text:
Schools benefit changes could take until 2014
The employee health care contract has never been subject to bids
Teacher unions blocked health-care overhaul
Schools health trust to be scrutinized
San Diego schools have put together a timeline to determine whether they're getting a good deal on $167 million of annual health benefits for employees, and the process could take 19 months.
The timeline calls for months of study, possible solicitation of bids in February, with selection of a contractor after June 2013 to start work at the beginning of 2014.
The San Diego Unified School District decided to review its health care situation after The Watchdog reported that the benefits had never been put out to competitive bid — and one provider claimed it could save the district $10 million a year if given the chance.
The school board directed staff in March to analyze its use of the California School Voluntary Employees Benefits Association, or VEBA, to negotiate health deals with providers. The association is comanaged by labor and management officials from school districts, a setup the unions like.
School board member Scott Barnett says the lengthy timeline for re-evaluating the use of VEBA shows no commitment to saving money — even as the district faces a $122 million budget shortfall and has issued pink slips to more than 1,600 teachers.
"Right now the attempt clearly is to stall and delay," Barnett said. "My colleagues do not want to address the issue because they are concerned about annoying organized labor."
School board President John Lee Evans and Trustee Richard Barrera said that is not true. They said they need better information to decide if the district can shave health-care administration expenses.
"Scott has already made up his mind. Scott is impatient. Scott wants us to leave VEBA," Barrera said. "The whole idea that we are committed to leaving VEBA, that is by no means a done deal."
Like Evans, Barrera wants a new independent analysis to inform the board before it makes any decision about changing providers.
"Are we doing the right thing by sticking with VEBA or are we doing the wrong thing by sticking with VEBA? We don't know and that's the point," Barrera said.
After the March board meeting, administrators said in a memo to the board in April that the soonest a new provider could take over is 2014. The district plans to hire a consultant to decide if it makes sense to even seek bids through a process known as a Request for Proposals or RFP.
"The actual RFP bid for health-care services is a very intricate, detailed and involved process," Assistant Superintendent Phil Stover wrote to trustees. "It requires significant analysis and data collection from an actuarial and statistical perspective.
"It is beyond the ability of the district to do with existing staff."
VEBA is a nonprofit trust, a co-op more commonly used as a way for small districts to pool their resources to negotiate with health insurers. Most of the largest districts, unlike San Diego, negotiate directly with providers.
The Stover memo is scheduled to be discussed at the board meeting May 15. There is no cost estimate for the outside consulting work.
Complicating any decision about whether to put employee health-care out to competitive bid are the district's main labor contracts.
Five of six unions have VEBA membership written into their collective bargaining agreements, meaning the district cannot withdraw from the trust as long as those contracts are valid.
That means the district is wedded to VEBA at least through June 30, 2013, when its agreement with the 7,000-member San Diego Education Association expires.
Negotiations for a new teachers' contract are likely to begin early next year, although it remains unclear if the district would negotiate for an end to the requirement that VEBA run its health-care.
Teachers' union president Bill Freeman said the district would be wasting money by hiring a consultant to investigate alternatives to VEBA.
"Without any doubt, our members have absolutely no interest in moving away from VEBA," Freeman said. "VEBA has done so much for the employees of this district, they have improved the quality of care."
Freeman went on to say that other districts have left VEBA only to regret it after health care costs increased.
"I am not willing to take that risk with our members," he said.
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text:
Virginia football coach Mike London fired four assistant coaches and reassigned another as part of sweeping changes to his coaching staff after the Cavaliers finished a disappointing 4-8 this season.
Defensive coordinator and associate head coach Jim Reid, defensive line coach Jeff Hanson, running backs coach Mike Faragalli and tight ends coach Shawn Moore have been dismissed, London announced Sunday.
Anthony Poindexter also has been relieved of his duties as special teams coach but will remain on staff, London said in a statement released by the school. Poindexter also coaches Virginia's safeties.
The four coaches fired have been with London throughout his three seasons at Virginia. Also Sunday, the school announced junior quarterback Michael Rocco will transfer.
In a statement, London hinted that the coaching changes might not all have been his idea.
``After conducting a complete evaluation of the program and discussing my thoughts with administration, there are a number of areas we need to improve on and it starts with me as the head coach,'' he said.
``The decision to release these four coaches is very difficult, but one I feel is necessary in order to meet the goals we have set for the Virginia football program,'' he continued. ``I have coached with some of these men for many years, won a national championship with some, and I truly appreciate their dedication and commitment, and more importantly, their friendships. I wish them all the best.''
Reid, who had London as an assistant at Richmond in 1995 and 1996, is the most surprising departure.
The Cavaliers' defense was their most consistent unit this season, especially as the season wore on and younger players forced into prominent roles gained experience. Virginia finished fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference in total defense, allowing 353 yards per game, but struggled to make dynamic, game-changing plays. Reid's until had just 17 sacks and forced just 12 turnovers this season.
Over its last six games, Virginia opponents averaged just 306 yards on offense, a figure that would have placed the Cavaliers in the top 10 nationally if accomplished over the course of the season.
Reid was on the road recruiting this week, along with most of Virginia's staff. He did not immediately respond to phone and text messages left on his cellphone following the morning announcement.
Hanson, who also served as recruiting coordinator, and Faragalli both coached with London at Richmond, winning the FCS national championship in 2008, and came with him when London replaced Al Groh in 2009.
Moore, a former Cavaliers quarterback, had never been a college assistant before joining London's staff. His son, Michael Moore, was a promising freshman defense lineman on the team this season.
Poindexter, one of the most popular Cavaliers players, was the only holdover from Groh's staff, and has been the one under the most scrutiny because of Virginia's anemic special teams.
The Cavaliers allowed two kickoffs to be returned for touchdowns this season and routinely started offensive series inside their own 25 yard-line when their own kickoff returners were ineffective.
In Virginia's 17-14 loss to Virginia Tech in the season finale, the Cavaliers had an opportunity to kick a 38-yard field goal and go ahead 17-7 against a rival they had lost to eight consecutive times.
Instead, they faked the kick on fourth-and-8 and were stopped two yards shy of a first down.
The failure was viewed as a huge momentum swing in a game the Cavaliers lost, 17-14.
London said his search for replacement coaches to rebuild his staff will begin immediately.
Follow Hank on twitter at:http://twitter.com/hankkurzjr

subset: commoncrawl


text:
More C++ Idioms/Friendship and the Attorney-Client
Control the granularity of access to the implementation details of a class
friend declaration in C++ gives complete access to the internals of a class. Friend declarations are, therefore, frowned upon because they break carefully crafted encapsulations. Friendship feature of C++ does not provide any way to selectively grant access to a subset of private members of a class. Friendship in C++ is an all-or-nothing proposition. For instance, the following class
Foo declares class
Bar its friend. Class
Bar therefore has access to all the private members of class
Foo. This may not be desirable because it increases coupling. Class
Bar cannot be distributed without class
class Foo
void A(int a);
void B(float b);
void C(double c);
friend class Bar;
class Bar {
// This class needs access to Foo::A and Foo::B only.
// C++ friendship rules, however, give access to all the private members of Foo.
Providing selective access to a subset of members is desirable because the remaining (private) members can change interface if needed. It helps reduce coupling between classes. Attorney-Client idiom allows a class to precisely control the amount of access they give to their friends.
Solution and Sample Code[edit]
Attorney-client idiom works by adding a level of indirection. A client class that wants to control access to its internal details, appoints an attorney and makes it a friend --- a C++ friend! The
Attorney class is crafted carefully to serve as a proxy to the
Client. Unlike a typical proxy class,
Attorney class replicates only a subset of
Client's private interface. For instance, consider class
Foo wants to control access to its implementation details. For better clarity we rename it as
Client wants its
Attorney to provide access to
Client::A and
Client::B only.
class Client
void A(int a);
void B(float b);
void C(double c);
friend class Attorney;
class Attorney {
static void callA(Client & c, int a) {
static void callB(Client & c, float b) {
friend class Bar;
class Bar {
// Bar now has access to only Client::A and Client::B through the Attorney.
Attorney class restricts access to a cohesive set of functions. The
Attorney class has all inline static member functions, each taking a reference to an instance of the
Client and forwarding the function calls to it. Some things are idiomatic about the
Attorney class. Its implementation is entirely private, which prevents other unexpected classes gaining access to the internal of
Client. The
Attorney class determines which other classes, member functions, or free functions get access to it. It declares them as
friend to allow access to its implementation and eventually the
Client. Without the
Attorney class,
Client class would have declared the same set of friends giving them unrestrained access to the internals of
It is possible to have multiple attorney classes providing access to different sets of implementation details of the client. For instance, class
AttorneyC may provide access to the
Client::C member function only. An interesting case emerges where an attorney class serves as a mediator for several different classes and provides cohesive access to their implementation details. Such a design is conceivable in case of inheritance hierarchies because friendship in C++ is not inheritable, but private virtual function overrides in derived classes can be called if base's private virtual functions are accessible. In the following example, the Attorney-Client idiom is applied to class
Base and the
main function. The
Derived::Func function gets called via polymorphism. To access the implementation details of
Derived class, however, the same idiom may be applied.
#include <cstdio>
class Base {
virtual void Func(int x) = 0;
friend class Attorney;
virtual ~Base() {}
class Derived : public Base {
virtual void Func(int x) {
printf("Derived::Func\n"); // This is called even though main is not a friend of Derived.
~Derived() {}
class Attorney {
static void callFunc(Base & b, int x) {
return b.Func(x);
friend int main (void);
int main(void) {
Derived d;
Attorney::callFunc(d, 10);
Known Uses[edit]
Related Idioms[edit]
Friendship and the Attorney-Client Idiom (Dr. Dobb's Journal)


text:
CENTER LINE, Mich. – A 35-year-old woman was rushed to a hospital Tuesday night after being struck by a vehicle on Van Dyke Avenue at Helen Street.
The woman is in very serious condition. The road was shut down for several hours after the incident.
Police said alcohol wasn't a factor for the driver. However, a bottle of vodka was found near the woman's shoes on the road.
The driver was traveling northbound when the woman crossed Van Dyke Avenue. The driver stopped and was talking to police.
Police do not believe the driver is at fault. The woman appears to have wandered into traffic.


text:
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text:
It is time to celebrate! The start of a new school year is quickly approaching and with that, it is also time to purchase your children's school supplies. So, why not add that little extra creative care to make your kids feel special!
Here is what you need:
Crayola Markers TM (not the washable kind)
Disposable Pippettes
Fragrance Oil (Choose any of Natures Garden's Fragrance Oils to Coordinate with the colored markers you have.)
Although any of Natures Garden Fragrance Oils will work, here are a few of the favorites from the childhood scents category:
Best Friends Fragrance Oil– color suggestion Teal
Black Licorice Fragrance Oil– color suggestion Black
Blue Cotton Candy Fragrance Oil– color suggestion Blue
Bubblegum Fragrance Oil– color suggestion Pink
Chocolate Chip Cookies Fragrance Oil– color suggestion Brown
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Fragrance Oil– color suggestion Purple
Dreamsickle Fragrance Oil– color suggestion Orange
Easter Bunny Burps Fragrance Oil– color suggestion Gray
Green Apple Candy Fragrance Oil– color suggestion Green
Jammin Rock Candy Fragrance Oil– color suggestion Red
Sugar Cookies Fragrance Oil– color suggestion Yellow
Here are the Steps:
Step 1: One marker at a time, remove the bottom of the plastic marker encasement.
Step 2: Remove the long, cylinder-shaped marker ink pad from the plastic encasement.
Step 3: Using a transfer pipette, place at least 8 drops of fragrance oil onto each end of the marker ink pad, and place ink pad back into marker encasement. Place end cap back on the marker.
This will allow you to scent your markers whatever fragrance you would like them to be, and actually helps to refresh markers that are beginning to dry up. We have not tested this on washable markers since we believe that they are water soluble and won't mix with fragrance oil; but we are not 100% sure that they would not work. If you find that washable markers also work, let us know!
Natures Garden is not responsible for the performance of any of the recipes provided on our website. Testing is your responsibility. If you plan to resell any recipes we provide, it is your responsibility to adhere to all FDA regulations if applicable. If there are ingredients listed in a recipe that Natures Garden does not sell, we cannot offer any advice on where to purchase those ingredients. We also do not offer any advice on formulating or altering recipes.
Fragrance & Fun for Everyone
Inspire, Create, and Dominate!
Sparkles!!! Nicole
(Corporate Manager of Natures Garden Candle Supplies)


text:
Review: Wild Geese Caribbean Spiced Rum
Posted by Arctic Wolf on February 18, 2014
The Wild Geese Rum Collection is the companion to the Wild Geese Irish Whisky Collection. While the Wild Geese Irish Whisky collection sought to bring the Story of the Wild Geese and their struggles in European Armies to light, the Wild Geese Rum Collection continues the saga bringing to light the story of some of these Wild Geese who after service in the continental armies of Europe found themselves transported to America and the Caribbean where many worked upon the Rum Plantations in the new world.
The Wild Geese Caribbean Spiced Rum has been aged for up to five years and has been blended with tropical fruits and spice. You may read my full review here:
Review: Wild Geese Caribbean Spiced Rum
"… the possibilities for mixing the Caribbean Spiced Rum seems to be opening up in front of me as I sip. The initial flavour impressions I receive across my palate are similar to what I experienced as I nosed the glass. I sense a trio of fruitiness which resembles cherry licorice, fresh mango and sliced pineapple …"
Please enjoy my review which includes two cocktail suggestions, the Metro Swizzle, and the Spiced Darwin.
Cheers Everyone!
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.


text:
Each week, we sort through the box scores to determine what fantasy football performances we should applaud, and which are merely frauds. As always, we'll give more details about what each verdict means as we break it down.
Tarvaris Jackson, Vikings – Jackson stepped for the injured Brett Favre and had a typical T-Jax game – throwing two touchdown passes but also turning the ball over three times, including one for a pick-6. Jackson has talent, and he has a talented corps of receivers to target. But if your league docks for turnovers, Jackson is too much of a risk to play. Still, in large leagues Jackson is worth a pickup this week, because if he takes over for Favre permanently (always a question), he's going to get the Vikes in the end zone fairly frequently. Verdict: Applaud
Matt Schaub, Texans – Schaub threw for 337 yards and two scores against the Eagles, marking just his fourth 300-yard game of the season. Schaub has been a fantasy disappointment this year after playing his way up to elite status last year, but he has thrown multiple TD passes in three of the last four games. More importantly, the schedule really opens up for Schaub over the last four games against the so-so Ravens pass defense and the abysmal Titans, Broncos, and Jaguars secondaries. It's time to reinstate Schaub as a starter. Verdict: Applaud
Running backs
Michael Bush, Raiders – Bush led the Raiders in carries with 25 (to Darren McFadden's 19) and ran for 95 yards and a score against the Chargers. Obviously, the Raiders' lead opened the door to plenty of carries for both backs, but most weeks McFadden is the preferable option. Bush is a potential flex play, but little more. Verdict: A fraud
Tashard Choice, Cowboys – With Marion Barber out, it was Choice, not Felix Jones, who got the call against Indy. He responded with a 100-yard outing that included a touchdown. Barber could return next week, and if he does Choice loses fantasy relevance, but if Barber is inactive Choice is an intriguing option as an under-the-radar play. Verdict: Applaud
Brandon Jacobs, Giants – Over the last two weeks, Jacobs has looked to have a lot more pop running the ball than he did early in the season. That's something fantasy owners needed to notice. Jacobs is now a must start, and if you put him in your lineup for his 103-yard, two-touchdown day (that came on just eight carries), you were rewarded. Verdict: Applaud
Javarris James, Colts – James had just 18 yards on six carries, but he did score two touchdowns against the Cowboys. He actually led the Colts in carries (to 5 for Donald Brown and 4 for Mike Hart). But you can't count on James to get in the end zone once, let alone twice. You can't start any of these Colts backs. Verdict: A fraud
Marshawn Lynch, Seahawks – Lynch's tenure in Seattle has been a fantasy disappointment, so his three-TD game against the Panthers came out of nowhere. But given Lynch's game stats, you simply can't rely on him as a fantasy starter, even after Sunday's solid game. Verdict: A fraud
James Starks and Brandon Jackson, Packers – In the Packers' win over the 49ers, it was Starks, not Brandon Jackson, that got the majority of the work. Since Jackson's value is completely tied to workload, his four-carry day is a major red flag. You cannot start him next week. Starks, who had 18 carries for 73 yards, is worth a pickup, because if he gets that much work every week he'll find the end zone in Green Bay's prolific O. Verdict: Applaud for Starks, A fraud for Jackson
Wide receivers
Donald Driver, Packers – Driver had just six catches between Week 7 and Week 12, in large part because of injury, but he rebounded with four catches for 73 yards and a score against the 49ers. That's a great sign that Driver is back and ready to contribute for fantasy owners. Verdict: Applaud
Robert Meachem, Saints – Meachem hasn't been a fantasy force for much of the year, but he has started to deliver in recent weeks. He's had 50-plus yards three weeks in a row, including Sunday's three-catch, 106-yard day against the Bengals Sunday. Plus, he has three TDs in the last three games. If you're looking for receiver help, Meachem is an acceptable flex option for the first time all season. Verdict: Applaud
Sidney Rice, Vikings – In his third game of the season after offseason knee injury, Rice had his first big game, combining with Tarvaris Jackson for five catches, 105 yards, and two touchdowns. That's a great sign of Rice's health. He should be ready to be a fantasy factor for owners patient enough to hold on to him (or savvy enough to grab him off the waiver wire in time). Verdict: Applaud
Reggie Wayne, Colts – Wayne remains a No. 1 fantasy receiver, and he delivered with a 200-yard game (on 14 catches) against Dallas. That put him over 1,100 yards for the season. His TD numbers are a little light, but you can still count on Wayne. Verdict: Applaud
Tight ends
Vernon Davis, 49ers – Davis has had a disappointing year, and entering Sunday's game he hadn't produced much since Troy Smith took over at quarterback for the Niners. But he busted out for four catches, 126 yards, and a touchdown against the Packers. It's too soon to return Davis to the TE elite, but at least he rewarded owners who have stuck with him all season. Verdict: A fraud
Cameron Morrah, Seahawks – Morrah, who was filling in for the injured John Carlson, had three catches for 69 yards against the Panthers. He became the only big-receiver option for the Hawks after in-game injuries to Mike Williams and Ben Obamanu. Without those circumstances going forward, it's hard to see Morrah doing much, but if Carlson is out next week, Morrah could suffice as a Hail Mary play for owners in mega-deep leagues. Verdict: A fraud
Benjamin Watson, Browns – Watson had his best game of the season with 10 catches for 100 yards and a touchdown against the Dolphins. He's been a solid producer all season who is a nice fallback option for owners who find their tight end out for a week. Keep him high on your list of fill-ins. Verdict: Applaud


text: I get questions about my messy bun all the time, and I've always been hesitant to do a tutorial. Why? Because this is my lazy go-to - and I never really knew how to do a step by step on how to make your hair into a rat's nest. I tried demonstrating it with photos, but it's really difficult to do your hair in slow-mo and use a remote at the same time. I ended up just doing a video. This is basically just like the easy little bun/ponytail hybrid that every gal has done at some time in her life...just messier. Way messier. It's just the way I like it, because you don't have to worry about upkeep throughout the day. Hope the video helps, but if not...I'll try again;)


text:
Oooh, long time. I don't even remember doing this for the Australian Open. I didn't even have enough time to write about that Japan trip, back-to-back summer shenanigans, but tennis. Yes, you, you've been nice to me, so time to pay back.
Women's Quarterfinals
Serena vs Sam
It's easy to go with Serena, here, but were talking clay. Apart from the fact that Slammin Sammy held her nerve to take out Henin in three sets. If this turns out to be a serving duel like what happened in Melbourne in January, this is a Serena show. I'm counting on the clay to boost Sam's chances, so I'll give it 3 sets, for an upset.
Yaroslava vs Jelena
Roland Garros is usually a good platform for surprise quarterfinalists, but hopefully this only becomes as a springboard for Shvedova. It was a convincing with for Jankovic over Hantuchova, and I really hope she pulls herself together, because to be honest, she is a contender for this title, apart from the fact that this may be the surface where she has the best chance to do so. Straight sets for the Serbian golden retriever (I'm talking about her game).
Francesca vs Caroline
While Caroline is a solid baseliner and can probably has more in the tank to propel herself to the semis, I'm a bit wary of the Italian veteran. She's got the skills, the guile, and the physique to see her through. 3 sets for Francesca?
Elena vs Nadia
A battle of veterans, is most likely going to be a battle of headcases as well. Rooting for Nadia, she's been doing well at the slams, but she defeated Venus with much conviction at the previous round. Having said that, a SF for Elena (or a probable final) isn't as bad as well. I'll go straight sets for Petrova.
Semis and Final
Long shot but hey, Jelena over Petrova in the final.
Men's Quarterfinals
Federer vs Soderling
Tricky call this one. Apart from Federer and Nadal, no one has looked more daunting than Soderling. He's out to prove that his historical upset last year was no fluke, so, and he attempts to score another monumental upset this year. I would think that pity Sod, he could actually go deeper in the draw, but not with Federer polishiong his 14 straight win over the Swede.
Youzhny vs Berdych
Finally, a good GS showing for the tall Czech! It's been a genial claycourt season for him, but as always, it's been a mixed bag of results for him. Which provides no help in calling out this match. But this should be a good 5-set duel on Lenglen.
Melzer vs Djokovic
Again, Djokovic has been considered the sleeper hit in Paris. While the Roger-Rafa rivalry has been reignited, Nole has been quietly living up to his seeding, and nothing more. The draw gods have opened up his quuarter fairly well, and that should boost his chances if he wants to get past Nadal in the succeeding round. Good serving, and even better scrambling from the Serb should earn him a 3-set pass to the semis.
Almagro vs Nadal
Last time this happened, I thought it was going to be a good match. Almagro went home with three breadsticks that day. With the way Nadal has been dominating the red dirt all over Europe, don't expect anything to change this time around.
Semis and Final
This will mark Roger's 2819th straight GS final. Yes, we know. However, look at that mouthwatering Semis between Nole and Rafa. Friday night lights showdown! I'll catch that after class, and better be a good one.
Suunday, will be a rematch of 2008, but don't expect the result of 2009. It would be nice for Roger to claim (and retain) the Coupe de Mousquetaires at the expense of Nadal, but most unlikely. Sure hope I'm wrong (I love vendettas), but Nadal is king on clay, and with those knees running full steam ahead, there's no stopping the Spanish juggernaut for his 5th crown.
2 months ago


text:
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SAMJ: South African Medical Journal
versão On-line ISSN 2078-5135
versão impressa ISSN 0256-9574
SAMJ, S. Afr. med. j. vol.98 no.8 Cape Town Ago. 2008
Neurologists come in for over-servicing flack
Chris Bateman
Ten of South Africa's 90 neurologists are consuming 40% of all neurology medical aid claims while seeing only a quarter of the disciplines' funded patient pool - and an investigation by the Neurology Association (NASA) points to possible over-servicing by four. Izindaba learnt that the four were charging patients on average double what their colleagues were when procedures and consultations were added together.
According to Neurology Association Chairperson, Professor Girish Modi, the remaining six ran 'highly specialised' practices that, when viewed in context, made apparently excessive charges 'actually very, very acceptable'. The remaining four, 'about whom we are a little bit concerned' would be given every chance to explain their coding usage and, if necessary, mend their ways without being reported to the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). If they refused to co-operate, the complaint would be handed over to the HPCSA, 'and then they're on their own,' said Modi.
This is in terms of the arrangement between the Neurology Association and the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) after the BHF consulted SpesNet, an umbrella body of specialists, on whether it should hand the matter over to the HPCSA.
BHF spokesperson Heidi Kruger confirmed that 'routine profiling' (GPs and pharmacies are next) across some 11 medical schemes and administrators threw up the neurology 'anomalies' that led to the flurry of consultation.
Softly, softly ...
While the HPCSA has urged the BHF to give it an already prepared formal complaint, the BHF opted for the more conservative, cautious route using the very peers that would have to be consulted anyway to verify whether systemic abuse exists.
Kruger said the discipline of neurology was chosen first for profiling because there were a number of complaints at the BHF's forensic management unit. Profiling will systematically be done on all disciplines and data are currently being collected on GPs who will be profiled next, she said of a practice which Modi expressed grave reservations about.
Of the 10 neurologists whose claims set off flashing lights on the BHF radar, Kruger said: 'This doesn't necessarily mean that they're adding codes willy-nilly, but there was something anomalous about these top 10 that required further investigation'.
The moves comes as traditional wrangling between medical aids, hospitals and health care professionals comes to a head via a controversial government bill proposing a State pricing 'facilitator' tribunal and inspectorate to set and cap pricing.
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) and its specialist doctor groupings claim pricing control will hit the more refined specialties hardest because they have the most expensive overheads. This latest over-servicing probe comes at a critical juncture and may give the central pricing lobbyists, including BHF, political ammunition.
SAMA claims the historical lack of health care professional costing in the National Health Reference Pricing List (NHRPL) will render more than half of disciplines financially unviable. This context has probably led to the BHF's tactical diplomacy ahead of the legislation.
Neurologist 'insider' speaks out
A neurologist who spoke to Izindaba on condition of anonymity, said the neurology coding system was more open to abuse than most disciplines, citing the 'vague' 0717 code for electrical stimulation of muscle, designed originally for laboratory use.
He was 'shocked' to see a colleague bill a patient R5 000 for confirmation of a tentative carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis by an orthopaedic surgeon. The patient reportedly spent 20 minutes in the neurologist's consulting room where he was extensively tested for trapped nerves in both arms and legs. 'That's a bit steep. You can say you wanted to exclude a generalised nerve problem and get away with it in theory, but one has to use common sense and if there are no symptoms, why do all that?'
While he conceded that carpal tunnel syndrome could come from a variety of sources, the vague coding allowed for all 12 nerves to be tested and charged for. In his experience charging for 'three or four nerves is quite acceptable'.
The neurologist said he knew of two medical aids unquestioningly paying for these claims, 'knowing that this is over-servicing' and claimed they were 'equally to blame'. 'They're not even contacting the guy and saying you are charging too much,' he added.
Modi said his association was initially upset by the manner in which 'this issue was handled', referring to his first reading about it in a news report in the business section of a national newspaper group.
Kruger explained that she had used the 'neurology anomaly' to illustrate a point at a seminar for health journalists in May, without inferring any fraud or dishonesty. The reason they had consulted SpesNet and not the Neurology Association first was that a similar anomaly cropped up in 2000 and 'we were told that the association did not have any teeth'.
Modi said an additional option if the four were found to have abused the system and still refused to co-operate would be to scrap their membership of the NASA. The data provided to them by the BHF were given 'blind' (no means of identifying the actual doctors) in order to ensure impartiality.
Crude BHF instrument leads to 'inadvertent mischief'
Neurology was 'an extremely complex' discipline with no clear guidelines on whether someone was doing too much or too little. To simply take raw data and 'crunch numbers', as the BHF did, could lead to 'inadvertent mischief'.'If you stay below the radar you can get away with everything, but the minute you're picked up you get chopped.'
Kruger acknowledged that neurology was a complex discipline but found it 'difficult to accept' that, given the enormous body of knowledge that existed and the high level of training which neurologists had to undergo, the discipline had not been able to develop guidelines.
Modi bolstered his argument by citing one neurosurgeon conducting 20 back operations a week and another doing five. The one doing 20 would look as if they were overdoing it yet was an expert in the procedure, had taken a second and even a third opinion, and the operation could be fully justified, while the other surgeon could be conducting 'five nonsense operations'.
'Suddenly the guy who shows up on the radar is helluva ethical,' Modi added. To say practitioners above a certain threshold were 'bad' was entering into 'very dangerous territory' and played into the hands of eager legislators. 'There's a lot of art to medicine, it's not just science - the only complaints that should be lodged should be on a case-by-case basis'.
Modi also gave the example of 'guys doing lots of MRIs, charging very high rates and being contracted out of medical aids, they wouldn't even feature in this kind of thing!'
While he conceded that there was potential for systemic abuse and that 'some people are doing it', the result of such crude number crunching was that every discipline would introspect, compare itself with others and 'you end up with a dog fight'.
The principle of over-servicing was industry-wide and not confined to neurology. 'What we have now is a system in which funders have become the controlling body for medical practice and that's wrong. We need to move away from procedure-based medicine to consultation-based medicine, doctors have to be paid for their skills, not procedures they can or cannot do.' He cited South Africa as having an extraordinarily high number of operations for the back and neck in the private sector versus very few in the public sector.
Modi said his association had proposed a stratified system of billing to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang so that doctors could get back to a system where 'they regulated themselves and are not regulated by funders'.
Kruger agreed that the current funding structures 'incentivised this kind of behaviour', citing the caesarean section rate of 70% in South Africa versus the international norm of 20% and the local public sector of 21%.
'We need some kind of restructuring of the entire system. Hopefully the new National Health Act, with its bargaining chamber, will begin to address these problems,' she added. She said interrogating codes with the specific disciplines using their expertise was far more helpful in educating funders so they could come up with more appropriate guidelines/Digging down into each record card is costly, unwieldy and ultimately not as productive,' she added.


text:
I am amased that people who use VB think they have a real programming language.
Compared to C, C++, Java, and Delphi, VB is a joke..
It's RAD, they say, but so is Java with Visual Cafe, JBuilder, Visual Age
for Java, and Forte on the Java side and C++ Builder on the C++ side... It's
easy to learn, guess that's why they call it Beginners All purpose....It's
powerful, if all you need it for is simple GUI interfaces and scripting code.
It's truly compiled, as long as you have the run time libraries. It's powerful,
as long as you do not have to do any low level or WIN API calls .. It's Object
Oriented, as long as you do not need inheritance, polymorphism, etc. It's
X-platform, as long as you work on Windows platforms.
The biggest complaint of VB people concerning Java is that Java is slow..
Compared to what?? Want to compare my C++ or Delphi app's speed to VB?? Then
VB is slow.. And VB isn't X-platform!! What's it's excuse?
Actually there are native compilers for Java. I can compile it natively for
many platforms and still do not have to rewrite the code when I want it to
run on another platform. I can make native calls if I wish to C++, and I
can even take my Java code and create a C++ header with the JDK.. I can tie
it to Corba for integration with legacy Cobol code, C and C++ Code, or, if
needs be, Delphi. VB will do none of the above.
Java is taking over.. C++ is the power tool... That's reality. Get use to
it and better yet, LEARN IT..


text:
Most folks know the general rule that the interest on a home equity loan or home equity line of credit usually is tax deductible. Like most general rules, there are exceptions. If you use the money from your home's equity for anything other than home improvements, like to fund education or purchase a new vehicle, then the interest is not tax deductible. Another exception is if the combined amount of your mortgage and home-equity loan exceeds the fair-market value of your home, you may not be able to deduct all the interest either. If you are unsure, the best advice is to contact a tax adviser for more information.
The home financing experts at Jax Federal Credit Union can help you better understand equity borrowing options. We offer comprehensive financing options from a new or refinanced mortgage, a Home Equity Loan, Line of Credit, or a No Equity Home Improvement Loan. All loans are subject to credit approval.
Information provided by Jax Federal Credit Union


text:
The Pahoa Community Center was filled today with some of the more well known names in the Hawaiian Community this morning as a discussion on "Hawaiian Perspectives on Geothermal Energy" took place.
The Pule (Opening Prayer) was given by former 5th District Councilwoman Emily Naeole.
The Sponsors of the event were:
- Kealoha Estate – Kuulei Cooper
- OHA Trustee – Bob Lindsey
- Innovations Development Group – Robbie Cabral
- Indigenous Consultant – Mililani B. Trask
- Aha Kanaka Moku o Keawe – Kale Gumapac
Patricia Brandt opened the panel by asking the following: "…But our question is – What has happened in the twenty years since then… what has benefited this community…?"
Geothermal resources belong to the native Hawaiian and the public. Under State law, these resources are "minerals" and are an assets of the ceded land trust. Private development of our trust resources has already pushed the cost up 487.5% (it cost 8 cents per kilowatt hour for geothermal electricity but HELCO/PGV costs incresase charges to 39 cents for the consumer) How can our energy resources be developed in a community-based way that is culturally appropriate, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable and clean?
Among the speakers and panelist were:
- Mililani B. Trask who's message was stressed with "Lets not repeat past mistakes".
- Kumu Hula Cy Bridges – "How do we balance traditional practice with modern trust obligations and community energy needs"
- Kuulei Cooper – "Why geothermal development can should support community projects like the Puna Community Park, an effort that has been ongoing for 28 years.
- OHA Trustee Bob Lindsey – Benefits (reventues) that come to Hawaiians & OHA from geothermal Royalties, protections for Wao Kele o Puna Forest.
- Kale Gumapac – "Why Hawaiians should be informed in and involved in development of their trust asstes, the need for Hawaiian development options, what are "community benefits?"
Mililani B. Trask opened up the discussion with a bit of an introduction about who the folks involved in the project are:
I wish I could have stayed for the entire meeting but I had prior commitments.
Filed under: Announcements, Big Island, Community, Environment, Hawaii, Hawaiian, Puna, State Affairs, Sustainable Living | Tagged: Emily Naeole, Geothermal electricity, Hawaiian Land Assets, Hawaiian Perspectives on Geothermal Energy, Kilowatt hour, Mililani B. Trask, Native Hawaiian, Patricia Brandt, Puna Geothermal, Wao Kele O Puna | 4 Comments »


text:
Past Event
Disasters Roundtable Workshop 34: Integrating Disaster Recovery: What Should Long-Term Disaster Recovery Look Like?Disasters Roundtable
The Pew DC Conference Center, Americas Room, 2nd Floor
901 E Street, NW Washington DC 20004
Recovery from a disaster requires a host of actions to restore the physical, economic and social functions of a community, including the restoration of critical infrastructure; re-establishment of educational, civic and commercial services; and replacement of displaced persons. As such, long-term recovery touches on many sectors including emergency management, public health, housing, mental health and the environment. Currently, many post-disaster recovery efforts take place in silos and lack coordination, with emphasis placed on the physical replacement or repair of the constructed environment. However, collaboration among all areas affected by a disaster is critical for the successful recovery of any community.
To address some of the many issues related to integrated disaster recovery, the Disasters Roundtable held a one day workshop, Integrated Disaster Recovery: What Should Long-Term Disaster Recovery Look Like? to explore strategies to integrate disaster recovery across disciplines, sectors and jurisdictions.
The objectives of this workshop were to address:
1) What is integrated long-term recovery?
2) How is progress of recovery measured?
3) What gaps currently exist that need to be overcome in disaster recovery?
4) How to design and implement an integrative recovery strategy?
The workshop included evidence-based sets of expert presentations and panel discussions to illuminate approaches to integrate disaster recovery to both in-person and video webcast participants.
Questions and topics that were addressed during the workshop included:
(1) What are measures of successful recovery and how does a city gauge progress?
(2) How can the interface of Local, State, and National agencies change to improve recovery?
(3) What are new and innovative data tools and techniques that can be utilized before, during, and/or after a disaster to inform recovery planning, prioritization, and assessment?
(4) What are examples of successful integrated disaster recovery strategies?
Key areas included: housing, education, economics, as well as the environment.
Click here to download the meeting agenda.
Click here to register to view the video webcast of this workshop.
Breakout sessions at the event produced three Powerpoint presentations summarizing their conclusions:
Bottom-Up Group summary slides (PDF)
Top-down Bottom-up Hybrid Group summary slides (PDF)
Top-down Group summary slides (PDF)
Many of the participants in the day's discussions spoke about their presentations and the larger theme of disaster recovery.
Frederick "Skip" Burkle
Although good strategic and tactical planning has existed for decades, there are significant shortcomings and gaps in addressing the needs of the local community under current top-down approaches to recovery. Dr. Burkle emphasizes that the community, including community leaders, must become an essential component of the disaster cycle and suggests the following practices for disaster recovery professionals: (A) to not assume the community lacks expertise; (B) admit uncertainty, act transparently, issue guidance on protection and disseminate information as soon as possible; (C) recognize the myriad of inter-linked community networks; and (D) recognize the capacity of capable, non-expert caregivers and community organizers.
Mary Comerio
Housing recovery is a core component for any disaster recovery effort. For individuals who have lost or experienced damage to their homes, Dr. Comerio explains, knowing what happens next is crucial to decision making. Those affected are not just concerned about their homes, but also their jobs, children's schools, health care and other services. To make good decisions about the future of their houses, people need: 1) good public information, 2) to know what is happening with other services (i.e. health services, schools, etc.) and 3) to understand how to finance their expenditures--these are all critical to the integration of disaster recovery.
Arrietta Chakos
It is important for communities to be ready for a disaster and to have an understanding of how to recover. Ms. Chakos invites everybody in a community to be responsible for understanding the risk their community faces and to help prepare oneself, one's family and the broader community so that everybody is better able to bounce back from a disaster when it happens.
Craig Van Dyke
There is a need to break down silos in medicine, especially between physical and mental health care. Following a disaster, psychological responses such as feelings of loss and uncertainty about the future are common. Responding to the needs of people that experience these problems, explains Dr. Van Dyke, requires a system of care that is sustainable and scalable. To address these issues, medical professionals are now focusing on a team-based approach to bring mental health services into the primary care system.
Laurie Johnson
Dr. Johnson moderated the workshop session on progress towards recovery, in which panelists at the federal and local levels discussed U.S. efforts towards recovery. Following Katrina, FEMA made advances in recovery with the release of the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF), which aims to coordinate recovery activities across multiple federal agencies. Key aspects of the NDRF include the call for local and state officials to assume the primary leadership roles after a disaster and the recognition of the need for recovery coordinators to integrate recovery organizations and professionals into the process. In the aftermath of very large scale disasters, the Housing and Urban Development has an important role in providing additional assistance to states and local communities and filling gaps in assistance that standard federal programs may not cover, particularly in the areas of housing, business and community recovery. Disasters professionals at the local level shared lessons learned from their experiences following earthquakes and severe floods, emphasizing the work that is being implemented to improve the physical environment, improve governance, empower communities and build networks. Local officials also reiterated the importance of developing leadership at the local level and cautioned about the challenges that politics may bring to the recovery process.
Deborah Ingram
The National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF) provides a framework for how to manage disaster recovery. While the traditional focus has been on disaster response, which is critical to saving lives and protecting property from further damage, Ms. Ingram emphasizes the importance of recovery to help communities return to a sense of normality as soon as possible. The NDRF has three key concepts to assist in recovery – pre-disaster and post-disaster recovery planning; developing leadership at all levels; and recovery support functions that help with organizing the recovery process.
Jesse Handforth Kome
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) plays a role in large-scale disasters when Congress appropriates supplemental funding for disaster recovery. Ms. Handforth Kome explains that HUD takes a long-term view of recovery to help communities' position themselves for the future, to not only rebuild but to recover in ways that are sustainable and disaster resilient. To expedite recovery, there is a need to engage in resilience planning in advance, communicate professionally, set public expectations realistically and use metrics to monitor success.
Linda Langston
After a disaster, local officials often face challenges in integrating top down and community based approaches to recovery. To implement successful recovery efforts, Ms. Langston explains, requires a trusting relationship between people at all levels and sectors; ongoing communication between elected and other officials and citizens; and the need for local officials to anticipate disasters. Langston adds that the National Disaster Recovery Framework is a real step forward as a way to map the recovery process, and concludes on the encouraging note that when a good plan is in place, there is a much better opportunity for successful recovery.
Chris Poland
Mr. Poland and The San Francisco Urban Planning and Research Association (SPUR) are working together to help San Francisco become a more resilient city by developing policies that focus on increasing the community's understanding of what may happen in a disaster and how they should respond. According to Mr. Poland, the goal of a resilient city is to save people, neighborhoods, and their cultural heritage and local economy. A resilient city includes planning before and during the disaster, response and recovery phases. Mr. Poland echoes many others in that he said there is a need to develop a holistic implementation plan that includes public education, governance and mitigation.
Lori Peek
Dr. Peek moderated the workshop session on information needs for disaster recovery, which brought together panelists from several different sectors to discuss the role of information and technology in disaster response and recovery. The panel discussed information needs at different phases of the disaster cycle, focusing on the planning phase before an event – how do you understand and predict what the needs will be; during an event – how do you capture real time information and use it in the immediate aftermath; and after a disaster – how do you assess what worked and use it to prepare for the next time.
Lessly Field
The use of information in recovering lifelines, such as gas, water, electricity, wastewater and telecom utilities, is critical before, during and after a disaster. Ms. Field stresses practices and recommendations for information recovery to improve access of utility workers to disaster sites, opportunities to expand the integration of utilities into state and local operating centers, and forming lifeline recovery councils that plan for the long-term and address recovery far in advance of a disaster occurring.
Ron Eguchi
Mr. Eguchi notes that the recovery process is complex, long and resource intensive, and that it is necessary to focus on how to track, monitor and measure information to better understand how recovery occurs in communities. Little is known about how to systematically measure and evaluate recovery. To help solve this problem, recovery should be broken into different dimensions: the degree of recovery, the quality of recovery, sustainability and the extent of change of recovery over time. If these components can be measured, models can be utilized to make projections about how communities recover and the drivers of recovery can be illuminated so that opportunities to accelerate recovery are identified.
David Abramson
Dr. Abramson focuses on the population impact of long-term recovery, noting "we need a long-term recovery outcome to help us address questions like how do we know the community has healed?" He emphasizes three key messages: 1) values matter, and how populations are affected is a critical part of thinking through how you want a community to recover; 2) a public health framework can be a useful model for disaster recovery when it addresses how social systems and structures affect an individual or population's health; and 3) it is important to measure how people, at the collective, group and individual level, are doing over time. This data can tell you whether or not recovery is occurring, how fast recovery is taking place and whether you are addressing the needs of the population.
Mark Prutsalis
There is a trend in urban population growth and increased concentrations of people in cities vulnerable to disasters, which has lead to the potential for more people to be impacted and large increases in spending on disaster relief and recovery. Disaster professionals now have new opportunities to design more resilient systems to help people recover from disasters. Mr. Prutsalis highlights three 'best practices' from working with disasters such as the Haiti and Sendai earthquakes: 1) building information systems according to known open data standards so that information can be shared between systems following a disaster; 2) the importance of establishing information sharing agreements in advance; and 3) evaluating and integrating public information sources, such as social media, into response plans in advance.
William Seaman
Dr. Seaman notes some of the consistent themes that have emerged from the discussions between participants at the workshop, including community involvement, communication and the need for integration between top-down approaches at the federal levels with the bottom-up approaches at the individual level.
Brent Woodworth
The primary stakeholders for disaster preparedness - the community and the government – need to engage in collaborative efforts for community preparedness. Mr. Woodworth explains that the top-down approach relies on the government for guidance, while the community-based approach occurs when the community and its residents drive the recovery process. To bring the efforts together requires planning, task assignments and implementation. He suggests the use of a third, neutral party as a way for the two sectors to work in a more unified manner and to facilitate the exchange of information within and between sectors and city government officials. Mr. Woodworth talks about a total collaboration and introduces break through approaches that are being tried to focus on community and national preparedness.
Doug Ahlers
Mr. Ahlers introduces a case management approach to integrate disaster recovery, which is designed to meet the needs of an individual by marrying together top down and community-based approaches. One problem with disaster recovery is that silos can exist between assistance programs, organizations and agencies that provide response and recovery services, and individuals are often left to navigate the maze of programs on their own. In the case management approach, a case manager works with 35 - 40 residents to help disaster stricken individuals get assistance from the government, non-profits and other organizations. The case manager works across all of a household's requirements rather than focusing specifically on one area of recovery.


text:
- Description
Download the "It's Love!" Video file to use in your Church service or kids club.
In MP4 Video format, this file will play on modern computers (eg using the standard media player in Windows 10)
Remember to choose "SAVE" and not "OPEN" when you get the download!
Here's the original full video on YouTube:
Technical Info:
File Format: MP4 File Extension: .mp4s File Size: 205MB Video Dimensions: 1920x1080 Length: 2:11
Purchase of this download implies agreement to the license terms - click here to read the license terms
- Reviews


text:
Westminster UMC and St. Augustus AME Zion exchange pastors; Michael Cable coming to library; briefing breakfast on early childhood investments
Churches enjoy pulpit exchange
Two churches did something recently that they hope will be the beginning of a new tradition. Westminster United Methodist Church and St. Augustus AME Zion hosted a pulpit exchange April 14.
The Rev. Julian Pridgen, pastor of St. Augustus, preached at Westminster, and the Rev. T.R. Miller, Westminster pastor, preached at St. Augustus. They were received and enjoyed by both congregations, with lots of fellowship following the services.
Buddy Ritch, former Kinston mayor, has had the pulpit exchange idea for a long time as a way to approach some of his concerns for the city. As a Westminster member, he welcomed Pridgen to the church and introduced him to the congregation. Many congregants expressed the hope that other churches will host similar exchanges in the future.
Appraiser to return to library
The Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library will host a program featuring renowned Farmville antiques dealer and appraiser Michael Cable at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The program will be held in the Schechter Auditorium of the library, 510 N. Queen St. Audience members are invited to bring up to two items to be discussed and appraised.
The free program is sponsored by Friends of the Library. Space is limited, so reservations are encouraged for this popular program.
For more information, or to reserve seats, call 252-527-7066, ext. 120.
Wake-Up Lenoir has executive briefing
The North Carolina Partnership for Children is hosting several early childhood investment briefings around the state, and one in Kinston is scheduled for Thursday. The event will be from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. at Chef & the Farmer, 120 W. Gordon St., with breakfast provided.
Kinston business leaders Stephen Hill and Randall Boehme will discuss early childhood investments as a key strategy in improving North Carolina�s workforce pipeline and in developing a strong economic foundation for the state. Hill is chairman of the Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors � which is co-hosting the event. Boehme is Production Division manager with Sanderson Farms.
Effective early childhood programs enable children to become more creative, adaptable, team-ready employees by developing �soft skills.�
To respond, contact Molly Taylor with The Partnership for Children at 252-939-1200 or email@example.com.


text:
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Wishing 'ewe' a merry Christmas...
Today is review preview day over at the All That Scraps blog and we are shining the spotlight on a few of this month's new release stamps. I had yet to ink up this sweet little Ornament Ewe from CC Designs and I really wanted to get her on a card. There isn't a whole lot to color here so I thought I would have some fun by adding flocking to her wool... now she's nice and fuzzy! This image kinda reminds me of the Fairwees... in that it is nice and small and really easy to color, which makes for a great quick and easy holiday card. Which, let's face it, the closer to Christmas that we get... the less time we seem to have for squeezing crafting into the holiday hustle and bustle. ;)
If you've got a minute or two, why not hop on over to the ATS blog and check out what the rest of the gals have created today... you may just spot a stamp or two that you missed the first time round. :)
Supply list:
cardstock- Bazzill and Copic X-Press It
paper- October Afternoon (Very Merry)
stamps- CC Designs (Ornament Ewe and sentiment)
ink- Memento tuxedo black and Colorbox creamy brown
Making Memories poinsettias
Doodlebug white flocking
Fiskars border punch
Copic markers:
ewe- W5, W7, W9, E40, E41, 0
ornament- R24, R27, R29, E19, Y21, Y26, Y28, Y13
background- BG000, 0
24 comments:
- Mette said...
Gorgeous christmas card Amy. Love your choice of papers and elements and that's one cute christmas lamb :).
Hugs, Mette
- October 18, 2011 at 5:01 AM
- Unknown said...
Wonderful card. The sheep is very lovely.
- October 18, 2011 at 5:19 AM
- Hlora said...
It is so cute))) Love this funny image))
- October 18, 2011 at 5:25 AM
- Cindy H. said...
Oh so cute!!
- October 18, 2011 at 5:47 AM
- corryskaart said...
hallo amy
wat een lieve kerstkaart en de stempel is hartstikke lief!
groetjes van corry
- October 18, 2011 at 5:56 AM
- Unknown said...
Awww how cute and fun this is, love the image, and colours so fun and bright xxx
- October 18, 2011 at 6:36 AM
- Maria Therese said...
- October 18, 2011 at 6:41 AM
- Marianne said...
Love it! Also agree that it's a perfect image for making some quick (last-minute?) cards.
- October 18, 2011 at 6:49 AM
- Lau W said...
So lovely sheep, your card is gorgeous Amy !
- October 18, 2011 at 7:20 AM
- Creations by Shirl said...
Aww so cute Amy - that sheep is so adorable... love those poinsetta's and bg papers too....
- October 18, 2011 at 8:15 AM
- Rhonda Miller said...
Awww, how cute. TFS.
- October 18, 2011 at 8:31 AM
- Unknown said...
so stinkin cute!! I love the flocking accent! This little guy is on my wish list..will def be making Christmas cards with him!=)
- October 18, 2011 at 9:26 AM
- Unknown said...
Adorable! :)
- October 18, 2011 at 10:53 AM
- Annie's Creations said...
This is such a cute card...I just picked up the exact stamp, can't wait till it comes in :D
- October 18, 2011 at 11:52 AM
- Leanne said...
Hi Amy,
Ewe this is soo cute! hahaha!! Sorry that was really bad!
So loving this cute image with the flock and sitting on the ornament. Pretty papers and love the flowers. Now I'm off to catch up on the rest of your lovely creations I missed this weekend.
Hope ur having a nice day! ;)
- October 18, 2011 at 12:07 PM
- Luanne said...
very cute card!
- October 18, 2011 at 1:34 PM
- yvon said...
What a cute christmascard, love it. And your last card is gorgeous aswell. Love that image.
Hugs, Yvon
- October 18, 2011 at 1:38 PM
- Milaya said...
What a wonderful card! So cute and funny!!!
- October 18, 2011 at 2:06 PM
- SuiLan said...
Hehe... this image is so cute!
- October 18, 2011 at 5:51 PM
- Karla said...
It is so cute
- October 18, 2011 at 6:16 PM
- Caroline said...
Sooo cute, love the image and those flowers!
- October 18, 2011 at 7:54 PM
- Unknown said...
This is super fun and cute! I am loving traditional Christmas colors this year!
- October 18, 2011 at 10:47 PM
- Crafty Loops said...
Oh my word, how cute. Smashing card Amy. Lee xx
- October 18, 2011 at 11:55 PM
- RiNNE said...
So true, Amy! Sometimes you just have enough time to color a little bit at a time - so the fairwees and this lil guy are perfect!! Such an adorable card!! Love the fluff and coloring! Awesome elements!
- October 19, 2011 at 9:30 PM


text:
The object
window.location.protocol will return
file: for app-based readers, and it will return
http: for browser-based readers. Using this, we can make a function to switch a div on or off based on the value of
Consider the following HTML snippet:
This very basic example loads the page and then fires the switching function at the end, so that it can "see" the two divs and therefore hide the appropriate one. If the reader is using an app, then
window.location.protocol returns
file: and the div called "webMessage" gets switched off. In order for it to work for you, you will need to provide two images to replace my
chimp.png and
monkey.png. Put them in a folder along with an html file containing the snippet, make a Web Content overlay, and point it at the html file. Be sure to set it to auto play, and depending on the content of the divs, you might want to turn off "Allow User Interaction."
The example also includes fonts to match the InDesign layout. In the App, I use the HTMLResources folder, about which you can learn more about in the help file for Hyperlinks. In the browser, I use fonts from Typekit, which is a web-based font service from Adobe that's part of Creative Cloud Membership. You could also use Adobe Edge Web Fonts or other hosted web font services.
Now, to test how this works, you need to make a folio, add your InDesign file as an article, publish the folio into an app that has Web Renditions enabled and Social Sharing turned on in the Viewer. Notice the publish the folio instruction. In order to see the folio in a browser, you need to publish to a Viewer App and then socially share the article. Since Single Edition can't use social sharing, this will only apply to customers who use Pro or Enterprise. In addition, in order to test whether this works, you will need access to a DPS Application account that has Web Renditions enabled and a Viewer App that has Social Sharing turned on. Once you've published, open the folio, browse to your app, and then share it by email with yourself to test.
Here is how the folio renders on an iPad:
…and in a browser:
The ease with which we can distinguish between readers in a browser and readers in an app allows publishers to provide content that can target users based on how they engage with that content, as well as to offer differentiated advertising. It also allows you to take advantage of browser features that won't work on a tablet due to the limitations of the WebKit overlay, simply by making two versions of the HTML and switching on the appropriate div. Sometimes, simple solutions open up complex possibilities, and this is one of those solutions.


text:
Close Window
Behcet syndrome
(beh-SHET SIN-drome)
A rare disorder that causes the blood vessels to become inflamed. Symptoms include sores in the mouth and on the sex organs and other skin problems, inflammation in parts of the eye, and pain, swelling, and stiffness of the joints. Other serious symptoms include blood clots, blindness, and inflammation of the brain, spinal cord, and digestive system. The symptoms may come and go on their own. Behcet syndrome is most common in young adults and its cause is unknown. Also called Behcet disease.


text:
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As agents grow and develop skills and a client base, they want their career path to grow, as well.
WFG supports and encourages its associates to consider including their family in their businesses and, in fact, the WFG business platform helps to facilitate their involvement. We believe there can only be exponential returns when a family works together to achieve common goals. Some of the rewards of having a family-run WFG business can include:
Your WFG business can help you secure your family's future. As you grow your WFG business, you are creating a lasting legacy that, through WFG's business ownership program, can be passed on and take care of your family for years to come.*^
Combining business and family enriches the lives of many WFG associates. Talk to your family and see if this business structure can work for you.
World Financial Group, Inc. (WFG) is a financial services marketing company whose affiliates offer a broad array of financial products and services. Insurance products offered through World Financial Group Insurance Agency, Inc., World Financial Group Insurance Agency of Hawaii, Inc., World Financial Group Insurance Agency of Massachusetts, Inc., World Financial Group Insurance Agency of Wyoming, Inc., World Financial Insurance Agency, Inc. and/or WFG Insurance Agency of Puerto Rico, Inc (collectively WFGIA). WFG and WFGIA are affiliated companies. Headquarters: 11315 Johns Creek Parkway, Johns Creek, GA 30097-1517. Phone: 770.453.9300. WorldFinancialGroup.com.
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text:
In April, the io9 Book Club read Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon, the first novel in the Temeraire series (the seventh novel, Crucible of Gold, just came out). Now Novik is coming to answer your questions about the book tomorrow, April 27.
She'll be landing in the comment thread on this very post on April 27 between 12:00-1:00 PM Pacific Time. Start posting your questions for her now, and she'll answer as many as she can during that hour.
Please be polite!
NOTE: Want to get a head start on our next book? In May, we'll be reading Nick Harkaway's Angelmaker (we reviewed it here). [Amazon] We'll meet May 29 to talk about the book, and we hope that Harkaway will join us to discuss the book later that week.
Photo by Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times


text:
Model S Reservation Tally
Model S Reservation Tally
Signature #517
Add 100 cars signed during the week-end for a car sharing service.
With this speed my "7000 before end of the year" needs to be changed to "7000 before end of the month".
I have been saying that in other forums where people are doubting that nobody is buying Model S "because it costs so much". To me that price is starting to look low. I would pay more for Model S than I would for Roadster. With sport-version it isn't even competition anymore, car that kills Roadster is Model S Sport. Not BMW this and that or Renault this and that or any other manufacturer oncoming EV.
If Tesla "affordable model" is anything like Model S I definitely will buy that one. I would like it to be a bit smaller though, something like Ford Focus or Subaru Impreza WRX 5-door hatchback model. 4WD would make it absolute perfect. Something like that and price being between $30k and $50k it would sell like no other. Then this Model S reservation tally would look slow progress.
That's about 112 since Sunday, or 40 per day.
Glad I tripled up on my shares of TSLA this morning...
If you are counting cars to be produced and sold, shouldn't you count all of the cars ordered to be produced, all of the cars to be sold? Does it matter how the cars are to be owned or used? Does Ford not count fleet sales as part of production or sales?
It would seem to me that we are interested in sales numbers.
It might be more romantic to imagine that each Model S is sold to an individual who is going to drive it out of sheer enthusiasm and love of the vehicle, but the practical matter is that sales volume and profit is what is going to keep Tesla going.
Dude, nobody is grading you. What you're doing now gives everyone an idea of the number of pre-sales. Good enough.
I don't think we should add it since our Tally is already running high relative to the real number from people moving up to signature from general production. Until they reset the numbers we have no idea how far off we are except when they report each quarter.
Let's leave the 100 out of the count, at worst it will get us 100 cars closer to the real number.
If you want to account for those 100 (they may just be ignored as long as there are no other similar infos, they will reduce the error from your estimates to real reservations), probably is better to create a new category, something like "fleets".
I don't think the 100 fleet numbers are needed in the tally list. It may end up in the normal reservation cycle where someone who reserves later follows those reservation numbers. Given that multiple people have upgraded to the Signature there are obviously gaps in the tally but we are aware that the tally is slightly high. It is unknown how exactly the SS numbers fit it and might be redundant if they are all upgrades but it could give an idea of how many total Signatures have been reserved since those seem to be tracked separately than normal S#.
I think no on the fleet.
I think it would be good to include the SS# but not in the running total.
Given that Tesla recently announced 6,000 reservations, and this count shows 7,000 reservations, perhaps a good method for determining the real number is to subtract 15% from the tallied figure.
That should provide a slightly more accurate representation of the actual total.
Sounds like you've got a pretty good handle on it.
Seems like a correction factor based on the delta from the most recent conference call is a pretty good way to go.
Yoou are exactly right. I was equating reservations to sales. Optimistic perhaps. Certainly everyone has the option of changing their minds.
Another observation. if Tesla is assigning numbers in accordance with reservations, wouldn't they include the 100 as they assign numbers? Or maybe not. I guess the real unknown is how they are counting the total.
My point with the romantic comment is that the guy who purchased the 100 for his business is not going to be driving them all and enjoying them as we will ours. No offense intended.
What you are doing is great! Keep up the good work.
What about founders series? How many of those? I met F#20 at the open house.
Hum. "End of the month" turned out to be "end of the week". Huge increase in very short time period.
Im a proud new Model S reservation member. Number #5208
Mine is for a general production Model S
What exactly is the "Signature Special List (Model S)" and how is it different from the Signature Series (Model S)? Did a quick search but can't seem to find a useful definition, obviously missing something.
Does the SSL number counts towards the 1000 Signature limit?
THE last reservation numbers given in The Netherlands are #93, #94 en #95. These are from last week as myself and two friends suscribed for Model 'S Signaturen.
This brings the total of 8 reservations in The Netherlands and I am one of the happy few!!!!
Recent reservation for US S Signature was #530 (called me Friday October 7 with the number)
The Signature Special List are the numbers given to Roadster owners who sign up for a Signature Edition. They come at the head of the line for Signature production.
It's unknown if that number is added to the top of the Signature number or not.
So with Signature #530, the total Signatures could in theory, already be as high as 719 as of today. (530+189=719)
I heard at one point that there are also a few cars that will be made for a Founder's series that will likely have signature signage.
This is for the venture capitalists and Elon etc.
True, but I doubt the Founder's cars would count against the 1,000 US ceiling. While the rear hatch might be badged as "Signature", the inside plaque would reflect it as a Founder's series.
William 113
In a news report sometime back, I saw that in response to a journalist's question, "Are you getting the first model S", Elon replied "No, someone came in with a check for the whole amount- I was surprised, he gets the first one and I get the second one." I can't find the source. It may have been in the Wall Street Journal interview. Of course that could be a signature or whatever.
Are you sure his name is not Jetson...!?...
OK michiganmodels - you can add my reservation to your running tally:
Reservation #5250 Oct.10,2011
US General Production
At this rate they're going to sell out of the 2013 run before they deliver the first car!
That IS the idea Mycroft ;)
Received October 11, 2011.
Your Reservation Sequence number is 5,265 of the General Production reservation list.
Hm. I wonder what the total of pure EVs sold in the world to date is?
That's a lot of gold carts!
Just upgraded from my General Production spot (P2,454) to a Signature Model S. My check was received at noon today (Oct. 12) and my sequence number is 550 (US)
So, from October 7th to the 12th, 20 new orders for Signatures have been received. Orders are definitely picking up now that the Betas are out!


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You've Been Trumped (watch it here if you haven't yet), director Anthony Baxter's 2011 documentary, is not just a tale about an awful rich person trampling all over some nice local villagers — because the villagers fight back. Awesome.
The fact that the film feels deeply biased is problematic, but also probably not entirely the fault of the director. Trump is clearly painted as the villain, unsubtly and with broad strokes, but his rare interactions with the filmmaker are unmistakably ugly and callous. In other words — the movie definitely sets out to depict him as a bad guy, but they may have been justified in doing so.
What did you think of You've Been Trumped? Let's talk this out.
Possible Discussion Topics:
1. Did the film feel biased? Is that still a problem if the bias feels completely justified or accurate? Or does it just feel that way because the film was biased?
2. I want to be friends with chain-smoking, scrappy Susan Monro and have her describe everything that I do as "a disgrace" in that chewy brogue of hers. Who was your favorite of the local people? What did you think of their efforts to stop development.
3. As it turns out, the economic justifications for approving the project were mostly unfounded — most of the jobs created didn't go to area residents. Why wasn't Trump's plan subjected to more stringent evaluative criteria?
4. The fact that after all that fighting, the project was derailed by proposed wind turbines which would obstruct the view from the golf resort, felt somehow disappointing. Do you think construction will continue? Should it?
5. The winds are strong on the Scottish coast, right? How did Trump's hair at no point fly away?
What else occurred to you while watching You've Been Trumped?
Sam Lansky is a writer and editor from New York City.
This post is a sponsored collaboration between Netflix and Studio@Gawker.


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text:
(written from a Production point of view)
Susan Zietlow-Maust is a hair stylist who worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the 1996 video game Star Trek: Klingon.
Her work on Star Trek earned her the following Emmy Award nominations:
- 1993 for the episode "Move Along Home", shared with Candace Neal, Ronald W. Smith, and Gerald Solomon
- 1994 for the episode "Firstborn", shared with Joy Zapata, Patricia Miller, Laura Connolly, Carolyn Elias, and Don Sheldon
- 1996 for the episode "Our Man Bashir", shared with Shirley Dolle, Cherie Huffman, Lee Crawford, Brian A. Tunstall, Ellen Powell, and Barbara Ronci
- 1997 for the episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", shared with Norma Lee, Brian A. Tunstall, Jacklin Masteran, Linle White, Francine Shermaine, Caryl Codon-Tharp, and Charlotte Harvey
- 1999 for the episode "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang", shared with Norma Lee, Brian A. Tunstall, Gloria Pasqua Casny, Rebecca De Morrio, Laura Connolly, Lauran Upshaw, Frank Fontaine, Tim Jones, Angela Gurule, Gloria Ponce, Virginia Grobeson, and Linda Leiter Sharp
In 2011 she received another Emmy Award nomination in the category Outstanding Hairstyling for a Single-Camera Series for her work on the Glee episode "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle".
Zietlow-Maust worked as hair stylist from the early 1980s on and worked on projects such as the drama Urban Cowboy (1980, with Silvia Abascal and Jeff Dawn), the comedy ...All the Marbles (1981), the television series Newhart (1982-1983), and the thriller Flashpoint (1984). She was the department head on the television drama Children of the Night (1985), on two seasons of Murder She Wrote (1984-1986), and on the first season of the drama series China Beach (1988-1989).
Further credits include episodes of Mike Hammer (1987, with Lee Crawford), Knots Landing (1989, with Rebecca De Morrio), and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993), the comedy License to Drive (1988, with Francisco X. Pérez), the comedy sequel The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991, with James R. Scribner and Joy Zapata), the musical Newsies (1992), the comedy Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993, with Thomas R. Burman, Bari Dreiband-Burman, Todd McIntosh, and Linle White), the television series The Trouble with Larry (1993), the action film Speed (1994), the science fiction adventure Waterworld (1995), the crime drama Mad Dog Time (1996, with Dino Ganziano), the comedy The Odd Couple II (1998, with Steve LaPorte and Gloria Ponce), the horror sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), the comedy Human Nature (2001, with Barney Burman and Jamie Kelman), the comedy Black Knight (2001), the fantasy sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), and the television series Samantha Who? (2007-2009).
Zietlow-Maust was the hair department head on the comedy series State of Grace (2001) and In-Laws (2002-2003). More recently, she worked as hair stylist on the drama series Sex Chronicles (2009-2010), the comedy The Last Godfather (2010, with Bonita DeHaven), and the television series Big Love (2011) and Retired at 35 (2011).
Star Trek episodes Edit
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- "The First Duty" – Hair Stylist (uncredited, Season 5)
- "Cost of Living" – Hair Stylist (uncredited)
- "Imaginary Friend" – Hair Stylist (uncredited)
- "I Borg" – Hair Stylist (uncredited)
- "Firstborn" – Hair Stylist (uncredited, Season 7)
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- "Move Along Home" – Hair Stylist (uncredited, Season 1)
- "Our Man Bashir" – Hair Stylist (uncredited, Season 4)
- "Return to Grace" – Hair Stylist (uncredited)
- "Sons of Mogh" – Hair Stylist (uncredited)
- "Trials and Tribble-ations" – Hair Stylist (uncredited, Season 5)
- "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang" – Hair Stylist (uncredited, Season 7)


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As the year 2012 came to an end, the skeptic world was watching keenly the irrational population to see how they would react when the much awaited end of
the world, as was supposedly predicted by Mayas for December 21, 2012, failed. In this apocalypse, the sun was believed to be aligned with the center of
the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. The believers of this apocalypse thought that gravitational, magnetic, and solar energies would go
awry when this galactic and planetary alignment occurred, causing an array of natural disasters,
including the weakening of our magnetic field, allowing solar radiation to penetrate our atmosphere. However, as that date reached and
passed without any such happening, it appeared that this was not another lesson to the many bigots who have been wasting their precious time predicting
illusions, and this also did not enlighten the irrational population of how they were wasting a lot of energy spending sleepless nights waiting for the end
of the world so they could go to heaven.
Whereas in many enlightened republics these kinds of fake predictions only lead to panic of the irrational people, the situation might not be the same in
other republics; and mostly those in which the population is highly superstitious like in Africa. We still cannot forget the incident of 2006 when the
believers of House of Yahweh predicted the end of the world. To start with, on September 12, 2006, the founder of the House of Yahweh, Pastor Yisrayl
Hawkins, announced the end of the world through nuclear wars. Sadly, the Kenyan branch of this religious cult strongly believed in this and started selling
their properties. They also went ahead and built mud banks where they stocked dry food and water to survive when the end of the world began. Some went to
the extent of withdrawing their children from school. When this prophecy failed, many people who were previously wealthy become poor, and their children
who would have had good educations faced a bleak future because some religious leaders had duped their parents. Is this really humane?
Of course, this has been the sole reason why humanists in Africa have put anti-superstition campaigns as one of their top priorities. Not only has
superstition caused people to lose property and given the youths a bleak future, but it has also made people lose their lives. Right now, the main
challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa is HIV/AIDS. The statistics show that about 22.5 million people live with the disease; of these, 2.3 million are children.
However, the current trend is that most religious people have taken advantage of this scourge in many parts of Africa and are organizing healing campaigns
to heal diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Sadly, after such healings, most HIV/AIDS victims leave contented that they have been healed of HIV/AIDS and the result
is that they throw the antiretroviral drugs in the pit latrines. Later, when they realize that they were duped, it is too late. This has resulted in the
deaths of many people who would have otherwise been helped to live longer lives.
In the rural areas of Africa, the loss of lives of these people to HIV/AIDS—who would have otherwise led longer lives to bring up a potential
generation—have resulted in many orphans being left behind without a future. Many schools in the rural areas have experienced declines in pupils because
these children have no one to continue educating them.
This is why, with support from CFI–Transnational in our Anti-Superstition Campaign, we launched Support a Humanist Orphan. The aim of Support a Humanist Orphan is to help children in the rural areas of Africa who have been victims of misfortunes caused by irrational
thought. So far we have eleven orphans, and we have taken care of their education and other supplementary needs.
In the year 2012, we interacted a lot with the humanist orphans. We started on a high note by giving them the best we could to make them get educated. As
such we went ahead and took their measurements for uniform sizes. Here, we measured the sizes of the eleven orphans and bought them uniforms.
Apart from the uniforms, we went ahead and interacted with the orphans and the distant relatives who host them to find out how they were organized in terms
of food and shelter, and we saw the need to supplement when we had the resources. For example, we organized and distributed some food items to them and the
relatives who had taken the task of taking care of them.
As humanists in Africa, we cannot sit back and relax and watch the gagging of the future generation simply because people have refused to think critically.
The old society tried to chain us in superstition, but this is the time to break the chains. When we sponsor these children, we stand the chance of
becoming louder voices in the rural schools and instilling critical thinking from a lower level of academia. This is where the seed grows stronger roots.
Not only did we take our Anti-Superstition Campaign to the rural areas, but we went further to engage the university students. The greatest development of
2012 was that we managed to establish contact with Maseno University. Maseno University is a public university in the western part of Kenya. Here, we
managed to establish a group, the Maseno Freethinkers. We also had workshops at the University of Nairobi and Moi University. So far we have established on
campus groups in four public universities.
Our plan is that once we have captured the six major public universities in Kenya, we shall launch a national campaign against the dogmas that have held
the society back. We shall hold public functions and debates where we shall have attendance from the entire student body all over Kenya and campaign
against superstition. We will campaign against the witchcraft hunting that has left many old people dead through lynching. We will show the public that
some superstitions held are a danger to the albinos: over fifty albinos are dead because fishermen believe their hair accrues large harvests of fish. We
shall advocate for the rights of the children to influence other African nations like Nigeria where the future of the children is bleak because the
population believes some children are witches and cast spells on the society. We believe this will also go a long way in inspiring nations that still think
that children born with HIV/AIDS contain demons and are therefore hacked to death.
Just as Leo Igwe, the former director of CFI/Nigeria would say, "At the end of the day, reason shall prevail." We believe with our efforts, reason shall


text:
Sheriff: Standoff suspect in custody
Investigators from several law enforcement departments were involved in a standoff situation with a man inside a home in Prairie Creek.
The suspect is now in custody, said officials with the Benton County Sheriff's office.
The home is located off of Highway 12.
Stay tuned to 40/29 News and 4029tv.com for more information.
Dennis Melchert was arrested and faces terrorist threatening and assault charges.
Benton county police tried to talk Melchert out of his home at 16100 block of Hickory Drive for 3 hours Thursday morning.
An officer from the Benton County Police Department was called out around 7 a.m. Thursday morning. Additional officers, the Swat team and Rogers ambulance were called out to assist.
Initial report said melchert's roommate was worried about his safety and called police.
Officers used tear gas to get the man out of his home.


text:
Becca Trabin is a stand-up comedian and improvisor living in Philadelphia. She is a member of Philly Improv Theater house team Mayor Karen and the host of Town Hall, a monthly show featured on The Sideshow.
How and why did you get into comedy? When I was about eight years old, I went on vacation to North Carolina with my extended family. We went to a huge, fancy seafood restaurant, about fifteen of us, and when the check came, the grown-ups were all a little taken aback. I said, "SOMEBODY'S gonna be doing dishes!!!" which is a joke I'd obviously heard on TV. Everyone lost it, and I was floored by the feeling that gave me. Later I realized they were laughing in part because, why would an 8-year-old say that? But I think that specific moment triggered something for me.
How would you describe your style as a comedian? What influences and factors do you think contribute to that? I feel like it's kinda different every time and always growing. People have described my stuff as silly, cerebral, dark, weird, self-deprecating. I want it to be all of those things dynamically. I've definitely struggled in my life and have something to say, and am okay with making myself vulnerable to an audience.
Do you have a single favorite moment in Philly comedy or one that stands out? Not really. Lots of good times. Stuff I wouldn't post online.
Do you have any sort of creative process that you use with your writing or your performance? Or a sort of method that you use to develop comedic material? With stand-up, I usually come up with ideas accidentally when I'm hanging out with my friends or walking around, and then I flesh it out later. Many times, I've come up with the best parts of a bit right before I'm about to go up, because in my nervous energy I think of a great line or two.
What is it about stand-up / sketch / improv that draws you to it? I do mostly improv and stand-up, and I'm drawn to them over other kinds of comedy because you can get your idea out there without much rigmarole. Stand-up and improv counterbalance each other for me. With stand-up I have to be egotistical and with improv I have to let go again and become a small part of a whole. It's therapeutic and cathartic and keeps me feeling happy. Improv and yoga are proactive measures against mental or physical unrest for me, and they help me stay centered and present.
Do you have any bad experiences doing comedy that you can share? A particularly bad bombing or even an entire show gone haywire? I did a set a year ago at a gay variety show at a nightclub. I had to follow a larger-than-life drag queen who wore foot-tall platforms and a foot-tall wig and sang and danced and was delightfully hysterical. I wasn't confident, and I pretended not to mind somebody heckling me, and I bombed really hard. Jess Carpenter bought me a drink afterwards and then I walked across town to do an improv show, and I cried for a minute in the bathroom and thanked god for improv. My team was like, "Let's do your favorite warm-ups!"
What do you think the Philly comedy scene needs to continue to grow? I think one of us should just ask Tina Fey very nicely to make a donation for a permanent space for PHIT. Right? We need to shoot more videos and put more content online, and branch out to work with other venues and arts organizations. Gain more allies, to borrow activist parlance. We have to take fundraising more seriously and get better at it. Some improvisors are already generating ideas to get diversity programs started, so that, among other things, it's not just white kids who get to do improv in Philadelphia. I'm sure other folks would like it too. Improv is weirdly white. Stand-up is just weirdly male. Anyway. We need a popcorn machine.
Do you have any personal goals for the future as you continue to perform comedy? I want to do more stand-up in character, more stand-up in general, put together some shows, keep an updated website, do projects with my favorite people and continue to grow and open up and have fun.


text:
Stevensz, Jan (1634-1686?)
Jan Stevensz (also called J. S. van Nyeveen), born May 1634 at Nijeveen, Dutch province of Drente, died after 1686, a weaver of Kampen. In 1672 he moved to Amsterdam, where he was the city lamplighter. He was always in need, and he was often generously aided by the deacons of the Amsterdam Lamist Mennonite congregation, of which he was a member. Stevensz was a difficult and quarrelsome person. For some time he was an ardent follower of the Amsterdam Lamist preacher Galenus Abrahamsz, but still greater and more lasting was his veneration of the German theologian and mystic Jakob Böhme. About 1682 Stevensz left the Mennonite Church.
Stevensz wrote some books; for example, Apocalypsis often Het geopende Boeck met seven segelen (Amsterdam, 1675), Fondament-boeck, of Grondigh bewijs van de Kennisse Godts en de Christelijke Godsdienst (Amsterdam, 1683). In this book Stevensz published two letters of Menno Simons—the one to the brethren in Franeker and the one to the congregation of Emden. In one of the appendices to this book he accused Galenus Abrahamsz of false teachings and unchristian conduct. A third book by Stevensz is Onderwys door Exempelen ofte Spiegel der lijdsame Heyligen (Amsterdam, 1686), of which there is a second enlarged edition under the revised title Aenhangsel ofte Vervolg van het Martelaers-boeck van Tieleman van Braght (Amsterdam, 1686), in which he contributes a number of items on Luther, Menno Simons, and some persons of his own time who met with revilement because of their religious convictions. This book, like its author, is not very important.
Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1902): 87-102.
Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam, 2 vols. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884: II, No. 902.
Hylkema, C. B. Reformateurs I and II. Haarlem, 1900, 1902): passim.
Meihuizen, H. W. Galenus Abrahamsz. Haarlem, 1954: 152 f., 163.
|Nanne van der Zijpp
|Date Published
Cite This Article
MLA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Stevensz, Jan (1634-1686?)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 4 Jul 2020. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Stevensz,_Jan_(1634-1686%3F)&oldid=111934.
APA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1959). Stevensz, Jan (1634-1686?). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 4 July 2020, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Stevensz,_Jan_(1634-1686%3F)&oldid=111934.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 630-631. All rights reserved.
©1996-2020 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.


text:
Drop-in Programs: No registration is required. Admission to drop-in programs and events is first come, first served.
Registered Programs: Advance registration is required. Register below or call 250-940-4875 for more information. If you do not have an email address, enter [email protected] A confirmation email will be sent after successful registrations. When registering for a program in a series, only one registration per individual is necessary. If you are registering for a series after the series has begun, please select the next program date in the future and register for that one. Your registration will be applied to the rest of the series.
NEW LOCATION Family Storytime – Emily Carr Branch
October 1, 2019, 10:30 am-11:00 am
Due to the temporary closure of the Saanich Centennial Branch Family Storytime has been relocated to the Emily Carr Branch.
For young children and their families; children under 3 must be accompanied by an adult. Fun-filled stories, songs, rhymes and puppets. Drop-in.