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Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Village medicine
On Friday, I drove down to Pont-en-Royans to post a letter. A friend living opposite the post office noticed that I was limping, and he rushed across to ask me what was wrong. For want of a better explanation, and instead of describing how I might have stumbled on a rock up behind my house at Gamone, I told him (without being at all convinced that this was the truth) that it was an unexpected attack of arthritis. I thought that this would satisfy his curiosity, since I'm old enough to suffer from this standard ailment… and it's even possible that I do, already. Instead of that, he was eager to tell me all about his miracle cure for all kinds of aches in the joints, particularly the knees. It was a gel named Geldolor. He told me I could find it at the local pharmacy (we happened to be standing just outside the door), and that it was both inexpensive and amazingly effective. So, I assured him that I would buy this product just as soon as I had posted my letter.
Inside the pharmacy, I told the young female pharmacist that a kind friend had given me the name of a wonderful ointment that would almost certainly relieve me of an annoying pain in my left knee. When I told her the name of the product, she said that the pharmacy didn't stock it, but they could have a tube delivered for the following morning.
PHARMACIST: You don't need to tell me the name of your kind friend, because there's only one individual in Pont-en-Royans who would recommend this phytochemical product for the treatment of knee pains.
I was trapped! In a flash, I grasped what had happened. William—who raves on regularly, on his blog, about the stupidity of homeopathy, astrology and other forms of quackery—had been caught out by a friend. Here I was ordering a magic plant-based thing in the hope of healing my sore knee joints. And even the pharmacist considered me now as the kind of guy who would believe anything. I'm sure she must be thinking that I'm a naive Anglo-Saxon sucker. And she probably imagines, to top it all off, that I go along to mass in the village church of a Sunday morning, and that I no doubt think the universe was created in a week, a few thousand years ago.
WILLIAM: Maybe, in place of the Geldolor, you could propose some kind of regular pharmaceutical product. After all, I've simply got a sore knee.
PHARMACIST: No, I wouldn't do that. If your friend has advised you to try the plant-based product, then you should do so.
I was well and truly trapped. The pharmacist saw me no doubt as the kind of guy for whom my friendship with the fellow across the street, and my respect for his judgment and wisdom, were surely far more important to me than modern medicine, science, technology or even truth.
The next morning, I picked up the product. When I returned home, I discovered that driving my car to the pharmacy had aggravated the pain in my knee. So, the circumstances were ideal for testing the product. It smelled good. I learned from the packet that the two active ingredients in the ointment were red pepper and an African plant known as Devil's Claw, containing alleged anti-inflammatory agents named harpagoside and beta-sitosterol. Half-an-hour later, the pain was just as intense as ever, so I swallowed a paracetamol tablet washed down by a cup of tea. Within five minutes, the pain had eased. But was this due to Geldolor or the paracetamol?
Over the weekend, I repeated the treatment a few more times, while saying to myself that I would go along to my doctor on Monday morning. Meanwhile, I made the mistake of not washing and drying my hands sufficiently after handling the red-pepper product, which gave rise suddenly to a horrible pain in my eyes… rapidly chased away by flushing with warm water.
When I crawled out of bed early on Monday morning, with the intention of visiting the doctor, the first thing I noticed was that the pain in my knee had disappeared. Now, don't expect me to conclude that this was due to the Geldolor. As I said at the beginning of this post, my aches and pains are always fleeting. They come and go, and I've learned to live with them. I cannot, of course, exclude the possibility that the charming young pharmacist had been so moved by my tale of suffering that she had visited the local church, at the end of her working day, and prayed for my rapid recovery. In that case, I would have to thank the fellow on the other side of the road for sending me to this pharmacy (which is not where I usually go for my prescription medicine), along with the girl herself, and—last but not least—Jesus and the Holy Ghost. Be that as it may, I felt that there was no longer any point in dropping in on my GP.
3 comments:
One assumes that you paid considerably less for the Geldolor than you would have for a visit to your GP. Well done! Like a computer problem, I don't worry about how it was fixed, am just glad that it works again.ReplyDelete
And, William, surely you took some other medication, carefully measured from corked or other bottles? That must have helped.
Annie: A tube of Geldolor costs a few euros. The only reason why Christian (the fellow who recommended it) would have mentioned this aspect of the affair is that equivalent treatment from my regular GP, here in France, would have been totally free. So, Christian was no doubt conscious of the fact that he was asking me, indirectly, to contribute to the funding in France of quack pharmacology. But that doesn't annoy me considerably. Live and let live. Every year around Christmas, I make a generous donation to the local "firies", who've done absolutely nothing, since my arrival at Choranche, to contribute to my well-being. (I've just used one of my favorites Oztalk specimens. To my ears, that word sounds as if these virile individuals were a cross between fairies and fireflies. In my imagination, I see Aussie firefighters prancing around gaily with their hoses, attired in brass helmets and ballet outfits.)ReplyDelete
As for "medicine" from uncorked bottles, that's another interesting subject. Up until a few years ago, I had indeed developed the habit of never sitting down in front of my computer without a bottle of wine alongside me. My ex-wife and children used to complain regularly about the fact that they could tell from my speech exactly how much alcohol I had consumed. Well, for quite some time, I've been obliged to put an end to this habit, for a quite down-to-earth reason: I've discovered that alcohol, of all kinds, "sickens" me… where the inverted commas around "sickens" indicate that it's a fuzzy but vicious cerebral affliction, capable of exerting its noxious effects for about a full day and night. I won't go into details, which are unclear and not particularly interesting, but let's say that the "sickness" is a mixture of depression, lethargy, nausea and—last but not least—a sudden incapacity to perform the subtle mental operations involved in both creative writing and computer programming, which have become my basic everyday preoccupations. Sadly, therefore, alcohol, for me, has become a poison. Does this conclusion annoy me? No, not at all. I feel much better and happier.
Thank you, William, for your clarifications. I'm glad for you that visits to the GP are free as few here in Oz continue to bulk-bill.ReplyDelete
I probably should have picked up on your non-wine-drinking habits from earlier posts you've made.
My mother liked red wine but, as she used to put it, "It doesn't like me." So regardless of the occasion she would always ask for a beer. In her last few years, she didn't like that either.
Her brother found by painstaking trial and error that scotch gave him migraines. He had done two week trials eliminating every other foodstuff before he came to his conclusion - if he wanted to drink scotch, which he did from time to time, he knew he would suffer from a migraine!


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Reign Through Immortality
July 2013
Released: 2013, Victory Records
Rating: 5.0/5
Reviewer: Metal-Rules.com UK Team
Only forming back in January of 2010, and after their release of previous album 'Irkalla', the blackened, death metal band from Montreal Canada, are now back with the album Erimha; meaning 'Army' or 'legion' in Sumerian culture. Already forming a great fan base, the band have been busy touring and had a line-up change as Alix and Lykan were replaced by Disuternas; lead guitarist. The album itself is based on ancient mythology and spirituality but has the intensity and darkness you'd expect from this genre.
With their haunting, melodic, merciless and operatic sounds, the album has an impressive start! Starting off with a slow and atmospheric symphonic sound and dramatic drum beats, sounding more like an epic soundtrack, the second track explodes into the furiousness of blackened death sounds, as the other instruments all kick in at once.
Sounding very similar in music style to bands like Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth, they still manage to stand out and have their own distinctive sound, making this most definitely an album for black and death metal fans. I really love the orchestra and symphonic sounds, which are played throughout the album, as the heavy guitaring sound amazing against the violins, making this one album to instantly get your attention, as well as blastbeats and furious drumming which keeps the brutal feeling in all their tracks.
There is a dark and haunting feel throughout 'Gores' vocals being from deep growls to keeping to the black/death metal feel, making this is one album I fell in love with instantly. The production, mixing and sound on this album is perfect, with everything so clear you can hear everything that is being thrown at you. You can really appreciate just how diverse and well they play, with so much going on in the background, making you miss nothing. These guys certainly play with true dedication and passion. Just as you think the album has a certain pace, 'Bewildering Nightmare', picks it up even more, with faster and more brutal playing, there is also a great guitar solo which is pretty amazing.
The songs continue in the same manor and flow perfectly into each other, with the track 'Cataclysmic Tides'; being the only instrumental track on the album, breaking it up nicely before the last track 'Metempsychosis' kicks in, taking the sound back up there to fast and furious, as the album ends on the 10minute track, ending just as furiously as they started. This is also the only track to have some 'clean vocals' which I have to say sound amazing, shame there wasn't more of this amongst the growls.
As symphonic blackened death metal bands go, these guys are standing next to the best of them!
All the tracks on the album are astounding and it's no wonder they are being booked for festivals and gigs, and have an impressive fan base already. I hope to see good reviews of this album, which I'd like to point out has some impressive artwork, done by isis design studio. This is one album that needs to be heard and is already on my list of best release of 2013!
Review by Jo Blackened
Track Listing
1. Enlightenment
Gore - Vocals

subset: commoncrawl


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|2012-01-23, 06:53
|Link #441
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Dollars
I love when gg translator capitalize Zen's name I still believe that he's the original Fudo Gen, but hey, if he's that fabulous then I don't mind at all
|2012-01-23, 07:05
|Link #442
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
In the OVA the reason why Aquarion is made up of three Vectors is that it needs a third person to temper the passion between Apollonius and Celiane. As that passion can destroy the world. Reika who is the reincarnation of Scorpius is that person. Yes the Principal's concern was valid with Aquarion but he doesn't have knowledge of the events 24,000 years ago.
OVA Reika felt such a regret for her past life and current actions that she was willing to pay for it even if she was cursed with misfortune. Asking Apollo and Silvia to trust her again.
As a effect TV series Reika is always unlucky and depressed.
Gen Fudo did say "One soul can become two and three souls can become one" referencing Apollo, Sirius and Silvia being reincarnations of Apollonius and Celiane.
Here while it is implied that Mikono is Silvia reincarnated it seems she also by extension inherited Reika's soul along with her brother Cayene. Cayene having Reika's power of visions. While Mikono too Reika's sense of misfortune.
While Apollonius and Celiane are the main pilots they need a third one.
Also we are talking about two canonically different universes. Some events are similar some are different. Though there is an implication that OVA Apollo, Silvia and Reika created a parallel universe. Their actions causing a dimensional disturbance just before Pierre and Silvia found Apollo with his gang. The snowstorm being an effect of it. As well as Apollo's name slipping to Silvia's mind and Reika's vision that sent them to that place to find Apollo.
I also notice in episode 2 that Altea or Altair has the same type of gun emplacements as Neo Hong Kong. Kagura calls the world they are invading Vega. Given that Neo Deava believes that they are being invaded by beings from another dimension one can't discount that these two worlds are parallel universes. Probably the OVA and TV series univeses.
Last edited by ReddyRedWolf; 2012-01-23 at 07:20.
|2012-01-23, 07:10
|Link #443
~Night of Gales~
Join Date: Dec 2005
Well, we all know how the whole 'assumed reincarnation' thing in Aquarion turned out.
At least as far the TV series went, there were definitely implications that Scorpius is Gen/Zen. ( who's been alive for 24,000 years and counting )
The OVA, of course, involved Scorpius heavily in the plot as Reika. But Sirius is also dead in said timeline, so things are different.
|2012-01-23, 07:36
|Link #444
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
As said Gen Fudo isn't Scorpius. Reika is Scorpius. Much like the events in the OVA universe and TV series universe being different. The war between Atlandia and Sangrila was the same but different. In the OVA universe it is Scorpius that is the third pilot for the final battle of that war but in the TV universe it is Gen Fudo.
In the OVA the Aquarion wasn't found but the Assault Aquarions were still developed, Apollo didn't meet Baron instead raised by his grandfather in a forest, all Shadow Angels but Toma and Otoha were still frozen.
|2012-01-23, 07:56
|Link #445
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
I think jin said something interesting about how he wonders if aqaurion evol is just as strong as the original one. So does that mean that the alternate dimension guys also had a aquarion at some point.
I also thought amata was a little taken in by sharde
Last edited by mayumi; 2012-01-23 at 08:08.
|2012-01-23, 08:08
|Link #446
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Well they do have a Shadow Angel as a source. In the OVA Touma died with a Mugen Punch. In the TV series Touma sacrificed himself with Apollo and Sirius in Aquarion to save Earth from being destroyed.
Whether Mykage is Touma we don't now yet.
|2012-01-23, 08:44
|Link #447
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Last edited by Ypocaramel; 2012-01-23 at 09:06.
|2012-01-23, 09:03
|Link #448
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2004
Q: Is the OVA of the previous series a sequel of the previous TV series?
A: It's a parallel universe. However, the event 12,000 years ago is common because it happened before time and space diverged.
|2012-01-23, 10:39
|Link #450
Secret Society BLANKET
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: 3 times the passion of the usual flamenco
|2012-01-23, 10:51
|Link #451
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Dollars
If we take account on what happened to the world during the OVA (where almost every population is either frozen or become prana) then it makes sense that Kagura's world is that desolated.
|2012-01-23, 11:28
|Link #453
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
|2012-01-23, 11:56
|Link #455
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Kagura crossed the dimensions just to get his own wench.
|2012-01-23, 12:46
|Link #456
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
|2012-01-23, 13:36
|Link #459
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
a little thought concerning scorpius. I'd say likely Fudo and Reika are both him. Fudo isn't a reincaration but scorpius himself. after the events of 12000 years before the first series, scorpius was killed or maybe overcome with guilt and commited suicide. Maybe his element though kept his consciousness on the earth which is Gen/ Zen who is helping the reincarnations to Apollonius and Celiane to attone for his betrayal. While Reika is more appropriately a proper reincarnation of Scorpius. Kinda like the split that happened to Celiane.
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Twilight Meadow
This is a water-based oil painting on canvas. I tried to incorporate the book covers, so watch for them. Sorry, I couldn't make Edward sparkle. There is no paint that will do him justice.
1. Chapter 1
Rating 5/5 Word Count 1 Review this Chapter


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Nolan Nursing residents move to new facility
Nolan Nursing and Rehab residents were moved to their new facility on the east end of Sweetwater by the Texas Department of Transportation office from their Lamar Street location.The new facility is licensed for 96 residents and 60 residents were moved to the current facility. Among the four wings, there are six private rooms and the rest are semi-private rooms. Each wing dead-ends into a sitting area, which has telephones, plasma televisions and couches. Each room has a bed, a chair and a wardrobe closet. Residents will even be able to enjoy a beauty room in the new facility. Different volunteers will come throughout the month to provide beauty services to the residents that wish to take advantage of them, some services are even provided free of charge. The dietary staff will consist of four employees and the rest of the staff will be based on the number of residents. Less than a year ago the ground was broken and now they are in a brand new facility. One that was well awaited for and needed. The complex also has a separate laundry facility.Assisting in the moving of the 60 residents was the Big Country Medical Reserve Corps (BCMRC). MRC units are community based and function as a way to locally organize and utilize volunteers who want to donate their time and expertise to prepare for and respond to emergencies and promote healthy living throughout the year. MRC volunteers supplement existing emergency and public health resources.The mission of the BCMRC is to engage volunteers to strengthen public health, emergency response and community resiliency. The BCMRC functions through the Sweetwater-Nolan County Health Department. It is partnered with the Nolan County Community Response Team (CERT), Rolling Plains Memorial Hospital, Rolling Plains Rural Health Clinic, Texas State Technical College of Nursing, Sweetwater-Nolan County Health Department, Sweetwater police and fire departments, Nolan County Sheriff's Office, City of Sweetwater and Nolan County local governments.The focus of the organization is to provide medical support to these entities during times of medical surge, pandemic disease outbreaks and disaster emergencies. Currently, MRC leadership has been meeting with all the entities listed, concerning and identifying support needs and opportunities to serve the healthcare community. "In the future we hope to be able to assist nearby counties to affiliate with us and create a larger group of related MRCs," said Ray Browning, BCMRC Coordinator.MRC volunteers include medical and public health professionals such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, veterinarians and epidemiologists. Many community members including interpreters, chaplains, office workers, legal advisors and others can fill key support positions.MRC units are provided specific areas to target that strengthen the public health infrastructure of their communities by the U.S. Surgeon General. These are outlined priorities for the health of individuals and the nation as a whole, which also serve as a guide to the MRC. The overreaching goal is to improve health literacy and in support of this, work towards increasing disease prevention, eliminating health disparities and improve public health preparedness.MRC volunteers can choose to support communities in need nationwide. For more information on volunteering or getting involved with the BCMRC, call Ray Browning at 325-235-5463 ext. 13.


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A family distraught over the death of their 17-year-old son is asking for answers. They say their son took his own life after years of off and on bullying at a school in Pitt County.
The Pitt County Sheriff's Office is stepping in to investigate, something it has never done before.
Wednesday afternoon, Jeffrey Hulon, Sr. and his wife, Angela, sat around their kitchen table, picking out a casket for their son, Jeffrey.
"It's the hardest thing you'll ever go through. Everything else will be easy to go through in life. I never wish that for anybody," said the father.
On Monday night their only son committed suicide, leaving a note to his family that he was tired of the bullying. Hulon said they had no idea Jeffrey was beat up in the school bathroom that day.
"In the note, he told his momma 'I'm sorry but don't cry.' He in his mind he'll go and still watch over you."
Hulon says his son was a quiet child, who kept to himself. He loved sports and played football at North Pitt High School in the 9th grade.
He says that's when the bullying began. They moved him to South Central High School for a while, where his grades improved and he started to thrive.
But Hulon says financial issues caused them to move again, back into the North Pitt school area in December for his tenth grade year.
The father says whatever happened to his son, happened inside the walls of the high school, and that in the suicide note he left names of the people who bullied him, which is why the sheriff's office is now investigating.
"In this specific incident there have been some allegations made that bullying may have precipitated this to happening," said Major Paula Dance.
The Pitt County Sheriff's Office says this investigation is the first of its kind for them and the reason they wanted to look into it further.
For now Hulon prepares to bury his son with no real answers into why and if the school district did enough to punish those who allegedly pushed their son, over the edge.
Pitt County Schools released a statement about Jeffery Hulon's death.
"Our hearts are heavy in the Pitt County School System as we look for answers regarding the death of a student at North Pitt High School. In accordance with state and federal law, we are limited in what we can say regarding specific students, however, protecting the safety and well being of all students is the top priority for all of our schools. When a student is faced with adversity, it is our hope that they will share that information with our administrators, teachers, or support staff so we can take steps to address the situation. This is a tragic event, and we will continue to cooperate with investigators and offer support to the family, students, and staff who are affected by this loss."
The family says they did talk with school administrators about Jeffrey Hulon being bullied, but since the district can not comment about it, WITN cannot confirm if anything was done or not.


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A Myrtle Beach woman has been arrested after North Carolina deputies say she led them on a high-speed chase and said she'd stop in exchange for cash.
Brunswick County deputies say they began the chase after 37-year-old Jennifer Herring refused to pull over at a traffic stop just before 11:30 p.m. Monday.
Herring called 911 during the chase and said there was no emergency but that she'd pull over in exchange for $300,000.
Deputies chased Herring until she hit a dead end and stopped in a driveway. Authorities say she hit speeds of 70 mph in a 45 mph zone.
Herring faces charges including driving while impaired. It wasn't known if she had an attorney, and deputies said she already had another pending DWI case in Brunswick County.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


text: Hi folks, I'm going to be evaluating Litespeed as a replacement for our web server. I've used cpanel in the past, but am not beholden to it. I'm interested in evaluating Litespeed with what is considered the most trouble-free admin panel out of the list of compatible ones. Now I know all of them are supported, but I'm sure some work better with Litespeed than others. I'd love to hear any feedback. Thanks! K


text: Save This Event For Later Onion River Racing - 2013 Membership Montpelier, VT, Tue Jan 1 - Tue Dec 31, 2013 Contact Event | Event Website | Google Calendar Start line address: Montpelier, VT 05602 Presented by Onion River Racing This is a past event. If you wish to see the details for this event click, "Continue" below. If you are looking for a current event, please search the event calendar .


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Green named 1st-Team all NHC
NEW HAVEN — Freshman Tyler Green finished his first Northeast Hoosier Conference Golf Match in prime fashion Saturday at Whispering Creek Golf Course.Green was named 1st-Team All-NHC at the match, after scoring a one-over par, 73.The freshman scored a 35 in the front nine, and 38 in the back half.Columbia City finished fourth as team with a score of 325, as Carroll took the conference title with 295 strokes.Fellow freshman Spencer Klimek also had a stand-out performance, making 2nd-Team All-Conference with a score of 77.To read the rest of this story, see the May 20 issue of The Post and Mail. Don't have a subscription? Call (260) 244-5153 or subscribe to our e-edition. For breaking news, sports updates and additional coverage, bookmark the homepage and find us on facebook and twitter.


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Channel 4 is back on Dish Network.
Channel 4 is back on Dish Network.
In a rare case in which neither side blinked, local customers of Dish Network went without access to NBC programming on Oct. 1 after negotiations between the owner of WCMH-TV (Channel 4) and the satellite TV provider failed to reach agreement.
Both Dish and Media General � a Richmond, Va., company that owns TV stations in 17 markets � had warned viewers for weeks that Media General stations would go dark for Dish subscribers if an agreement wasn�t reached by the deadline.
WCMH officials have estimated that about 7 percent of viewers who subscribe to satellite and cable providers in central Ohio subscribe to Dish.
Media General and Dish Network put out a joint statement late yesterday saying that they had reached an agreement. Terms were not disclosed and spokesmen for each could not be reached for comment.
The statement said that signals from Media General outlets would be available again to Dish subscribers yesterday.
At issue in the talks was the fee that satellite and cable companies pay to retransmit broadcasters' programming.
Ad-supported broadcast networks and their affiliates, aware that cable networks such as ESPN and CNN negotiate with satellite and cable carriers for often-lucrative fees, increasingly have insisted on getting that second source of income.
The previous contract between Media General and Dish expired in June, but the companies agreed to a 90-day extension, at which time no agreement had been reached.


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XML::Compile::Transport::SOAPHTTP - exchange XML-SOAP via HTTP
XML::Compile::Transport::SOAPHTTP is a XML::Compile::Transport is a XML::Compile::SOAP::Extension
use XML::Compile::Transport::SOAPHTTP; my $http = XML::Compile::Transport::SOAPHTTP->new(@options); my $send = $http->compileClient(@options2); my $call = $wsdl->compileClient ( operation => 'some-port-name' , transport => $send ); my ($xmlout, $trace) = $call->($xmlin); $wsdl->compileCalls(transport => $send);
This module handles the exchange of (XML) messages, according to the rules of SOAP (any version). The module does not known how to parse or compose XML, but only worries about the HTTP aspects.
Extends "DESCRIPTION" in XML::Compile::Transport.
Extends "METHODS" in XML::Compile::Transport.
Extends "Constructors" in XML::Compile::Transport.
Create a SOAP-over-HTTP handler, implemented as a wrapper around LWP::UserAgent.
If you need to change UserAgent settings (for instance at runtime), you can always directly access the internal
LWP::UserAgent object via userAgent().
Warning: The
keep_alive and
timeout options are only used when an default internal
LWP::UserAgent is created; this is only once in a program. Later instantiations of this ::SOAPHTTP will share that default agent, even though these passed parameters have different parameters. If that is not what you want, then pass your own
user_agent object to the constructor to avoid the use of the default.
-Option --Defined in --Default address XML::Compile::Transport 'http://localhost' charset XML::Compile::Transport 'UTF-8' keep_alive <true> timeout 180 user_agent <created when needed>
When connection can be re-used.
The maximum time for a single connection before the client will close it. The server may close it earlier. Do not set the timeout too long, because you want objects to be cleaned-up.
If you do not pass your own user agent, a default will be created for you.
Extends "WSDL11" in XML::Compile::Transport.
Inherited, see "WSDL11" in XML::Compile::SOAP::Extension
Extends "SOAP11" in XML::Compile::Transport.
Inherited, see "SOAP11" in XML::Compile::SOAP::Extension
Inherited, see "SOAP11" in XML::Compile::SOAP::Extension
Inherited, see "SOAP11" in XML::Compile::SOAP::Extension
Extends "SOAP12" in XML::Compile::Transport.
Inherited, see "SOAP12" in XML::Compile::SOAP::Extension
Inherited, see "SOAP12" in XML::Compile::SOAP::Extension
Inherited, see "SOAP12" in XML::Compile::SOAP::Extension
Extends "Accessors" in XML::Compile::Transport.
Inherited, see "Accessors" in XML::Compile::Transport
Inherited, see "Accessors" in XML::Compile::Transport
Inherited, see "Accessors" in XML::Compile::Transport
[3.07] Returns the used LWP::UserAgent, available after the compilation of the SOAP call(s).
Returns the User Agent which will be used. You may change the configuration of the $agent (the returned LWP::UserAgent object) or provide one yourself. See also new(user_agent).
Changes to the agent configuration can be made before or after the compilation, or even inbetween SOAP calls.
Extends "Handlers" in XML::Compile::Transport.
Compile an HTTP client handler. Returned is a subroutine which is called with a text represenation of the XML request, or an XML::LibXML tree. In SCALAR context, an XML::LibXML parsed tree of the answer message is returned. In LIST context, that answer is followed by a HASH which contains trace information.
-Option --Defined in --Default action '' header <created> hook XML::Compile::Transport <undef> kind 'request-response' method 'POST' mime_type <depends on soap version> mpost_id 42 soap 'SOAP11' xml_format XML::Compile::Transport 0
Versions of XML::Compile, XML::Compile::SOAP, and LWP will be added to simplify bug reports.
What kind of interactie, based on the four types defined by WSDL(1):
notification-operation (server initiated, no answer required),
one-way (client initiated, no answer required),
request-response (client initiated, the usual in both directions),
solicit-response (server initiated "challenge").
POST, you get the standard HTTP exchange. The
M-POST is implements the (Microsoft) HTTP Extension Framework. Some servers accept both, other require a specific request.
With method
M-POST, the header extension fields require (any) number to be grouped.
example: create a client
my $trans = XML::Compile::Transport::SOAPHTTP->new ( address => 'http://www.stockquoteserver.com/StockQuote' ); my $call = $trans->compileClient ( action => 'http://example.com/GetLastTradePrice' ); # $request and $answer are XML::LibXML trees! # see XML::Compile::SOAP::Client::compileClient() for wrapper which # converts from and to Perl data structures. my ($answer, $trace) = $call->($request); my $answer = $call->($request); # drop $trace info immediately
Adds some lines about module versions, which may help debugging or error reports. This is called when a new client or server is being created.
Extends "DETAILS" in XML::Compile::Transport.
Extends "Helpers" in XML::Compile::Transport.
Inherited, see "Helpers" in XML::Compile::Transport
This module is part of XML-Compile-SOAP distribution version 3.24, built on March 06, 2018. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/CPAN/
Copyrights 2007-2018 by [Mark Overmeer <email@example.com>]. For other contributors see ChangeLog.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/


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If this isn't the most physical camp for the Steelers then it definitely ranks up there among those in that category. Maybe it's Haley's new offense, maybe it's all the new talent with so many open positions, or the quick exit from the playoffs last season but wow, so far there's been a lot of fights and scrapping going on. It's probably a combination of all those factors.
Antonio Brown and Ike Taylor got into it again over the weekend, so much so that they coaches and Kevin Colbert had a talk with them both. They are fine now but this is something like the 8th significant scuffle since camp started. I'm not talking about one player shoving another and they both walk away, I mean the ones where both guys are jawing at each other, punching, shoving, rolling on the ground, big time issues..if only temporary.
I think it's awesome, these guys are all over each other and things get heated with so much on the line.
@Ike_SwagginU: Me and @AntonioBrown84 we GOOD sometimes FAMILY members get into it
We got it off our chest SHOOK hands AFTER
@AntonioBrown84: Please forgive me and my brother @Ike_SwagginU for the frustration in camp we love each other sincerely ! Meet us on Carson at Cafe Davio
What do you all think?


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This may not be the place for this topic but I could not find one that looked any more appropriate.
I am at a loss to understand, let alone make any sense of, Google's new Terms of Service (or whatever they are calling it.
Who, in their right mind, wants their likeness plastered all over the internet as a reward for using Google??
Can any kind soul enlighten me, please? (in simple language).
Thanks in advance.


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WASHINGTON — Trailing Washington by a score of 21-7 late in the third quarter, the Morris Redskins looked like they were down and out. However, the Redskins came back, scoring twice in 47 seconds and forcing overtime before besting the Panthers by a score of 28-27.
Morris started off slow offensively going three and out on their first series and then turning the ball over to the Panthers on the Morris 12 in their second possession. Washington capitalized on the second play of the drive when senior quarterback Luke Ludolph hit junior wide receiver Hayden Bodine on a 10 yard scoring strike. The missed extra point made it 6-0 Washington.
Morris answered with a scoring drive of their own, going 63 yards on 13 plays. The drive was capped on a five yard touchdown run by Reese Sobol, and Fernando Del Toro's extra point gave Morris a 7-6 lead.
That score would remain going into the half, but with a strong wind at Washington's back coming out of the half, the Panthers took to the air and scored quickly, driving 71 yards in one minute and 19 seconds and scoring on a 10 yard Ludolph pass to senior Brent Brown. Ludolph then ran in the two-point conversion to make it 14-7 Washington.
"The great debate at halftime was, 'Take the wind in the third quarter or the fourth?' We sat there and we debated it almost til we walked back out onto the field, and we decided we wanted the wind at our back in the fourth," Morris head coach Alan Thorson said. "They were able to use it to their advantage in the third, but it was a strategic move."
After another Morris three-and-out, Washington struck again, this time on one yard touchdown plunge by senior running back Austin Harrell. The extra point from Chris Friend gave the Panthers a 14 cushion.
With the momentum clearly in Washington's favor, Morris got the big spark they needed on a 67 yard kick return from Collin Grogan. The Redskins were unable to score, but the return flipped the field position.
"It was HUGE, huge," Grogan said of the return that changed the tides, "I pretty much was thinking in my head, 'I want this ball, because I want to take this to the house.' But I had some great blocking, I didn't have to do much but hurdle the one guy."
With Washington working out of their own endzone and heading into the wind, Morris was able to capitalize with a three-and-out. They then followed with a 43 yard drive that ended with a 19 yard Zach Cinnamon touchdown run that made it 21-14.
With the wind, Morris was able to pin Washington deep again on the kickoff, and on the second play of the possession Grogan and Josh Lincoln met Ludolph at the line of scrimmage and forced a fumble that was recovered at the one by Craig Claire.
"I just jabbed in and then went out, and I saw the quarterback and me and Josh Lincoln actually caused the fumble and we both hit him as hard as we could and it just popped out. Me and Josh actually hit each other pretty hard and we were pretty dazed after the play, but we were excited because we got the ball," Grogan said.
Grogan scored from a yard out on the game's next play and Del Toro's extra point tied it at 21, where the game would remain going into overtime.
In overtime, Washington lost the toss and Morris elected to play defense. The Panthers were able to convert a critical 3rd-and-goal from the 15 on a touchdown pass from Ludolph to Bryce Wright, but the extra point was no good.
Morris' possession in overtime lasted two plays and ended when Cinnamon scored from a yard out on a sneak, setting up an extra point by Del Toro to win the game. With the wind at his back, Del Toro nailed his fourth point after attempt of the game to advance the Redskins into the Class 5A semifinals.
"I was just taking it like it was every day," Del Toro said. "Every day at practice, all I have to do is make extra points. That's my job, and I kicked it like it was practice."
Morris will move on to host Springfield Sacred-Heart Griffin in the Class 5A state semifinals.
Morris beats Washington in OT
WASHINGTON — Trailing Washington by a score of 21-7 late in the third quarter, the Morris Redskins looked like they were down and out. However, the Redskins came back, scoring twice in 47 seconds and forcing overtime before besting the Panthers by a score of 28-27.


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Chicken. Tacos. Chili. Three little words to spice up your taco night! This is a different way to get your taco fix with zesty taco spices, tender strips of chicken and pinto beans involved in the making of this tasty chili.
Chicken is a nice change-up from the standard beef and pinto beans say tacos more to me than any other bean. Piled high with your favorite fixin's every bite will trick you into thinking you're eating a chicken taco.
You can throw in some corn or use a different bean. But I wouldn't. It's perfect just the way it is.
If your partial to those taco seasoning packages (I'm not) you can use one of those in place of the spices to save time. Although time isn't an issue – this comes together fairly fast and is ready for the table in less than an hour.
A different way to get your taco fix with zesty taco spices, tender strips of chicken and pinto beans.
- In a large heavy duty saucepan heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium-low heat; add pepper and onion cook until tender about 5 minutes. Add garlic and season with salt and pepper; cook until fragrant.
- Season the raw chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Turn heat up to medium high and if the pan is dry add another tablespoon of oil along with the chicken. Cook, stirring often until chicken is browned on all sides. Add all the spices and mix well.
- Add the tomatoes, beans and 1/3 cup bottled water. Bring to a simmer and cook 30 minutes with the lid off. Taste and reseason as needed.
- Serve with your favorite taco fixin's.


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The lights are on
Want to get word out about your server? Share creations? Discuss upcoming features and/or your own ideas? You've come to the right place!
Built an amazing castle, villiage, or statue? Give some inspiration! Post screenshots of your Minecraft creations--or of favorites you've seen--here.
My mob grinder that I built last weekend! I mined out a small cave right next to my base and so I decided to make one.
viewing area
spawning grounds
lava trap
This is where the water currents eventually takes the mobs to.
Any drops are carried here, outside.
The pressure plate activates the redstone torch, so I can just take a peak from my window to see if there's anything to be collected instead of walking up to it. I store all the drops in the chest on the left.
Redstone torch setup. All it is is a vertically-transmitted NOT gate.
And that's basically it. If you want to build one yourself, I can post more pictures of how I make the water currents, if you want.
Whoa. You must have some free time. That's some serious thought right there.
Nice sig. XD
Post more pics! I'm totally copying this!
Charlie FoHammer:
Whoa. You must have some free time. That's some serious thought right there.
Not really. There's much bigger mob grinders that others have built that laugh at mine - some were done without cheating. Honest!
Nice sig. XD
Post more pics! I'm totally copying this!
Okay, here you go!
The first thing you want to do is mine out an empty area that looks something like this:
Then place blocks in them at least 2 blocks high, so the mobs won't be able to jump out. Leave 2 block spaces for the waterways like I did here. You can leave more spaces in between the "spawning platforms" for more waterways.
And here is how you make the actual waterways. Just make sure you use either pressure plates or signs (not ladders!) in between each waterway so the water blocks don't merge with each other.
Arrange each waterway to lead to one place, the actual grinder. I'm sure you can figure that out on your own.
Here's how the grinder is built:
2 lava buckets on a 3x2 platform like so. Also, throw on 2 signs or ladders in this side of the platform like this so the lava doesn't fall below into the water.
The mobs eventually come in and burn to death, but their drops are
spawned at their feet, so their drops aren't burned in the process.
It's also important to have the low ceiling there so the mobs won't be able
to jump and burn their drops.
The last water way takes the drops to wherever you want them to. Block it off with a pressure plate like so. If you want a redstone torch to tell you if there's drops to be collected or not, here's the more simpler setup - redstone below pressure plate, redstone torch on the side connected to redstone, and redstone torch above that:
Good luck with the mob grinder!
edit: Here's the loot so far, but a bunch of it was from actually killing the mobs at night, hence the almost broken diamond sword.
Here's the picture I got of Stump Point. Pretty awesome town we got, huh?
Nice indeed. I think I'll try to show some of my builds once I get a few screenshots. For now, I'm still mining for resources.
"Iba se ori egun Ìlà arun, Ìwò arun, ariwa arun, gusuu arun, egun orun, egun ayie, ase."
The Holy Trinity of GIO:
GIO Usage Guidelines, Newcomer Cheat Sheet, Site Feedback


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Wanton Suit Destruction, Lil' John Grows up, and The Cardigan Conspiracy
Negative Reaction: Kenneth Cole falls $3.1 million into debt. Where be your cheeky billboards now? [DNRNews]
Cardigan Cabal: The international press is conspiring to make the Cardigan today's, "dead sexy chick magnet." Almost Orwellian, ain't it?
Restoration Hardware: John Varvatos' conversion of CBGB's is taking for-frigging-ever. [Racked]
Lil' Bit More: Crunk poet and Renaissance man Lil' John not only has his own celeb clothing line on the way, but is currently vintnering up a storm at Little Jonathan Winery. All class that one. [Pro Hip Hop]
Collateral Damage: The new Bond film is an absolute blood fest, destroying one innocent Tom Ford suit after another. [VogueUK]
Co-Ed Naked Design: Matthew McConcaughey and his old lady create new clothes to shed while walking on sunny pacific beaches. [Gawker]


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SEMICON Europa 2010 to Focus on Latest Nano-Manufacturing Innovations
Event Serves as a Platform for Technical Advances, Business Strategy and Emerging Applications
Brussels, Belgium – August 24, 2010 – SEMI today announced the lineup of keynote speakers and program highlights for SEMICON Europa 2010, which takes places in Dresden, Germany from October 19-21. All of the European fabs will present at the event, including GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Infineon, Intel, STMicroelectronics and X-Fab, as well as leading R&D organizations in SEMICON Science Park.
SEMICON Europa features the most advanced and innovative electronics platform in Europe. Key segments addressed include: semiconductor front-end and back-end, MEMS/MST, and Secondary Equipment and Advanced Packaging. This year, for the first time, the Plastics Electronics Conferencewill be co-located with SEMICON Europa, which will include topics like organic electronics, displays, organic photovoltaics, and lighting.
Driving advancements in semiconductor and related industries requires industry professionals to exchange technical and market information. Forty-one programs and eventsare scheduled in conjunction with SEMICON Europa this year, including: 12 technology conferences, 13 free technology and standardization sessions, 4 executive and networking events and 12 technical courses. Eight keynote speakers are scheduled for SEMICON Europa, including:
- Jiri Marek, Bosch, on "Trends for Automotive Micromechanical Sensors"
- Rob Oreilly, Analog Devices, on "Monolithic to Multi Chip: Smart Partitioning Adds Customer Value"
- Peter Robinson, CSR, on "System Design, Drives Package Design, Drives Silicon Design"
- Leopold Beer, Bosch Sensortec, on "Revolution and Evolution of Consumer MEMS Applications"
- Raimund Schwarz, Osram Opto Semiconductors, on "High-Brightness Phosphor Converted White LEDs – Challenges and Solutions"
- Jean Chazelas, Thales, on "RF and Optoelectronic System Applications of Compound Semiconductors"
- Robert Chau, Intel, on "III-V and III-V on Si for Future Nanoelectronics"
- Andreas Fischer, Robert Bosch, on "Substitute Materials for High-Lead Solders"
Program highlights at SEMICON Europa include the 14th Fab Managers Forum, with sessions on Fab Automation and Control, Advanced Technologies, Secondary Equipment Technology and Services, Fab/Equipment Life Cycle Planning and more.
With more co-located events than previous years, SEMICON Europa will feature more advanced test and packaging technology than ever before. The 12th European Manufacturing Test Conference (EMTC) with the theme of "Mapping Digital Test and Diagnosis Approaches on the Emerging Integrated Analog Mixed Signal Arena" takes place at SEMICON Europa. Under the theme "Enabling Packaging Technologies for System Integration," the Advanced Packaging Conference features sessions on: Packaging for Systems, Alternative Device Packaging, Embedded Wafer-Level Packaging, and Packaging and Materials. In addition, the International MEMS/MST Industry Forum features a theme of "MEMS Goes Everywhere!" with sessions on MEMS Applications, Manufacturing Strategies and Challenges, MEMS Technologies Process, and a Market Review.
Front-end semiconductor sessions include Materials, Automation and Process Control, Metrology, Lithography, Refurbished Equipment, and 450mm. The business programs include the traditional Market Briefing which will address the LED market in addition to semiconductor, MEMS and photovoltaic. The 4th Executive Summit will debate the topic, "Trends Changing the European Semiconductor Landscape: Are We at a Tipping Point?"
In addition, through a SEMI partnership with the Continuation Education Institute Europe, SEMICON Europa is offering 12 CEI-Europe technical courses.
"SEMICON Europa offers a wide range of programs that address Europe's manufacturing issues and opportunities," said Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe. "This year's event continues the transformation of SEMICON into a manufacturing communication platform through programs put together by committees of industry experts." Sponsors for the event include: MAX, Multitest, TEL, Henkel, Nanium, and CEI.
For more detailed information about keynote speaker addresses, technical programs and short courses, or to register to attend the exposition, please visit www.semiconeuropa.org
About SEMI
SEMI is the global industry association serving the manufacturing supply chains for the microelectronic, display and photovoltaic industries. SEMI member companies are the engine of the future, enabling smarter, faster and more economical products that improve our lives. Since 1970, SEMI has been committed to helping members grow more profitably, create new markets and meet common industry challenges. SEMI maintains offices in Austin, Beijing, Bengaluru, Berlin, Brussels, Grenoble, Hsinchu, Moscow, San Jose, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.semi.org.
Association Contacts
Carlos Lee
SEMI Europe / PV Group
Email: email@example.com
Mobile: + 32.473.300433
Deborah Geiger
SEMI Headquarters
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: 408.943.7988
# # #


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ScienceWorks offers a field trip experience for school groups like no other in southern Oregon. The School Visit Program is designed to spark student interest in science, support instruction of content and process standards, and provide a fun, multi-sensory environment that encourages discussion and collaborative learning. ScienceWorks staff members and trained volunteers guide students through a program that includes labs, demonstrations and team investigations. We hope to see your class here soon!
Click here for more information.


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A2 Jacket
Please review.
This site was built using WordPress as a CMS and a Custom Theme that I continue to modify.
The site is integrated with the facebook commenting system - comments are taken from the JavaScript and written into the mySQL database so that they will index in Google and other search engines.


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It's probably a wash, actually. Credit card charges will probably cost them as much as mailing that paper, which would be paid by check instead of credit card, usually.
I think it's wrong and anti-customer, but there are actually reasons and it's not just a money-grab.
There's two obvious reasons for this: Points on my credit card (i.e. free money/miles/ etc), and convienience. It allows me to watch only my credit card bill and pay it once. Also, there's a little bit of money to made on the float (not much these days w/ the low interest rates).
The other obvious reason is that if the company taking the money takes too much. If they "accidentally" bill you for a year of service instead of a month, and you have this coming from your checking account, you suddenly may not be able to pay your rent/mortgage and might even have checks bounce.
Sure you might get it all sorted out with the biller and your bank but in the mean time it can cause a lot of problems.
Using a credit-card account as a buffer protects your checking account from these kinds of accidents. Plus banks tend to be more responsive to credit card problems than they are with checking account problems. With the first, it's their money that's messed with, with the latter it's yours.
Because the American financial system is deliberately inefficient in order to extract as much wealth from us as possible.
"In Europe bank transfers are used for such and are entirely free for consumers"
Hi, this is America. Not Europe.
They charge us because they can. Bank transfers cost money. Money orders cost money. Everythign costs money.
And it will CONTINUE until the EU gets off its ass and invades the USA.
But you people won't do that, you're too placid and too cowardly, which means we'll be taking over your countries soon enough, just like we did Iraq.
And then YOU will be paying for bank transfers.
I haven't read the article, but I guessed (and have apparently guessed correctly) that this is exactly what they meant. Companies like being paid in full, when they decide to be paid. They love consistency. So, they're going to encourage you to give them direct access to your money so they can take what they want, when they want.
This is a non-surprise, but I'd hardly call it a non-story. The summary is horrible, but this is Slashdot.
Credit cards or checks are not involved at all at least in Finland. I don't know if using them is even possible. The company sends a bill by email or then the monthly amount is directly charged from the given bank account. The customer, bank and a company can have a direct charging agreement. I'm also able to postpone the due date without an extra charge at least with my provider. Practically all of the bills are paid online and there isn't a culture of credit in the same sense as in the US. Anything paper related comes with an extra charge. The bank I use doesn't even provide cash services in their offices.
In Belgium phonebills can be payed by automated bank order or by credit cards. Depends on the company you use. No charges for this.
Sometimes paper will cost extra. Sometimes not having a non-automatic payment will cost extra.
The reason is that going after money for non-payers is pretty expensive, yet they can't NOT go after them. People forgetting to pay their bills because they were on a holiday or for whatever reason means you could block the service, but then you need to pay the agent that answer that ph
Many larger companies will have set deals in place, where it wont matter if they get 10K or 1M transactions either way they will pay a set amount for the transactions. Though you do need a lot of to make it economical.
My company has this in place and we are nowhere near as large as Verizon.
This is completely reverse to what companies in my country have started doing.
Oh, that's very much the case here in the US as well. To the point of being obnoxious.
I still opt for paper bills and mail in checks for the folks who don't take credit cards.
Perhaps it's because someone at Verizon Wireless was bothered at how much they were paying for credit/debit card transaction fees, and figured this was the way to recoup that cost.
Mail them a cheque (err, check, my American friends) and make a point. If millions of customers did this, their payment processing costs would go through the roof.
Contrary to popular belief, neither Verizon nor any other business is required to accept pennies, or any other method of payment it chooses not to, for that matter.
The only entity that is required to honor pennies is the Federal Reserve and, by extension (I would assume), the government. So yeah, you can go down to the county treasurer's office and dump thousands of pennies on them, but show up at a local Verizon kiosk with 30 pounds of pennies and they are fully within their rights to tell you to go pound sand. They could even require you to pay them in gold if you signed a contract agreeing to do so. Hell, they could require you to pay in chocolate. There's nothing saying they have to accept the equivalent amount of currency in it's place, either; you agree to pay in gold, you are obligated to pay in gold.
Obviously, in the interests of customer service, most businesses don't start a hissy fit over things like this, but there are limits. In my days working retail I used to turn people away with large amounts of change all the time, because I did not have the time nor resources to spend counting out pennies or dimes, being the sole employee on shift at the time, nor was I under any obligation to do so. The same principles allowing a business to deny excessively small currency like pennies are what allows them to deny large currencies, as well; we also accepted no bills larger than $20 as do many convenience stores.
Is it legal for a business in the United States to refuse cash as a form of payment? Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," states: "United States coins and currency [including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks] are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues." This statute means that all United States money as identified above is a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law which says otherwise.
Basically, if something can be sent to a collections agency (in this case the internal Verizon collections agency), the it is a DEBT and thus the creditor (VerizonWireless) CANNOT refuse payment. Since payment of a Verizon bill is frequently after some or all of the service has been given, their is debt (money owed for services previous rendered). Retail is different because there is no debt owed to the retailer sinc
Yeah, but they won't. And Verizon knows it...
Doubt it had anything to do with them trying to "recoup" anything. They just noticed how many people pay online and figured "hey, if half our customers pay online... we can get an extra 70.8 million a month by charging them 2 extra bucks for the privilege of paying us! That extra $212.4 million per quarter will look very nice in our quarterly reports!"
It's the complete reverse in the rest of America, too. Everyone else is pushing for online payment and electronic billing because it saves on paper and postage costs.
Verizon is the first company I've seen try to pull an asshat move like this. I think why Verizon is trying it now involves a couple things. For one, large telecoms like Verizon and AT&T have for years felt entitled to licenses to print money hand over fist, and whenever revenue drops due to market changes or technological development, their biggest priority is to find somewhere else to recoup that lost revenue. My guess here is that Verizon noticed that a majority of their customers were already paying their bills online, so they decided to start charging a fee to do it, knowing that their customer base already appreciates the convenience of online bill payment and inertia would prevent them from paying by mail. Other service providers, public utilities for example, likely have much older, entrenched, and less 'tech-savvy' customers so they need to provide incentives to move towards online billing and its associated cost savings.
It's the complete reverse in the rest of America, too. Everyone else is pushing for online payment and electronic billing because it saves on paper and postage costs.
Verizon is the first company I've seen try to pull an asshat move like this. I think why Verizon is trying it now involves a couple things. For one, large telecoms like Verizon and AT&T have for years felt entitled to licenses to print money hand over fist, and whenever revenue drops due to market changes or technological development, their biggest priority is to find somewhere else to recoup that lost revenue. My guess here is that Verizon noticed that a majority of their customers were already paying their bills online, so they decided to start charging a fee to do it, knowing that their customer base already appreciates the convenience of online bill payment and inertia would prevent them from paying by mail. Other service providers, public utilities for example, likely have much older, entrenched, and less 'tech-savvy' customers so they need to provide incentives to move towards online billing and its associated cost savings.
A majority of their customers certainly pay their bills online, but they do it automatically and are hence exempt from this fee. Verizon is doing something very simple, encouraging their customers to prefer the automatic process over the manual one. There is undoubtedly a price break to handling the exact same payment method month after month vs handling a unique one each time, and they know they will save more money than they will lose in pissed off customers.
This is nothing new, I've been paying a "convenience fee" to my electric company for paying online for years now. Ditto with my cable bill.
Hell, they even charge a "convenience fee" at the DMV office here in Wisconsin when you renew online, which doesn't make a single fucking shred of sense at all, considering that they're already understaffed at the actual DMV offices (based on the ridiculous wait I experience every time I am forced to go down there) and pay the people working the counters considerably more than most counter workers get paid. If anything, you would think that the state would be fully encouraging people to pay online, but it seems even the state isn't opposed to sucking a little extra money off the top with "convenience fees".
I'm not saying it's right, mind you, I'm just saying that this is nothing out of the ordinary.
Ever try to pay a parking ticket or some other municipal fee online? They will charge you a "convenience fee". My guess is because they have to pay the credit card companies something.
My guess is that will eventually change when an older generation dies off or gets online. An efficiency expert will notice that they are employing staff to handle paper based payments........for very few payments. At that point they will encourage people to pay electronically. Probably by charging a fee for paper based payments.......the way my car insurance company does.
Verizon is the first company I've seen try to pull an asshat move like this.
I've seen this before with the banks and ATM's. Initially the banks decided that ATM's allowed them to reduce their operational overhead by lowering the burden on their tellers and pushed to get customers using these machines. This worked out well for a couple years until ATM's became the de facto norm for money transactions then banks ushered in miscellaneous fees for the convenience of using an ATM billed under the guise of an added burdensome operating expense for having to maintain the ATM's.
They really want you to set up an automatic funds transfer for the account instead of approving each payment individually. This is great for them and horrible for you because the funds are whisked out of your checking account regardless of if the billing is correct or not. It has the added benefit that most people will forget about it and then miss any rate increases.
Wish I could mod this up. This is, no doubt, the reasoning behind the move.
You need a buffer between you and the people you owe money to. Getting cajoled into automatic payments is a trap. They often take place by ACH (bank draft) and you are at the mercy of the vendor for any refunds unless they draft a credit card. Watch that option slip away soon.
Here in France direct transfer is actually safer in that respect than CC, because chargebacks are even easier to obtain (IIRC a mere phone call as opposed to written complaint, and a longer grace period). This is mostly because creditor-issued transfers have stringent specs, it's open only to established businesses (utilities mainly), and if they don't respect the charter (i.e. delay in chargebacks, abnormally large amounts
Absolutely. I will never, ever agree to automatic payment for anything, regardless of how much that ends up costing me in the end. I reserve the right to pay my bills in the order I see fit. If I come up a little short one month and I have a cable bill and a rent check to write, you better fucking believe the rent check is getting written first. The cable company may not like that very much, but they can, and do, charge me late fees in the off chance that this occurs.
Based on how hard it is to get a bil
of course it is cheaper for them, that has nothing to do with the fee. Paying online or over the phone is quicker, easier, and cheaper for the consumer, therefore more convenient. If Verizon can leverage that convenience as a premium service, then they will bill for it. There are plenty of colleges and utilities that do this same thing. Pisses me off, but at least with Verizon there is some chance of moving to another company ( in some locations) as opposed to my water bill, which I pretty much just have to suck it up.
These are the things that made AT&T swallowing T-mobile such a bad deal. More competition actually removes this kind of crap. Fewer companies makes collusion easier, and these fees will pop up everywhere.
It probably does have a chance of backfiring, but I am sure they know how locked in their customers are, and how unwilling others may be to move. The risk is likely outweighed by the profit, and the bad PR will be replaced shortly by another cell company being even more assholish.
Cash and cheques don't incur the same fees as online processing, which usually entail VISA/MC/AMEX/etc taking their 2% or more of the transaction in fees. In addition, they are Non Qualified transactions. This is because the card is not present, thus there is a higher likelihood that there could be a charge back, so the processing company charges an additional fee.
I think Verizon is idiotic for adding this surcharge that is so obviously a cash grab, but I would like to dispel the idea that the online transactions are inherently cheaper. They have staff at retail outlets for sales already, so the fixed costs for the rentals are already taken into account.
Anonymous, sic'em!
Counter-intuitively, Verizon and Verizon Wireless are different companies. Verizon owns a controlling share of Verizon Wireless, but a huge chunk of VZW is owned by Vodafone. (VZW is actually a DBA (Doing Business As), the company's real name is Cellco Parnership. Go figure.)
Is it cheaper for them to accept a payment via mail or at the store? really? Ridiculous. This sounds like just a way to stop people using credit cards to pay, since direct debiting your checking account waives the fee.
Is it cheaper for them to accept a payment via mail or at the store?
You'll never know. Last time I got a cellphone I demanded the Verizon employee tell me what my bill would be for a normal month. Not the "45 voice + 30 data" but what the number I would actually be billed after taxes, fees, interest, gratuity, and graft. They couldn't tell me. They said there was no way to get that number until the bill was calculated because of the taxes. ATT could tell me within a nickel without any hesitation.
Verizon has been struggling for a long time. If they don't get their activation fees, random fees, roaming charges, and payment fees - they would go broke. It's only fair that we consumers would help a struggling giant in this era where everyone is ditching their cell phones for landlines and carrier pigeons. We pay $35 to have the privilege of becoming their customer, $200 if we want to stop being a customer early - it's only fair we pay $24/year to stay their customer.
For now.
The fee is waived if you pay by electronic check or auto pay. This only effects last minute payments.
It appears this affects online payments, even if you make them early. Last minute has nothing to do with it. It's whether or not you give Verizon the ability to take money from you every month with blanket consent.
It's not about saving transaction fees, it's about getting consumers to stop thinking about and analyzing their bill every month. That 1.99 data fee that was pissing everyone off? Now it's just a number on your statement that's pretty close to last month. Want to call an complain about it? They already have your money. Good luck getting it back. Most people are going to sit on the phone for 30 minutes to get back $1.99. However, many people will shortpay a bill when they are sure they aren't responsible for something. If you are a person that logs in to the website every month and views your bill and schedules a payment, you are probably looking at the details. If you are an autopay person, you probably aren't - and don't even remember your online password.
It's whether or not you give Verizon the ability to take money from you every month with blanket consent.
I don't care if they have "blanket consent" to charge my credit card because I still retain the advantages of using a credit card:
1) 25 more days before I actually have to fork over the money (float)
2) Rewards points/cash back
3) Chargeback protection if Verizon screws me and refuses to make it right
They can however, go fuck themselves if they ask for blanket consent to ACH the monies out of my checking account. I hand over my ACH information to nobody. Much better to push the payments out with a billp
I've been posting this a lot in this article
If you don't like giving that power to Verizion then don't. Use a bill paying service through you bank. Verizion will send you eBills and you can review them, approve the bill and have your bank send the funds electronically to Verizion. At no point does Verizion have any authority to debit your account.
I do all my bills like this every month and the best part is the bank will keep the records so you can see things like the bill going up from month to month.
If a
All over Europe, you may have to pay a fee for not paying online, but nobody would charge you for making things cheaper for everybody.
The fee is waived for autopay.
The economy sucks, they want all their accounts on autopay so the phone bill gets taken out before other bills if the customer's money can't pay them all.
Beware of autopay. Once you bill is autopaid you have a lot less leverage in billing disputes.
It says in the full article that they won't charge $2 if you use an electronic check or autopay. These are probably handled entirely by bank computers. This means that they get your money perfectly on time, Hope you don't notice when your bills go up, and they don't need to pay to keep so many servers going.
From the artcle:
If youâ(TM)re a Verizon subscriber I suggest using an alternative payment method and avoiding it at all costs.
I would suggest not costing yourself more than $2 to avoid a $2 charge. Well unless you have a way to inconveniance Verizon and don't mind paying to do so of course.
The gist of this is to collect the money more *reliably*... If you set up auto-billpay (even if you choose to pay your bill some other way, which works fine in their system) you will not see this fee. They are doing this solely to encourage (nay, force) users to set up some sort of auto pay account so that they can have the assurance of getting their $165 per month for a family cell phone package... Like it or hate it, the fact is most users won't give a crap, either because they already chose the automa
My water supplier also charges an extra $2.50 "convenience fee" for paying online. This comes to about 10% of the total bill most months. It's a pain in the ass because the only other form of payment they accept is checks and I don't own a checkbook (I prefer to use credit cards for everything possible... yay cashback).
If a dispute occurs they have your money and you have little recourse. With a credit card payments you can do a chargeback if they take too much. Using your bank's online bill pay gives you positive control, which means you decide how much to pay as opposed to Verizon deciding how much to take.
Never EVER give a creditor access to your bank account. This includes Paypal.
The state of NJ charges a $2 "convenience fee" to renew your vehicle registration online or the same fee per any transactions they allow online. They mail you a renewal form pre-filled out with a reference number and you can go to their site, type in the number, and it populates everything for you. Alternatively you fill in the missing lines on the form and bring it to the DMV. I'll spend the gas and time to go to the DMV, because I'm not paying an additional $2 tax to the State for something that saves the
This has nothing to do with how much it costs verizon. Businesses do not charge you based on what their costs are. They charge you based on what you are willing to pay.
Quit arguing over whether or not the charge is justified. It doesn't HAVE to be justified. Either you're willing to pay it or you're not. Somewhere some verizon bean counters ran all the hard math that factors in their actual costs, in terms of providing the service, loss of business, handling angry phonecalls,bad press, etc, and figured this was a net-win, and so they did it. That's all there is to it. You're totally missing the point if you're trying to figure out why verizon is "justified" in making a change to their charges. If you're willing to pay for it, they're justified in charging for it. Nothing else matters in the business world.
Quit arguing over whether or not the charge is justified. It doesn't HAVE to be justified. Either you're willing to pay it or you're not.
None of the posts about the hazards of autopay concern justification. Many of the posts here concern what people are willing to pay, and how they come to those decisions. There's a sizable contingent of people distressed about gouging, which is a sloppy verbal surrogate for the dislike of pricing based on power rather than economic linearity, likely derived from hard-won
Okay let's dissect this before Slashdot goes apeshit. Per the screenshot on the link:
"A $2 payment convenience fee applies to bill payments made by phone (IVR and rep-assisted) and online (My Verizon and My Verizon Mobile). The fee is waived for bill payments made by electronic check (also referred to as "ACH") and for all bill payments made on accounts that are enrolled in AutoPay with any payment method (credit/Debit/ACH or electronic check)."
Now before I go further, note that some payment options cost more for Verizon than others. Mostly it's due to credit card interchange fees, and not personnel and infrastructure as most people think. Credit card processors love to slam everyone, small and big companies alike, and verizon is trying to maintain margins. Yes they are also trying to discourage people from using certain services by "incentivizing" them to use ones that cost less. I'm not stating to defend this, merely trying to explain how things work.
Now then:
1) payments over the phone are considered "less secure" by credit card companies because there's a human involved. Despite all the huge "this site got haxx0red and lost 100k credit card numbers" stories, most credit card fraud is an inside job where humans get card numbers. They have humans handling multiple things in customer service and I'm sure they have made things efficient enough at this point that someone taking a payment over the phone is not going to hurt their bottom line. What does hurt their bottom line is that "less secure" transaction cost more money to Verizon, thus a $2 fee. It's verizon passing on costs.
2) Doing payments by ACH is basically wiring the money. This passes the cost from Verizon to the customer, because wiring money might cost money with the bank. It might not, but it depends on each bank. Verizon has no real extra cost here.
3) The sentence is convoluted but it seems there is a difference between making a one time payment via verizon's site, and being enrolled in autopay, which autocharges every month. This part I am not as familiar with, but it would seem locking your card number costs less than typing it in once. From Visa's standpoint this is counter intuitive because if a user pays once and presents you with a card and you throw away the number after the transaction is done, it's "more secure" than storing the card and paying it at any time. It's more likely to get stolen if it's stored. I can theorize here that they must be using two payment systems and the autopay system is cheaper all around in interchange fees simply due to volume.
Now I'm not defending this fee by any means, but I am explaining the thought process here. They are trying to incentivize people to use lower cost services due to interchange fees, regardless if it costs them a human being to do so. To me, it's not in a company's best interest to start charging their customers fees like this and they should eat costs as a part of doing business. There are probably better ways to incentivize people.
New York State General Business Law Section 518: Credit card surcharge prohibited.
No seller in any sales transaction may impose a surcharge on a holder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check, or similar means.
Any seller who violates the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars or a term of imprisonment up to one year, or both.
Don't get suckered in by the comments -- they can be terribly misleading. Debug only code. -- Dave Storer


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Evolution Hoax
The lord of believers (saas) said: "... Be certain that, IT IS YOUR POLYTHEISTIC (IGNORANT) ORDER THAT WILL GREET OUR HAZRAT MAHDI (AS). Because on that day, THE WHOLE COMMUNITY WILL CONSIST OF POLYTHEISTS – APART FROM THOSE TO WHOM DIVINE MERCY IS SHOWN..."
(Kitab al-Ghaybat, [Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 51], Ansariyan Publications, collected by: Muhammad Baqr al-Majlis, Iran-Qum, 2003, p. 182.)
Say: "If your fathers or your sons or your brothers or your wives or your tribe, or any wealth you have acquired, or any business you fear may slump, or any house which pleases you, are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger and striving in His Way, then wait until Allah brings about His command. Allah does not guide people who are deviators." (Surat at-Tawba, 24)


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Media reactions
You can filter the media reactions by subject and/or by date.
EU leaders open door for EU Emissions Trading System to benefit poorer countries but fail to agree on a concrete signal ahead of Paris
Oxfam welcomes today's orientation debate on the EU Emissions Trading System as some Member States spoke out in favor of the ETS being a more predictable source of funds for climate action in poor countries.
Oxfam's Emergency Response for Hurricane Patricia
Oxfam is closely monitoring Hurricane Patricia's progress and is ready to dispatch rapid assessment teams to survey the damage left in its path, and respond to the greatest needs.
Oxfam response to Bonn Intercessionals climate negotiations
Negotiators have given themselves the tools to build a stronger deal in Paris, but governments must now put them to good use. Oxfam will continue to press for a climate deal for the world's poorest people. Exclusion of civil society from the process that has characterized the meeting in Bonn must not be a precedent for Paris.
Fighting gender inequality essential to curbing growing wealth gap, IMF report shows
Oxfam applauds today's report by the International Monetary Fund, which argues that tackling gender inequality is not only an objective in itself, it's a key part of reducing the huge wealth gap between the rich and the poor.
Extreme hunger risk in South Sudan as fighting blocks food aid: Report
Oxfam responds to the latest food security analysis for South Sudan, saying it has grave concerns for the estimated 30,000 people experiencing extreme and dangerous hunger levels in war ravaged Unity state, where despite the peace deal fighting continues to cut people off from aid.
Large-scale tax avoidance by Starbucks & Fiat: European Union must now act on tax dodging
Oxfam welcomes today's decision by the European Commission that Fiat and Starbucks were receiving unfair state aid.
EU fails to address provision for migrants at Brussels summit
EU leaders meeting in Brussels have agreed an action plan as part of its efforts to gain cooperation on limiting the number of migrants arriving in Europe.
Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report - Oxfam Comment
The Credit Suisse report today shows that the number of millionaires is rising despite slowed economic Inequality is growing faster than we had thought – Oxfam predicted the richest one percent would own more than the rest of us by 2016. The fact that it has happened this year underlines the urgency of the problem.
Finance ministers in Lima agree to scale up climate funds, but not for the poorest
Oxfam welcomed reports of increased climate finance pledges made by finance ministers in Lima today, but warned that only a fraction is meant to help countries most vulnerable adapt to the devastating effects of climate change.
G20 endorses important tax dodging reforms, but critical issues for developing countries ignored, says Oxfam
G20 finance ministers in Lima today endorsed international tax reforms for tackling tax dodging launched by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). While the measures are a tax milestone, they poorly represent the critical needs of developing countries, Oxfam warned today.


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April 28, 2014
To:Australian Treasury
On April 28, MFA and AIMA submitted a joint letter to the Australian Treasury reiterating the Associations' concerns with the current draft legislation to implement the investment manager regime (IMR). In particular, MFA and AIMA expressed concern, that, if the legislation were to be enacted in accordance with the January 2014 draft, funds, including hedge funds, will face tax uncertainties which will deter them from appointing an Australian investment manager or making investments in Australia. MFA and AIMA also included a discussion on what we believe to be the essential elements of an IMR and suggested amendments that could be made to the implementing legislative provisions.


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UPPER MERION — When you've got a bad case of the mall munchies, Doc Popcorn is there to prescribe an all-natural, relatively guilt-free remedy.
The good doctor will see you at the sunny kiosk on the lower level of The Plaza at King of Prussia, near JC Penney, away from the food court.
Food court fare is probably not what you're hungry for anyway if you've followed your nose to the source of the unmistakable aroma of this freshly popped lighter bite.
Crowds have been lining up to bag a Doc Popcorn gourmet treat since husband and wife team Melanie Kittrell and Fred Smith created a niche for themselves by providing shoppers with a snack the couple can believe it, noted Melanie.
"Everything you can eat at the mall isn't going to hurt you in moderation," said the scientist-turned-marketer-turned-popcorn queen. "We all love cheesesteaks, smoothies, hot dogs, pretzels and ice cream. But it's good sometimes to choose a healthier snack when it's provided."
Choosing a franchise founded on the philosophy of providing such a snack was the impetus for Melanie leaving behind a lucrative career in the pharmaceutical industry and convincing her husband, a onetime gardening retailer, to join her.
"We're empty nesters now; our kids are grown and on their own," Melanie explained. "I come from corporate America and I always had it in the back of my head that one day I would take my knowledge and skills and bring them to a family business my husband and I could do together."
The couple sought the expertise of a franchise broker, who suggested they give the decade-old and still growing, Boulder-based Doc Popcorn chain of PopShops a pop.
"We had some criteria for the business we wanted," Melanie said. "It had to be simple, fun and something that would allow me to employ very young people because I like helping them by encouraging them to stay in school."
It didn't take the couple long to realize that the company — which had started as a mall operation by an enterprising husband and wife — met all those requirements.
"We have nine flavors of popcorn and grab-and-go sodas," Melanie said. "We don't have to worry about food spoilage and don't need a certain kind of chef. It's pretty easy to take someone who's never done this before and turn them into someone who's pretty good at it within a couple of weeks. They just have to be good at popping the corn and making sure it's really fresh, and also and tastes great. And they have to be good at customer service because we want our customers to be treated well."
The couple's DP King of Prussia launch has now spawned kiosks in Oxford Valley Mall, Cherry Hill Mall and Willow Grove Mall.
"I have the business background, with the analytical side, lease negotiations and the background work you need to do in business, whereas Fred is good with customer service, working with employees, keeping the equipment working," noted Melanie. "We have very complementary skills."
Available in small bags for $4 and large bags for 50 cents more, as well as party sizes and gift tins, Doc Popcorn comes in nine flavors: the top-selling Better Butter, Sweet Butter, Klassic Kettle, Cheesy Cheddar, Triple White Cheddar, Salt 'n' Pepper, Caramel Kettle, Hoppin' Jalapeno and Sinfully Cinnamon.
"The popcorn is always fresh," Melanie said. "At a lot of other places the popcorn isn't natural or fresh and it's popped in oils that add a lot of saturated fat and a tremendous amount of calories. We all love movie popcorn but you're getting artificial butter flavoring there and it's highly saturated in fat. Our popcorn is 100 percent whole grain, high fiber, gluten free. It's just a healthier snack alternative for people shopping at the mall who want a snack for themselves or their children."
Going from pharmaceuticals to popcorn, Melanie is happy that the "prescriptions" she's championing these days may help folks avoid some of the ones she used to promote.
"I always say coming from the pharmaceutical industry we were working on the treatment side, as we were trying to come up with medicines that would treat diabetes or heart disease. And a lot of those conditions are caused by poor lifestyle choices. What I'm doing now with my popcorn business is trying to offer a healthy snack and prevent those conditions — one bag of popcorn at a time."
Follow Gary Puleo on Twitter @ Mustangman48.


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Taj Mahal Oct. 5th
"It is not every day that three artists from different worlds, but who speak a common language, come together for a tour. This used to happen a lot in the 60's and 70's but not as much today. It should be real fun and you can bet filled with many surprises." Iconic folk-blues legend Taj Mahal, performing with The Taj Mahal Trio, will headline an evening celebrating the global influence of American blues music as seen from three very diverse points of view and three international points of origin. Taj will be joined by legendary South African guitarist/vocalist Vusi Mahlasela and Fredericks Brown, a soul/R&B band that features Taj's daughter, Deva Mahal, who hails from New Zealand. This tour,will be the first time these artists have performed all together on one stage. Taj Mahal's "World Blues Tour" comes to the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz Saturday, October 5th. Showtime is 8 pm.


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--Tech stocks provide a lift to major indexes
--Intel leads blue chips to one-month high
--DJIA 39.55 higher; S&P gains nearly five
NEW YORK--A tech-stock bounce pushed major indexes higher, as heavyweight Intel led blue chips to a one-month high and the tech-centric Nasdaq Composite Index shined.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.55 points, or 0.3%, to 13074.04. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gained 4.66 points, or 0.3%, to 1413.94 and the Nasdaq rose 15.57 points, or 0.5%, to 2989.27.
In the background, however, was the continued parsing of comments tied to efforts to avert the "fiscal cliff," a set of tax increases and spending cuts set to go into effect starting Jan. 1.
"There does seem to be an uncomfortable silence coming from Washington right now," said Jim Russell, chief equity strategist with U.S. Bank Wealth Management. "We're all hopeful that breakthroughs begin to emerge soon."
Data on the labor market came in slightly better than expected, as jobless claims fell 25,000 to 370,000. Investors next turn their attention to Friday's closely watched U.S. employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Tech shares led the S&P 500, gaining 0.8%. Intel rose 1.6%. Shares of Apple gained 1.6%, too, recovering some of the 6.4% loss they took on Wednesday, the biggest one-day percentage drop in four years.
Investors "are looking at particular opportunities and realizing the selloff is way overdone," said Joe Heider, regional managing principal for Rehmann Financial Group, based outside of Detroit, which manages $2 billion in assets.
European markets rose broadly, with the Stoxx Europe 600 up 0.7% after the European Central Bank left its key lending rates unchanged and comments from ECB President Mario Draghi boosted expectations that the central bank could lower interest rates. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 tacked on 0.4% after the Bank of England also left key rates unchanged, as expected.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rallied 0.8% to the highest level in more than seven months after polls showed that the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party was on track to reach a majority after the Dec. 16 election. The LDP is seen as broadly in favor of easier monetary policies.
China's Shanghai Composite slipped 0.1%, pulling back from Wednesday's 2.9% surge.
Front-month crude-oil futures lost 1.8% to settle at $86.26 a barrel, while December gold futures rose 0.5% to settle at $1,700.30 a troy ounce. The dollar rose strongly against the euro on Mr. Draghi's statements but was little changed against the yen. Yields on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond fell to 1.581% as prices rose.
Among other stocks, Zynga jumped 7.1% after the social gaming company filed paperwork for a gaming license in Nevada, its first step toward offering gambling games.
Walter Energy climbed 5.3% after the U.K.'s Daily Mail reported that BHP Billiton was mulling a cash buyout for the coal producer.
Internet technology provider Akamai Technologies rose 10% after it reached a deal with AT&T to provide its network, which essentially speeds delivery of web content, to AT&T's customers.
Garmin shares advanced 5.7% after S&P Dow Jones Indices said late Wednesday it would add the company, a global positioning system products maker, to the S&P 500. It will replace printing company R.R. Donnelley & Sons, which will be moved to the S&P MidCap 400. R.R. Donnelley shares edged 0.2% lower.
Vera Bradley slumped 12% after the handbag maker reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue, but provided a fourth-quarter outlook that was below current analyst projections.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. fell 4.2% and its stock was downgraded by at least six analysts as investors digested Wednesday's surprise acquisitions of oil companies Plains Exploration Production and McMoRan Exploration, which saw shares decline 4.2% and 3%, respectively.
-Write to Alexandra Scaggs at [email protected]
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires


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Author of Happiness and Education to give lecture at UH Manoa on March 17
Event is part of UH Manoa College of Education's Daeufer Lecture SeriesUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
College of Education
As part of the UH Manoa College of Education's 2009 Carl and Alice Daeufer Lecture Series, Nel Noddings, the author of Happiness and Education, will present a free public lecture from 6-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 17, at the Art Auditorium.
Noddings, who is the Lee L. Jack Emeritus Professor of Education at Stanford University, is a past president of the National Academy of Education, the Philosophy of Education Society and the John Dewey Society. She is the author of 16 books and more than 200 articles and chapters on various topics, ranging from the ethics of care to mathematical problem-solving.
In addition to Happiness and Education, she has written Educating Citizens for Global Awareness, Critical Lessons: What Our Schools Should Teach, and When School Reform Goes Wrong.
In her March 17 lecture, Noddings will discuss "how we might teach if we were to take happiness seriously as an aim of education."
The lecture is co-sponsored by the Hawaii Phi Delta Kappa Chapter 67.


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Blood Test: Hemoglobin Electrophoresis
Please Note: By clicking a link to any resource listed on this page, you will be leaving the KidsHealth site.
Lab Tests Online
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Sickle Cell Disease Association of America
This group provides education, advocacy, and other initiatives to promote awareness of and support for sickle cell disease programs.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
The NHLBI provides the public with educational resources relating to the treatment of heart, blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases as well as sleep disorders.
Cooley's Anemia Foundation
This organization provides information about Cooley's Anemia and other forms of the genetic blood disorder thalassemia.
Sickle Cell Information Center
The mission of this site is to provide patient and professional education, news, research updates, and sickle cell resources.
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
The AAP is committed to the health and well-being of infants, adolescents, and young adults. The website offers news articles and tips on health for families.