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The Manhattan Institute's City Journal is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. The table of contents for the twenty-fifth anniversary issue is posted here.
City Journal is a fantastic and fantastically influential quarterly magazine that I have read regularly over the years (subscribe here).To salute the magazine's milestone, and bring the magazine to the attention of readers who might not be familiar with it, I submitted a set of questions to long-time editor Myron Magnet (now retired) and his current editor Brian Anderson, his successor.
Below is my exchange with Mr. Magnet. Let me say myself right here at the top, it is worth reading.
Power Line: What has City Journal wrought? What do you think have been your biggest accomplishments of the past 25 years?
Myron Magnet: These first two questions are really one, so let me answer them together. First, because of the seriousness of our arguments, and the rigor, intellectual honesty, and talent of our writers, we made conservatism respectable in New York City–Moscow on the Hudson, it used to be called. We were in effect Rudy Giuliani's ideas factory–he once held up a copy of City Journal during a speech and said, "I don't know if it's possible to plagiarize policies, but if it is, then this is where I plagiarize mine from." And the truth is, that we would make suggestions–about quality-of-life policing, say, or how to deal with the homeless, or how to reform welfare–and, amazingly, he often would try them out. Equally amazing, they would work. So it was very exhilarating to run a quarterly magazine with that kind of influence, and very moving to have played a role in the breathtaking rebirth of New York.
Remember that when we started, New York was crumbling. People and companies were fleeing what they saw as a dying and ungovernable city; Times Square was a monument to degradation and squalor; the parks were dustbowls populated by muggers and dope dealers; the streets and subways swarmed with madmen, sometimes threatening and sometimes merely pitiable; and, with one murder every four hours every day, we all lived in fear, so no one wanted to go out at night to restaurants and theaters, which were withering away. People from out of town, or New Yorkers too young to remember the bad old days of just over two decades ago, see the glittering metropolis of today and have no idea of the immensity of effort it took on the part of so many to create that urban wonderland out of such threat and decay. To give you a sense of the magnitude of the change: The now-trendy Lower East Side, as well as hip Williamsburg (and much of Brooklyn), were abject slums in those days, very squalid and very, very dangerous. On the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, houses and apartments that command millions today sold for under $100,000. No one wanted them.
When the planes hit the towers on 9/11, our Fall issue was just ready to go to the printer. We tore it up and started over, on the view that this was our city and we needed to address the question of how to rebuild it and keep its economy vibrant immediately, so we even got some architect friends of ours to redesign the street grid at the World Trade Center site, and we asked our friend the great Scottish sculptor, Alexander Stoddart, to design a memorial to the victims, infinitely more fitting and moving than the vacuous hole-in-the-ground, void of meaning, that ultimately took form there. We also needed to learn and explain who our enemies were and how to protect ourselves from them, so we were early to examine the nature of Islamism and to understand that, while we must protect the rights of Moslem-Americans, we must carefully screen future Moslem applicants for immigration for Islamist sympathies.
Power Line: Where does City Journal fit in the conservative intellectual universe?
Myron Magnet: Though we are true free marketers, we are not libertarians, because we share the Founding Fathers' belief that men are reasoning rather than reasonable creatures, with complex motives that ensure that even in business, men don't always pursue their rational self-interest, and certainly not the long-term rational interest of their city or nation. Though we are full-throated fans of business, we hate crony capitalism, which in our state, with its two legislative leaders currently on trial for bribery and corruption, is a way of life. While we believe in free trade and the free movement of capital, we are more skeptical about the free movement of labor, since we believe that one pair of hands is not interchangeable with another, for those hands are attached to a head, a heart, a skill set, and a culture. Especially now that we have a giant welfare state and little agreement about what kind of culture we'd like immigrants to assimilate to, we'd like to choose our immigrants based on how they and their children can add to the wealth and well-being of the nation, to become creators of prosperity rather than dependents. And since we are not based in Washington, we are willing to examine and question every orthodoxy and consider every new policy idea, whether or not it has a realistic chance of passing into law now. Moreover, some of us belong to the "question authority" generation, and started out to the left of center. So we know that experience has changed our views–which makes us take nothing for granted and question everything, even our own assumptions.
Power Line: I love the magazine's cultural coverage. Conservatives seem to be on the losing end of the culture wars. What have you sought to do with your cultural coverage?
Myron Magnet: We believe that culture–ideas, beliefs, ideals, loyalties, and mores–shape a nation more powerfully than political or social policies, which are themselves originally shaped by culture. So we have devoted a lot of attention to how to strengthen families, how to raise and educate children to succeed, how sexual mores are changing both for good and for ill. Literature, television, journalism, entertainment, of the past as well as the present–all these are transmitters and shapers of culture, so we examine them seriously, if sometimes a little lightheartedly. And sometimes censoriously: does gangsta rap do anything to uplift the urban underclass, or does it degrade it? We'd prefer a culture that nurtures every imaginable variety of human excellence. That's what the ideal city, a theater of talent and ambition, is for.
As we are at base an urban-policy magazine, we take very seriously Winston Churchill's profound observation, which has everything to do with cities: "We shape our buildings, and then our buildings shape us." So we are passionate about architecture, resolutely opposed to those modernist and postmodernist starchitects who believe that buildings are machines for living rather than enhancements of humanity. For them, people are interchangeable cogs or ants in an ant colony, not humans with souls.
Our belief in the primacy of culture made us perhaps the first conservative magazine to express deep skepticism of the Bush administration's "freedom agenda" in Iraq, much as we supported President Bush and the war. You can't make democratic republicans out of tribal people with fanatical religious hatreds against one another and the rest of the world. America's democratic liberty is an immense cultural achievement, centuries in the making.
Power Line: I can't go without asking about Heather Mac Donald. She has been an inspiration to me and made herself something of a national resource on the subjects she writes about. I'm sure I'm not alone. Can you say anything about Heather's contributions?
Myron Magnet: When I took the helm of City Journal in 1994, we thought that, to save the city, we'd need to solve all its problems at once: crime, taxation, regulation, education, rent control, and so on. We discovered that, with such a rich inheritance from the past–museums, orchestras, opera companies, theaters, restaurants both fancy and homey, beautiful buildings, global banks, universities–all we needed to do was make people feel safe in the streets, their homes, and their hotels, and tourists would flock in, New Yorkers would go out, and the city would flourish.
Heather made herself City Journal's–and the nation's–Number One expert on policing, aside from Bill Bratton, Ray Kelly, and their top deputies. In the early days of the magazine, she was the principal explainer to the public of what Bratton and Giuliani were doing about crime, and enough people found her sufficiently persuasive to support the NYPD, let it do its job (despite constant carping from the academic criminologists and the New York Times), and appreciate the miracle it wrought. Now that police are under attack nationwide and what Heather dubbed the "Ferguson Effect" has made cops back off, with a resultant jump in crime, Heather is once again the nation's most tireless and persuasive defender of activist policing. She knows everything there is to know about the subject, from how to train cops, deploy them, mange them, and assess their performance, so that they don't solve crimes after they have occurred but instead prevent crimes from happening in the first place–something no one imagined could be done before City Journal and the Manhattan Institute, its publisher, suggested it could.
In my first years running the magazine, I'd spend hours every week on the phone with Heather, as she'd worry over every detail of her story, to make sure the logic had no holes, the argument was fair, her answers to possible objections persuasive, and so on. These were among the most intellectually stimulating conversations I dare say any editor ever had. And I know that, in addition to her scrupulous intellectual honesty and rigor, her amazing intelligence, her stringent perfectionism, Heather (a lapsed lawyer) is as curious as any scientist and as brave as Hercules, willing to go into any neighborhood in any city, ask any question of anybody, and get answers that illuminate. Intellectually courageous as well, I might add, for when we started, to suggest that criminals, not "society," were responsible for crime was immediately to be shunned as racist. But of course the greatest beneficiaries of New York's crime drop are residents of minority communities where crime was worst. Now that residents don't have to be afraid to let their kids ride bikes outside or go to the corner store for bread, civic life can again flourish there.
Two final points. Heather can write about anything, from "Hip Hop 101″ at a "progressive" NYC public school to affirmative action and its fruits in the universities to classical music. Second, we have been blessed with a brigade of great writers, who made City Journal what it is.
Power Line: What would you like interested readers who are unfamiliar with the magazine to know about it?
Myron Magnet: Take a look at the website here — it's free and unencumbered by any advertising, and judge for yourselves.


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There is absolutely no reason why they should be forsaken for the likes of a swiss brown or a shimeji
So to redress the imbalance, I've decided to feature them in a quick and easy recipe that shows them off at their best. With an eye towards Japan this recipe combines Shiitake with Ponzu Sauce. Ponzu is a citrus based sauce that is made from Japanese fruits such as Yuzu and Sudachi and it is combined with soy to give you Ponzu Sauce. You can make it yourself but an easier solution is to find a Japanese store and purchase ready made Ponzu sauce, which is exactly what I have done here.

subset: commoncrawl


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Patchwork: A time of chickens, and a youngest son comes of age
Amidst a riot of perennial blooms such as I have never seen in my backyard gardens, the peas are finished, the green beans are producing more than we can eat, tomatoes are ripening quickly, zucchini plants are covered with blossoms (though no fruit — not enough pollinators?), sorrel and spinach have gone to seed, carrots are long and tasty. And I have had to water; we need a good soaking rain.
Beneath this July's clear skies and under the "Full Buck Moon" (also known as "The Thunder Moon" according to the Farmer's Almanac), two rites of passage just took place in our house: our youngest son, Angus, turned 21 and I, for the first time, learned how to slaughter and dress chickens.
Both events required wine. The chickens received a fine French white wine diluted in their water to relax them the evening before their demise (though they didn't seem to like it much) and Angus received congratulations and toasts with a less fine wine over a dinner of some of his favorite foods: local goat cheeses and fresh guacamole for hors d'oeuvres, a first course of pasta with pesto fresh from the garden's basil row; pork chops marinated in lemon juice, with olive oil, cracked pepper and fresh sage; salad picked minutes before consumption; and, finally, home-made maple ice cream.
Maple ice cream for Angus
Take 2 cups of heavy cream, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1 vanilla bean that you have cut in half lengthwise and scraped into the cream. Bring to a boil.
Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup of maple syrup (Grade B). Cover and let sit for five minutes.
While cream mixture is "steeping," separate 4 eggs. Lightly beat together 4 egg yolks. Whisk 1/4 cup of the cream mixture into the yolks, then another 1/4 cup. Then add the egg yolk mixture into the remainder of the cream.
Strain into a clean saucepan. Heat on medium-low heat, stirring, till cream mixture thickens slightly and coats a wooden spoon. Remove immediately and refrigerate until completely cold.
Then freeze in your ice cream maker. Seriously delicious!
As we reminisced over the photo album that captures Angus' first months, the chicken connection seemed oddly apt. He and older brother, Charles, lie together on a bed wearing new T-shirts — one, sized 3 T with hens and the other, sized 3 months with tiny chicks — block printed as a big-brother present by an artist friend who had exotic chickens in her garden (chosen every spring from a catalogue for their looks, not their laying proclivities). Every afternoon, all that spring and early summer, three-year-old Charles had carefully located and collected in a basket eggs that were blue, green, pink, brown and white, natural shades of eggs neither he nor I had ever dreamed of. He relished the search, how some eggs were still warm when he reached beneath a brightly colored bird rump, while I marveled at how lucky he was to be able to look for eggs. And I dreamed about how such eggs might look in a still life painting, with their notes of color.
Born and raised in a city, I never gave a thought to chickens, or eggs, how they were grown and brought to market, or what a truly fresh egg ought to look like — not to mention taste like — 'til I studied Renaissance tempera painting techniques and happened upon a passage in a 14th-century manuscript about the difference between country eggs and city eggs … the color and sprightliness of the yokes … Indeed, the ancient craftsman postulated, the yolk of a country egg was far better suited for painting the ruddier complexion of a person who spent their time out of doors (John the Baptist, perhaps, or a peasant, or laborer), while the yolk of a city egg, much paler in color, was better suited to the pale flesh tones of a noble person.
Then, after tasting the fresh eggs that Charles had found, well, there was no going back. Hence our need to participate in Margy's flock of laying hens in Cornwall, 21 years later, so we can have fresh eggs, share in the care of the birds, raise a couple of turkeys and enjoy watching poultry antics — all things we cannot do on our three-tenths of an acre.
But meat birds? This is a new chapter. Could be Joel Salatin's fault. After he came through Middlebury last year and after reading his books, I found it impossible to eat any chicken whose origins I did not know. Perhaps you will remember the arrival of 25 Freedom Ranger chicks on April 30, who spent the first two weeks of their life in our family room (much to the amusement of the neighborhood children), before migrating to Cornwall in Margy's van (Addison Independent column "Spring Firsts"). They matured quickly, as meat birds are wont to do and we processed them outside, on a clear, sunny Saturday.
The birds reached their slaughter weight in 10 and half weeks. That is, 15 of them did. We lost 10 of them to a mystery critter with a voracious appetite that broke into the chicken "tractor," a movable cage that housed the chickens on the lawn, mid-June.
As my friend Abi said, "The anticipation of slaughtering chickens is far worse than the reality." She is right.
We borrowed a scalder and a plucker from friends at Oliver Hill Farm (they gave us the wine, too), hung the cone, prepared vats of iced water, sharpened our knives and set up tables outside where it would be airy and bright. After processing the first chicken together, we quickly settled into the jobs where we each had the most comfort. Several hours later, the freezer was full of clean broilers, weighing between 3-1/2 and 6-1/2 pounds.
After cleaning up and long hot showers, we went out to dinner. After entering the costs on a spreadsheet, we found these birds had cost us a little over $2 a pound. We decided to time next year's flock differently for an autumn slaughter date (cooler weather). And we strategized about how to make the chicken "tractor" predator proof. Toasting the results of our first flock, we were grateful.
No one ordered chicken.
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Labeling and packaging for beauty products must offer visual and tactile cues of what the brand promises in order to create consumer awareness and demand for a company's products. Naturopathica Holistic Health LLC is one such company that faced brand identity issues when it reached its 15th anniversary. After considerable evaluation, the company realized it was not meeting its brand promise to consumers through its existing label and packaging strategy.
The brand promise of Naturopathica is to deliver "A Better Beauty." The company is committed to living and breathing that promise through its Naturopathica product line. Recognized as the first American performance-based natural brand, the company has become an expert resource for championing natural solutions in skin care and beauty products for women and men by integrating centuries-old traditions from around the globe with the latest breakthroughs in science.
The Naturopathica product line is carried by select high-profile spas around the U.S. and sold directly online. And while the brand had built an extremely loyal customer base, it was nonetheless small. So, in an effort to expand, the company felt a re-branding was necessary.
Elixir Design, San Francisco, was given the re-branding assignment, and its first step was to obtain an accurate picture of where the brand stood. The agency's research uncovered a gap between customers' brand perception and Naturopathica's desired brand positioning. The brand lacked customer awareness in a highly competitive market where there are numerous misconceptions about the performance of botanical skin care products.
"The brand was basically flying under the radar," said Scott Hesselink, senior designer, Elixir Design. "Further compromising the situation was the original packaging and labeling, which were seen as unsophisticated. The labeling was butter-yellow across the entire line. This made it difficult for consumers to delineate products for their skin type. Without strong graphics cues to define the products, shoppers found it hard to navigate the line and figure out what to buy."
The research findings inspired Naturopathica to make significant changes across the board, from its products to a complete re-branding of its visual image. In an effort to completely leverage its heritage as a performance-based natural brand, Naturopathica reformulated many of its products to earn ECOCERT certification.
The stringent ECOCERT standards verify that a company's products have been inspected, and that its processes are in conformity with the Natural and Organic Cosmetics standards. The certification involves audit procedures for natural and organic standards encompassing literally every stage and process in getting products to market—from raw materials sourcing to ingredient receipt and storage, formulations to production, packaging to labeling, and environmental stewardship practices to certifying the products, among others.
In addition to the new ECOCERT certification, Naturopathica relaunched its products in an eye-catching blue hue.
"A key visual element throughout the full Naturopathica line is our new signature blue color for all containers," said Beth Stewart, VP business and brand manager, Naturopathica. "We updated and modernized the color we had been using, which enabled us to weave a heritage element into the re-branding. The new custom color match is used in all our labeled tubes, pump bottles and jars. The color and its consistency create an incredibly strong visual platform across the entire line. It's an anchor point for the brand identity."
The signature blue also figures prominently in the men's line, with labels and folding cartons sporting white copy over container-matching midnight blue. Labeling for the women's line features light-blue labels and unit cartons for face care, including white bars with black text that indicate skin type. The body care line supports its main ingredient with the image of a botanical.
"Color is such a key component of our identity," Stewart said. "The new look is modern and sophisticated, and also does a nice job of providing a heritage feel."
Another key element of the re-branding was the switch to tubes made of 30% post-consumer waste, while eliminating the unit carton. This was a significant departure because several of its products were available in aluminum tubes and packaged in unit cartons, which carried additional product information. The elimination of Naturopathica's unit carton for the tubes didn't pose any initial design problems for the domestic market. However, Hesselink quickly learned that if the products were to be distributed and sold in the European Union, the copy needed to be in both English and French.
"We thought it was going to be a domestic-only application," Hesselink said. "Distribution throughout the European Union is great for the company, but the ECOCERT certification requires all copy to be in English and French. So naturally, we recognized that there wasn't going to be enough room for all the copy, which put the brand strategy at risk of being fully realized."
In order to meet the ECOCERT multi-language requirement, the solution for Naturopathica was the patented FlexVision extended-text label from WS Packaging Group and its MultiVision label line. The label features a patented multi-ply construction that is 100% conformable and engineered specifically for plastic tubes.
The FlexVision label stock is a 3-mL polyolefin Fasson brand pressure-sensitive film from Avery Dennison and a perfect solution for the 12 separate tube SKUs in 5-ounce and 2-ounce sizes. The labels are completely water-resistant, tested to reseal multiple times without compromising label integrity, and have a shelf life of at least two years. Flexographically printed using five ink stations, WS Packaging produced the labels at its facility in Fullerton, Calif.
"The extended-text label gave us a lot of variety because it really opened up the design palette with the additional space," Hesselink said. "It allowed us to keep the design standards intact for the prime label but provided ample room for the ECOCERT copy requirements. We were able to deliver on all the messaging needs without compromising the design."
"Not only did we produce visually stimulating extended-text labels with shelf appeal that supports the holistic health brand strategy, we also consistently matched the custom blue hues for the prime labels with digital printing," said Paulette Gramse, MultiVision product development manager. "The folding cartons were printed lithographically on materials made from 100 percent recycled fibers with a minimum of 35% post-consumer waste."
Initial line trials for the new extended-text labels were challenging. The tubes were ECOCERT-certified for direct product contact. Unfortunately, the colorant and post-consumer material in the tubes reacted differently with the adhesive. The label size was modified to eliminate pressure points to aid lay-down with the rigid tube.
"We worked very closely with the label decorator and the fillers to find a successful solution for everyone," Gramse said. "There was no pressure-sensitive standard for this type of tube, so there was a lot of testing involved in establishing a new benchmark."
"The extended-text labels are pretty amazing," said Kimberly Covert, purchasing and fulfillment manager, Naturopathica. "The tubes stand out on their own, but are unmistakably part of the whole product line. The signature blue tube color remains prominent. We just can't imagine going any other way."
The re-branding has involved nearly 100 products. Naturopathica began rolling out the new ECOCERT-certified product line in the first quarter of 2010.
John Giesfeldt is a freelance writer, Directions Inc.


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Camp near New Baltimore, Va.
My Dear Brother: –
As we are laying still today, I thought that I would take up the time in write you a brief description of our movements since we came across the Rappahannock R.
I believe my last was commended at Culpeper and finished at Beverly For; well the next morning after I wrote that letter, we struck tents, and moved about a mile down the river and waited about 3 hours when we crossed the river and formed a line of battle and about the same time our cavalry began a skirmish with the reb. cavl. and we over where we could see all that was going on they had it quiet hard for some time, both sides using artillery pretty freely.
At last we could see the reb. lines fall back, one man at a time until the whole line had withdrawn to a little hill and then they skedaddled in earnest, then we advanced in line of farther about 2 miles over one the roughest hardest pieces of ground that could be found in Va, for where it was nit bushes and woods it was all grown up to blackberry bushes; and it was as hard to march over that five miles as it would have been to march 15 miles on a smooth road; after marching this distance we finished for the night. […]
From your affectionate brother,


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Sabres 2, Maple Leafs 1
Ryan Miller regained his mastery of the Toronto Maple Leafs .
Miller stopped 34 shots to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 2-1 victory and spoil Toronto's home opener Monday night. It was Miller's 28th career win over the Leafs, the most he has against any NHL team.
Miller came into the contest with a 2.44 goals-against average and .922 save percentage against Toronto, but the Leafs won the season series last year 3-2-1 and were 3-0-0 vs. the Sabres at Air Canada Centre.
''It's time to get back at them,'' Miller said. ''We're in one of the biggest cities for hockey, it's great to come and play in front of these fans. It's a big compliment to Buffalo that we've got great fans and in the area. I feel like this is the whole hockey area - a big hotbed - so we come and just try to enjoy yourself and have some fun and it's fun to win here.''
Miller was solid for Buffalo after registering a 27-save performance in the Sabres' 5-2 season-opening home win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday night.
But Nazem Kadri got the home crowd buzzing when he beat Miller on the power play with 1:42 remaining, his second goal of the season. Toronto's Joffrey Lupul appeared to tie it 25 seconds later with goalie Ben Scrivens on the bench, but the goal was disallowed.
With Scrivens back on the bench and Toronto on a late power play, Kadri was all alone to the side of Miller but couldn't get his stick on the bouncing puck in the dying seconds to force overtime.
''He is a very good goalie, one of the top goalies in the league for a reason,'' said Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf, who blasted a shot off the post in the first. ''You have to have traffic on him and we did, but he made some real good saves. You have to give him credit, he made some big saves for them. We got traffic in the tough areas, but at the end of the day we just didn't execute.''
Cody Hodgson, who had one of Buffalo's goals, credited Miller for the victory.
''He was pretty amazing back there,'' Hodgson said. ''We were just able to pull it out. It wasn't the prettiest, but we'll take it.''
Jason Pominville had the other goal for Buffalo, which was outshot 35-20 in the first of four meetings this year with Toronto. The Leafs opened their season Saturday night with a 2-1 road win over Montreal.
Toronto outshot Buffalo 13-5 in the first, but it was the Sabres who had the period's lone goal as Hodgson opened the scoring at 8:51, deflecting Christian Ehrhoff's point shot past Scrivens for his second goal of the season. The Leafs had a prime chance to tie it when the visitors took three straight minor penalties - giving the home team an extended two-man advantage - but the closest they came to scoring was Phaneuf's slap shot going off the post.
Toronto finished the game with one power-play goal in seven attempts and was 0 for 2 with a two-man advantage.
''I didn't think there was any lack of effort with our group,'' Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said. ''I thought we were out of sorts in the first period and it showed in the execution of our power play.
''When you have an extended, almost a full 2-minute 5-on-3, you're expected to provide some offense, you've got to score. And I think that came back to haunt us later in the game. We had our fair share of chances, but we just didn't execute to the highest level that was required to win the hockey game.''
Pominville put Buffalo ahead 2-0 at 4:51 of the second with his first goal of the season. The Sabres captain - who had three assists Sunday night against Philadelphia - took a nice setup pass from Thomas Vanek and fired a wrist shot through Scrivens' legs.
The assist was Vanek's sixth point of the season after registering two goals and three assists against Philadelphia.
NOTES: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield participated in the ceremonial opening faceoff from space. ... The Leafs opened the season with the NHL's second-youngest roster with an average age of 27.1 years. Only Columbus (26.9 years) is younger.


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In the real world, we marvel at how salmon swim upstream, back to their own birthplace, in order to perpetuate their species' life cycle
Then they die.
As opposed to a long ago blog article about Michael Dell, but just as easily could have been about Jerry Yang, Ted Waite and some others, it's really hard to go back home, unless you're Howard Schultz or Steve Jobs.
In general, it's always easiest to go with the flow and become one of the crowd, unless you're a lemming.
They take exactly the opposite approach of the salmon. They go with gravity and are disciples of Thomas Malthus, thinking that their species would have its best chance of survival without them taxing the limited resources available to the next generation.
I saw Meatloaf in concert a couple of years ago, in a relatively small venue. Bat out of Hell, arguably one of the greatest rock albums ever, dared to ask the querstion "What's it going to be boy? Yes or No? Yes or No?"
And that was the question for me on Thursday. Be a lemming or be a salmon.
The problem with that analogy is that either way you die and they both depend on some strange fascination with herd mentality.
The real question then becomes: "Go with the flow or fight the tape."
In general, those are the two basic categories in society. Are you a Goth or a preppy?
There's no question that the tape has been decidedly up the past few days, even if a few of those were limited to only the closing hour. But ever since that boring 300 point Dow down day on the day that the NYSE commemorated the 10th anniversary of 9-11, there have been only good feelings.
Market Kumbaya with everything being carried upstream as there's an expectation for less than horrific news coming out of the European Union has been the rule. That was definitely the case with Thursday's trading as the market nicely bounced back from an early day retreat of gains and went on to close at highs.
In general, I tend to be an optimist as far as the longterm direction of the market goes, but right now my longterm horizon is limited to the end of the options cycle, which happens to be today.
Based on what I've done the past couple of days, including the sales of call options on Dow Chemical, Textron, Home Depot, Transocean and more Freeport McMoran during the first phase of Thursday's rise, it says that I don't expect follow through for the last day of the cycle.
Now that's a pretty stupid position to take, trying to predict market movement for a specific day in the absense of any real news and in the face of an obvious trend.
I base that on one thing and one thing only.
Watching Chrisitne Lagarde, the new head of the International Monetary Fund, I realized that she looked just like comedian David Brenner's older brother.
There's was just no way I was going to be soothed by economic forecasting from her once I couldn't get David Brenner's vision out of my head.
Any of you of my generation understand the difficulty of balancing thought and action when something displeasing is part of the equation. That's precisley why sex counselors used to advise men suffering from premature ejaculation to think of Willie Mays at critical moments.
With that in mind, I decided to keep swimming downstream into the face of a gusher. At least when it came to stocks.
When it comes to those UltraShort Silver ETF's, I decided to go with the flow and exercised judgement based on greed. No matter what our stock market does in response to the EU crisis, I expect gold and silver to give up much more of their entirely unwarranted gains. So there was no way I would sell call options on those holdings. The reward of picking up a few more crumbs wouldn't even remotely cover the costs of missing out on the plunge, thanks to the gift of ETF levereging.
Today may turn out to be the day that might Austria gives its thumbs up to the EU plan to bail out Greece, so there may be even more of an upward bias to come and then the obligatory letdown.
The plan, if approved, gives Greece a few more months before defaulting, by freeing up some $8 Billion Euros to help its banking rescue.
Sounds like a great idea, mostly because I missed hearing the word "traunches" repeated every fifth word.
The problem will become obvious though when the rest of Europe sees that Greece ends up using that first traunch to buy cigarettes and book vacations to Thailand to make up for the vacation time missed while striking.
In the markets the only real news was from Netflix which lost nearly 20% of its value. They showed just how easy it was to swim downstream today. But they had good company in gold and silver, although their density alone made it much easier to work against the upward stream.
Although I neither hold shares, nor use Netflix's service, I'm beginning to understand the madness behind their model change and increasing dependence on, coincidentally enough, "streaming" media.
Just imagine if you were a Netflix user. You could have been streamed the bad news well ahead of when basic cable investors would have gotten it. Talk about a great advantage.
Obviously JP Morgan gets its news the old fashioned way, as it decreased its price targets after the 20% drop.
You'd think that for whatever advisory fees they're paid by their clients, they'd at least be streaming Netflix.
After the close, Research in Motion joined Netflix with a 20% drop in the after hours trading once their disappointing earnings were released.
I'm not really certain that you can call anything RIM does these days "disappointing".
A few short years ago bad news from RIM would have cast a pall over the market. It's not too likely that will be the case as the market opens on Friday. But at least RIM has been consistent regardless of short term market direction. Since its last earningss report, its been all uni-directional.
On a positive note, the RIM executive officers were certainly able to much more easily and quickly e-mail news of the disappointment, owing to the great Blackberry keyboard. Imagine how much more time it would have taken to disseminate the bad news on, say an iPhone.
Say what you will, but there's something refreshing about a technology company basing its fortunes on a mini-keyboard.
The way I see it, RIM has gotten the best of all worlds, as long as those worlds place a heavy emphasis on oblivion.
It's definitely in a lemming march, yet it's also trying to swim upstream. No matter how you look at it, that's a losing combination.
Sort of like the European Union.
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Kids Know More about International Relations than Obama DoesAugust 18, 2008It absolutely blew me away. McCain made a statement about the Russian aggression against Georgia, so Obama had to respond. He was vacationing in Hawaii, but he realized he had to break away long enough to say something, since the situation with Russia and Georgia was growing more serious by the hour. So he said something stupid. "We should push for a Security Council Resolution to end the violence." Even middle school kids know that Russia has veto power on the United Nations Security Council. But Obama doesn't understand this most basic principle of international politics. Getting a UN Security Council Resolution condemning Russia's murder of innocent Georgians is as likely as getting Iran's Muslim clerics to condemn terrorism. After hearing Obama's naïve remarks, I asked several middle school (that's junior high school to you baby boomers) and high school students which nations had veto power on the UN Security Council. They all knew that the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia and Communist China are the Permanent Members of the Security Council. (Technically the Permanent Members don't have veto power, but UN rules require that all the Permanent Members must vote for a Resolution, or at least cast a non-vote - something Obama has a lot of experience with - in order for a Resolution to pass.) Now, maybe these students are smarter than the average student. But shouldn't someone who lusts to be the leader of the free world know at least as much about the United Nations as these kids? The VERY Junior Senator from Illinois proves every day that he is woefully unprepared to lead a village, much less the most important nation in the world. I'm sure Obama's supporters will be quick to say that this was just a slip of the tongue, similar to the time when he mistakenly spoke of the 57 OR 58 states in the United States. (On May 9, 2008, in Bremerton, OR, Obama said, "I have now been in 57 states; I think one left to go." See LINK below for VIDEO proof of this quote.) I agree that when he seemed not to know how many states made up the nation he proposes to lead, he was talking without notes. Even a Socialist like Obama must know the number of states in the U.S., right? But when he made his idiotic remarks about a United Nations resolution against Russia, he was reading a prepared statement from notes. (Watch the VIDEO - see LINK below.) McCain also spoke of a UN Security Council resolution, but he was clear that we should push for one to shame Russia, in spite of the fact that Russia would veto it. Obama clearly thought a binding Resolution was possible. Obama's exact words: "We should continue to push for a United Nations Security Council Resolution calling for an immediate end to the violence." If he had known that Russia had veto power, he would have also known (as McCain obviously does) that it would take a long time and a lot of political maneuvering just to get a Resolution considered. After it came up for discussion, Russia would crush it. So Obama's naïve idea of a Resolution resulting in "an immediate end to the violence" was clearly an impossible dream - even to a well-educated school child. That was not his only gaffe during this statement. In less than four minutes he managed to disgrace himself no less than ten times. His mistakes included statements that made it clear that he has no understanding of international matters, misleading statements and outright lies. The following are exact quotes from the statement Obama read. You can hear the whole statement by clicking the VIDEO LINK below. His worst lie was "For many months I have warned that there needs to be active international engagement..." regarding the situation in Georgia. As distasteful as it is for me, I listen to every public statement this two-faced man makes. It is possible I might have missed one, or even two statements he made regarding Georgia. But if he had been warning America "for many months" I know I would have heard it. My guess is that this is the first time he ever heard of the nation Georgia. It has been reported that when he heard that Russia had attacked Georgia, his response was, "Is Atlanta OK?" While this is obviously a reporter's joke, the reason it is so funny is that it is very close to the truth. Obama then called for "a high-level and neutral international mediator." Again, his naïveté is front and center. What mediator would Russia listen to, and what power would such a mediator have to enforce their mediation? By the time Obama made this statement, France had already brokered a cease-fire, to which Russia agreed. They used the period after the cease-fire, which Georgian troops honored, to move Russian troops and tanks into better positions from which to take over Georgia. Obama also called for an "International peace-keeping force." All peace-keeping forces must be approved by the United Nations Security Council, on which Russia has veto power. Are you starting to get the picture, Mr. President-Wannabe? "Russia has now violated the space of another country." Obama, that's what teenagers say when someone gets too close to them, as in "You've violated my space, Dude." In international diplomacy the proper terminology would be, "Russia has violated the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation." "There is also an urgent need for humanitarian assistance." Obama made this misleading statement after President Bush had already sent planes bearing humanitarian aide to Georgia. By making this statement, he hoped that listeners would believe that Bush had sent aid in response to Obama's request (just as one of his campaign workers later implied that Russia had agreed to a cease-fire because Obama had requested it). "The United States, Europe, and all other concerned countries must stand united." Somebody needs to tell this guy that Europe is not a country. This is embarrassing. "There should also be a UN mediator to address this crisis." My statement above addresses this, as well. In addition to being a corrupt organization, the majority of whose member nations hate the United States, freedom, and democracy, the UN has absolutely no power with which it can restrain Russia. "We should also convene other international forums to condemn this aggression." What international organizations might convene such forums, Barack? The Socialist International (an association of all the world Communist and Socialist parties)? The African Union? What about the International Table Tennis Association? "This action is wholly inconsistent with the Olympic ideal." Now you've got something, Barack. I'm certain that the horror of having his actions considered "inconsistent with the Olympic ideal" has Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hanging his head in shame. The "former" KGB butcher is proud of his actions in Georgia. He plans to bring the whole region back under Russian control, and he couldn't care less whether his puppet, President Medvedev, likes it. That's Obama's biggest mistake. In Diplomacy 101 you learn that you must know who has the power. Obama doesn't know who the players are. As I mentioned above, he had one of flunkies take credit on his behalf for the cease-fire (before he realized that it would fail). Governor Tim Caine (D-VA) hopes to be Obama's Vice-Presidential running mate. On August 12 he made this statement at a news conference: "I'm very, very happy that the Senator's request for a cease-fire has been complied with by President Medvedev." There are just a few things wrong with Obama taking credit for the cease-fire. First, Medvedev doesn't have the power in Russia, and Obama doesn't understand this basic fact. When Putin was nearing the end of his second term as President of Russia and couldn't run again due to term limits, he arranged for Dmitry Medvedev to become his successor. As agreed, Medvedev appointed Putin Prime Minister the day he took office. He has been taking orders from Putin ever since. The aggression against Georgia has been run completely by Putin, with Medvedev watching from the sidelines. Second, Obama has no right or standing to make "requests" in international matters. He is not even his party's nominee officially, and if he were, candidates who care about America have always followed the rule that America only has one president at a time. Even if they have already been elected but not yet sworn in, future presidents know not to meddle in foreign policy. Third, the phrase "complied with" in the statement, "The Senator's request for a cease-fire has been complied with by President Medvedev," is a terrible choice of words. It implies that Obama has the authority to command and that Russia has the obligation to "comply" with his dictates. No diplomat or international negotiator would ever use such a phrase unless he had the authority to back them up. Obama is such an amateur that he doesn't understand this basic concept. Obama's final problem with trying to take credit for something he had nothing to do with is that the cease-fire failed. Since he wanted to be seen as having somehow forced Russia to obey him, I suppose he must now take credit for the fact that the cease-fire failed... As I watched Obama's press conference coming to an end, I fully expected him to lead the reporters in a chorus of "Kumbaya," or perhaps to cry, "Why can't we all get along together?" ala Rodney King. The fact is that although he is a middle aged man, he is as clueless and naïve about international relations as a pot-smoking teenager. Obama didn't take any questions following his statement. That was the only smart move he made the whole day. Perhaps that would be the best overall campaign strategy for Obama. He might actually win if he just keeps his mouth shut until Election Day. INTERNET RESOURCES: Obama Flip-Flops on Georgia: From Internationalist to McCain-Like Warrior...in 24 Hours! http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/08/reuters-fabricates-obamas-response-to.html A Statesman's Intelligent, Knowledgeable Assessment: McCain on Georgia http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/mccain-calls-for-halt-of-violence-in-georgia/ An Amateur's Illogical and Uninformed Ramblings: Obama on Georgia http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/obama-emerges-to-talk-about-georgia/?apage=4 VIDEO: Obama's Error-Riddled Press Conference http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzSWoVOK48I LA Times: VIDEO of Obama Talking about the 57 (or 58) States in Our Nation http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/05/new-patriotic-o.html Article: "Barack Obama Wants to be President of these 57 United States" http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/05/barack-obama-wa.html
He has written thousands of articles that have been republished in national newspapers and on hundreds of websites, and is a frequent guest on radio and television shows. His weekly Conservative Truth article (which is read by 250,000) offers a unique viewpoint on social, moral and political issues from a Biblical worldview. This has resulted in invitations to speak internationally at churches, conferences, Money Shows, universities, and on TV (including the 700 Club). "Dr. Tom," as his readers and followers affectionately refer to him, has a passion for teaching, as you can see from his ministry website (www.ChristianFinancialConcepts.com); his patriotic site (www.ConservativeTruth.org); and his business site (www.GoldenArtTreasures.com). Tom's friend Dr. Lance Wallnau wrote of him, "Tom Barrett is a Renaissance man with a passion for subject matter ranging from finance to theology and American history." Visit Dr. Tom Barrett's website at www.DrTom.TV |


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Place patties on a pre-heated grill and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until meat is no longer pink in the center, flipping once.
Serve on lightly toasted buns, topped with lettuce, tomato and remaining French fried onions. Burgers should be juicy, so no condiments are necessary, but you can dress it up to suit your tastes.


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Student advising is an extremely important role that faculty play at Northern. When students are paired with a faculty member in their major, they meet an instant mentor with shared interests and the insider's knowledge to guide them to their goal. Having common ground also helps open doors to communication that may involve sensitive personal or financial matters that are impacting a student's academic performance or plans.
Advising also provides instructors a way to get to know their students and have a real hand in shaping not only their time at NMU, but their future as well.
Advising can sometimes also be confusing, frustrating and time-consuming. The tools, forms and information linked here should be helpful in addressing most advisers' questions and needs. Please do not hesitate to contact the Academic Career and Advisement Center with your specific questions or concerns.


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"For providing critical insight into the evolution of nuclear structure with varying proton and neutron numbers and the discovery of a variety of dynamic symmetries in nuclei."
Background:Rick Casten, D. Allan Bromley Professor of Physics at Yale, received his B.S from Holy Cross (1963), and Ph.D from Yale(1967) - the first thesis at the MP-1 Tandem accelerator. After post-docs at the Niels Bohr Institute and Los Alamos National Laboratory, he went to Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1971, becoming a Senior Scientist and Group Leader of the Neutron Nuclear Structure Group in 1981, carrying out nuclear structure studies using neutron capture and the TRISTAN isotope separator. He came to Yale in 1995, as Director of the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory (WNSL) from 1995-2008. He is a fellow of the APS, AAAS, the Institute of Physics(UK) and an Honorary Member of the Hellenic Nuclear Physics Society. He received the Senior US Humboldt Prize(1983), a Mercator Professorship (Germany), Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Bucharest and Surrey, and the DNP Mentoring award. He had many visits to the Institute Laue Langevin, the Institut fuer Kernphysics (Koeln), and CERN/ISOLDE. He was Chair of NSAC(2003-2005) and the DNP(2008). A leader in the field of exotic nuclei, he chaired the ISL Steering Committee(1989 - 2003), the RIA Users Organization (2006, 2007), and the FRIB Science Advisory Committee(2009-2012). He is an Associate Editor of Phys. Rev. C for Experimental Nuclear Structure. His research focuses on collectivity in nuclei, including: dynamical symmetries [e.g., O(6)] of the IBA Model; structural trajectories and regularities in the IBA symmetry triangle ("Casten triangle"); quantum phase/shape transitions and critical point descriptions [E(5) and X(5)]; and microscopic drivers of collectivity, especially the p-n interaction. He developed the NpNn scheme, the P-factor, and other simple approaches to structural evolution. He exploited neutron Average Resonance Capture (ARC) for complete spectroscopy and the Gamma-Ray Induced Doppler (GRID) lifetime technique, and helped initiate medium energy Coulomb excitation. He authored the textbook "Nuclear Structure from a Simple Perspective".
Donald G. Geesaman, Chair; G. Cates; C. Elster; U. Heinz; R. Wiringa


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SOUTH JORDAN, Utah, Feb. 13, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MMSI), a leading manufacturer and marketer of proprietary disposable devices used primarily in cardiology, radiology and endoscopy, announced today that it will release its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2019, after the close of the stock market on Monday, February 24, 2020.
Merit will hold its investor conference call (conference ID 4079914) on the same day (Monday, February 24, 2020) at 5:00 p.m. Eastern (4:00 p.m. Central, 3:00 p.m. Mountain, and 2:00 p.m. Pacific). The telephone numbers to call are (domestic) (844) 578-9672; and (international) (508) 637-5656. A live webcast will also be available for the conference call at merit.com.
Founded in 1987, Merit Medical Systems, Inc. is engaged in the development, manufacture and distribution of proprietary disposable medical devices used in interventional, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, particularly in cardiology, radiology, oncology, critical care and endoscopy. Merit serves client hospitals worldwide with a domestic and international sales force and clinical support team totaling in excess of 300 individuals. Merit employs approximately 6,400 people worldwide with facilities in South Jordan, Utah; Pearland, Texas; Richmond, Virginia; Malvern, Pennsylvania; Rockland, Massachusetts; Aliso Viejo, California; Maastricht and Venlo, The Netherlands; Paris, France; Galway, Ireland; Beijing, China; Tijuana, Mexico; Joinville, Brazil; Markham, Ontario, Canada; Melbourne, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Reading, United Kingdom; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Singapore.
Contact: Anne-Marie Wright, Vice President, Corporate Communications
Phone: (801) 208-4167 e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Fax: (801) 253-1688


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- Home
- City Services
- Meeting Agendas, Minutes, Video
- About City Council Meetings
City Council Meetings
Meeting Information
The City Council holds three meetings a month in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 100 Civic Center Parkway. The public is welcome to attend all of these meetings. Governance meetings are scheduled periodically when necessary. These meetings are all aired live and replayed on Burnsville Civic Channel (BCTV) 16 for cable subscribers and available for streaming on demand online.
All meetings start at 5:30 p.m. and are open to the public.
- Two Regular City Council Meetings: first and third Tuesdays after the first Monday.
- Council Work sessions: second Tuesday after the first Monday.
Citizen Comments
The City Council offers members of the public the opportunity to comment on items of public interest. Ten minutes are reserved for Citizen Comments. This portion of the agenda is for issues that are not included on an agenda or are not in the application process at City Hall.
No Council action should be expected during Citizen Comments, as the Council needs to thoroughly study all proposals or requests not of a routine nature.
Public Hearing
If an item is on an agenda, public comment on that item must take place during a Public Hearing, which can be held by the Council or a City Advisory Commission and provides the opportunity for any resident to fully present his or her position on an issue.
Council Meetings have a mandatory adjournment of 10:00 p.m.
The City Council welcomes the public to all Council meetings. To keep the agenda moving smoothly, the Council has adopted guidelines for making presentations before the Council.
Council members have received background information related to the meeting's agenda and have prepared themselves for the decision-making process. In some cases, Council may have also discussed these items at a previous work session. Background information includes the minutes of any related Council or Commission meetings, staff reports, and submittals by petitioners and other interested parties.
Order of Business
The schedule for a Council meeting is shown on the AGENDA. An agenda is a list of business items to be considered at a meeting. Each item is given an approximate time that it will be heard. Copies of the agenda are available at the entrance to the Council Chambers at the time of meetings.
The agenda is published before Council meetings on the City's website at this link. More information on agenda items is also available through the City Clerk's office at 952-890-4490.
Regular Agenda:
The REGULAR AGENDA consists of items requiring individual consideration by the Council; for example, discussion of individual development issues that have a significant number of community or neighborhood concerns.
Consent Agenda:
The Burnsville City Council uses a CONSENT AGENDA procedure for routine, non-controversial items needing little or no deliberation. Those items are identified on the agenda and are approved as a block with one vote unless a Councilmember, City staff, or citizen requests that an item be considered separately.


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Recent Outbreaks and Incidents - 2007
This page provides information on selected public health emergency topics of recent public interest. For a list of the latest updates posted on this web site, please see the What's New page.
MDR Tuberculosis (December 2007)
CDC is currently working on an investigation involving an international traveler to the U.S. recently diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB).
Earthquake (October 31, 2007)
A magnitude-5.6 tremor, centered about 9 miles northeast of San Jose, hit the San Francisco Bay area. CDC reminds you that by planning and practicing what to do if an earthquake strikes, you and your family can learn to react correctly and automatically when the shaking begins.
Wildfires (October 2007)
Learn how to stay safe when wildfires are a threat.
Salmonella (October 2007)
CDC is collaborating with public health officials in multiple states across the United States and with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service to investigate an ongoing multi-state outbreak of Salmonella infections in humans.
E. coli (September-October 2007)
Several state health departments, CDC, and the USDA are investigating a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections. On September 29, USDA issued a notice to recall of 21.7 millions pounds of frozen ground beef patties. Learn more about what CDC is doing about this recent outbreak.
Salmonella (August-September 2007)
Learn more about what CDC is doing to investigate the recent outbreak of Salmonella serotype Schwarzengrund associated with dry pet food.
Anthrax (September 2007)
Recent anthrax cases linked to exposure to animal skins have spurred interest in how you can be exposed to anthrax.
Tropical Storms Dean and Erin
Learn how to keep you and your family safe during a tropical storm or hurricane.
Bridge Collapse
Find resources related to coping with and treating injuries related to the Minneapolis bridge collapse.
Asbestos found in the debris from a recent steam pipe explosion in midtown Manhattan has raised concern about the danger of exposure to asbestos. Learn more about the health effects of asbestos exposure.
Learn more about botulism associated with canned chili sauce (July 2007)
Blast Injuries
Recent events in London have renewed interest in the sort of injuries that result from car bombs. Learn more about blast injuries.
Salmonella Wandsworth Outbreak (June-July 2007)
Learn more about the recent outbreak of a rare type of salmonella associated with a popular vegetarian snack food.
Information related to April-June 2007 ground beef recallsexternal icon
Find out which products have been recalled and what you should do.
XDR Tuberculosis (May 2007)
Recent events involving a U.S. air traveler have sparked interest in this rare type of TB that is resistant to almost all drugs. Learn more about this disease.
Wildfires (March 2007)
Learn how to stay safe when wildfires are a threat.
Thallium (March 2007)
Recent events involving American tourists in Russia have focused attention on Thallium. Learn how to recognize symptoms of toxic metal poisoning.
Acanthamoeba Infection
Learn more about the serious eye infections associated with soft contact lens solution.
Salmonella Outbreak (Aug 2006-present)
Learn more about the current outbreak associated with peanut butter.


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Giuliano Iantorno-Mario Papa
Turning Points
Communicating in English
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts, USA, 1986
A true departure in language learning. TURNING POINTS stresses the acquisition of natural, relevant language. This four-level communicative English program introduces young English learners to the social language skills needed to build the self-confidence and sense of achievement essential for success in communicating in English.
Secondary students enjoy participating in the abundance of communication activities which draw on their interests, experiences, And communicative needs. Topics: school activities, sport, travel, weather,social activities, entertainment, history, music, and many more.
Each innovative unit features:
Dialogues – sets the unit theme and presents much of the new vocabulary, expressions, and structures that are used in the unit;
Communication Points – introduces the functional/notional objectives of the unit;
Language Points – where students apply and synthesize their knowledge;
Practice Points – where functions and structures are practiced and reinforced;
Check Points - recaps the functions, structures, and vocabulary developed in the unit.
A strong carefully sequenced structural base is embedded in the dialogues, communication practice, reading and listening exercises so that students come to learn language as a means of communication rather than as a set of rules to be memorized.
TURNING POINTS … a major addition to the list of innovative Addison-Wesley language titles that teachers depend o.
TURNING POINTS Components:
Student Books 1-4 Workbooks 1-4
Teacher's Guides 1-4 Cassettes 1-4


text: Welcome to Blossom Fertility & IVF Center..Realising your dreamIt is the dream of most couples to have their own children as part of their relationship. In India 1 in 6 couples will have problems conceiving. The Blossom Fertility and IVF Centre aims to reduce the stress and hassle associated with infertility investigations and treatment, by offering a one-stop diagnostic and treatment service for infertile couples. |


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As part of the Restructuring Act, RSA 374-F:3 X, the electric utilities in the State of New Hampshire have established a set of energy efficiency programs designed for statewide implementation in the service territories of the utilities regulated by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). A variety of programs exist, serving both residential and commercial and industrial customers. They include programs for new construction, retrofitting existing structures, and rebate programs for selected lighting and appliances. In addition to the statewide programs, individual utilities run specific programs. Additional details on the core energy efficiency programs may be found by visiting NHSaves.com, the web site established by the utilities, or by calling the toll free number 1-866-266-2420.
Also see Natural Gas Energy Efficiency Programs
These programs, funded by the System Benefits Charge, were initially rolled out to customers beginning June 1, 2002. The programs are reviewed annually by the Commission. The utilities file periodic updates on the performance of the programs including program expenditures, resulting projected energy savings from implemented measures, and the number of customers served by the programs.
Proposed 2021-2023 Triennial Plan
NH Core Energy Efficiency Reports


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The Workman's Friend (A Pint of Plain is Your Only Man)
An Irish drinking song, rescued recently from cassette tape. Written and recorded as a lark to 4-track cassette in winter of 92-93 (20 years ago!) by my then-girlfriend (may she rest in peace) and I during my college years in Dublin.
Lyrics taken from Flann O'Brien's poem "The Workman's Friend" in his marvellous book At Swim-Two-Birds. If the head on the pint of plain looks frothy, that's because it's a home-brew Irish stout I made with a friend and not a Guinness properly poured by a Dublin barkeep. Uploaded for St Patrick's Day 2013.
And, here's a spoken version of the same poem that I just found today, by the Dubliners.
Tags: Dublin, Dublin band, folk, Ireland


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The European Union is to give Google's competitors a chance to review the company's latest proposals to avoid antitrust sanctions.
Google is accused of directing users to its own services in results rather than those of competitors. In its first proposals to the European Commission to settle the antitrust case, it suggested labelling its own services as such in search results, but competitors were extremely unhappy with this. Some said it would even make matters worse
The latest proposals from Google are significantly improved, according to the E.U.'s competition commissioner, Joaquin Almunia.
He still believes that a settlement is possible, and the best solution for consumers, he said at a special hearing in the European Parliament on Tuesday, adding that he hopes to resolve the case by "next Spring." However, he did not completely rule out the possibility of sanctions if Google's proposals prove unsatisfactory.
The first review process, or market test, led Almunia to doubt whether it would be possible to reach an agreement on the measures to which Google must commit.
"Many respondents during the market test said that in this Google proposal the links to rivals that would be displayed for certain categories of specialized search services were not visible enough. In my opinion, the new proposal makes these links significantly more visible."
Google is keen to bring the case to a close, according to the company's senior vice president and general counsel, Kent Walker.
"Given the feedback the European Commission received on our first proposal, they have insisted on further, significant changes to the way we display search results. While competition online is thriving, we've made the difficult decision to agree to their requirements in the interests of reaching a settlement," Walker said.
The case has been ongoing since November 2010, but Google is also facing other investigations in the European Union. It's Motorola Mobility unit was sent a formal complaint by the European Commission for abusing its dominant position by imposing injunctions against Apple for the use of standards-essential patents.
Another probe that is at a preliminary stage concerns allegations received about some aspects of the Android ecosystem. Almunia said on Tuesday that he had not reached a decision on whether to launch a formal investigation into Android.
Follow Jennifer on Twitter at @BrusselsGeek or email tips and comments to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Your Lake Travis Builder, Highland Lakes Builder, and Hill Country Builder
Finding a professional Lake Travis builder that you can trust and that will deliver high-quality can be daunting. We take pride in our ability as a Lake Travis builder to help you deal with the ins and outs of building on Lake Travis. Our in-house designs and years of experience as a Lake Travis builder make us the right choice for your Lake Travis custom home.
Building a Lake Travis custom home is a big financial decision. Preston Homes of Texas is the professional Lake Travis Builder you want to turn your dream into a reality.
View our custom homes gallery showcasing some of the detailed elements homeowners have created. Certain details weigh heavily on the success of your venture such as choosing the right location, setting a timeline, working through the design, and overall satisfaction at the end of the project.
The Lake Travis Builder You Can Trust
Having an accessible builder who is onsite, answering questions, and assisting you with your project is often promised but seldom a reality. Preston Homes of Texas intentionally limits the number of homes constructed annually to ensure that your home is one of our highest priorities.
Our custom home design and craftsmanship speak for us.
Ready to build your dream?
Let us be your Lake Travis Builder
We will do everything possible to make your custom home build a success. We want you to love your Lake Travis home and for all the right reasons. Having that famous Lake Travis view is much better when you choose to work with a Lake Travis builder that understands why you want to build on the lake in the first place. Let our in-house design team go to work for you.
Already have a design or architect that you want to use? No problem. We can work with your architect or our in-house design team can work with you to create complete, build-able construction plan that fits within your specific home budget.


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By Cindy Krischer Goodman
The Miami Herald.
Need a little help figuring out your next career move?
If you're putting in the hours and still not seeing the rewards, feeling undervalued or simply striving to be more successful, it may be time to hire a career coach.
When New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson was fired last month, she had begun the process of working with a career consultant to work through some of the "management style" and "temperament" concerns that allegedly did her in.
Like Abramson, most of excel in our jobs because of our technical expertise in our fields, but often, it is the "people" skills, such as managing and motivating staff, that trip us up.
A career coach can help you figure out behavior changes to help you advance, strategies for a new direction, or an action plan to close the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.
"Think of a career coach as an objective person to talk to who doesn't have a vested interest in anything but your success and satisfaction," said Teressa Moore Griffin, an executive coach and founder of Spirit of Purpose.
One Miami executive hired a coach when her nonprofit women's organization needed new direction.
At the time, Nancy Allen, president and chief executive of the Women's Business Development Council of Florida, was facing the high levels of stress common when nonprofits face board transitions and pressure to raise funds.
Allen said that while working with a coach weekly for seven months, she defined steps to bring in new sources of revenue and new programming. Her coach also helped her scrutinize where to focus her time.
"I came out of it with clarity of purpose," Allen said. "Most executives know what to do, but professional coaching helps them move beyond the minutia to set a plan of action, stay focused and accomplish defined tasks."
Now, Allen has brought her coach to work with her staff individually to develop their strengths: "I think it will lead to a happier, more productive staff."
As the job market opens, more people, particularly younger workers, are turning to career coaches.
In a survey of 12,000 professional coaches by the International Coach Federation, 60 percent of respondents reported an increase in the number of clients over the previous 12 months and more than 75 percent said they anticipated increases in clients and revenue over the next 12 months.
Coaching, once perceived as a luxury available only to senior executives, is increasingly appealing to younger generations, according to the International Coach Federation's 2014 Global Consumer Awareness Study.
Of the 18,800 workers surveyed, 35 percent of those between 25 and 34 years old said they already had participated in a coaching relationship.
Employers, spending once again on leadership development, are hiring coaches for managers, vice presidents and high-level executives who have hit an obstacle in their career progressions or face new challenges.
Griffin said that like coaches who work with athletes, she encourages corporate leaders to see how a small change in behavior affects performance: "Often, the person thinks the organization is the problem. I have to get them to see that if they want the team or boss or customer to behave differently, change starts with them."
Hiring a career coach is different from hiring most other professionals, and can be costly. Expect to pay $100 to $350 for a one-hour session, according to the International Coach Federation.
Most professionals work with their coaches for six months to a year.
There is no official licensing agency for career coaches, which has led to a wide range of quality among those claiming to be experts.
However, the International Coach Federation has built a worldwide network of more than 12,000 credentialed coaches with a minimum level of training and certification.
When selecting, Miami career coach Marlene Green advises asking for recommendations, checking references and asking questions "just as you would when hiring an attorney."
To be clear, a coach differs from a business consultant. Where a consultant identifies a business problem and gives a solution, a coach asks questions and encourages the client to find answers.
"You have to ask yourself, 'Do I have financial resources and time resources to get coached and am I in a place where I'm ready to have self-introspection?' " said Alexa Sherr Hartley, president of South Florida's Premier Leadership Coaching. "You're paying for a coach to help you figure it out, not to figure it out for you."
After she was twice passed over for a management position at her company, Jenna Altman decided it was time to hire a career coach. "I felt like I was doing everything right and I needed to figure out why I wasn't being promoted," she said.
Altman says her coach asked her questions that made her think differently about her strengths and weaknesses and how she adds value to her company.
She ended up asking for, and getting, a completely different position that she had never previously considered.
"When you have tried all the tools in your toolkit and you can't move from your current state to your desired one, that is the help a coach provides," Sherr explained.
Research by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85 percent of business success comes from personality, the ability to communicate, negotiate and lead.
Shockingly, only 15 percent is attributed to technical knowledge.
But Sherr says that with coaching, those soft skills can be learned and practiced at work and home: "That's why investing in coaching makes sense."
Cindy Krischer Goodman is CEO of BalanceGal LLC, a provider of news and advice on how to balance work and life.
2 Comments
I am interesting in meeting with a job coach that can provide me with tips, orientation on my career. I have been out of work for three years and have not been successful in finding employment. I am currently working on my own endeavor and would like to meet/speak with a job coach that can me with guidance, assistance to accomplish this dream. I watched your show yesterday and it inspired me and provided hope that I can still make or find a challenging and successful opportunity.
Thank you,


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The first time an American meets a Dominican, they may find themselves feeling a little confused by some of their actions. Although, we may not find any of these things to be super out of the ordinary, others might disagree. Here are 10 things Dominican do that Americans might find just a bit weird.
1. Playing Dominoes Outdoors
It's no secret that Dominican men love to play dominoes and they can do it for hours sitting outside their building or at the local bodega.
2. Calling Their Friends "Loco" (which means "crazy")
The phrase "Dimelo, loco" is common among Dominicans and their friends. But they're not actually calling each other crazy – it's a term of endearment where we come from.
3. That Insane Love for Plantains
What can we say? Platanos go great with everything!
4. Rocking the Tubi or Rolos in Public
Walking around with a tubi or rolos is like second nature because most Dominican women like to make sure they keep that fresh blowout intact!
5. Clapping at Random Moments
You can always spot Dominicans clapping enthusiastically when they find something really funny. We're not sure why, it just sort of happens!
6. Using Vivaporu As a Cure-All
Forget the doctor! Have a cold? Rub some Vicks. Have a cut? Rub some Vicks. Yes, Dominican mothers turn to Vivaporu (as they say) for just about everything!
7. Eating Sancocho on a Hot Day
Most people turn to soup in the winter, but you can find Dominicans whipping up un sancochito even on the hottest summer day.
8. Greeting Someone New (and Everyone Else) with a Hug & Kiss
Dominicans are warm and loving people. Instead of a handshake, they rather embrace people with a hug and kiss.
9. Celebrating Mother's Day and Father's Day…Twice!
Dominicans don't just celebrate the United States' designated Mother's Day and Father's Day, they also celebrate Dominican Mother's Day and Father's Day.
10. Talking Loudly While Having a Conversation
It may sound like we're yelling all the time, but Dominicans just happen to talk really loud. This happens even more so if they"re really passionate about something.


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Charles Krauthammer: Congress will decide Trump's fate
The most amusing part of the Trump transition has been watching its effortless confounding of the media, often in fewer than 140 characters. One morning, after a Fox News report on lefty nuttiness at some obscure New England college – a flag-burning that led a more-contemptible-than-usual campus administration to take down the school's own American flag – Donald Trump tweets that flag burners should go to jail or lose their citizenship.
An epidemic of constitutional chin-tugging and civil libertarian hair-pulling immediately breaks out. By the time the media have exhausted their outrage over the looming abolition of free speech, judicial supremacy and affordable kale, Trump has moved on. The tempest had a shorter half-life than the one provoked in August 2015 by a Trump foray into birthright citizenship.
Trump so thoroughly owns the political stage today that the word Clinton seems positively quaint and Barack Obama, who happens to be president of the United States, is totally irrelevant. Obama gave a major national security address on Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn's son got more attention.
Trump has mesmerized the national media not just with his elaborate Cabinet-selection production, by now Broadway-ready, but with a cluster of equally theatrical personal interventions that by traditional standards seem distinctly unpresidential.
It's a matter of size. They seem small for a president. Preventing the shutdown of a Carrier factory in Indiana. Announcing, in a contextless 45-second surprise statement, a major Japanese investment in the U.S. calling for cancellation of the new Air Force One to be built by Boeing.
Pretty small stuff. It has the feel of a Cabinet undersecretary haggling with a contractor or a state governor drumming up business on a Central Asian trade mission. Or of candidate Trump selling Trump steaks and Trump wine in that bizarre victory speech after the Michigan primary.
Presidents don't normally do such things. It shrinks them. But then again, Trump is not yet president. And the point here is less the substance than the symbolism.
The Carrier coup was meant to demonstrate the kind of concern for the working man that gave Trump the Rust Belt victories that carried him to the presidency. The Japanese SoftBank announcement was a down payment on his promise to be the "the greatest jobs president that God ever created." (A slightly dubious claim: After all, how instrumental was Trump to that investment? Surely a financial commitment of that magnitude would have been planned long before Election Day.) And Boeing was an ostentatious declaration that he would be the zealous guardian of government spending that you would expect from a crusading outsider.
What appears as random Trumpian impulsiveness has a logic to it. It's a continuation of the campaign. Trump is acutely sensitive to his legitimacy problem, as he showed in his tweet claiming to have actually won the popular vote, despite trailing significantly in the official count. His best counter is approval ratings. In August, the Bloomberg poll had him at 33 percent. He's now up to 50 percent. Still nowhere near Obama's stratospheric 79 percent at this point in 2008, but a substantial improvement nonetheless.
The mini-interventions are working, but there's a risk for Trump in so personalizing his coming presidency. It's a technique borrowed from Third World strongmen who specialize in demonstrating their personal connection to the ordinary citizen. In a genuine democracy, however, the endurance of any political support depends on the larger success of the country. And that doesn't come from Carrier-size fixes. It comes from policy – policy that fundamentally changes the structures and alters the trajectory of the nation.
"I alone can fix it," Trump ringingly declared in his convention speech. Indeed, alone he can do Carrier and SoftBank and Boeing. But ultimately he must deliver on tax reform, health care, economic growth and nationwide job creation. That requires Congress.
The 115th is Republican and ready to push through the legislation that gives life to the promises. On his part, Trump needs to avoid needless conflict. The Republican leadership has already signaled strong opposition on some issues, such as tariffs for job exporters. Nonetheless, there is enough common ground between Trump and his congressional majority to have an enormously productive 2017. The challenge will be to stay within the bounds of the GOP consensus.
Trump will continue to tweet and the media will continue to take the bait. Highly entertaining, but it is a sideshow. Congress is where the fate of the Trump presidency will be decided.
Charles Krauthammer is a columnist for Washington Post Writers Group.


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The Sub Machine Fuzz combines shaggy fuzz with a growling sub octave circuit—switchable between series and parallel modes—with an octave up fuzz mode for searing subterannean sounds.
The Sub Machine Fuzz kicks open the door to epic and unbridled sonic exploration. This mean little box combines the shaggy vintage tones of the La Machine Fuzz with a growling sub octave circuit, giving you a one way ticket to the sonic frontiers of heavy.
The Sub Machine Fuzz features the La Machine Fuzz's circuitry and all of its functions—from its Volume, Tone, and Fuzz controls to its electrifying octave up mode.—but it's also got an old school sub octave circuit with its own level control, so you can dial in just the right mix of fuzz and sub octave signals.
To further broaden the Sub Machine Fuzz's thunderous tonal palette, the MXR team added a Series switch so you can run the sub octave signal straight into the fuzz—for some seriously subterranean saturation—or alongside the fuzz for a split channel effect.


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Saturn's Southern Polar Vortex
If you wanted to go someplace warm for a vacation, would you choose the South Pole? If you lived on Saturn you might! Saturn's South Pole is the warmest place on the ringed planet. Watch out for the weather, though. There is a really huge storm like a hurricane right at Saturn's South Pole.
Scientists made a "heat map" of Saturn using infrared "light". They were surprised when they looked at it. It showed that the warmest place on Saturn is at the South Pole. One scientist said that if we found this temperature pattern on Earth it would be "like discovering that Antarctica is hotter than the Sahara Desert".
There is a really, really big storm at Saturn's South Pole, too. I looks sort of like a hurricane on Earth. The storm has spiral bands of clouds, high wind speeds, and a gigantic eyewall. Hurricanes on Earth move around, but the one on Saturn stays in one spot right over the pole.
Saturn's "hurricane" is really, really big. It is much larger than hurricanes on Earth. Clouds in the eyewall tower 30 to 75 kilometers (19 to 47 miles) above their surroundings. That is 2 to 5 times higher than in hurricanes on Earth! Winds around Saturn's pole can blow as fast as 550 km/hour (342 miles per hour).
The "polar hurricane" on Saturn is the first storm with an eyewall discovered beyond Earth. Even Jupiter's Great Red Spot, which is much larger than Saturn's storm, does not have an eye or an eyewall.


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Masterminding the perfect look for Hollywood celebrities comes at a price.
And with that price hovering around $8,000 a day for a well-connected stylist, is it any wonder that a new breed of actresses are opting against convention and going it alone? A few brave souls are redefining glamour as something much more personal, choosing their wardrobes based on their own tastes and sensibilities.
Click the Image to View Our Gallery of Stars Who Dress Themselves
Leading the pack is Diane Kruger, star of Inglourious Basterds, who regularly dons everything from Chanel Haute Couture to Marchesa, Jason Wu, Donna Karan, and Calvin Klein. A former model who once upon a time studied with the Royal Ballet in London, Kruger gets it right without the assistance of a stylist. She often polishes off her looks with a stellar assortment of accessories that would rightfully rival any front-row fashionista.
Sure, the Chanel Fine Jewels and Harry Winston are a mainstay in her red-carpet choices, but her tendency to mix things up by introducing the occasional necklace by Tom Binns, or clutches by Kotur, Roger Vivier and Raven Kauffman, have garnered her additional cachet. And what about her savvy knack for experimenting with color? As if fuschia pink Christian Lacroix Haute Couture at the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards didn't earn her enough praise, weeks later she topped it off with a mustard-colored Jason Wu gown at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, proving in essence that not only does she understand the importance of a good photo-op when it comes to color on the red carpet, but also that she's not afraid to work with it.
"Diane Kruger and Marion Cotillard are consistently the best dressed in Hollywood," says Arianne Phillips, whose personal styling work for Madonna, Lenny Kravitz, and Courtney Love over the past decade enabled her career to catapult into the world of costume design and has since resulted in an Academy-Award nomination for Walk the Line and more recently, a BAFTA nomination for her collaboration on Tom Ford's A Single Man.
"Both women are not only incredibly talented actresses, they're extreme beauties in the sense of them both exuding confidence and ease," Phillips says. "They're both clearly working with very sophisticated and informed taste levels in terms of style and importantly, they understand what looks good on them."
Case in point: Where Kruger champions the young American designer Jason Wu for example, Cotillard (who also works sans styliste) remains devoted to her native France and its staple LVMH-owned favorite, Christian Dior. She is, after all, the face of the brand's Lady Dior advertising.
"Marion has a handful of relationships with designers that she frequently turns to for options," says a mouthpiece for the Academy Award-winning actress. Enter: Elie Saab Haute Couture (2010 Screen Actors Guild Awards) and Jean-Paul Gaultier Haute Couture (2008 Academy Awards). Interestingly, however, she favors jewels from Chopard and somewhat more traditional clutches courtesy of Swarovski or Judith Leiber, not to mention occasional pairings of Roger Vivier or Jimmy Choo accessories.
Standing her ground alongside these leading ladies is Mad Men star January Jones, whose penchant for Gucci graphic prints (at a pre-Oscars luncheon) and geometric sequin detailing from Atelier Versace (at the 2009 Emmy Awards) have earned her a cult-like following within the fashion blogosphere. Having single-handedly cherry-picked her own awards-season wardrobe, she affirmed her status as an all-American actress with an all-encompassing eye for style after appearing in a black Lanvin gown teamed with Neil Lane diamonds and a ribbon headband at the Golden Globes.
"She definitely caught my eye" says Phillips. "January is clearly one to watch."
Unless of course you're watching with a microscopic eye.
"They all look great," says Ezra Woods, a freelance stylist who occasionally works with Chloe Sevigny. "Diane, Marion and January all clearly have good taste. Sometimes, upon closer inspection however, I notice they could have opted for a more interesting or flattering accessory, or a dress could have been altered to fit better."
"What's happening now is that studios are cutting budgets for stylists so a lot of girls are dressing themselves," says stylist Shirley Kurata.
Shirley Kurata, who styles Zooey Deschanel agrees.
"It's always an advantage working with a stylist because it brings an experienced eye into the mix as well as someone to take care of the right tailor, specific foundation wear, accessories, etc." she says.
"What's happening now is that studios are cutting budgets for stylists so a lot of girls are dressing themselves" says Kurata. "For someone like Diane Kruger or even Tilda Swinton, they're savvy enough to know what works, and they clearly have direct access to the designers so they're probably having actual fittings before they hit the red carpet as opposed to someone else in Hollywood working without a stylist, like Blake Lively for example."
"If the girls are fortunate enough to be friends with the designer, then of course that changes things," she adds.
An example of that is the union of Kirsten Dunst, who only occasionally works with stylists (sisters Claire and Nina Hallworth), and Rodarte. In between donning vintage Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel Haute Couture, Dunst flies the Rodarte flag more frequently than any other label. Seated in the front row of the brand's September 2009 presentation during New York Fashion Week, she wore a T-shirt imprinted with the words "J'aime Rodarte." And in an effort to return the compliment this month, SoCal designer siblings Kate and Laura Mulleavy affectionately told V magazine of its current cover girl, "Kirsten inspires us to be more creative."
Now if only more actresses could do the same.


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Durable Medical Equipment
At Westbury Pharmacy, we offer a wide variety of medical supplies. If your particular item is not in stock we can order most items or refer you to a local dealer.
Among the many items we stock are:
- Braces and Supports
- Compression Hose
- Canes and Crutches
- Full line of Diabetic Testing Supplies
- Home Blood Pressure Kits
- Vaporizers and Humidifiers
- Bandages, Gauze and Tapes
- Bathroom Safety items
Westbury Pharmacy strives to provide for all your medical needs. If there is an item that you cannot find let us know and we'll do our best to track it down for you. Rentals and billing are not available for durable medical equipment.