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A Marion County Fire Rescue paramedic whose emergency vehicle was nearly hit head on by a reckless driver on Christmas morning.
OCALA -- A Marion County Fire Rescue paramedic whose emergency vehicle was nearly hit head on by a reckless driver on Christmas morning followed the car until the driver was stopped by authorities and charged with DUI.
According to an arrest narrative by Marion County sheriff's Deputy Nicholas Austin, paramedic Brandon Brown was traveling west in the 6000 block of West State Road 40 in a MCFR unit around 1 a.m. Wednesday when it was "almost struck head on" by a gray 2005 four-door Cadillac "traveling east in the westbound lanes," authorities said.
The paramedic unit is based at MCFR Station 22, located at 19995 SW 86th St. in Dunnellon.
The report indicates that, upon almost becoming involved in an accident, Brown, 38, called the Marion County Sheriff's Office and "began to follow the (Cadillac)," which continued while "swerving and unable to maintain a single lane," authorities said.
The report indicates Brown followed the Cadillac until Deputy Austin arrived to find both vehicles stopped around the 3900 block of Northwest 44th Avenue.
The arrest information states that Alberto Cruz Torres, 65, of Ocala, driver of the Cadillac, was arrested and charged with DUI after he failed four roadside sobriety exercises.
The arresting deputy noted "a strong smell of alcohol" and that Torres "continued to state 'give him a fine' and requested that I let him go."
According to the report, Cruz was also issued a citation for possession of an open container of alcohol when the arresting deputy noticed "an open cold, clear plastic cup of alcohol" in Cruz' vehicle.
Torres was transported to the Marion County Jail, where he later refused a breath, blood or urine test, the report states.


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Animal Species:Trumpetfish, Aulostomus chinensis (Linnaeus, 1766)
The Trumpetfish has a long slender body. There are several colour forms. The species is a 'stealth' predator.
Standard Common Name
The Trumpetfish can be recognised by its long body, tubular snout with minute teeth, its chin barbel and the series of short dorsal spines.
The colouration of this species is variable. It is often brown or green with pale stripes and bars, and white spots posteriorly. A yellow (or xanthic) colour variety is common in some areas. Individual fish have the ability to change their colours very quickly.
Size range
80 cm
It occurs throughout the Indo-Pacific and eastern Pacific.
In Australia the Trumpetfish is recorded from most tropical waters and down the east coast to central New South Wales.
The map below shows the Australian distribution of the species based on public sightings and specimens in Australian Museums. Source: Atlas of Living Australia.
Distribution by collection data
Ozcam map of Trumpetfish specimens in the Australian Museums.
The species is found on coral reefs.
Feeding and Diet
The Trumpetfish uses stealth and camouflage to prey on small fishes. It often approaches its prey vertically, darting down from above and sucking the prey into its long snout.
Other behaviours and adaptations
It is known to sometimes follow other fishes such as the Bluespotted Coral Cod (video below) and the Masked Rabbitfish (top image). Presumably following other fishes allows the Trumpetfish to more easily approach potential prey without detection.
Evolutionary Relationships
There is only one species in the genus Aulostomus.
- Species:
- chinensis
- Genus:
- Aulostomus
- Family:
- Aulostomidae
- Order:
- Gasterosteiformes
- Class:
- Actinopterygii
- Subphylum:
- Vertebrata
- Phylum:
- Chordata
- Kingdom:
- Animalia
- Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 292.
- Kuiter, R.H. 1993. Coastal Fishes of South-Eastern Australia. Crawford House Press. Pp. 437.
- Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. New Holland. Pp. 433.
- Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Seahorses, Pipefishes and their Relatives. A Comprehensive Guide to Syngnathiformes. TMC Publishing Pp. 240.
- Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557.
Mark McGrouther , Senior Fellow
Last Updated:
Tags fishes, ichthyology, Trumpetfish, Aulostomus chinensis, Aulostomidae, long and skinny, stealth predator, tubular snout, minute teeth, barbel, brown, green, pale stripes, stripes or bands, white spots, dots/spots, 30 cm - 1 m, tropical water, marine, coral reef,

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Bounty time has arrived at Lancaster Super Speedway.
The bounty is on Cauthen Motors Renegade driver Andrew Baker, and the reason for the bounty is because Andrew Baker has won four straight races in the division, with his latest coming Saturday, May 16.
Timbo Mangum highlighted Lancaster Super Speedway racing action, taking the checkers in the Limited Late Model Division win Saturday, May 16.
Mangum and Jonathan Edwards were on the front row, and when the green flag fell, Mangum, Edwards, David Yandle and Billy Lambert battled for the lead entering turn one.
Lancaster Super Speedway will return the ever-popular Limited Late Model Division to highlight racing Saturday, May 16.
The Limited Late Model Division is a fan favorite for years at the big half-mile oval.
Ethan Harrington highlighted Lancaster Super Speedway action Saturday, May 9 when he captured his first career win in an exciting Rear Wheel Drive 4-Cylinder main event.
In the Rear Wheel Drive 4-Cylinder main, only four cars started, but it took only two to make a good race.
Lancaster Super Speedway will host six divisions of racing Saturday, May 9.
The LSS card features the Faith Funderburke Realty Super Stock, Deal 1 Auto Sales SECA Crate Sportsman, Cauthen Motors Renegades, U.S. Bonding Vintage, Rear Wheel Drive 4-Cylinders and M&M Garage Extreme 4.
The Lancaster Super Speedway May racing schedule opened with some tough racing Saturday, May 2.
Lancaster Super Speedway roars back to action Saturday, May 2 when the half-mile dirt track features the SECA Bonus race.
LSS has been silent the last two weekends, with back-to-back rainouts.
The Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw will host its annual 24 hours of LeMons, billed as Southern Discomfort, this weekend, May 2-3.
April showers have produced yet another rainout at Lancaster Super Speedway.
LSS, for the second straight week, fell victim to the wet weather and the racing action was postponed.
Lancaster Super Speedway returns to action Saturday, April 25 as the LSS hosts six divisions of racing at the half-mile oval.
Copyright © 2018
The Lancaster News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Lancaster County and Lancaster, South Carolina, and the surrounding area..


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Hampton Inn Atchison hotels are provided below. Search for cheap and discount Hampton Inn hotel rooms in Atchison, KS for your group or personal travels. We list the best Hampton Inn Atchison lodging properties so you can review the Atchison Hampton Inn hotel list below to find the perfect place.
Our service will provide Atchison, KS venues that have similar star rating to Hampton Inn.
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text:
yuros needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 86 designs submitted by 21 freelance designers.
AEREUS Wood inc.
AEREUS wood inc. utilizes a patented process to spray-coat wood surfaces with metal. Metal is sprayed as a super-heated powder and fully conforms to the surface of the wood allowing for a wide range of applications. Metals used are COPPER and BRONZE.
The benefits of our product:
Metal coating protects wood in most extreme conditions (moisture, fire, cold).
Bronze and Copper inhibit growth of bacteria and widely used in Hospitals on high-traffic surfaces (door handles) to prevent spread of disease. This is the primary application of our products.
Our products are sold as building materials to architects, designers and health-care institutions.
Health Care professionals
we are not looking to target average consumer, but our clients are still very design-conscious.
Our logo should include the following elements:
AEREUS (in capital letters.)
Any colour, but keep in mind that our metal is copper, so logo should have that color somewhere.
We need a logotype that conveys our product: wood protected by metal.
You can be creative here. Some ideas that we have (but not limited to):
Tree protected by a bronze shield.
Cross-section of a wood plank with copper surface.
Some look of wood and metals on the elemental (molecular) level.
Look and feel:
MODERN. Scientific. High-Tech. Advanced. Minimalistic. Airy. Open. Industrial.
Please Avoid:
do not include "Wood inc".
Do not use riveted or sheet-metal look.
No cartoons.
No Woodgrain textures
Do not use letter "A" as a logotype.
Keep in mind:
AEREUS is Greek for Copper.
Our clients will be on industrial level, but the logo must be stylish and modern. Something that will look good on the pages of the architecture magazine.
File Format:
AI or EPS preferred.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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I am confused about the correct pronunciation of consecutive vowels - I have several recordings (both from Cambridge University Press and Bolchazy-Carducci) that include a glottal stop between the two vowels in words like "mortuus" or "filii." But "Vox Latina" does not seem to mention an intervocalic glottal stop (I will cofess I've only browsed the book, not read it cover to cover).
I am willing to accept the glottal stop if it's correct, but it sounds awful. I speculate they use it in recordings to make the point that the vowels are separate syllables. Can anyone clarify?


text:
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No. ON30 - St. Jude Medal on Silver Chain
St. Jude Medal with Silver Chain. Medal measures 1 1/4".
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PAST FAITHFUL NAVIGATOR Emblem. Various Colors.
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Master Name Badge with 4th degree emblem.
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Mp3 & Audio
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Searching for nearby schools...
School rankings provided by The Fraser Institute. Rankings are from 1 to 10.
Four Seasons Hotel and Residences, is a project featuring a 55 storey, 205 metre tall hotel condominium high-rise and a 30 storey 125 metre tall residential condominium tower presently under construction at 36 Yorkville Ave. in the Yorkville District of downtown Toronto.
Trademarks owned or controlled by The Canadian Real Estate Association. Used under license.
The information provided herein must only be used by consumers that have a bona fide interest in the purchase, sale or lease of real estate and may not be used for any commercial purpose or any other purpose.
Information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate by TREB.
Toronto Real Estate Board - IDX Last Updated: 11/15/2018 1:14:59 PM


text:
Hi everyone! Just a quick post this morning to let you all know I'm having a long overdue clear out!
There's a few items listed on eBay and I'm planning to add more and more as the clear out continues...
So pop over and grab yourself a bargain!
I do combine postage if you'd like to buy more than one items and I'm happy for local people to collect!
Here's a link to one of the listings, to see more just click on my user name then 'Items for sale' and the other items will come up.
Happy bidding :-)


text:
Intel Puts Its Chips on Internet of Things
Sep 11, 2013 9:45 AM PT
Intel on Tuesday announced a new, lower-power family of processors, the Quark, at the Intel Developers Forum being held in San Francisco through Thursday.
This is part of the company's heightened drive into ultra-mobile devices.
"The next wave of computing is still being defined," Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told an audience at IDF. "Wearable computers and sophisticated sensors and robotics are only some of the initial applications."
The Quark family of Systems on a Chip is an example of how Intel will continue to use its manufacturing and architectural leadership to push further into the low-power processor arena, Krzanich said.
"Quark significantly lowers the cost of devices and machines that are smarter," remarked Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
More on the Quark
Intel's Quark processors will target growing segments, from the industrial Internet of Things to wearable computing.
They are designed for applications in which lower power and size, or the lack of it, take priority over higher performance.
Intel will sample form-factor reference boards based on the first Quark product during Q4 so partners can develop tailored, optimized solutions. These solutions will initially target the industrial, transportation and energy segments.
Krzanich demonstrated a bracelet as an example of a wearable computing concept with reference designs under development.
Intel is actively pursuing opportunities with partners in this area, he said.
The Quark processors are open system, have an open architecture, and are fully synthesizable, noted Krzanich.
Define 'Open'
What Intel means by the terms "open architecture" and "open system" is not clear, Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research, told the E-Commerce Times.
"The design, manufacturing, and everything else will still be controlled by Intel, whereas you can license ARM architecture," McGregor continued. "Open can be a very vague term, I guess."
Thing-to-Thing Communication
Intel defines one of its markets for the Quark processor family as the industrial Internet of things.
"This will largely be a sensor market, where ever-more-intelligent devices capture information and make decisions based on that information," Enderle said.
The market is likely to be huge, as manufacturers are increasingly putting sensors and processors into products ranging from electric meters to automobiles to buildings. Perhaps the most wide-ranging effort in this area is IBM's Smarter Planet initiative.
Embedded computing, the automobile industry, and smart lighting or power equipment industries "could benefit from technologies that could help prevent downtime by more effectively and accurately alerting about a coming problem -- thus allowing it to be corrected before a catastrophic outage -- or to dynamically change some part of the service to make it more efficient and effective," Enderle told the E-Commerce Times.
Beat It, Dick Tracy
Wearable computing is another area expected to see strong growth.
The smartwatch sector, which is the most likely area of wearable computing to take off, could easily move more than 30 million units a year, Canalys analyst Daniel Matte has predicted. Other form factors such as clothing and jewelry are still distant prospects.
"Right now, wearable computing is more a pipe dream than reality," Enderle said. "For anyone to become a real player here there needs to be one big breakthrough product that defines the market like the iPod, iPhone [or] iPad."
Whether Intel will succeed in the wearable tech area is a big unknown.
"Intel says [the Quark processor] is one-fifth the size and has one-tenth the power consumption of the Atom, but first it has to sell the fab, offering people the ability to do custom design," Tirias' McGregor said.
"Intel won't take on custom design unless it's a huge opportunity," McGregor pointed out, "so they're either going to have to license it to smaller clients or third parties, and they haven't given me any indication they'll do that."


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Reviewed By Richard H (Winchester, MA) Reviewed for a 2015 Maserati Ghibli —2/17/2016 12:19 PM
The cover fits like a glove. It arrived one day before a snow storm and it only took me five minutes to install.It kept my car free and clear of snow and after melting in three days I removed it in 20 degree weather and found no moisture from melting snow. Excellent cover and it is light and flexible!! 5 stars across the board.


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Veterinarians may ignore signs of compassion fatigue
It's not just any review that popped up on Yelp. It's a scathing diatribe full of personal attacks on you and your team. And you've been reading and rereading it in the minutes between appointments.
This has perhaps never been more evident in veterinary medicine than since the suicide of New York veterinarian Shirley Koshi, DVM, in February (see the April issue of dvm360). Still fresh in the minds of the profession, this tragedy has prompted experts to urge the profession to take veterinarians' emotional health seriously.Before you write off the idea of compassion fatigue as the need for more "balance," disregard that headache you can't shake or even try to ignore those ever-more-intrusive feelings of hopelessness, you should know that denial is as common as compassion fatigue itself.
She says common symptoms include intrusive negative thoughts, physical problems such as GI issues, headaches and lethargy—even being accident-prone. There are also spiritual indicators, such as a loss of hope, questioning life in general, questioning one's contribution, skepticism and excessive guilt.
Brandt says veterinarians and team members should also pay attention to signs in coworkers: anxiety, anger, sadness, hypersensitivity or numbness, irritability or depression. "It's really going to be in the nonverbal clues," she says.
Unfortunately, many people in the veterinary profession try to muscle through compassion fatigue, but the symptoms mount until it becomes overwhelming, Smith says. "Some people can go for years and then it can hit them," she says. "Or it can happen in a month."
Veterinarians who are practice owners and bosses are especially good at hiding their symptoms because they don't want to appear weak, Smith says. Loneliness from the isolation this creates eventually sets in, and that feeds the trauma. Smith says this is especially hard for sole practitioners who are socially and geographically isolated.
A major part of the solution is a support system. When Smith worked as the manager of an animal shelter in 2000, she didn't feel like she could share her feelings with her family or friends. "They didn't want to hear about my experience—they're all animal lovers—and I was so used to sharing with them," she says. The solitude in her grief over what she witnessed at the shelter convinced her of the need for human support.


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U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
Meeting of July 15, 2009 – Age Discrimination in the 21st Century-Barriers to the Employment of Older Workers
Good morning Acting Chair Ishimaru, Acting Vice Chair Griffin, and Commissioner Barker. I thank you and the entire Commission for inviting me here this morning and affording me the privilege of appearing before you. My name is Eric Dreiband, and I am a partner at the law firm of Jones Day here in Washington, D.C.
Prior to joining Jones Day, I served as the General Counsel of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In my capacity as EEOC General Counsel, I directed the EEOC's litigation of the federal employment discrimination laws. I also managed approximately 300 attorneys and a national litigation docket of approximately 500 cases. One of those was Kentucky Retirement Systems v. EEOC, 128 S. Ct. 2361 (2008), a case that I argued on behalf of the Commission before the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. My remarks today focus on that case and provide suggestions for the Commission's response to the Supreme Court's decision.
The Court's opinion in Kentucky Retirement provides scant guidance for employers about how to craft a pension system that complies with the ADEA. The Court described and applied six factors, but did not explain fully the meaning of those factors. And so it falls to the Commission to explain how and under what circumstances employers may consider age as part of disability, regular retirement, and other forms of pensions and benefits.
EEOC may remedy the confusion created by Kentucky Retirement in at least three ways. First, the Commission could exempt disability retirement plans from the ADEA's prohibitions. This is the path the Commission chose when it enacted a regulatory exemption for retiree health benefits. See 29 C.F.R. § 1625.32. And, both the retiree health exemption and the Commission's power to issue such an exemption withstood judicial challenge. See AARP v. EEOC, 489 F.3d 558 (3d Cir. 2007).
Second, the EEOC could engage in notice and comment rulemaking to clarify the Court's Kentucky Retirement factors. In this way, the Commission could propose regulations that define and provide details about the meaning of Kentucky Retirement's six factors, seek public comment, and issue final regulations that account for the public's concerns and the Court's decision.
Third, the Commission could clarify Kentucky Retirement through subregulatory guidance, either by means of an opinion letter, a policy statement, changes to EEOC's Compliance Manual, or other means.
The Court's decision in Kentucky Retirement may properly be understood as the culmination of: (1) Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio v. Betts, 492 U.S. 158 (1989); (2) the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990; (3) Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, 507 U.S. 604 (1993); and (4) General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc. v. Cline, 540 U.S. 581 (2004).
The Betts Court reviewed an Ohio plan, adopted prior to the ADEA, that paid "age-and-service retirement benefits" to employees who, at the time of retirement, had either: (1) reached the age of 60 and accrued five years of service; (2) reached the age of 55 and accrued at least 25 years of service; or (3) had 30 years of service with the company. 492 U.S. at 162. Disability retirement benefits were available to individuals who were under the age of 60, suffered a permanent disability, and had at least five years of service credit. Id. In 1976, Ohio amended its plan "to provide that disability retirement payments would in no event constitute less than 30 percent of the disability retiree's final average salary." Id. at 163. However, Ohio did not enact any such guarantee for normal "age-and-service" benefits. Id.
Plaintiff June Betts, an Ohio employee, became permanently disabled at age 61. She therefore did not qualify for disability retirement benefits, and she sued the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio for alleged ADEA violations. Id.
At the time, the ADEA contained an affirmative defense, § 4(f)(2), that permitted employers to "observe the terms of . . . any bona fide employee benefits plan . . . which is not a subterfuge to evade the purposes of [the Act]." 492 U.S. at 165-66. The question, then, was whether the rule creating a benefits floor could be a "subterfuge to evade the purposes of [the Act]." EEOC's equal cost regulation interpreted § 4(f)(2) and permitted "age-based reductions in employee benefit plans where such reductions are justified by significant cost considerations." 29 C.F.R. § 1625.10(a)(1).
The Court rejected EEOC's equal cost regulation and Ms. Betts' claim. The Court held that "a post-Act plan cannot be a subterfuge to evade the ADEA's purpose of banning arbitrary age discrimination unless it discriminated in a manner forbidden by the substantive provisions of the Act." Id. at 176. Going forward, the employee would bear "the burden of proving that the discriminatory plan provision actually was intended to serve the purposes of discriminating in some non-fringe-benefit aspect of the employment relation." Id. at 181.
Congress responded the following year.
In 1990, Congress announced that "as a result of [Betts], legislative action is necessary to restore the original congressional intent in passing and amending the [ADEA], which was to prohibit discrimination against older workers in all employee benefits except when age-based reductions in employee benefit plans are justified by significant cost considerations." 29 U.S.C. § 621 n.4. Congress then enacted the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act ("OWBPA"). Pub. L. 101-433.
The OWBPA amended the ADEA to prohibit employers from denying benefits to older employees. More precisely, the OWBPA amended the ADEA explicitly to make clear that the ADEA's prohibitions against age discrimination apply to "all employee benefits, including such benefits provided pursuant to a bona fide employee benefit plan." 29 U.S.C. § 630(l).
Congress also recognized that the cost of providing certain benefits to older workers may be greater than the cost of providing those same benefits to younger workers and that such costs may create a disincentive to hire older workers. Congress therefore codified the EEOC's equal cost regulation, which Betts rejected. By doing so, Congress amended the ADEA to permit employers to reduce benefits for older persons when employers "observe the terms of a bona fide employee benefit plan" and when, "for each benefit or benefit package, the actual amount of payment made or cost incurred on behalf of an older worker is no less than that made or incurred on behalf of a younger worker." 29 U.S.C. § 623(f)(2)(B)(i) (incorporating 29 C.F.R. § 1625.10 "as in effect on June 22, 1989," the day before the Court issued Betts).1
In 1993, the Court again considered the relationship between age discrimination and pension plans. In Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, 507 U.S. 604 (1993), Hazen Paper Company fired Walter F. Biggins, age 62, a few weeks before his pension benefits vested. Mr. Biggins sued the Company for alleged ADEA violations. He prevailed at trial, and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed. See id. at 606-07. The Supreme Court reversed. Id. at 617.
Hazen Paper addressed whether "an employer's interference with the vesting of pension benefits violate[s] the ADEA." Id. at 608. The Court concluded that such interference with Mr. Biggins' pension benefits was not age discrimination because "an employee's age is analytically distinct from his years of service." Id. at 611. The Court explained:
Id. at 610 (citations omitted). This definition of disparate treatment "captures the essence of what Congress sought to prohibit in the ADEA," specifically, the situation in which an older employee is fired "because the employer believes that productivity and competence decline with old age." Id. Thus, "Congress' promulgation of the ADEA was prompted by its concern that older workers were being deprived of employment on the basis of inaccurate and stigmatizing stereotypes." Id.
liability depends on whether the protected trait (under the ADEA, age) actually motivated the employer's decision. The employer may have relied upon a formal, facially discriminatory policy requiring adverse treatment of employees with that trait. Or the employer may have been motivated by the protected trait on an ad hoc, informal basis. Whatever the employer's decisionmaking process, a disparate treatment claim cannot succeed unless the employee's protected trait actually played a role in that process and had a determinative influence on the outcome.
But, the Court said, when employers refrain from the kind of stereotyping the ADEA sought to eradicate, and base their judgments on factors other than age, "even if the motivating factor is correlated with age, as pension status typically is," then an employer's decision does not violate the ADEA. Id. at 611. In the pension context, because an employee's age is analytically distinct from the employee's years of service, "an employer can take account of one while ignoring the other, and thus it is incorrect to say that a decision based on years of service is necessarily 'age based.'" Id.
Finally, the Court recognized that an employer might discriminate based on age by targeting a particular class of pensioners. Id. at 612-13. This kind of discrimination, the Court explained, may violate the ADEA: "[p]ension status may be a proxy for age, not in the sense that the ADEA makes the two factors equivalent, but in the sense that the employer may suppose a correlation between the two factors and act accordingly. " Id. at 613 (citation omitted). Hazen Paper did not present such a case, nor did Mr. Biggins' claim involve "the special case where an employee is about to vest in pension benefits as a result of his age, rather than years of service[.]" Id.
More recently, in General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc. v. Cline, 540 U.S. 581 (2004), the Court addressed whether the ADEA prohibits so-called "reverse" age discrimination claims. The plaintiffs in the case were aged between 40 and 49 and claimed that their employer denied them retiree health benefits because they were under the age of 50 – that is, because they were too young. Id. at 584-85. The Court rejected the plaintiffs' claim and found no violation of the ADEA. Id. at 600.
According to the Court, the term "age" for purposes of the ADEA's prohibition against discrimination "because of age" means "'old age'." Id. at 596. The Court rejected the argument that the Act's prohibition against discrimination "because of [an] individual's age," means age, young or old. The Court relied upon "Congress's interpretive clues" and a "social history [that] emphatically reveals an understanding of age discrimination as aimed against the old." Id. at 586, 596. Accordingly, the Court viewed "the text, structure, purpose, and history of the ADEA, along with its relationship to other federal statutes, as showing that the statute does not mean to stop an employer from favoring an older employee over a younger one." Id. at 600.
The Court recognized that Title VII permits so-called "reverse discrimination" claims; that is, Title VII protects whites from race discrimination and men from sex discrimination. Id. at 592 n.5. Title VII thus protects individuals who were not the intended recipients of Title VII's protections. Unlike age, the terms "race" and "sex" are "general terms that in every day usage require modifiers to indicate any relatively narrow application." Id. at 597-98. Age is different, the Court explained, because:
Id. at 598.
the prohibition of age discrimination is readily read more narrowly than analogous provisions dealing with race and sex. That narrower reading is the more natural one in the textual setting, and it makes perfect sense because of Congress's demonstrated concern with distinctions that hurt older people.
The Court's decision in Kentucky Retirement is consistent with the Court's view that the ADEA requires a "narrower reading" than Title VII.
At issue in Kentucky Retirement was a retirement plan ("the Plan") that allowed an employee who worked in a "hazardous position," such as a law enforcement officer or a firefighter, to become eligible for benefits in one of three ways. First, the employee could qualify for normal retirement by retiring – at any age – after 20 years of service. 128 S. Ct. at 2365. Second, an employee who retires after reaching age 55 and with five years of service is also entitled to normal retirement benefits. Id. Finally, when an employee becomes disabled but is not yet eligible for normal retirement benefits, the employee may retire at once, provided that the employee either (a) has worked for five years or (b) has not worked for five years but became disabled in the line of duty. Id.
Kentucky's Plan calculated the benefits due to a disabled employee by use of a formula that relied on normal retirement age. Kentucky added or "imputed" years to the employee's actual years of service that equaled "the number of years that the disabled employee would have had to continue working in order to become eligible for normal retirement benefits," either by reaching 20 years of service or reaching age 55 with five years of service. Id. The Plan imputed only as many years as the employee had worked. So, for example, an eight-year employee could not receive more than eight imputed years. See id.
Charles Lickteig, a member of the Jefferson County Sherrif's Department, became eligible for retirement at age 55, continued to work, became disabled at age 61, and then retired. Id. Mr. Lickteig was eligible for normal retirement benefits, but, at 61, Kentucky's Plan deemed him too old to qualify for disability retirement benefits. Mr. Lickteig's annual pension was calculated on the basis of his actual years of service (18 years) times 2.5% of his annual pay, without any years imputed. Id. The amount of his pension was lower than a corresponding disability retirement benefit would have been if he had qualified.
The Commission sued Kentucky and other relevant parties and alleged that the Plan violated the ADEA. Id. The Commission challenged both the Plan's exclusion of Mr. Lickteig and others and its method of imputing years of service to employees who became disabled before they reached eligibility for regular retirement. Id. If Mr. Lickteig had become disabled before age 55, the Plan would have imputed a number of additional years, and the Commission alleged that the failure to impute years was solely because of his age. Id.
The district court and a panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the Plan complied with the ADEA. See id. at 2365-66. The Sixth Circuit en banc disagreed and determined that Kentucky's Plan violated the ADEA's prohibitions against age discrimination. See id. at 2366.
The Supreme Court reversed. Id. at 2364. The Court looked initially to Hazen Paper and stressed that "the plaintiff must prove that age 'actually motivated the employer's decision'" and that "a plaintiff alleging disparate treatment cannot succeed unless the employee's age 'actually played a role in [the employer's decisionmaking] process and had a determinative influence on the outcome.'" Id. at 2366 (quoting Hazen Paper, 507 U.S. at 610) (emphasis added by Kentucky Retirement).The Court recognized that Hazen Paper left open the possibility that "discrimination on the basis of pension status could sometimes be unlawful under the ADEA, in particular where pension status served as a 'proxy for age.'" Id. at 2367 (quoting Hazen Paper, 507 U.S. at 613). In such a case, "age, not pension status, would have 'actually motivated' the employer's decisionmaking." Id. And, the Court recognized that the Hazen Paper scheme did not rely on age, but on years of service alone. Id. (quoting Hazen Paper, 507 U.S. at 613). According to the Court, the Kentucky Plan presented "the quite special case of differential treatment based on pension status, where pension status – with the explicit blessing of the ADEA – itself turns, in part, on age." Id. at 2369-70.
The Court held that this category of "quite special" cases has a "clear" rule:
Id. at 2370.
Where an employer adopts a pension plan that includes age as a factor, and that employer then treats employees differently based on pension status, a plaintiff, to state a disparate treatment claim under the ADEA, must adduce sufficient evidence to show that the differential treatment was 'actually motivated' by age, not pension status.
The Court emphasized that "our opinion in no way unsettles the rule that a statute or policy that facially discriminates based on age suffices to show disparate treatment under the ADEA." Id. at 2369. The Court did not explain what kind of statute or policy "facially discriminates based on age."
The Court rejected the EEOC's argument that the OWBPA supported a finding of an ADEA violation. The Court explained that no OWBPA amendment-related justifications were at issue, so Hazen Paper's "actually motivated" test governed the outcome. Id. at 2370.
The Court also rejected EEOC's Compliance Manual's statement that "'[b]asing disability retirement benefits on the number of years a disabled employee would have worked until normal retirement age by definition gives more constructive years of service to younger than to older employees' and thus violated the Act." Id. at 2371 (quoting 2 EEOC Compliance Manual § 3, p. 627:0010) (alteration in Kentucky Retirement).
The Court in Kentucky Retirement then described six factors that led to its decision. Id. at 2366-70.
First, the Court quoted Hazen Paper and stated that "as a matter of pure logic, age and pension status remain 'analytically distinct' concepts." Id. at 2367. The Court did not explain whether this is a factor to be reviewed in every case going forward, or only an observation that informs the remaining five factors. The Court posited that if an employer provides pensions to employees over the age of 65 and a 70-year-old worker retires, "[n]othing in language or in logic prevents one from concluding that the employer has begun to pay the worker a pension, not because the worker is over 65, but simply because the worker has retired." Id.
Though true that the worker has retired, he retired under a plan that sets a minimum age for eligibility, which is something the ADEA explicitly permits. See 29 U.S.C. § 623(l). But what about a plan, like Kentucky's, that uses age to exclude people from eligibility for benefits? Given that Hazen Paper's "analytica[l] distinct[ion]" arose from a Plan where age had no role, and the Kentucky Retirement Plan considered age, it is unclear how large a role age can play before "language or . . . logic" would allow, or even require, the analytical distinction to disappear.
Second, the Court reviewed the Kentucky Plan and stated that "several background circumstances eliminate the possibility that pension status, though analytically distinct from age, nonetheless serves as a 'proxy for age' in Kentucky's Plan." Id. The Court noted that it was considering "not a single employment decision, but a set of complex systemwide rules" that "involve, not wages, but pensions – a benefit that the ADEA treats somewhat more flexibly and leniently in respect to age." Id. The Court also noted that every hazardous position employee had the opportunity for disability benefits "prior to the time that he is eligible for normal retirement benefits." Id. at 2367-68.
The Court pointed to various government programs that "take[] account of age," including a formula used by the Social Security Administration for calculating Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. Id. at 2368. The Court added that an "individual employment decision," such as a discharge or demotion, would not receive the deference the Court affords to Kentucky's "set of complex systemwide rules." Id. at 2367.
The Court did not explain, however, how employers may rely upon government programs that consider age, nor did the Court explain how "complex" or "systemwide" the rules need to be to avoid ADEA liability. For instance, one can imagine a small employer that has a comprehensive bona fide pension system that "takes account of age" but is not as "complex" as Kentucky's Plan. Whether such a plan would comply with the ADEA remains a mystery after Kentucky Retirement.
Third, the Court held that Kentucky's Plan included "a clear non-age-related rationale for the disparity at issue here." Id. at 2368. This made it "obvious, then, that the whole purposes of the disability rules is, as Kentucky claims, to treat a disabled worker as though he had become disabled after, rather than before, he had become eligible for normal retirement benefits." Id. The Plan was permissible because "[a]ge factors into the disability calculation only because the normal retirement rules themselves permissibly include age as a consideration." Id.
The Court imagined a hypothetical in which an employer provided pension benefits to day-shift workers with 20 years of service and night-shift workers with 15 years of service and that the plan calculates benefits based upon the years of service worked. Id. The Court assumed also that the plan would, like Kentucky's, impute years of service for disabled employees. The day-shift worker who becomes disabled before benefits vest would "in many instances, end up receiving a bigger pension than a night-shift worker who becomes disabled after becoming pension eligible. Id. The disparity is not discrimination against the night-shift workers because it "is not 'actually motivated' by bias against night-shift workers." Id. Like the Kentucky Plan, the hypothetical plan "is simply an artifact of Plan rules that treat one set of workers more generously in respect to the timing of their eligibility for normal retirement benefits but which do not treat them more generously in respect to the calculation of their amount of their normal retirement benefits." Id. at 2368-69.
This factor creates at least two questions. First, when the "one set of workers [treated] more generously" is predominantly younger, given that Kentucky's Plan barred those age 55 and older from the disability plan, to what extent may employers preferentially treat younger employees with regards to the "timing of their eligibility for normal retirement benefits"? And second, if adding years of pension eligibility for those younger employees does not affect the "calculation of the amount" of benefits, then what does affect the calculation?
The Court's third factor also fails to identify "non-age-related rationales for the disparity." The Court's example of day- and night-shift workers does little to guide the public, given that there is no rationale provided for such a distinction. Thus, the public could benefit from guidance about age-related rationales that may or may not violate the ADEA's prohibitions.
Fourth, the Court noted that while the record before it involved an older worker disadvantaged by Kentucky's Plan, "in other cases, [the Plan] can work to the advantage of older workers." Id. at 2369. The Court hypothesized that a 45-year-old employee with 10 years of service and a 40-year-old employee with 15 years of service would receive 10 and five imputed years, respectively, with the older employee faring better. Id. "And that fact helps to confirm that the underlying motive is not an effort to discriminate 'because of . . . age.'" Id.
This factor raises questions about what it means to be similarly situated for ADEA purposes. Before Kentucky Retirement, two employees with different ages and different years of service may not have been considered similarly situated.
Fifth, Kentucky's Plan "does not rest on any stereotype about the work capacity of 'older' workers relative to 'younger' workers." Id. While this statement may not mean that reliance on a stereotype is required in every case, the Court's opinion raises questions about whether or to what extent stereotypes about older workers are a prerequisite to a violation of the ADEA's prohibitions.
For example, assume that a private company employs security guards and requires those guards who work in "hazardous positions" to be under 55 years old and able to lift over 300 pounds. The company, based on the inherent safety risk to those in "hazardous positions," provides a pension plan that gives employees who work in those positions the opportunity for imputed years if they become disabled. The policy and pension plan exclude employees who are over the age of 55 and may embody a stereotype that younger employees are more likely to be able to lift 300 pounds than older employees. Would such a policy and plan involve impermissible stereotyping after Kentucky Retirement? And if so, how does it differ from the Plan at issue in Kentucky Retirement?
Sixth, the Court expressed concern about alternatives required to remedy Kentucky's Plan. The Court stated that the difficulty of finding an alternative "that can both correct the disparity and achieve the Plan's legitimate objective – providing each disabled worker with a sufficient retirement benefit, namely, the normal retirement benefit that the worker would receive if he were pension eligible at the time of disability – further suggests that this objective and not age 'actually motivated' the Plan." Id. at 2369.
Like the Court's first five factors, this sixth factor raises questions. Does the Court's sixth factor mean that a benefit plan may consider age if not considering age would provide an incentive to eliminate or reduce benefits?
The Court concluded that the factors "all taken together convince us that the Plan does not, on its face, create treatment differences that are 'actually motivated' by age." Id. But even this simple statement leaves issues unresolved. How many of the Court's six factors must a benefit plan satisfy to comply with the ADEA's prohibition against discrimination because of age? All six? What if one (or two, or four) of the factors suggest that age actually motivated the employer, but other factors do not? At what point will these factors point towards a finding of liability under the ADEA?
ADEA Section 9 provides the EEOC with broad rulemaking and exemption power. See 29 U.S.C. § 628. The Commission may use its Section 9 authority to respond to Kentucky Retirement and to provide guidance to the public about how benefit plans may consider age and comply with the ADEA's prohibitions against age discrimination. The Commission could issue a regulatory exemption or, alternatively, issue regulations or subregulatory guidance to clarify and define further the application of the ADEA to benefits.
ADEA Section 9 authorizes the Commission to "establish such reasonable exemptions to and from any or all provisions of this chapter as it may find necessary and proper in the public interest." 29 U.S.C. § 628; see also 29 C.F.R. § 1625.30. While "[n]o formal procedures have been prescribed for requesting such action," 29 C.F.R. § 1625.30(b), the Commission may take such action "when found necessary and proper in the public interest in accordance with the statutory standards." Id. An exemption may be granted if, after notice and comment, "a strong and affirmative showing has been made that such exemption is in fact necessary and proper in the public interest." Id.
The Commission has issued a similar exemption before, namely, EEOC's retiree health exemption. 29 C.F.R. § 1625.32. See AARP v. EEOC, 489 F.3d 558, 563 (3d Cir. 2007), cert. denied, 128 S. Ct. 1733 (2008).
In AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons challenged a proposed EEOC regulation that exempts from the ADEA's prohibited conduct "the practice of altering, reducing or eliminating employer-sponsored retiree health benefits when retirees became eligible for Medicare or a State-sponsored retiree health benefit program." 489 F.3d at 561 (quoting EEOC's notice of proposed rulemaking, 68 Fed. Reg. 41,542 (EEOC July 14, 2003)).
The district court granted summary judgment to the EEOC and sustained the Commission's retiree health exemption, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed. 489 F.3d at 561. The Court of Appeals found that the EEOC complied with the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 551, et seq., when it issued the exemption. Id. at 565-67. The court also found that the exemption was a valid exercise of the Commission's Section 9 authority. Id. at 562-65. The court explained that while the EEOC's exemption authority is limited by Section 9's "reasonable" and "necessary and proper in the public interest" clauses, the Commission's observations that employer-sponsored retiree health benefits were decreasing; that employers were not required to provide any retiree health benefits, or to maintain such plans once they have been established; and the annually rising health care costs and increased demand for retiree benefits all justified EEOC's proposed exemption as "necessary and proper in the public interest." 489 F.3d at 564-65.
The Commission's retiree health exemption provides a model upon which the Commission may respond to Kentucky Retirement. In fact, the retiree health exemption was the Commission's response to the Third Circuit's decision in Erie County Retirees Ass'n v. County of Erie, 220 F.3d 193 (3d Cir. 2000), that the ADEA's prohibitions do not permit reduction or termination of retiree health benefits upon Medicare eligibility.
Kentucky Retirement presents a similar dilemma for employers. The Court sustained Kentucky's Plan, unlike the court in Erie County, but the Court's six factor test creates such uncertainty and potential liability that an employer may decide to limit or scrap entirely its disability retirement plans.
A regulatory exemption would eliminate these concerns. Such an exemption would be consistent with the Court's concern in Kentucky Retirement that an employer may need to "cut the benefits given to disabled workers who are not yet pension eligible" if a plan violates the ADEA's prohibitions. 128 S. Ct. at 2369. A regulatory exemption would also enable employers to achieve a "legitimate objective – providing each disabled worker with a sufficient retirement benefit, namely, the normal retirement benefit that the worker would receive if he were pension eligible at the time of disability." Id. An exemption would permit employers to design disability retirement plans without the risk of costly and time consuming litigation if the employer fails to apply Kentucky Retirement's six factor test properly. Indeed, even if an employer properly applies the test, an employer may have to spend several years defending itself in subsequent class litigation, and even if the employer prevails in such litigation, the enormous potential liability and litigation costs may provide sufficient incentives for employers to decline to provide such benefits at all.
If the Commission decides not to issue a regulatory exemption, the Commission may clarify Kentucky Retirement's six factors by notice and comment rulemaking. Rulemaking would benefit both the Commission and the public and enhance compliance with the ADEA.
First, the comment process would allow all interested parties to be heard and would create a record from which the Commission could craft informed and reasoned regulatory guidance. Once the Commission issues a rule, the public would better understand ADEA compliance in the benefit context, especially with respect to how benefit plans may rely on age as a permissible factor.
Second, regulations would give employers administrative guidance that they may use to craft benefit plans and avoid ADEA liability. The ADEA specifically incorporates Section 10 of the Portal-to-Portal Act, 29 U.S.C. § 626(e), and an employer may therefore avoid ADEA liability "if [the employer] pleads and proves that the act or commission complained of was in good faith in conformity with and in reliance on any written administrative regulation, order, ruling, approval, or interpretation, of the [EEOC], or any administrative practice or enforcement policy of such agency with respect to the class of employers to which he belonged." 29 U.S.C. § 259.
Finally, courts are familiar with the EEOC's rulemaking process and will enforce appropriate regulations promulgated by the Commission. For example, in EEOC v. Seafarers Int'l Union, 394 F.3d 197 (4th Cir. 2005), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the validity of an EEOC regulation that interpreted the ADEA's prohibitions to apply to apprenticeship programs. Seafarers held that the EEOC regulation was entitled to Chevron 2 deference. Id. at 202. EEOC regulations that interpret the ADEA in light of Kentucky Retirement would also be entitled to heightened deference by the courts.
Of course, the courts do not always defer to Commission regulations. For example, in Cline, the Court rejected an EEOC ADEA regulation because "the Commission [was] clearly wrong." 540 U.S. at 600. Still, EEOC ADEA regulations issued after notice and comment rulemaking will provide a Portal Act defense and will receive the greatest deference from the courts.
Finally, the Commission could issue subregulatory guidance to the public about the meaning of Kentucky Retirement. The Commission has determined that opinion letters signed by the Legal Counsel and approved by the Commission may be relied upon for purposes of a Portal Act defense. 29 C.F.R. § 1626.21(a). For this reason, employers would prefer an opinion letter if the Commission decides not to issue a regulatory exemption or regulations that explain Kentucky Retirement. And, given that Kentucky Retirement declined to follow EEOC's Compliance Manual, changes to the Compliance Manual are warranted to bring the Manual in line with the Court's decision.
Subregulatory guidance may not receive as much deference from the courts, nor would it allow for the formal record-making process of rulemaking. Still, the public will benefit from any guidance the Commission issues about how employers may consider age and pension benefits post-Kentucky Retirement.
Like Commission regulation and rulemaking, the Supreme Court has sustained EEOC's subregulatory guidance, at least to the extent such guidance has the "power to persuade" the Court. See, e.g., Burlington N. & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. White, 126 S. Ct. 2405, 2415-17 (2006); Clackamas Gastroenterology Assocs., P.C. v. Wells, 538 U.S. 440, 448-49 (2003).
I look forward to your questions. Thank you.
1 The OWBPA amended the ADEA in various other ways that are outside the scope of my remarks. For example, the OWBPA added precise statutory terms and requirements about waivers of rights and claims. 29 U.S.C. § 626(f).
2Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984).


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Bill Clinton's former White House doctor who said Gov. Chris Chistie's weight makes her worry about him "dying in office" should he seek the presidency in 2016 "must be a genius," the New Jersey Republican told reporters today.
"A doctor in Arizona, who's never met me, never examined me, never reviewed my medical history or records, knows nothing about my family history, could make a diagnosis from 2,400 miles away, she must be a genius," Christie said during a press conference in Sea Girt, N.J., according to New York CBS affiliate WCBS. "She should probably be the Surgeon General of the United States."
Dr. Connie Mariano, who directed the White House Medical Unit during Clinton's administration, voiced her concern one day after the famously straight-shooting Christie appeared on CBS' "The Late Show with David Letterman" wielding a jelly donut and joking about being overweight - and hours after he insisted in another news conference that he's "making the best effort I can" to rein in his obesity.
- Christie, Letterman trade fat jokes
- On heels of Letterman interview, Christie quizzed about weight, again
"It's almost like a time bomb waiting to happen unless he addresses those issues before he runs for office," Mariano told CNN. "I like Chris Christie a lot. I want him to run. I just want him to lose weight."
Following the CNN package Tuesday night, Christie said, "My 12-year old son comes to me last night and says 'Dad, are you going to die?' I mean, come on.
"People who have a medical license, who have the privilege of having a medical license, should in my view conduct themselves more responsibly than that," the governor continued. "If she wants to get on a plane and come here to New Jersey and ask me if she wants to examine me and review my medical history, I'll have a conversation with her about that. Until that time, she should shut up."
Christie, who frequently tops Republican short lists for the 2016 presidential election, was pressed during a press conference about superstorm Sandy recovery efforts about his lighthearted approach to his weight on "The Late Show" the evening before.
"I'm making the best effort I can," he said. "And sometimes I'm successful, and other times I'm not. And sometimes periods of great success are followed by periods of great failure. And so that's just the way it's worked for me for probably the last 30 years of my life.
"I know people have concerns," Christie continued, but added that "up to 50 years old, I've been remarkably healthy. And my doctor continues to warn me that my luck is going to run out relatively soon, so believe me it's something that I've very conscious of.
"[I]n terms of people in the state being concerned about whether or not it prevents me from being able to do my job effectively, I think they've seen the results of that," he concluded. "I'm not going to be overly self-consumed about this, and nor should the people of the state be all that concerned about whether I can do my job."


text:
(Reuters) – South Africa claimed six wickets for 17 runs in a dramatic finish to snatch an unlikely one-run victory over Pakistan in their first one-day international at Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates yesterday.
Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Morne Morkel swept through the batting lineup as Pakistan collapsed to 182 all out in 46.3 overs.
Fast bowler Morkel took the last wicket, bowling Mohammad Irfan for two as Misbah-ul-Haq's side snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
"We couldn't handle the pressure. We needed to concentrate but that is what cost us the game," said captain Misbah at the post-match presentation.
Pakistan looked comfortable even after losing their fifth wicket on 165, just 19 runs shy of their target with eight overs in hand.
Paceman Tsotsobe then took two wickets in successive overs to finish with two for 28 while spinner Tahir, born in Pakistan, returned figures of three for 45 and Morkel picked up two for 23.
Earlier, opener Ahmed Shehzad reached his half-century before cutting his chin and hurting his wrist in a sickening clash with Faf du Plessis.
Shehzad collided with Du Plessis as the fielder attempted a run-out, the South African diving to throw the ball at the stumps while the Pakistani was scampering to get to the crease.
The opener batted on after treatment before being caught at short mid-wicket for 58, the top score in the match.
South Africa, who won the toss at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, lost wickets at regular intervals in their innings before a ninth-wicket partnership of 52 by Tsotsobe (16 not out) and Wayne Parnell (56) led them to 183 all out.
Parnell was named man of the match after he also returned figures of three for 41 with the ball.
Spinner Saeed Ajmal took four for 30 in South Africa's innings.
The second game in the five-match series is in Dubai tomorrow.


text:
Looks very..
Images have leaked onto the web of the smartphone that PC maker Dell is rumoured to be on the cusp of launching. Dell_smartphone_01 Dell's smartphone could launch into China soon Despite being monumentally blurred, the phone's front, side and rear shots reveal a svelte Dell-branded device. The iPhone-esque app-based menu …
Why do all phones look like iPhones these days?
... let it not be an O2 exclusive.
Hmm, soft-focus was a good move, at least I've still got a bit of retina left.
Every bit as fugly as I expected from Dell.
Dell = Skynet, the plan to take down humanity hinges on swamping us with horrendous phones that make our eyes and brains leap for freedom, AICMFP.
why would I buy a phone from a company that brought out Axim handhelds and dropped them. I suspect Dell will try this and if doesn't make them a packet quietly discontinue them leaving a bunch of users with unsupported outdated expensive MP3 player.
The iphone may be the 80's Red Sports Car signifies something of the decade but at least they invest in it (and backwardly for old generation users) This is one for the must avoids
It won't use a standard MicroSD card it'll have some proprietary nonsense. It'll be locked down tighter than Fort Knox and you'll have to ask Dell if you want to change any settings.
*Their old ones at least.
That's awful.
Let's hope it's an O2-exclusive, as that'll ensure there's absolutely no way I'll ever own one.
Exactly. All copying, no innovation. That's why they'll all fail.
for once I'd be glad not to be on O2 then ;-)
It looks like a piece of sh&t . . . good luck on it not breaking within 2 weeks
"Why do all phones look like iPhones these days?"
Why do you have to ask?
... the charger and USB cables will be coiled so tight they will only make intermittent connections :)
I won't be buying one of these, if it really exists, but I hope they ship each in a hugh box taped to a pallet.
Longphone is looooong.
As much as I like the hardware, the iPhone home screen is a bit too 'busy' for me. If there are a lot of apps installed, it's hard on the eyes as you are scrolling page after page of icons. I would prefer if the regular home screen would be clean with only the icons that you want / need on it. I like the Android interface because of this. Have the home screen full or empty. Your choice. All the apps in a sliding drawer that you can scroll through - if you need to.
Why all the negativity? I say:
Great screen, nHD resolution is far better than the HVGA in other Android phones and iPhones.
Light weight! Much lighter than other Android phones and Apple's behemoth. And much thinner than the other Androids (though only slightly thinner than the iPhone)
The camera has a flash (and it's quality cannot possibly be any worse than the iPhone's - or most of the other current Android phones, either)
A Blackberry is ugly. A G1 is ugly. But this phone is not ugly; it is not beautiful, either, unlike an iPhone, but it is OK.
What's wrong with Dell? I have a Dell laptop and desktop, and in my office all of the computers are Dells, and they are all pretty decent. Not as pretty as Macs, but one third the price, and service is a lot better.
I do hope it sells in Europe (and for not too many €!)
...they didn't take those snaps using the DelliPhone camera!
I doubt that this will become a successful product, and I can usually, erm, telephony.
So /Dell/ are selling a phone with no wifi. Isn't that kind of screwed up?
That's another one off my list then.
If you actually were old enough to own a phone before the advent of the iBone, then you would realise it is simply following many of the design precedents set by phones from such companies as HTC and Nokia.
As for the Dell effort - no 3G then no interest as far as I'm concerned. That's teh same reason I wasn't interested in the original iBone as other phones/PDAs had offered 3G ages before Apple realised they needed it in their fashion-victim phone.
Like everything else from Dell, the first wave will be reasonable (unimaginative but functional) and all future revisions awful - built by the lowest bidder and filled with the lowest-bidder components.
:) that's very ugly, no need to to keep it as a secret
Not that I care much about 'cool' brands, but Dell is so uncool it hurts. I've always thought of them as the sort of supplier that middle-aged technophobe managers would go for, as they seem 'safe'. Like the tech equivalent of Rover or something. Carrying a Dell phone around would be like saying 'yes I have a smartphone but I only use it for taking calls'
Would this be the dellephone none of the western carriers would touch; Dell's latest attempt to find fresh horses for its tired box shifters and bean counters? A few million Chinese may be about to learn how poor a "name brand" clone can be. (The Chinese are desperate for iPhone , which is perfect for their writing system, and Apple are desperate for the Chinese market, but it's really hard to do a deal when both sides are control freaks.)
@Wrenchy "Clutter": You can have as few icons as you like on the iPhone home screen. If you don't like scrolling through pages of icons, press the home button and type a few characters of the name of the app you want (3 is usually enough). Or wait for a software update to address this issue).


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It's customary to pray for the dead in November, but two apostolates based in Ohio remind us that there is more we can do to help others facing death, and to honor those who have died, all year round.
Cincinnati's Apostolate for the Dying prays for people in their final hours. The St. Joseph of Arimathea Society in Cleveland gives the dignity of a Catholic burial to people who die alone. Both groups aim to extend the graces of Catholic life to people who are largely forgotten, so that they don't die without prayer and the spiritual solace of the Church.
Begun in 2003 by women who had prayed at the bedside of a dying family member, the Apostolate for the Dying took shape when sisters-in-law Fernanda and Maria Lourdes Moreira saw how much consolation their relative had received from their prayers.
The women wanted to pray with others dying in hospices, but found that it was nearly impossible for anyone but clergy and family to be with them. Instead, Fernanda and her daughter, Paula Dudzinski, began praying together at their church. A prayer group grew quickly around them, and the members soon had a collection of prayers they found especially fitting. With the support of their pastor, they began an apostolate that has reached Nigeria, the Philippines, Brazil and Portugal, as well as several American states.
Annamarie Short became involved with the group after she learned that one of their main prayers was the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. A member of the Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy (EADM), she saw the apostolate as a natural extension of the group's work to make devotion to Christ's infinite mercy better known.
"Unlike the holy souls in purgatory, who are safe even though they suffer, the dying need help at their last hour," Short told Our Sunday Visitor. "Our Lady of Fatima said that souls go to hell because no one prays for them. Nowadays, when so many people have turned away from God and so many die suddenly from violence, unprepared, the last hour is the most important hour of our lives."
Almost as forgotten are those who die alone or indigent. At about the same time that the Moreira sisters-in-law were realizing how much the dying need prayers, leaders of the Christian Action Team (CAT) at St. Ignatius Loyola High School in Cleveland were realizing that people who die penniless or have outlived their friends and families rarely receive the kind of funeral faithful Catholics desire.
Founded in 2003, the St. Joseph of Arimathea Pallbearer Ministry provides witnesses and pallbearers for Catholic funerals. It's become the school's largest extracurricular activity, so popular with students that it's now restricted to juniors and seniors, each of whom can serve only once every semester.
Named for the man who helped prepare Christ's body for burial and giving up his own tomb, the ministry has served 20 funeral homes. Sometimes the deceased have small families who are too old or disabled to carry the coffin; sometimes only one or two mourners attend the funerals; sometimes the boys and their adult companions are the only witnesses.
"It is our belief that no person should die without being prayed for or mourned," James Skerl, who founded the action team to serve the homeless, poor and mentally disabled, told OSV. St. Ignatius students attend funerals and carry the coffin, "learning to offer sympathy and support to others and offer hope in the face of death."
Since 2003, students and adult companions have served at more than 1,200 funerals (some 200-250 each year, including some non-Catholic funerals).
The ministry operates year-round, including Christmas and summer breaks, and students also attend two annual prayer services at the city's Potter's Field, where indigent people are buried.
Other Cleveland schools have begun their own societies, and more have sprung up in North Carolina, Kentucky, Denver and Kansas.
Both the Apostolate for the Dying and the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society help people who don't know about — and can't thank — their helpers. Both allow participants to perform works of mercy: the spiritual work of mercy to pray for the living and the dead, and the corporal work of mercy to bury the dead.
And though both are centered on death, they are also about life.
"As Catholics, we promote the sanctity of life from conception until the moment of death," Short said. "So we are pro-life, too."
Gail Deibler Finke is senior editor of "The Catholic Beat" in Cincinnati.
Copyright © 1996-2018 Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.


text: Money anxiety is at the heart of all the calls: a woman whose husband won't deal with money, a daughter stressed over her father's finances, and a son worried he pushed his parents into bankruptcy. Viewers ask if they can afford a Rolex watch, a Mt. Everest base camp trek.


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Car Review
2013 GMC Sierra 1500 and Hybrid: New Car Review
Pros: Upper trim levels make a credible argument for a luxury pickup
Cons: Too similar to Chevrolet Silverado, its corporate sibling, in base trim
What's New: Revised powertrain grade braking
With a totally redesigned Sierra pickup likely arriving next year, the 2013 GMC Sierra 1500 is the last model year of the current generation of GMC pickups. For some truck shoppers, this makes the 2013 Sierra highly appealing. The last model before a redesign, they say, is often the best; the automaker has spent years working out the kinks.
Others prefer to wait for the all-new model and the additional equipment it will likely include. But even truck shoppers with more time to look should consider the 2013 Sierra. These models will remain on lots well into 2013, and dealers (anxious to make room for the 2014 Sierra when it launches) may eventually offer attractive incentives.
Although the Sierra arrives for 2013 mostly unchanged, the pickup line continues to include a broad range of configurations for a variety of drivers. These include a choice of three cabs, five trim levels plus the top-end Denali, a V6, three V8 engine choices and even a hybrid version. From the base Work Truck to the luxurious, $46,480 Sierra 1500 Denali, GMC has a pickup for nearly every budget.
No one in the business has made a credible case for a luxury-oriented truck better than GMC. Lincoln has tried twice (with the Blackwood and Mark LT), but gave up on the category. Cadillac's Escalade EXT remains, but its long-term fate is unknown, especially considering that it's Chevrolet-badged sister model (the Avalanche) will soon be discontinued. For those wanting to combine uptown appointments with down-and-dirty capability, few will fit the bill quite as well as the GMC Sierra.
Comfort & Utility
Virtually any full-size pickup will provide you with adequate room, and the 2013 Sierra is no different. Where GMC's pickup stands out is in the upper trim levels, where more attention is paid to materials and quality of workmanship. The WT (Work Truck) and SL are more appropriate to dirty jeans and muddy boots, while the SLE, SLT and Denali provide available front buckets with adjustability (SLE), heated and cooled perforated leather (SLT and Denali) or nuance leather, which is Denali specific.
Utility, of course, is standard. Extended and crew cabs provide secure storage, and GMC offers a choice of standard or long boxes on regular and extended cabs. A wide range of options and accessories is available both for towing and for hauling cargo. Bedliners and toolboxes are a given, but the Sierra's bed also features 2-tier loading capability and a cargo management system. For those thinking in more workaday terms, there's an optional On the Job package that includes bed protection and tie-downs. Opt for a 2-wheel drive crew cab, and the 2013 Sierra will handle almost one ton of payload. With the enhanced towing package and available 6.2-liter V8, the Sierra can tow up to 10,700 pounds.
We find the ride comfort of Sierra 1500s comparable to other trucks in the half-ton category. A fully boxed frame aids rigidity, and a rigid structure allows for finer tuning of springs and shocks. What GMC calls a heavy-duty handling/trailering suspension is standard on SL, SLE and SLT trims and available on the Work Truck. For those planning to hit the trails, the Z71 off-road package is optional on the SLE and SLT. And a high performance suspension package is available on the SLT and standard on Denali.
As an older platform, the Sierra doesn't support the wide array of technology available from some competitors, particularly Ford. But a range of CD/MP3-capable audio systems is available on all Sierra models, and touchscreen navigation is offered on the SLT and Denali. Or, you can opt for navigation radio with a USB port on those same two top models. OnStar is standard on all Sierras except the WT (where it's optional) and includes a mobile app allowing remote starting of your engine. NavTraffic can update you on traffic conditions in your area (available only with touchscreen navigation). And dealer-installed Wi-Fi can keep you connected to everything else.
Performance and Fuel Economy
GMC provides almost as many drivetrain options as there are exterior colors or interior trims. The base engine for regular cab and extended cab Sierras is a 4.3-liter V6 delivering an adequate 195 horsepower and moderate torque of 260 lb-ft. The V6 shares a 4-speed automatic with the entry level V8, a 4.8-liter offering more respectable output for a full-size pickup: 302 hp and 305 lb-ft of torque. Much better are the optional, larger V8s that come paired to a 6-speed Hydra-Matic transmission. The 5.3-liter produces 315 hp while the 6.2-liter makes 4013 horsepower. Regardless of drivetrain, expect a Sierra to deliver between 12-15 mpg city/18-21 mpg hwy.
GMC and Chevrolet are the only pickup makers to offer a hybrid drivetrain, allowing the Sierra to launch and drive up to 30 mph on electricity alone. In combination with the truck's Active Fuel Management cylinder cutoff system, the Sierra Hybrid with 6.0-liter V8 and two integral electric motors delivers a 20/23-mpg Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimate. The hybrid drivetrain does reduce towing capability, however. At only 6,100 pounds, its maximum towing weight is some 3,000 pounds less than that of most of the Sierra 1500 lineup.
GMC offers a full menu of active safety components, including 4-wheel disc brakes with ABS, rack-and-pinion steering for more precise control, StabiliTrak electronic stability control and an available integrated trailer brake controller. Standard side curtain air bags with rollover protection are provided to all seating rows, and standard seat mounted side impact air bags for driver and front passenger provide thorax and pelvic protection. Pretensioners on the front safety belts minimize forward movement in case of a collision.
Driving Impressions
Along with several engine and body style choices, the Sierra's many available suspension packages allow the pickup's ride, handling and performance to be customized to a driver's particular needs. The base Z83 suspension delivers a reasonably smooth ride, while the Z85 is tweaked for improved handling and trailer towing. The Sierra SLE and SLT offer enhanced suspension choices: if you're going off-road, the Z71 is tuned for the trail. For towing, you can opt for the NHT suspension. It features 17-inch wheels, off-road tires and high-capacity rear springs. And should you want maximum street performance, check the Z60 box that brings 20-in wheels and tires.
We've always found the GMC Sierra to be relatively composed and genuinely comfortable. If there is a differentiation between the Sierra and the Chevrolet Silverado, it's in the interior appointment and perceived isolation. The basic architecture of the Sierra, however, is beginning to show its age; we anticipate the next Sierra should offer significant improvements in both on-road dynamics and off-road capability.
Other Trucks to Consider
The Sierra competes against the Silverado, the Ford F-150 and (to a growing extent) Chrysler's Ram 1500. Both Ford and Ram offer newer designs, capable powertrains and more expansive technology. But neither currently offer a hybrid powertrain or a similar selection of available V8 engines. If a truck buyer truly wants to configure a pickup to his or her specific need, no other maker provides the range of choices available in the GMC Sierra.
AutoTrader Recommends
In our playbook, the top-of-the-line Denali represents the best of the 2013 GMC Sierra 1500 lineup. We'd opt for the all-wheel-drive crew cab model with its high level of standard equipment. That includes a powerful 6.2-liter V8 and 20-in wheels. For greater utility, we'd select the On the Job package. For just over $50,000, we'd have a luxurious, all-season truck with equal parts comfort and workaday usability.


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Learning Center
It's not uncommon to have aches and pains in our bones, joints, and muscles. They may be caused by everyday wear and tear, overuse, or aging. Or they may be a result of injury or illness. Sometimes it can be hard to figure out exactly what's causing a muscle ache or joint pain. For example, sore muscles and aches could be the result of a hard workout routine, or they could be a sign of a more serious problem such as chronic pain or arthritis. It's important to know what is affecting you so you can treat it correctly.
Find out about your bone, joint, and muscle symptoms with topics such as:
Last Revised:
August 24, 2011
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


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SaaS – software-as-a-service – is a way of delivering applications over the Internet. Customers can access SaaS applications right from a Web browser, which means there is no hardware or software to buy, install, maintain, or update. The SaaS provider takes care of everything – and the customer always has the latest version of the application.
Explore our SaaS products:
- SAP SuccessFactors HR Solutions
- SAP S/4HANA Finance
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud (Cloud ERP for large enterprise and midsize business)
- SAP Cloud for Customer
- SAP Sales Cloud
- SAP Service Cloud
- SAP Marketing Cloud
- SAP Commerce Cloud
- SAP Business ByDesign (Cloud ERP for Midsize Business)
- SAP Analytics Cloud
- SAP Jam Collaboration
- SAP Jam Communities
- SAP Integrated Business Planning
- Ariba Network: Sourcing, Procurement, & Finance
- Concur: Travel & Expense Management
- Fieldglass: Flexible Labor Management


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Sony's big announcement this week revolved around the Xperia Sola (previously known as "Pepper"). The device failed to impress us all that much, but Sony had a couple more tricks up its sleeve including SmartTags and a new technology they are calling Floating Touch. The latter raised some questions, which the Japanese manufacturer tries to explain in a recent blog post.
In a nutshell, Floating Touch allows users to control their device by hovering their finger over it. It is similar to how your cursor works on your desktop. When you hover over content it is highlighted, then you can make a selection by tapping. This will give users finer control and reduce the incidence of tapping on wrong buttons or links when using a supported app.
But how exactly are they able to accomplish this? The explanation may be a bit confusing, but let's give it a try. Current smartphones use capacitive touchscreens. Manufacturers can use two types of sensors for such – mutual and self capacitance. The former allows multi-touch, while self capacitance sensors do not.
Sony uses both sensors simultaneously to create this hovering effect. Mutual capacitance is used for regular touch actions, and self capacitive sensors are activated when the Floating Touch feature is in use. This is what creates the "shadowing" effect (or highlighting).
The self capacitive sensors are set up to be extra sensitive, being able to detect a user's finger up to 20 mm above the screen. When hovering one's finger, the screen is not able to detect multiple fingers. This is not necessarily bad, as seeing multiple hover points on your screen would likely just be confusing.
As expected, this feature is not available for all applications. Developers will have to implement it in order for the customer to make use of it. But for now, you can use the Xperia Sola's browser with Floating Touch capabilities.
I really want to get excited over this feature, but can't help feeling like it is just a gimmick. But it seems fun, and it would help in some scenarios – especially for small devices, such as the 3.7-inch Xperia Sola. When using smaller smartphones, one tends to tap on the wrong links more often, due to the lack of screen real estate.
Personally, I am still more excited about SmartTags. Check out the video and source link for more details then let us know what you think of this technology. Do you think you could take advantage of Sony's Floating Touch features?


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Okay how about this game. Anyone else play it? I know it's been out for like five months but I just barely got a chance to play it. I have to say it's a lot of fun, the graphics are great, and it's the best MK game since part II.
I think they did a very credible cross over with the DC universe. Both sides are represented well and the story mode is quite long. I started playing the story mode on the MK side. There was nothing more satisfying than playing as Scorpion and spearing Superman and telling him to "Get over here!" before uppercutting him.


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Paint Color Portfolio: Light Gray Nurseries
Gray may not be the first color one thinks of for a nursery, but more and more parents are choosing it for their little ones. Gray's versatility allows for serious creativity in furniture and decor choices - it coordinates with virtually ever other color. Not to mention that its soothing nature is perfect for a sleeping space. But it can be tricky when it comes time to choose the perfect shade. Too light and the space will look washed out; choose the wrong undertone and it can quickly clash with your decor. To help with this difficult decision, I've chosen some spaces and swatches that get it just right.
Paint Colors:
- Behr Dolphin Fin 790C-3
- Benjamin Moore Gray Owl 2137-60
- Benjamin Moore Whirlpool CC-910
- Sherwin Williams First Star DAD9D5
- Glidden Smooth Stone
- Valspar Gravity 4005-1B
- Mythic Calla Lilly 139-2
- Pratt & Lambert Pearl White
- Ralph Lauren Dover Cliffs RLWW225
- Sherwin Williams Silverpointe D1D2CD
(Images: as linked above)
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Tearing up the floor at Wurstfest. If you can't polka or two-step, just wait for the next Chicken Dance.
It's become a yearly tradition for us to head down to Wurstfest in New Braunfels to share the joys of beer, sausage and polka with a few friends. Both the Longhorns and the Aggies had won football games when we went this Saturday, so the grounds were extra-packed with jovial fans--and a few in burnt orange even offering congratulations to those in maroon after their team beat No. 1 Alabama. Usually we'd park somewhere in town and trek on foot to the festival, but this time we caught the Wurst Wagen from the park-and-ride at the New Braunfels VFW, which was worth the money: $20 each for parking, admission, a ride to the front gate and some drink tickets, which saved us from standing in a couple of long lines at the event.
Once inside, we headed to the food pavilion for dinner. I went in with a strategy to try at least a little of a lot of different offerings: a Wurst-kabob (with five different types of sausage and a dinner roll), bratwurst hot dog, fried sauerkraut, fried pickles, fried cheesecake, and a kolache. These went fast among our group of six people, and when we were full, we agreed that we should come back next year to try the things we didn't get around to (I'll get you next time, apple pancakes...next time!).
Aside from the food area and the dance hall, another popular stop for a lot of people was the hat vendor. I think this photo of my new headgear is a perfect testament to the great time we had. Yes, the wings actually flap. Even the cashiers at Buc-ee's on our way home were impressed.


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Product 8/9
This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 25 February, 2015.
Hitman Dabuccino collaborations feature an integrated hammerhead perc into the pipe. The first series of the pipes were done as a limited run of 1,000 pieces, 500 of each size – 10 and 14 millimeter. - See more
See more


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Student Activities
Especially for Students @ASIST 2010
Student Activities Chair: Barbara Wildemuth
In addition to the technical, professional and social events at the Annual Meeting, students are especially invited to participate in one or more of these:
1) Student Design Competition - New in 2010!
Attention all students! The Student Design Competition Kick-off is scheduled for Sunday evening, 5-7pm, in Kings Garden South. To participate in the competition, you must attend this meeting!
This year, for the first time, a Student Design Competition will be held during the course of the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. Teams of students (undergraduate, masters, and doctoral) in any discipline attending ASIST 2010 will be invited to participate in an onsite design competition.
We will form cross-institution design teams at the beginning of the meeting (Sunday afternoon or evening). Team members will work together for the next few days to come up with a solution to the assigned design problem. Their work will be presented at this special session and via posters. Judging will be by industry and academic experts. The winning team members will receive complimentary registrations to the 2011 Annual Meeting!
Winners will be announced at the Tuesday, 10:30am session.
2) ASIST Doctoral Session on Research and Career Development
The award winners of the two doctoral student awards will present their research publicly at the Student Award-Winning Papers session on Tuesday from 2:00-3:30pm.
Congratulations to the Winners:
ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Alberto Pepe
Thomson Reuters Doctoral Dissertation Scholarship Jaime Snyder
SIG III International Paper Contest Winner Dr. Angelina Totolo
Doctoral Students who submit to:
ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation
Thomson Reuters Doctoral Dissertation
The purpose of this session is to provide a forum in which doctoral candidates and recent doctoral graduates can discuss their research and career plans with more senior scholars. During the seminar, the junior scholars will become acquainted with more senior scholars working in related areas and will have the opportunity to interact with their peers.
Brief description:
Doctoral students conducting their dissertation research will be invited to attend the session. An established researcher will be assigned as a mentor for each student. At the session, the students will have the opportunity for in-depth discussion of their current research and future career and research plans with their mentors and the other participants.
Selection of student participants:
Students submitting proposals for the Thomson Reuters Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Scholarship and dissertations for the ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Award will be considered. The juries for those awards will be asked to rank the submissions so that those submitting the highest quality research papers will be selected for this workshop. The organizers will work with the jury rankings to select the student participants. Up to ten participants will be invited to attend the seminar.
Selection of mentors:
Mentors will be selected from the ASIST membership. Each mentor will be an established researcher in the field in which the assigned student is working. The assigned mentor will not be a current member of the student's dissertation committee.
|Sept. 17:
|Early Registration Ends
|Sept. 10:
|New Leaders Award Deadline
|Oct. 5:
Hotel Rates End
Call 1-412-560-1751, Code: SAT


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Snuffles is a respiratory disease in rabbits most commonly caused by Pasteurella multocida. It is one of the most common diseases that strikes domestic rabbits. Almost every rabbit breeder or long-term rabbit owner has dealt with, or is at least familiar with, this devastating respiratory disease. Very contagious, it can also affect the eyes, ears, and other organs. If detected early, it can be treated. However, it can become chronic or fatal if left untreated. The following are signs, causes, and treatment options, as well as prevention methods for snuffles.
While there can be different causes of these infections, the most common and generally accepted cause of snuffles is infection with the bacteria Pasteurella multocida. These gram negative bacteria have several different strains and, depending on the strain that infects a particular rabbit, the signs can be either mild or severe. Some strains of these bacteria are commonly found in the nasal passages of rabbits, but may not cause infections unless the animal is stressed or has a suppressed immune system.
The signs of snuffles can be varied, but are usually associated with the upper respiratory tract. Many infected rabbits will initially develop a watery nasal discharge followed by sneezing and then a thick, whitish to yellowish nasal discharge. These infected rabbits will often make a loud snuffling or snoring sound due to the fluid and mucous in their nasal passages. Because rabbits groom their faces with their front paws, infected rabbits will often have discharge and mats on the inside of their forepaws.
The bacteria can also affect their eyes, causing conjunctivitis and a resulting discharge. It may also affect their ears, causing ear infections. These ear infections can then cause 'torticollis' (wryneck - twisting of the neck), head shaking, scratching, a head tilt, disorientation, circling, or inability to stand. The infection can sometimes resolve in the nasal passages, but persist in the ears. In some severe cases, a rabbit may develop pneumonia or bacteremia (the bacteria enter the bloodstream). In a few cases, abscesses may form under the skin, in joints, or in the internal organs.
Snuffles is generally treated with antibiotics for 14-30 days. Antibiotics commonly used include enrofloxacin (Baytril), ciprofloxacin, and trimethoprim sulfa. Rabbits need beneficial bacteria in their intestines to aid in digestion and they often need to be supplemented with these bacteria during and after antibiotic treatment; therefore, these drugs should only be used under strict veterinary guidance. In severe cases, supportive treatment consisting of fluids and supplemental nutrition may need to be given as well.
If the strain of Pasteurella multocida is a mild one, and the immune system of the infected rabbit is strong, the symptoms may be mild and the animal may recover without treatment. However, if the strain is aggressive or the animal has a weakened immune response, the disease can be severe, chronic, and even fatal. The goal with treatment is to use an effective antibiotic at the first signs of infection. If the infection goes for days or weeks without treatment, it is likely that it will become chronic and very difficult to eliminate. In most cases, the signs of the disease may disappear, but the bacteria are usually still present, only in smaller numbers. Even in cases that are treated early, some animals will still develop chronic infections in their sinus passages that require long-term treatment, or even lifelong treatment to keep them under control.
Snuffles is a very contagious and difficult disease to treat, so prevention plays a very critical role in trying to control and eliminate this disease. Breeders need to take special precautions, including strict sanitation and quarantine procedures. For the pet rabbit owner, the best prevention is to select a healthy rabbit. When choosing an animal for purchase, make sure that it is free of all signs of infection, including a runny nose. When choosing a young rabbit, the mother and all the litter mates should also be free of all signs of disease. If you purchase from a breeder, it is also wise to observe all the rabbits on location and make sure snuffles is not present.
The disease can be present in the nasal cavities without the rabbit showing any signs of disease, so a healthy-appearing rabbit can still develop signs later if he is stressed. Reducing stress is also very important in helping a rabbit avoid infections and reducing the severity of the disease if he does become infected. Common causes of stress in rabbits include poor nutrition, improper housing, chilling, overcrowding, or aggression from other rabbits. To prevent stress, provide the best possible housing. Offer a variety of fresh vegetables and free choice
timothy hay in addition to a properly formulated pelleted
diet. Also, avoid letting your rabbit come into contact with other rabbits, particularly if they are sick. Because this disease can be transmitted through secretions on your hands and clothes, be very careful when handling other rabbits, and always wash your hands and clothes after handling a rabbit other than your own.
Snuffles is a disease that can have devastating consequences to rabbits. Because it is so contagious and widespread, rabbit owners need to be aware of its signs and seek veterinarian attention at the first sign of illness. By understanding the disease and taking precautions against it, rabbit owners can help reduce both the severity and incidence of this disease.


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Anyone who has followed Jay Cutler's career knows he isn't one for theatrics. The nonchalant quarterback is about as cool as they come.
So it is fitting, if not necessarily surprising, to hear about how he and his fiancee, former reality star Kristin Cavallari, finally decided to tie the knot.
After the couple got engaged in April 2011, Cutler called it off that summer. But a few months later, the marriage was back on. In an interview that will air as part of an E! special on March 10, Cavallari explained how it all went down.
She was leaving the airport in Chicago in the fall of 2011 when the idea of a second engagement was broached.
"Somehow it came up, like, 'Oh, shall we get married?'" Cavallari said. "We're like, 'Yeah, OK.'"
The couple already had wedding jewelry from their first engagement, so they saved that expense. But with Cutler in Chicago and Cavallari in California, how could he get her the ring? Through the mail, of course.
"...[H]e sent my ring in the mail," Cavallari said. "So I actually had my ring sitting at home for a couple of weeks before I put it on."
Cavallari says the couple does not yet have a date for their wedding.