text:
Facebook is controversial, if nothing else. The world's fifth-biggest company by market cap, it's also the biggest social network by a comfortable margin. Yet, despite the fact that most of us use it, we've become increasingly suspicious of what it's been doing with our personal data. Ever since the Cambridge Analytica scandal (and probably long before), we've feared that such data isn't particularly secure or private, so we've been pushing back against the social media giant, as witnessed with last year's #DeleteFacebook campaign.
But at the same time, those with an interest in cryptocurrency also have an appreciation that, for crypto to enter the mainstream, it will need the backing of a big corporation or two. This is why recent news of Facebook's apparent plans for its own cryptocurrency is something of a bittersweet pill to swallow. There's little doubt that the promotion of a digital currency by one of the world's largest companies will put crypto firmly on the map. Yet, given Facebook's reputation, it's hard to shake the suspicion that what Mark Zuckerberg and Co. end up offering won't be a cryptocurrency in the proper, decentralized sense of the word.
Still, even if Facebook and other social networks won't be producing the next Bitcoin or Monero, their dalliances with blockchain could be a game changer not only for crypto, but for other industries. Finance could be irrevocably altered, as banks and other financial institutions race to accommodate the use of digital currencies by social networks. Similarly, a new ecosystem of crypto-related services and platforms could emerge, as they attempt to capitalize on the creation of new digital money by the likes of Facebook.
Facebook, Twitter and Telegram
Rumors that Facebook is planning its own cryptocurrency have been circulating since at least last May, when anonymous inside sources told media website Cheddar that the social media giant was "very serious" about launching an in-app digital currency. Despite remaining unconfirmed, such reports have been bolstered in recent months, with a February article from The New York Times claiming that Facebook has been promoting its soon-to-be-revealed coin to a number of crypto exchanges.
The Times report corroborated a December piece from Bloomberg, which once again cited anonymous insiders and which affirmed that the cryptocurrency would be a fiat-pegged stablecoin used with WhatsApp, potentially with a focus on money transfers. Regardless of whether the coin would be used by WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram (all owned by Facebook), it's readily apparent that Facebook is working on some kind of crypto-related project, since, in May 2018, it formed a blockchain group headed by David Marcus (a one-time member of the Coinbase board) to explore how its platforms could use crypto.
It's therefore only a matter of time before Facebook officially involves itself, in one way or another, in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. And for those working within crypto, such involvement could have significantly positive implications for the industry. As Nigel Green, the CEO of deVere Group, tells Cointelegraph, Facebook's arrival "would indicate that digital money, as a concept, is fully mainstream and inevitably the way the world is going. This is something we have been arguing for a long time now — despite protestations from the likes of Warren Buffett."
Green adds that crypto's place within the mainstream has already been proven by the fact that Facebook and other social networks have been looking into the use of cryptocurrencies for some time. Indeed, aside from Facebook, Twitter has also been flirting with crypto. While there isn't any reliable indication that it's planning its own currency, the platform has become increasingly supportive of Bitcoin in recent months, despite temporarily banning crypto-related ads in March 2018 (as did Facebook). For example, CEO Jack Dorsey declared in a couple of statements from February that he believes Bitcoin will become the internet's "native currency," and that Bitcoin is the only crypto he owns.
What's more, Twitter itself has been supporting a number of initiatives related to the Lightning Network, such as signing the Lightning Torch (aka LN Trust Chain), a project aimed at raising awareness of the network and testing its capabilities. And given that Dorsey is also the founder and CEO of Bitcoin-supporting Square, it's perhaps inevitable that Twitter will begin integrating cryptocurrencies into its platform sooner or later.
Even more inevitably, it's likely that the Russian-founded Telegram will release its own GRAM cryptocurrency by October (at the latest), as the popular messaging network plans for the launch of the Telegram Open Network (TON), a blockchain platform set to rival Ethereum and EOS for the development and deployment of DApps. Telegram already boasts over 200 million monthly active users (as of a year ago), so it's likely that a large number of people are going to have the chance to use crypto on a daily basis once TON goes live.
Centralized or decentralized?
Much the same applies to the recently launched VK Coin from Vkontakte, another social network and the third most popular website in Russia. Combined with the movements from Telegram, Twitter and Facebook, such designs could see the world's social media titans become some of the biggest players in the crypto industry, if not the biggest players. And according to Green, this should give existing cryptocurrencies and platforms serious cause for concern.
"Facebook and Twitter have enormous influence, resources and reach, and it could be that they would take away some market share from existing cryptocurrencies."
However, while it's hard to shake the impression that Facebook (and other social media giants) would make big inroads into the cryptocurrency space, it still isn't obvious that the digital currency it's looking to launch will be a truly decentralized cryptocurrency. In light of how Facebook's whole business model revolves around controlling the data generated by its users, casual observers might be forgiven for assuming that it won't entrust the operation and validation of its currency to a scattered network of users, particularly when this currency will apparently be a stablecoin intended for use within the Facebook ecosystem.
"Facebook or Twitter coin is not a cryptocurrency," Arthur Hayes — the CEO and co-founder of BitMex — told Cointelegraph. Hayes went on, saying:
"These will be tokens that ride in their ecosystems. Users must trust these companies to operate the network in good faith and protect their privacy. The only thing any of these tokens will have in common with Bitcoin is that the word "coin" might possibly be used in their names. These will have little to no effect on Bitcoin and other similar cryptocurrencies that operate on a public peer-to-peer network."
Such doubts regarding decentralization have been reinforced by the news that Vkontakte's recently launched VK Coin doesn't appear to make use of blockchain technology in any appreciable way. However, despite such early blows against the credibility of social media coins, there are mixed opinions among experts and commentators as to how centralized any currency from Facebook, Twitter or anyone else would be.
Iqbal V. Gandman — the managing director of eToro United Kingdom — believes that Facebook's coin will be mostly centralized, although this doesn't necessarily disqualify it from being a "real" cryptocurrency. "Cryptocurrencies can be both centralized and decentralized," he told Cointelegraph. "The sheer nature of platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp, means their cryptocurrencies will be centralized. Facebook and Whatsapp are like walled gardens, i.e. you have to login to access them, so I think people will probably only be able to use their coins within those platforms, rather than elsewhere."
CryptoOracle's Lou Kerner is mostly in agreement with such an assessment. "Facebook is likely to have decentralized elements and centralized elements, as Facebook is obviously centralized and there is no functional decentralized governance system," he said to Cointelegraph. But other figures involved in crypto think such skepticism is misplaced, especially since Facebook has been so eager recently to polish its tarnished image.
"As far as I can tell, these cryptocurrencies would be decentralized, as Facebook is seeking to capitalize on the phenomenon of crypto, and part of cryptocurrencies' inherent appeal is the decentralized status," says Green. "After the recent Facebook furor regarding user privacy, I think we can expect them to double down in regard to this area as the scrutiny will be immense."
Of course, the debate over the true meaning of "decentralized" could last until the end of time, yet it's likely that control over Facebook's coin won't be entirely centralized. Not only would this defeat the purpose of launching a cryptocurrency (as opposed to some system of digital credits or vouchers), but it would contradict the aforementioned reports that claim that Facebook has been talking with crypto exchanges. If Facebook is planning to put its coin on exchanges, then clearly it's comfortable with the idea of it being traded and disseminated outside of its jurisdiction.
User experience = adoption
Besides decentralization, another big question surrounding the prospect of social media cryptocurrencies is whether they might overcomplicate the user experience. Platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram are popular largely because they're so simple to use. Introducing cryptocurrencies and crypto payments could therefore be a delicate business, seeing as how a lay person still doesn't really understand how crypto works.
Such fears might seem superficially rational, but they're likely to be unfounded. "Companies like Facebook and Twitter are conscious that the key to a good product is a user-friendly interface," explains eTor's managing director, Iqbal V. Gandam. "Introducing their own cryptocurrencies should not make these platforms more complicated for users, it will simply be another service for them to use."
This seems to be the consensus among other commentators, all of whom point to the storied history such platforms as Facebook have in making their interfaces addictively simple to use. "Anything Facebook or WhatsApp does will be drop dead simple," affirms Lou Kerner. "That's why they're Facebook and WhatsApp."
In fact, it's likely that the user experience of a Facebook or Twitter Coin would be so simple that, rather than turning people off Facebook or Twitter, it will actually turn more people onto cryptocurrencies by making them realize that crypto needn't be complicated. "The impact of these platforms launching cryptoassets on the crypto industry will be much bigger," says Gandam. "It will help take the utilization of crypto by the public a step forward. Just as Paypal raised its awareness and usage by working with eBay."
And because crypto and blockchain are already riding a wave of adoption, it's likely that the two processes could converge in a way that creates a kind of positive feedback loop, thereby accelerating overall adoption. "More and more people are becoming used to cryptocurrencies and mass adoption is increasing momentum all the time, so I don't think it will be an issue," says Green, who believes that, far from overcomplicating things, crypto will "enhance the user experience" for Facebook and other adoptive platforms.
New economies
So, there's a general consensus that Facebook and other social media platforms are planning to launch their own cryptocurrencies, and that such currencies would be positive for the platforms concerned and for their users. The question is: What kind of wider ramifications would a Facebook Coin, Twitter Coin or GRAM have?
Most significantly, it's possible that such coins could spark a shift in personal banking and finance, especially when Facebook's likely crypto will be a stablecoin pegged to the value of a number of fiat currencies. "All cryptocurrencies and wider fintech solutions are already taking business away from traditional banks," Green explains. "They are filling a gap left by the traditional way of doing things as the world speeds up and becomes increasingly globalized and digitalized."
It's still not certain how, exactly, Facebook's coin will work. But if rumors that it will enable money transfers are true, then this will provide one area in which the likes of Facebook will be directly competing with banks and other financial institutions. And because a fiat-backed stablecoin will require Facebook to hold a commensurate amount of USD (or whatever fiat currency ends up being used), Facebook's entry into crypto will force it to act like a bank in holding the necessary reserves. It would therefore be a game changer, not just for crypto, but for Facebook itself, which would be transformed by cryptocurrency from a social network to something much bigger and influential.
The implications of this for banking (and for Facebook itself) could be huge, depending on the uses Facebook is planning for its coin. With over 2 billion monthly active users, the social network could provide finance to millions of the 1.7 billion unbanked people in the world (two-thirds of whom own a mobile phone). It could succeed where countless numbers of companies and institutions have failed, and while some experts are still uncertain as to how far Facebook and other networks could go in this direction, others think the financialization of social media is one of the logical endpoints of collecting so much finance-relevant user data.
"Social media companies with large active user bases will displace traditional banks in the distribution of financial products," says Hayes. "They own the attention of the younger generation and have a deep understanding of their behavior from the data they collect. This makes social media companies best placed to sell loans, credit cards, and investment products. They need not actually become a chartered bank, rather they can use a traditional bank's regulated pipes and create a revenue stream from large origination fees."
Despite such radical possibilities, some commentators don't expect it to replace banks anytime soon. "As with every evolutionary stage in money, the stage prior to that never disappears," says Gandam. "With the onset of digital banking, cash hasn't disappeared. In the same way, I don't see crypto replacing fiat. Banking also provides other services aside from transferring and storing money."
But even if social media cryptocurrencies don't lead to the disappearance of "traditional" banking, they will nonetheless impact other significant areas. For one, they'll result in the creation of a new ecosystem of services and products built to capitalize on the appearance of new money, while they could also change how social networks monetize themselves and become profitable. "Ads are not the final frontier for Facebook and social networks," Max Tsaryk — the CEO at Monfex — told Cointelegraph. "A native cryptocurrency has the power to create a whole new economy where users can store value and pay for paid content or subscription services. We believe that Facebook and Telegram are going to show to the world that cryptocurrencies allow to embrace an entirely new monetization model, radically different from the current status quo."
The creation of a new ecosystem for a Facebook Coin, for GRAM or for any other new crypto is obviously the other side of the coin of adoption. In other words, if a Facebook Coin is to gain widespread adoption and use, companies will need to provide services and products with which people can use the cryptocurrency. Otherwise, the circulation, utilization and adoption of the corresponding crypto will remain limited and siloed. But because the reach and resources of Facebook are so considerable, it's likely that many companies and platforms will take the plunge to provide services to new holders of the social network's coin.
And what's also likely is that, if Facebook, Telegram and other social networks do find success with their new cryptos, other social media sites will be forced by competitive pressure to also take the plunge. "It is highly likely that where the likes of Facebook lead, other social networks will follow," says Green, who's not alone in his predictions. "Everyone will have their own cryptocurrency," Kerner agrees, even if he isn't sure how worthwhile most social media cryptocurrencies will be. "It's just frequent flier miles for the most part. Other than the few actually trying to be currencies."
But regardless of whether a majority of the coins launched by Facebook and other networks are or aren't really cryptocurrencies, Kerner believes that their launch will be a good thing for crypto overall. As does Gandam, who points out that they aren't likely to ever compete directly with existing cryptocurrencies, insofar as they'll be mostly confined to their respective platforms. "Any 'traditional' and well-known company, such as Facebook and Twitter, becoming involved in the crypto industry is a good thing," he says. "It not only increases awareness and appetite for people to explore other cryptoassets, but also adds credibility to the industry. This should have a positive impact on Bitcoin, especially if the FB coin is only for use on the Facebook platform, vs Bitcoin being used on all other platforms."


text:
Flexicrew Gainesville, GA Employee of the Year Winner Recognized for 'Walking the Talk' of Teamwork, Respect, and Service
MOBILE, Alabama, (September 15, 2017) – Flexicrew Staffing, a leader in the industrial staffing industry, has announced it has identified it's leading temporary workers who earned Flexicrew's Employee of the Year Award by providing superior service to their clients.
Flexicrew is quite proud of Mr. Jose Lopez' performance and his ability to reach out to co-workers and supervisors alike in performing his assignments.
Job assignments – Returns
Jose is an exceptional employee with a great attitude. He is reliable, dependable, and punctual and always comes to work with a smile on his face. He maintains a great relationship with other employees and management.
About the Award
The purpose of this annual award is to recognize an outstanding employee in each Flexicrew Staffing branch with the following attributes:
Responsibility –Temporary staffer is punctual, works hard, and exhibits dedication to tasks and completing them on time.
Cooperative – Displays courtesy with a pleasant attitude toward coworkers and supervisors. Good communication skills and willing to help others.
Creativity – Temporary employee goes above-and-beyond to get the job done, holds self to a high standard, and tries to learn different aspects of the client operation to improve the work.
Safety – Follows safety requirements and leads others by example in safety in the workplace.
About The Flexicrew Companies
Flexicrew was recognized by Staffing Industry Analysts in 2015 as the 4th fastest-growing staffing company in the U.S. over a 5-year period. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Mobile, Alabama, Flexicrew makes use of technology and industry best practices to deliver the most talented and qualified industrial – skilled and unskilled, technical, and professional talent to clients within most major industries. Flexicrew has a presence in over 25 markets across North America with more than 2,000 contractors currently placed in companies throughout the U.S. To learn more, visit www.flexicrew.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
- Regular
- €39,95
- Sale
- €39,95
- Regular
Sold Out
- Unit Price
- per
Elastic Waistband Shorts-Cagnac Details:
Our Elastic Waistband Shorts in blue offer a classic, trendy look with a smocked waist and flared design. The elastic waistband ensures a secure fit without sacrificing comfort or breathability, allowing you to move freely and stay cozy. A perfect piece for any activity, these shorts combine classic style with practicality for a truly versatile wardrobe staple. With durable fabric and a comfortable fit, these shorts will quickly become one of your favorite go-to pieces.
True To Size


text:
NPower Exit Plan Packages for 2016-2017 Batch A & B Beneficiaries – See Latest News
The federal Government (FG) with it commitment to tackle extreme poverty has instructed the Central bank to come up with an Npower Exit Plan for all beneficiaries who have been disengaged or are to be disengage from the N-Power programme.
If you fall into any of these categories or group then its time to quickly embrace NEXIT, remember that only those who successfully registered or enrolled for NEXIT will be given the opportunity to transit.
Npower Exit Packages for 2016 and 2017 Beneficiaries
On record there are about 500,000 beneficiaries, 300,000 are from Batch B while 200,00 are from Batch A.
Remembering that Npower programme cuts across almost all sector of the economy from Agriculture, Health, Education, and Tax, beneficiaries that transit successfully are expected to impact positively to the economic growth of Nigerian economy.
The federal Government is going to leverage on the those in the educational sector (Npower teach) employ a large percentage as teachers through the federal government teachers scheme.
While some of the beneficiaries will be absorb into other sectors of the CBN social programme which has an objective to empower them with various skills that will see them become employer of labour.
Npower NEXIT Portal Login Link
NEXIT portal direct link for registration and recruitment is
You just have to access the link, and follow the instructions on registration which is self explanatory. If you run into any problem please refer to us via the comment form.
NEXIT portal brings closure to N-Power Batch A, B,
The ministry of Humanitarian Affairs was established by the president in the 3rd quarter of 2019 with a clear vision and mandate that involves making Humanitarian policies and also be at helm of the directing and controlling National and International Humanitarian interventions.
The present Government has placed all social investment programmes under the watch of the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
Recall that the president establishment the NSIP known as National social investment programme in 2016 which seeks to reduce hunger and also lead the role in the fight against poverty in Nigeria.
NPower is a programme under NSIP which has about 500,000 Nigerians under it social programmes comprising of two Batches – Batch A and B. With the share size of the beneficiaries this made Npower the most interesting and also popular among Nigerians.
The Npower programme has its own problems that arise to late payment issues and recently how to disengage the beneficiaries who has been in the programme for over 2 years and more.
From the beginning of the programme, the Government never saw any need to have a clear exit plan for beneficiaries who has already seen the programme as a continuous stream of income given the hash economic they find themselves.
They reject and resisted any plan by the Government to kick them out even when the Government has not committed any offence and still act under the terms and conditions of the programme which was designed to last for just 24 months.
By now the Government are beginning to acknowledge their errors of not designing a perfect exit plans, the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs came under contact attack on social media.
They have no option than to quickly collaborate with the Apex Bank, CBN to come up with the N-power Exit (NEXIT).
With NEXIT now on board, beneficiaries will now have to key into CBN empowerment and entrepreneurship programme.
To get started with the NEXIT, Npower beneficiaries has to log onto the NEXIT portal made available by CBN, provide the necessary personal information needed for CBN to identify and accept them for possible placement into it social skill acquisition programme.
We remain a trusted and reliable source of information as regards career, employment, payroll management and lots more.We have been featured in numerous and popular websites including
Crunchbase, Glassdoor, Craft, Medium, Facebook, the Guardian,Twitter and lots more


text:
Hemp is known for its use in the fashion and wellness industries, with brands like KITX and BEAR respectively utilising the benefits of hemp in their clothing and products, now this plant fibre is making its mark as a sustainable building fabric.
At last years BDA National Design Awards, a house in Mudgee, NSW coined the 'Mudgee Hempcrete House' won the Paul Dass Memorial Prize, a prestigious award given to a designer for outstanding achievement in building design, and the award for Best Residential Building. Within this house as the name suggest is Hempcrete.
Hempcrete is a lightweight bio-composite made of the inner woody core of the hemp plant, weighing about an eighth of the weight of concrete. The material is used as an insulator rather than for a structural element. The core of the plant is mixed with a lime-based binder to allow it to be formed into slabs. The Hempcrete walls in the Mudgee house comes from locally grown hemp, giving the property insulation that is breathable, avoiding condensation and moisture issues. One of the big positives of using hemp is that the plant itself and how it is harvested makes it a regenerative farming process.
Related Post: 6 Green Building Ideas For Your Upcoming Renovation
We spoke to Dick Clarke, the designer behind the Mudgee house and principal of Envirotecture who has 35 years of experience in the field along with a Master of Sustainable Futures degree on the topic of the effect of state and local planning instruments on the sustainability of the built environment.
EWP: What was the inspiration for the design?
Dick Clarke: Inspiration came from the client's design brief which stressed a desire for natural materials and the need for bushfire resistant materials to deal with the risks of a rural property surrounded by bush
EWP: What other sustainable building materials or design features are incorporated into the Mudgee Hempcrete house?
DC: The long plan of the home provides maximum northern solar exposure to warm the home during the cold winters, generous overhangs provide the shading required of an area that can frequent top 40 degrees Celsius. A retractable awning over the northern deck gives the flexibility to provide sun or shade as desired during the shoulder seasons.
Related Post: Tesla Tiny House Tour Aims to Educate Australians About Clean Energy?
The ceiling of the dining room conceals the working mechanisms of the warm air transfer system, a series of off-the-shelf fans and ducts that pull heat from directly above the slow combustion stove and delivers it to the bedrooms. This system negates the need for any other heating systems beyond the sun and fallen timber that needs to be gathered for bushfire safety.
EWP: What positive impact does the use of Hempcrete provide when designing a house?
DC: Hempcrete improves the performance and liveability of a building in a huge range of ways. It is thermally efficient –it controls heat flows through the wall; it is breathable –it moderates internal humidity; it is non-flammable –it is safe and code compliant in cooking spaces and bushfire zones; it is long-lasting – provided the detailing and construction quality is good, and maintenance is carried out, as in any building type, it will last hundreds of years.
EWP: What is the main difference between traditional building materials and Hempcrete?
DC: Hempcrete is a natural and renewable resource, locally grown with excellent insulation values. It is one of those super-crops offering an incredible yield that is part of the regenerative farming revolution.
EWP: In your opinion, is there an increase in a want for sustainable materials to be used in new buildings?
DC: Absolutely, people are increasingly aware of the way their homes impact on the environment and reflect their ecological footprint. The demand for Hempcrete, however, is not only being driven by environmental concern, but also by a focus on health. People want homes that are healthy, comfortable and sustainable and hempcrete ticks all these boxes.
EWP: How much does it cost and is it comparable in cost to building materials that perform the same function?
DC: The home cost approximately $700k which is about 15% higher than a regular timber framed, fibre cement clad building, which would achieve the same level of bushfire resistance, but would not come close in terms of thermal comfort and sustainability.
Related Post: Can't Afford Solar Panels? Renting? Here's How You Can Access Clean Power…
EWP: Where can a person access Hempcrete and where is it grown?
DC: Hempcrete can be sourced from farms within four hours of most sites in Australia, all states grow hemp except the Northern Territory.
EWP: Any other sustainability trends in the building industry we can expect?
DC: There's an increasing shift to prefabricated homes where modules are built off-site in factories and then shipped to site as whole units.
And even more excitingly, there's growing interest in PassivHaus. Passivhaus involves creating homes with incredibly high-performing glazing, insulation and airtightness. Together with the use of a Heat Recovery Ventilation System, this results in thermally efficient buildings with minimal reliance on mechanical heating and cooling.
Never miss our posts. Sign up for our weekly newsletter and receive our free sustainable lifestyle guide when you do.
Recommending reading:
- 6 Sustainable Design Principles to Consider When Building Your Own Green Home
- 8 Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Green Home
- The Good Solar Guide Australia: Lower Your Energy Bills in 7 Steps
- 22 Steps Closer to Zero Waste Living: Disposable Items to Stop Buying Right Now
- 5 Environmental Short Films To Bring New Greenies Up To Speed
- Concerned About The UN Climate Report? Take These Sustainable Actions Today…
- Individuals in the Developed World Consume More of the Earth's Resources. Here's How to Consume Less…
All images supplied.


text:
Something strange is happening in the digital magazine space at the moment. The idea of being a digital magazine has never been sexier or more sought after. The styling, design quality, photo-realism, sharpness and typographical cool of the magazine idea is as strong as it has ever been. Magazines are to die for if you are not a magazine.
Facebook the 400lb gorilla of social media has just launched a new app Paper. Under the headline "the best Facebook … Keep Reading


text:
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Hong Kong BBQ - Footscray, Victoria
Time and date of visit: 5:30 pm Friday 11 July 2014 (see our previous visits)
2 comments:
Have you tried the roast meat at Golden Harvest? I usually get their roast duck and pork belly and also braised pigs offals. Havent tried the roast duck from Hong Kong BBQ though I walk past it when I head to Golden Harvest.ReplyDelete
Hi Felicia! Yes, we've tried Golden Harvest a few times. They have some pretty yummy dishes, including their roasts. But there's something about HK BBQ that makes it our favourite... when we manage to get a seat in one of the booths, we feel like we're in Hong Kong again! But thanks for the reminder - I've been meaning to revisit Golden Harvest :) If you ever end up trying the roast duck at HK BBQ, let me know what you think and how it compares! xReplyDelete
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Cepeda column: Don't resort to stereotyping other races
CHICAGO — There's been a bit of a bumper crop of stories about white anxiety in the past week.
First, a July 30 op-ed in The New York Times, "How to Talk to a Racist," suggested that the label does little to soothe bigoted attitudes, so people should check their assumptions before making such an indictment.
And the next day, a longform article, "White, and in the minority," ran in The Washington Post, chronicling the plight of two young white workers who feel isolated at their jobs because they are the only non-Spanish speakers.
Invariably, articles and op-ed pieces like these are intended to humanize groups — largely rural, middle- to working-class whites — who are increasingly being portrayed as unapologetic racists in the media. The members of the groups are considered racist whether they call the police on black people who are lawfully minding their own business or support political candidates who advocate for white supremacy.
But these sorts of pieces usually fall short of the mission to make people with racial anxiety relatable — and instead reinforce some of the very tropes that put many on edge.
For instance, the Post article included this nugget: "Studies have shown how some whites, who are dying faster than they're being born in 26 states, react when they become aware of a tectonic demographic shift that will, with little historic precedent, reconfigure the racial and ethnic geography of an entire country."
This language reinforces the extinction-level threat that some white people feel when demographic data are presented as "tsunamis" that result in "the browning of America."
In a 2017 New York Times essay, sociologist Herbert J. Gans indicted the U.S. Census Bureau and its "majority-minority" forecasting for its role in ratcheting up the demographic hysteria. "These numbers have become a handy data point for whites fearful that they are being threatened and overwhelmed by a growing tide of darker-skinned people," Gans wrote. "In this way, the census may have unintentionally increased white racism, thereby justifying the long-standing Republican strategy of turning itself into a whites-first party."
Using demographic data as a weapon harms everyone, whether it's to say "Ha-ha, brown people are going to be the majority soon and then white people will see what it's like," or "We whites have to protect our culture and our heritage against all these brown people and immigrants."
It's also harmful to make broad generalizations about any demographic group based on the experience of a tiny handful of individuals who are used to exemplify a larger trend.
Some can appreciate a white writer in the New York Times trying to be level-headed by saying, "When you encounter a person who believes he's merely honoring his ancestors by driving a car with an image of the Confederate battle flag on the tag, … stop for just a moment and take a breath."
But when I see the pickup truck that rolls down my street flying giant U.S. and Confederate flags, I take a breath, alright — because I fear for my safety.
Either way, race relations are tricky right now, and analyzing them cannot be left to anecdote or archetype.
There is a rigorous, well-designed study on the subject by a group of researchers from the University of Illinois, Coventry University and Columbia University. They visited five cities — New York; Phoenix; Birmingham, Alabama; Dayton, Ohio; and Tacoma, Washington — between August 2016 and March 2017 to ask more than 400 people who identified as "white working class" for their views on identity, immigration, race and change.
The study concluded that "working-class Americans" are far more diverse than they've been described. They are often college-educated and embrace the concept of racial diversity, usually citing people of different races in their own families and communities.
Yes, many expressed concerns about undocumented immigrants and people of color receiving preferential treatment for jobs, services or benefits, as whites' quality of life declines. But not all identified as Donald Trump supporters, and many expressed genuine conflict about both the 2016 presidential candidates.
The point here is that our perceptions about any racial groups shouldn't be shaped by people or organizations who seek to demonize, valorize or elicit fear or pity about members of certain races.
There are nonpartisan, not-for-profit organizations, such as the Pew Research Center and the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University, that do demographic research designed to inform, not inflame.
Look to their work and then make up your own mind about how different racial and ethnic groups see the issues you care about.
Esther Cepeda's email address is email@example.com, or follow her on Twitter: @estherjcepeda.
Support Local Journalism
Support Local Journalism
Readers around Glenwood Springs and Garfield County make the Post Independent's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.
Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.
Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.


text:
Medical experts are beginning to call for standardized testing for men who may or may not need testosterone replacement therapy. There are wide variations in the results obtained from blood tests administered to determine if a man has low testosterone. These variations make it very difficult to truly understand if a man should be prescribed medication that is meant to help raise the levels of this hormone. As such, it's possible that many men around the country are using these medications without really needing them. Unfortunately, testosterone medications have been linked to serious potential side effects such as heart attacks, strokes and death in some studies.
As of now, a man will need to have a blood test done in order to determine whether or not his testosterone levels are too low. If that blood test shows what is commonly known as low-T, then the patient will be prescribed a medication that is basically synthetic testosterone. These medications can come in injection form, they can come in topical rub form and they can be administered in other ways. The bottom line is that these medications are designed to quickly raise the levels of testosterone in a man.
The problem that has been arising is that different labs that do this testing of the blood have different protocols and standards. Therefore, the same vial of blood could produce very different results depending on who tests it, when it's tested, how it's tested and what those testers look for before providing those results. Some statements have indicated that the same blood can produce results that vary by as much as 30 percent. Differences this large can and likely often do make the difference between someone being prescribed testosterone medication or not. These varied results could also lead to the over-treatment of some patients, meaning that some of them would be receiving too much medication.
If these testosterone-based blood tests are standardized, then the question of which men would be prescribed this medication would lead to much more predictable answers. It would also likely lower the number of men who are undergoing what is known as testosterone replacement therapy, or TRT. That may not sit well with some of the drug companies that are manufacturing these products, as every estimate in existence reveals that this is now a multi-billion-dollar industry.
The testosterone replacement therapy phenomenon has been one that has exploded in the United States over the past decade. Millions of men have undergone TRT, and to this point not enough is known about the long-term effects of using these medications. What is known is that there have been troubling signs that have been revealed, and perhaps standardized testing for access to this medication could make a positive difference.
In the meantime, there will be men who will suffer testosterone replacement therapy side effects. If this has happened to you, contact the testosterone therapy lawyers at Parilman & Associates today to schedule a free initial consultation. You can either email the firm or call 800-800-DRUG.


text:
Our President in 1930 was::
The Very Rev. Sir George Adam Smith
He proposed the Toast to Sir Walter at our 31st Annual Dinner on Friday 28th November 1930 in The North British Station Hotel, Edinburgh.
Read the text of his address here
The Very Reverend Sir George Adam Smith, FRSE, FBA (19 October 1856 – 3 March 1942) was a Scottish theologian. He was fluent in German.
He was born in Calcutta, where his father, George Smith, C.I.E., was then Principal of the Doveton College, a boys' school in Madras. His mother was Janet Colquhoun Smith (née Adam). By 1870 the family had returned to Scotland and were living at Scagore House in Seafield, Edinburgh.
He was educated at Edinburgh in the Royal High School.
He then studied Divinity at the University of Edinburgh and the New College, graduating MA in 1875.
After studying for summer semesters as a postgraduate at the University of Tübingen (1876) and the University of Leipzig (1878) and travelling in Egypt and Syria. He was ordained into the Free Church of Scotland in 1882 and served at the Queen's Cross Free Church in Aberdeen.
In 1892 he was appointed Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament subjects in the Free Church College at Glasgow. In 1900 (at its creation) he moved from the Free Church of Scotland to the United Free Church of Scotland.
In 1909 he was appointed Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen, a post he held until his retirement in 1935. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1916, and was knighted in the same year.
He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Free Church of Scotland in 1916-17. In 1917 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John Horne, Cargill Gilston Knott, Ben Peach and John Sutherland Black.
He was appointed a Chaplain-in-Ordinary to King George V in 1933, and reappointed by King Edward VIII and King George VI.
From 1924 to 1938 he was Patron of the Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen.[11]
He died at home, "Sweethillocks" in Balerno south-west of Edinburgh on 3 March 1942. He is buried with his wife and children in the north-east corner of Currie Cemetery in south-west Edinburgh.
Text Source: Wikipedia
Image source: The Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club Annual Bulletin 1930


text:
It's important to find things that calm us. Especially during these times when we find ourselves doing things we normally would not do. We need to seek calm situations out and allow ourselves to live in the moment.
I have always loved flowers and found a different level of calm when working with them. But it is hard in the craziness of being a mom to actually take time to enjoy them. I remember one year when I decided to take outdoor flower gardening for a 4-H project. I was to bring five matching cut flowers to the county fair. Well the night before the fair, it decided to rain, and I mean rain! Of course, I had not decided which flowers I thought would make a good match. So in the rain and in the mud, I cut several varieties of flowers. So the best place out of the rain to prepare this project was in the house. The mud and the water came with me into the kitchen. If your cringing at the thought, I guarantee you my mom was to. I don't know if we have a photo of this mess, but I guarantee my mom and I have the picture etched in our minds. I did bring the flowers to the fair, and I do believe I received a blue ribbon. But the most important thing I gained from the experience was an appreciation for flowers and a memory like no other.
Now fast forward to preparing the boxes each week. Our last step is cutting flowers. I know several men who own and operate greenhouses so for me it's fun to see that all of the boys know how to work with these plants. What I have noticed on all of us, is that I am not the only one in our house that finds calm in finding the beautiful colors.
God paints beautiful pictures using stunning colors around us throughout our day. We need to take time to appreciate them. Find our calm and take time to etch those pictures into our minds. We don't always need to capture the pictures on camera. It's far more important to live in the moment and find our calm and happy place.
Pick-Up and Delivery
- Remember that pick-up and deliveries will be on the schedule you have arranged with Harner Brothers CSA – please note the exceptions to this which were in the email. Please follow the CDC and MDH guidelines and COVID-19 procedures in email.
- It is your responsibility to know that the pick-up or drop-off time will occur at the agreed upon time, and it is your responsibility as a shareholder to know this and be responsible for the produce at that time. If you are unable to utilize your share that week, it is still your responsibility: find someone else to pick it up or donate it to the food shelf.
- Each box is labeled for each family. The same boxes will be used for your family throughout the season. Boxes and containers should be returned the following week. Bags will only be used once.
Boxes of Produce
This list is prepared before we harvest your share. Some guesswork is involved! We do our best to predict which crops will be ready to harvest, but sometimes crops are on the list that are not in the share, and sometimes crops will be in the share even though they're not on the list. Remember food safety in your kitchen when preparing, always wash your hands before working with your produce and always wash your produce before eating.
Outrageous Red Lettuce and Black Seeded Simpson – So grateful this crop seems to thrive on dry weather. Lovely color for sandwiches and salads.
Carrots – A few to enjoy raw, in a salad or in a fresh cooked veggie dish. When they are fresh out of the garden like this, I don't worry about peeling. I simply wash and eat raw or slice and add to a salad. Do you ever wonder how baby carrots get on the grocery shelf…watch America's Heartland here.
Kohlrabi – Two varieties this week: purple and giant duke. Cut off the bottom and the top, peel them and cut up like an apple. I love to eat them dipped in peanut butter. Here are some other way's to use them.
Onions – Enjoy the Patterson, purple or Walla Walla onions in your boxes.
Super Sugar Snap Peas – Second planting of this crop – Eat the pods and peas all together. Eat raw or sautee. Great snack.
Green Beans – The first crop struggled to get out of the ground. We have a few subsequent crops that are coming into their own.
Sunburst Patty Pan Summer Squash – Sunburst is a beautiful butter yellow scallop-type squash. Each fruit is accented with a small dark green ring. The mild, white flesh remains tender and firm. Best used when harvested and eaten at around 3″ across. Here are some ways from Martha Stewart to use and prepare this vegetable.
Zucchini – Wash the zucchini and eat with or without the skin on. Here are a few ways to use it.
Potatoes – The Dark Red Norland variety is often served boiled or in potato salads. The variety, Norland, was released by the North Dakota Agricultural College in 1957. See how potatoes are harvested in Idaho on America's Heartland.
Basil – An herb I enjoy using when grilling or making tomato sauce. Learn from Martha Stewart some tips and tricks.
Arrangement – A variety of flowers including zinnias, rudebeckia, hostas, sunflowers and more.
Recipe of the Week
Zucchini Crust Pizza
2 cups shredded zucchini or yellow summer squash (1 to 1-1/2 medium), squeezed dry
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded part-skim Mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
2 small tomatoes sliced
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup julienned bell pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
Chopped fresh basil, optional
- Preheat oven to 450° Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, combine first 4 ingredients; stir in 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Transfer to a 12-in. pizza pan coated generously with cooking spray or on parchment paper; spread to an 11-in. circle.
- Bake until golden brown, 13-16 minutes. Reduce oven setting to 400° Fahrenheit. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese; top with tomatoes, onion, pepper, herbs and remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake until edges are golden brown and cheese is melted, 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped fresh basil, if desired.


text:
Quickening Terrain
From Guild Wars WikiJump to navigationJump to search
This page contains information about a Guild Wars component or feature that has been removed or replaced.
Quickening Terrain
Your base movement speed is increased by 15%. If your speed increases beyond this, then you lose 10 health per second while moving.
- Concise description
Your movement speed is increased by 15% and you lose 10 health per second while moving any faster.
Related skills[edit]
- Quickening Terrain works even in PvP outposts; this can cause a character under the effects of Sugar Rush or Sugar Jolt to take damage and even die within an outpost.
- Although you cannot be resurrected if this happens, you can map out or change districts.
- Although this type of death does not affect the Survivor Title Track, it will cause Death Penalty.
- Since you are under this effect on the Isle of the Nameless (PvP), you can die by running around with your speed boosted by the Masters of Winds. (Deaths there will halt progress on the Survivor title track.)
- Using speed boosts without any other benefits is probably counter-productive.
- During Alliance Battles, players under the effects of Battle Cry will suffer the health loss from Quickening Terrain.
- "Fall Back!" or "Incoming!" can counteract the health loss produced by this effect.
- Muddy Terrain will prevent Quickening Terrain from affecting allies and foes.
- Shameful Fear is the only skill that can increase a foe's movement speed.
- Moving foes will almost certainly be knocked down by Churning Earth.
- This Flux was in effect from August 1 – 31, 2011 (UTC).


text:
The Department of Women's Studies is presenting their 2012 Spring Speaker's Series: Inconvenient Women: Gender Inequality in the Justice System. These lectures are free and open to the public.
The first lecture is:
Dr. Talia Welsh
Department of Philosophy & Religion/Women's Studies, UTC
"Feminist Debates Regarding Sex Workers"
Wednesday, January 25th, 5:30pm
U.C. Lookout Room
American feminists were split in two in the 1980s during what has named "the porn wars." The symbolic turning point in this battle was the proposed legislation to the city of Minneapolis in 1980 to ban pornography by Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon. Therein, they argued that pornography was a violation of women's rights. Others joined in this discussion, documenting the damaging effects on women in general due to pornography and the dangerous world female sex workers experienced. Yet, many feminists strongly opposed this approach fearing the possible dangers to freedom of speech and seeing an unhappy harmony between this legislation and other existing and previous laws that tried to moralize sexual behavior, ones that often limited female sexuality. In this presentation, I discuss the debate between the "anti-pornography" and "pro-sex" camps in feminist thought and draw out the deeper philosophical issues regarding autonomy, freedom of speech, the essence of feminism, and the duty to consider consequences.
Future lectures:
Dr. Catherine Brekus (co-sponsor along with the Department of Philosophy & Religion–Martin Lecture Series)
Divinity School, University of Chicago
"Sarah Osborn's World: The Rise of Evangelical Christianity in Early America"
Thursday, February 16, 7:00pm
U.C. Auditorium
Dr. Sharon Redhawk Love, Dr. Helen Eigenberg, Dr. Tammy Garland, Karen McGuffee, JD, Sara Peters
Department of Criminal Justice/Department of Legal Studies/Women's Center, UTC
"Injustices Against Women"
Wednesday, February 22nd – 5:30pm
Holt 209
Dr. Carrie Baker
Study of Women & Gender, Smith College
"Social Change from the Grassroots: The Women's Movement against Sexual Harassment"
Wednesday, March 21st—2:00pm
U.C. Chattanooga Room
Dr. Marcia Noe & Emily Hurst
Department of English/ Women's Studies
"One Girl Reporter, a Rope, a Canary, a One Act Play, and the Stanford Law Review"
Wednesday, April 4th – 5:30pm
U.C. Lookout


text:
Photo, City of Toronto Archives, Series 1278, File 119 The Odeon Danforth Theatre was located at 635 Danforth Avenue, on the south side of
Month: November 2013
Toronto's old Bay (Colonial) Theatre
This photo of the Bay Theatre, directly across from Toronto's Old City at Queen and Bay Streets, was taken in the 1960s. The featured film
Toronto's old movie houses—the Paramount Theatre at 1069 St. Clair Ave.
The Paramount Theatre was on the south side of St. Clair Avenue West, between Lauder and Glenholme avenues. (Photo City of Toronto Archives, Series 488,
The Paramount Theatre was on the south side of St. Clair Avenue West, between Lauder and Glenholme avenues. (Photo City of Toronto Archives, Series 488,
Toronto's old Uptown 5 Multiplex Theatre
Loew's Uptown Theatre c. 1993, after it was converted into five separate theatres. Photo from the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 251, Series 1278, File
Toronto's old Odeon Fairlawn Theatre
City of Toronto Archives, Globe and Mail Collection, 135157. The film "Saraband" on the marquee was released in 1938. The plans for the Odeon
It's difficult to believe how much ink Rob Ford has provided for the pens of the cartoonists. The examples below are from the Toronto Star
This photo from the City of Toronto Archives (TTC Collection, PC147), depicts the Casino Theatre and the Casino Cigar and Coffee Shop located in
While walking Toronto's Yonge Street, the city's "main drag," I have often walked past the Gothic stone archway located on the sidewalk on the east
Toronto's old movie theatres—the Grant
City of Toronto Archives, 1146N-143 The above photo of the Grant Theatre was likely taken about 1940, as the films on the marquee were


text:
I'd like to avoid those grey spaces of container.
It's showing this kind of result.
In this mashup all the cells are mashups.
Please can you attach export of entities to reproduce in internal environment?
Probably custom CSS can help here.
Raluca Edu
Hi @raluca_edu ,
Thank you for your quick response.
You can find exported mashup in attachment.
Can you please attach style used in containers? I cannot see the mashup with all the formatting.
Raluca Edu
Thank uo @raluca_edu
Yes I have attached. It is just the style with border line.
I tried to play around with the borders in the attached mashup.
1. Doesn't matter the grey space in Designer mode, that spaces are only to show you where the borders are added.
2. You added borders to every existing container in the mashup and this cause the borders to overlap and that's why you see inconsistent layout of the mashup.
My recommendation is to add borders only to the outer containers and not to the internal ones (e.g. the ones that are containing widgets). In the attached mashup, I have played with the Style of different containers, some of them have "DefaultContainerStyle" instead of Container style.
Although the attached mashup is not perfect, I hope the above explanations will help you to arrange it as per your requirements.
Another hint that you could use: instead of using borders , you can create a container with height 1px to separate the contents in the mashup (see Middle Container mashup attached).
Hope it helps,
Raluca Edu
Thank You @raluca_edu ,
It was really helpful.
I also want to change the background of the container depending on the property value which has 0 or 1.
In the following example I'm using a label widget inside the container and wrote the name manually. I'd like to change the color of the entire container green or red depending on 1 or 0 value of the property, while keep the manually written name.
I didn't find any solution to your question. You can change background to any widget that has State Formatting, but the containers cannot be changed with State Formatting, only custom CSS.
Maybe someone else has an idea about this.
Raluca Edu
Hi @raluca_edu ,
Yes I understand state formatting. But I'd like to display the text written manually and changing only its background colour.
Thank You!
Hi @mnaeem.
As @raluca_edu stated, you would need to use CSS. Here is a link to the Help Center.
Hi @slangley ,
In the above picture there are 1st container has a label written manually, 2nd container has value of integer type (quantity), 3rd container has value of sting type (hh:mm:ss)
2, 3 containers are binded to property.
I'd like to do one the followings.
1- changing the colour of the value containers when their values are changing and the values start from 0 and 00:00:00, once incremented will not come back to initial values.
2- Bind another property which has 0 or 1 to value containers (I think not possible to bind two properties to one value widget) or label container and changing the colour.
Instead using the following to solve the issue, but one of above solution will be highly appreciated.
Thank You!
Hi @mnaeem.
If one of the previous posts answered your question, please mark the appropriate one as the Accepted Solution. Or if you found your own solution, please feel free to post it here and mark that as the Accepted Solution.
Let me explain in another way, may be we have a solution.
I'm using GetProperties of a timer thing and bounded one property to the value display thing as follows
Is it possible to change the the state based on a property different from the bounded one (both of these properties are taken from GetProperties of a single time thing).
I've tried but didn't work.
Instead I've tried using infotable as a result of a service will return only one row) and saved both properties in two different columns of the table and bounded one column to the value display widget and changed the state based on the second column and it worked to change the background.
Hi @mnaeem.
Are you saying that you have resolved your issue? If you still need assistance, please let us know.
Hi @slangley,
No I was trying to explain the problem in another way, I'm not sure is it possible to apply css in that way as I have explained in the last message.
Thank You!
Muhammad Naeem
Hi @slangley ,
Not able to find FileRepositoryHomeMashup extension in the marketplace as a prerequisite of the tutorial.
Thank You!
Hi @mnaeem.
Thank you for calling that to my attention. I am following up.
Hi @mnaeem.
The tutorial is being corrected to coincide with the 8.5.5 release currently targeted for late April.
Hi @mnaeem.
The Custom CSS Tutorial has been updated. Please check it out and let us know if you have further issues.
Hi @mnaeem.
Please let us know if after reviewing the updated tutorial, if questions still exist. If you have solved your issue, we would be most appreciative if your would post your solution here and mark it as the Accepted Solution for the benefit of others on the community.
Hi @slangley ,
Thank you for following the issue and sorry for the late reply, I was busy in another project.
Actually, this requirement is not requested anymore. I'll give it a try as soon as I have the time.
Thank you!
Muhammad Naeem Akhtar


text:
Stormi's Review: The Black Lotus (Night Flower Book 1) by Claire Warner
Author Provided Copy
Publisher: Self-Published
Released: June 29th 2014
Genre: Gothic, Historical, Fantasy
Length: 562 Pages
Format: ebook, paperback
It is 1752.
The year that will change the life of heiress Melissa De Vire. As she makes her first fumbling steps into society, she meets the handsome young cad Justin Lestrade and his world tears her perceptions apart. For Justin is more than he appears and his secrets and enemies are manifold. Drawn irresistibly to him, she finds herself sinking into a realm of feuds, magic and old curses and her life will never again be the same.
Review - 5 Stars
I am a big fan of historical fiction. This book gave me that and some of the paranormal. It was awesome. It took me a bit to get into the book, but once I got there, I was hooked. This book is about a young woman who is just getting into society and who meets a not so savory character. This man just happens to be cursed as well. Melissa, is a very likeable character because she is not the norm. She isn't into all the rules that young ladies were made to follow. She is very unique in her own right. This book was written well. It was full of intrigue, romance, and mystery. The ending leaves you on such a cliffhanger. I cant wait to read more. I would definitely recommend this book to romance readers and paranormal readers alike. While I have never been big on paranormal, this book was fascinating.


text:
by Cari Graham
(High Point, NC)
I adopted Gabbie today. She is almost 100% Aussie. Her dad is full blooded blue merle and her mother is 1/4 Catalouha and 3/4 red tri Aussie. Gabbie is georgous and soooo precious.
When I went to pick one out, she actually picked me. The lady I adopted her from sent me pictures of all the puppies and she was the 1st one to catch my eye. Then when I got there, she didn't want me to give anyone attention but her. The others all hid from me.
My 2 year old nephew fell in love with her. She rode in his lap the whole way home and slept curled up there. I know she isn't full blooded but shes the closest I could find and she is 100% perfect in my eyes! I had an Aussie as a kid and think they are some of the best dogs in the world! Welcome home Gabbie!
Comments for Gabbie's 1st Day Home
Click here to add your own comments
Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Reader's Aussies.
Have Dog Training Questions?
Check out these introductory dog training videos...
I want my dog to stop being aggressive.
I want some help training my new puppy.
I want my dog to stop barking at everything.
I want my dog to walk nicely and calmly on the leash.


text:
Posts Tagged 'Sports'
Decorate Plain Party Paper with Washi Tape
Turn plain paper into PARTY TIME with a little decorative washi tape. This month's DCC craft designer blog hop is all about parties! Over the last year our design studio, Cherished Solutions, llc has been working to design fun washi tape designs. We have designed everything from the sports washi tape you see here to the…READ MORE


text:
Save Liquid error (snippets/product-badge line 32): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
For whom the wedding bells toll, Arthur? They do not toll for thee! It's a race to the chapel, as Mera is awake and betrothed, but who is the groom, and why isn't he Arthur? There is a greater mystery at work, and Jackson makes a deep-sea discovery - but not before a depth-defying battle with Orm! Speaking of Ocean Master, he's bringing all of Dagon to the wedding ceremony, and the Seven Kingdoms will never be the same again!


text:
Bone Fire Smokehouse & Musictorium
Bone Fire Smokehouse At the Hardware is a local favorite for a great variety of BBQ, drinks, and live music.
We are a true Smokehouse offering delicious smoked meats and unique southern high country side dishes. We put no sauce on our meats. That's up to you. If you so choose, we have a variety of tasty original recipe sauces. We are a true Musictorium dedicated to presenting exceptional live original music and bring to our state some outstanding regional and national musicians. No cover bands. We will introduce you to some of the best live music offered in Southwest Virginia. There is never a cover charge.


text:
Hello my bucket list friends ! On Monday I did something pretty exciting,I got my first ever MRI . I was nervous at first but it was an interesting new experience and I can't wait to share it with you . Now I'm not sick or anything , I'm lucky enough to be participating in an OCD research study at Stanford. With all that being said here is the story of my first MRI.
My first MRI
I've been doing the pre-screening for this study for a while now but I didn't want to say anything on this blog until things got going . The study will be researching TMS treatments for people with OCD. TMS has been used for OCD and other mental health conditions but usually the treatments are done in a time span of 4-6 weeks . For this study I will be doing the treatments for one week . The study will see how effective the treatments are in the span of a week . During the study I will be getting two MRI scans . The first one was completed on Monday and the second one will be done after the TMS treatments are completed. On Monday I went to Stanford University to get my first MRI. I arrived about 45 minutes early so I had some time to explore the beautiful campus . It was raining on and off that day and I had to keep my hair dry for the MRI so I kept my hood on most of the time while I was exploring . My favorite thing about the campus was this big beautiful fountain I took so many pictures by it . After some exploring it was time for the MRI. I was nervous but it wasn't that bad at all . I did some paper work then I got dressed up in some fancy blue scrubs. After putting in some ear plugs it was time to say hello to the MRI machine . I felt nice and cozy in the machine it wasn't bad at all in there. It was loud even with ear plugs and you can call me weird if you want but I kind of liked the noise . I was in there for about 90 minutes I think. When it was done I felt a little dizzy but not bad I was very tired that night but it is all worth it to be apart of this amazing study .
Rock on – Christina Epperly


text:
Vizlib Filter v2.3.2 released!
Release Date: 10/10/19
- [ VSP-812]: Vizlib Pivot table produce "calculation Condition is not fulfilled" message when V Filter Default value is used in the same sheet
A fix for an issue with the Vizlib Pivot Table, caused by the Vizlib Filter. The Vizlib Pivot table was prevented from rendering


text:
Article Text
Objective The present study sought to identify inequalities in cause-specific mortality across different occupational groups in Korea.
Methods The cohort included Korean workers enrolled in the national employment insurance programme between 1995 and 2000. Mortality was determined by matching death between 1995 and 2008 according to a nationwide registry of the Korea National Statistical Office. The cohort was divided into nine occupational groups according to the Korean Standard Occupational Classification (KSOC). Age-standardised mortality rates of each subcohort were calculated.
Results The highest age-standardised mortality rate was identified in KSOC 6 (agricultural, forestry and fishery workers; male (M): 563.0 per 100 000, female (F): 206.0 per 100 000), followed by KSOC 9 (elementary occupations; M: 499.0, F: 163.4) and KSOC 8 (plant, machine operators and assemblers; M: 380.3, F: 157.8). The lowest rate occurred in KSOC 2 (professionals and related workers; M: 209.1, F: 93.3). Differences in mortality rates between KSOC 2 and KSOC 9 (M: 289.9, F: 70.1) and the rate ratio of KSCO9 to KSCO2 (M: 2.39, F: 1.75) were higher in men. The most prominent mortality rate difference was observed in external causes of death (M: 96.9, F: 21.6) and liver disease in men (38.3 per 100 000). Mental disease showed the highest rate ratio (M: 6.31, F: 13.00).
Conclusions Substantial differences in mortality rates by occupation were identified. Main causes of death were injury, suicide and male liver disease. Development of policies to support occupations linked with a lower socioeconomic position should be prioritised.
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Request Permissions
If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center's RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.
What this paper adds
Numerous studies have investigated the relationship between socioeconomic position and mortality in Korea, but there have been few detailed reports of differences between occupation groups because most studies categorise occupations simply into manual and non-manual labour.
This study evaluated differences in cause-specific mortalities in nine different occupational groups by following a large nationwide cohort of Korean employees.
Substantial differences in mortality rates by occupation were identified. Injury, suicide and male liver disease were important contributors to mortality inequality between occupation groups.
Since the Black Report was published by the Working Group on Inequalities in Health in 1980, social inequalities in mortality have been an important public health issue in many countries.1 Korea has undergone very rapid industrialisation, and was recently classified as an industrialised country by the World Bank; in 1960, it was still considered an agricultural country. With industrialisation, the Gini index, which measures socioeconomic inequality, decreased gradually up until the mid-1990s, but this trend reversed with the financial crisis in the mid-1990s and the subsequent economic, social and political changes. Numerous studies have investigated the relationship between socioeconomic position (SEP) and mortality in Korea.2–7 In these studies, the variables used to classify SEP were education, income and occupation. However, studies that used occupation as the SEP were limited by the high likelihood of misclassifying individuals, as occupational information is recorded on the death certificate by relatives of the deceased.6 ,7 In studies that relied on death certificates, the mortality rate according to SEP was estimated by unlinked data, deriving the nominator from national death data and the denominator from national census data rather than by following study participants.2 ,5–7 Additionally, there have been few detailed reports of differences between occupation and/or industry groups, given that most studies divide occupation simply as those who participate in manual labour and those who do not.4 ,7
The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in cause-specific mortality between different occupational groups by following a large nationwide data set of Korean employees. We have previously reported a portion of our results in the form of an abstract.8
Materials and methods
Data source
Since 1995, the Employment Insurance Act has required currently employed workers to join the employment insurance programme in Korea. Information on workers who have joined the employment insurance programme between 1995 and 2000 was obtained from the Korea Employment Information Service under the Ministry of Labor. Information on each worker included the identification number, sex, date of birth, date of joining and leaving the insurance programme, occupational group classified by the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations (KSCO) and the industry of the company as classified by the Korean Standard Industrial Classification. Data were collected for 11 435 937 workers.
Cohort identification
The cohort included Korean employees enrolled in employment insurance between 1995 and 2000; we only included workers who were aged >15 and <60 years when they enrolled. Subcohorts by occupation group included only workers who engaged in a single occupation throughout the whole period covered by employment insurance from 1995 to 2000. Consequently, a worker who changed occupational classification or a worker without information of occupational classification was excluded from the cohort.
Occupational groups were classified into nine categories according to KSCO (KSCO1=legislators, senior officials and managers; KSCO2=professionals; KSCO3=technicians and associate professionals; KSCO4=clerks; KSCO5=service workers and sale workers; KSCO6=agricultural, forestry and fishery workers; KSCO7=craft and related trades workers; KSCO8=plant and machine operators and assemblers; and KSCO9=elementary occupations). Elementary occupations consist of simple and routine tasks (eg, street cleaning, carrying luggage, door keeping, and monitoring and packing manufactured products by hand).
Mortality follow-up and mortality rate calculation
The cohort data set was sent to the Korea National Statistical Office (KNSO) for matching deaths between 1995 and 2008. KNSO provided information on the matched cases for the cause of death according to the International Classification of Diseases-10 and the date of death. Population data were also obtained from KNSO using the resident registration population on 1 July of each year.9 Age-standardised rates (ASRs) were determined by direct standardised methods using data from the resident population registry in the year 2000 as the standard population. To compare the mortality between occupational groups, we calculated rate ratios and rate differences between specific occupational groups. Rate ratios were calculated by dividing ASRs of KSCO9 by ASRs of KSCO2. Rate differences were the differences between ASRs of KSCO9 and ASRs of KNSO2.
Ethics statement
The institutional review boards of the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute and Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, Incheon, Korea approved this study.
In total, 8 762 340 workers were eligible for analysis (table 1). Males comprised 63.3% of the study group. The most common occupational groups were crafts and related trades workers, to which 25.4% of males belonged, and clerks, to which 37.2% of females belonged. Agricultural, forestry and fishery workers accounted for a very small portion of the study population (0.3%).
By the end of the mortality follow-up period, 231 239 (2.6%) workers had died; the observed study participants represented 99 414 095 person-years in total. The overall mean length of follow-up was 11.3 years.
ASRs by sex and occupation are shown in tables 2 and 3. The ASR for all-cause mortality was 342.6 per 100 000 among males and 141.6 per 100 000 among females in the total cohort (data not shown). Agricultural, forestry and fishery workers showed the highest ASR for mortality (male (M): 563.0, female (F): 206.0), followed by elementary occupations (M: 499.0, F: 163.4), and plant and machine operators and assemblers (M: 380.3, F: 157.8). The lowest ASR was observed in professionals (M: 209.1, F: 93.3). The highest ASR for mortality due to neoplasms (C00-D48) was shown in elementary occupations (M: 146.4, F: 163.4). The lowest ASR due to neoplasms was shown in professionals (M: 93.2, F: 46.9) and managers (M: 92.1, F: 41.0). The highest ASR for external causes of death (V01-Y89) was seen in agricultural, forestry and fishery workers (M: 235.1, F: 74.7); the lowest was observed in professionals (M: 36.2, F: 15.1).
Differences in mortality rates between professionals and elementary occupations (absolute inequality) and the mortality rate ratio of professionals to elementary occupations (relative inequality) are also shown in tables 2 and 3. Those in professional occupations had the lowest all-cause mortality rates, whereas those in the elementary occupations had the second highest rates. Agricultural, forestry and fishery workers showed the highest mortality, but the total number of observed deaths were minimal due to this category having the fewest overall person-years. For this reason, we presented the absolute difference in mortality rate and mortality rate ratio between professionals and elementary occupations. Differences in all-cause mortality were higher in men than in women with rate differences (M: 289.9 per 100 000, F: 70.1 per 100 000) and with rate ratios of M: 2.39 and F: 1.75. In male workers, the most noteworthy causes of deaths were mental diseases (rate ratio of 6.31), liver diseases (5.61), diseases of the musculoskeletal system (5.50), vehicular crushing accidents (3.87) and suicide (3.78) in the relative aspect. In female workers, the rate ratios of mental disease (13.00), disease of the musculoskeletal system (13.00) and ischaemic heart disease (IHD) (5.17) were higher. The most prominent mortality rate difference was observed for external causes of death (M: 96.9, F: 21.6 per 100 000). Among men, the difference was also pronounced for diseases of the liver (38.3 per 100 000).
The most prominent finding in our study was that there were substantial differences in mortality rates among different occupation categories, which reflect the overall SEP. In addition to SEP, different occupations have varying levels of exposure to hazards. Overall mortality was much higher in lower occupational categories such as elementary occupations or agricultural, forestry and fishery industries than in higher occupational categories such as legislators, senior officials and managers and professionals in both sexes. Occupation is a good discriminator of socioeconomic inequalities in health, including mortality.10–12 According to a 'Survey on Labor Conditions by Employment Type' performed by the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor in 2013, the monthly wage was highest among legislators, senior officials and managers (approximately $5000), followed by professionals and related workers (approximately $3000). Occupations with the lowest incomes were elementary occupations (approximately $1400) and service and sale workers (approximately $1700).13 Aside from income, occupation can also reflect overall educational level, exposure to hazards and social standing.11
Inequalities in mortality among different occupational categories varied according to gender. The all-cause mortality rate difference between professionals and elementary occupations was much higher in men (289.9 per 100 000) than in women (70.1 per 100 000). This might be due to the difference in overall mortality rates between men and women, which are 209.1–563.0 per 100 000 and 93.3–206.0 per 100 000, respectively. However, the rate ratio of elementary workers to professionals was also higher in men (2.39) than in women (1.75). Previous studies of populations in the USA that used education as an SEP indicator also reported that socioeconomic mortality differences were greater among men than in women, although marital status played a role as a confounder.14 ,15 Data from Western countries cannot be directly applied to Korean adults because the social structures pertaining to gender, socioeconomic inequalities and causes of death in Korea differ substantially from those in Western countries. In previous studies in Korea, SEP and all-cause mortality associations were higher among men than in women, although the differences were not statistically tested.3 ,7 In this study, mortality differences between occupations caused by neoplasms, circulatory disease, mental disorder and external causes were noted in male and female workers. In the cases of lung cancer and chronic lower respiratory diseases, which were important causes of death with varying rates depending on occupational categories in men, there were no differences in rates between occupational groups for women. The rate ratio of liver diseases was much higher in men than in women. These findings suggest that health behaviour, including smoking and alcohol consumption, may explain gender differences in mortality disparity.14 ,15
It is important to understand the pattern of the contribution of specific cause of death to decrease socioeconomic inequalities in mortality.2 ,16 ,17 In this study, the main sources of mortality differences were external causes of mortality, including transport crashes and suicide, and liver and cerebrovascular diseases. In the previous study, which used education as an SEP indicator, the contribution of the cause of death to inequality in mortality in Korea demonstrated a similar pattern.2 In studies in Sweden, Finland, Norway and the UK, the most important source of mortality variation among different SEP groups was cardiovascular disease; which was responsible for ≥30% of mortality inequality.17 ,18 In this study, the role of IHD was not as high in male workers, although mortality inequality for IHD was higher in female workers. In female workers, the 'professionals' occupation group, which was used as the reference group, had a much lower IHD-caused mortality rate compared to other occupation groups. As a result, the rate ratio of IHD was high. This might be due to differences in the distribution of important IHD risk factors (eg, cholesterol and obesity) among occupation groups.19
Compared to Western countries, one of the most prominent differences in mortality was the contribution of external causes. In our study, an external cause accounted for 33.4% and 30.8% of mortality differences between professionals and elementary occupations in male and female workers, respectively. These differences are much higher than in previous reports from Sweden and the Netherlands, where mortality inequalities due to external causes were only 2–5%.17 ,20 In terms of relative inequality, external causes were a noteworthy cause of death in men and women, with rate ratios of 3.68 and 2.43, respectively.
Occupational injury can be a significant cause of inequality in external causes of mortality because of falls and/or exposure to heavy mechanical equipment. There were 1090 compensated mortality cases caused by occupational injury (approximately 7.1 per 100 000 workers) in 2013.21 Mortality from work-related injuries in Korea is much higher than in Western countries. In the USA, for example, the mortality rate from work-related injuries was 3.7 per 100 000 workers during 2005–2009.22 Inequality in mortality from other external causes of accidental injury is presumed to be mainly related to differences in exposure to occupational hazards.
Approximately one-third of differences in mortality due to external causes were caused by transport vehicle accidents. The mortality rate due to such accidents was particularly high among both sexes in agricultural, forestry and fishery workers. This suggests that mortality inequality might be affected by work-related transport crashes. Generally, the association between SEP and mortality from such accidents may be explained by accessibility to a new vehicle or to protective gear, the risk of pedestrian injury because of the living environment, and behavioural factors (including alcohol consumption or use of a seat belt).23 In some European studies, women seldom showed inequality in mortality from traffic crashes.20 ,23 Similarly, a previous study in Korea showed that inequality in mortality due to transport crashes was less in women than in men.2 Although absolute mortality rate differences in this study were much smaller in females than in males, the magnitude of relative inequality and the contribution of transport crashes to mortality inequality were not widely different between men and women. Considering that the participants of this study were employed workers, the possibilities of exposure to traffic may be higher among working females than in the general female population.
Another one-third of mortality rate differences by external causes was comprised of intentional self-harm, that is, suicide, the mortality rate ratio for which was also high. Socioeconomic factors, including lower education and lower income, as well as employment status, are well-known risk factors for suicide.24–26 Among men, the highest suicide mortality rates were observed among agricultural, forestry and fishery workers; the mortality rate was five times that of professionals. Farmers are at a higher risk of suicide compared to the general population.27 Moreover, agricultural workers in Korea have significantly elevated mortality due to suicide compared to the general population, and suicide by pesticide ingestion is prevalent in rural areas.28 Thus, in addition to socioeconomic strain, easy access to pesticides may play a role in increasing suicide-based mortality.29 In the case of women, although individuals engaged in lower SEP occupations showed higher mortality due to suicide than professionals, the highest mortality rate was unexpectedly observed in legislators, senior officials and managers. The derived mortality rate was based on a small denominator because the proportion of female legislators, senior officials and managers was very small. To obtain a more reliable and representative result, a longer follow-up period is required.
The finding that external causes of mortality contributed substantially to mortality inequality among occupation categories has important implications. Substantial efforts must be made to prevent accidents and suicide in all of society. In a study in Norway, which is one of the countries with the lowest income inequalities, it was reported that mortality inequality from an external cause among different education groups decreased significantly from 1960 to 2000.20 External cause of mortality is likely to be one of the most sensitive causes of mortality inequality affected by improvements in social policy and culture.
Liver disease contributed to a substantial proportion of mortality inequality among men, where liver disease and liver cancer accounted for 17.6% of the mortality rate difference between professionals and elementary occupations. In case of women, the rate ratio of elementary occupations to professionals was 2.06, although the mortality rate difference was small (1.8 per 100 000). This finding is consistent with a previous study.2 Inequality of mortality attributable to alcohol, including liver disease, widened during the economic crisis.6 In the case of liver disease, SEP-related behavioural factors, with alcohol consumption in particular, was presumed to play a major role in mortality inequality. Additionally, it was reported that lower income and lower education groups received hepatitis B vaccinations less frequently.30 Moreover, the hepatitis A infection rate was higher among lower income and education groups.31 Inequalities in hepatitis infection may also affect the inequality in mortality due to liver disease and liver cancer. Besides, liver disease is an important occupational disease for workers exposed to various solvents or to the hepatitis virus.
Cancer was also a source of mortality inequality. Stomach cancer showed great inequality in both sexes. Lung cancer inequality was observed only in men. Two factors that contribute to cancer mortality inequality include overall incidence and survival. The incidence of smoking or alcohol-related cancers, for example, may be affected by health behaviours that are tightly associated with SEP. Moreover, occupational or environmental exposure to carcinogens is expected to play a role in inequality of cancer-related mortalities among the different occupational categories. Lung cancer inequality in men is expected to be partly related to occupational exposure, as lung cancer is the most common occupational cancer. However, lymphoid, haematopoietic and bladder cancers, which are candidates for occupational cancers, showed no noteworthy inequalities among the occupational groups.32 This may be due to a very small portion of carcinogen-exposed workers among the entire study population. The main suggested mechanism underlying inequalities in cancer survival is disparity in the access to healthcare, leading to differences in disease stage at diagnosis as well as treatment modality.33 Differences in participation in opportunistic cancer screening programmes according to educational level were observed in Korea.34 Although there is a national healthcare insurance system covering the entire Korean population, additional efforts should be made to achieve equal access to basic preventive healthcare services.
Mental disease showed a noteworthy mortality rate ratio of elementary occupations to professionals (M: 6.31, F: 13.00), although the mortality rate difference was not noticeable. The relationship between SEP and mental disease mortality can be explained in two ways. First, the lower SEP group is associated with a higher incidence of mental disease because of more risk factors (eg, high stress and weaker social support).35 Second, the inequality can be exacerbated by differential access to treatment.36
In this study, the results are presented mainly as descriptive statistics. In some previous studies, the 'relative index of inequality' was used to show gradients in mortality.2 ,3 However, we could not apply this method because job categories cannot be classified in order. Cox proportional hazard models are another method to test the null hypothesis that mortality among various occupational groups is equal. However, we focused on presenting cause-specific mortality data for each occupational category using a large cohort. Although most groups had sufficient populations to show descriptive results, agricultural, forestry and fishery workers, as well as female legislators, senior officials and managers, represented a very small proportion of the participants (<1.0%). We used direct standardisation to compare mortality between different populations. Considering that direct standardisation is sensitive to small population size, the results for these groups might be far less reliable than those for other occupations. For the same reason, we did not use the results of these groups for calculating the ratio or difference of mortality rates.
To calculate mortality rates, we did not apply the latent period. Instead, we used person-years and death data from inclusion of the cohort. Following a cohort without a latent period could produce the problem of reverse causation. Despite this, we considered that most of the participants had been employed workers since before 1995 (the start of employment insurance) or before entering the insurance programme. In cases of chronic disease, however, the probability of reverse causation still exists to some degree.
We constructed cohorts with workers who had single occupations during 1995–2000. However, since the participants were working when the employment insurance programme began, we could not exclude workers who changed their occupations before 1995. If a person changed their occupation to a lower SEP-related job because of illness before 1995, there is also a risk of reverse causation.
The greatest strength of this study was the cohort size and the extent to which it reflects the working population of Korea. We followed 8 762 340 employed workers for approximately 13 years. Our data encompassed 28.6% of the Korean population between the ages of 20 and 64 years in 2000.9
Participants were members of the employment insurance programme operated by the government during 1995–2000. In 1995, when insurance was introduced for the first time, employees in a company with >30 workers in the private sector were eligible for membership.8 Although insurance covered only 33.2% of total employed workers at the time, coverage increased in stages to include workers in companies with ≥1 employee; the rate of coverage approached 65% by 2000.37 The majority of the employed workers included in our study were employees of the private sector, and non-regular workers (ie, part-time workers) were not included. For this reason, the scope of this study is confined to regular, full-time workers in the private sector of Korea. The representation can vary across occupational groups. For example, agricultural, forestry and fishery workers included in this study were employed workers; however, most of the agricultural and fishery workers in Korea are self-employed. Hence, the study participants in this category (KSCO6) do not represent the entire working population; participants from other occupational categories are presumed to represent a much larger proportion of their respective groups.
Another strength of this study was that we documented the cause-specific mortality rates among nine occupational categories. Accordingly, the mortality gradient among various occupational groups was determined. Participants have been classified into manual and non-manual labourers in previous studies of mortality inequality between occupational classes in Korea.4 ,6 ,7 The reason for this approach is presumed to be the lack of a sufficient number of study participants for additional stratification plus the risk of misclassifying occupations by relying on death certificate information.7 In this study, occupational information was obtained from employment insurance data, which were provided by the employees' respective companies; hence, the reliability of our information is expected to be markedly higher. Moreover, a sufficient number of deaths from a very large longitudinal data set enabled us to create nine occupation subcohorts.
The mortality rates in this study were calculated by following a longitudinal cohort. Several previous studies on mortality inequality in Korea were limited by using unlinked data for the numerator and denominator.5–7 ,26 In studies using linked data, the numbers of participants were insufficient to evaluate cause-specific mortality or else participants were limited to a specific population.3 ,4
There were also some limitations in our study. We assumed that all unmatched workers in the KNSO death registry, which covers the entire country, were alive. However, if some workers had emigrated from Korea before 2008 and had died during the study period, the mortality rate of the cohort would be artificially lowered. Moreover, if such deaths abroad had occurred disproportionately by occupational group, the results could be skewed. However, the emigration rate in Korea was very low (<0.04% per year between 2002 and 2008)38; therefore, any bias in the results was unlikely to be appreciable.
We calculated cause-specific mortality rates based on death certificate information, and there have been disputes regarding the accuracy of the stated causes of death on these certificates.39 In the previous Korean study, the accuracy of the stated cause of death on death certificates was 91.9% when compared to the medical records of the deceased in one university hospital in Seoul,40 and the accuracy is expected to be much lower when including certificates issued in small hospitals and rural areas. Considering the inequality of access to healthcare service, it is possible that the accuracy of death certificates can also depend on SEP. To minimise this problem, we used the cause of death code chapter level or group of the 3-digit codes.
A profound inequality in mortality rates among occupational groups in Korea was observed. The leading causes of death contributing to mortality inequality across occupational groups were external causes of mortality in both sexes and liver disease in men. To reduce mortality inequality, injury and suicide prevention targeting elementary occupations and agricultural workers should be prioritised. Moreover, the prevention of liver disease in male elementary workers should be addressed when developing policies aimed at remediating health inequalities.
Twitter Follow EUN-A KIM at @euna0
Contributors H-EL and E-AK designed the study and performed the analyses. H-RK, YKC and S-KK provided feedback on the study design and analyses. HEL drafted the manuscript, and all authors participated in revising the manuscript and approved the final version.
Competing interests None declared.
Ethics approval The Institutional Review Board of Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute approved this study in 2012.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement Data sharing will have to be requested from the ministry of labor and statistics after review of the IRB for this matter.


text:
US-based international supplier of instant games, Scientific Games Corporation, has recently announced that they've signed a new six-year contract to provide the Kansas Lottery with instant games and support for marketing and production operations. The agreement, which started September 13, 2016, will see the popular game provider supply its proprietary software and brands, which include popular game franchises like Monopoly™ and Walking Dead™.
The contract comes after a period of successes for the company, which in 2016 had already succeeded in winning contracts from a number of US lotteries, including the Lottery of Georgia. According to official stats, the game provider now covers over 70% of the instant game market in the U.S. – a feat which was accomplished not without criticism from industry rivals. The company supplies a total of 150 lotteries across the globe, most of which are in the U.S. and Canada, but also Europe.
Kansas Lottery is one of the oldest customers of Scientific Games, which through its legacy companies have provided the Lottery with various game products ever since its early days, back in 1987. The mutual partnership has proven to be quite successful thus far, bringing Kansas Lottery $164.6 million in instant games retail sales in 2016 alone, a number that's 6.7 higher than last year.
Commenting on the newly-signed agreement, Kansas Lottery CEO, Terry Presta, said that they are happy to collaborate with the biggest global supplier of lottery games in bringing pioneering games to the state, but also in designing strategies that will ensure their instant game sector keeps growing healthily.
Returning the sentiment, Senior VP of Instant Products at Scientific Games, John Schulz, stated that the company is likewise looking forward to continue their partnership with Kansas Lottery by providing new products. He also said that they will continue providing their knowledge gathered from global research and 40+ years of experience in the industry to help the Lottery drive their revenue and net income.