text:
Women and the Opioids Epidemic: The Need for a Woman-Centered Response
Women and the Opioids Epidemic: The Need for a Woman-Centered Response
America is in the midst of an epidemic of opioid use disorder and addiction — in 2017, there were 70,237 drug overdose deaths, two-thirds of which involved opioids. Overdose deaths have increased almost 6 times since 1999, and accidental drug overdose is now the leading cause of death in the U.S. among those under age 50 (the highest overdose rates are among those aged 25-44). An estimated 130 Americans die from overdose every day. For more information about the history and health implications of the opioid epidemic, see the NWHN's Consumer Health Info on this topic.
Factors that contribute to women being more likely to develop opioid dependency in a shorter time than men:
- Women's smaller bodies, which means that opioids have a bigger biological impact on women compared to men
- The link between hormones (particularly estrogen) and increased sensitivity to pain, as well as women's higher likelihood of experiencing chronic pain, which may drive the use of opioids for pain management
- Personal experiences of trauma and psychological and emotional distress (i.e. domestic violence, sexual assault, etc.) which have been found to be a risk factor for prescription opioid use in women but not men
Women may also be more vulnerable to cravings and relapses that are indicative of addiction. For example, while men and women are prescribed similar amounts of opioids for pain after common procedures such as colectomy, rotator cuff surgery, and knee replacement surgery, 40% more women were still taking opioids 90 or more days post-surgery, an indication of possible opioid addiction or dependence.
This problem is exacerbated by the fact that women receive two-thirds (65%) of all U.S. opioid prescriptions. Moreover, prescriptions given to women are often for higher doses, and for a longer period of time, compared to prescriptions provided to men. The results are devastating: women's mortality rates from opioid overdose increased 507% between 1999 and 2016, compared to an increase of 321% for men.
Tragically, the nation has been largely unresponsive to women's distinct risks and needs when it comes to opioid use disorder. According to a 2015 national survey, less than half (44%) of treatment programs provided special programs and/or groups tailored to women's needs, and only 21% offered programs or groups for pregnant or postpartum women.
Women's risk of opioid dependency and opioid use disorder demand a variety of interventions. Here's what the NWHN recommends in order to continue making progress to advance women's health.
Legislative Action to Expand Medicaid Coverage
Expanding Medicaid to cover more low- and moderate-income people is essential to protecting women's health. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) authorized states to expand their Medicaid eligibility levels and cover significantly more uninsured Americans. Assessments of Medicaid expansion's impact are showing that people are more likely to access care earlier, less likely to have catastrophic medical expenses, and more likely to self-report being in "excellent" health.
With respect to the opioid epidemic, Medicaid expansion is associated with increased use of effective treatments of opioid use disorder as well as better coverage of treatment for pregnant women seeking treatment for addiction. For women who can't get Medicaid because they live in non-expansion states, or who fall into the coverage gap, screening and treatment for opioid use disorder is frequently inaccessible.
Women—particularly single mothers and women of color—are more likely to be poor compared to men, they are also more likely to lack health insurance, and suffer poor health as a result. For this reason, the NWHN has long supported Medicaid expansion as a critical factor in promoting women's health. Yet, despite the clear public health benefits, 14 states have chosen not to expand their Medicaid programs to date.
Unfortunately, even in expansion states, access to opioid treatment may be challenging. Nine state Medicaid programs do not cover methadone; 14 states do not cover the buprenorphine implant; and 18 states do not cover extended-release buprenorphine—all of which are effective Medication-Assisted Treatments (MAT) for opioid addiction. And, although MAT programs help people cope with cravings and withdrawal symptoms, some states specifically do not reimburse providers for MAT's use to treat addiction, limiting access to life-saving care.
Having coverage and access to effective treatment interventions are essential to combating the opioid epidemic. For this reason, the NWHN advocates for Medicaid expansion in all states, and reimbursement for all forms of effective interventions for opioid addiction and dependency.
Regulatory Action by the Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn't have the best track record when it comes to opioid oversight. In 2001, the FDA expanded the approved use of Oxycontin from short-term use to "daily, around-the-clock, long-term… treatment." Later, in 2016, the FDA could have intervened or spoken out against doctors who were incorrectly prescribing overly powerful opioids to patients with low tolerances—but the agency did nothing. Since then, the FDA has tried to take a more active role in addressing the opioid crisis, within the limits of its jurisdiction. The NWHN applauds the FDA's explicit support of new effectiveness measures for MAT clinical trials that involve assessing products against "patient-reported experiences" rather than just clinical outcomes. The development of new treatment options in this realm has the potential to make meaningful differences for women who struggle with addiction.
The NWHN supports these efforts—but thinks the agency can go further.
First, the FDA has sent warning letters to companies that sell opioids illegally online. Yet, the FDA has stopped short of imposing criminal penalties for most groups through its Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI). It may be time for higher criminal and/or financial penalties to further discourage these activities.
Second, the FDA is showing that it learned from a prior mistake with respect to "abuse-deterrent" (AD) opioid formulations. AD formulations are used to make opioids less effective when they are crushed (so they can be snorted) or dissolved (so they can be injected). Oxycodone is one of many opioid drugs with new, abuse-deterrent technology designed to limit its misuse. As a result of this technology, oxycodone's abuse by these methods decreased 48% in the 3 years after the introduction of the AD formulation— but oral misuse increased by 49%. Additionally, studies have found an increase in the abuse of either other prescription opioids (like morphine) or heroin, suggesting that people simply switch to abusing a different drug. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), oxycodone remains among the top three drugs involved in prescription opioid overdose deaths, despite these AD reformulations.
After approving a supposedly AD reformulation of a different opioid, oxymorphone hydrochloride, in 2011, nasal abuse rates of the drug dropped, but rates of intravenous abuse increased. The drug was ultimately pulled from the market in 2017. In 2018, a different company sought approval of a somewhat similar reformulated version of oxycodone hydrochloride but—in a rare move—the FDA did not approve the drug.
The NWHN applauds the FDA for not making the same mistake twice, but we believe the agency should be more vocal about the limitations of AD formulations in general. "Abuse-deterrent" is not the same thing as "less addictive." While the FDA's promotion on these new formulations may lead to fewer new opioid addictions, they don't necessarily help people who are currently struggling with addiction—as noted, people may simply switch to more accessible illicit drugs in response to the AD reformulation measures.
Third, the NWHN wants to see the FDA do a better job around the new opioid use disorder products on the market. The agency has incentivized manufacturers to create diagnostic or therapeutic products to address addiction and opioid abuse, or to offer pain mitigation—as a result, several new products have been rushed to market through the FDA's Innovation Challenge (IC). While the epidemic calls for a rapid response, we believe this must include effective measures to protect consumer safety. We call on the FDA to create discrete and enforceable timelines for IC products' post-market studies and formal applications so they can conduct normal reviews. This is essential for both providers and patients to receive real-world safety and efficacy information for informed decision-making. Such studies should include patient-reported endpoints about a drug's effectiveness in addressing the cravings and impulses that characterize addiction.
Decriminalization of Drug Use by Pregnant People & Mothers
Substance use during pregnancy has been linked to serious, negative health outcomes during pregnancy, childbirth, and the post-partum period. Starting in January 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will fund a new program, the Maternal Opioid Misuse (MOM) model, to improve care coordination for pregnant and postpartum Medicaid beneficiaries experiencing opioid use disorder. The program, which will operate in up to 12 states, will provide access to critical essential physical and behavioral health services (including MAT), as well as "maternity care, relevant primary care services, and other mental and behavioral health services beyond MAT." The NWHN applauds this response to the opioid epidemic, which is far more likely to be effective than the punitive approaches adopted by too many states.
Addiction and substance use has led to the arrests and incarceration of pregnant women across the country on charges of abuse, neglect, and reckless endangerment of the fetus. In 23 states and the District of Columbia, substance use during pregnancy is considered to be child abuse in civil child-welfare statutes; in 3 states it is grounds for detaining a woman in an institution. These laws are disproportionately enforced against women of color and low-income women. For example, Amnesty International reports that in Tennessee, one-quarter of the state's arrests for prenatal substance use occurred in Shelby County—a majority Black county—even though Shelby has one of the state's lowest rates of babies exposed to opioid drugs prenatally. In states like these, pregnant people who are struggling with opioid use disorder avoid seeking addiction treatment and other forms of medical care—including prenatal and postnatal care—due to reasonable fears that they may be arrested, incarcerated, and/or lose custody of their children.
Women need clear, accessible information about their medical options and freedom from police involvement in their medical decisions. State lawmakers should modernize their laws so that pregnant people do not risk arrest or prosecution when they are struggling with addiction. States should promote access to maternal health care, evidence-based treatment services, and the full range of sexual and reproductive health care services. States should also explicitly guarantee that pregnant people will not be tested for drugs without their knowledge and explicit consent.
Equal Coverage for Non-Opioid Pain Management
One important step in addressing the opioid epidemic is to encourage the use of non-opioid pain treatments. As the NWHN has written, except for end-of-life care, opioids should not generally be used for chronic pain. Not only are they dangerous and addictive, but opioids also actually increase pain over time—by increasing sensitivity to pain, they worsen the problem they are supposed to solve. Yet, 9 out of every 10 patients who have surgery are prescribed opioids for pain management and receive too many pills—an average of 85 pills each. It's estimated that this practice results in 3.3 billion unused prescription opioids becoming available for non-intended use.
Our view aligns with evidence-based guidelines from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, including the CDC, which prioritize non-opioid pain management techniques as first-line pain treatments. A recent study indicates that reducing the number of opioid prescriptions for acute pain, partnered with reformulation and proper disposal, can help reduce the number of opioid-related deaths over a 10-year span.
Advancing this goal will take the engagement of third-party insurance insurers to incentivize health providers actions by broadening and standardizing reimbursement policies for pain management. A recent study found that insurers might cover a 30-day opioid prescription for pain management and, simultaneously, restrict the number of physical therapy visits for the same purpose. Health care insurers should offer more comparable coverage for non-drug and non-opioid therapies so both patients and providers can consider them realistic and affordable options for pain management, and exhaust those options before an opioid prescription is given to a patient. These alternative therapies may include physical therapy, acupuncture, counseling, and/or over-the-counter (OTC) medications. Insurers can also take steps to reduce the risk of long-term addiction and dependence by limiting the number of days an opioid prescription is covered for new patients.
Together these policy changes have the potential to increase women's access to non-addictive, non-pharmaceutical pain relief treatments and reduce the risk of new opioid addictions.
Equal Access to Naloxone for Women
Naloxone is a drug that can help reverse an overdose by enabling unconscious overdose victims to breathe again. It has no potential for abuse and has been safely used for decades. Between 1996 and 2014, the administration of naloxone helped rescue almost 27,000 individuals from overdose deaths. Yet, not everyone gets equal access to this life-saving drug. One study found that first responders were three times more likely to administer naloxone to men than to women when responding to a patient who had overdosed. The NWHN believes that all first-responders should be required to administer naloxone on an equal basis to anyone experiencing an overdose.
Many communities have created programs and policies to ensure that naloxone is widely available for use in the community—not just by first responders. Nationwide, state regulators can do more, however, to ensure that the product is readily available when needed. by allowing and/or promoting community-level prescriptions, co-prescriptions, third-party prescriptions, and prescribing power for pharmacists. Other ideas include making naloxone OTC and placing naloxone kits in the AED cabinets that are found in many in public spaces, like airports.
Access to Prevention & Treatment Programs for All Women, Including Mothers
The U.S. does not have enough substance abuse prevention and treatment programs to meet the needs of those struggling with addiction and opioid use disorder. Exacerbating this challenge is the fact that MAT drugs and programs are not made available to all women equally—which particularly impacts low-income women and women of color.
Recent research indicates that White substance abusers are disproportionately benefiting from prescriptions for buprenorphine, a MAT drug that reduces cravings for opioids and helps prevent overdoses. A recent assessment of two national surveys of physician-reported prescriptions, containing information on 13.4 million medical encounters, found that the number of buprenorphine prescriptions rose dramatically from 2012 to 2015. There was, however, no corresponding increase in the number of prescriptions written for African Americans or other people of color. The research suggests that White substance abusers are the ones primarily getting these prescriptions.
Additionally, because only about 5% of physicians have the special training required to prescribe buprenorphine, providers can effectively set their own price for these prescriptions. Three-quarters of patients either paid cash (40%) or used private insurance (35%) for their buprenorphine prescription. Poverty and lack of private insurance make buprenorphine inaccessible to many low-income individuals and people of color. The result is that White Americans "are almost 35 times as likely to have a buprenorphine-related visit than Black Americans."
To address these problems, regulators can eliminate requirements for special training in order to prescribe buprenorphine, set caps on the number of substance-abusing patients a provider can manage on the drug, and expand access to MAT throughout a broad array of primary care settings.
Even when treatment options appear to be accessible, there may be structural barriers that prevent women from being able to use them. A critical barrier is the lack of child care in substance use treatment centers, since approximately 70% of women entering these centers have children. Yet in 2017, only 6.4% of outpatient substance use treatment centers that serve women provided child care for their patients. Women getting treated at the other 93.6% of facilities face an added obstacle in finding and paying for child care, an impossible hurdle for many.
Providing free or low-cost child care for mothers in treatment would greatly reduce barriers to needed care. Family-centered treatment is designed to address this problem by providing services for both parents and children. With family-centered treatment, women can meet their parenting responsibilities, bond with their children, and access child care while fully participating in treatment. In addition, states and communities can support programs that focus on keeping mothers and children together. For example, the Family Group Decision Making programs seek to avoid the instability and trauma of separation by creating a concrete plan of action for the mother that includes interviews, a family assessment, and clear consequences in the case of relapse.
Going Forward
The NWHN has always advocated for women's voices to be included in health programs, policymaking, and research design to ensure they collectively address our needs. The opioid epidemic is no different. Legislators, regulators, providers, insurers, and advocates must support evidence-based, multi-pronged approaches that recognize and address women's unique experiences with opioid use disorder and opioid dependency.
We are starting to recognize what prevents and treats substance use and addiction: prioritizing women's wellness over drugmakers' profits; increasing access to the full range of health services; and incorporating evidence-based and thoughtful interventions over punitive ones. We need more research on women's specific experiences with respect to addiction, however. We need stronger political, financial, and regulatory will to support programs and policies that actually work. Together, we must address the racism and systemic inequalities that disproportionately burden the marginalized and disenfranchised in our communities. Only when all these elements are in place will we turn the tide of this epidemic and be able to effectively address its devastating impact on women and their families.
- NWHN Consumer Health Info on Women and the Opioid Epidemic
- NWHN article Opioids and Women: From Prescription to Addiction
- Raising Women's Voices for the Health Care We Need
- National Institute of Drug Abuse: What to Do If You Have a Problem with Drugs: For Adults
- Office on Women's Health final report on opioid use, misuse, and overdose in women (PDF)


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When projections showed Hurricane Harvey could bring a record setting amount of rain to Houston, the graphics desk at the New York Times started exploring ways of showing the rainfall. After a couple of days of scrambling, we managed to make a map showing both the accumulation and rate of rainfall:
Getting this done on deadline required mashing together a couple of different web technologies, like SVG and canvas, with a grab bag of open source libraries. This post describes some of the tricks and techniques we used to bring everything together.
First we needed a data source. Preferably a frequently updating one, with gridded values so we could make a map with more detailed information than just overlayed numbers with the total rainfall at few locations.
The Global Precipitation Measurement Constellation initially seemed like a good candidate—it promised a grid of rainfall rates around the world in 30 minute slices. But after spending most of the day wrangling netCDF files and R, I had only managed to make a map showing the path GPM satellites had traced over the earth during one of the 30 minute update windows:
Interesting, but nowhere near to anything publishable. This was particularly frustrating because the previous afternoon I had watched Josh Katz put together a historical rainfall map using similar data and tools, but I wasn't familiar enough with the domain to duplicate his efforts quickly. I started to worry that I had wasted time that would have been better spent making a map with a couple of numbers overlaid.
Thankfully two of my other collagues, Jugal Patel and Anjali Singhvi, found a National Weather Service FTP and showed me how to convert the files to simple CSVs. Opening them in QGIS showed they had exactly the data we wanted—a grid of hourly rainfall values (Update: NOAA has replaced the shapefiles with netCDFs :/).
A bit of bash downloaded files from the FTP, extracted them and converted them to a CSV with the day and hour in the file name (the 26th of August and 7 AM here).
curl -s $URL | tar xz --strip=3
ogr2ogr -f CSV 2607.csv nws_precip_2017082607.shp
Each row of the CSV has the observed rainfall in inches (
Globvalue) at each point in the grid (
Hrapy are the
x and
y grid indices)
The next step was to see how much rain was falling where. This could have been done in QGIS, but since the end result was going on the web, I started up a webpage with d3 and d3-jetpack.
First, I loaded the data and set up the canvas preliminaries. Using SVG to draw the data wouldn't be a good idea with 20,000 points—it's too slow.
var width = 700
var height = width/2
d3.loadData('2607.csv', (err, [data]) => {
var ctx = d3.select('#graphic')
.at({width, height})
Next, loop over grid points and draw a 1px rectangle over each, scaling the opacity based on the rainfall:
var color = d3.scaleLinear()
.range(['rgba(255,0,255,0)', 'rgba(255,0,255,1)'])
data.forEach(d =>{
ctx.fillStyle = color(d.Globvalue)
ctx.rect(d.Hrapx, d.Hrapy, 1, 1)
It looks like something!
But where is it? And why is the upper left corner cut off?
While plotting with the grid indices is quick, it's not totally clear what we're looking at. Because we wanted to overlay the coast and city labels, we had to position the rainfall values based on their lat/lon instead.
Sarah Almukhtar made me a detailed shapefile of Texas and Louisiana, running it through mapshaper to shrink the file. I loaded it and set up a Texas South State Plane projection zoomed in on the gulf.
d3.loadData('2607.csv', 'states.json', (err, [data, states]) => {
var projection = d3.geoConicConformal()
.parallels([26 + 10 / 60, 27 + 50 / 60])
.rotate([98 + 30 / 60, -25 - 40 / 60])
.fitSize([width, height], {
"type": "LineString", "coordinates": [[-99.2, 27.5], [-91.1, 30.5]]
fitSize makes adjusting projection crops way simpler than fiddling with translate and scale values.
Since text and detailed features can be blurry on canvas if they aren't rendered at double resolution, I decided to make the map overlay with SVG. topojson merges the loaded state shapes into one shape which gets drawn to the screen as a path.
var svg = d3.select('#graphic')
.at({width, height})
var path = d3.geoPath().projection(projection)
var pathStr = path(topojson.mesh(states, states.objects.states))
.at({d: pathStr, fill: 'none', stroke: '#000', strokeWidth: .5})
A bit of css positions the svg directly over the canvas.
position: relative;
#graphic canvas, #graphic svg{
position: absolute;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
Finally, the observed rainfall values are drawn at their projected lat/lon. Since the map is zoomed in, I've bumped the sides of the rectangles from 1px to 3px.
data.forEach(d =>{
// ctx.rect(d.Hrapx, d.Hrapy, 1, 1)
var [x, y] = projection([d.Lon, d.Lat])
ctx.rect(x, y, 3, 3)
Now it's clear why the corner was cut off previously—there's only data for locations within a few miles of land. This misleadingly makes it look like it isn't raining over most of the ocean. To fix this, we decided to only show rainfall over land.
There are a couple of ways this could have been done. Only drawing the observations on land would work, but the coastline would be blocky because the grid is zoomed in. Instead I decided to cover up the values in the ocean by drawing a white ocean and overlaying it.
Drawing the ocean with only a shapefile of the land is a little tricky. I ended up drawing the land to a mask element and used that to clip a white rectangle covering up the whole graphic.
var pathStr = path(topojson.feature(states, states.objects.states))
var mask = svg.append('mask#ocean')
mask.append('rect').at({width, height, fill: '#fff'})
mask.append('path').at({d: pathStr, fill: '#000'})
svg.append('rect').at({width, height, fill: '#fff', mask: 'url(#ocean)'})
Masks make lots of things possible. I suspect that there's a more efficient solution here, but it works!
The city labels are group elements translated to each city's location with a circle and text inside.
var cities = [
{name: 'Houston', cord: [-95.369, 29.760]},
{name: 'Austin', cord: [-97.743, 30.267]},
{name: 'San Antonio', cord: [-98.493, 29.424]}
var citySel = svg.appendMany(cities, 'g')
.translate(d => projection(d.cord))
citySel.append('circle').at({r: 1})
citySel.append('text').text(d => d.name).at({textAnchor: 'middle', dy: -5})
Showing the progression of the storm required getting more hours of data into the browser.
Making a separate network request for each hour of data wouldn't be very efficient, so I wrote a script to load all the CSVs, added a column with the observation time and then merged them into one big array.
var {_, d3, jp, glob, io} = require('scrape-stl')
var data = []
glob.sync(__dirname + '/csv/*.csv').forEach(path => {
var time = _.last(path.split('/')).split('.csv')[0]
io.readDataSync(path).forEach(d => {
d.time = time
Combining two days of rainfall data made a 30 MB CSV—too big. Each observation from the same location repeated the station
Hrapx and
Hrapy properties. To remove that redundancy, I grouped all the observations from one station into a single object.
var points = jp.nestBy(data, d => d.Id).map(point => {
var vals = {}
point.forEach(d => vals['t' + d.time] = +d.Globvalue)
return {vals, lat: +point[0].Lat, +lon: point[0].Lon}
io.writeDataSync(__dirname + '/points.json', times)
This creates an array of stations, each with a
lon and
vals hash. The
vals hash lists the inches of rainfall that occurred during each hour (the t is preprended to avoid a nasty safari bug).
"lat": 26.6631,
"lon": -97.4435,
"vals": {
"t2600": 0.02
"t2601": 0.01
"lat": 27.6294,
"lon": -98.2536,
"vals": {
"t2601": 0.04,
"t2602": 0.01,
"t2607": 0.03,
"t2608": 0.11,
"t2618": 0.05,
"t2619": 0.12,
"t2620": 0.09,
"t2621": 0.01
Canvas is a lower level abstraction than SVG: it can easily draw 20,000 shapes, but there's no general purpose
.transition function. To animate the rainfall on the 26th of August, I made an array of the hourly timestamps on that day and and looped over it at 5 frames per second.
var times = d3.range(24).map(d => 't26' + d3.format('02')(d))
var curTimeIndex = 0
d3.interval(() => {
drawTime(times[curTimeIndex++ % times.length])
}, 200)
At the start of each frame, everything on the canvas is removed with
clearRect. Only points with rainfall at the current time are drawn. Since the data structure has changed
d.vals[time] replaces
function drawTime(time){
ctx.clearRect(0, 0, width, height)
points.filter(d => d.vals[time]).forEach(d =>{
var [x, y] = projection([d.lon, d.lat])
ctx.rect(x, y, 3, 3)
ctx.fillStyle = color(d.vals[time])
Tom MacWright has good tutorial on canvas animation with more techniques;
d3.interval and
clearRect are sufficient here:
Since the total rainfall was an important part of the story, I stared playing with different ways showing the accumulation of water. First, I needed to calculate how much water had fallen since the start of the storm.
var total = 0
d.totals = {}
for (hour in d.vals) {
total += d.vals[hour]
d.totals[hour] = total
d.pos = projection([d.lon, d.lat])
The hours have been added chronologically so the running
total at each hour is equal to the cumulative rainfall at that hour. To keep things simple, the structure of the
totals hash matches the
vals hash. The point's position on the screen is also stored so
projection doesn't have to be called on each point in each frame.
Next, I added a new canvas element below everything else and made a new color scale for showing accumulation.
var ctx2 = d3.select('#graphic')
.at({width, height})
var totalColor = d => d3.interpolateYlGnBu(d / 12)
Finally, I updated
drawTime to use the
totals hash and the
totalColor scale to draw the accumulated rainfall on the second canvas. I don't want to remove accumulated rainfall values on points that weren't rained on in a given hour, so
ctx2.clearRect only gets called on the first hour.
function drawTime(time){
ctx.clearRect(0, 0, width, height)
if (time == times[0]) ctx2.clearRect(0, 0, width, height)
points.filter(d => d.vals[time]).forEach(d =>{
ctx2.rect(d.pos[0], d.pos[1], 3, 3)
ctx2.fillStyle = totalColor(d.totals[time])
Rendering to different layers lets you break problems down into smaller pieces—it's much easier to tinker and fix bugs when you can hide everything (both visually and conceptually) but the part that you're working on.
Starting to look like something publishable! There were two remaining obstacles. As the hours passed and the storm progressed, the data file kept growing and was close to being too large to publish. And the bivariate color scale for showing rate and accumulation simultaneously was pretty but required too much explanation.
A little tired from rushing to finish this, I sat down with Jeremy Ashkenas to figure out how to reduce the file size. There were some potential optimizations in how the data was represented, but it wasn't clear how much of an improvement they'd offer after gzipping. Instead we shrunk the data by removing off screen points and only including every fourth point on the grid.
points = points.filter(d =>{
var validLat = 25.7 <= d.lat && d.lat <= 31.2
var validLon = -99.2 <= d.lon && d.lon <= -89.1
var validIndex = d.Hrapx % 2 && d.Hrapy % 2
return validLat && validLon && validIndex
io.writeDataSync(__dirname + '/points.json', points)
This got the data down to a manageable size. With only a quarter as many points, the sides of the rectangles needed to be doubled to continue covering the map. Half the side length is subtracted from the
x and
y positions of the rectangle to center it over its actual position.
points.filter(d => d.vals[time]).forEach(d =>{
ctx2.rect(d.pos[0] - 3, d.pos[1] - 3, 6, 6)
ctx2.fillStyle = totalColor(d.totals[time])
The blockier grid gave us enough space to explore alternative representations for the rate of rainfall. We replaced the solid purple squares of color with the outline of a circle representing hourly rainfall.
var r = Math.sqrt(d.vals[time])
ctx.moveTo(d.pos[0] + r, d.pos[1])
ctx.arc(d.pos[0], d.pos[1], r, 0, 2 * Math.PI)
This still left enough detail to see the eye as the hurricane made landfall and the current location of the storm, but didn't require a complicated legend with two color scales.
The published version has additional features like a legend, a replay button, the tooltip that I snuck in after publishing and responsiveness. The code for all that is 4× longer than what's included here and isn't nearly as polished:
if (hour < 5) day = +day - 1
hour = hour - 5
hour = hour % 24
hour = (hour + 24) % 24
var ampm = hour >= 12 ? 'p.m.' : 'a.m.';
hour = hour % 12;
hour = hour ? hour : 12;
You do what you have to do to finish fast!
With additional time, I would have liked to figure out how to not reduce the spatial resolution of the data. A particle system in WebGL to show the rate (canvas can draw 10,000+ things at 5 FPS but not 60) and a more compact representation of that data (something like NetCDF perhaps) could have worked. If I had been more familiar with those tools, I might have given it a shot.
Getting to make things at different tempos is one of my favorite parts of working on a graphics desk. Tight time constraints force you to find creative solutions, while slack between projects gives you space to explore techniques and tools you hadn't realized you wanted to learn.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Additional features
WHAT'S INCLUDED Your Daikin Ductless Mini-Split Inverter Air Conditioner Heat Pump System Comes With:


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Last night I was talking to a guy who is in my social circle, but who I don't really know. He knows a lot more about me than I know about him. He reads my blog.
It's funny, the in-between people. Like, my closest friends, they know all the things I write about. I know they love me, and even if they question some of my decisions, they fundamentally like who I am as a person and support me. And they know me well enough to tell me when they think something is a very bad idea.
And complete strangers, well, they're safe. I don't know them and they don't actually know me, even if they read some very, very personal things about me.
But the in-between people, the ones who are in my social world but not emotionally close, they're the dangerous ones. They're the ones whose opinions are scary. I didn't realize that till last night.
Last night this guy made a reference to something that made me realize he'd read a recent post. He said he checks in regularly. And he said he'd never make public some of the things that I do. I asked if he thinks less of me for the things he's read, and he said no. But what else could he say?
He said, "There are some, 'oh, wow!' things that surprise me. Which makes sense. You're not going to write about shopping at Whole Foods and what you put in your basket. You're going to choose the 'oh, wow!' things to write about. But they're things that I would want control over sharing. I wouldn't want to just have them out there."
I can understand this. I don't think he's trying to denigrate my actions, but of course I feel judged. Does he think this is tantamount to emotionally flashing my girl bits? Perhaps. I didn't ask.
He also noted that there are some things I write about that are universal, and part of the "oh, wow!" is that when you read a description of something that is exactly how you feel, there's a thrill in that. It makes you feel a connection. This is what I love about some of the blogs I read. Dooce, for example, has some posts that really resonated with me, and posts that just floored me with their brutal self-honesty.
The thing about me is, I'm pretty up front about who I am and about my insecurities. Some people think this is strength, and some think it's weakness. Some of the things that I am realizing I probably share too quickly, well, they're the things that are really raw and close to the surface. I use my blog for some, but not all, of those things. So the picture people are getting is honest but censored. The things this guy knows, some of them are really personal and hard, but they're not the most personal or the worst that I've dealt with. I'm working through things, and I'm working hard on me. And for whatever reason, writing about it in this particular way is helping. It just takes a while.
He assumed that I tell everyone about my blog, and although it's not a secret, I don't. He assumed the last guy I was dating (who I wrote about) knew, and no, I never told him. I started out by telling my close friends, and then when Wonkette linked to me, I gained a whole bunch of readers - but I think except for this guy, they are people I don't know.
But no, I don't meet people and say, "Hi, I'm Lisa, and before you get to know me as a person, I'd like to get emotionally naked in front of you. Check out my blog!"
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Emotional Nudity
Posted by Lemon Gloria on Sunday, January 07, 2007
Labels: daily orts
3 comments:
"Hi, I'm Lisa, and before you get to know me as a person, I'd like to get emotionally naked in front of you. Check out my blog!"ReplyDelete
I'm SO using that line, but I change the name to something else that also isn't mine.
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous1/08/2007 9:04 PM
I know what you mean about self-censorship. One of The Honey's colleagues reads the blog so I found myself thinking 'what would Mr. C. think?'ReplyDelete
Nevertheless, though I don't know you, know you - it's fun getting to know you! You're funny, intelligent and very honest, which is so appealing. That's what we keep coming back for!
Oh, and you're scads more interesting than the people I deal with on a daily basis who think about nothing but kids, kids, kids. Blech!
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Hello Everyone!
I am here today creating 10 cards from the Spellbinders Card Club Kit of the Month for December!
As always this kit has many elements to create your cards for any occassion...
Here is how you can get your kit TODAY!!! along with a little bit of inspiration to get you started...
Spellbinders Card Kit of the Month
Spellbinders Card Kit Add-Ons/ Extras!
May Add Ons for this month!…
Spellbinders Monthly Club Page
Spellbinders Blog
Spellbinders Inspirational Gallery
Spellbinders Inspirational Videos
More crafty details as well as a full list of supplies used for this project, can be found in the video below!
When you are done watching the video, and want to see more, CLICK HERE to go to my YouTube Channel ...
Don't' forget to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to my channel!
Always Remember...
Be Inspired, ENJOY, LAUGH and ALWAYS BE CREATIVE!
~ Desiree
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Getting Inky, suffering paper cuts, cutting using metal dies and stamping everything... These are just some of the fun and mischievous ways together we will create paper art! So stay and be motivated and inspired! ...and let me know what inspires your creativity!
Well, hello there everyone! My name is Desiree Kuemmerle and I live in Lansdale, PA with the hubs of over 20 years and our furry bot Max! I am fluent in Crafting, a Master Paper Manipulator and a violator of all that makes sense...
Since about the time I spoke my first word, I've been an avid crafter alongside my mom and sister. You name the craft and I've probably bought it, collected it, tried it and finally stored it. Right now, getting Inky, suffering paper cuts, cutting with metal dies and stamping everything, whether it moves or not makes me smile and I must pass that along to everyone I know and don't know!
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CINCINNATI -- When Richard Huff and his wife, Erin, lived in Louisville, they frequented Nancy's Bagels.
"It was our routine," Huff said. "We'd get bagels from there every weekend. It was a big part of our relationship."
In 2013, the Huffs moved back to their hometown of Cincinnati and settled in Over-the-Rhine. Huff started baking bagels at home, and his family loved them so much they prodded him to sell them to the public.
That push, coupled with a dearth of fresh bagel shops in Cincinnati, led Huff to found OTR Bagelry in March, working out of Findlay Kitchen.
"Baking has been a way to express my affection," Huff said. "I enjoy cooking for my wife and my family. When I'm making bagels, it's like I'm showing my affection for the neighborhood."
Huff's brother, Kyle Jones, also came along for the ride. Jones had been living in Fort Collins, Colorado, designing jewelry and working at Gib's Bagels, when he decided to move back to Cincinnati and join his brother at the Bagelry.
"There was some guilt taking my heart away from here, when I wanted to contribute to (Cincinnati's growth)," Jones said. "Being able to bring my heart back and being able to do this bagel business with my brother was perfect synergy. This was definitely the right move."
At the Colorado shop, Jones rolled 1,200 bagels a day, but not by hand.
"I've enjoyed doing small batches," he said. "It's more intimate being able to hand roll every single bagel."
Currently, they offer best-selling "everything" bagels, plain bagels and a savory-not-sweet chai bagel (cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg). They premiered a batch of rainbow bagels for Pride month, and for FC Cincinnati's match against Chicago Fire on June 28, Huff and team created a bagel striped with FC Cincinnati's colors of orange and blue. OTR Bagelry makes its own spreads, too: jalapeno garlic, plain cream cheese, vanilla bean cream cheese, and bacon scallion.
Jones and Huff debuted their artisanal bagels at the June edition of Second Sunday on Main, which Huff called "an unmitigated success;" the bagels sold out in a couple of hours. Huff said the response was overwhelming -- especially one woman's reaction in particular.
"She, like a lot of people, said, 'There's no good bagels down here,'" Huff said. "She took a bite. I wouldn't say she got emotional, but she seemed caught up. She went and bought me a beer to thank me for bringing good bagels around."
One issue they've run into with their bagel making is the high humidity, which can wreak havoc on the proofing part of the two-day process.
"We coasted out of winter and that spring period, and the heat and humidity hit at once," Huff said. "It was a curveball when it came to the bread rising. With these, they sit for 36 hours. When it over-rises, it's a disaster. It's hard to predict. You gotta learn fast how to prevent over-rising from happening."
When Huff isn't making his bagels at Findlay Kitchen (as does Five One Three Bagel Co., though they have yet to cross paths), he works as a public defender.
"It's bagel making at night and defending justice during the day," Huff said.
Eventually, he would like to open a brick-and-mortar location on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine, but he's not sure how he'll manage both jobs -- especially since the bagel part has taken off so quickly.
"I didn't realize there was this much pent-up desire for bagels in OTR," he said, adding that OTR Bagelry is filling a niche in Over-the-Rhine -- and beyond.
"There's a need for bagels everywhere," Huff said.
OTR Bagelry
Huff has a recurring Wednesday bagel night at Brink Brewing in College Hill. Check for that and other upcoming events at OTR Bagelry's Facebook page.


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Natty netbooks
at 02:38 | Posted by Caramel | 0 comments »
Pocket paparazzi cameras
at 07:16 | Posted by Caramel | 0 comments »
Zoom digicams tested by me in Mail on Sunday - scroll down to the cameras. Enjoy it while you can because, bizarrely, they currently publish tests online for one week only!
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The goals of the Active Adult Centers are to help older adults in Luzerne-Wyoming Counties to remain healthy, active, independent and contributing members of the community as long as possible. Active Adult Centers represent an important entry point into the Aging network and into the continuum of long-term care. Active Adult Centers are often the first support service sought by an older individual, his/her family or friends. By providing health and wellness services, the role of the Active Adult Center is to reverse or delay the need for more intensive services.
Active Adult Centers serve as a place for socialization, hot, nutritional lunches, recreation, cultural arts, and health and wellness programs for persons over the age of 60 and of all income levels to help them remain independent and contributing members of the community. Centers are a source of information and referral to available services for older adults.
Active Adult Centers are a place for older adults to share a nutritious lunch and health screenings. Also provided are education programs about ID theft, credit counseling, how to manage chronic conditions and injury prevention and evidence based wellness programs. Center programs also focus on exercise, fitness, walking and groups, health fairs, nutrition information, health awareness and medication management. A variety of other programs are available including travel, fine arts, arts and crafts, hobbies, volunteer opportunities and computers.
View a Listing of Active Adult Centers and Their Hours


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Whether we're talking fashion, beauty or hair, metallics have never been so on trend. We've seen models strutting their stuff down the runway in head to toe silver styles at London Fashion Week, inspiring influencers to also up the ante with some incredible metallic looks.
L'Oréal Professionnel is ready to help you achieve these coveted looks with the launch of Majirel Metals. With five high-shine shades – including Silver Star and Pink Ash, boosted in reflects to achieve that polished metallic finish – these shades provide a glossy, reflective, on-trend colour.
Striking dark metallic roots that are smudged to melt into softer gradients of colour.
The use of, Silver Star, a silver hair shade from the new 'Metals by Majirel' range, can achieve a beautifully polished finish for this on-trend look. This look is easy to dial up or dial down to achieve a shiny upgrade to propel your colour to a new, and even glossier, level.
Whether you want to stay light and go for a silver blonde tone, or go to the dark side with sultry, ashier hues, Silver Star achieves a lusciously polished finish to let your high-shine tones gleam.
Silver hair has seen a huge rise in popularity in recent years due to its sheer flexibility, and with Majirel's metallic shades, the opportunities are endless.
New balance system between the reflect & base- increasing the reflects and decreasing the proportion of base, to achieve a visible and translucent effect.
.11 Silver Star (Deep Ash) – For a pastel grey look or an on-trend ash colour
.12 Crystal Ash (Ash Iridescent) – For a fashionable result with a sophisticated iridescent blend
.13 Ash Gold (Ash Golden) – For a desirable champagne blonde
.21 Pink Ash (Iridescent Ash) – For a beautifully soft pink result, a mix of ash and iridescent
.22 Hi-Lilac (Deep Iridescent) – For a neutralising yellow and leaving a balanced iridescent hue.
Why not get the best of both worlds and go for striking, dark metallic roots, smudged effortlessly in to softer, icier gradients for a melting effect that will have everyone lusting for your hair colour. Or compliment a smoky eye with an icy, silver hair colour this winter for maximum style points, or even contrast a more natural rose look with some lilac metalights to keep your look luminous.
Speak with your colourist at your nearest L'Oréal Professionnel salon to discover endless metallic opportunities & remember to maintain your look with L'Oréal Professionnel Silver Shampoo.


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America in 1911: Part 3
Tuesday, June 07, 2016
Part 3 (images 201 to 300) of Jules Huret's l'Amérique Moderne, published in 1911.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
|Stenography. -- On large American trains one can write and even dictate letters. A stenographer is always at the service of a traveler to receive his mail that is then sent off at the first stop.
|The dining room. -- This photograph gives an idea of the luxury of a Pullman: the dining rooms are comfortably furnished and the service is assured by a perfectly styled personnel.
|A compartment. -- Each wagon is divided down the center by a corridor. On each side are velvet benches with movable backs. The part that juts out on top contains the bunks for the night.
|Inside the Pullmans. -- American salon wagons are models of comfort. Wide, well aired, they have rich furniture using all the classical styles.
|The library room. -- Each luxury train is equipped with a library where for a modest fee the traveler can leaf through the most recent literature in comfortable armchairs.
|The canyons of Colorado. -- In the narrow regions of the Rocky Mountains the rapid trains make their way through, made minuscule in this surrounding immensity.
|Carnival in America. -- Americans, being active and laborious businessmen, only give the absolute minimum of time to leisure and festivals, but when they do it is with an extraordinary vigor.
|American forests. -- The US abounds in magnificent forests, of which the most beautiful are found around San Francisco where you can find trees of colossal dimensions, both in height and diameter.
|The farms of the South. -- The farms in the states of the South are very populous and prosperous. The mild climate permits various types of plants, and there is a great deal of ranching and lumber in the region.
|In the forest. -- In the immense forested regions of Louisiana, the roads snake through kilometers of shade under the trees, cheered at intervals by the white speck of an isolated farm.
|New Orleans. -- This city is the largest one in Louisiana, and also the most important place for commerce in the south United States. Its superb Saint Louis Cathedral is of a Hispano-Creole style.
|New Orleans. St. Charles Street. -- Founded in 1718 by the French Lemoine, New Orleans at the outset was nothing but a poor and tiny village of trappers, gold hunters, and adventurers.
|New Orleans. Cemeteries. -- The cemeteries of New Orleans make up part of its curiosities. The boggy soil does not allow for tombs to be dug, and thus the bodies are placed in elevated vaults.
|New Orleans. The fishing port. -- The Mississippi makes a large turn before the city, from which comes its nickname the Crescent City. The fishing port forms one of the points of the Crescent.
|New Orleans. The Levee. -- A large part of the city is located under the high water level, and is protected by a jetty 4.5 meters wide and 4.3 meters high. This levee is the most animated part of the city.
|New Orleans. Carnival. -- New Orleans offers this particularity that it has entirely conserved over the centuries, keeping the customs and practices of the first French and Spanish inhabitants.
|New Orleans. The King of the Carnival. -- The Carnival of New Orleans, celebrated with great pomp on the day of Mardi Gras, is renowned. The King of the Carnival, escorted by his vassals, takes possession of the city during the festival.
|Kings of the Carnival. -- Every year a new King is elected that a golden carriage pompously takes around the streets of the city, wearing brilliant medieval garb.
|Queens of the Carnival. -- Differing from the gallant French garb that gives all sovereign authority to these Queens for a day, the American Queens defer before the King and their throne is not as high.
|Blacks in Louisiana. -- Louisiana is the place throughout America where the black question has attained the most acuity, and is also where the blacks most energetically demand equality before the whites.
|A hut for blacks. -- The blacks of Louisiana, after having obtained their independence, took control of this power. In revenge against this excess the whites left them in this subservient condition.
|Blacks in America. -- The abolition of slavery has caused the chains to fall from the black, but without raising his condition: the American hardly employs him for anything but chores in the fields.
|Blacks in America. -- At the moment there are ten million blacks in the United States. These ten million, given almost exclusively to agriculture, represent a true richness for the country.
|Gathering cotton. -- It is the Southern States where blacks are the most numerous. Though free, many of them continue to live on the earth where their enslaved parents toiled, to work, gather cotton, etc.
|The farms of the South. -- The black is connected to the farm where he was born and to the employer that feeds him, in effect being seen as part of his land.
|The black in the fields. -- The black is usually charged with the supplying of the farm and the feed supply. To do this he sometimes has to head out quite far on his wagon.
|The black voter. -- The blacks carry out an active PR for their candidates.
|Blacks...who are white. -- A busy clinic that whitens the skin of blacks using X rays.
|The black at church. -- Blacks in the US are generally members of one of the numerous sects that abound in America. Most of them are Baptist, a sort of dissident Christianity with barbaric rites.
|Left: a rare maid who has 50 years of service with her employer. Middle: reaching 100 years of age is not easy to find in the black race. Right: the black smile has something innocent and childlike about it.
|Housekeeping. -- The black man is known to be the foe of work and effort. So he enjoys doing housekeeping while his wife works at his side doing hard labor or manufacturing.
|At Tuskegee. The infirmary. -- Booker Washington has created an institute with all services with the support of only blacks. Thus his nurses are well-instructed enough to give first aid to the sick.
|At Tuskegee. Sewing workshops. -- Young black women at the institute learn everything a woman needs to know there. They have 40 milliners, 80 laundresses, 50 seamstresses, 300 washerwomen and 500 cooking students.
|At Tuskegee. The classes. -- Booker Washington wanted to teach blacks as much as moralize them. Courses of primary education, design, and music are given at Tuskegee by black teachers.
|At Tuskegee. Botany courses. -- Male students find a practical and theoretical instruction at Tuskegee. This photograph shows a group of students learning botany in the garden of the Institute.
|At Tuskegee. Masons. -- All the labor used at Tuskegee is done by the students. Each new building to increase the size of the school is entirely constructed by those living there.
|At Tuskegee. The workshops. -- Students choose a career according to their likes and can perfect it under the direction of skilled foremen. They can also train themselves for liberal/advanced professions.
|At Tuskegee. A workshop. -- The young residents of Tuskegee learn to develop their inventive spirit, to economically furnish an interior, with a bit of skill and luck.
|At Tuskegee. The farmyard. -- The students of Tuskegee in turn take on different services for the school: cooking, laundry, farmyard work, and accustom themselves in this way to the taking care of their future households.
|At Tuskegee. Gardening. -- Gardening is a preferred occupation amongst the female students. The young black women enjoy raking, pruning and disposing of the massive flowers surrounding the buildings.
|At Tuskegee. -- The prosperity of the school grows incessantly and Booker Washington is proud to show to visitors the new buildings that need to be built every year.
|The Arizona Desert. -- Desolate terrain, without vegetation, without cultivation, no animals, not even a hut, just sand, dunes, a landscape of adversity, such is the desert of Arizona.
|On the Houston to El Paso line. -- Between these two locations the route the railway takes goes along the Rio Grande and for hours passes by vast cultivated plains and immense natural prairies.
|A Texas granite quarry. -- In the west of Texas, mostly around El Paso, you see great deposits of granite that the American activity uses for large constructions.
|Giant Mariposa sequoias. -- The giant sequoia forest of Mariposa covers a surface of 10 square kilometers. Of the 465 trees that make it up the most remarkable is the "giant grizzly", which measures 31 meters around.
|Grand Central Station in Houston. -- In this active city where factories employ more than 6,000 workers, commerce (mainly cotton) is so important that sometimes entire trains remain stuck at the station waiting to resume their travel.
|Through Texas. -- In these immense plains spotted with shrubs and brambles, you sometimes see herds of cows and angora sheep that graze on this meager vegetation.
|Through Texas. Cowboys. -- Guardians of herds, the cowboys live for the most part in wooden huts spaced out over the savanna. They are horse riders without peer.
|Cactus. -- Around Yuma are found giant cacti such as these where the rigid trunks rising next to each other evoke the image of a gigantic organ, hence the name "organ cactus".
|Navigating through the desert. -- To make their way through the immense spaces of the desert, the Americans have created original and practical sailed chariots.
|The giant cactus sometimes reaches a height of 12 meters.
|The Arizona Desert. -- On these vast plains between Yuma and Maricopa it's not rare to encounter bands of nomadic Indians, the last vestiges of a race that soon will have disappeared entirely.
|Gila Desert. -- The line from Los Angeles to El Paso at 11 km from the Mexican border traverses desolate country where at intervals stunted bushes pop up.
|The area around Phoenix. -- Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, is located in the picturesque valley of the Salt River, which takes on a marvellous appearance as night approaches.
|Los Angeles. Eastlake Park. -- Capital of California, Los Angeles has many parks, Eastlake Park among them, with an admirable lake and almost tropical vegetation.
|Los Angeles. The elegant district. -- The adobe houses have given way almost everywhere to villas of wood and a gracious architecture, surrounded by greenery.
|Los Angeles. Plaza and Mission. -- The city has 130 churcher for a population of around 150,000. The Mission which dates back to the foundation of the city is on the North, close to the Chinese district.
|Santa Catalina. -- An island often visited for its pleasant climate, Santa Catalina is located 25 miles from San Pedro. There you can rent clear-bottomed boats to admire the submarine vegetation.
|A street in Los Angeles. -- Los Angeles, capital of southern California and second city of the state, only had 1610 inhabitants in 1850. Now it has more than 100,000.
|Catalina Island. -- Catalina Island is located right in the Pacific Ocean, three hours by boat from Los Angeles. Very picturesque and very rough, it is a place much frequented by excursions and resort-seekers.
|Los Angeles, panorama. -- Los Angeles is a very cheerful city. In certain districts its houses are buried under rich foliage of eucalyptus, oranges, palms, banana trees, etc.
|Los Angeles. Main Street. -- This street is one of the largest and most beautiful in the city, which it divides into two approximately equal parts. It is edged by beautiful monuments, such as the Federal Building and the Post Office.
|Riverside. The magnolias. -- The delicious climate at Riverside brings a whole colony of Americans each year who find cool shade and magnificent promenades such as the avenue of magnolias, 16 km long.
|Pasadena. Appearance. -- Snuggled into the greenery at the foot of Sierra Madre, Pasadena has an exceptional climate making it the richest wintering area for western America.
|Pasadena. -- The nature here is even more luxuriant than that in Los Angeles. Around sumptuous villas grapefruit and orange trees stretch out their branches and golden fruits.
|Monterey. The oldest theater in California. -- Up to the American conquest the small village of Monterey was the capital of California. There is still a theater there that dates back to the first times of the Spanish occupation.
|Monterey. Chinese fishers' hut. -- Though frequented during the summer by rich tourists from San Francisco, Monterey remains above all a beach for fishers. Many Chinese carry out this rough and perilous job here.
|Coronado Beach. -- The peninsula of Coronado is located a few km from Sand Diego, and is a very often visited place for excursions. The Hotel of Coronado, close to the ocean, is one of the most beautiful in California.
|Coronado Beach at night. -- At nightfall during one of the neighboring islands you are given the fairytale-like spectacle of the illuminated hotel, projecting floods of electric light into the shadows.
|The San Diego Mission. -- After the first conquerers the missionaries arrived in California in large number. Franciscans for the most part, they work to evangelize the indigenous people and to work the soil.
|Houses in Santa Barbara. -- Thanks to its mild climate and excellent beach, Santa Barbara is favored by the very rich businessmen of San Francisco who have pretty summer residences there.
|Oil wells in California. -- Facing Santa Barbara and several miles into the sea are islands holding very rich deposits of oil that need to be looked for under the sea.
|The new station in Santa Barbara. -- During the beautiful season there is a lot of affluence in Santa Barbara, and on the streets of the city bordered by roses and orange trees there is an incessant coming and going of tourists and strollers.
|Santa Barbara Mission. -- Between the strict walls of the old convent and in the enclosure formed by the cloisters, the Franciscan monks carry out in peace an existence of contemplation and prayers.
|San Francisco. -- San Francisco, more often called "Frisco" by the Americans, is the largest city in California and the most important place for commerce in western America.
|Bird's eye view of San Francisco. -- Though its population cannot compare to the large cities of the East, San Francisco possesses superb monuments towered over by the gigantic mass of skyscrapers.
|San Francisco from the sea. -- The Californian capital was not built on the shores of the Pacific, but on the bay of San Francisco. This fortunate situation makes its port one of the most secure in the world.
|San Francisco. Union Square. -- This square, one of the largest in the city, has nothing remarkable except for the monument of 30 meters in height. It was raised by a patriotic municipality to commemorate the conquest of the Philippines.
|Cliff House. -- Not far from San Francisco on the Golden Gate point is one of the most picturesque sites in California. The Cliff House hotel here is built a few meters over the water on a rock face jetting out.
|Seal Rocks. -- Facing Cliff House is a very picturesque islet: Seal Rocks. The name comes from its being regularly used by these animals who come to frolic and sun themselves there.
|San Francisco. City Hall. -- The city hall of San Francisco is one of the most beautiful monuments in the city, with the dome on top of it giving it a great deal of majesty. It cost around 20 million francs.
|San Francisco. -- Beautiful flowers abound in California, and are sold in fragrant handfuls at all street corners.
|Golden Gate Park. -- An interesting museum has been built in this admirable park.
|Golden Gate Park. -- This park extends over a long band a km wide. It has an area of 420 hectares, and includes rare and valuable flowers and species of trees.
|University of California. -- This university, famous in the west part of America, is attended by 4000 students. Its buildings and beautiful gardens offer a superb view of the Golden Gate and San Francisco.
|San Francisco in ruins. -- It was the morning of 18 April 1906, 5:30 am, that produced an earthquake that destroyed almost the entire city. The fire consumed the buildings that remained standing.
|San Francisco. Chinatown. -- Chinatown is the most curious district in the city. Less populous than it used to be, it still has 10,000 yellow inhabitants that live there and follow their customs in its squalid alleys.
|Chinatown. A restaurant. -- When evening approaches visits can be made to the restaurants of Chinatown where you drink excellent tea and can savor the most varied exotic meats.
|San Francisco. Opium. -- The Celestial son has a passion for the use of opium. In the dens of Chinatown he smokes the heady brown paste whose strong taste stupefies him, but opens him to paradisiacal dreams.
|Chinatown. A Christian mission. -- Amongst the Chinese of San Francisco there is a certain number that are converts to the Christian religion. They gather to pray and chant psalms together.
|San Francisco. A Chinese festival. -- The most popular of Chinese festivals is the one for the new year. On this day the strangest of cavalcades make their way through the city carrying around grimacing and fantastical beasts.
|San Francisco. Church of the University of Stanford. -- The style of this church, like that of the other buildings of the university, brings to mind the architecture of the San Antonio mission.
|San Francisco. The Boy's Club. -- Founded by Mr. Peixotto, the Boy's Club is open to all the children of the city who can complete their instruction there and go on excursions.
|San Francisco. The Boy's Club. -- In some ways this club has a military-like organization. The children that make it up often parade armed down the streets of the city to the sound of soldierlike fanfare.
|University of Berkeley. -- A State university, Berkeley has been built on a charming site at the foot of a hill amongst lawns and treed paths, facing the superb bay of San Francisco.
|University of Berkeley. The Library. -- This library, holding more than 130,000 volumes, is a precious resource for 4,000 male and female students that attend the famous university.
|University of Stanford. -- This university, named after its founder, is a private institution with 2,000 students. The arc of triomphe that serves as an entryway gives it a monumental aspect.


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Hysteropexy (aka the sacrocolpopexy with the uterus in place or sacrocolpohysteropexy) is a uterine suspension or uterine preservation surgical procedure to restore support of the uterus after a patient has been diagnosed with uterine prolapse (ie descension). Hystero means uterus and pexy means support. Hysteropexy should not be confused with the term hysterectomy (hystero = uterus, ectomy = removal) which means to remove the uterus.
The condition of uterine prolapse is when the uterus falls or descends the vaginal canal when its main supporting ligaments known as the uterosacral ligaments break. This often occurs after trauma to the pelvic floor including: pregnancy, vaginal delivery, injury to the spinal cord or lower back and injury to the nerves that supply the pelvic floor muscles. Though a patient need not have a memorable injury most patients will have had a history of a vaginal delivery.
Signs and symptoms of uterine prolapse include: a bulge at the opening of the vagina or just inside the vaginal opening, lower back discomfort as the day progresses, a feeling of your partner hitting something when engaging in intercourse, pain, pressure, painful intercourse and the inability or difficulty keeping a tampon inside of the vagina during menses. Often a patient can make her own diagnosis by simply using her fingertips to feel the end of the cervix in the lower 1/3 of the vagina.
Diagnosis of uterine prolapse requires an experienced physician who examines women for prolapse all the time. The average gynecologist misses the diagnosis of uterine prolapse because they most often use a normal looking speculum which is shaped like a "duck bill". When a full speculum is placed inside of the vagina the speculum blades pushes the uterus back into position and then the duck bills are opened and this further hide both the ceiling and the floor prolapse defects. It is best to use ½ of a speculum (or a Sims speculum) when examining for any kind of vaginal prolapse (i.e. cystocele, rectocele, urethrocele or enterocele) and especially when evaluating a patient for a uterine or vaginal vault prolapse as this type of speculum will not obscure the prolapse.
Once the diagnosis of uterine prolapse has been made and if the patient is symptomatic i.e. pressure, bulge, pain, painful intercourse. The patient should have the option of treatments.
Treatment Options:
There are several treatment options for uterine prolapse including: pessary supporting devices, kegel exercises (which will never permanently fix the problem), uterine suspension aka hysteropexy and finally a hysterectomy. A hysterectomy is a viable option but should not be offered to a patient as the sole procedure which will fix her prolapse. Yes, it is true that removing the uterus will result in the uterus no longer being prolapsed but the vaginal vault (i.e. the upper 25% of the vagina from which the uterus was removed) will still prolapse. So, if the surgeon just removes the uterus and does not offer concurrent vaginal vault suspension (ie sacrocolpopexy, uterosacral vault suspension, sacrospinous ligaments suspension) the patient will continue to suffer with vaginal vault prolapse.
The most successful operation for uterine prolapse while preserving the uterus is the sacrocolpohysteropexy aka hysteropexy. This procedure can be performed with synthetic mesh or with grafts (human, pig or cow). It is well known that human and animal grafts have lower cure rates than the synthetic mesh grafts.
99% of all patients who suffer from a uterine vaginal vault prolapse also have a cystocele and a rectocele and these should be repaired at the same surgery. The key to a successful surgery is choosing a surgeon with a vast amount of experience, expertise and a great reputation.


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Chapter 179: She's The Woman In The Video
Song Wuyou's clear sharp eyes turned to Mu Gu. Her hair merely reached her waist. How did it come to reach her butt in Mu Gu's mouth? However, Mu Gu's words, she liked.
After hearing Mu Gu's words, the reporters and surrounding people quickly glanced in Song Wuyou's direction. And it was exactly as Mu Gu had said. Although Mrs. Gu has a nice figure, she was neither tall nor curvaceous. Long silken hair fell to her waist like waterfall, like an amorous Aphrodite.
"Moreover…" Mu Gu's eyebrow arched up, adding a degree of suave romance to his appearance. Pausing midway, deliberately taunting the reporters' appetite, luring their attention back to himself.
Mu Gu's roguish bad-boy demeanor made the opposite sex blush.
This man is too seductive!
"Moreover what?" One of the female reporters – baited – asked.
A knowing smile appeared on Mu Gu's face as he looked at the female reporter. Having Mu Gu focused on her, the female reporter blushed and immediately lowered her head shyly.
"Didn't any of you notice in the video that on the side of the woman's thigh there was a tattoo?" This… the reporters really didn't notice this detail.
Song Jiuyue nearly jumped out of her skin at Mu Gu's words, quickly checking the view of her thigh. Fortunately she was wearing long pants today, covering her legs. At the same time, Song Wuyou slightly shifted her position so that she could get a glimpse of Song Jiuyue's nervous reactions, and the corner of her lips curved into a faint smile.
When Song Jiuyue looked up again, her eyes inevitably sought Gu Yanhao once more, but when she detected the faint smirk on Song Wuyou's lips, Song Jiuyue felt as if someone was squeezing her heart mercilessly in their palm. Rage exploded from her toes and rose to her chest.
Reporter: "Can you tell us your relation to the women in the video?"
Mu Gu: "Lovers."
Reporter: "Is she Mrs. Gu's close relative? They have such a resemblance."
Mu Gu: "You bunch of idiotic little devils, the face in the video was tampered with."
The reporters looked shocked.
Mu Gu continued: "Somebody wants to ruin Mrs. Gu's reputation."
After a brief moment of shock, one of the reporters pursued, "Then what does the woman in the video really look like?" How similar were they, to be able to make her look like Mrs. Gu with merely some touching up.
Mu Gu's eyes narrowed into two slits, watching Song Jiuyue standing not far away. Panicked, Song Jiuyue hid her body behind the Roman style pillar, wishing, praying the reporters did not notice her presence.
Reporters were, by nature, a bunch of nosy people with keen senses. In less than a heartbeat, following where Mu Gu's gaze fell, they caught sight of Song Jiuyue.
Song Jiuyue's tension rose sky high. Her heart felt like it was stuck in her throat, and tiny beads of sweat emerged on her forehead. Sensing the reporters sharp gazes, she tried to hide herself further back behind the Roman style pillar.
Reputation was something she relied heavily upon. If the masses ever found out that woman in the video was her, how could she live it down? Fear, apprehension, yet even more than these two emotions were anger. Unconsciously, she bit into her lips to still herself, while anger made her eyes see red.
She directed a pleading gaze in Gu Yanhao's direction, hoping that he would look her way, but he did not, instead holding Song Wuyou's hand while he glared rather sharply at Mu Gu instead.
"Ei, Miss Song's silhouette looks similar to the woman in the video." The reporter felt as if a clue had been revealed.
When the reported said that, all eyes sharpened critically, eyes burning as if they wanted to see through Song Jiuyue. Song Jiuyue looked woefully at Mu Gu, biting pitifully on her lips.
The damn man!
"Baby, why aren't you coming out?" Mu Gu suddenly waved his hand towards his sports car, and the passenger door opened. A young woman in a super-short pink mini skirt alighted from the seat, sharp high heeled stilettos on her feet, long wavy curls falling down on her tall, curvaceous figure.
Sashaying her hips, she looked over at Mu Gu and came to stand beside him. A hand naturally wrapped around Mu Gu's neck as she sent Mu Gu a spoiled, blaming look, "Why are you so hateful, forcing me to come out?"
Mu Gu's hand rose to pinch her cheek lovingly before turning towards the reporters once again, "She's the woman in the video, my girlfriend."


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We know that an unforgettable trip is built by experiences, at YouStylish we want to make your stay memorable, that's why our Concierge service collected a very small selected menu of places where you can go and enjoy some of Barcelona's gastronomic wonders! The list offers very different options, from vegan-friendly restaurants to meat lovers dream place!
Teresa Carles is definitely one of the best vegan-friendly restaurants in Barcelona. They serve super fresh and creative vegan food. With a very fresh and creative twist, Teresa Carles offers an ideal meal even if you are not vegetarian, you'll definitely enjoy this restaurant!
Located at Carrer de Jovellanos 2
The emblematic El Nacional Restaurant has a large dining area, which consists of several restaurants and bars, we recommend La Taperia for good tapas!
Located at Passeig de Gracia, 24
A little lovely restaurant that offers the typical homemade cuisine in a hardy space. At first sight, you see their shop where they sell their own products, but if you walk right into this cozy space, you'll find a place with delicious homemade food and a delightful atmosphere.
Located at Consell de Cent, 308
As the name states, a Tapas bar combining the chef's creativity with the best products they have to offer, bringing to your table some tasty tapas for your delight. We recommend you take the amazing "ball bomb", the pork ribs with honey and mustard!
It's located at Carrer de Montcada, 29
Barcelona Catalonia Restaurants Europe Food Spain Vegan
Discover Barcelona's Gotic District over the ages!
Walk around the medieval Old Town and travel in time with the stories and legends from the past. See the most important monuments of the Gothic quarter. At the end of your trip, relax with a glass of Sangria in the Boqueria Market.
During this walking tour you will see the most important places in Barcelona. I will show you the most remarkable buildings and tell you about important moments in Barcelona's history, but also interesting stories and legends.


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Real Madrid jumped to 2-0 in Group A of the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT with a dominant 79-51 victory over Baloncesto Seville in an all-Spanish clash in L'Hospitalet. Madrid used runs of 13-0 and 12-2 in the second quarter to pull away for good. Jonathan Barreiro paced Madrid with 14 points and seven rebounds while Santiago Yusta had 12 points, Guillermo Mulero scored 11 points, Luka Doncic had eight points and eight assists and Emanuel Cate chipped in two points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. Seville, which won the Rome qualifying tournament last winter, dropped to 1-1 in the group despite 10 points, four rebounds and three steals from Malik Eichler while Carlos Hidalgo collected seven points, six assists and three steals.
Seville jumped ahead 0-4 and had its last lead at 4-6. Barreiro nailed a three as Madrid went ahead 9-6 and he had scored nine points as Real was up 13-8. The score was 15-8 after 10 minutes. Domagoj Proleta pushed the cushion to 17-8 before Eduardo Perez de la Blanca cut the deficit to 19-14. Felipe Dos Anjos extended the lead for Madrid to 24-14. Jose Antonio Blazquez answered with a three-pointer before a Mulero three-ball started a 13-0 run which also included triples by Proleta and Barreiro for a 37-17 lead. Carlos Garcia hit a three-ball to stop the run and Mulero scored five more points to get the deficit down to 44-22. But Yusta nailed back-to-back treys in a 12-2 close to the first half for Madrid, which led 52-24 at intermission.
Madrid continually extended the lead throughout the third quarter with Doncic making it 54-24, a Yusta trey increasing it to 57-26 and Tomeu Rico scoring for a 63-31 advantage. Blazquez trimmed the gap to 28 points before Proleta's layup had Madrid up 68-35 after 30 minutes. Real struggled to score in the fourth quarter as Blazquez and Eichler scored to trim the deficit to 68-39. Madrid finally scored on two free throws by Miki Fons with 5:53 minutes left to make it 70-39. Eichler added six more points in chipping away at the lead to 70-48 with three minutes to play. That was as close as Seville would get the rest of the way.


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Christine Hallquist on VoteMatch
|VoteMatch Responses
(Click here for VoteMatch quiz)
|VoteMatch Question & Answer
(Click on question for explanation and background)
|Based on these stances:
(Click on topic for excerpt & citation)
Strongly Favors
topic 1:Abortion is a woman's unrestricted right
(+5 points on Social scale)
|Protect a women's right to choose: Strongly Favors topic 1
topic 2:Legally require hiring women & minorities
(-3 points on Economic scale)
|Wants Vermont to welcome all groups, including marginalized: Favors topic 2
No opinion on
topic 3:Comfortable with same-sex marriage
(0 points on Social scale)
|(No votes on which to base response)
No opinion on
topic 4:Keep God in the public sphere
(0 points on Social scale)
|(No votes on which to base response)
topic 5:Expand ObamaCare
(-3 points on Economic scale)
|Wants to lay groundwork for universal healthcare system: Favors topic 5
No opinion on
topic 6:Privatize Social Security
(0 points on Economic scale)
|(No votes on which to base response)
Strongly Opposes
topic 7:Vouchers for school choice
(-5 points on Economic scale)
|Supports public schools; does not want them privatized: Strongly Opposes topic 7
Strongly Opposes
topic 8:Fight EPA regulatory over-reach
(+5 points on Social scale)
|Advocate of environmental protections and mass transit: Strongly Opposes topic 8
topic 9:Stricter punishment reduces crime
(+2 points on Social scale)
|Address racial bias in criminal justice system: Opposes topic 9
topic 10:Absolute right to gun ownership
(+2 points on Economic scale)
|Ban assault weapons; regulate guns like cars: Strongly Favors topic 10
Regulate guns like we regulate automobiles: Opposes topic 10
Strongly Favors
topic 11:Higher taxes on the wealthy
(-5 points on Economic scale)
|Revamp tax structure and increase taxes on the wealthy: Strongly Favors topic 11
No opinion on
topic 12:Pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens
(0 points on Social scale)
|(No votes on which to base response)
No opinion on
topic 13:Support & expand free trade
(0 points on Economic scale)
|(No votes on which to base response)
No opinion on
topic 14:Support American Exceptionalism
(0 points on Economic scale)
|(No votes on which to base response)
No opinion on
topic 15:Expand the military
(0 points on Social scale)
|(No votes on which to base response)
Strongly Favors
topic 16:Make voter registration easier
(+5 points on Social scale)
|Work with state & locals to fix campaign finance system: Strongly Favors topic 16
No opinion on
topic 17:Avoid foreign entanglements
(0 points on Social scale)
|(No votes on which to base response)
Strongly Favors
topic 18:Prioritize green energy
(-5 points on Economic scale)
|Supports Solar Pathways plan of 90% renewable energy by 2050: Strongly Favors topic 18
Strongly Opposes
topic 19:Marijuana is a gateway drug
(+5 points on Social scale)
|Treat opiate crisis as a public health issue: Opposes topic 19
Tax retail marijuana for clean water and public education: Strongly Opposes topic 19
topic 20:Stimulus better than market-led recovery
(-3 points on Economic scale)
|Grow the economy by connecting all to fiber optic cable: Favors topic 20
|Other governors' VoteMatch:
|Christine Hallquist on the issues:
VT Gubernatorial:
Keith Stern
Matt Dunne
Phil Scott
Shap Smith
Sue Minter
VT Senatorial:
Al Giordano
Bernie Sanders
Brooke Paige
John MacGovern
Lawrence Zupan
Patrick Leahy
Scott Milne
Gubernatorial Debates 2018:
AK: Walker(i) vs.Dunleavy(D) vs.Chenault(R) vs.
AL: Kay Ivey(R) vs.Countryman(D) vs.Tommy Battle (R) vs.Walt Maddox (R) vs.
AR: Hutchinson(R) vs.Henderson(D) vs.West(L)
AZ: Ducey(R) vs.David Garcia (D) vs.Farley(D)
CA: Newsom(D) vs.Chiang(D) vs.Villaraigosa(D) vs.Delaine Eastin (D) vs.David Hadley (R) vs.John Cox (R) vs.Zoltan Istvan (I) vs.Allen(R) vs.La Riva(P)
CO: Johnston(D) vs.Mitchell(R) vs.Cary Kennedy (D) vs.Doug Robinson (R) vs.Barlock(R) vs.Lynne(R) vs.Polis(D) vs.Coffman(R) vs.
CT: Malloy(D) vs.Lamont(D) vs.Stefanowski(R) vs.Srinivasan(R) vs.David Walker (R) vs.Lumaj(R) vs.Visconti(R) vs.Lauretti(R) vs.
FL: Gillum(D) vs.Graham(D) vs.Putnam(R) vs.Levine(D) vs.DeSantis(R)
GA: Kemp(R) vs.Cagle(R) vs.Hill(R) vs.Abrams(D) vs.Levine(D)
HI: Ige(D) vs.Hanabusa(D) vs.Tupola(R) vs.Carroll(R) vs.McDermott(R)
IA: Kim_Reynolds(R) vs.Leopold(D) vs.Boulton(D) vs.McGuire(D) vs.Glasson(D) vs.Hubbell(D) vs.Porter(L) vs.Battaglia(L)
ID: Little(R) vs.Fulcher(R) vs.Labrador(R) vs.Ahlquist(R) vs.Minton(D) vs.Jordan(D)
IL: Rauner(R) vs.Kennedy(D) vs.Pawar(D) vs.Daniel Biss (D) vs.Pritzker(D) vs.Ives(R)
KS: Brewer(D) vs.Wink Hartman (R) vs.Colyer(R) vs.Kobach(R) vs.Orman(I) vs.Kelly(D)
MA: Baker(R) vs.Gonzalez(D) vs.Setti Warren (D) vs.Bob Massie (R)
MD: Hogan(R) vs.Alec Ross (D) vs.Cummings(D) vs.Madaleno(D) vs.Jealous(D) vs.Quinn(L) vs.Schlakman(G)
ME: Mayhew(R) vs.Mills(D) vs.Boyle(D) vs.Thibodeau(R) vs.Moody(D) vs.Capron(I) vs.Caron(I)
MI: Whitmer(R) vs.El-Sayed(D) vs.Tim Walz (D) vs.Schuette(R) vs.Calley(R) vs.Tatar(L)
MN: vs.Smith(D) vs.Coleman(D) vs.Murphy(D) vs.Otto(D) vs.Tina Liebling (DFL) vs.Tim Walz (DFL) vs.Matt Dean (R) vs.Pawlenty(R) vs.Johnson(R) vs.Swanson(D)
NE: Ricketts(R) vs.Krist(D)
NH: Sununu(R) vs.Jarvis(L) vs.Steve Marchand (D)
NM: Lujan-Grisham(D) vs.Pearce(R) vs.Cervantes(D) vs.Apodaca (D) vs.Jarvis(L)
NV: Fisher (R) vs.Sisolak(D) vs.Laxalt(R) vs.Schwartz(R)
NY: Cuomo(D) vs.Nixon(D) vs.Hawkins(G) vs.Molinaro(R)
OH: DeWine(R) vs.Husted(R,Lt.Gov.) vs.Kucinich(D) vs.Sutton(D,Lt.Gov) vs.Taylor(R) vs.Jim Renacci (R) vs.Connie Pillich (D) vs.Schiavoni(D) vs.Whaley(D) vs.Cordray(D)
OK: Stitt(R) vs.Cornett(R) vs.Edmondson(D) vs.
OR: Brown(D) vs.Scott Inman(D) vs.Buehler(R)
PA: Wolf(D) vs.Fetterman(D,Lt.Gov.) vs.Wagner(R) vs.
RI: Raimondo(D) vs.Brown(D) vs.Fung(R) vs.Morgan(R)
SC: McMaster(R) vs.McGill(R) vs.Pope(R) vs.Templeton(R) vs.Smith(D) vs.Warren(D) vs.Bryant(R)
SD: Noem(R) vs.Jackley(R) vs.Sutton(D)
TN: Green(R) vs.Dean(D) vs.Black(R) vs.Lee(R)
TX: Abbott(R) vs.Glass(L) vs.White(D) vs.Valdez(D)
VT: Scott(R) vs.Moody(R) vs.Hallquist(D) vs.Stern(D)
WI: Walker(R) vs.Harlow(D) vs.Vinehout(D) vs.Evers(D) vs.Roys(D) vs.Anderson(L)
WY: Throne(D) vs.Dahlin(R) vs.Gordon(R) vs.Rammell(R)
Gubernatorial Possibilities 2019:
KY: vs.Grimes(D) vs.Chandler(D) vs.Gray(D)
LA: vs.Edwards(D) vs.Kennedy(R)
MS: vs.Baria(D) vs.Sherman(D) vs.Reeves(R) vs.Lott(R)
Retiring 2018:
AL-R: Robert Bentley(R)
(term-limited 2018)
CA-D: Jerry Brown
(term-limited 2018)
CO-D: John Hickenlooper
(term-limited 2018)
FL-R: Rick Scott
(term-limited 2018)
GA-R: Nathan Deal
(term-limited 2018)
ID-R: Butch Otter
(retiring 2018)
ME-R: Paul LePage
(term-limited 2018)
MI-R: Rick Snyder
(term-limited 2018)
MN-D: Mark Dayton
(retiring 2018)
NM-R: Susana Martinez
(term-limited 2018)
OH-R: John Kasich
(term-limited 2018)
OK-R: Mary Fallin
(term-limited 2018)
SD-R: Dennis Daugaard
(term-limited 2018)
TN-R: Bill Haslam
(term-limited 2018)
WY-R: Matt Mead
(term-limited 2018)
Civil Rights
Foreign Policy
Free Trade
Govt. Reform
Gun Control
Health Care
Homeland Security
Local Issues
Social Security
Tax Reform


text:
Bharti Airtel, a leading telecommunications service provider with operations in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa, moved up one notch in the world wide ranking to be the fourth largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers.
This is according to Wireless Intelligence 'scoreboard'/ Wirelessintelligence.com/ Mobile operator worldwide group global ranking by connections, Q2 2012.
The source lists the top five operators, globally, as China Mobile with 683.08 million connections (11% year-on-year growth), Vodafone Group with 386.88 million connections (5% year-on-year growth), America Movil Group with 251.83 million connections (7% year-on-year growth), Bharti Airtel with 250.04 million connections (13% year-on-year growth) and Telefonica Group with 243. 51 million connections (7% year-on-year growth).
*Connections are aggregated as the sum of each group's subsidiaries where a minimum of 50 % plus one share economic interest is held.
At the end of the quarter ended June 2012, the Company had over 250 million mobile subscribers across its operations, representing 13% year-on-year growth.
Bharti Airtel had become the fifth largest mobile operator in the world following its acquisition of Zain Group's mobile operations across fifteen African nations in June 2010.
Staff Writer


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Power Cleaning Service Millview
Home and businesses owners searching for Commercial & IndustrialPressure Cleaning near Millview, Florida and throughout Escambia County knows that Beauchamp Power Washing is the top options. Sure, there're quite a few power washing service firms around Millview. But, individuals who expect a winner know when they see it. Its true that not a great number of people don't know about the benefits of pressure washers but you know what they say don't knock it until you have tried it. When you're want to try to pressure cleaning give Beauchamp a call.
Some Advantages of Power Washing
One good thing that you could do for your house is to have it pressure washed. From an aesthetic standpoint, it offers plenty benefits. In this blog, we will go over some of the clear benefits of pressure washing. Benefits Of Power Washing are:
- Curb Appeal
As stated previously, a major benefit that comes with power washing is the capability to enhance curb appeal. By pressure washing the outside of your home or perhaps your deck, it really is going to let you get rid of stains which may exist. It will also help to free up your home from all the dirt and buildup that will cause paint pealing and more. So, it is easily one of the best approaches to truly enhance the exterior of your house.
- Boost Home Value
Another good thing that you should get from power washing is the ability to increase the value of your home. The reality is, the cleaner your home looks and least amout of harm on the outside, the more you should be able to get from it on the open market. Any paint pealing as well as other conditions that could diminish from the look of your house are only going to lower the worth of your home.
- Stop Other Problems
One additional benefit that you can get from pressure washing is the reality that it would stop you from having to spend money on maintenance for your residence. Being able to remove the mold, bacteria, and other dirt off of your siding can keep your paint from getting ruined and it should keep the outside of your residence from prematurely aging.
In closing, there are several benefits associated with pressure washing making it one of the best things you can do to enhance the beauty of your home and its overall entrance charm. When it is all said and done you probably have more question about the pressure cleaning services near Millview, FL provided by Beauchamp Power Washing. We invite you to browse our Millview commercial patios and decks power washing blog.
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text:
Financial Frankness Is A Bad Dream For A Bank
Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) — There's a simple explanation for why the world's zombie banks remain so reluctant to write off worthless assets and tap the equity markets for fresh capital. They don't want to end up like UniCredit SpA.
This month has been a nightmare for the Italian bank's shareholders. Since embarking last week on a 7.5 billion euro ($9.7 billion) stock sale at a steep discount to its Jan. 3 closing price, UniCredit shares have fallen 39 percent to 2.56 euros. It seems no good deed goes unpunished when it comes to lenders besieged by Europe's debt crisis. A little bit of candor about the true state of a company's finances can hurt a lot.
That undoubtedly is the message some other lenders facing large capital shortfalls will take from UniCredit's troubles. The incentive now, just as most banks are undergoing their year- end audits, will be to stick with the pretense that all is well and there's no need to raise additional capital.
Not that a lot of them have better options. There's only so much private-sector capital available to go around. As sickening as the plunge in its share price may be, UniCredit secured an early-mover advantage by acting when it did. Even that might not be enough to ensure its survival without a taxpayer rescue.
This month's offering was spurred in part by UniCredit's decision in November to take large writedowns for the third quarter, resulting in a 10.6 billion euro loss, mostly for intangible assets such as goodwill leftover from ill-fated acquisitions. The loss was the largest disclosed for the period by a euro-area bank. The European Banking Authority also weighed in last month after its latest stress tests, saying UniCredit had almost an 8 billion euro capital shortfall.
The markets sense, with good reason, that the latest cash infusion won't be enough. UniCredit's stock market value stands at 14.8 billion euros, taking into account this month's rights offering. That's frightfully low, considering the company showed 52.3 billion euros of common shareholder equity and 950 billion euros of assets as of Sept. 30.
Investors still see a huge hole in the company's books that UniCredit executives have yet to admit. Had UniCredit taken swift action sooner to mop up and replenish its balance sheet, it might not be in the precarious position it is today.
This is one of the lessons everyone should have learned from the collapses of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008: Come clean about your losses to preserve the markets' trust, and raise more capital than you think you will ever need to get through a crisis while you can, because you might not get another chance. UniCredit seems to be coming a tiny bit clean, and raising a smidgeon of the money it needs. At least it's doing something, though.
Elsewhere in Europe this generally isn't the case. On average the 31 companies in the Euro Stoxx Banks Index trade for 39 percent of common equity, or book value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. France's Credit Agricole SA trades for 23 percent of book. Yet somehow the European Banking Authority last month concluded it had no capital shortfall.
The situation in the U.S. is better, but not good. Bank of America Corp., for example, trades for 33 percent of book and insists it doesn't need to sell new common shares, in spite of the markets' contrary verdict. If Europe's banks get shut out of the equity markets, leading the worst-off to seek government rescues, any window that remains open for U.S. financial institutions could close quickly, if it hasn't already.
A telling example is Regions Financial Corp., which has about $130 billion of assets and still hasn't repaid its $3.5 billion of bailout money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Birmingham, Alabama-based bank pulled out all the stops in the third quarter to sidestep losses on its intangibles, as the research service FootnotedPro highlighted in a Nov. 4 report to its customers.
To help avoid writing down goodwill, Regions raised its estimate of the control premium an investor would pay to buy its commercial-banking unit, to 60 percent from 30 percent, even though Regions' stock market value fell by almost half during the third quarter. (A control premium is the amount a buyer is willing to pay over current market value to purchase a company.) Basically, Regions was saying it disagreed with the market, which naturally made the company more valuable in management's eyes.
Today Regions has a $6 billion market capitalization, slightly more than its $5.6 billion of goodwill, and trades for 44 percent of book. So the goodwill supposedly was worth almost as much as Regions itself, which makes little sense because goodwill isn't salable.
Yesterday after the markets closed, Regions said it would take a $673 million fourth-quarter charge to earnings, mostly due to elimination of goodwill, after agreeing to sell its Morgan Keegan investment-banking unit to Raymond James Financial Inc. for $930 million. You have to wonder if Regions should have known a lot sooner that the business wasn't worth as much as its balance sheet said.
UniCredit was willing to take something of a hit to the intangibles on its books and use the chance to raise cash in hopes of saving the company. It's doing the right thing, relatively speaking, and its stock is down 74 percent in the past year. Regions did the three-card monte, and its shares are down just 34 percent during the same period.
Other struggling lenders in Europe and the U.S. will see both examples as more reason to paper over their losses, which will make their problems and the eventual cleanup worse. Delay- and-pray is never a good strategy. Unfortunately it's the only one a lot of zombie banks have left.
(Jonathan Weil is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
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