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High Resolution Cover Image 280 pages • 6 x 9 • Index 8 Pages of Photographs Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-59813-161-1 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-59813-162-8 eBook also available
STEPHEN P. HALBROOK is a Research Fellow with the Independent Institute who has argued and won three constitutional law cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Dr. Halbrook is the author of eight books including The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms; Securing Civil Rights: Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right To Bear Arms; That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right; A Right to Bear Arms: State and Federal Bills of Rights and Constitutional Guarantees; Target Switzerland (also in German, French, Italian, and Polish editions); and The Swiss and the Nazis: How the Alpine Republic Survived in the Shadow of the Third Reich. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Florida State University and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. His popular articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, San Antonio Express-News, Environmental Forum, USA Today, and Washington Times, and he has appeared on numerous national TV/radio programs such as "The Phil Donahue Show" and programs on Fox Business Network, Court TV, Voice of America, CNN, and C-SPAN.
A year before Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, the German Interior Minister directed that gun registration records be made secure to keep them from falling "into the hands of radical elements." His efforts proved futile: the records fell into the hands of the Nazi government, which used them to disarm its political enemies and the Jews. By 1938, the Nazis had deprived Jews of the rights of citizenship and were ratcheting up measures to strip them of their assets—including the means to defend themselves. The horrific consequences have names etched in our consciousness: "The Night of Broken Glass" (Kristallnacht) and the Holocaust.
Countless books have been written about Hitler's dictatorship yet have failed to mention the disarming of Jews and other "enemies of the state." Independent Institute Research Fellow and author Stephen P. Halbrook now fills this gaping void with his pioneering and eye-opening book, Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and "Enemies of the State."
Based on newly discovered documents from German archives, diaries, and newspapers of the time, Halbrook presents the hidden history —in a readable but well documented, scholarly manner—of how the Third Reich made use of gun control to disarm and repress its enemies and consolidate its power.
The book covers the historical periods of the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich leading up to World War II. The book then presents a panorama of pertinent events during World War II regarding the effects of the disarming policies. As Americans' right to bear arms becomes increasingly challenged, it is a caution to all who debate these issues.
"Stephen Halbrook's meticulous research in Gun Control in the Third Reich sheds new and revealing light on the consolidation of Nazi power and the prosecution of the Holocaust. Everyone, including advocates of gun controls, should find this pioneering and thought-provoking book essential reading." —James B. Jacobs, Warren E. Burger Professor of Law, New York University; author, Can Gun Control Work?
"Gun Control in the Third Reich, Stephen Halbrook's excellent history of gun control in Germany, shows that, motives notwithstanding, removing weapons from the general population always disarms society vis a vis its worst elements. In Germany the authorities tried to deal with the Nazi and Communist mobs that were shaking society's foundations indirectly, by disarming ordinary people. But their cowardice ended up delivering a helpless population to the Nazis' tender mercies. Halbrook's richly documented history leads Americans to ask why those among us who decry violence in our society choose to try tightening the vise on ordinary citizens' capacity to defend themselves rather than to constrain the sectors of society most responsible for the violence." —Angelo M. Codevilla, Professor Emeritus of International Relations, Boston University; author, Informing Statecraft, War: Ends and Means (with Paul Seabury), The Character of Nations, and Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and the Rewriting of History
"Gun Control in the Third Reich is a provocative book on what is surely the 'worst case scenario' in the history of gun control and an illuminating meditation on the role that the disarming of the Jews played in the Holocaust." —Jonathan Kirsch, author, The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan
"What good would private arms do against a totalitarian state? That won't remain an unanswerable rhetorical challenge for readers of Stephen Halbrook's calm, detailed scholarly book, Gun Control in the Third Reich. As Halbrook shows, Nazi leaders went to great lengths to extend the gun control laws they inherited from the Weimar Republic. They were obsessed with disarming Jews and other designated public enemies. Potential resistance was not only physically disabled. It was morally and psychologically disarmed. Evil then became irresistible in Germany, not because it was fueled by fanaticism but because shielded by fatalism." —Jeremy A. Rabkin, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law
"Even a defense with small arms against a tyrannical regime, if known, can galvanize public opinion which is the ultimate source of all political authority. That is why, as Halbrook authoritatively shows in Gun Control in the Third Reich, the Nazis—despite their massive military force—went out of their way to confiscate even small caliber weapons in Germany." —Donald W. Livingston, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Emory University
"'The devil is in the details' as the British note. Stephen Halbrook's excellent and deeply researched book, Gun Control in the Third Reich, has revealed the anticipation of Nazi gun control techniques in Weimar attempts to control incipient civil war between Nazis and Communists. In a conservative country replete with WWI veterans, racked with unemployment and wrecked with ideological struggles among the extreme Left, the list of potential victims proliferated among whom unarmed Jews had top priority. They had been quickly disarmed by the Nazis using Weimar laws. Only armed peasants and urban refugees in the mountains and forests in the perimeters of the Reich could resist the Nazi juggernaut until saved by Allied armies. History does indeed provide important lessons for contemporary debates and Halbrook's important research should inform our contemporary debate on gun control." —Steven B. Bowman, Professor of Judaic Studies, University of Cincinnati; Miles Lerner Fellow, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; whose books include Jewish Resistance in Wartime Greece, The Holocaust in Salonika, The Agony of Greek Jews 1940-1945, and The Straits of Hell: The Chronicle of a Salonikan Jew in the Nazi Extermination Camps Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Melk, Ebensee
"For Jews left trembling in their homes, powerless to defend against Nazi Stormtroopers, the right to possess a gun took on special meaning in the 1940's. In Stephen Halbrook's extraordinary book, Gun Control in the Third Reich, the consequence of disarming a population making them vulnerable to imprisonment and annihilation is told with frightening detail. It is a history with poignancy. With gun controllers in our midst today, who either do not understand the Second Amendment or choose to redefine it for their own ends, it would serve them well to read and digest the powerful arguments in this pathbreaking book." —Herbert I. London, President, London Center for Policy Research; former President, Hudson Institute
"With Gun Control in the Third Reich, Stephen Halbrook has written an important and disturbing book. It provides a timely reminder that self defense and the right to bear arms are fundamental human rights." —Robert J. Cottrol, Professor of Law, History, and Sociology and Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law, George Washington University
"One need not agree with Stephen Halbrook's opposition to almost all forms of firearms control in order to find Gun Control in the Third Reich, his book on regulation of firearms in post-World War I and Nazi Germany, both illuminating and challenging. The most truly serious arguments against significant regulation of firearms have always involved critiquing the proposition that a potentially oppressive state should have a monopoly over the means of violence, and Halbrook's book very much contributes to that debate. Many no doubt would like to believe that Nazi Germany is sui generis, which, paradoxically, implies that there is not much to be learned from its specific history or policies with regard to our own dilemmas today. Others are less optimistic, and for them Halbrook's well-told narrative has implications for our contemporary debates." —Sanford V. Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair, University of Texas School of Law; author, Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance
"In Gun Control in the Third Reich, Stephen P. Halbrook gives a decisive historical answer to a question which has generally been discussed without much evidence in the political discourse of recent years. Now there is no doubt: Halbrook shows that the Nazis relied on gun control to carry out its totalitarian program. Indeed, by means of painstaking historical research, he shows that the weapon confiscations and punishments of the Third Reich relied very much on the earlier registration measures of the democratic Weimar Republic. This pioneering book tells an essential story that is central to the history of the modern Leviathan state. Highly recommended!" —L. Hunt Tooley, Professor of History, Austen College; whose books include Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe, Battleground and Home Front in the First World War, and National Identity and Weimar Germany
"Discussions of Nazi gun control efforts are a staple of American debate, but until now there was little authoritative in-depth research to draw on. Stephen Halbrook's extensive research and clear explication in his book Gun Control in the Third Reich ensures that future discussion will be much better informed. A must-read for anyone interested in this subject." —Glenn H. Reynolds, Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Tennessee
"In Gun Control in the Third Reich, Stephen Halbrook has uncovered and thoroughly documented a long-overlooked aspect of Hitler's rise to Power and ultimate genocide of German Jews—the disarming of the citizenry made possible by gun registration and confiscation laws adopted during the Weimar Republic. The parallels to today's gun control debates in the United States are bone-chilling, and ought to raise a red flag call to action for all freedom-loving Americans." —John C. Eastman, Henry Salvatori Professor of Law and Community Service, Chapman University; Founding Director, Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence
"Stephan Halbrook's Gun Control in the Third Reich provides a stark example of why defenders of liberty must oppose any attempts to limit our ability to defend ourselves from private and public criminals. Halbrook's work is especially timely since so many in Washington are once again trying to convince the people they have nothing to fear from gun registration and other infringements on our Second Amendment rights." —Ron Paul, former U.S. Congressman and candidate for President of the United States
"Steeped in rich detail, exactingly researched, and supported by newly discovered documents, Gun Control in the Third Reich is a compelling work that no one who is serious about the gun control debate in America can ignore. Stephen P. Halbrook has produced a seminal piece of scholarship that describes how the gun control policies of the liberal Weimar Republic were molded into Hitler's strategy to disarm both the Jews and his political opponents." —Abraham H. Miller, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Cincinnati
"Gun Control in the Third Reich, Stephen Halbrook's extensively documented account of gun control under Nazi Germany, shows how gun control was used to keep guns out of the 'wrong' hands, mainly Jews. Much of the discussion these days regarding registration focuses on the claimed ability to trace crime guns. There might be no evidence of registration's success in doing that, but Halbrook slams home the success that registration had in tracing the guns of law-abiding politically undesirable citizens, so-called 'enemies of the people.' Americans in even modern cities such as New York can see how discretionary licensing on who can own guns keeps blacks from owning guns, but Germany paints a picture of how discretion was used to disarm Jews and others considered undesirable. Among the many chilling discussions is how German Jews were systematically disarmed just weeks before the Night of the Broken Glass (Reichskristallnacht). Ultimately, however, just as Americans have recently learned about their IRS tax records, Halbrook shows that no one can really guarantee promises that information on gun registration will never be abused." —John R. Lott, Jr., author, More Guns, Less Crime; President, Crime Prevention Research Center
"In Gun Control in the Third Reich, Halbrook is particularly effective in showing how the path for Nazi totalitarianism was cleared, though inadvertently, by firearms laws of Weimar Germany. The political objective of those laws was to enhance the public welfare by diminishing the ability of the population to inflict violence on each other. What followed instead was something not foreseen by the principled, well-intending Weimar democrats who carried that policy into execution. Those laws—heavily laden with official discretion—left disfavored minorities perfectly helpless when Hitler and the Nazi government came to power. Halbrook's book is the most complete depiction of a story that is interesting in itself, and which has lessons for our own place and time." —Daniel D. Polsby, Dean and Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law
"Stephen Halbrook, a renowned expert on the subject, systematically and brilliantly examines Nazi gun-control policy in Gun Control in the Third Reich. American advocates of banning guns have tried to downplay the Nazi example because stringent control preceded the Nazis. But the fact remains that the Nazis capitalized on the fact that neither the Jews nor other victims nor the Germans in general, as well as those people in the occupied countries, could resist the Holocaust because the Nazi government had all the guns." —Don B. Kates, Jr., author, Armed: New Perspectives on Gun Control and The Great American Gun Debate (with Gary Kleck)
"The fascinating book Gun Control in the Third Reich deals with firearms regulation in Germany from the beginning of the Weimar Republic in the early 1920s, when guns began to be heavily regulated, through the early days of World War II when gun ownership was punishable by death, through the Third Reich in 1945 when the government began to allow Germans access to weapons to fend off the Russian invaders. . . . Professor Halbrook does not claim that Hitler and the Holocaust would not have occurred had the population of Germany been armed. Nonetheless, firearms in the possession of individuals, especially Jews after they were ghettoized, might have raised the costs to the Nazis and slowed them down." —William A. Schroeder, Professor of Law, Southern Illinois University
"Gun Control in the Third Reich is Stephen Halbrook's best book. He shows how the destruction of gun ownership, gun clubs, and self-defense was part of the National Socialists' extermination of civil society, individualism, and the Rule of Law." —David B. Kopel, Adjunct Professor of Advanced Constitutional Law, Denver University Sturm College of Law; author, Guns: Who Should Have Them?; Research Director, Independence Institute
Stephen P. Halbrook on One America TV News Network Dec. 23, 2013
Stephen P. Halbrook on CBN Nov. 21, 2013
Stephen P. Halbrook on NRA News Television on Gun Control in the Third Reich Nov. 1, 2013
Stephen P. Halbrook in Sotomayor Confirmation Hearing Jul. 16, 2009
Stephen Halbrook Testifies in Opposition to Eric Holder Jan. 16, 2009
More Video and Audio of Stephen P. Halbrook...


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Empiricism is a philosophical doctrine which regards experience as the only source of knowledge. The empiricist draws his rules of practice not from theory but from close observation and experiment, emphasizing inductive rather than deductive processes of thought. In seventeenth- and eighteenth- century medicine, however, empiricism was synonymous with quackery, and in literary criticism the term is also generally employed to characterize an uninformed judgment. John Locke, in his enormously influential Essay concerning Human Understanding, refuted the concept on "innate ideas" and insisted that all human knowledge was of empiric origin. Bishop Berkeley's philosophical works attack Locke's insistence on the existence of an external material reality. Dr. Johnson was, emphatically, an empiricist: William Blake, equally emphatically, was not.
Content last updated 1988; link last changed 6 October 2001
Thanks to Garvin Haslett for notifying me about a bad link

subset: commoncrawl


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Klei Entertainment just recently launched Shank 2 to Xbox 360, PS3 and PC and they've already announced a new game in a clever manner. Mark of the Ninja is a stealth game which the developer has chosen to reveal with a text adventure.
Similar in nature to the "choose-your-own-adventure" book model, the brief game is presented in a snazzy format with hyperlinks for choices and contextual nuggets. The whole thing flows together into a unified prose, growing with your actions. For completing it, you'll be rewarded with gameplay footage which brings the words to life with Jamie Cheng's distinct comic art style.
Color me curious. Mark of the Ninja is scheduled for a summer release on Xbox Live Arcade.


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Resource Manager is a joint development effort between Mobile Integrated Solutions and Orchestrated Home to bring custom timers and automatic energy savings programming to the ISY line of controllers.
Resource Manager handles all the programming and ISY configuration necessary to make custom timers and automatic energy saving profiles so that you don't have to. In just a few seconds you can program your light with up to 4 custom timers and give it an energy profile to follow; all without having to know anything about the custom ISY programming language. You direct what you want right from your iOS device with just a few taps.
Not only does Resource Manager handle all the programming and management with the ISY, by purchasing Resource Manager or Orchestrated MobiLinc, your purchase comes with a promotional discount code to be used at http://www.OrchestratedHome.com for up to $290.00 in savings!
Resource Manager: Convenience at the tip of your fingers and saves you money on your next Home Automation project.


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Phone: 503-823-7740
Fax: 503-823-6995
1120 SW 5th Ave, Suite 613, Portland, OR 97204
Phone: 503-823-7740
Fax: 503-823-6995
1120 SW 5th Ave, Suite 613, Portland, OR 97204
Fanno Creek starts in Portland's West Hills and meanders 15 miles through residential, commercial, and industrial lands of west Portland, Beaverton, Tigard, and portions of Washington and Clackamas Counties. Many streamside parks — including Albert Kelly, Gabriel, and Woods Memorial Parks — offer opportunities to explore Fanno Creek and its tributaries.
Environmental Services and many partners are working to improve the health of Fanno Creek and its watershed.
Read more about the Fanno Creek watershed here.
Summary of the watershed's geography, natural resources and conditions
Contact us and find other groups involved in the watershed
More information about Fanno Creek watershed
Current and completed projects to improve conditions in Fanno Creek


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- Author: Therese Kapaun
A new planting of 500 Tango mandarin trees is scheduled for this month and field preparations are well underway. Senior Agricultural Technician Jose Hernandez uses heavy equipment to dig a trench for the irrigation line.
The new orchard will provide trees for insecticide trials for Dr. Beth Grafton-Cardwell's citrus IPM program. She plans to study the uptake and impact of systemic insecticides on various pests and the growth and development of young trees. Beth is an IPM Specialist and Research Entomologist with the University of California, as well as the Director of Lindcove Research and Extension Center. For more than 20 years Beth has been carrying out pesticide trials to determine the efficacy and suitability of selected chemical formulations for use against citrus pests in California. To learn about key pests of citrus and pest management tools and information, log on or subscribe to Beth's Citrus Bug Blog.
The trees were propagated here at Lindcove REC. Center staff grew the Carrizo rootstocks from seed in the greenhouse, and budded the trees with budwood purchased from the Citrus Clonal Protection Program.


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LONDON - The International Olympic Committee has defended NBC for not showing the men's 100-meter final live on its main network.
Usain Bolt dashed to victory in the signature event of the London Olympics on Sunday at 4:50 p.m EDT. NBC broadcast the race hours later on tape-delay in prime time.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams says "it's certainly not for us to tell them how to reach their audience." Adams says NBC live-streamed the race for online viewers, so "if you wanted live, you could get it live."
NBC has exclusive U.S. for the London Games. It struck a $2.2 billion deal with the IOC in 2003, which included rights to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
NBC has broadcast every Summer Olympics since 1988.


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S'mores Biscotti
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 of a (7 ounce) jar marshmallow cream
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped milk chocolate
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup crushed graham crackers (leave slightly chunky)
Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Coat a cookie sheet with cooking spray.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, baking powder and salt. In an additional large mixing bowl, whisk together butter, marshmallow cream, egg and vanilla until well combined; stir in dry ingredients until a stiff dough forms. Stir in milk chocolate until combined.
Dump dough onto cookie sheet and form two (about 5 inches in length) logs. Bake 30 minutes. Remove cookie sheet from oven and cool 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees F.
Transfer logs to a cutting board and diagonally cut into (1/2 inch thick) slices. Place on cookie sheet; bake 10 minutes, flip, and bake an additional 10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
Melt white chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave for 1 minute, stirring every 20 seconds until melted. Dip sides of biscotti in white chocolate, followed by graham cracker crumbs.
Makes about 1 1/2 dozen


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'Bones' wedding recap: Did everything go smoothly on the Fox dramedy?
So here we are Bones fans in the sixth episode of season 9 and while there is a murder to solve, "The Woman in White" refers to none other than Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel). As the relationship between she and FBI partner Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) has waxed and waned over the years, critics have been watching a waiting for the Moonlighting curse to rear its ugly head and cause the show to crash and burn.
It hasn't. In point of fact, Bones never really deserved the comparison and has done a good job of taking a small, core audience that followed it all over the schedule map, to a broader, bankable fan base who have established it as a veteran show. Also, creator and showrunner Hart Hanson has never hidden the fact that from the beginning he intended for Booth and Brennan to end up together. The line, "Everything happens eventually" becoming something of a promise between he and the fans that he wasn't out to be the next Joss Whedon.
And so, "The Woman in White" is something of a payoff piece. A showcase of a journey almost a decade in the making. Like any "big" episode, it attempts to pack as much as possible into forty-five minutes without making things feel rushed and by and large it accomplishes this. The casting department also scores big, drawing back old familiar faces for old and new fans alike.
One of the episode's huge strengths is that it walks the fine line between painting with broad strokes for the masses while providing exquisite detailing for those who have been following every second of the show since day one. Meanwhile the writing is masterful, and nothing short of a love letter to the fans and the same is true of the cast's performance.
For even as the couple moves forward in their formal relationship, the show takes time to nod at the past. Booth's mother, son, and grandfather are all present, as is Brennan's dad, Max (Ryan O'Neal), with nice little character moments all around. The wedding itself is initially to take place in a church, allowing the audience a giggle at the bumbling priest, played by Emily Deschanel's husband in real life, David Hornsby. In the end they are married where it all began, the gardens at the Jeffersonian. Booth's vows hearken back to the Pilot, and Brennan's references a letter highly debated since season 2′s, "Aliens in A Spaceship" that feels like it could have been written at that point in their relationship.
Aside from the two leads, the rest of the ensemble provide plenty of entertainment. Hodgins (TJ Thyne) and his wedding pool juxtapose nicely against Angela's (Michaela Conlin) keeping Brennan focused on getting married instead of on the case. There is also a beautiful moment between Ange and Brennan about love and poetry. Meanwhile, full hilarity ensues as all of the squinterns step up to the plate to solve the case, still trying to prove who's the best while bemoaning the fact that none were invited to the wedding save Arastoo (Pej Vahdat) as Cam's (Tamara Taylor) plus one. Brennan reconsiders and invites them after they help solve the case and they get their own, slow-mo hero shot in full period regalia.
How about you? Did the wedding meet your expectations or did it get too saccharine? Did you tear up at the vows or Avalon's (Cyndi Lauper) slow, sultry rendition of "At Last"? What's your favorite fan shout-out? Do you think any major shifts lay ahead now that they've officially tied the knot?
Heather Donmoyer blogs at Screen Rant.


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This was published 11 years ago
Are romance novels as bad for relationships as porn?
Why you shouldn't think romance novels are any better than porn.
Porn, largely considered a male domain, is often criticised. And women are often among porn's loudest critics, because porn kills relationships, porn destroys lives, porn makes prostitutes of good women, porn is anti-women, porn is the antithesis of love*.
*This isn't an article about porn.
However, women love romance novels (sigh, yes ... that means 50 Shades of Grey). Romance novels are not considered porn (though erotica is a sub-genre listed by the Romance Writers of Australia). Romances are beautiful, romances are harmless, romances are nuanced, romances are flights of fancy – they're not to be taken seriously, they're just a bit of fun.
But here's the thing. All real and legitimate arguments about the industry aside, the broader criticism about the material men consume for the purpose of sexual arousal often boils down to this:
"Porn is bad because it fosters unreal expectations about what women should look like and how they should behave in bed."
OK. But is the same not true for romance fiction?
Because this genre depends on fantasy – that which is unreal. So might romance not harbour the same detrimental consequences for blokes that women fear porn holds for them? Doesn't romance leave women wanting more from their partners than what they may actually get? Couldn't romance raise the standards for single women so high they are never satisfied?
Here's what's motivated my thinking.
This is a TV show that pulls an average audience in excess of one million people per episode, or about one quarter of MasterChef's peak audience and well above the most recent highest-rating episode of Q&A. This is a show that, according to its producers, exists in 20 countries around the world (it's been number one in the Netherlands since 1995).
And yes, this is the Australian reality television show that takes women from the city and attempts to match them with fair dinkum lads from the bush.
In other words, it's the show that makes the romantic dreams of Australian women come true. Because, I'm sure, more women would choose to watch than men, and because the figure of the farmer – the Australian version of America's cowboy – is among the most used character types in romance fiction.
Why? Because farmers fix things, farmers are good with their hands, farmers take care of their families, farmers ride horses better than Old Spice Guy, and a farmer could pick up a hard-working, well-heeled city-gal, throw her over his shoulder, stride into a barn and have his way with her in the hay.
Forget 50 Shades, it's Farmer Wants a Wife that is the real warm, fuzzy, dreamy, creamy, M-rated, well-produced, internationally successful "pornography" for women. And there's nothing really wrong with this, as long as we can face up to certain truths.
Certain truths such as:
Farmers aren't all the same. Farmers aren't all men. Farmers aren't all good at all things. Farmers don't necessarily make better lovers, better husbands, or better fathers. Farmers aren't always that different from any other man on the planet - only the stereotypes are.
And what is a stereotype but an unreal thing? What is a stereotype but an unrealistic expectation? What is a stereotype but fantasy?
Women love fantasies, and this is OK, because fantasies don't come with real-life consequences. Or so we think. But, of course, they do. They raise expectations, set standards, and unless people are careful, they can infect reality. Fantasies, be they inspired by porn stars or open-shirted farmers, are forces to be reckoned with.
In America, the romance industry is worth $1.37 billion in sales, and porn somewhere between $2 and $13 billion dollars. That's not a great difference, relatively speaking. Yet porn cops a lot more flack than romance. Porn is blamed for breaking relationships up a lot more than romance. Romance is considered to be less of a threat to real-life love than porn is.
But if porn and romance are both about selling fantasy for the sake of pleasure – for the sake of arousal – is this really fair?


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10 Who Fans Exchange 1979 Tickets for New Ones
It only took 33 years but at long last the remaining ticket holders of the 1979 cancelled Who show have reason to celebrate -- they've just traded in their tickets in exchange for new ones to the band's February 2013 show at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, R.I.
The band announced a while back that their upcoming tour -- entitled 'Quadrophenia and More' -- will include a performance of the monumental album 'Quadrophenia' in its entirety as well as other picks from the group's extensive archive.
It will be the Who's first North American tour in four years, and the last stop just happens to be in Providence, where their 1979 performance was cancelled after 11 fans had been killed by an audience stampede at a Cincinnati show two weeks earlier. In fact, this will be The group's first return to Providence since the unfortunate incident.
As recently reported, the General Manager of the Dunkin' Donuts Center, Lawrence Lepore, announced that the venue would honor any remaining ticket holders from the cancelled show back in '79. And wouldn't you know, 10 Who fans turned in a total of 14 tickets.
According to the Providence Journal, in donating the tickets, each holder was given a brand new one to the 2013 show. As one Who fan noted, while the 2013 show ticket is worth $129.50, he paid $11 for the original.
All exchanged tickets will be put up for auction, with the proceeds donated to the Rhode Island Special Olympics.
Watch the Providence Journal's Report on the Exchanged Who Tickets


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Iran is behind a wave of distributed denial of service attacks that hit U.S. banks in the past few weeks, according to a report in The New York Times.
The amount of traffic flooding American banks' sites was several times the volume Russia aimed at Estonia in a month-long online assault back in 2007, said James A. Lewis, senior fellow and director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"We protect a lot of big financial enterprises, and a lot of banks have been hit continuously in the past three weeks," Scott Hammack, CEO of Prolexic, told TechNewsWorld.
The complexity and size of the attacks has increased, and "in a single day last week we had a 75-GB attack against one bank and a 45-GB attack against another," Hammack continued.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano presciently warned last year about massive DDoS attacks against the U.S. banking system.
Speculation on the DDoS Attacks
This is the second wave of DDoS attacks against U.S. banks; the first was launched in September.
There's speculation that the hackers are hijacking and using data centers to provide the power that underpins their attacks. Or, they could be creating their own clouds, possibly by remotely hijacking cloud services or creating large networks of individual machines.
Creating large networks of computers — botnets — is a tried-and-true tactic used by cybercriminals.
Researchers at Radware found that the DDoS traffic was coming from data centers around the world. Various cloud services and public Web hosting services had been infected with a malware package variously designated as itsoknoproblembro or Brobot, the researchers found.
Brobot is a PHP-based tool, Arbor Networks said.
Prince of Persia?
"What leads us to believe that there is a government or governments behind this is the scale of the operation," Hammack said.
"The servers that are being used to launch the attacks used to employ polling technology — they'd sit there and, on a certain time delay, they'd look up the instructions they needed to launch an attack," Hammack continued. "Now, they're being commanded and controlled in real time. Somebody is sitting there and changing attack vectors in the sub-10-minute timeframe."
In the online world, 10 minutes is an eternity, but "when you're changing thousands of servers, it's pretty quick," Hammack stated.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell
"When you saw Sen. [Joe] Lieberman go in front of the press and say Iran is behind these attacks you can be pretty sure he knew something," Hammack said.
Lieberman, I-Conn., who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, made the statement during a conversation with reporters on C-Span.
The U.S. government has not said anything in support of Lieberman's statement, but that's because "the government won't want to show its hand," Hammack contended. However, "there are ways of tracking the source of the attacks" and the U.S. government does track them.
The DHS did not respond to our request to comment for this story.
More on DDoS Attacks Against US Banks
The DDoS attacks began in September, and, so far, a group calling itself the "Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters" has claimed responsibility. It has also threatened to continue attacking U.S. banks.
The itsoknoproblembro attack has at least 11 different attack signatures, Prolexic said. The attack vectors include POST, GET, Transmission Control Protocol and User Datagram Protocol floods with and without proxies. There's also a "Kamikaze" GET flood script that can relaunch automated attacks repeatedly.
In October, RSA announced the discovery of the Prinimalka-Gozi Trojan, which launched man-in-the-middle attacks against people who bank online. The people behind the attack were trying to put together an army of cybercriminals to launch a wave of coordinated DDoS attacks against U.S. banks, RSA said.
The Trojan basically creates a mirror image of PCs it has taken over, Oren Kedem, director of product marketing at Trusteer, told TechNewsWorld.
"Banks are prime targets because they're very high-profile," Hammack said. "I think the attackers are trying to embarrass and discredit the United States."


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It's no secret that I LOVE my denim - more specifically my jeans! I wear a pair almost everyday & definitely have brands that I favor: DL1961, Citizens of Humanity & my favorites, American Eagle! I usually stick to these brands because finding a pair of jeans that fits perfectly can be so tough. (Even knowing that I love these brands, it's still tough because every pair is cut slightly differently & the washes & distressing are different on every pair.) I was recently approached by LikeAGlove, a new company who is changing the way we shop online for jeans, to try out their new technology to help shoppers find their perfect fitting jeans. The whole process was so amazing - I had to share!
I was surprised to find that American Eagle wasn't listed as one of my top brands & knowing how much I love their denim, I immediately became skeptical. I decided to test this app by choosing a pair of jeans (Hudson) & ordering the same style (Krista, shown on the app above) in the size LikeAGlove recommended for me (waist: 25, inseam: 28) and the size I would normally order for myself (waist: 24, inseam: 29). The only other difference between the pairs was the wash. One pair is in the shade 'crest fall' & one pair is in the shade 'delilah.'
Hudson Krista: size 24 waist (my usual size); 29 inseam SHOP |
Hudson Krista: size 25 waist (recommendation from LikeAGlove); 28 inseam SHOP |
I'm not one to like to admit when I'm wrong (just ask J, LOL) but I have to admit, LikeAGlove nailed it with my sizing. The 25 waist fit perfectly, hit at my ankle and had a ton of stretch so they didn't bag or sag after wearing them for hours. The 24 wasn't awful, but they were a little tighter than I usually like. So bravo, LikeAGlove, I'm a believer in this app! Next up, I think I'm going to try ordering a pair of flare jeans!
Interested in learning more about LikeAGlove? Visit their website here.
Michelle Paige


text: Rahul Nabar wrote: > The TSO and LRO are only relevant to TCP though, aren't they? I am > using RDMA so that shouldn't matter. Maybe I am wrong. TSO/LRO applies to TCP, but you can have the same technique with different protocol, USO for UDP Send Offload for example. RDMA is everything you want it to be, but it is not a wire protocol. Anyway, NICs that implement zero-copy communication are in a way offloading segmentation and reassembly too. BTW, if your RDMA-capable hardware is running iWarp, it is using TCP on the wire. Patrick


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HOUGHTON — Practically everybody has heard that an underwater drone armed with the best technology on the planet has descended repeatedly to the bottom of the Indian Ocean, trying to find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 — and that it has turned up nothing.
But if Nina Mahmoudian has her way, the next generation of autonomous underwater vehicles will have a much better chance of getting it right.
AUVs like the one that hunted for Flight 370 are laden with advanced technology, but they have their shortcomings. During a search, they travel in a predetermined pattern, retrieving reams of information and returning it to the surface, where it can be analyzed, said Mahmoudian, a researcher at Michigan Technological University.
Thus, they can spend a lot of time gathering data on things that are not, for example, a missing airplane.
"You need an autonomous vehicle that can go deep and explore an area with a sense of what it is looking for," she said. "We want to make a smarter vehicle, one that can search on its own and make decisions on its own."
Mahmoudian is building four of those smarter AUVs, each a little bigger than a loaf of French bread. When they are complete, she will give them something new: better, more powerful brains. That involves revamping their software so they "know" what they are looking for.
"AUVs like these could be so much more useful for finding small, hazardous objects like mines, or for detecting problems with cables and pipelines," she said.
Mahmoudian's AUVs, named ROUGHIEs (for Research Oriented Underwater Gliders for Hands-on Investigative Engineering) will be underwater gliders. Powered only by batteries, they will "fly" slowly through the water simply by adjusting their buoyancy and weight. This will make them safer and more reliable in shallow waters, where a propeller could become tangled in vegetation or cause injury.
That's important, because the ROUGHIEs will not be exploring the middle of the ocean; they are designed for use near the water's edge, which offers a special challenge.
"They come up on the coast, where there's lots of noise, and we want ours to be able to talk with each other, and perhaps to a mother ship, in any environment," she said. "That means they'll have to operate in an area with lots of boats, swimmers and the like."
Her ROUGHIEs offer additional advantages. They will be modular, allowing users to swap out different components depending on what tasks the drones undertake. And they will cost a fraction of the price of a commercial model to build. That makes them ideal for the trial-and-error process inherent in scientific research.
Underwater gliders and other types of AUVs already play an important role in addressing some of today's most pressing environmental, safety and biological challenges. Their uses range from detecting dangerous contaminants, like oil spills, to retrieving evidence of climate change. By arming them with smarter software, they would become even better at doing their jobs, including searching an ocean's depths.
"We need solutions for these cases," Mahmoudian said. "The disappearance of the Malaysian aircraft is a clear example of why we must do this."
The Office of Naval Research is supporting Mahmoudian's effort with a $125,000 grant to build the four low-cost underwater gliders. Members of her team are Byrel Mitchell and Saeedeh Fard, both Ph.D. students in mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics; mechanical engineering undergraduates Eric Wilkening and Brian Page; and Anthony Pinar, Ph.D. student in electrical engineering. Mahmoudian is an assistant professor in Michigan Tech's Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics.
More at www.mtu.edu.


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Have y'all seen the fun hair tutorials on Cup of Jo? Here is yet another the creative beauty duo Joanna & Caroline put together I was so lucky to shoot– it's a little bit of a tease.. a little bit messy… and a great friday-night-date-night-look…
The Messy Side Ponytail for Cup of Jo~
Caroline's Step by Step:
1. Start with day-old hair…meaning it's been a day since you've washed it. (If you must wash your hair, then use a volumizing spray to add oomf; and if your hair is oily, use a French dry shampoo to build body and texture.) Now make a deep side part on one side of your hair. You can use a rat-tail comb to get an extra straight part.
2. Backcomb the top quarter of your hair. Basically, brush the hair downwards toward your scalp so it's sort of frizzy and can stand on its own.
3. Gently brush the very top layer of your hair to make it smooth on the top. That way, all the backcombing will be hidden under the layer that you brushed. Still, don't brush too much, you want it a little messy.
4. Take the entire backcombed section and pin it behind your head. To make it secure, place the bobby pins in an "X."
5. Now take all your hair and put it in a low ponytail at the nape of your neck. Tighten the rubber band as tight as you can. This will help "push" your hair up, creating more volume at the top.
5. You can either leave the rubber band exposed, or hide it by taking a small half-inch section of hair from the ponytail and wrapping it around the rubber band. Take a small bobby pin and pin the hair to the rubber band.
6. Rough up the ponytail with your fingers to match the texture at the top of your hair. Use the same motion as you did to back comb, but use your fingers instead, since this will create a messy texture but will be softer and gentler than using a comb. Remember, this look isn't about perfection; it looks best slightly messy.
Photos by FromMeToYou for Cup of Jo / Hair tutorial & modeling by the lovely Caroline Ventura


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COUNTY FAIR - a short film
County Fair
2 minutes, 5 seconds
Whac-A-Mole, gut-wrenching rides, the smells of cow shit, cotton candy & fried dough. The roar of the crowd, of bellowing carnies & screaming offspring. That's what folks expect from a county fair and most come away fat and happy. Not me, of course. I stand there watching wild-eyed pigs, tags riveted to their large, bristled ears, numerals felt-tipped across their broad backs, screaming as they slam against the bars of their cages. I wonder, is it feeding time? Or is it a hog's final desperate hurrah before he is thrust upon a spit? I feel out of place, as though my life has suddenly spilled over into a Fellini film.
Click Here to View Movie
Sausages © 2006 George Gruel
George Gruel = see Michigan George in my The Monkey Files = responded to "County Fair" with this beautiful photo. Pigs without a blanket. By the way, George has just joined Zimm's other blog, "Photoger", which is, as far as I know, still in Beta stage. Is Carotene the next stage?
Topical: Films
© 2024 Elwood H. Smith


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May was the first month I was paid to work on NumPyPy (thanks to all who donated!), here is what I worked on during this period :
- It is now possible to use subarrays.
- It is now possible to pickle ndarrays (including those using subarrays), dtypes and scalars, the pickling protocol is the same as numpy's.
Romain Guillebert


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Once more, superimposing time series creates silly theories
Jun 10, 2013
After I wrote the post about superimposing two time series to generate fake correlations, there was a lively discussion in the comments about whether a scatter plot would have done better. Here is the promised follow-up post.
The contentious issue is that X and Y might appear correlated but in fact, what we are observing is that both data series are strongly correlated with time (e.g. population almost always grows with time), and X and Y may not be correlated with each other.
Indeed, the first thing a statistician would do when encountering two data series is to create a scatter plot. Economists, by contrast, seem to prefer two line charts, superimposed.
The reason for looking at the scatter plot is to remove the time component. If X and Y are correlated systematically (and not individually with the time component), then even if we disturb the temporal order, we should still be able to see that correlation. If the correlation goes away in an x-y plot, then we know that the two variables are not correlated, and that the superimposed line charts created an illusion.
The catch is that the scatter plot analysis is necessary but not sufficient. In many cases, we will find strong correlation in the scatter plot. But that does not prove there is X-Y correlation beyond each data series being correlated with time. By plotting X and Y and ignoring time, we introduce time as an omitted variable, which can still be controlling both X and Y series.
The scatter plot (right) shows the per capita miles driven against the civilian labor force participation rate. Having hidden the time dimension, we still see a very strong correlation between the two data series.
This is because time is still the invisible hand. Time is running from left to right on the chart still. This pattern is visible if we have line segments connecting the data in temporal order, as in the chart below.
One solution to this problem is to de-trend the data. We want to remove the effect of time from each of the two data series individually, then we plot the residual signals against each other.
Here is the result (right). We now have a random scatter of points that average about zero. If anything, there may be a slightly negative correlation, meaning that when the labor force participation rate is above trend, the per-capita miles driven tend to be slightly below trend; this effect if it exists is small.
What I have done here is to establish the trend for each of the two time series. The actual data being plotted is what is above/below trend. What this chart is saying is that when one value is above trend, it gives us little information about whether the other value is above or below trend.


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Jim Duffy has a job that makes him the envy of any beer lover. Duffy works for Guinness. He began his career with the brewer working on the lines and installing taps in Ireland, but in 1996 Duffy was chosen for a special project team that involved coming to the US for just three weeks. More than 20 years later and the Belfast man is now the Quality Manager for Diageo Guinness USA.
Speaking to IrishCentral, Duffy explained that although this might sound like a dream job and involve drinking a lot of Guinness what his role boils down to is "making sure that every pint of Guinness is as good as it can possibly be," in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
From the wholesalers, to the glasses, to the display at the bar, Duffy points out, "you only get to make your first impression once" and it's his job to make sure that impression is world class, exactly what people have come to expect from Guinness.
Education is also paramount to Duffy's job – making sure that bartenders and wholesalers know everything they need to know about pouring the perfect pint of Guinness. Duffy said, "Often in Ireland you meet barmen who are lifelong barmen, that were apprenticed at a young age and know about the beers and Guinness, but here the barmen I meet are just jobbing in bars to make a few bob." This is where Duffy steps in to make sure that they know how to pour Guinness correctly.
Despite the myth that Guinness tastes different outside Ireland Duffy maintains, "If I blindfolded someone and gave them a pint from Manhattan and a pint from Dublin, the heart of Ireland, I would say they wouldn't know the difference."
"People do say that the best Guinness they've had is at the Storehouse in Dublin, but there's a feel good factor there too. You're in Ireland, in the home of Guinness, but I have to say that you can get as good a pint in New York, Boston or Philadelphia."
He continued, "What's great is that no matter where you are in the world there are people who are excited by Guinness and by the idea of Irishness. Guinness really is a symbol of Ireland and there's a great pride that comes with working for Guinness."
"When I got the job I remember my Ma was so proud I thought she was going to call the TV stations. And it's true most people who get a job with Guinness stay in the company.
"I always say if you can't have fun working for a beer company, and obviously keeping in mind that you should always drink responsibly, then you're in the wrong job."


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Introduction: The Financial Times editorial page carries a logo that proclaims: "Without fear and without favour". Indeed the editors have shown no fear when it comes to. . . fabricating lies, promoting imperial wars decimating countries and impoverishing millions, whether in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and now Venezuela. The fearless "Lies of Our Times" have been at the forefront forging pretexts for inciting imperial armies to crush independent governments.
Despite its pretentious scribblers and prestigious claims, the FT is seen by the Anglo-American financial class as a belligerent purveyor of militarist policies designed for the most retrograde sectors of the ruling elite.
What is most striking about the FT fearless fabrications on behalf of imperial militarism is how often their political and economic prognostications have been incompetent and flat out wrong.
For the past ten years, the FT editorial pages have described China in economic crisis and heading for a fall, while in reality, the Chinese economy has grown at between eight and six percent a year.
For over a decade and a half, the FT editors claimed Russia under President Vladimir Putin presented an international existential threat to 'the West'.
In fact, it was the 'Western' armies of NATO, which expanded military operations to the borders of Russia, the US, which financed a neo-fascist coup in Kiev and the US-EU which promoted an Islamist uprising in Syria designed to totally undermine Russia's influence and relations in the Middle East.
The FT's economic gurus and its leading columnists prescribed the very catastrophic deregulatory formulas which precipitated the financial crash of 2008-09, after which they played the clownish role of "Mickey the Dunce" – blaming others for the failed policies.
The fearless FT scribes are currently leading a virulent propaganda campaign to promote the violent overthrow of the democratically elected Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro.
This essay will identify the FT's latest pack of fearless lies and fabrications and then conclude by analyzing the political consequences for Venezuela and other independent regimes.
The Financial Times and Venezuela: From War in the Suites to Terror in the Streets
In covering the crisis in Venezuela, the FT has systematically ignored the ongoing campaign of assaults and assassinations against elected officials, security officers, military and police who have been murdered by the FT's favored 'opposition'.
The FT did not cover the horrific murders of an elected Chavista congresswoman and her two young children, who were executed (shot in the head) in broad daylight by opposition-paid hitmen.
These ongoing opposition terror campaigns against the elected government and the general public are systematically ignored in the FTs 'reports' and on its editorial pages, which focus more on the shortages of consumer items.
The FT cover-up of rightwing terror extended to inventing a 'possible' army or National Guard plan to open fire on opposition demonstrators. In this case, the FT anticipated rightwing violence by laying the blame on the government in advance.
The FT covers-up the opposition business elite's campaign of hoarding essential goods to create artificial shortages and panic buying. They deny the ongoing price gouging and pin the blame for shortages and long consumer lines exclusively on 'regime mismanagement'.
The FT conveniently omits to mention that the decline in world oil prices has affected not only the economy of Venezuela but all countries dependent on commodity exports, including the Financial Times favorite neo-liberal regimes in Brazil and Argentina.
The Financial Times cites bogus 'opinion' polls, which wildly exaggerate the government's declining popularity: In the recent elections Maduro's supporters secured 40% of the popular vote while the FT claims his support to be 7%!
US client regimes (Mexico, Peru, and Colombia) are the largest producers of illegal drugs and US banks are the largest launderers for narco-money. Yet the FT reports on "Venezuela's role as a conduit for illegal drugs smuggled north to the US and east into Brazil, Africa and thence to Europe".
Drug enforcement experts all agree that Colombia, home to seven US military bases and with a regime closely linked to paramilitary-narco gangs, is the source of drugs smuggled through Venezuela. That Venezuela has become a victim of the violent Colombian narco-trade is never acknowledged by the elegant City of London pen-prostitutes.
The FT blames the re-emergence of 'malaria and other possible diseases' on the leftist Maduro government. In fact the recent 'malaria outbreak' (also cited by the New York Times propagandists) is based on a single illegal gold miner.
The FT ignores how the US- backed neo-liberal regimes in Argentina and Brazil, which rule by presidential decree, have slashed public health programs setting the stage for much greater public health crises.
The Financial Times: Big Lies for Mass Murder
The Financial Times is waging an all-out propaganda war with one goal: To incite the violent seizure of power in Venezuela by US political clients.
In line with the Obama-Clinton 'regime-change by any means' policies, the FT paints a deceptive picture of Venezuela facing 'multiple crises', representing a 'destabilizing' threat to the hemisphere, and on the brink of a global 'humanitarian crisis'.
Armed with these deadly clichés, the FT editorial pages demand "a new government soon and certainly before the 2018 elections".
Recently, the FT proposed a phony legal gimmick – a recall referendum. However, since the opposition cannot initiate the vote in time to oust the elected President Maduro, the FT calls for "events which precipitate changes sooner" – a violent coup!
FT's scenarios aim to precipitate a violent rightwing "march", eventually provoking civil bloodshed in early September of this year.
The FT expects that "blood in Caracas will require an active Latin America response"(sic). In other words, the FT hopes that a US-backed military invasion from neighboring Colombia would help eliminate the Chavistas and install a rightist regime.
The Financial Times, which actively promoted the NATO-led destruction of the government in Libya, now calls for a US-led invasion of Venezuela. Never ones to re-assess their promotion of 'regime change', the FT now calls for a violent coup in Venezuela, which will exceed that of Libya in terms of the loss of thousands of Venezuelan lives and the brutal reversal of a decade of significant socio-economic progress.
"Without fear and without favor", the FT speaks for imperial wars everywhere.
The US presidential elections take place just as the Obama-Clinton regime prepares to intervene in Venezuela. Using bogus 'humanitarian' reports of widespread hunger, disease, violence and instability, the Obama will still need Venezuelan thugs to provoke enough violent street violence to trigger an' invitation' for Washington's Latin American military partners to 'intervene' under the auspices of the UN or OAS.
If 'successful', a rapid overthrow of the elected government in Caracas could be presented as a victory for Hilary Clinton's campaign, and an example of her policy of 'humanitarian-military interventions' around the world.
However, if Obama's allied invasion does not produce a quick and easy victory, if the Venezuelan people and armed forces mount a prolonged and courageous defense of their government and if US lives are lost in what could turn into a popular war of resistance, then Washington's intervention could ultimately discredit the Clinton campaign and her 'muscular' foreign policy.
The American electorate might finally decide against four more years of losing wars and losing lives. No thanks to the 'fearless' Financial Times.
James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York.http://petras.lahaine.org
See also
Venezuela Accuses US, Opposition of Planning Coup: Venezuela is accusing the United States and the country's political opposition of planning a coup for Thursday, the day that government opponents have called for a march to demand a recall vote against President Nicolas Maduro.


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I bought a psd file that has lots of buttons - each button is a layer group.
What's a good way to split the file so that each button is it's own file - with its layers intact. I know how to turn off layers, but the resulting file has too large a Canvas size..(as well as being too big..)


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Quicker than you can say "managed care is dead," controversial new programs called consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) are catching on —cutting employer costs while transferring to employees more responsibility for purchasing their own medical care.
In fact, little more than a year after a July 2002 Internal Revenue Service decision gave the agency's blessing to health-reimbursement accounts (HRAs) — the funding mechanism for CDHPs — the number of companies using them is soaring, and includes CVS, Amazon.com, Medtronic, and Wells Fargo. In addition, 30 percent of large employers say they are likely to offer plans in the next two years, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Upstart health-care companies such as Lumenos Inc. and Definity Health have emerged to handle early interest. (Definity, which had three clients in 2000, expects to administer CDHPs for 80 companies by year-end.) But traditional health-care insurers and administrators are now also scrambling to offer consumer-directed products.
"This is the most important thing to happen in health care since the emergence of managed care," says Robert H. Booz, vice president of health and managed care at Conning Research & Consulting Inc., an insurance-industry research firm.
CDHPs are in the spotlight because many employers have run out of other options. "A lot of weapons in the arsenal to control costs have been exhausted," says Alexander Domaszewicz, senior consultant at Mercer. After years of negotiating with vendors, wringing out administrative efficiencies, and shifting costs to employees through other means, he says, plan sponsors are now trying consumer-driven plans to attack the demand side of the equation. Early results show the plans — providing individual employee accounts that, when depleted, require members to pay for health needs out of their own pockets — have some success restraining costs. According to research by Conning, employees in a CDHP use 11 percent fewer health-care services.
Opponents of the plans, though, contend that they offer a raw deal for many employees. In the long run, CDHPs won't effectively curb overall health costs, they say, and could even threaten the health-insurance system. "If structured wrong, it's a really great deal for 80 percent and a devastating deal for the 20 percent that use the most care," says Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc. CEO Charles Baker of the approach. Some CDHPs fail to provide employees with tools they need to make the right decisions, he says. "We all need to do a better job of getting consumers more involved in the system, but not in a way that makes them feel they have been abandoned."
A Shifting of Costs
In theory, a CDHP is any plan that gives employees a financial incentive to influence consumption of care, and may include tiered co-pays and multiple plan options at different price points. But it is the HRA, an outgrowth of the medical savings accounts of the early 1990s, that is growing the fastest and getting the most attention.
HRAs must be entirely funded by employers, commonly at a $1,000 to $2,000 level. When that amount is exhausted, employees in a CDHP are responsible for paying all medical expenses until they reach the next insurance-covered threshold. This period of out-of-pocket expenses, called the bridge or gap, can range from a few hundred dollars to more than $6,000, depending on the plan. On the other side of the bridge, a preferred-provider network typically kicks in, with the employer paying 80 percent and the employee 20 percent of in-network care, for example. Often the plans are self-funded, with a high-deductible, stop-loss insurance policy to protect employers against catastrophic claims, and employee expenses are capped. In theory, employees will use discretion in health-care purchases, knowing they'll be on the hook when the account runs dry. The IRS decision makes accounts tax-free, and unused portions can be rolled over year-to-year. But accounts usually aren't portable, can't be used for expenses other than IRS-recognized health expenses, and can't be taken out in cash.
Perhaps the biggest criticism of CDHPs is how sharply they can shift costs to employees. With health-related expenses rising at an annual average of 15 percent, employees would have to pick up much of that growth, unless employers actively increase their contributions. While employers with traditional plans also have shifted costs to employees, with CDHPs employees bear the risk of most future increases as well. Further, there are concerns that employees might put off medical procedures because they simply can't afford them. "That will cost the system in the long run," says Booz.
Critics also note that because the plans set aside funds for the healthy and ask those who use health care heavily to pay more, CDHPs could undermine the current health-coverage model. "The nature of health insurance involves the healthy 80 to 85 percent subsidizing the care for the 15 to 20 percent who are not," says John McDonough, executive director of Health Care for All, a consumer-advocacy organization. "When you pull out an explicit portion of money and make it available to the 80 percent, you put a strain on the fundamentals of the system."
With soaring health-care costs jeopardizing profit margins, though, some companies make no excuse for asking these employees to shell out more. "The higher users will pay more under this plan," admits Neil Chinn, vice president of human resources at PWEagle Inc. The Eugene, Oregon-based pipe manufacturer cites a change in philosophy as its reason for adopting a CDHP in July 2002. While once a paternalistic organization, it decided to move toward an "independent facilitator role," with employees making their own decisions, says Chinn. "What we had been doing was subsidizing the minority of employees who use the most health care," he explains, but now the company provides financial incentives for all employees to handle their own health care more wisely.
Is Some Pain Needed?
PWEagle turned to Minneapolis-based Definity, which structures and administers CDHPs. PWEagle offers three options at different price points, with risk levels based on the size of the bridge in the plan. (The "premium" option has a $2,000 bridge for out-of-pocket expenses, with traditional insurance then kicking in.)
Unlike many companies implementing CDHPs, PWEagle offers only this health-care option to its 700 employees. That solves another common CDHP problem: adverse selection. Critics say the plans attract healthy employees because they like the idea of accruing money in an account that they don't think they'll need for some time. That dynamic could leave heavier health-care users to rely on traditional plans, creating higher losses there and swelling premiums.
So far, Chinn says, the CDHP has been a success, at least financially. The company held health-care costs flat during the first fiscal year it was used, while others in the industry experienced increases of 15 to 18 percent. "The cost performance of the plan has been outstanding," says Chinn, who expects only a slight increase next year. For the first time in many years, employees had no increase in premium contributions this year.
The plan has not been without losers, though. "There has been some push-back from the high users of care," concedes Chinn. One employee was forced to take a second mortgage on his house to pay medical bills, and a number of others blew through their personal-care accounts ($2,000 for families and $1,000 for individuals) in the first three months. Without pain, though, Chinn doesn't think the plans would effectively change employee behavior. "If you told someone to go buy any car they want and offered to pay for 80 percent of it, they would come back with a BMW," he says. "But is that really what they need?"
Richer Benefits
Vancouver, Canada-based customer relationship management software provider Pivotal Corp. says it designed its CDHP, implemented in June, mainly as a better health plan with more services for its 100 U.S. employees. Instead of complaints, "we got calls from employees asking, 'What's the catch?'" says Kevin Conefrey, Pivotal's HR director. The plan requires employees to pay less out of pocket than the company's preferred-provider plan did. Structured by Alexandria, Virginia-based Lumenos, the CDHP provides a small bridge ($300 for a single employee, for example) after the $1,000 HRA is used; then the company covers 100 percent of in-network health costs. "We wanted to provide employees with the same rich benefit that says we care about them," notes Conefrey.
One benefit is the Lumenos Website, which helps employees choose health providers. Lumenos's national network also suits Pivotal employees, who travel a lot. "Employees wanted more control of their health-care options," says Conefrey.
The CDHP also saves Pivotal money. Some high-loss experiences in its previous plan led the company to face a 40 percent premium hike; the CDHP will likely hold the increase to 30 percent.
Equitrac Corp., a Coral Gables, Florida, document-imaging company, turned to a CDHP this year to help offset escalating costs, says CFO Rahul Khanorkar. The alternatives were raising co-pays even higher, increasing deductibles, and reducing coverage. The company adopted a Lumenos plan in which "80 percent of employees do better," says Khanorkar, adding that the impact on heavier users is limited by the $1,000 bridge in the least-expensive plan. Equitrac provides an out-of-pocket maximum comparable to the old one, shielding employees from massive medical bills.
At first Khanorkar worried that employees might put off seeing a doctor for routine medical care because of the plan's design. But, like many CDHPs, it pays 100 percent for medical checkups, mammograms, and other preventive care, so the CFO is reassured. It seems that employees now pay more attention to cost, too, while "in the past, they didn't care if the doctor charged $500 or $1,000, and often they didn't know."
Other employers, though, aren't convinced that CDHPs are the answer to rising costs. Tom Emerick, vice president of benefits at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., says the retail giant has looked at them, but "they're not a good fit for us right now." In his view, "there is nothing inherent that would save health-care dollars." The company prefers controlling costs through proven methods like plan redesign, disease management, and negotiating on pricing. "There is still a lot that can be done in these areas," he says. Wal-Mart is certainly not against getting employees more involved in the equation, though: it offers more than eight plans at most locations.
Consumerism seems here to stay. "Employers want every plan to build in consumer tools, financial incentives, and high support for the chronically ill," says Peter Lee, president and CEO of the Pacific Business Group on Health, a San Francisco coalition of large health-care purchasers. But, asks Conning's Booz of the CDHP approach: "Is this too much involvement? The answer may be yes."
Direct Arrivals As CDHPs catch on, they are creating some new names in health care. | |||
Growth in number of clients | 2002 | 2003 | 2004* |
Definity Health | 533% | 168% | 57% |
Lumenos | 350% | 430% | 250% |
Sources: Lumenos Inc. and Definity Health *Projected |
Taking The Pulse Executives expect employee confusion, but see cost-cutting promise in consumer-directed health plans. | |||
Do the consumer-driven models promote cost reduction through consumerism? | |||
Consumer-driven plans: | Agree | Disagree | Neutral |
Change employee purchasing behavior | 71% | 10% | 19% |
Shift costs to employees without impacting purchasing patterns | 30% | 49% | 21% |
Result in immediate employer cost savings | 53% | 29% | 18% |
Reduce long-term health-care trend | 37% | 32% | 31% |
These new plan designs seem complex do they really work, and how will they be received? | |||
Consumer-driven plans: | Agree | Disagree | Neutral |
Have complex and confusing designs | 63% | 21% | 16% |
Make employees pay more for costly providers | 76% | 13% | 11% |
Reward efficient providers | 50% | 20% | 30% |
Are well received by some, but not all, employees | 68% | 22% | 10% |
Do consumer-driven health plans reward the healthy at the expense of the sick? | |||
Consumer-driven plans: | Agree | Disagree | Neutral |
Benefit only healthy employees | 41% | 38% | 21% |
Are positioned as one of two or more options | 72% | 15% | 13% |
Source: Deloitte & Touche's Human Capital Advisory Services survey of 287 companies |


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Contractors State License Board
Show All Answers
A Permit is required for most construction and/or repair projects. Permits are required for, but not limited to:
Please visit the Permit Center webpage for "Steps to Secure a Permit".
For residential project submittal requirements (required drawings, supporting documents) see the Permit Directory.
For how to obtain a permit please see Steps to Secure a Permit.
Permit fees vary based on application type. Fees will be determined after the application is initially reviewed and collected before permit issuance. For a range of fees based on application type, please view our Master Fee Schedule.
How to Schedule an Inspection:
After you scheduled an inspection:
Current Building Codes & Design Criteria (PDF)
Outside Agency Checklist (PDF)
7:30AM-7:00PM M-F, 9:00AM-7:00PM Sat-Sun & Holidays. Projects that have gone through a discretionary review process may further restrict construction hours for the project.
Town of Danville Construction & Demolition Waste Diversion Central


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Download here.
Joe Thorn is Lead Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship in St. Charles, IL and is the author of the great little book Note To Self. On this week's Connected Kingdom podcast, Tim and I took the opportunity to ask Joe what it means to be gospel-centered, whether the gospel truly applies to all of life, and then to give some practical pointers for how to preach the gospel to yourself in joy and in pain.
I would echo what Tim said on his blog about our discussion:
The phrase "gospel-centered" is fast entering the Evangelical mainstream. We are encouraged to be gospel-centered or to preach the gospel to ourselves. It is easy to say but, in my experience, far more difficult to do. This morning David Murray and I spoke with Joe Thorn about this very thing. Speaking personally I found it very, very helpful. So why don't you give it a listen? It will take less than 30 minutes of your time and I think you'll be well-rewarded for the effort.
If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.


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Bunnie Huang, cracker of the Xbox and creator of the Chumby, wanted to do something to help people in Japan following the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. He created a reference design for a cheap, reliable, stylish Geiger counter for everyday carry, under the auspices of Safecast, a group that works on ongoing disaster relief in Japan. Being a consummate hardware hacker, bunnie has documented the steps he took along the way to create his free/open Geiger counter.
After much discussion and review with the Safecast team, we decided that a key component of the user experience should be a graphic display, instead of a 7-segment LED readout. Therefore, a 128×128 pixel OLED panel was incorporated into the design. The OLED panel would be mounted behind a continuous outer shell, so there would be no seams or outward design features resulting from the introduction of the OLED. However, as the OLED is not bright enough to shine through an opaque white plastic exterior shell, a clear window had to be provided for the OLED. As a result, the naturally black color of the OLED caused the preferred color scheme of the exterior case to go from light colors to dark colors. User interaction would occur through a captouch button array hidden behind the same shell, with perhaps silkscreen outlines to provide hints as to where the buttons were underneath the shell. I had originally resisted the idea of using the OLED because it's very expensive, but once I saw how much an LND7317 tube would cost in volume, I realized that it would be silly to not add a premium feature like an OLED. Due to the sensor alone, the retail price of the device would be in the hundreds of dollars; so adding an OLED display would help make the device "feel" a lot more valuable than a 7-segment LED display, even though the OLED's presence is largely irrelevant to the core function of the apparatus.


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Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at the 2020 census, down from 173,514 at the 2010 census. Jackson's population declined more between 2010 and 2020 (11.42%) than any major city in the United States. Jackson is the anchor for the Jackson metropolitan statistical area, the largest metropolitan area completely within the state and the 10th largest urban area in the Deep South.
Alta Woods, Arrowhead Point, Baptist Town, Belhaven, Capitol Neighbors, Cathead Distillery, Cleary, Country Place, Cunningham Heights, Downtown Jackson Partners, Easthaven, Eudora Welty House & Garden, Farish Street Historic District, Fondren, Fondren North Neighborhood Association


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amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research
amfAR Media Contacts:
Bennah Serfaty, Sr. Director of Communications: 212-806-1607, firstname.lastname@example.com Natalie Marquis, Media Relations Manager: 212-806-1694, email@example.com
Event presented by M·A·C Viva Glam, features performances by Preta Gil and Ana Carolina
Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL, October 5, 2013— amfAR Chairman Kenneth Cole, Linda Evangelista, Goldie Hawn, Lee Daniels, Cara Delevingne, Preta Gil, Ana Carolina, Fernanda Torres, Mariana Ximenes, Andrea Dellal, Alice Dellal, and Vik Muniz were among those who came out last night to support amfAR's inaugural Inspiration Gala Rio. Ms. Evangelista hosted the black tie benefit, held in conjunction with the Festival do Rio, and more than $600,000 was raised for amfAR's cutting-edge AIDS research programs.
Academy Award-winning actor Goldie Hawn served alongside Kenneth Cole as Honorary Chair of the gala. She delivered heartfelt remarks during the program, sharing memories of good friends she had lost to AIDS in the 80s, and encouraging the crowd to not give up until a cure for AIDS is available to all.
amfAR Chairman Kenneth Cole introduced a clip of "The Battle of amfAR" at the event. The documentary, highlighting Dr. Mathilde Krim and Dame Elizabeth Taylor's work founding amfAR and fighting the AIDS epidemic in the early years, was screened on October 3rd during the Festival do Rio. Mr. Cole also announced that a portion of the proceeds from the event would benefit Pela Vidda, a Rio de Janeiro-based organization dedicated to improving the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS.
Famed Brazilian actresses Fernanda Torres and Mariana Ximenes led a live auction of artwork and exclusive luxury items. A highlight of the auction was a package donated by Moët & Chandon, featuring tickets to the French Open semifinals and a stay at the Château de Saran, the estate of the Moët family in Epernay, France. Linda Evangelista agreed to autograph a gold-leaf Moët & Chandon Imperial Jeroboam to sweeten the package, and it sold for $30,000.
Brazilian singer and actress Preta Gil capped off the night with a special performance that had the crowd dancing at the Copacabana Palace late into the night. She was joined onstage by her special guest Ana Carolina, another of Brazil's best-loved musicians.
Chairs of the event included Gilda Amada, Jackie de Botton, John Demsey, Dinho Diniz, Felipe Diniz, Mary Jane Marcasiano, Paula Bezerra de Mello, Lenny Niemeyer, Fatima Otero, Renato Rique, Ilda Santiago, Anna Maria Tornaghi, Carlos Tufvesson, and Paula Uchoa.
Sponsors for the Inspiration Gala included Presenting Sponsor M·A·C VIVA GLAM, Official Technology Partner Microsoft, Platinum Sponsor Shopping Leblon, Live Auction Sponsor Carla Amorim, Dinner Gift Sponsor Silvia Furmanovich, and Festival do Rio. Fasano, the event's Hotel Partner, hosted amfAR's celebrity guests at their luxurious property on Ipanema beach. Luxury beverages were provided by Moët & Chandon. Delta Air Lines is the Official Airline of amfAR.
The Inspiration event series was launched in 2010 by amfAR and Josh Wood Productions to celebrate all aspects of men's style. Previous Inspiration events have taken place in New York, Paris, Los Angeles, Toronto, and São Paulo, raising more than $10 million in total for AIDS research.
About amfAR
amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, is one of the world's leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to the support of AIDS research, HIV prevention, treatment education, and the advocacy of sound AIDS-related public policy. Since 1985, amfAR has invested more than $366 million in its programs and has awarded grants to more than 2,000 research teams worldwide. www.amfar.org
About Josh Wood Productions
Josh Wood Productions has produced and promoted socially conscious events and concerts featuring artists such as Arcade Fire, Lady Gaga, Ricky Gervais, Norah Jones, Kylie Minogue, Lou Reed, Scissors Sisters, Michael Stipe, and the Pet Shop Boys. Their events have raised money and awareness for Downtown for Democracy, The Guggenheim Foundation, Empire State Pride Agenda, Friends of Hillary, Friends of the Highline, Hetrik Martin Institute, MoveOn, Obama for America, Oxfam, Rock the Vote, The Royal Shakespeare Company and Veterans for Peace. Josh Wood Productions' latest project, "The Inspiration Gala Series: A Celebration of Style," is an international fashion gala fundraiser benefiting amfAR. For more information please visit www.joshwoodproductions.com.