text:
In August 2008, an overwhelmingly bipartisan Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), which was then signed into law by the president. The law represented a much-needed sea change for product safety. It requires that toys and infant products be tested before they are sold, bans the toxic substances lead and phthalates from children's products, and creates a comprehensive publicly accessible consumer complaint database. The law also gives the oversight Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) the resources it needs to protect the public and fix the broken product safety net.
Congress passed this landmark law because children had been hurt, become sick, or even died from unsafe products put in their hands. Many millions of products were recalled, shaking the confidence of parents in the safety of the toys and juvenile products currently on the market. The year 2007 was known as the year of the recall. Defective and dangerous products - from lead-painted toys to vacuum cleaners that catch fire - were allowed onto our store shelves and into our homes. The under-resourced CPSC had failed to do its job and protect American consumers. So we mobilized as a citizenry and scored big wins for consumer product safety, winning our biggest victory when the CPSIA was signed into law.
Since its passage, however, the CPSIA has been met with some resistance and criticism by industry representatives and lobbyists who are loathe to comply with the new requirements. We continue to fight for the safety of consumer products by closely monitoring Congress and the CPSC to ensure the full and complete implementation of the new law.
Copyright © 2017 Public Citizen. Some rights reserved. Non-commercial use of text and images in which Public Citizen holds the copyright is permitted, with attribution, under the terms and conditions of a Creative Commons License. This Web site is shared by Public Citizen Inc. and Public Citizen Foundation. Learn More about the distinction between these two components of Public Citizen.
You can support the fight for greater government and corporate accountability through a donation to either Public Citizen, Inc., or Public Citizen Foundation, Inc.
Public Citizen lobbies Congress
and federal agencies to advance Public Citizen's mission of advancing
government and corporate accountability. When you make a contribution to Public
Citizen, you become a member of Public Citizen, showing your support and entitling
you to benefits such as Public Citizen
News. Contributions to Public Citizen are not tax-deductible.
Public Citizen Foundation focuses on research, public education, and litigation in support of our mission. By law, the Foundation can engage in only very limited lobbying. Contributions to Public Citizen Foundation are tax-deductible.


text:
America's Media War on OWSWritten by Stephen Lendman Subject: MEDIA (MainStreamMedia - aka MSM)
Early reporting was scant, dismissive, and offensive. Much still belittles, denigrates and marginalizes a significant movement.
Fox News claims protesters don't pay taxes or know what they want, are supported by Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei and Hugo Chavez, and represent the lunatic left wing.
Bill O'Reilly quipped, "Do we have all kinds of crackheads down there." He added that Zuccotti Park is "dirty and filthy. There's rats running all over. There's dope all over the place. They're having sex outside at night and all of this stuff."
Fox News reporter Charles Gasparino accused protesters of embracing "communism and there is no doubt about it."
New York Times former executive editor Bill Keller ignored global activism in a column about "good news," asking, "Bored by the soggy sleep-ins and warmed-over anarchism of Occupy Wall Street?"
Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer called protesters "indignant indolents saddled with their $50,000 student loans and English degrees (wanting to) "eat the rich."
Despite occasional better reporting, much resembles Telegraph writer Nile Gardiner's article about "the decline and fall of Occupy Wall Street," saying:
It's "been an act of desperation by the liberal Left, which now represents a small minority of Americans in terms of ideology. (It's) descended into anarchy. (It's) an anachronism, a wannabe 1960s-style protest movement in an America that has moved on."
"And it is above all a symbol of a Left in decline amidst an increasingly conservative nation that has had enough of the kind of big government, anti-free market policies the liberal protesters crave."
Gardiner's right about one thing. Protesters want big government for the rich ended. They rage against privatizing profits, socializing losses, and trashing their rights for Wall Street and other corporate favorites. Other than that, he pathetically inverted truth. So do many others like him.
On November 15, Washington Post writers Eli Saslow and Colum Lynch headlined, "The Occupy movement: More trouble than change?" saying:
"The movement began as a protest of major economic and political issues, but lately the most divisive issue has become the protests themselves." Nationwide "encampments....have become rife with problems of their own. There are sanitation hazards and drug overdoses, even occasional deaths and sexual assaults."
Fact check
In hundreds of cities nationwide, OWS protesters represent direct democracy social activism. Except for occasional incidents common anywhere, they're peaceful, unified, dignified, harmless, and resolute. As a result, baseless accusations vilify them.
In New York, OWS reported factually about one sexual assault incident. The perpetrator was arrested. "From the moment the incident was discovered to the present time, the survivor has been surrounded by a network of allies and trained advocates offering resources to provide emotional, medical, and legal support."
OWS activists support her. They're "saddened and angered (about) some members of the media and public," blaming them and the survivor for the assault. Getting it right isn't what major media do. Their specialties include distortion, misreporting and ball-faced lying.
"Is this an occupation or an infestation? City officials have long complained about the disruptiveness of Occupy Wall Streets, but in the past week, police officers began raiding encampments in the middle of the night, citing a public safety disaster."
Fact check
Serving Wall Street, other corporate interests, and political Washington, rogue cops nationwide want OWS protesters intimidated, constrained, and if possible, silenced.
At issue isn't public safety or other concerns. It's serving wealth and power interests at the expense of beneficial social change. Heroically, OWS activists pursue it.
"Recent news updates from Occupy protests read like a crime blotter," including a shooting, a suicide, two drug overdoses, a molotov cocktail, a sexual assault, sanitation, a rat infestation, violating a noise ordinance, and more. "Democracy has rarely looked so messy."
Fact check
Hyperbole, exaggeration, and fabrication substitute for accuracy and full disclosure. Whatever challenges entrenched power gets vilified, pilloried, and discredited.
OWS represents direct democracy. It's entirely absent at federal, state and local levels. Protesters want it restored. After being evicted from New York's Zuccotti Park, one activist walked through it with a sign reading, "Grand Reopening Under New Management." There's no turning back now.
Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin symbolizes America's media depravity by promoting violence, mass murder, and vicious racial hatred of Palestinian Arabs. Nonetheless, disciplining and/or firing her's not considered.
Her "Right Turn" columns appear regularly along with other extremist Post writers. On November 15, her latest article headlined, "Occupy movement deteriorates," saying:
"The left-wing punditocracy's fascination with the Occupy Wall Street and its progeny movements has declined in inverse proportion to the upswing in violence, mayhem and public filth stemming from those about whom the left was cooing only a couple of weeks ago."
Fact check
Protesters nationwide are peaceful, law-abiding, model citizens. In contrast, goon squad cops assaulted them violently. Doing so violates constitutional and statute law. Verbal "filth" oozed from Rubin's column. Truth was entirely absent.
"No more are the liberal pundits interesting (sic) in measuring the level of support for what they only weeks ago characterized as a genuine political movement. Ignored are reports of sexual assaults. No mention is made among the OWS cheerleaders of the latest effort to re-establish order in Oakland, Calif, and Burlington, Vt."
"Funny how the left's assertion that this was a grand political awakening has now gone down the memory hole....(L)eft-leaning elites tried mightily to ignore the instances of anti-Semitism, violence and fouling of public places. When that became impossible, they simply chose to ignore the whole disgusting mess."
Fact check
Her comments lack truth and full disclosure. They feature hyperbole, hate, misreporting, and uncalled for pejoratives. Nor does she recognize real social, economic and political grievances. Why else would growing millions want change?
Thousands of nationwide OWS activists represent them. More join them daily. Rubin and others like her represent the malignancy that's destroying America.
Shamefully, Washington Post editors put up with her. Its journalism fell from grace after Woodward and Bernstein's heyday.
The New York Times also strayed from far June 13, 1971 when publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger said Pentagon Paper secrets "had to be revealed....people had the right to know."
Belatedly in 1996, The Times said "Johnson Administration (officials) systematically lied, not only to the public, but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendental national interest and significance."
Today, basics substitute for muckraking exposes. Distortion, exaggeration, misreporting, and ball-faced lies replaced truth and full disclosure.
Journalists like HL Mencken, Charles Edward Russell, Lincoln Steffens, Upton Sinclair, IF Stone, and Helen Thomas aren't welcome.
Rubin/Judith Miller types replaced them. Gutter journalism trash is featured. Everything wrong about America is highlighted. Managed news and commentary insures readers and television viewers know nothing.
Major media journalism always fell short. It's hard imagining how much lower it can sink. Why else are growing numbers turning elsewhere for real news and information. Hopefully it's just a matter of time until they all do.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at email@example.com.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A working legislature, post informant life and Wal-Mart's guns
A legislature that works:
Maybe it's because I live in New York and have to read all the time about what may be the world's two most dysfunctional legislative bodies – in Albany and Washington. But I wish a reporter for a national news organization would try to find the country's best state legislature. A place where Democrats and Republicans actually work together. A place where money isn't everything, and where everything isn't done at the 11th hour, or later, followed by an orgy of self-congratulation.
We've got 50 states. They can't all be governed by lawmakers who embarrass their constituents. Which ones function well, and why? What conflict-of-interest, campaign-spending or other rules do they have that help keep things in line? What makes them different, and how can we export their success to the rest of our capitals?
The afterlife of a Wall Street rat:
"Mr. Wang's lawyer said his client is 'isolated and broke' following his cooperation."
That's how the Wall Street Journal summarized the situation of Wesley Wang, 39, a former consultant who had worked for an SAC Capital Advisors affiliate and was sentenced Wednesday only to probation for conspiracy to commit securities fraud (by trading on inside information) ‑ because prosecutors said he had been helpful in informing on the targets of their investigation into the trading activities of the hedge fund led by Steven A. Cohen.
Prosecutors told Judge Jed Rakoff that Wang "began cooperating after he was approached by federal agents in January 2009," according to the Journal. He not only recorded his telephone calls for the feds but also wore a body wire for in-person meetings with targets of the government's investigation. His cooperation, prosecutors said, gave them evidence against "about 20" potential suspects.
Anyone who has seen The Godfather or watched The Sopranos knows what happens to mob rats. What about Wall Street rats? What are Wang's prospects for ever being anything other than "isolated and broke"?
It may take a week or a year for Wang to get over how his life fell apart after he got caught. It may take even longer if he is a witness in any of the government's cases ‑ including a potential one against Cohen. But at some point, Wang is likely to be willing to talk about his fall; how he's trying to recover; and what he thinks about the Wall Street greed stakes that propelled him up, then brought him down.
When he does, it will be an important, gripping story. I know, because I wrote one like this about a fabulously successful young lawyer who got caught up in the Ivan Boesky-Michael Milken insider trading scandals of the 1980s.
Wal-Mart and guns: The money question
This will likely be an almost impossible story to get, but anyone wanting to one-up the trailblazing work by the New York Times on overseas bribes allegedly paid by Wal-Mart should try to find out what guns mean to Wal-Mart's bottom line.
In the gun control controversy stemming from the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre, it's been widely reported that Wal-Mart is the nation's largest gun seller. Other stories focused on the giant retailer's skittish stance on gun sales, noting that the company, citing "scheduling conflicts," first turned down a White House invitation to have a representative come to a meeting on the issue, then accepted following press criticism.
What's been missing is any information on how important guns sales are to Wal-Mart. What percentage of those sales comes from the types of assault weapons, bullets, or magazine clips that might be the focus of new controls? How much has this issue been discussed in the company's executive suites and boardroom, and at what levels?
Even if a group of reporters has to start by hanging around some stores and observing how many of these weapons go out the doors, the effort would be worth it. The Times had a six-person team do a story Saturday on gun sales generally. Why not have six reporters hang out at Wal-Mart stores for a few days?
Beyond that, someone should ask Wal-Mart whether being forced to stop selling certain weapons would have a material effect on earnings and, if so, whether the company plans to list that as a risk in its next securities filing. It's highly unlikely, but worth a try, as a way to start a conversation. Few public companies will ignore questions related to the integrity of their securities disclosures.
Another line of inquiry would involve getting a fix on whether Wal-Mart is more worried that taking what gun control advocates would see as a more responsible position on assault weapons sales would risk an overall consumer backlash that would cost more than lost sales on those products.
Boeing's Dreamliner Crisis:
I assume that the key business reporting outlets are working on tick-tocks of how Boeing is coping with the crisis surrounding its new Dreamliner aircraft and how competitor Airbus is trying to take advantage of it.
But a story covering the struggles of the people behind the design, sale (and competitive fights) and setbacks of this game-changing plane would be a great book. I'm thinking of The Devil's Candy by Julie Solomon, one of my favorite books, which was about the making of the disastrous movie version of Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. Maybe this one will have a happier ending ‑ but either way it has all the elements of a compelling read.
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
On the first question, states that appear to work, I'd suggest looking at Connecticut. We lived in Fairfield County for 5-6 years, a suburban/rural town of 20,000 or so, and loved the politics. The town was full of Democrats and Republicans with most everything debated face to face and through the two weekly papers, the letters to the editor section. People were always respectful despite strong differences of opinion in some cases. And people tended to argue their points from facts and be willing to listen.
I've also lived in NY, NYC, LA, SF, and AZ. The only place remotely similar, oddly enough, was LA during elections where we voted in people's garages. As with CT, it was the face to face contact that enforced a minimum respect for people.


text:
DOE A to Z: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #
For Release: October 15, 2004
New Jersey Honors Bergen County Teacher with
2004 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award
Jill Stauffer begins every day at George Washington School in Wyckoff at 6:30 a.m., long before the pitter patter of kindergarten feet skip into her classroom. She is innovative. She is dedicated. She is a 2004 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award recipient.
Mrs. Stauffer was honored today by the Gov. James E. McGreevey Administration, Department of Education and the Milken Family Foundation for being among the very best teachers in the state. She is quick to personalize each lesson to a students individual needs, and she does so in new, original and creative ways, her colleagues say.
Among the innovative methods Mrs. Stauffer has used at George Washington School are: a planned trip to a Mexican restaurant to accompany a lesson about the letter "R"; bringing a bunny into her classroom and talking about the letter "B"; and using frog puppets to discuss the letter "F."
"Mrs. Stauffer is a bright, dynamic and inspirational teacher who has a wonderful zest for learning," said Joseph E. Desiderio, principal at George Washington School. "She has a joyful spirit that is contagious to all who are in her presence. She is an educator who designs her educational message in her mind, but delivers it through her heart."
Mrs. Stauffer, a 15-year-teacher who holds a masters degree in education from William Paterson University and a bachelors degree from Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey), received a check for $25,000 from the Milken Family Foundation at a special assembly this afternoon at her school.
The award recognizes outstanding educators who continue to learn and are essential in fostering student growth, improving schools and enhancing the education profession.
"We are so very pleased to recognize Jill Stauffer as a great and dedicated innovator, motivator and educator," Commissioner of Education William L. Librera said. "It is clear to her peers and to the Department of Education that she is of great value, not only to her kindergartners and her school, but to her district, county and state. Her success should be both recognized and shared with others so that we can continue to raise the bar for teacher success."
Mrs. Stauffer is the second National Educator Award recipient announced by the Department of Education this week. She joins Theresa Bordo of Vineland as the two honorees from New Jersey this year. Nationwide, the Milken Family Foundation will honor 100 outstanding educators this year.
The state of New Jersey and the Milken Family Foundation are in the third year of a partnership for the National Educator Awards. Founder Lowell Milken, the foundations chairman, created the award program in 1985.
"We joined with the Milken Family Foundation three years ago because we believe they see the value in recognizing good educators, educators who have the chance to become even better," Commissioner Librera said. "We must continue to recognize, and more importantly, share, great success stories. They occur each and every day in so many fine schools across the state."
Since 1985, the Milken National Awards Program, which honors teachers, principals and specialists in public education from kindergarten through 12th grade, has become the largest teacher recognition program in the United States.
This year alone, the foundation will issue $2.5 million worth of National Educator Award in 47 states and the District of Columbia. More than $51.9 million in awards have been doled out since the programs inception.
For more information about the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Awards, please contact the Department of Education Public Information Office at (609) 292-1126 or the Milken Family Foundation at (310) 998-3009.


text:
Preview of Sunday's NFL game between the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Bears.
KICKOFF 1 p.m., FirstEnergy Stadium
LINE Pick 'em (over-under, 45 points)
WEATHER Temperatures in the 20s, chance of snow
TV FOX (WJW Channel 8), with Brian Billick, Thom Brennaman
BEARS VS. AFC NORTH They are looking for a sweep ... Won 24-21 over Cincinnati in the home opener; won 40-23 at Pittsburgh on Sept. 22; beat Baltimore 23-20 in overtime Nov. 17 in Chicago.
BEARS' LAST THREE Lost 42-21 at St. Louis Nov. 24; lost 23-20 in OT at Minnesota Dec. 1; beat Dallas 45-28 last Monday night.
INCENTIVE PLAN Chicago and Detroit both are 7-6, atop the NFC North. Detroit has a home game against Baltimore on Monday night. The Bears must finish ahead of the Lions, who beat Chicago twice. ... The Browns must win two of their last three games to achieve the team's best record since 2007.
BROWNS AT HOME Working backward from the most recent game ... Lost 32-28 to Jacksonville; lost 27-11 to Pittsburgh; beat Baltimore 24-18; lost 31-17 to Detroit; beat Buffalo 37-24; beat Cincinnati 17-6; lost 23-10 to Miami.
SCOREBOARD The Bears are being outscored on the road, on average, 32.2-30.2. The Browns are being outscored at home, on average, 23.0-20.6.
BROWNS ATTACKING No. 28 run offense (84.3 yards a game) vs. No. 32 run defense (157.0); No. 10 pass offense (260.4) vs. No. 10 pass defense (224.5).
BEARS ATTACKING No. 17 run offense (112.8) vs. No. 4 run defense (98.0); No. 5 pass offense (276.9) vs. No. 8 pass defense (222.4).
CUTLER, YEARS LATER Jay Cutler will be making his second start against the Browns as a Bear. On Nov. 1, 2009 in Chicago, he passed for 225 yards in a 30-6 Chicago win. He has played at Cleveland once, as a Denver Bronco in a memorable 2009 game. Brady Quinn, making his first NFL start, led the Browns to a late lead, but Cutler, en route to 447 yards, rallied Denver to a 34-30 win. The 447 yards stands as Cutler's career high.
CUTLER IN 2013 Cutler, returning from an injury, is 4-4 as a starter this year, but is in a 1-4 skid. One of the losses, though, was his biggest game of the year: 24 of 33 for 358 yards, with two touchdowns and no picks against New Orleans. Cutler, 30, is in his fifth year as the Bears starter, with a 38-26 record. His contract expires at the end of the season.
FORTE AND PAYTON In six seasons with the Bears, running back Matt Forte has moved into second place on the all-time rushing list with 6,400 yards, surpassing Neal Anderson (6.400), but still miles behind Walter Payton (16,726). Working on a strong 2013 (1,073 rushing yards), Forte ranks third in the NFL in rushing yards since 2008, trailing only Adrian Peterson and Chris Johnson.
DUAL THREAT Forte is one of the league's better receivers out of the backfield, with his 518 receiving yards helping him rank No. 3 in the league in rushing-receiving yards. The top three: LeSean McCoy 1,764, Jamaal Charles 1,622, Forte 1,591. Browns wideout Josh Gordon is fourth with 1,466 yards.
TWO ON TWO Gordon and tight end Jordan Cameron have combined to give the Browns 143 catches for 2,225 yards. Wideouts Alshon Jeffrey and Brandon Marshall have given the Bears 159 catches for 2,283 yards. ... Gordon leads the NFL with 1,400 receiving yards. ... Gordon had 721 yards in two years with Baylor. He has 2,205 yards in two years with the Browns.
SACK TIME Julius Peppers, going on 34, has given the 2013 Bears 6.5 sacks and 15 QB pressures. Chicago has 25 sacks. ... Barkevious Mingo, 23, has five of the Browns' 37 sacks. Paul Kruger has 4.5 sacks, 17 QB pressures and 10 tackles for loss. ... T.J. Ward leads the Browns with 13 tackles for loss.
HIT THE ROAD The Browns close their season with road games against the Jets and Steelers the next two Sundays.


text:
Reserve online or call 01993 824 252
Start your shortlist by clicking on the icon next to any property
This Villa is absolutely top drawer! This fabulous villa is located about 5 mins walk from the tennis centre and Las Sabinas cafes etc offers a superb standard of accommodation in the heart of La Manga Club, yet privacy that you would expect from a top end property. Naturally there is air conditioning throughout and there is a spacious garden with private pool. Each bedroom has twin beds, some of which can be made into doubles, so it is a great choice for either a family holiday or a golf or tennis group.
Please note that there is free wi-fi at this property.
The villa is accessed by its own private drive and is located on one of the most exclusive roads in La Manga Club, first line to the South Golf Course alongside the 3rd fairway.
From the front door, enter the hallway then turn left into spacious living room with vaulted and beamed ceiling. This room is beautifully furnished, and complete with flat screen satellite TV, DVD
Patio doors lead to the terrace with table and chairs, and a retractable awning. steps to the pool and garden. The pool has a tiled surround, and the garden has a large lawn, with the remainder planted and gravelled.
On the upper terrace is the barbeque area with built in barbeque,
Cloakroom with WC, wash basin and shower.
Spacious and modern kitchen with washing machine, dishwasher, microwave, oven, hob, fridge freezer and coffee machine. A further door leads directly to the terrace and pool. Adjacent to the kitchen is the dining area, with two steps down to the living room.
There are 4 bedrooms.
Spacious master bedroom with double bed (can be split into two single beds) with en-suite full bathroom. Patio doors lead from the bedroom to the terrace and pool.
Bedroom Two with double bed (can be split into two single beds) plus en-suite full bathroom. Patio doors lead from the bedroom to a quiet area at the front of the house.
Bedroom Three has twin beds (double bed if preferred) and patio doors lead to the terrace and pool.
Bedroom Four has twin beds.
Bathroom Three with shower, WC and washbasins
Terraces, large garden and private pool. Backs onto the South golf course.
Saturday to Saturday bookings only in school holidays including all of July. Free wi-fi is available at this property.


text:
From Ha Long Bay, Vietnam....to you
We travelled to Ha Long Bay, (Vietnam) this weekend.
From Ho Chi Minh City, it was a two hours flight to Hanoi,
where we spent a few days and then a three hours drive north to Ha Long Bay.
From there it was a quick step onto a cruise boat for the weekend.
Ha Long Bay (or Halong) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site,
featuring thousands of limestone rock formations.
Many are covered in lush tropical plants and contain enormous hollow grotto's.
Fishing villages consisting of floating houses are dotted throughout the islands.
It is a way of life, like no other I have seen.
That's Vietnam...one never ceases to be amazed.
With the sun moving in and out of the clouds..all the way to sunset.
Best wishes to one and all for a wonderful morning,
afternoon...evening...wherever you happen to be in this magnificent world.
With that I say goodnight and sweet dreams.
PS..thanks so much for your wonderful comments on the last post,
I have a bit of updating to do...coming soon! :)


text:
After the Boston Marathon bombings, many victims were rushed to Brigham and Women's Hospital. They have since been discharged, but their legacy of strength lives on, thanks in part to the 10 students in a Master of Arts in Graphic Design class taught by Minko Dimov. The Brigham's lobby now houses a gigantic "Wishing Wall" commissioned by the hospital, and designed and constructed by the students. It showcases messages of hope—from cards to banners to shawls—received from well-wishers nationwide.
Dimov always urges his students to connect design ideas to real-world issues. And so, after the marathon tragedy, his class vowed to inspire victims through art. They came up with a "Bottles of Good" initiative, tucking healing messages and plant seeds into water bottles. "Water symbolizes replenishment—both on the marathon route and philosophically," explains Dimov. "The seeds represent rebirth." The students personally approached the Brigham and several other hospitals, and delivered bottles to 37 patients.
Each bottle's message, signed by the class, read: "You are receiving this small token of empathy from a dedicated group of admirers. As young designers looking for inspiration, you stimulated our creativity and we decided to dedicate this piece to you. We admire your courage. It gives us hope and empowers us to live better. Please accept our love and warmest wishes for a speedy recovery and a fulfilling life ahead."
Brigham and Women's Hospital was wowed by the group's compassion and asked them to create a larger installation, prominently displayed in the hospital's lobby, to honor the victims. The team threw themselves into construction, liaising with hospital engineers and working outside of classroom hours to get the job done.
"I couldn't speak more highly of these students," says Kristen Koch, the hospital's operations manager. "They worked day and night for ten days." Koch says the display has captivated hospital staff and visitors alike. "One marathon victim even came on installation day to thank them personally," she adds.
The design resembles a wishing well, representing a "waterfall of goodness overflowing with compassion," Dimov says. Notes, cards, and banners are strung from the wall using yellow and blue ribbons, the marathon's official colors, as well as from shoelaces tied as bows, a symbolic touch. Students also crafted a sign to accompany the mementos—the heartfelt message ends with a resounding "Brigham strong!"
The installation remains through July, but it's just the beginning for Dimov's designers. He's now building what he calls an "impromptu studio," an evolving space at Suffolk where civic-minded students can create art for hospitals, nonprofits, and other community partners. "It's a bridge between the classroom and the real world," he says. "After the response from Brigham and Women's, we're so excited and encouraged."


text:
Monday, December 8, 2008
Why they want to silence us.
Have you ever played poker? I'm definitely not a professional poker player and I'll never earn millions on the Vegas circuit, but I learned enough about the game at science fiction conventions to describe the basics of bluffs and the tells that give them away for metaphoric purposes. The reason I bring it up is because there is a psychological epiphany that happens when you play poker long enough, and it doesn't take long. It's the moment when you know that you're being bluffed, when you know the other guy is, without a word about his hand spoken to you, lying to you with his actions, his bets. There is a "tell" that gives it away.
That's the kind of epiphany you can experience when you start posting at certain websites and then find out your posts are no longer showing up. When a certain kind of purely polite and informative post is deleted it's a "tell" about the other guy's state of mind. The guys who are trying to bluff you, who are, in a metaphoric sense, trying to make you think they've got more in their hand then they've actually got, are websites like Uncommon Descent (at least a few years ago), Ray Comfort's blog, and Free Republic. It's the moment you know when the guys on the other end aren't as fooled by their own arguments as they pretend to be and are, in fact, consciously lying to their other readers by silencing you.
Perhaps my readers can name other sites that behave the same way? If you can, please leave a comment here with a link to the site. Also, if you've had posts deleted from any of the same sites I've listed, let me know that too. I'm not sure about every website that has banned me or deleted my posts, just some of them. For example, there's Tom Gilson's blog called "Thinking Christian" where I once posted and then got banned from. Jim Lippard over at "The Lippard blog" wrote about it in a post called "Thinking Christian blog blocks my comment."
As Jim Lippard notes, clicking on my link first gets you a content warning from Blogger, so one might think there is sexual material here (actually there is in one post). And what might Christians make of the title "Blog from Hell" and the atheist skull animation? That might be worse than pornography to them. But Jim's comment was purely informative and his was deleted too, so that's another example of the silencing treatment we get. However, it should be noted in Tom Gilson's defense, the deleted posts were restored. The other sites mentioned above have never done this.
If it were just me, then I wouldn't feel as sure about these websites. In the case of Ray Comfort's blog I can point to this post, "Why wouldn't Ray publish this?" over at "Reflections of the Damned." In this case the blogger calling herself "CodewordConduit" had a post directed at one of Ray's other readers deleted. Perhaps the comment was deemed too insulting? I don't know. Ray lets others insult himself, but perhaps not others?
In the case of me on Ray Comfort's blog, I don't think I can post anything there any more. Even short little compliments get deleted. But I did break one rule, my name linked to my website.
It was a few years ago, and my memory is fuzzy, but when I got booted off of Uncommon Descent it was a post about genetic algorithms being used in artificial intelligence that never showed up. I may have included too many links. They had let me say that "evolution might, in a way, represent a kind of intelligence that is similar to certain human mental capabilities." They tried to twist that into me saying something I didn't intend to say. When I tried to explain the comment my post explaining it never showed up.
In the case of Free Republic you can get banned pretty easily by making any kind of pro-liberal or pro-democratic comment. You have to go out of your way in acting like a right-wing shill just to get posted. In their case I'm not entirely sure what this "tell" is telling me. They seem to insist on maintaining a community of right-wing nut jobs where no counter arguments can ever be heard.
What does occur to me is that these "tells," these posts and comments that get deleted without a word or never show up, could tell us a lot more if we shared information about which comments never show up and which comments do. At what point do you get banned and no other comment you make ever shows up?
So, please share your story here. These websites, of course, have the right to control their own space, but we also have the right to use that control to our advantage by using their post deletions and banning to learn what they are afraid of.
33 comments:
- Emmet Caulfield said...
Interesting. I always thought that they were just feeble-minded, insecure kooks who brooked no dissent, but the idea that they're lying bastards who'll brook no dissent because they know they're lying bastards is perfectly plausible :o)
- Benjamin Franklin said...
I have had several of my posts to Ray Comfort vanish into the digital netherworld.
The one I remember best is where he posted a letter to the editor, written by his cartoonist, Richard Gunther. The letter was about Noah's ark, and in it, Gunther wrote that the Noah story is in the book of Genesis chapter 7. I wrote that the story is in chapter 6.
The post was edited to read chapter 6, and my comment never made it onto the thread.
- RBH said...
It was a few years ago, and my memory is fuzzy, but when I got booted off of Uncommon Descent it was a post about genetic algorithms being used in artificial intelligence that never showed up. I may have included too many links. They had let me say that "evolution might, in a way, represent a kind of intelligence that is similar to certain human mental capabilities." They tried to twist that into me saying something I didn't intend to say. When I tried to explain the comment my post explaining it never showed up.
Interestingly, a poster named "Febble," now an administrator at TalkRational and a (sort of) theist, got banned at UD for pointing out that natural selection precisely meets Dembski's definition of "intelligence."
- normdoering said...
Thanks for posting guys.
RBH wrote:
"a poster named 'Febble,' ..., got banned at UD for pointing out that natural selection precisely meets Dembski's definition of 'intelligence.'"
I'm pretty sure that's going to be an emerging pattern because it already was one years ago and a couple people at Panda's thumb noted how they got banned for similar comments.
Taner Edis has an old article (from 2001) on the csicop site called 'Intelligent Design' Meets Artificial Intelligence that gives more detail on the argument.
Benjamin Franklin wrote:
"The letter was about Noah's ark, and in it, Gunther wrote that the Noah story is in the book of Genesis chapter 7. I wrote that the story is in chapter 6.
The post was edited to read chapter 6, and my comment never made it onto the thread."
It looks like Ray's pattern is going to involve pettiness.
Emmet Caulfield wrot:
"I always thought that they were just feeble-minded, insecure kooks who brooked no dissent,..."
Maybe they are just feeble-minded, but if we experiment we may find other patterns emerging.
- Jim Lippard said...
Bob McCarty is another guy who refused to allow my posts through moderation, due to a strong anti-reality bias on his part--he was appealing to "in God we trust" on money and "under God" in the pledge as evidence that the Founding Fathers wanted the U.S. to be a Christian nation.
Bill Muehlenberg is another, yet he did allow through a comment making the same point I was trying to make (that Nicholas Capaldi's book _The Art of Deception_ was not a handbook for atheists, since it was authored by a Catholic) when it came from a young-earth creationist.
- normdoering said...
Jim Lippard,
I now have a comment awaiting moderation on Bill Muehlenberg's blog, in the post called "Whatever Became of Sin?"
Text of comment follows:
When is something a sin?
It seems obvious at first, but when you think about it there really isn't any clarity to the concept. For example, Vox Day has a post here:
called "sharpening knives" where he says "killing every child under two on the planet is no more inherently significant than a programmer unilaterally wiping out his AI-bots in a game universe." And if ordered by God, he would do it. Is such murder not a sin if it's is ordered by God?
Is sin just disobeying God?
If so, then which version of God's rules you buy into determines what is and isn't sin.
- normdoering said...
I've also posted a comment on Uncommon Descent. Just a mild starter to test the waters. It's posted here:
This comment is awaiting moderation:
Do Humans have criminal intent when they hunt deer, dig up ant hills, or kill the rabbits that are eating up their gardens?
- normdoering said...
Also awaiting moderation:
Are search algorithms not irreducibly complex?
I ask because Danny Hillis evolved some on his computers back in the 80s.
You can read about it here:
- Roy Latham said...
I was banned from the Liberal Politics forum at about.com for criticism of the quality of the forum. I did things like keeping statistics on how often I was told that I needed to depend on feelings rather than reason things out, and I counted how many people relied in comments on "facts" that were not actually contained in a posted news story. They were open about saying they would boot people who disagreed with them.
- William said...
"... he was appealing to 'in God we trust' on money and 'under God' in the pledge as evidence that the Founding Fathers wanted the U.S. to be a Christian nation."
I guess, if he considers Eisenhower to be among the Founding Fathers.
- normdoering said...
If anyone is still reading this, could you do me a favor?
I want someone to check and see if my comments are showing up on Uncommon Descent. I can see them, but a few years ago, on Panda's Thumb, we discovered that Uncommon Descent used a devious filtering technique where comments only showed up if you had the right cookie or ISP or something.
I could see my posts, but others who visited the same thread couldn't see them.
Simply go over to Uncommon Descent and look for the threads:
1) Information: Why the Darwinian Mechanism is Dead Except as an Explanation of the Trivial
2) Computers vs. Darwinism? A computer teacher comments
and finally...
3) Beavers Gone Bad
Do a global search for "Norman Doering."
- normdoering said...
A comment of mine awaiting moderation on the "Information: Why the Darwinian Mechanism is Dead Except as an Explanation of the Trivial" thread is:
GilDodgen wrote:
"In other words, information is something that comes from a mind."
That could be interpreted as Solipsism.
Does the information that our planet has a moon come entirely from our minds or is it some interaction of the mind with the universe it lives in?
- RBH said...
Information: No
Computers v Darwinism: Yes
Beavers: Yes
- normdoering said...
Thanks for the info.
Not too worried yet about the "Information" thread yet, it's still in moderation.
- normdoering said...
Hmmm, I may be on the edge of censorship over at Uncommon Descent. In the thread, "Information: Why the Darwinian Mechanism is Dead Except as an Explanation of the Trivial," I've got some comments that have been in moderation for a long time. One for over 24 hours. I'm beginning to suspect they're not going to get posted -- and even if they do, there are lots of comments that have come after them that bury them in the total text of the thread outside the flow of dialog.
I'm now looking for volunteers to ask similar questions to see if they get censored too.
Post your question here and then on Uncommon Descent, then we'll see exactly what kind of information they censor or don't censor in a very fine grained way.
- normdoering said...
Hmmm, not too long after I posted my comment here about how my comments on Uncommon Descent were not passing through moderation and suddenly my comments there showed up with a note to check their moderation policy.
That policy says: "Arguments we've heard many times before and don't want to hear again. If you insist on boring us with them you won't be with us for long."
It's quite a list.
But note the comment here that didn't pass their moderation:
GilDodgen wrote:
"In other words, information is something that comes from a mind."
That could be interpreted as Solipsism.
Does the information that our planet has a moon come entirely from our minds or is it some interaction of the mind with the universe it lives in?
So far I'm not seeing anything on their list that would make that simple question "boring."
- normdoering said...
Okay, I'm testing the censorship theory again by saying the same thing but worded differently.
Here is the post I'm making now:
Laminar wrote:
"Given that the definition of Information provided by Shannons Information theory doesn't require 'information' to have any meaningful content (i.e the 'information' contained in a message can be random) It would appear that Gil is not using the word in the Information Theory sense, so I think it is reasonable to ask what other definition is being used."
Good point. And I'd like some clarity on where he thinks this information comes from. In post 8, GilDodgen said "...information is something that comes from a mind." That's a bit off in my opinion -- it sounds like he is saying minds invent information with no need for input from the external environment.
Scientific information certainly isn't like that. That comes from minds interacting with the world through a methodology... almost algorithmically interacting.
Where then is the information about the world? In our heads or in the world? Answering that would define another aspect of information.
- Rev. BigDumbChimp said...
Norm my comment at Ray's blog that was left off was pretty innocuous. I merely pointed out that the growing number of typos on his blog should be a concern as he's about to publish a number of books. We know the books will be full of content mistakes why also clutter it up with spelling and grammatical ones?
- normdoering said...
Rev. BigDumbChimp,
Ray is looking more petty and inconsistent with every deleted post I hear about.
Ray's newest post is "Nothing to Sing About." It claims that there is no atheistic music. Here's a post that will never show up on his blog I bet:
Actually there really is atheistic music. Not that a lot of atheists would be proud to count death / heavy metal bands as their artistic representatives since they're more satanic than atheist sometimes. Here are a few:
Dimmu Borgir
Eternal Tragedy
Rotting Christ
Hecate Enthroned
Impaled Nazarene
Jethro Tull's Aqualung is another example. Ian Anderson wrote, in 1971, this bit for the album sleeve:
"In the beginning Man created God;
and in the image of Man
created he him.
2 And Man gave unto God a multitude of names,that he might be Lord of allthe earth when it was suited to Man
3 And on the seven millionth
day Man rested and did lean
heavily on his God and saw that
it was good.
4 And Man formed Aqualung of
the dust of the ground, and a
host of others likened unto his kind.
5 And these lesser men were cast into the void; And some were burned, and some were put apart from their kind.
6 And Man became the God that he had created and with his miracles did rule over all the earth.
7 But as all these things
came to pass, the Spirit that did
cause man to create his God
lived on within all men: even
within Aqualung.
8 And man saw it not.
9 But for Christ's sake he'd
better start looking.
And then there is Marilyn Manson whose lyrics include:
burn the witches, burn the witches, don't take time to sew your stitches
burn the witches, burn the witches
good is the thing that you favor, evil is your sour flavor
you cannot sedate all the things you hate
burn the bridges, burn the bridges, don't take time to sew your stitches
burn the bridges, burn the bridges
good is the thing that you favor, evil is your sour flavor
i don't need your hate, i decide my fate
you cannot sedate all the things you hate
And then there is Nine Inch Nails:
he sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see
he tries to tell me what i put inside of me
he's got the answers to ease my curiosity
he dreamed a god up and called it christianity
god is dead and no one cares
if there is a hell i'll see you there
he flexed his muscles to keep his flock of sheep in line
he made a virus that would kill off all the swine
his perfect kingdom of killing, suffering and pain
demands devotion atrocities done in his name
god is dead and no one cares
if there is a hell i'll see you there
your god is dead and no one cares
if there is a hell i'll see you there
god is dead and no one cares
if there is a hell i'll see you there your god is dead
god is dead and no one cares
and no one cares drowning in his own hypocrisy
and if there is a hell i will see you see you there
burning with your god in humility
will you die for this?
Want more? I've got more examples.
On a side note. Uncommon Descent published the comment about scientific information coming from minds interacting with the world through a methodology... almost algorithmically interacting.
I'll have to build on it and see how far I can go -- but later.
- normdoering said...
I have now been officially booted off of Uncommon Descent by Barry Arrington.
What he doesn't want you to know is how full of BS he is. He lays down the law before he deals out his horseshit this way:
"I see you are trying to drag us into another semantics squabble. I am gaveling it right now.
Consciousness is by definition a subject-object proposition. In other words, to accept consciousness, one must accept that there is a subject (i.e, a mind) that has a particular relation to an object (i.e., is conscious of it). Thus, consciousness is inherently dualistic, and therefore "consciousness-affirming materialist" is an oxymoron. Or maybe the people you cite (if they, in fact, say the things you say they do) are simply run of the mill morons who deny the conclusions that are inexorably compelled by their own premises. Either way, they do not interest me."
He has no idea what he's talking about. Consciousness is no more an object than the "running" or "go" of a car is an object. He will not of course argue about this. He will simply boot you for disagreeing. He can keep telling others (and perhaps himself) those lies as long as he can always gavel away the truth.
Is he a conscious liar? Yea, he has to be in part to do what he has done.
- mlp said...
Are search algorithms not irreducibly complex?
I ask because Danny Hillis evolved some on his computers back in the 80s.
"Uncompressible", in the information-theoretic sense, seems to be equivalent to "irreducibly complex" in the semantic sense -- an uncompressible string cannot be reversibly encoded into any string shorter than itself, thus "cannot be reduced".
Uncompressible strings can be enumerated algorithmically, and in fact all of the uncompressible strings up to 78 characters in length have been enumerated.
- Gareth McCaughan said...
Back in November 2005, Dembski posted something on Uncommon Descent that he called the "Vise Document", a series of questions that he supposedly wanted to see "Darwinists" asked in court to reveal our inadequacies. I went through it and wrote up my answers to the questions, along with some reflections on them, and I posted a link and some brief explanation to UD. It got deleted without comment, in the characteristic UD fashion where the censored comment is still visible to the original poster but invisible to everyone else.
So far as I can tell, the only reason why it was censored was that I said some uncomplimentary things about ID and backed them up with reasoned argument. Readers with a high boredom threshold may wish to go to http://www.mccaughan.org.uk/g/log/2005/11/10/ to see whether they agree.
I don't think I've attempted to post to UD since then, so I have no idea whether they censor *people* as well as individual comments.
I usually don't even bother trying to comment on rightwing/religious blogs since so many are moderated or are notorious for deleting comments. It just seems futile. But sometimes against my better judgment I try, so here's an annoying anecdote that matches your thesis:
Do you remember back (I think 2005) when Amnesty International called Guantanamo a "gulag" and the rightosphere suddenly decided they hates the tricksy AIses for attacking their precious? Shortly afterwards was the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. I stumbled on this rightwing blog -- I don't remember the name, but it was some ridiculously uberpatriotic nonsense with a bald eagle and American flag in the masthead -- and it had a post condemning AI for not condemning China on the anniversary. The timestamp was early in the morning on the anniversary day, so you know the guy wrote it up beforehand and was just itching at the trigger finger to post it.
Being of little faith, I decided to go to the AI site and see if I could find a note on the anniversary. I'm sure you will be shocked -- SHOCKED! -- to learn that I did find a PR issued that day condemning China. It was understated, but this was 16 or 17 (forgot which) years later, which isn't an anniversary you would expect a big to-do about.
So, I left a comment on the guy's blog with a link to the AI's PR. Hit send, and get a message saying all comments are moderated. Super! I come back a few hours later, comment not posted. So I leave another saying that if he doesn't want to post my comment, that's fine, but at least post a correction saying that AI did condemn China. Hours later, still no change. Looked again a few days later, still blissfully ignoring reality.
And that is why I don't even bother with those sorts of blogs.
- normdoering said...
Thanks jpf and Gareth McCaughan for the examples.
Your example, jpf, looks like a very clear example of censorship that could only have been done by a conscious liar. It explicitly hides a fact to promote a lie.
And Gareth, I did manage to get banned from UD recently.
- RBH said...
That wasn't at all boring, Gareth.
- Enshoku said...
Christian IRC and chat websites are notorious for having entire manuals of rules that are nonsensical. The thing is, these rules tend to be formed in such a way that anyone can be banned from the client for anything if the moderator is angry or zealous enough. I've seen the rules broken numerous times by believers, but a non-believer must maintain the most polite, non-inquisitive, non-abrasive manner possible just to avoid being banned on sight. Most blogs seem far more lenient, nut I'd shy away from Comfort food...
I once spent a couple of days trawling GodTube and posted a number of comments that merely corrected factual errors in the politest manner possible; some of those corrections included misquotes of the Bible. Perhaps 20% of my comments actually appeared. I noticed a bug in which the total number of comments to a video was listed, and compared it to the actual number appearing. I estimated about half of all postings were being deleted.
- Gareth McCaughan said...
RBH, thanks.
- Elwood Herring said...
I'd just like to say that in my opinion the music discussed in normdoering's post is not what I would consider as "atheistic" but rather "anti-religious" music. "Atheistic" music would be any music that does not refer to religion in any way at all (which would include just about every form of instrumental music for a start!)
- normdoering said...
Elwood Herring,
Did you mean to post that comment on this blog post, "My Christmas Gift - (Or, the prototype for "Marilyn Manson's War on Christmas Special")"
- Elwood Herring said...
normdoering - whatever.
I just saw a post here about atheists and music, and being both myself, I thought I'd comment.
I came here from Pharyngula initially, so I seem to be following blog post connections like a trail of breadcrumbs. . .
- Jafafa Hots said...
I find it interesting that your blog gets a "content warning" from Blogger. I've seen plenty of religious ones that insult the non-religious that don't have that.
- normdoering said...
Jafafa Hots wrote:
"I find it interesting that your blog gets a "content warning" from Blogger. I've seen plenty of religious ones that insult the non-religious that don't have that."
I'm sure there are religious types who'd like to see my blog go away, but the content warning maybe due more to a cartoonish picture of a naked woman about to be beaten by two guys with knife sticks.
The picture is here.
Some other pictures were removed.
It just happens to be a magazine that published a short story I wrote.


text:
Hamels feels fine after first bullpen session
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Cole Hamels declared Wednesday morning what every Phillies fan wants to hear:
All is well.
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Cole Hamels declared Wednesday morning what every Phillies fan wants to hear:
All is well.
Hamels threw his first bullpen session of the spring at Bright House Field, and the lefty will throw his second one on Saturday. Hamels, who is a little less than two weeks behind schedule after feeling discomfort in his left shoulder in November, could open the season on the disabled list, but everyone in camp seems to believe that if he misses any time, it will be only a start or two.
"It was good," Hamels said. "Better than expected, which is huge. It didn't feel as foreign, getting off the mound after such a long time. But everything felt good.
"Physically, I've been feeling great. It just carried over. Now it's just getting the reps in, working on location, working on pitches. But I still have a really good feel for what I'm doing out there. Ultimately, I feel like my strength has really picked up. It's just a matter of time of getting through the throwing program, the bullpens, the live [batting practice] and into the games. I'm really looking forward to it."
Hamels said earlier this month he typically is ready to pitch after just four Spring Training starts. He made five last year.
Does Hamels have enough time to make four before the end of Spring Training?
"Ultimately, I hope so," Hamels said. "I don't think I'm going to have any setbacks. I feel really good where I am physically. I feel like they're going to slot me in there and I'll be able to get that in. I feel like I'll recover like I normally do. I'm not worried at all about being ready for the season.
"I know when I first talked to you guys, an injury is always the biggest concern, and I think the biggest worry. I didn't have an injury. It was just a matter of building up. There's nothing to really worry about in any sort of injury-related throwing. I've been there. I've done it before. I feel really confident that I can get everything done and I can be in the best shape I can for the season."
Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said he is encouraged by Hamels' progress. Pitching coach Bob McClure said, "He is behind, but if I saw him off the street and I saw him today for his first time, he would look perfectly normal. It's just that he's started later, so he's behind."
Hamels could see his first Grapefruit League start in two weeks.
Todd Zolecki is a reporter for MLB.com.


text:
Investors may be interested in following the opinion signal on shares of Franklin Electric Co (FELE). For the current trading period, we can see that the opinion signal on the stock is 16% Sell. Heading back for the previous month, the opinion signal reads 88% Sell. This is the combined signal for the previous month when applying a wide array of studies based on price movement. Using these same guidelines, the signal for last week stands at 16% Sell. Investors may also be interested in the strength and direction of the opinion signals. The opinion direction is currently Average. This is a measurement over the past three trading sessions that provides an indication of whether the latest recent price movement is following the signal. A Buy or Sell signal with a "Strongest" direction indicates that the signal is gaining strength. The opinion strength signal is presently reading Minimum. This is a longer-term gauge verse the historical strength.
Although the investing process is fairly straightforward, securing consistent returns in the stock market is not easy. Throwing hard earned money at un-researched investments can eventually lead the investor down the road to ruin. Every individual investor may have different goals when starting out. Aligning these goals with a specific plan can create a solid foundation for the future. Nobody can predict what the future will hold, but being aware of market conditions can be a great asset when attempting to navigate the terrain while mitigating risk. Once the vision of the individual investor is clear, the road to sustaining profits may be much easier to travel.
Following recent activity on shares of Franklin Electric Co (FELE), we can see that the stock price recently hit 45.43. At the open, shares were trading at 45.59. Since the start of the session, the stock has topped out with a high of 45.6 and bottomed with a low of 44.78. After noting current price levels, we can see that the change from the open is presently -0.36.
Shifting the focus to some medium-term indicators on company shares, we note that the reading from the 40-day commodity channel index is currently Hold. The CCI indicator is mainly used to identify oversold and overbought levels. Switching to the 50-day moving average vs price signal, the reading is measured at Sell. This indicator is used to watch price changes.
Traders and investors are constantly looking to develop a winning strategy when it comes to the equity markets. Some strategies may be simple, and others may be complex. Keeping emotions in check may not always be the easiest task when studying a particular stock. Figuring out what works and what doesn't may take investors a lot of time including some trial and error. When a specific strategy doesn't pan out, it may be necessary to reassess the position and find a new angle. Many investors opt to keep a close watch on the views of sell-side analysts that cover the stock. The current analyst rating on Franklin Electric Co (FELE) is 3.5. This is based on a scale where a 5 would indicate a Strong Buy, a 4 would equal a Moderate Buy, 3 a hold, 2 a moderate sell, and a rating of 1 would indicate a Strong Sell.
As company earnings reports continue to roll in, investors will be watching to see which companies hit their numbers for the last reporting period. Investors will also be watching which sectors are reporting the best earnings numbers. A positive overall earnings season could mean that the stock market could keep climbing. Many investors may be cautious with the market trading at current levels. Even though the gloom and doom prognosticators are out in full force, investors have to do the research and decide for themselves which way they believe the market will move in the next couple of months.


text:
When you repeatedly put your hands on and off your penis in a circular motion during intercourse. Before you ejaculate hold both hands on the penis and force the last bit of seamen out in a pounding motion. The motion of you hands is similar to the way that naruto churns chakra in the anime naruto. After you cum on said "hoe" it is normal to shout out I rasengan dat hoe after ejaculating and then yelling believe it
I was with this fine ass kinoichi last night but I could not keep my penis in. so I had to put my hands on the 3 inch but the bitch kept moving. I ended up having to keep inside her by moving my hands around my dick allot. In the end though I rasengan dat hoe. Believe it
by raintwililight March 22, 2008


text:
Pure fragrance to scent your home and personal space
Stop and smell the roses! Experience the intoxicating magic of the first rush of sweetness from a fresh bouquet. This fragrance captures the splendor of a newly blossomed rose.
Using Scented Oils
Use in a diffuser for room fragrancing, on a cotton ball for personal space fragrance, or in a potpourri arrangement.
Extend your favorite fragrance into the rooms of your home or office. Use these oils to refresh your enjoyment of the scent you love in the bath. Fragrance is a powerful memory trigger, and reinforcing the scent that was present at the start of the new day is an emotional recharge for our mind and attitude.
Add a few drops to your favorite diffuser, light bulb ring, or potpourri ingredients to scent an entire room. Dab a few drops on a cotton ball in the morning to include in a small baggie in your purse to scent it all day. Use the cotton ball at work to keep your personal environment uniquely scented. FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY
About the Ingredients
Each vial contains the undiluted fragrances that are used in our bath and body products.


text:
André Leon Talley Plans to Save Late Night TV From Dreckitude
Raise your hand if you would watch the hell out of a late-night talk show hosted by André Leon Talley. All of your hands had better be up! The man who coined the term drekitude has inked a deal with production company to develop such a show:


text:
Avant popularity in the U.S. just doesn't justify high powered wagons for the number of cars Audi sells. Remember, in terms of sales volume, BMW and Merc still outsell Audi in the U.S. by a good amount. That said, there should definitely be more of an RS presence overall. There should be some degree of competition for AMG and BMW M, which have models in virtually every class of car and SUVs.
I would like to see:
RS3 sedan
RS4 sedan
RS5 coupe and Sportback
RS6 sedan
RS7 sportback
RSQ5 SUV (with the RS5 motor)
This I think would be a good overall position for RS cars. And they should become available at the start of a model line production or no more than one year later, like AMG and M cars.


text:
Battleship Ramillies: A Last Salvo
HMS Ramillies was the last battleship to join the Grand Fleet in 1917 and survived to fight in the Second World War. Although the ship did not make headlines, she was actively employed from start to finish, and even survived being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. In this respect she was typical rather than extraordinary but, like any large ship, to her crew she was unique - she was certainly the only ship in British naval history whose captain wore a grass skirt into battle (honoring a Maori belief that the ship would come to no harm while he did so; Ramillies survived the war).
This book, produced with the full cooperation of the HMS Ramillies Association, is a tribute to the ship in words and photographs, deftly assembled from a combination of interviews with surviving crew members, and carefully researched diaries and written accounts by those connected with the ship, including HRH the Duke of Edinburgh for whom Ramillies was his first ship. Many personal photo albums were unearthed to provide previously unpublished illustrations, which add a further dimension to a vivid picture of naval life in an almost-forgotten era.
Product Details
|Naval Institute Press
|Publication date:
|Product dimensions:
|6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)
About the Author
Ian Johnston is the author of many well-regarded naval books, the most recently published being Clydebank Battlecruisers and The Battleship Builders (with Ian Buxton). For this project he worked with Mick French, a leading light in the HMS Ramillies Association, selecting and editing the material.
Customer Reviews
Average Review


text:
Facebook Badge
City of Hope: A Children's Story documents the stark life of Brazil's favela (slums) children, and is a feature-length documentary capturing the lives of displaced children caught in a seemingly unending web of drugs, violence, prostitution, sexual slavery and deliberate acts to exterminate these unwanted children. In a country with an enlightened government, it is also a film of hope and salvation as both government and Brazil's affluent private sector work to save these children.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Walmart East Windsor, NJ
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Facebook Badge
Blog Archive
City of Hope: A Children's Story
- Kimberly Switzgable
- Princeton, New Jersey, United States
- I grew up in Princeton, NJ. Spent my summers on Fire Island and Deer Isle Maine, riding my horse , traveling and exploring Princeton University. I fell in love with film at any early age and decided to go to film school. I've been able to combine my love of horses with the love of filmmaking. I also love to read what ever I can get my hands on. I found that I've excelled at still photography and love to watch people.