired.com and other outlets. She holds a master's degree in bioengineering from the University of Washington, a graduate certificate in science writing from UC Santa Cruz and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Tia was part of a team at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that published the Empty Cradles series on preterm births, which won multiple awards, including the 2012 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.
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Log Periodic Dipole Array (LPDA) antennas have very broadband characteristics and are suitable for HF multi-band operation. LPDA is a directional antenna with good forward gain and acceptable front-to back (F/B) ratio. The only down-side of the LPDA is its big size. Being a virtual environment, size is of no consequence on HS4. We can afford to deploy and use large antennas on the system. A typical Log Periodic antenna can easily cover almost the entire HF spectrum while maintaining excellent SWR and feed-point impedance characteristics. LPDA allows a very simple interface to the transmission line. Complex impedance matching arrangement is not required to drive the LPDA. A 50 ohm co-ax cable with a 1:1 Balun is all that is needed to achieve excellent performance across all bands.
We have specially crafted this LPDA antenna for HamSphere 4.0. It has been tailored to provide optimal performance and good value for money. This antenna covers 8 bands from 40m to 10m (40-30-20-17-15-12-11-10m). It has a boom length of 29m and a span of 24m. This LPDA has 16 log periodic elements plus 2 additional parasitic directors to further enhance performance. The average gain across bands is a little over 12 dBi thus ensuring excellent long range capabilities. The antenna is hoisted and mounted on a tower at the height of 30m (100 ft) above ground to ensure good low angle radiation pattern. This LPDA antenna is the first in the series of Log periodic Dipole Array antennas being deployed on HamSphere 4.0


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Don't Lose Your Shirt at Office Holiday Party
The holiday office party is a time for employees to let loose and revel in the festivities, but for small business owners it may also be the time to get slapped with a lawsuit if the revelry gets too out of hand.
Here are five tips from Rocket Lawyer on how to keep your business from ending up on the naughty list, which can cost you a lot more than getting some coal in your stocking.
No. 1: Deduct your holiday party within reason
For many people the holiday office party is simply an extension of the work day and an opportunity to network and build relationships. Because it is business related the expenses associated with the party can typically be deducted come tax time, according to Charley Moore, founder and executive chairman of Rocket Lawyer.
If your idea of the holiday party is taking senior executives to Las Vegas for a weekend, chances are it won't count as a legitimate business expense, but having a holiday party at a local restaurant where the entire staff is invited could be deductible.
"Expenses for your holiday party should be tax deductible, as long the party isn't overly lavish or wholly unrelated to work activities," says Moore. "But stay organized and keep those receipts...you never know when you might run into a Grinch-like IRS agent who doesn't share your holiday spirit."
No. 2: Stay on top of the planning
Who has time to plan a holiday party when they are busy running a business? But turning that responsibility over to someone else could put you in a legal bind if things run afoul. Whether it's the venue, the caterer or the DJ, Moore says it's important to have contracts that spell out everything including the payment and cancellation policies in writing. After all, you don't want to get stuck footing the bill for lobster when you ordered pigs in the blanket.
"The biggest legal mistake small businesses make is not getting an agreement in writing," says Moore.
No. 3: Mistletoe must go
While hook ups between coworkers aren't illegal, and are common at work events, it could set your business up for a sexual harassment suit if the pursued doesn't want to be pursued. Instead of reacting, Moore says to be in proactive mode ahead of the party.
"Make sure you have a game plan in place for how to handle inappropriate behavior that could potentially lead to a sexual harassment claim when spirits are high and alcohol is served," says Moore.
No. 4: Make sure you're protected
If you are having your party off-site, chances are the venue is going to make you sign a release form, making you liable if anyone gets hurt during the party. That means if someone slips and falls on the buffet line or a fight breaks out on the dance floor -- you're going to be liable. That's why Moore says it's important to check your current liability insurance policy to make sure you are protected. If not, Moore says you can purchase a short term policy to protect yourself and the business.
No. 5: Create a safe drinking environment
Small business owners may not realize it, but if alcohol is served at the holiday party, they could be liable if a drunken employee gets into a car accident on the way home. Since the alcohol is usually flowing at many holiday work parties, Moore says to provide staff with cabs or coordinate designated drivers ahead of the party.
"Consider serving food, and limit the amount of the time the bar is open to keep things from getting too jolly," says Moore.


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When a Staten Island dry cleaners was destroyed by Sandy, the only item to survive was Nicole Pagliaro's wedding dress.
But her name was lost to owner Hector Pacheco, who reopened after more than a year and in a new location.
Pagliaro had brought the dress to him after her 2012 wedding. When the storm swamped and shuttered the Staten Island store, she assumed it was lost.
Two weeks ago, she took a different route to work and spotted it in the window of Pacheco's new store. She tells The Staten Island Advance she knew instantly it was her dress.
She even still had the ticket for it.
Pagliaro wants her daughter — now 18 months old — to wear the dress on her wedding day.
Copyright AP - Associated Press


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Princeton Tec EOS
I currently have two of these headlamps. One is used for hiking and the other I wear on my hardhat at work. For the price, weight, and size, I am very pleased.
The lamp I use for hiking is roughly 3 years old and is as good as new. It throws sufficient light for any task in the woods, and I have used it for many night hikes, especially in the winter.
As others have noted, the tilt adjustment for the lamp seems a little weak. For the lamp I use hiking this is not yet an issue, even after 3 years, partly because it is not used heavily. However, the lamp I use for work is beginning to slip occasionally if I look down with a quick motion; but this is from near daily use for the last year and a half.
It also sees a great deal of abuse and gets banged around on pipes, I-beams, etc. Still it remains bright and perfectly functional. Therefore, based upon that observation, I expect my hiking headlamp to last many years, and my work headlamp to possibly require some sort of modification to the tilt adjustment sometime in the next year.
Overall, this is a good lamp and has yet to fail me with its durability and brightness. Battery life is also as good as can be expected, and I have no issues there. I would buy this lamp again if one of my existing lamps fail.
Update: August 4, 2011
This is an update to my previous review.
I had mentioned earlier that the headlamp I use for work had began to slip on the tilt adjustment if I looked down quickly. It finally began slipping enough to become annoying, after nearly two years of almost daily use. The one I use for hiking, which is much older, still works fine since its use is much less frequent.
I didn't realize it, but Princeton Tec has a lifetime warranty on this headlamp. After a quick call to them for an RA number, and about two bucks to ship my old one to them, I received a brand new headlamp a week or so later.
It's apparent the Princeton Tec realized the issue with the tilt adjustment, since the new lamp now has three areas with raised ridges to keep the lamp in place.
I am very pleased with these lamps, and the customer service was excellent. I would buy this lamp again without question.
Price Paid: ~$40
Brought it for a six day trek through the mountains in Malaysia which ended up lasting seven days instead. It is really bright and great throw. I could easily luminate more than 20m away, more than necessary for most applications.
A set of new alkaline batteries lasted throughout the trip, and is still going strong. Low setting is adequate for most campsite activities, while I used medium for night treking. High setting is hardly necessary at all.
Used it in the rain, and it proved to be really waterproof. I didn't even need to open it to dry it out. Materials used feel solid and rugged. A little heavy for its size, but I don't think anyone will notice the few grams more.
Some nits are that the edge of headband developed a wave, like the collar of a T-shirt that's gone through too many spin cycles. The hinge is rather loose, and although it has not shifted due to head movement, I feel that it may be easily worn out after regular use. The lens also got scratched, though I can't imagine how. A harder plastic or a scratch protection film would be great. Or maybe a more recessed lens. Lastly, the beam is a pretty tight spot. I wouldn't mind sacrificing a bit of brightness and throw for a wider and brighter sidespill.
Price Paid: US $41
The Princeton Tec headlight is a must have for backpacking. The elastic band is adjustable and comfortable to wear for long periods. The light itself is light weight, packs easily and battery life is excellent. With three illumining options finding the right brightness is easy. The added blinking light feature is great just in case you need to draw attention to yourself in emergencies. Only drawback is the adjustable tension screw, it needs a re-tightening after each trip. Otherwise it's a dependable light and a good buy.
Price Paid: $26 on sale
Great little gizmo. Demoed it at the same time as a Petzl Myolite 3 while on a trail run. Definitely came out on top.
The brightest setting (56) was superior to the MYO's halogen, and the lower two settings had nice sidespill. Very functional and compact little unit.
My only qualm is the fact that it is inferior in its battery life to that of some other lamps out there, but what do you expect, it has no rear battery pack. Great buy.
Price Paid: $40
I do quite a bit of night bike riding. I had been using a Nightrider light that I paid $130 for. The $35 EOS that I bought at L.L.Bean gives the Nightrider a run for its money. This light truly does throw a great spot! I also purchased a few rechargeable AAA's. With the three different intensity setings, I can't imagine anyone being disappointed in this light.
Price Paid: $35
This is a great headlamp. I am a bit of a light freak and have two Princeton Tec Auroras and just bought the EOS. It is a huge improvement because of the fact it has one 1-watt LED. It is so much more like a spotlight than any LED light I have ever used. On high power you will get about 2-3 hours constant use and then it will revert to the lowest light level (of 3 levels) and stay there till the batteries drain. I like to bring an Aurora and the EOS. The EOS for any activity that demands lots of light and the Aurora for low light to conserve batteries. Overall, a great headlamp!
Price Paid: $40
the best headlamp that i've come across, owned by myself or anyone that i've camped with. i accidentally dropped it in some thawing mud last winter. unbeknownst to me, it lived outside for four months during which it fell victim to severe freezings and thawings and a whole lot of leafy, muddy water. upon finding this little gadget again, i simply replaced the batteries and resumed using it immediately. well i shouldn't say "immediately" because after being in those kinds of conditions for four months, it smelled like i pulled it off a dead hiker for several weeks!
Price Paid: $35
I love this light. Extremely bright for a single led light. The frost on the lens spreads the beam out very evenly so there are no dark spots like many of the head lamps i have seen before. Nice design, lightweight, bright. What else could you ask for?
The only issue I have been having is that the hinge is a little too easy to move so it may tilt downwards when your head jerks. I think I can solve that with some double sided tape.
Price Paid: $30
Both the EOS and Aurora LED headlamps are well designed products. I own both. Think of the Aurora as more of a task light for around the camp, the brighter and more focused EOS can be used on the trail. EOS in short is the perfect headlamp. Both have several settings to conserve power, and both flash. As of this writing I think these two units are the best value for the money as concerns LED headlamps.
Price Paid: $35
Love it!!
This light is suprisingly bright for having only one LED. I have used it for several outings and the batteries show no sign of needing replaced (dosen't eat up batteries) I have even gone night hiking in the pitch black of night under cover of the forest and this baby performs without a hiccup.
I typically use the low setting for chores around camp and honestly that is all the light that is needed.
Almost perfect backpacking light. It throws a huge amount of light, lasts for days if you keep it out of the maximum setting, is lightweight, comfy, and takes up very little space. It would be nice to have some sort of diffuser (a la the Petzl Myo XP) for close-up work or reading in the tent, but you get used to it. Well worth the $30 bucks or so you can buy it for online.
Price Paid: $30
I was happy with this light for a while. It throws a good beam, nice and bright, goes a long way. The problem is that it leaks. Every time I use it in the rain (which is often since it is on my bike) water gets inside and when this happens - here's the kicker - it doesn't shut off properly, so the battery drains.
To make things worse, I emailed Princeton Tec about this and they didn't even bother to reply.
My advice? Buy a Petzl or Black Diamond — anything but this P.O.S.
Source: bought it new
I just bought my second EOS. I was very disappointed, the hinge is so floppy you can't walk without it pointing to the ground. The beam is much more diffuse than my old torch. Princeton never responded to my emails.
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Jon Stewart's recently ended summer hiatus from "The Daily Show" received, in some quarters, the kind of attention previously reserved for anchor shifts in the network news glory days. Perhaps it's not all that surprising given the comedian's status – at least according to a decidedly unscientific 2009 TIME magazine online poll – as the nation's most trusted newscaster, an honor once reserved for the likes of Walter Cronkite.
That's the way it is, in great part, because of "Saturday Night Live," which made fake news a U.S. TV comedy staple when Chevy Chase first told us who he was and who we weren't ("I'm Chevy Chase and you're not") on "Weekend Update" nearly 38 years ago.
As "SNL" gets ready to return with an overhauled cast Sept. 28, probably most the scrutinized change will be relative newcomer Cecily Strong's quick ascension to "Weekend Update" as Seth Meyer's co-anchor and heir apparent (even if, as show producer Lorne Michaels told The New York Times, he'd like Meyers to stick around for the segment after leaving early next year for "Late Night").
The notice given Michael's announcement, which quickly spread after The Times story, underscored the very real impact of the fake news game - from "The Daily Show" to "The Colbert Report" to a strong new kindred spirit like FX's "Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell." It also underscored that the success of "Weekend Update" is crucial to the overall success of "SNL."
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The NBC institution has morphed over the years, not just in cast, but in comedy style, in keeping with changing times. The early days produced counter-culture-influenced humor, while the current sketch lineup is more pop culture driven. Recurring characters and skits, from "The Coneheads" to "The Californians," come and go (and sometimes get their own movies, to mixed results, "From Wayne's World" to "It's Pat").
But "Weekend Update," hasn't changed all that much over the years. It's always there, a little over a half hour into the show – and is usually worth staying up for, even if you can catch it later online or via DVR.
The anchor is key, and Michaels largely has been smart in his picks, which have ranged from those on the verge of another level of fame (Chase, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon) to rock-solid players (Jane Curtain, Kevin Nealon) to those in-between (the underrated Colin Quinn, Dennis Miller, Norm MacDonald).
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
The segment has been on a great run since 2000, with various combinations of Fey, Fallon, Amy Poehler and Meyers, an anchor seat mainstay since 2008. In this century, "Weekend Update," has proven a launching pad for TV successes – "30 Rock," "Parks and Recreation," "The Tonight Show," "Late Night" – if not necessarily movie superstardom.
Strong, who joined the show last year as a featured player, will be one of the greenest "Weekend Update" anchors since Chase. But she's already showed fine comic timing – no more so than on "Weekend Update" with her "The Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With" character.
The one drawback to Strong's promotion is that the character likely has made her last appearance. For Strong, a new conversation with the "SNL" viewers begins with the Sept. 28 season premiere. We'll see if she's able to make the audience glad she started talking.
Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also the author of "Raising a Beatle Baby: How John, Paul, George and Ringo Helped us Come Together as a Family." Follow him on Twitter.


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Dunedin is a region of unique landscapes and fascinating cultural history. Enjoy getting close to rare wildlife and soaking up the quirky city vibe.
Known as the Edinburgh of New Zealand, Dunedin is the country's city of the south, wearing its Scottish heritage with pride. Surrounded by dramatic hills and at the foot of a long, picturesque harbour, Dunedin is one of the best-preserved Victorian and Edwardian cities in the Southern Hemisphere. The accommodation is good and plentiful; the nightlife buzzes with funky bars and delicious restaurants and the natural attractions are unique and fascinating.
Don't miss a drive up the Otago Peninsula - the views are endless and the beaches are beautifully rugged. Nestled at the foot of Taiaroa Head is the Royal Albatross Centre, the only place in the world on the mainland where you can view Northern Royal Albatross in their natural habitat. On Dunedin's doorstep you will also find incredible wildlife including the world's rarest penguin colonies.
Head further south, and you join the Southern Scenic Route, a must-do of the South Island that follows the wild coast down to Invercargill and then north-west to Manapouri and Te Anau.
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The Mentally Ill & Criminal Justice in China: An Interview with Prof. GUO Zhiyuan
A true test of any criminal justice system is how it treats its most vulnerable and perhaps one of the most vulnerable groups in any society is the mentally ill. Shunned by many in the world and often incapable of asserting their rights when questioned by police, the mentally ill are often left unprotected. In its almost 250-year existence, the United States has come a long way in protecting the rights of the mentally ill but not without a struggle. While the insanity defense and competency to stand trial have long been a part of Anglo-American jurisprudence, the requisite procedures to evaluate mental illness are of more recent provenance.
Given our difficulty, how does country like China, with a criminal justice system that has only been around for 32 years, handle mentally ill suspects and defendants? Prof. GUO Zhiyuan (pronounced Gwo Zhir-yooan), Associate Professor of Law at the China University of Political Science and Law, has answered that question in her recent article "Approaching Visible Justice: Procedural Safeguards for Mental Examinations in China's Capital Cases (Hastings Int'l. and Comp. L. Rev., Winter 2009).
With the first candid examination (at least in English) of the interplay between the Chinese Criminal Law and the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law, Prof. Guo shows us that while the law ostensibly protects the mentally ill, there is a lack of procedural protections. If the defense attorney doesn't have the right to call for a mental examination of his or her client, what good is an insanity defense? Prof. Guo examines these issues and offers potential reforms in Approaching Visible Justice. From our own experience, protecting the mentally ill is not an easy task, but with scholars like Prof. Guo working on this issue, there is the possibility that China is not far from offering similar protections. Below is an interview with Prof. Guo discussing her recent article and the plight of the mentally ill in the Chinese criminal justice system
EL: Does the Chinese criminal law have special protections for the mentally ill? Is there an insanity defense like there is in the U.S.? In what other ways does mental illness come into play under China's criminal law?
GZY: Yes, Chinese criminal law does have special protections for the mentally ill. Article 18 of the Criminal Law of the PRC [People's Republic of China]states:
"If a mental patient causes harmful consequences at a time when he is unable to recognize or control his own conduct, upon verification and confirmation through legal procedure, he shall not bear criminal responsibility. . . . If a mental patient who has not completely lost the ability of recognizing or controlling his own conduct commits a crime, he shall bear criminal responsibility; however, he may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment."
Although defendants with mental illness do not bear criminal responsibility, Article 18 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that:
"his family members or guardian shall be ordered to keep him under strict watch and control and arrange for his medical treatment. When necessary, the government may compel him to receive medical treatment."
Article 18 also emphasizes:
"[a]ny person whose mental illness is of an intermittent nature shall bear criminal responsibility if he commits a crime when he is in a normal mental state."
This is the same as in the American model, where the mental status at the time of crime is relevant in determining criminal responsibility.
EL: How does a defendant or his lawyer, make a claim that he is mentally ill and thus subject to the laws protections? Does the defendant or his lawyer call for a mental examination? Who pays for the mental examination?
GZY: In China, only the police, the prosecution or the court can decide to conduct a mental examination. Neither the defendant nor his lawyer can initiate an evaluation; they also cannot apply to the judicial agencies for one; they can only apply for supplementary evaluations or re-evaluations after an officially-initiated examination has produced results. To my knowledge, both the officially-initiated mental examinations and the supplementary evaluations are conducted at the State's expense, but when the defendant or his lawyer successfully initiates a re-evaluation, they retain mental health experts at their own expense.
EL: If you could redesign China's criminal law and criminal procedure law, what would you change so that China best protects the mentally ill when they interact with the criminal justice system? In other words, what would the ideal system look like?
GZY: I don't see anything inappropriate in the provision in China's Criminal Law, but it's necessary to reform the Criminal Procedure Law of China. To be exact, procedural safeguards should be added to the current Criminal Procedure Law in order to put Article 18 of China's Criminal Law into practice. It seems to me that the ideal system should, at the very least, adopt the following seven proposed reforms: First, for all capital cases, a mandatory pretrial examination of defendants' mental status should be required at the State's expense. Second, the defense should be entitled to retain its own mental heath professionals who are allowed to witness and participate in this proposed mandatory mental examination or any other mental examinations initiated by the prosecution. Third, the defense's right to initiate its own examination should be granted and respected. This would be the most important change if it does occur. Fourth, both parties should have a right — not just the defense — to confront the opposing side's psychiatrist or other mental health examiner; this right should be guaranteed. Fifth, the indigent defendant should be entitled to psychiatric assistance at the State expense; this would ensure equal treatment among defendants with different financial means. Sixth, to address the problem of conflicting expert testimony, an additional impartial psychiatrist should be appointed by the court to perform another independent assessment. This would aid the court in determining the mental condition of the defendant. Finally, effective assistance of counsel should be emphasized in those capital cases involving mentally disabled defendants.
EL: In China, sometimes a lawyer is held liable for the acts of his client (e.g. when a client perjures himself his attorney could be held liable). Does a defense lawyer get into trouble if his client pleads "not guilty for reasons of insanity" and is found not to be insane? Will the lawyer be censured?
GZY: Although it's very easy for a defense lawyer to get into trouble if his client withdraws a confession he made to the police, cases are very rare in which a lawyer gets into trouble because his client was found sane after pleading "not guilty for reasons of insanity."
EL: In the U.S., mentally ill defendants don't often receive the public's sympathy. But in your article, you discuss the
case of Yang Jia, a man who stormed a Shanghai police station and killed six police officers after he had been harassed by the police. The Chinese public was largely sympathetic toward him – do you think this was because people felt sorry for him because he was mentally ill?
GZY: No. Although many thought that Yang Jia was insane, whether he was actually mentally ill or not would have depended upon further serious assessment by qualified and impartial professionals. In Yang Jia's case, the Chinese public was largely sympathetic towards him for the following reasons. First, with the public's increasing awareness of their legal rights, police misconduct – which, of course, is not a uniquely Chinese problem – has met with unprecedented condemnation, and the call for judicial fairness has become more and more intense in these cases. The motive behind Yang Jia's attack –avenging past police misconduct – played directly to this sentiment. Second, there were a number of procedural flaws in Yang Jia's case, such as lack of transparency, conflict of interest, and serious problems regarding the mental examinations. The general public just seized on Yang Jia's case as an opportunity to express their anger at police violence and to voice their demands for a more fair criminal justice system.
EL: Do you think there is increasing sympathy toward mentally ill defendants in China? Are attitudes changing? How are attitudes changing?
GZY: Yes, more and more attention is paid to mentally ill defendants in China, especially after a series of relevant high-profile cases such as Qiu Xinghua's, Yang Jia's, and Akmal Shaikh's cases. The general public has being changing their indifferent attitudes towards mentally ill offenders; more and more people have realized it's essential to establish a fair judicial system to prevent the state from punishing the mentally ill. For this transformation, open information has played an important role.
EL: Thank you Prof. Guo for your time and your insights on a very important issue in every criminal justice system.


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They call her "President Snowe" in the blogosphere.
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe is the only Republican in Congress who might vote for President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul health care and extend coverage to those who lack it. And that gives the unassuming, 62-year-old lawmaker almost as much power over the bill's fate — and that of the millions of Americans it would affect — as the big guy himself.
Which is why Snowe's cell phone has lit up with a particular phone number at odd times over the past year, once on the Maine coast as she and her husband drove past a field near their home at Hancock Point.
Stopped at the side of the road, she answered — and whatever the leader of the free world was saying to her was lost in the roar of farm machinery cutting hay nearby.
"It was classic, different worlds" colliding, Snowe recalls with a chuckle.
It's the story of her life these days.
Snowe stands as the woman with the most clout in Washington, poised at the intersection of ambitious efforts to change the nation's system of medical care amid competing political forces. If she votes with the Democrats, Obama could secure the biggest win of his young presidency. If she sticks with her Republican colleagues, it could prove as devastating to the president as the blow dealt to former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s when his health care package failed.
The players and their ideas tend to cross her path — on Snowe's desk, at the other end of her telephone or just outside the paper-strewn hearing room. Snowe serves on the Senate Finance Committee, whose issues include health care.
"Public option, single payer!" shouts a woman who does not break stride to deliver her message to Snowe.
"Thank you, appreciate it," Snowe replies.
"People in Maine want it!" the woman retorts from around a corner.
"Not all of them," Snowe pushes back, then chuckles quietly.
Snowe, who easily won a third term in 2006, is one of a minority in her state and the nation who does not support creation of a government-run option to private insurance. Progressives in her state have chastised Snowe over the issue in a television ad.
Instead, Snowe has proposed using the public option as an incentive, or a threat, to private insurers who do not make their plans affordable by certain deadlines. This "trigger" option, or some version of it, has survived the bitter debate and scrutiny to remain a viable option for compromise.
With her support, Democrats might have the 60th vote required to overcome Republican objections to the bill. Snowe's support would mean that the final version of the bill could — technically — be called bipartisan, a key tenet of Obama's agenda.
Without Snowe, Democrats contend they'll still pass legislation that can be called a health care overhaul, but in piecemeal fashion and without Republican support, a politically dicey Plan B.
So in a Senate where power typically flows to those who reliably take sides, influence on this issue moves straight to Snowe, precisely because her vote cannot be taken for granted.
"She's a very important senator," says Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., grinning at the understatement. "She's a very, very important senator."
So important that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., recently opened his weekly news conference with praise for Snowe, congratulating her on comments she had made that day as if she had endorsed the unfinished bill. She hadn't, but Reid showered compliments anyway.
"Brilliant statement," Reid told reporters. "She is a leader."
Even former President Clinton praised her option of a trigger in an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," saying, "Now, the one Republican who's come up with a good idea is Senator Snowe."
Republicans aren't following, but that's nothing new. Snowe, who was orphaned at age 9, elected to the Maine House seat held by her late husband, and has served the House and Senate since 1978, has played this decisive role many times.
Earlier this year, she was one of three Republicans who crossed party lines to vote for Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus bill. Before that, she defied then-President George W. Bush and voted for legislation he eventually vetoed — but that later passed under Obama — providing health care to millions of children. Snowe was one of the "Gang of 14" Democratic and Republican senators who resolved a standoff over judicial nominations.
By all accounts, she retains courteous respect from her fellow Republicans and continues to lunch with them at weekly caucus meetings. Some grumble privately about punishment if she votes with Democrats on health care. One possibility mentioned by some: challenging Snowe next year for the coveted ranking GOP seat on the Senate Commerce Committee.
"I know she's under pressure, but they don't tell me what kind," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Commerce Committee and a member of the Finance Committee.
Snowe says nobody's threatened to punish her. They have little reason to alienate her now, because she could be the GOP's best chance of changing the bill, in their view, into a less-onerous "government takeover" of health care. Also, she's been straight with them about her approach to negotiations.
"She's been in constant communication with me all the way through the process," said Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
"I think she's handled herself in a very responsible way," said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah.


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January 21, 2012
Development progress in the world's poorest countries could be halted or even reversed by mid-century unless bold steps are taken now to slow climate change, prevent further environmental damage, and reduce deep inequalities within and among nations, according to projections in the 2011 Human Development Report.
Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All argues that environmental sustainability can be most fairly and effectively achieved by addressing health, education, income, and gender disparities together with the need for global action on energy production and ecosystem protection.
International Human Development Indicators
The human development data utilized in the preparation of the Human Development Index (HDI) and other composite indices featured in the Human Development Report are provided by a variety of public international sources and represent the best and most current statistics available for those indicators at the time of the preparation of this annual report. Calculations of HDI values and country rankings are the sole responsibility of the Human Development Report Office. The 2011 Human Development Report, an editorially independent publication commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme, was published in print and on line on November 2nd, 2011. Read more
Data Tools and Visualizations
- Country Profiles
Find the latest statistics for all UN member-states
- Public Data Explorer
Our data, easy to explore, visualize and communicate
- StatPlanet World Map
Chart human development statistics for all nations
- Human Development Index Trends
Regional and national trends for 1980-2011
- HDI rankings adjusted for inequality
An HDI calculus reflecting internal inequalities
- GDP vs. HDI: Country contrasts
National HDI compared to income (GNI per capita)
- DIY HDI: Build Your Own Index
Create unique country comparisons and rankings
- Human Development Indicators
Explore development data over the past 30 years
- Country Profiles
Human Development Index (HDI) - 2011 Rankings
Document Highlights
- Reproductive rights can further reduce environmental pressures by slowing global demographic growth, with the world population now projected to rise from 7 billion today to 9.3 billion within 40 years.
- Some 120 national constitutions guarantee environmental protections, but in many countries there is little enforcement of these provisions, the Report says.
- India's Rural Employment Guarantee Act cost about 0.5 percent of GDP in 2009 and benefited 45 million households—one-tenth of the labour force; Brazil's Bolsa Familia and Mexico's Oportunidades programmes cost about 0.4 percent of GDP and provide safety nets for about one-fifth of their populations.


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Lazy exceptions and IO
Consider the following piece of code:
import Prelude hiding (catch) import Control.Exception main :: IO () main = do t <- safeCall unsafeCall t putStrLn "Done." safeCall :: IO String safeCall = do return alwaysFails `catch` errorHandler --alwaysFails = throw (ErrorCall "Oh no!") alwaysFails = error "Oh no!" errorHandler :: SomeException -> IO String errorHandler e = do putStrLn "Caught" return "Ok." errorHandler_ e = errorHandler e >> return () unsafeCall :: String -> IO () unsafeCall = putStrLn
What might you expect the output to be? A straightforward transcription to Python might look like:
def main(): t = safeCall() unsafeCall(t) print "Done" def safeCall(): try: return alwaysFails() except: return errorHandler() def alwaysFails(): raise Exception("Oh no!") def errorHandler(): print "Caught." return "Ok." def unsafeCall(output): print output
and anyone with a passing familiarity with the any strict language will say, "Of course, it will output:"
Caught. Ok. Done.
Of course, lazy exceptions (which is what error emits) aren't called lazy for no reason; the Haskell code outputs:
*** Exception: Oh no!
What happened? Haskell was lazy, and didn't bother evaluating the pure insides of the IO return alwaysFails until it needed it for unsafeCall, at which point there was no more catch call guarding the code. If you don't believe me, you can add a trace around alwaysFails. You can also try installing errorHandler_ on unsafeCall.
What is the moral of the story? Well, one is that error is evil, but we already knew that...
- You may install exception handlers for most IO-based errors the obvious way. (If we had replaced return alwaysFails with alwaysFails, the result would have been the strict one.) You may not install exception handlers for errors originating from pure code, since GHC reserves the right to schedule arbitrarily the time when your code is executed.
- If pure code is emitting exceptions and you would like it to stop doing that, you'll probably need to force strictness with $! deepseq or rnf, which will force GHC to perform the computation inside your guarded area. As my readers point out, a good way to think about this is that the call is not what is exceptional, the structure is.
- If you are getting an imprecise exception from pure code, but can't figure out where, good luck! I don't have a good recipe for figuring this out yet. (Nudge to my blog readers.)
Postscript. Note that we needed to use Control.Exception.catch. Prelude.catch, as per Haskell98, only catches IO-based errors.