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Although the Internet's roots lie in defence and academic research projects in the 50s and 60s, it only exploded into the public consciousness in the mid-90s, after Tim Berners-Lee created the technologies behind the Worldwide Web.This was, not only in hindsight but widely recognised at the time, a hugely significant moment in human development; a point at which anyone, with a little technical skill and a little cash, could share their thoughts, beliefs, ideas, or products with a global audience. The control of publishing and broadcasting had always been concentrated in the hands of an elite. These few had a stranglehold on deciding what constituted acceptable culture, and what ideas should be kept away from the masses. They defined the consensus.
Now, ideas deemed "dangerous", "immoral", "obscene" or otherwise previously unacceptable could be publicly aired. Publishers could choose, if they wished, to remain anonymous. The implications were enormous – and given the benefit of hindsight, the predictions of the day weren't overblown; the effect of the new communication medium has been social dynamite.
Given that the peoples of the developed world could, for the first time, choose exactly what content to consume, the Internet could be seen as a measure of repression; people would naturally use it to fill vacuums previously unoccupied by other, censored, media. How would people use the Net?
We quickly found the answer; although there was of course a true explosion of creativity, bringing us services from Amazon to Hotmail, the overwhelming majority of network bandwidth was used by people downloading pornographic imagery. There was a simultaneous exponential rise in the use of anonymous "dating" services to find sexual partners, either to engage in cybersex or to meet "in real life". The Internet had provided the first unbiased survey of what the world was thinking; and what the world had on its mind was Sex. Few had realised how ruthlessly sex had been censored from human discourse in the preceding decades and centuries; only when all censorship was removed did we find out just how controlled our lives had been prior to the Web.
From day one, it was inevitable that the authorities would catch up with this turn of events and try to crush it; surely, our rulers hadn't spent centuries pushing sexuality underground, only to have the whole project die in a few short years. The American religious right was quickly on the case; it had been funding academic research since the 1980s trying to prove that porn in some way caused harm to people and society. The religious right was joined in its efforts to stigmatise porn (and other open expression of sexuality) by a new strand of feminism; this time, instead of fighting for the rights of women to enjoy their sexuality without stigma, these new feminists were insistent that free sexuality was harmful to women. Collectively, I refer to the religious right and neo-feminists as the New Puritans.
With no academic research to back up their claims, the New Puritans took to establishing myths in the public consciousness. The Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels is famous for his observation that a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth. There are many "facts" about porn and sexual imagery that many liberal-minded people have accepted as true with little thought: sexual imagery "objectifies" women; the free expression of sexuality somehow benefits men and subjugates women; porn is "linked to" misogynistic thinking; porn is "linked to" sexual violence; sexual freedom is "damaging to" relationships.
It may come as a surprise to many people who have heard these ideas that none of these "facts" is backed by any research whatsoever. Indeed, attempts by the New Puritans to find "smoking guns" have failed dismally, after more than two decades of trying. The research that does exist suggests the opposite to what is claimed by the New Puritans. Most remarkably, in those societies that have embraced sexual freedom in its many forms, rates of sexual violence have fallen massively. Porn video first became widely available in the United States with the widespread adoption of VHS in the late-1970s. In 2006, the Washington Post reported that the incidence of rape in America had fallen by 85% from 1979 to 2004. Of course, availability of porn was one of many social changes taking place in the US during this period, but the conclusion seems to be that greater sexual freedom in society makes women (and almost certainly children) safer from sexual violence.
Scientific research has firmly dismissed the "porn causes harm" myths, with the publication Scientific American recently reporting on a number of studies that seemed to show the opposite – that porn use is correlated with positive outcomes. In the UK, researcher Clarissa Smith has studied the effects of porn over 20 years and has come to similar conclusions (her research is soon to be published).
So, game over for the puritans? Of course not; freeing sexuality means less money for religions that reap the benefits of sexual guilt; there's also money in selling "cures" to the (probably imaginary) ailment of porn addiction and writing books about the evils of pornography.
With the election of a Conservative government in the UK in May 2010, the New Puritans saw new opportunities. Claire Perry, a right-wing MP, began a parliamentary enquiry into "protecting children online". Simultaneously, a Christian lobby group known as the Mothers' Union began a media campaign to convince people that children were being "sexualised". This was a good, old-fashioned attack on "permissive media", packaged into a fancy new term. Pretty soon, even level-headed people were believing that children were being "sexualised", without any clear idea of what that meant. So far, so predictable.
Then it gets weird; David Cameron appoints an "expert" to carry out a review into sexualisation; this expert is none other than Reg Bailey, Chief Executive of the Mothers' Union. So without public consultation, representatives of the religious right are writing policy proposals at the request of the British Government. In response to this absurd coup, the media outcry was… non-existent. An incident which should be treated as a political scandal has been ignored or even applauded. The very notion that children are being "sexualised" or that something should be done about it has been passed on without question in the mainstream press.
Reg Bailey published a report which was swallowed without comment by the government (I wrote about this in June). It stated, without being backed by research, that children were being sexualised, and that widespread media censorship should take place, from billboards to music videos to the sale of children's clothing. Having now established religious prejudice as fact in the mind of the British government and media, a raft of censorship measures is beginning to be implemented.
The latest measure was announced this week when the government came to an agreement with large ISPs that consumers would be asked whether they want the ability to see porn when they sign up for a home Internet connection. This is done in the name of "protecting children", although filtering solutions for children already exist (and have done for many years), and the effect of blocking an entire household can only be to prevent adults from watching porn. Although the measure is voluntary, there have already been attempts to stigmatise parents who are too "permissive" with their children; Clarissa Smith (mentioned above) says that parliamentary committees are already talking about "bad parents" who choose not to block porn to their household. Undoubtedly the next step will come when religious lobbyists report to MPs that parents are (shock, horror) choosing to remove the ISP block and watch porn in their own homes. Homes that have children in them!!!
The UK government has taken its first, definitive step into Internet censorship – something it has castigated other governments for in the past. It has been unclear about exactly what content is considered "unsuitable for children"; undoubtedly this definition will become ever broader with time. Undoubtedly too, the voluntary block will be under review, and the New Puritans will be demanding more sites to be blocked, and measures to make it harder (or impossible) for adults to access certain types of content via their home connections.
The response of the mainstream media has been almost non-existent. Most disappointingly, The Guardian writes in Daily Mail-esque terms about "the destructive effects of pornography on relationships and values, harming not just children but also adults" while blissfully ignoring that the claims of harm exist nowhere but in right-wing propaganda, and are not backed anywhere by research. In any other field of interest, The Guardian would undoubtedly investigate such claims, something that in the areas of laws related to sex and drugs, it repeatedly fails to do.
It was clear even 15 years ago that governments and corporations would never allow the Internet to continue as an uncensored medium; too many powerful vested interested are harmed by an open network. The US at least has the first amendment, making it harder to introduce censorship. But there's little doubt that the Mothers' Union, fresh from its success at turning the UK into a flagship for its "sexualisation" idea, will use us as a case study to campaign for similar measure elsewhere.


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Even during the coldest winters, your home can stay toasty warm with the help of high-tech heating appliances. Rather than turning up the thermostat for the entire house, heaters raise the temperature of specific areas with electric or propane-fueled power. Kmart carries models for heating both indoor and outdoor settings to make any environment more comfortable
Indoor heating appliances feature easy-to-use controls and built-in safety features, making them convenient and efficient options for the winter months. Try a fan heater or ceramic model to warm up the office. The compact design is small enough to fit on your desktop or next to the humidifier on the floor. Radiator heaters and electric fireplaces are larger options for a living room or den. Radiators are easy to roll from room to room with a set of casters, while electric fireplaces enhance the temperature as well as the ambiance of the space.
Outdoor heaters are ideal for entertaining. Add a tall patio heater to the deck on a crisp, fall night. From stainless steel to woven wicker, these high-tech heaters look refined while delivering tremendous warmth. A decorative fire pit is an elegant fixture for the backyard. The sophisticated designs, like mosaic tile and hammered bronze, surround a flickering flame in the center of the piece. Stay comfortable year-round with heating appliances from Kmart.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Shuffle handles the playback of audiobook and podcast content differently than music files, and assumes you'd prefer to always play this type of content sequentially -- even if the iPod's shuffle switch is on. Audiobook and podcast content is also kept out of the Shuffle's start-up music mix, ensuring that a stray chapter of "A Tale of Two Cities" never ruins the mood of your workout.
But if jogging to classical literature is your thing, you'll be relieved to know that any audiobook synced to the Shuffle is treated as a separate playlist. Podcasts are also treated as separate playlists, with each playlist titled after the name of the show. Like any other iPod, the Shuffle automatically resumes your podcasts or audiobooks where you last left off, allowing you to enjoy them in small doses without scanning back and forth to find your place.
As far as charging goes, the Shuffle comes with a 4-inch USB adapter that connects between the iPod's headphone output and your computer. Like the Shuffle itself, there's a high likelihood that you're going to lose it. Luckily, Apple will sell you a replacement...for $20.
The Shuffle can also be used on your computer in disk mode, allowing you to store and transfer files without interfering with the audio content on your iPod. As expected, you can't access the music files stored on the Shuffle without going through Apple's iTunes music software (version 10 or later is a required download for the Shuffle).
For a $49 MP3 player, the Shuffle sounds surprisingly good, though you'd never know it from old-school Apple earbuds that come included. Given its small size, it's worth mentioning that under the device's iTunes settings you can lock in a maximum volume level for the Shuffle, which can be helpful if the player is for a child or just to ensure your ears don't get blasted if you accidentally sit on the thing.
The Shuffle is rated at 15 hours of playback time, with a full recharge in about 3 hours. Our CNET Labs test results consistently achieved 17.6 hours of uninterrupted playback, surpassing Apple's modest estimate.
Final thoughts
In terms of features, design, sound quality, and price, the fourth-generation iPod Shuffle is the best version of the player we've seen yet. That said, the world of sub-$100 MP3 players is chock-full of interesting options, many of which deliver larger capacities, color screens, and broader compatibility with files and applications beyond the world of iTunes.
As the closest competitor, the SanDisk Sansa Clip+ offers twice the capacity, a built-in screen, microSD card expansion, FM radio, voice recording, and broader file and application compatibility. It's certainly not as sexy, but it's a much better value overall. Fitness fanatics also owe it to themselves to check out the Sony W-Series Walkman, which kills two birds with one stone by rolling an MP3 player into a great pair of sweat-resistant headphones.
If your music library and playlists are already in iTunes, however, the Shuffle offers the path of least resistance to those in the market for a small (really small), fitness-friendly MP3 player, and delivers plenty of value for $49.


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Portland Museum of Art keeps extended hours for final days of Winslow Homer exhibition
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) � The Portland Museum of Art is keeping extended hours Thursday and Saturday for the final week of its record-setting exhibition of Winslow Homer works.
Record numbers of museum-goers have viewed the exhibit, Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine, since it opened in September. The exhibit, which ends this Sunday, features 38 of Homer's works that he produced at his studio in Scarborough.
Due to the show's popularity, the museum extended its Thursday and Saturday hours until 8 p.m. through the end of the exhibit while adding an admission surcharge and selling timed tickets.
The exhibition showcases masterpieces that Homer created in Scarborough, where he lived from 1883 until his death in 1910.


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DETTMER TANK 128 - Other type
DETTMER TANK 128 current position is 53.29605 N / 10.4896 E on Oct 22, 2019 08:47 UTC. Current destination of DETTMER TANK 128 is HAMBURG and the estimated time of arrival (ETA) is Oct 22, 18:00.
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|Recent Port Calls
|Actual Time of Arrival (UTC)
DETTMER TANK 128 current position and history of port calls are received by AIS. Technical specifications, tonnages and management details are derived from VesselFinder database. The data is for informational purposes only and VesselFinder is not responsible for the accuracy and reliability of DETTMER TANK 128 data.
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5 Ways to Make Smarter Food Choices Every Day
Living, training, and eating like an endurance athlete means adopting some basic daily nutrition habits. Which ones are you nailing?
by Jordan Cantwell
After a big day of IRONMAN training, there's nothing I crave more than pizza. Specifically, deep dish, corn crust pizza from Little Star Pizza in San Francisco, washed down with a glass of Sancerre wine.
But while my taste buds might be craving pizza and wine, I confess that it's not exactly what most sports nutritionists recommend you eat after a five-plus hour training day.
If pizza and wine are less than ideal choices, what should you be eating as you prepare for your IRONMAN race?
Nutrition is often touted as the fourth discipline of triathlon, but this doesn't apply only to race-day fueling. How you nourish your body on a daily basis will make a dramatic impact on your training performance. Here are five tips to develop your personal approach to nutrition and arrive at your IRONMAN start line healthy and well nourished.
Nutrient density is key
Marni Sumbal is a Registered Sports Nutritionist and IRONMAN competitor who knows first hand that the daily diet provides the foundation for the body to perform in training: "Consuming a wholesome diet, primarily of unprocessed food such as fruits vegetables, legumes, and lean protein will help the body perform to its full abilities," she says. She recommends not excluding any major food groups from the mix and that by eating mostly real food, "it will be easier to dial in sport nutrition and meet your daily health and metabolic needs."
Make nutrition a habit
Just as it's important for your swim, bike and run training, consistency is helpful in managing your daily nutrition. It's no use following a strict diet and then bingeing on the weekend, or focusing on improved nutrition in the two to three weeks leading into a race.
Sumbal believes it's better to establish positive, nutritional habits year round: "Every day, throughout the season, you have the opportunity to nourish your body and fuel your active lifestyle while also figuring out what works best for you nutritionally in training and racing." While she advocates for wholesome, real food, she warns against being too strict with your diet: "Eating should be fun, enjoyable and delicious. If you are living with food rules, it will be difficult to meet your needs." (Maybe I should re-think that pizza…)
Timing matters
Replenishing calories and providing your body with restorative nutrients is critical but it's something that can easily slide if you're not prepared. If you're tight on time in the mornings squeezing in a workout or two before heading to the office, ensure you prepare a post-workout breakfast the night before.
Alternatively, develop a few healthy breakfast options you can pull together in five minutes. Sumbal underscores the message: "When you eat (or fuel) really does matter as it relates to performance and body composition so be strategic with your nutrition!" The biggest mistake she sees in this regard is under-eating on an easy, recovery or non-training day. She recommends athletes be mindful that recovery is "everything that happens between two workouts," and to take advantage of days when your energy expenditure is low to properly recover and refuel for your upcoming workouts.
Related: 5 Sheet Pan Suppers
Plan ahead
We've already pointed out that timing is key so it stands to reason that planning ahead can also help you stay on track when it comes to eating well. Monique Ryan is a Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics and the Subject Matter Expert for IRONMAN U in nutrition. She believes that planning ahead will help you avoid making poor nutritional choices: "Plan ahead, cook ahead, and always have food available to make healthy meals and snacks," she says.
Sumbal agrees, noting that planning your meals in advance will likely minimize the risk of overeating or indulging in the foods with poor nutritional quality.
Fuel smarter before your big day
One of the hardest things to get right in triathlon and endurance sports is fueling in the days and hours leading up to a race. For many, experimentation and practice can help you determine what works best for you and your tummy!
Once again, it's something you can plan ahead so you ensure you are focused on the right foods leading up to your 'A' race. Sumbal advises her clients to follow a "low residue diet" in the 48 to 72 hours before a race. While a low residue diet is not as nutrient dense as you should eat during normal training and life, it is mostly low in fiber and can reduce the risk for digestive issues during a race.
Sumbal recommends a few simple foods swaps to reduce fiber but maintain some nutrient value: Apple sauce instead of a whole apple, soup instead of raw vegetables, nut butter instead of raw nuts. Her favorite pre-race meals are very simple in order to keep the gut happy on race day: Rice and eggs or soup, chicken, and a baked potato.


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Get Price & Research Data by Year
Get accurate real prices for Ford cars and see what people paid for retail, trade-in and MSRP. PriceHub is the only car pricing resource that shows real sale prices from real Ford transactions. PriceHub also has comprehensive research on all Ford cars with safety reviews, TSB technical service bulletins, recalls, and consumer complaints. PriceHub is the ultimate online destination for Ford prices, research and information.


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Rachel Kendall, REALTOR®
Raleigh & The Triangle Real Estate Resource
The Raleigh & The Triangle, NC real estate market is a constantly changing frontier with plenty of moving parts. Thus, whether you're thinking about investing in a Raleigh & The Triangle home or wanting to sell the home you're already living in, you will want to work with an experienced and qualified North Carolina real estate expert.
Here on the Rachel Kendall Team, we have decades of combined experience helping interested home buyers and sellers navigate such Raleigh & The Triangle area real estate markets as Raleigh, Cary and Apex. Over the years, we've also made a point to stay up-to-date on the latest real estate tools and technologies meant to help make the real estate transaction process easier.
Today, we freely share these resources – such as our top-of-the-line MLS search tools and marketing strategies – with interested home buyers and sellers.
Perhaps it is the combination of our cutting-edge resources as well as our dependability and expert advice that has earned us the reputation as one of the best Raleigh & The Triangle real estate teams! Even with the prestigious awards, the Rachel Kendall Team understands that the one thing that makes our Team so successful are our customers -- our business is a referral-born business, with more than 96% of our business originating from our clients referrals.
Here at the Rachel Kendall Team, we are committed to not only helping you navigate the Raleigh & The Triangle housing market but also ensuring you a successful outcome.
Raleigh & The Triangle, NC Area Real Estate Search
It's been said that buying a home is one of the most important investments you'll ever make.
After all, you're not just investing in the brick and mortar – you're investing in an entire lifestyle!
We are sensitive to this fact and thus - we will never make you feel rushed in making a decision as a home buyer. In fact, we don't even make you sign up for any email lists before you can search Raleigh & The Triangle, NC real estate for sale.
Instead, we welcome you to visit our website as often as you want to learn more about various Raleigh & The Triangle and Johnston County communities, to learn about the various public schools in the area and to browse featured Raleigh & The Triangle listings.
You also have the option of browsing Raleigh & The Triangle area real estate by town. Our search tools allow you to search for homes in such specific areas, and even neighborhoods.
We will also lay out for you a variety of tools aimed at making the Raleigh & The Triangle home buying process as easy and stress-free as possible for you and your family.
Raleigh & The Triangle, NC Home Buyers Resources
As soon as you're ready to begin searching for your dream Raleigh & The Triangle area home, we'll be prepared to provide you with numerous resources to aid you during the home buying process, including:
- Our buyer FAQs feature
- Home mortgage calculator
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- Raleigh & The Triangle buying guide
Practical Advice For Selling Your Raleigh & The Triangle Area Real Estate
How much is my Raleigh & The Triangle home worth? It's the first question that many home sellers ask when they meet with us. And in fact, this is a very important questions to consider because the value of your home will often determine the best list price to set on your home. Otherwise, you risk pricing your home too low and losing money or pricing your home too high and never finding any interested and qualified buyers.
Thus, when we first meet with Raleigh & The Triangle area home sellers, we immediately provide them with a free Raleigh & The Triangle home evaluation.
From there, we launch into an aggressive marketing campaign aimed at selling your home as quickly as possible and for the highest price possible.
We'll help you sell your home by using our years of experiencing navigating the market as Raleigh & The Triangle REALTORS as well as our comprehensive home selling tools, which include:
Relocate to Raleigh & The Triangle, NC Now
As we mentioned above, buying a home is more about investing in the building, it's about investing in an entire lifestyle.
That's why we here at the Rachel Kendall Team have compiled an exhaustive list of relocation resources aimed at helping people develop a comprehensive understanding of the Raleigh & The Triangle area before they ever step foot here.
These relocation resources include our relocation package, interactive area map, moving tips and more!
Whether you're planning to relocate to Garner, Fuquay Varina, Zebulon or another Raleigh & The Triangle area community, we guarantee that you'll find this information invaluable!
Ready to take the next step toward owning your own piece of Raleigh & The Triangle real estate? Then contact us, the Rachel Kendall Team, to begin your Raleigh & The Triangle, NC real estate search!


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Part #: 950-81013
$95.00 *Free Shipping
Note: There are two different bow ties for the 2002-2009 Chevy Trailblazer. This part number is for the small bow tie which is approximately 2 1/2 inches tall. The other is approximately 3 inches tall. This part number is for Grille Shell Bow Tie emblem in a Satin Aluminum Finish with Outline for the 2002-2009 Chevy Trailblazer. New From Street Scene Equipment - Grille Gear Billet Bow Ties for Chevy Grille Shells. Precision Fit- Street Scenes new line of Grille Gear features GMSPO officially licensed bowties, these chrome, polished or satin finished bow ties are the perfect touch to finishing off any custom grille installation on your Chevy Vehicle. Made from either chrome, polished billet or satin finished billet aluminum, these bowties are easy to install into most Chevrolet grille shells and tailgates. Available for the entire late model Chevy Trucks and SUV�s. Please note that we make more than one style of bow tie for this make and model year vehicle. All of our different styles of bow ties for this vehicle can be seen elsewhere on this web site. For the complete package, check out our matching Speed and Billet Grilles for your vehicle.
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Books for Christmas
Best Kids Christmas Books of 2011
By Bianca Schulze, The Children's Book Review
Published: December 6, 2011
Home for Christmas
By Jan Brett
A new holiday favorite about the importance of family and working together. Jan Brett's clever storytelling begs to be read aloud while eyes devour her wonderfully detailed illustrations. More wintery, holiday favorites from Jane Brett: The Night Before Christmas and The Mitten. (Ages 3-5)


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OCALA, Fla. - A security guard was shot early Monday at the Ocala Entertainment Complex in a fight over a spilled drink, police said.
Deon Sutton 27, was arrested several charges, including battery with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in the shooting of 25-year-old Josue Santiago.
According to Ocala police, officers were called around 1:40 a.m. and discovered that Sutton had become upset with Santiago, who knocked over Sutton's drink.
After an argument, Santiago was escorting Sutton from the facility when Sutton pulled a gun from his pants, police said. The pair fought over the gun, which fired, and a bullet stuck Santiago in the shoulder, police said.
Santiago suffered a non-life-threatening wound, Ocala police said.
Witnesses restrained Sutton until police arrive and he was arrested and taken to a hospital before being transported to the Marion County Jail.
Copyright 2013 by ClickOrlando.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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MILWAUKEE, April 16 (UPI) -- Ty Lawson pumped in 26 points, including a go-ahead basket with 9.3 seconds left Monday that boosted the Denver Nuggets over Milwaukee 112-111.
Lawson's decisive running shot came only seconds after Milwaukee's Monta Ellis had put the Bucks ahead by one with a four-point play.
Lawson also dished out seven assists and Wilson Chandler provided 21 points for Denver, which clinched at least the fourth seed in the Western Conference and thus home court advantage in the first playoff round.
Andre Iguodala (13 points, eight rebounds, seven assists) and JaVale McGee (17 rebounds off the bench) made key contributions for the victors.
Ellis finished with 38 points on 14-of-25 shooting from the field for the Bucks, who hold the eighth seed in the East.


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Lamar-based Extension specialist says heating vegetables doesn't always cook out nutrients.
Which is better for you: raw or cooked vegetables? The answer may surprise you, says a University of Missouri Extension nutrition and health education specialist.
"We've always heard that raw vegetables are healthier than cooked because cooking destroys nutrients. In some cases that's not true," Tammy Roberts said.
For example, cooking tomatoes actually increases the amount of lycopene, the chemical that gives the tomato its red color. Studies have linked intake of lycopene, an antioxidant, with lower risk of cancer and heart attacks.
"Antioxidants help prevent or repair damage to body cells, which is important for decreasing risk of cancer," Roberts said. "They are also thought to improve immune function."
Reviewed 2018-11-14


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[vimeo=14502041] In the immediate aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake that struck Haiti, Tim Scott and Will Decker of Travel the Road, enter the capital of Port-Au-Prince to find a city in chaos. Their mission, to find hope amidst this tragedy, brings them to the downtown district where they witness the miraculous rescue of a man trapped beneath rubble for 15-days, without food or water. But soon after, violence erupts when rogue Haitian police begin shooting civilians for scavenging. Street riots, gunfights and civil unrest threaten to tear apart the city, and when all hope seems lost Tim and Will make contact with local believers who show them the power of the human spirit and an unshakeable faith for a better future.
7 Days in Haiti is a powerful three part series that is a raw and dynamic look at the aftermath of Haitian Earthquake. This DVD contains over 90 minutes of footage, in three episodes, and is an authoritative documentation of the days after the disaster.


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PHILADELPHIA � At birth in September, Moriah Mudd seemed strong and healthy. Her physical exam by a pediatrician at Riddle Hospital was completely normal. But then a nurse put a sensor on her foot and,...
PHILADELPHIA � At birth in September, Moriah Mudd seemed strong and healthy. Her physical exam by a pediatrician at Riddle Hospital was completely normal.
But then a nurse put a sensor on her foot and, within minutes, a machine called a pulse oximeter revealed that her blood oxygen level was alarmingly low � a sign that something could be critically wrong with her heart.
Three weeks later, Moriah underwent surgery at A.I duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., to correct a severe congenital heart defect diagnosed by follow-up tests. Had it gone undetected, she would have gone into respiratory distress at home in Sicklerville, N.J., said her mother, who is a family physician.
�She�s doing great now,� Kimberly Jones-Mudd said of her 9-month-old daughter. �She�s growing, eating, and her heart looks good.�
Pulse oximetry screening for congenital heart disease has become standard practice across the country, less than two years after New Jersey became the first state to require it, surveys show. Even in states such as Pennsylvania and Delaware that do not mandate it, the simple, noninvasive, inexpensive test is now done in almost all birthing hospitals, surveys show.
It�s too soon to know the impact of screening, but anecdotal cases like Moriah�s and early reports are all good. In New Jersey, hospitals identified two newborns with critical congenital heart defects out of more than 25,000 babies tested in the first three months after universal pulse ox screening began in August 2011, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC review also found that 10 infants with positive screens turned out not to have heart defects, a false alarm rate lower than in large European studies.
�It�s a highly useful test. It�s both cost-effective and life-saving,� said Samuel Gidding, head of cardiology at duPont Hospital for Children.
�It�s a screening program that people are embracing. They realize they should be doing this as part of good medical care,� said Pittsburgh neonatologist Robert Cicco, vice chair of a committee that helps the Pennsylvania Department of Health develop newborn-screening guidelines.
Of the 40,000 babies born with congenital heart problems each year in the United States, about 10,000 have a defect so severe they need corrective surgery or other procedures in infancy, research shows.
Many of these defects show up on fetal ultrasound. But experts estimate as many as 200 babies a year die from critical defects that go undetected until too late.
In Europe, studies show that about one in four newborns with positive pulse ox screens � that is, blood oxygen saturation below 95 percent � have a heart defect that could cause disability or death. Lung problems are also sometimes detected through positive screens.
In 2011, following advice from leading medical groups, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services recommended that pulse oximetry be added to the uniform screening panel for newborns.
Since then, all but four states have added screening laws, rules, or pilot programs, according to the Newborn Coalition, an advocacy group. Even in the four states without formal initiatives, most hospitals screen.
Pennsylvania is unusual, Cicco said, because the state does not mandate comprehensive newborn testing, but it does require reporting of results by hospitals that opt to test. This incongruity evolved from concerns about who would pay for testing, but in practice, it means that �99 percent of all newborns� are screened for 40 defects and diseases � now including congenital heart disease � as experts recommend, Cicco said.
�Nobody who is involved with this in a significant way is opposed to screening,� he said.


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Item # KDA000AItem # KDA000A
When you find yourself sitting trailside, and ground conditions are those that retain tread marks, you're bound to spot a Nevegal that left its signature. That popularity is because Kenda's Nevegal, like this lightweight 26in DTC model, are favored for its acute balance of traction and speed.
Part of the balance is due to the DTC rubber compound and part iconic tread pattern. DTC stands for dual tread compound and features Stick-E (50a) rubber on the side and 60a durometer rubber along the center for better wear. To offset the loss of traction from a harder rubber compound along the tire's center, Kenda uses ramped knobs that bite, while permitting efficient rolling properties.
The side knobs are not ramped, but plentiful and well spaced to grip confidently at extreme lean angles. The rubber is supported by a 120tpi casing to keep weight low and ride quality extra smooth. The Kenda Nevegal DTC 26in Tire uses a folding, Kevlar bead and comes in a 2.35in width.
View more Mountain 26" Clincher Tires
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Are these tubeless ready?
Best MTB Tires 26"
These are by far the best 26" MTB tires I've purchased in 8+ years. I'm buying another set!!!
Great tire
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
The Nevegals have been around a long time, and for a good reason. They grip very well and are pretty tacky, even the dual tread compound which is the harder rubber compound. They aren't super fast rolling, but you can make up for that with sheer confidence in cornering and braking. I have a short list of tires and this one is on there. I put them on my wife's bike and she loves them.
Kenda Nevegal DTC Tire
I have these on my single speed. Super tacky tire a little heavy not for racing but seem to be lasting with little wear.
The cool tacky
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
I have some of these on my DH bike for the front. Not a super high volume tire but a great one nonetheless! Grabs a hold of anything but the loosest of terrain and has a fairly decent life for the tackiness of the rubber.
Hard to beat
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
I have now owned this tire in a few different variations. Currently I have this Dual Compound in a 27.5 as my front and rear tire. Though I would prefer the full Stick E compound for the front tire this Dual Compound works very well. The side lugs are extremely sticky and inspire confidence while laying into a turn. The Dual Compound is the preferred compound for a rear tire as it has a more durable compound in the center which decreases roll resistance and improves longevity. Looking for a killer tire to do it all with, look no futher!


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ROCKLEDGE, FL - The Health First Foundation's "Grape Escape 9" is sure to dazzle the senses with an array of new taste sensations. Scheduled for Saturday, November 6, from 6 to 11 pm, this year's food and wine-tasting extravaganza features an Escape to the beautiful Waldorf Astoria in Orlando where guests will enjoy culinary delights created by world class chefs. All proceeds from the evening's event will benefit Health First Cardiac Services.
Highlights of "Grape Escape 9" include a multi-course meal in which each distinctive dish is specially paired with a top-shelf wine hand selected by our discriminating wine connoisseurs.
A live and silent auction of valuable wines, fine art, exquisite jewelry and vacation packages will also be held. The Waldorf Astoria is providing a special discount rate for those guests who prefer to stay overnight. To receive the discount, guests must call 1-888-353-2009 and ask for the Health First Foundation Group Rate.
Funds raised for the event will be used for continuing enhancements to the Heart Center's Cath Lab Cryogenic Ablation equipment for electrophysiology procedures at the Heart Center.
This equipment allows physicians to use cold temperatures to correct abnormalities of the heart's circuitry with reduced side effects. This sophisticated process is more controlled and does less damage to nearby tissues than hot ablation.
Melissa Flammio Clark is chairing the Health First Foundation volunteer committee that is organizing this year's event.
Corporate sponsorships for Grape Escape are available, and range in level from $1,000 to $50,000. For more information, call the Health First Foundation at (321) 434-7140.


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Time Warner Cable, the second-largest U.S. cable company, is rolling out its Internet bandwidth caps and overage charges into more markets. This means that your cable Internet subscription will work more like your cellphone plan: Once your downloads and uploads hit the limit, you will have to pay extra -- potentially $100 or more extra, depending on how much Web video you consume.
Poll: How much would you pay for Internet access?
The changes come as cable companies look for more sources for growth -- most people who are going to sign up for cable have already done so -- and new ways to profit off Web video, which could disrupt the cable companies' main TV businesses.
Plans will range from $30 to $55 per month, depending on the cap -- 5 GB, 10 GB, 20 GB, and 40 GB caps are available, with a $1 per GB overage charge, according to BusinessWeek. Those caps are very low compared to rival Comcast's (CMCSA) 250 GB cap. No word if Time Warner Cable's forthcoming Web video service will count toward its caps. Update: TWC tells us it'll test a 100 GB plan, too.
What does this mean for you? If you watch about 7 hours a week of standard-def video, or 2.5 hours a week of hi-def Web video, you could easily pass even the 40 GB cap. After that, each iTunes movie rental -- or Netflix (NFLX) stream, or whatever -- could cost $1 to $4 more. Or Hulu episodes could cost $0.30 to $0.50. That doesn't even include your other Web usage, such as downloading music, using the Web, etc.
This summer, Time Warner will roll out consumption-based billing in San Antonio and Austin, Texas, and Rochester, N.Y., BusinessWeek reports. (It's been testing the plans in Beaumont, Tex. since last year.) It'll happen sooner in Greensboro, N.C.
We'll see if Time Warner Cable is able to expand this into more, bigger markets. If it works -- and Web video fanatics don't mind spending $200 per month on Internet service -- that's good news for Internet providers.
But if subscribers bolt in big numbers for competitors like Verizon (VZ), which doesn't currently cap bandwidth, it could be a disaster. (More likely: It will have to bump caps up to a more reasonable 150 GB or more when customers revolt at $100-plus cable modem bills.)


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Microsoft adds iPhones to SkyDrive party guest list
Come on in, we're all friends in the cloud
Microsoft's cloud has partially descended on the iPhone with SkyDrive now available for Apple's super-soaraway mobile.
Microsoft has unveiled a version of its SkyDrive online document storage and sharing service tailored for iOS, along with SkyDrive for Windows Phone.
iPhone customers can now access all of their files in SkyDrive, create folders, delete files, and share links to folders and files directly using the Mail app, Microsoft said.
Mike Torres, Microsoft group program manager for SkyDrive devices and roaming, said here: "We believe you should have access to your personal content no matter which device you use."
Apple, of course, offers the SkyDrive-like iCloud.
Microsoft's embrace of Apple's Jesus mobe came the day after it updated OneNote for the iPad, with OneNote 1.3 for iOS. Microsoft released OneNote for the iPhone a year ago. Meanwhile, a client version of Microsoft's Lync unified messaging server is now available for Windows Phone and planned for the iPhone and iPad, in addition to Android and Symbian. ®
Sponsored: How to get more from MicroStrategy by optimising your data stack


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Aku bukan Rohaniwan
Aku bukan Orang pandai
13 Oktober 2011
Start every day with a smile and get it over with. ~W.C. Fields
A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks. ~Charles Gordy
The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief. ~William Shakespeare, Othello
Beauty is power; a smile is its sword. ~Charles Reade
A smile is the universal welcome. ~Max Eastman
You're never fully dressed without a smile. ~Martin Charnin
It takes seventeen muscles to smile and forty-three to frown. ~Author Unknown
All the statistics in the world can't measure the warmth of a smile. ~Chris Hart
Peace begins with a smile. ~Mother Teresa
The grievers Grieve Among the street burned to tireless death
A child of a few hours With its kneading mouth Charred on the black breast of the grave The mother dug, and its arms full of fires.
Begin With singing
Sing Darkness kindled back into beginning
When the caught tongue nodded blind,
A star was broken Into the centuries of the child
Myselves grieve now, and miracles cannot atone.
Forgive Us forgive Us your death that myselves the believers
May hold it in a great flood
Till the blood shall spurt,
And the dust shall sing like a bird
As the grains blow, as your death grows, through our heart.
Crying Your dying Cry, Child beyond cockcrow, by the fire-dwarfed
Street we chant the flying sea In the body bereft.
Love is the last light spoken.
Oh Seed of sons in the loin of the black husk left. II
I know not whether Adam or Eve, the adorned holy bullock
Or the white ewe lamb
Or the chosen virgin Laid in her snow On the altar of London,
Was the first to die In the cinder of the little skull,
O bride and bride groom
O Adam and Eve together
Lying in the lull Under the sad breast of the head stone
White as the skeleton Of the garden of Eden.
I know the legend Of Adam and Eve is never for a second
Silent in my service Over the dead infants
Over the one Child who was priest and servants,
Word, singers, and tongue In the cinder of the little skull,
Who was the serpent's
Night fall and the fruit like a sun, Man and woman undone,
Beginning crumbled back to darkness
Bare as nurseries Of the garden of wilderness.
Into the organpipes and steeples
Of the luminous cathedrals, Into the weathercocks' molten mouths
Rippling in twelve-winded circles, Into the dead clock burning the hour
Over the urn of sabbaths
Over the whirling ditch of daybreak
Over the sun's hovel and the slum of fire
And the golden pavements laid in requiems, Into the bread in a wheatfield of flames, Into the wine burning like brandy,
The masses of the sea
The masses of the sea under
The masses of the infant-bearing sea
Erupt, fountain, and enter to utter for ever
Glory glory glory The sundering ultimate kingdom of genesis' thunder.
Thomas Dylan


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Do movie directors, like fine wines, get better with age? That may sound like a frivolous question, but it has long been debated by critics as they weigh the relative merits of fiery young upstarts versus wise old veterans. The question takes on renewed relevance with the release of "Blue Jasmine," the latest movie from 77-year-old writer-director Woody Allen.
Allen has received glowing reviews, but have the critics been overindulgent because of his age? In my view they have indeed overrated the picture, and its limitations may well have something to do with the sins of repetitiveness and enervation that sometimes afflict movie directors in their 70s and 80s.
The same questions could arise again during the next few months as other movies arrive from veteran directors. On the horizon we have "The Counselor" from 75-year-old Ridley Scott, "Venus in Fur" from Roman Polanski and "Capital" from Costa-Gavras, both 80; 83-year-old Clint Eastwood is preparing the movie version of the Broadway hit "Jersey Boys." Add new films by Alain Resnais, 91, and Jean-Luc Godard — the enfant terrible is now 82 — and it seems that graybeards are having a heyday. The winner in the longevity sweepstakes is Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, who is reportedly in pre-production on a new movie at age 104. Regardless of the merits of this opus, one has to applaud his stamina as well as his optimism.
In theory, there's no reason why age should prevent any of these directors from working productively. Hollywood has always been notoriously ageist, and it's heartening to see people with gray in their hair at work in this town. In the past, many gifted directors were forcibly retired far earlier than they should have been. A famous story is told of Fred Zinnemann (two-time Oscar winner), who "took a meeting" late in his career with a young studio executive who asked the aging director to recount his credits. "You first," Zinnemann reportedly shot back.
Needless to say, people need not lose their creative vitality when they become eligible for Social Security. But some challenges face senior movie directors that may not apply to artists in other media. Novelists and painters often do some of their finest work in their twilight years. Then again, it's a lot easier to stay in control of a paintbrush or a blank sheet of paper than it is to oversee the small armies and the distant locations that demand the attention of the film director.
Still, as people remain fitter and more vigorous in their later years, these physical obstacles may be less relevant than they once were. A more pertinent concern is the growing insularity of many rich directors. Sheltered by their wealth and by a coterie of sycophants, they're often cut off from the urgent concerns of contemporary life, and they lose their creative edge. They tend to repeat themselves to diminishing effect.
Of course there are exceptions to this pattern — Robert Altman's "Gosford Park" (made when the director was 76) or Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" (the work of an 83-year-old director) — but they are rare.
The same issues were raised by two leading critics of the 1960s, Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris. In his book "The American Cinema," Sarris, who helped to popularize the auteur theory in America, championed the late films of directors including John Ford, Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock. "The economy of expression that Ford has achieved in 50 years of filmmaking constitutes the beauty of his style," Sarris wrote.
Kael cried humbug. In her famous denunciation of the auteur theory, "Circles and Squares," she blasted many of the late movies that Sarris and his disciples revered. Throughout her career, she slammed many older directors' films as creaky relics. In a review of Hawks' 1967 western "El Dorado," Kael wrote, "'El Dorado' combines [John] Wayne and [Robert] Mitchum, both looking exhausted. The director, Howard Hawks, is also tired, and like Ford, he doesn't want to go out on location. … Their recent movies look as if they were made for television."
Kael could miss the mark badly. She failed to appreciate Ford's late masterpiece, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." And she tried to stay hip by sometimes overpraising the work of hot young directors like Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma and Steven Spielberg. But she was refreshingly unsentimental about old age, refusing to give directors a pat on the head simply because they kept working. "Repetition without development is decline," she declared bluntly.
That criticism unfortunately applies to many of Woody Allen's recent movies. The prolific Allen has succumbed to the repetitiveness that Kael identified as one of the greatest hazards for an aging director. Many of his protagonists — Kenneth Branagh in "Celebrity," Jason Biggs in "Anything Else," Owen Wilson in "Midnight in Paris" — sound like younger versions of Allen himself, with the same whiny, intonations.
More disturbing is that Allen has failed to sustain the incisive observation of contemporary mores that distinguished his best films. In "Blue Jasmine," the scenes set in the affluent circles of Manhattan and the Hamptons are stale. All the satirical jabs at upper-class excess seem like milder, less funny variations on jokes that Allen has deployed since "Annie Hall."
The minute you see Alec Baldwin's character, you know that this financial wizard is a cheat and a philanderer, and he never reveals any other dimensions. Compare Baldwin's character to the equally slick but more sharply drawn TV producer played brilliantly by Alan Alda in 1989's "Crimes and Misdemeanors," and you'll see how Allen's writing has declined in the last two decades.
Scenes in San Francisco, where Cate Blanchett's Jasmine is forced to relocate after she loses her riches, are somewhat more novel within the Allen oeuvre, but most of the working-class characters also seem stock, enlivened only by the acting skills of Bobby Cannavale and a surprisingly adroit Andrew Dice Clay. All of the performances in the movie deserve the praise they've received. Blanchett in particular takes us inside the disturbed mind of this alternately fragile and steely wreck, but the writing lacks the acuity found in "Manhattan," "Hannah and Her Sisters," "Crimes and Misdemeanors" or "Husbands and Wives" — four more probing dissections of modern relationships.
This same slackening of energy and insight undermined the contemporary scenes of "Midnight in Paris." There was genuine cleverness in the period scenes that saw Wilson's character transported to the literary salons of the 1920s, but the present-day scenes with Wilson, his fiancée and her pretentious parents were flaccid and trite.
In my view, "Match Point" remains Allen's best film of the last decade because it is the one in which he challenged himself by tackling a whole new genre — a film noir thriller, bolstered by pungent scrutiny of a social climber in London. A willingness to take risks is one key element that distinguishes a vibrant work by any director from a paint-by-numbers retread.
That helps to explain why Eastwood turned out a remarkable series of films in his 70s. He moved outside his comfort zone by focusing on a female protagonist in "Million Dollar Baby," imagined the Second World War from the Japanese point of view in the extraordinary "Letters from Iwo Jima" and dared to play an unrepentant racist in the politically incorrect but vital "Gran Torino." (However, it must be noted that even Eastwood has lost some of his edge in more recent films.)
These mixed results should raise warning bells as we await the next batch of films from the septuagenarian and octogenarian crowd. It's wise to approach these films with a measure of hope, balanced by a regretful dose of skepticism.
Farber is a film critic and historian and president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.


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After seeing a pause in new business registrations last year, both Wisconsin and especially Minnesota have seen strong growth during the first quarter of this year compared with the same period a year ago.
In the Gopher State, total registrations in the first three months of this year grew by 23 percent, about twice that seen in the Badger State (see chart). Growth in both states was largely driven by new registrations of domestic and foreign limited liability companies (LLCs). Should it hold, this would be a return to the growth of LLCs seen through much of the last decade in both states. And while registrations for new corporations were flat in Wisconsin—largely continuing a long-term trend—the same trend reversed itself in Minnesota, where new corporation registrations grew by 18 percent in the first quarter and were 8 percent above 2010 levels as well.
In all, Minnesota recorded some 18,000 new registrations in the first quarter. Compared with its easterly neighbor, Minnesota tracks many additional forms of business registrations, including assumed names, which are not incorporations of new businesses but registration of a name, possibly for use by an unincorporated sole proprietor. There were almost 4,500 such registrations in the first quarter of this year, about 6 percent more than in 2011.
For more background on trends in young establishments, entrepreneurship and self-employment, see the cover articles in the July 2011 and January 2012 fedgazette.


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|Marantz SR 6004 A/V Receiver Review
|Thursday, 28 January 2010
Page 1 of 2
Marantz has long been associated with stereo receivers and has produced an extensive line of components over the last 40 years. Times have certainly changed from when all-one-receivers were at the heart of many a 2-channel stereo system and were called upon to serve as amp, tuner and phono stage. Nowadays, a receiver can hardly get a second look unless it can serve up the video goods, too. Marantz's SR 6004 is part of the new breed of A/V receivers designed to accommodate practically any audio/video connection and demand imaginable. With a suggested sticker of $1,249.99, the SR 6004 proves the old adage, "you get what you pay for." And it's quite a lot.
It would be a short review if I focused on what the SR 6004 can't do, as its list of features is nearly inexhaustible. One could spend a week just exploring and fine-tuning the multitude of options at hand here. Most folks just want to get setup and call it good, though. And it's hard to imagine a setup scenario this receiver can't accommodate. Interconnectivity is what the SR 6004 is all about, whether your system includes Blu-ray, DVD, VCR, video projector, camcorder, satellite tuner, gaming device, iPod, flash drive or otherwise, you'll likely find the respective connection somewhere on this receiver. Six HDMI 1.3 ports – four inputs and two inputs – open the door for new formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio and make it easy to connect two TV sets.
The SR 6004 replaces Marantz's 6003 model with several new functions and improvements. Perhaps most exciting is the receiver's integration with Bluetooth devices, which enables users to transmit audio signals wirelessly from up to eight devices, including iPhones, iPod Touches, Blackberrys and Bluetooth-enabled computers, and listen through a home theater system. This is accomplished via the RX101 wireless receiver that's bundled with the SR 6004. The front panel's USB input has also been upgraded and can be used to transmit audio from an iPhone or iPod Touch, but it's also capable of reading MP3, WMA and WAV files from other portable devices. If your iPod or iPhone is loaded with music, the receiver's USB transfers audio signals digitally and processes them using the SR 6004's 24-bit/192kHz DAC instead of the portable device. To boost compressed audio, M-DAX (Marantz Dynamic Audio eXpander) helps fill in the "gaps," adding greater high frequency to minimize any lossy effects.
The receiver also boasts some two dozen surround modes, including Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS Neo:6 Surround, DTS-DH Master Audio and Dolby Pro Logic II Height. If you want just the stereo facts, the SR 6004 features Pure Direct mode, which bypasses the tone control circuit, bass management configuration, output from the video jacks and even turns off the display to ensure faithful reproduction of the original recording.
An i-Chips video processor can take composite or component video signals, converts them to digital and upscale them up to 1080p for HDMI output. Conversely, the receiver can take any signal from the analog video monitor outputs and down-convert. Supported resolutions are 480i for S-video; 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i for component video inputs and outputs; and 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p for the HDMI inputs and monitor output. The SR 6004 also sports component video output for a second zone to bring the sights and sounds into other rooms.
Far more than just an old 5.1 surround machine, the SR 6004 delivers 110 watts, at a miniscule 0.08% THD, across 7 channels (8 ohms) for plenty of noise-free power regardless of setup. The receiver is equipped for 7.1 surround playback via Dolby Pro Logic IIz, and can be configured for front height speakers or any other speaker setup you can dream of. Should you choose, the back surrounds can be re-assigned for bi-amping the front channels. The unit's 24-bit/192kHz DAC is available to all channels. The receiver can decode HDCD-compatible compact discs. An AM/FM tuner can store up to 60 preset and individually labeled stations. If you want to use the receiver for XM or Sirius satellite radio, no problem. There are even two A/C outlets to connect a pair of auxiliary components. About the only thing missing is a phono stage. The 90 pages of info in the User Guide can fill in anything I don't cover.
A GUI (graphical user interface) is control central for the SR 6004. The GUI can be viewed on a TV screen by connecting either a composite or component video or HDMI input from the TV to the receiver's VIDEO MONITOR OUT terminal. Otherwise, the GUI menu is accessible and displayed on the front panel. Every home theater room has a sonic personality that's unique. It's easy to overlook the effect that floor coverings, windows, drapes, furniture and other in-room accessories can have on the area's acoustics. To compensate for all these anomalies, Marantz employs an Audyssey Laboratories' calibration microphone to ensure that the sound passing from the SR 6004 and out your speakers is specifically tailored to your environment.
After connecting all speakers (the receiver's banana jacks work with bare wire and banana plugs but not with spade terminations), plug the mike into the SETUP MIC input, place it in the first and main listening position and select "speaker setup" from the menu. From there it makes a series of acoustical customizations specifically for the room to optimize the playback experience. Speaker size, speaker distance, sensitivity and cross-over network are all accounted for. Dynamic EQ adjusts surround and subwoofer level according to volume, so there's less degradation of dynamics when the receiver is played at lower volumes. It's an unfortunate reality that most home theaters have a very limited sweet spot when it comes to sound, so the Audyssey can be used to optimize up to six different listening points for everyone's enjoyment. In addition, Audyssey manages dynamic volume to reduce the blare of overly loud TV commercials and save your hearing the next time someone peddles the world's greatest vegetable chopper.


text:
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text:
"Waiting for 'Superman'" Trailer Offers a Bleak Look at American Education
David Guggenheim, the man who made An Inconvenient Truth, turns his eye toward the sorry state of public education in this film whose title refers' to our kids' last best hope.
We don't waste our time on anything not worth your time. We celebrate the best of what's coming on film and TV. We cheer when our expectations are met and criticize when we're let down.


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Radical Homemaking ... With Houseguests?
I wouldn't say I'm a slob. The toilets get scrubbed, I'm a champion when it comes to de-cluttering, and the sheets get changed. But I do possess a certain, ummm … blindness to grime. Since most cobwebs are above my sightline, I don't notice them. The windows were last washed in 2008. Dusting really only occurs on those surfaces that see the most activity. I consider a healthy dirt population vital stimulation for my family's immune system.
It's not quite the same for Bob. Maybe it's because he is significantly taller, so he sees more of the dust and cobwebs up there. Maybe (most likely) it has something to do with his waspy New England roots.
And while the vacuum cleaner is one of his personal power tools and he wields it with truly sexy masculine form, he generously lets the rest slide with only occasional gurgles of frustration … until company is on the horizon.
A few months ago, we learned that our good friends, the Bowies, would be visiting from England for one week this August. Bob began planning right away. Our house, the color of grayed-over untreated pine siding, was slowly stained an earthy brown with burgundy trim over the course of the summer. Our front porch was cleared of tools and lumber scraps. Deteriorating screen doors were repaired. In an effort to match his enthusiasm, I bought flowers for the front deck and attempted to keep them fertilized and watered. I stacked the firewood early.
As the days grew fewer, Bob's efforts grew more intense. He would work at reshelving books, cleaning up his basket weaving supplies, and reorganizing the guest room. And then, he'd step out to where the girls and I were doing our best to stay out of his way … and moan at our mess. Saoirse's yarn and felt scraps littered our floor. The contents of the costume bag were strewn across the living room. Ula is in the phase where she likes to pull all clothes out of drawers and scatter them across the bedroom floor as she puts together new outfits every 20 minutes. Clean and dirty five-year-old undies get mixed together and wind up in the most unexpected locations—under couch cushions, under desks, outside on the deck.
I'm not much better. No sooner are the leftovers from the last meal stored away than I have to begin cooking the next meal or testing the next recipe. The lamb harvest is coming in and there is fat to render, the bones need straining from the meat broth, and a few jars of fermented pickles sit out on the counter growing mold and bubbling over. My desk is a clutter of articles, books, receipts, bills, splattered and stained jotted-over recipes, phone messages, and disseminated important scribbles for future masterpieces jotted sideways and on the backs of envelopes and recycled paper. The contents spill over to the floor, confusing themselves with junk mail and wastepaper in such a way that no one but me is authorized to touch.
Tensions were starting to grow last week with only seven days until the Bowies' arrival. I was working at my desk, the kids were on the carpet behind me, and Bob walked through, looked at our detritus and actually moaned with anxiety.
My temper grew short. "We can't just stop living to keep the house nice!" I snapped at him. He growled a few choice words back.
In spite of my defensiveness, I fully understood how he felt. I wanted our house to look nice, too. It only needed to be "perfect" just for one quiet moment when we brought the Bowies home. As long as we held together long enough to make a good impression, we would both be satisfied. He wasn't asking for too much.
Saoirse and Ula can be recruited to help out to a certain degree, but their creativity and unwillingness to part with a single paper scrap make them an obstruction to progress. Rather than cleaning their craft areas, they turn the moment into gallery time, figuring out how to tape every little art project to the walls of the house. They set about picking up their toys upstairs, but soon decide that "cleaning" means meticulously arranging them in interesting and artful scenes from their imagination. At the same time, my being on the cusp of releasing a new book as the fall meat harvest begins keeps my farm, computer, and desk demands high.
Things fall apart ...
The climax in our house-cleaning drama happened Wednesday morning, just three days prior to the Bowies' long-anticipated arrival. Bob and I sat staring at each other over a cup of coffee, trying to arrange how much cleaning could get done that morning before the fresh chicken pick-up later that afternoon. Saoirse came in, threw a blanket and a pillow down on the floor and laid down in front of us. Ula followed with a few choice toys. They began to squabble. The puppy appeared from behind my rocking chair and coughed up a few shards of my bamboo knitting needles on the rug. The phone started to ring. Bob dropped his head in his hands. I began chewing my lip. I ordered the kids to go back upstairs and took the phone call while I silently prayed for a fairy godmother to come help us resolve our chaotic distress. Apparently she was listening. And had a cruel sense of humor.
Suddenly, Saoirse threw up. She didn't make it to the toilet in time, and it looked like a murder scene upstairs. And there, in the midst of the worse mess imaginable at that point, lay our blessing. Saoirse stopped moving. She lay down in her bed and fell asleep. We tackled her craft table without her protests. A vomiting child is a legitimate excuse to get out of helping at the chicken pick-up, so Bob was able to stay home and continue cleaning while Ula and I went down to the farm to work.
And while we were there, Ula threw up. And while Saoirse likes to retreat to a dark corner and have no one come near her when she is sick, Ula has different requirements. She wants Mommy by her side for the entire length of the illness. Suddenly, I couldn't deal with customers, I couldn't deal with emails, and Ula was too sick for me to move her back home. We retreated upstairs in the farmhouse, far away from the customers, and tended to her woes.
Bob's day suddenly got a whole lot better. His loving mess-makers, one wife and two children, were suddenly occupied with a stomach bug. Life came to a temporary standstill. No cooking needed to be done, no toys could be taken out, no craft projects were attempted. Laundry was done, beds were made, dust bunnies and cobwebs were removed. The girls recovered quickly, but their energy levels were low enough that we were able to catch up.
The Bowies were scheduled to arrive Saturday morning. Steady progress was made each hour until then. When Saturday dawned, we decided Bob would go to our farmers market, and I would stay home with the kids and then go retrieve them from the train station. He smiled over his coffee that morning, looking at the vacuumed, (mostly) dusted, de-cluttered, fresh-sheeted, de-cobwebbed, painted house with the pretty, not-dead-yet (but well on their way) flowers out front. It was the best we were going to do. Satisfied, he kissed me, then picked up his cash box and vaulted down the steps to the car.
What We Learned From Swimming With Leeches
The appearance of "bloodsucking parasites" in one farm family's pond got them thinking: How could we be so comfortable with our natural world, yet paranoid about harmless—and helpful—creatures in it?
I waved to him as he left, then went about my checklist. There was dinner to get ready for tonight, and then the meat for Sunday's meal needed to be seared and put in the slow cooker. It would only generate a few dishes and some minor grease splatters. Hopefully I'd be able to get them washed before it was time to leave … and then Ula came downstairs and reported a bed wetting accident. And so there was a load of laundry to do, and then that would have to be hung out before we left. And then Saoirse and Ula decided to make a few welcome cards and crafts as gifts for their arrival, which meant a few snips of paper and yarn and felt here and there … and a box of crayons left out on the couch. Nothing too major, right?
I did my best to hold the place together according to Bob's vision while he was gone. I straightened up the screen porch, vaccumed out the loft, finished making up all the guest beds. But the laundry wasn't going to be dry in time to take inside. Undies, t-shirts, and bed sheets would be flapping in the breeze to greet the Bowies upon their arrival. The craft table would once again be littered with a few heartfelt scraps. I smiled as we headed out the door to retrieve them.
Our home is an ecosystem: No matter how perfect we'd like to make it, as long as we live and create there it will never be sterile, still, and clean. But our long-time friends would soon be with us, and the joy of their arrival quickly overshadowed all concerns about our messy, happy house.
Shannon Hayes: People ask me, "How do you do it all?" The answer is, I don't … and there's a good reason for that.
The downsides of doing it all.
Shannon Hayes: What happens when one member of a couple wants to live a new kind of life—but the other doesn't?


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#FSBConnect Telford
Your opportunity to join #FSBConnect Networking and effectively develop and grow your business through our national network of events
Events are held on the third Thursday of each month.
Free to attend
All welcome so why not bring a friend/colleague.
Join fellow business owners and entrepreneurs over Tea and Coffee in a friendly, informal environment
In addition, FSB representatives will be on hand to talk to you about ensuring you get the most from your FSB membership and of course time to mingle and circulate with your promotional literature and those all-important business cards!
We look forward to welcoming you! Don't forget to download our Business Networking - 10 top tips
For general enquiries regarding the event please contact Lesley Burgess by email or call 07816453559
#FSBConnect Shrewsbury is one of many #FSBConnect events run across the UK. And be sure to follow @FSBSphsHfdsWrcs for regular information to support your business.
The FSB Events Privacy Policy can be found online here.


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NEW YORK — Marvin Miller was a labor economist who never played a day of organized baseball. He preferred tennis. Yet he transformed the national pastime as surely as Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, television and night games.
Miller, the union boss who won free agency for baseball players in 1975, ushering in an era of multimillion-dollar contracts and athletes who switch teams at the drop of a batting helmet, died Tuesday at 95. He had been diagnosed with liver cancer in August.
"I think he's the most important baseball figure of the last 50 years," former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent said. "He changed not just the sport but the business of the sport permanently, and he truly emancipated the baseball player — and in the process all professional athletes. Prior to his time, they had few rights. At the moment, they control the games."
In his 161/2 years as executive director of the Major League Players Association, starting in 1966, Miller fought owners on many fronts, not only achieving free agency but making the word "strike" stand for something other than a pitched ball.
Over the years, his influence was widely acknowledged if not always honored. Baseball fans argue over whether he made the game fairer or more nakedly mercenary, and the Hall of Fame repeatedly rejected him in what was attributed to lingering resentment among team owners.
Players attending the union's annual executive board meeting in New York said their professional lives are Miller's legacy.
"Anyone who's ever played modern professional sports owes a debt of gratitude to Marvin Miller," Dodgers pitcher Chris Capuano said. "He empowered us as players. He gave us ownership of the game we play. Anyone who steps on a field in any sport, they have a voice because of him."
Major League Baseball's revenue has grown from $50 million in 1967 to $7.5 billion this year. At his last public speaking engagement, a discussion at New York University School of Law in April marking the 40th anniversary of the first baseball strike, Miller said free agency and resulting fan interest contributed to the increase. And both management and labor benefited, he said.
"I never before saw such a win-win situation in my life, where everybody involved in Major League Baseball, both sides of the equation, still continue to set records in terms of revenue and profits and salaries and benefits," Miller said.
Miller, who retired in 1982, led the first walkout in the game's history 10 years earlier, a fight over pension benefits. On April 5, 1972, signs posted at major-league parks simply said: "No Game Today." The strike, which lasted 13 days, was followed by a walkout during spring training in 1976 and a midseason job action that darkened the stadiums for seven weeks in 1981.
Miller led players through three strikes and two lockouts. Baseball has had eight work stoppages in all.
When he took over, baseball's minimum salary was $6,000. By 1968, Miller had negotiated baseball's first collective bargaining agreement. By 1970, players obtained the right to take disputes to an arbitrator.
Nowadays, baseball's biggest stars make up to $32 million a season, the average salary is more than $3 million and the major-league minimum is $480,000.
Legendary union boss Marvin Miller, 95, dies
NEW YORK — Marvin Miller was a labor economist who never played a day of organized baseball. He preferred tennis. Yet he transformed the national pastime as surely as Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, television and night games.


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Efforts on to ensure safe flow of traffic on Salang Highway
Efforts on to ensure safe flow of traffic on Salang Highway
KABUL (Pajhwok): Efforts have been made for safe and secure flow of traffic through the Salang Pass during winter, authorities concerned told lawmakers on Monday.
Abdul Rahman Salahi, secretary at Ministry of Public Works, Mohammad Aslam Sayas, secretary and acting state minister for disaster management and Gen. Rajab, head of the Salang Pass Protection and Safety Authority were summoned by the Wolesi Jirga who briefed the lawmakers about future plan and strategies.
Salahi told lawmaker that Salang remained opened throughout the year, but a large number of traffic and movement of heavy vehicles damaged the vital Highway.
He added: "For basic reconstruction work of the highway there is a need for six months and during this period all kind of traffic should be blocked."
Eighty-six kilometres of the total 108 kilometres of Salang highway stretched from Parwan's Jabal Saraj to Baghlan's Dushi was in dilapidated condition and needed urgent reconstruction.
He said over 400 personnel and more than 100 different type of machinery had been allocated to Salang highway to help traffic during winter.
Sayas said, "Like previous years, food for 10,000 people has been transferred to the 13 safe homes on Salang highway."
Gen. Rajab told the lawmakers that all preparation had been made on his part and no problem would emerge this winter.
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Reading offers wealth of information
Wick's World
My greatest gift in semi-retirement has been the extra time I have allotted to reading. For the last eight years I estimate I have read three to four books each week or well over a thousand books since retirement. Although often overlapping my sleeping hours, to me, every page is worth it. I have found my interests transforming from reading philosophy, theology, psychology and social/anthropological material to history and especially historical fiction. The last category allows one to use their imagination and still get a picture of how life was or could have been in the past. James Michener was one of the best at this, although it was Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" that really got me hooked on historical novels.
Naturally, through my new interest in history, I have learned a lot about America's presidents — some of it more than one really needs to know. A good way to clear my brain of this useless presidential trivia would be to 'get it off my chest' and transfer these presidential facts to my readers.
Clarence Darrow once said, "When I was a boy, I was told anyone could grow up to be president. I'm beginning to believe it."
This statement played itself out recently when America elected its first African-American as president not once, but twice; and before that we elected George W. Bush who actually quoted, "I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here."
We also elected him not once, but twice. Entire books have been written about "Bushisms," but whatever you thought of this man's presidency, you have to admit he was rather an entertaining good ol' boy from Texas who didn't control the market on presidential quotations.
James Garfield served as president for about four months, of which 80 days were spent on his death bed. One of three presidents to be murdered while in office, he uttered this quote, "Assassination can no more be guarded against than can death by lightning."
The other two assassinations involved more famous presidents — Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Ironically, they were both followed in office by men named Johnson, Andrew and Lyndon. More recently, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan both survived assassination attempts, while President Warren G. Harding only served two years in office before succumbing to a heart attack in a hotel in San Francisco.
One of my favorite presidential quotes came from the "Father of our Country," George Washington. I cannot guarantee its historical accuracy, but here is how I tell it.
What did Washington say to his men before they crossed the Delaware?
"Get in the boat men."
Relatively unknown John Tyler had 15 children, the most of any president. His quote was, "My children are my principal treasure."
Some of the better quotes came in the form of a president's last words. President Ulysses S. Grant was the shortest. He simply uttered, "Water."
Of the Roosevelts, Teddy said, "Doctor, please turn out the light."
FDR stated, "I have a terrific headache."
James Madison kept his humor to the end when he said, "I always talk better lying down."
Just before he died, our nation's second president, John Adams, uttered these words about our nation's third top office holder, "Thomas Jefferson survives."
He didn't know that President Jefferson was to die later that same day, July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. Five years later on July 4, 1831, America's fifth president, James Monroe, died at his daughter's home in New York City; a penniless man.
I will close out the story with a quote from fourth President James Madison who closed out his life by uttering, "Nothing more than a change of mind."


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Journal of Proceedings of the Fortieth Annual Session of The Northwest Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Hillsboro, Texas, November 15th to November 20th, 1905
Description: Minutes of Northwest Texas Conference include a list of members, committees, formal minutes of the conferences, condensed minutes, resolutions, reports from committees, selected biographies, and statistical tables.
Date: November 1905
Creator: Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Partner: Archives of the Central Texas Conference United Methodist Church


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The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 13, Ed. 1 Saturday, January 7, 1933
Description: Weekly student newspaper from John Tarleton Agricultural College in Stephenville, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.
Date: January 7, 1933
Item Type: Refine your search to only Newspaper
Partner: Tarleton State University


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A judge has approved the exhumation of the Chicago lottery winner who died of cyanide poisoning.
Judge Susan Coleman of the Probate Division of the Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois today approved the county medical examiner's request to exhume the body of Urooj Khan at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.
Khan, 46, died July 20, 2012, from what was initially believed to be natural causes. But a family member whose identity has yet to be revealed asked the medical examiner's office to re-examine the cause of death, which was subsequently determined to be cyanide poisoning.
The office did so by retesting fluid samples that had been taken from Khan's body, including tests for cyanide and strychnine.
In explaining the request for exhumation, Chief Medical Examiner Stephen Cina has said, "If or when this goes to court, it would be nice to have all the data possible."
The Chicago businessman had won a $1 million lottery jackpot -- before taxes -- the month before he died.
In Photos: Biggest Lotto Winners
In the latest legal twist, Khan's brother filed a petition Wednesday to a judge asking Citibank to release information about Khan's assets to "ultimately ensure" that [Khan's] minor daughter "receives her proper share." Khan reportedly did not have a will.
He left behind a widow, Shabana Ansari, 32, and a teenage daughter from his first marriage. Ansari and Khan reportedly married 12 years ago in India.
Authorities questioned Ansari in November and searched the home she shared with Khan. She and her attorney, Al Haroon Husain, say she had nothing to do with his death.
"It's sad that I lost my husband," she told ABC News. "I love him and I miss him. That's all I can say."
The siblings of the poisoned lottery winner have pursued legal action to protect their niece's share of her late father's estate. They also questioned whether he and Ansari were legally married, but Ansari's attorney said she has a marriage certificate from India that is valid in the United States.
ImTiaz Khan, 56, Khan's brother, and Meraj Khan, 37, their sister, had won a court order to freeze the lottery winnings after Ansari cashed the check.
Husain said Ansari cashed the lottery check after it was mailed to the home, which she did not request.
The lottery check, about $425,000 in cash, was issued July 19 by the Illinois Comptroller's Office, then mailed, according to Brad Hahn, spokesman for the Comptroller's Office. Hahn said it was cashed Aug. 15, nearly a month after Khan's death, but he did not know who cashed it.
The judge later approved Ansari's competing claim as an administrator of the estate.
"I don't care what they talk [sic]," Ansari told ABC News of what her in-laws are saying.
Ansari said she was married to Khan but declined to comment to ABC News about cashing the check after his death, although The Associated Press has reported that she denied removing any of the assets.
Meraj Khan filed in September to become the legal guardian of her niece. After the judge asked the 17-year old daughter with whom she wished to live, she chose her aunt and has been there since November, Husain said.
Neither sibling has petitioned to obtain a share of the dead man's estate, which is estimated to be $1.2 million in lottery winnings, real estate, Khan's laundry business and automobiles.
Neither the attorney for ImTiaz Khan nor the two siblings has responded to requests for comment.
A status hearing on the future of the estate is scheduled for Jan. 24, according to the AP.
ABC News' Alex Perez and Matthew Jaffe contributed to this report.


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More than a million Americans have heart attacks each year. A heart attack, or myocardial infarction (MI), is permanent damage to the heart muscle. "Myo" means muscle, "cardial" refers to the heart, and "infarction" means death of tissue due to lack of blood supply.
What Happens During a Heart Attack?
The heart muscle requires a constant supply of oxygen-rich blood to nourish it. The coronary arteries provide the heart with this critical blood supply. If you have coronary artery disease, those arteries become narrow and blood cannot flow as well as they should. Fatty matter, calcium, proteins, and inflammatory cells build up within the arteries to form plaques of different sizes. The plaque deposits are hard on the outside and soft and mushy on the inside.
When the plaque is hard, the outer shell cracks (plaque rupture), platelets (disc-shaped particles in the blood that aid clotting) come to the area, and blood clots form around the plaque. If a blood clot totally blocks the artery, the heart muscle becomes "starved" for oxygen. Within a short time, death of heart muscle cells occurs, causing permanent damage. This is a heart attack.
While it is unusual, a heart attack can also be caused by a spasm of a coronary artery. During a coronary spasm, the coronary arteries restrict or spasm on and off, reducing blood supply to the heart muscle (ischemia). It may occur at rest, and can even occur in people without significant coronary artery disease.
Each coronary artery supplies blood to a region of heart muscle. The amount of damage to the heart muscle depends on the size of the area supplied by the blocked artery and the time between injury and treatment.
Healing of the heart muscle begins soon after a heart attack and takes about eight weeks. Just like a skin wound, the heart's wound heals and a scar will form in the damaged area. But, the new scar tissue does not contract. So, the heart's pumping ability is lessened after a heart attack. The amount of lost pumping ability depends on the size and location of the scar.
Heart Attack Symptoms
Symptoms of a heart attack include:
- Discomfort, pressure, heaviness, or pain in the chest, arm, or below the breastbone
- Discomfort radiating to the back, jaw, throat, or arm
- Fullness, indigestion, or choking feeling (may feel like heartburn)
- Sweating, nausea, vomiting, or dizziness
- Extreme weakness, anxiety, or shortness of breath
- Rapid or irregular heartbeats
During a heart attack, symptoms last 30 minutes or longer and are not relieved by rest or nitroglycerin under the tongue.
Some people have a heart attack without having any symptoms (a "silent" myocardial infarction). A silent MI can occur in anyone, but it is more common among people with diabetes.
What Do I Do if I Have a Heart Attack?
After a heart attack, quick treatment to open the blocked artery is essential to lessen the amount of damage. At the first signs of a heart attack, call for emergency treatment (usually 911). The best time to treat a heart attack is within one to two hours of the first onset of symptoms. Waiting longer increases the damage to your heart and reduces your chance of survival.
Keep in mind that chest discomfort can be described in many ways. It can occur in the chest or in the arms, back, or jaw. If you have symptoms, take notice. These are your heart disease warning signs. Seek medical care immediately.
How Is a Heart Attack Diagnosed?
To diagnose a heart attack, an emergency care team will ask you about your symptoms and begin to evaluate you. The diagnosis of the heart attack is based on your symptoms and test results. The goal of treatment is to treat you quickly and limit heart muscle damage.
Tests to Diagnose a Heart Attack
- ECG . The ECG (also known as EKG or electrocardiogram) can tell how much damage has occurred to your heart muscle and where it has occurred. In addition, your heart rate and rhythm can be monitored.
- Blood tests. Blood may be drawn to measure levels of cardiac enzymes that indicate heart muscle damage. These enzymes are normally found inside the cells of your heart and are needed for their function. When your heart muscle cells are injured, their contents -- including the enzymes -- are released into your bloodstream. By measuring the levels of these enzymes, the doctor can determine the size of the heart attack and approximately when the heart attack started. Troponin levels will also be measured. Troponins are proteins found inside of heart cells that are released when they are damaged by the lack of blood supply to the heart. Detecting troponin in the blood may indicate a heart attack.
- Echocardiography. Echocardiography is an imaging test that can be used during and after a heart attack to learn how the heart is pumping and what areas are not pumping normally. The "echo" can also tell if any structures of the heart (valves, septum, etc.) have been injured during the heart attack.
- Cardiac catheterization. Cardiac catheterization, also called cardiac cath, may be used during the first hours of a heart attack if medications are not relieving the ischemia or symptoms. The cardiac cath can be used to directly visualize the blocked artery and help your doctor determine which procedure is needed to treat the blockage.
What Is the Treatment for a Heart Attack?
Once heart attack is diagnosed, treatment begins immediately -- possibly in the ambulance or emergency room. Drugs and surgical procedures are used to treat a heart attack.
What Drugs Are Used to Treat a Heart Attack?
The goals of drug therapy are to break up or prevent blood clots, prevent platelets from gathering and sticking to the plaque, stabilize the plaque, and prevent further ischemia.
These medications must be given as soon as possible (within one to two hours from the start of your heart attack) to decrease the amount of heart damage. The longer the delay in starting these drugs, the more damage can occur and the less benefit they can provide.
Drugs used during a heart attack may include:
- Aspirin to prevent blood clotting that may worsen the heart attack
- Other antiplatelets, such as Brilinta, Effient, or Plavix, to prevent blood clotting
- Thrombolytic therapy ("clot busters") to dissolve any blood clots in the heart's arteries
- Any combination of the above
Other drugs, given during or after a heart attack, lessen your heart's work, improve the functioning of the heart, widen or dilate your blood vessels, decrease your pain, and guard against any life-threatening heart rhythms.
Are There Other Treatment Options for a Heart Attack?
During or shortly after a heart attack, you may go to the cardiac cath lab for direct evaluation of the status of your heart, arteries, and the amount of heart damage. In some cases, procedures (such as angioplasty or stents) are used to open up your narrowed or blocked arteries.
If necessary, bypass surgery may be performed in the days following the heart attack to restore the heart muscle's supply of blood.
Treatments (medications, open heart surgery, and interventional procedures, like angioplasty) do not cure coronary artery disease. Having had a heart attack or treatment does not mean you will never have another heart attack; it can happen again. But, there are several steps you can take to prevent further attacks.
How Are Future Heart Attacks Prevented?
The goal after your heart attack is to keep your heart healthy and reduce your risks of having another heart attack. Your best bet to ward off future attacks are to take your medications, change your lifestyle, and see you doctor for regular heart checkups.
Why Do I Need to Take Drugs After a Heart Attack?
Drugs are prescribed after a heart attack to:
- Prevent future blood clots
- Lessen the work of your heart and improve your heart's performance and recovery
- Prevent plaques by lowering cholesterol
Other drugs may be prescribed if needed. These include medications to treat irregular heartbeats, lower blood pressure, control angina, and treat heart failure.
It is important to know the names of your medications, what they are used for, and how often and at what times you need to take them. Your doctor or nurse should review your medications with you. Keep a list of your medications and bring them to each of your doctor visits. If you have questions about them, ask your doctor or pharmacist.
What Lifestyle Changes Are Needed After a Heart Attack?
There is no cure for coronary artery disease. In order to prevent the progression of heart disease and another heart attack, you must follow your doctor's advice and make necessary lifestyle changes -- quitting smoking, lowering your blood cholesterol, controlling your diabetes and high blood pressure, following an exercise plan, maintaining an ideal body weight, and controlling stress.
When Will I See My Doctor Again After I Leave the Hospital?
Make a doctor's appointment for four to six weeks after you leave the hospital following a heart attack. Your doctor will want to check the progress of your recovery. Your doctor may ask you to undergo diagnostic tests such as an exercise stress test at regular intervals. These tests can help your doctor diagnose the presence or progression of blockages in your coronary arteries and plan treatment.
Call your doctor sooner if you have symptoms such as chest pain that becomes more frequent, increases in intensity, lasts longer, or spreads to other areas; shortness of breath, especially at rest; dizziness, or irregular heartbeats.


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Malaysia to Host Two New IRONMAN Events in 2014
Malaysia will host two new IRONMAN races next year after Government officials launched the new events in Hawaii today on the eve of the IRONMAN World Championship.
IRONMAN 70.3 Putrajaya will be held on the weekend of 12-13 April 2014, and IRONMAN Malaysia on the island resort of Langkawi on Saturday, 27 September. Malaysian Government official, Mr Zulkefli Sharif joined with IRONMAN CEO Andrew Messick and IRONMAN Asia Pacific CEO Geoff Meyer at a special function at Kailua-Kona today to launch the dual events.
Mr Zulkefli Sharif CEO of Malaysia Major Events said it was great privilege to have IRONMAN return to our country and we're expecting great interest from international athletes.
"We are extremely excited to welcome IRONMAN back to Langkawi and IRONMAN 70.3 Putrajaya. IRONMAN has had a long history with our country and we are looking forward in welcoming athletes from all over the world with our warm hospitality and offer them a unique cultural experience of Malaysia - Truly Asia.
Mr Meyer said the IRONMAN brand is delighted to be returning to Malaysia next year.
"It has been three years since South East Asia hosted an IRONMAN event and the sport has grown significantly in that time. IRONMAN Malaysia and IRONMAN 70.3 Putrajaya will bring a brand new energy to the triathlon community in this part of the world and we look forward to delivering memorable race experiences in spectacular destinations for athletes from around the world."
Putrajaya, a dynamic city situated 32 kms from Kuala Lumpur, symbolizes modern Malaysia. The green and intelligent city, a mix of the spectacular old and new, is the federal administrative centre of the country.
Athletes will race on a rolling fast IRONMAN 70.3 course in hot conditions amidst an iconic landscape that showcases Malaysia's rich culture captured in a spectacular display of architecture.
Langkawi Island sets the stage for athletes from around the world to be taken on a truly Malaysian tropical cultural journey. Athletes will be embraced by the local Kampung (village) communities as they embark on their personal IRONMAN journey amidst one of the most welcoming and beautiful destinations in South East Asia.
IRONMAN Malaysia is one of 32 qualifying races on the global IRONMAN circuit that culminate with the IRONMAN World Championship in Hawaii each October. IRONMAN Malaysia will offer 40 age group qualifying slots for Hawaii in 2015.
IRONMAN 70.3 Putrajaya is one of 60 events worldwide that qualify athletes for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships. IRONMAN 70.3 Putrajaya will offer 30 age group qualifying slots for the 2014 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Mont Tremblant, Canada on 7 September.
Professional athletes will be competing for a total prize purse of USD$40,000 for IRONMAN Malaysia and USD$15,000 for IRONMAN 70.3 Putrajaya.
Online entries for both events will open on Thursday, 7 November 2013 via the respective websites.
For additional information on IRONMAN Malaysia or to register for the 2014 race, please visit ironman.com/malaysia.
For additional information on IRONMAN 70.3 Putrajaya or to register for the 2014 race, please visit ironman.com/putrajaya70.3.