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Julie Jason: Some tools for keeping identity thieves at bay
Since last fall, when Target and Neiman Marcus reported unauthorized access to payment-card data, the potential of identity theft has been consumers' minds. Thieves steal personal information, such as your name and address, Social Security number and date of birth, to commit fraud — for example, getting a loan in your name.
The first line of attack is getting informed. The best source for information on how to protect yourself is the Federal Trade Commission, a federal agency whose mission is consumer protection and law enforcement.
The FTC website at http://tinyurl.com/blbmymb provides a series of steps for those whose identity has been compromised, as well as preventive measures you can take to protect yourself.
Next, contact one of the three national credit-reporting companies: Equifax (http://http://www.equifax.com, 800-525-6285); Experian (http://http://www.experian.com, 888-397-3742); or TransUnion (http://http://www.transunion.com, 800-680-7289).
If your identity has been stolen, you'll want to place an "initial fraud alert" on your credit file to help prevent new accounts being opened in your name, according to Cliff O'Neal, spokesperson for TransUnion.
The fraud alert is intended to raise a cautionary flag for creditors to make sure they are dealing with you instead of a scammer. The initial alert lasts for "at least" 90 days but can be renewed. An alert with one bureau will trigger alerts with the other two. There is no charge for placing an alert.
To get a longer "extended alert" for seven years, you'll need to provide an identity-theft report based on your filing a report with a law-enforcement agency.
To read more about fraud alerts, visit http://www.ftc.gov/idtheft
You also should request that a credit bureau send you a credit report. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, everyone is entitled to receive one free report every 12 months. You'll want to review each and every item on the report to make certain fraudsters aren't using your identity to borrow money in your name. You can request a free report at annualcreditreport.com.
If you have not been a victim but would like some protection, ask a credit bureau for a "security freeze," which puts a complete block on your credit report indefinitely — that is, until you ask that the freeze be lifted either permanently or temporarily. If you request a freeze with one credit bureau, you'll also need to contact the others, since a freeze is not shared between them.
If you intend to apply for credit during the freeze period, you must communicate with the credit bureaus to "lift" the freeze so that your legitimate creditors can access information. You can do this online.
Bureaus may charge a modest fee for a freeze based on the state you live in. In California, the fee is $10 ($5 if you are 65 or older); Connecticut charges $10; New York's initial request is free, and it is $5 for subsequent requests. There is no fee if you are an identity-theft victim and there is no cost to remove a freeze.
You can find a list of all states and fees charged on the TransUnion website (go to http://tinyurl.com/lok92ze and click on "Credit Freeze Fees")
You also may consider signing up for monitoring services with one of the credit bureaus. For example, TransUnion provides monitoring for $14.95 a month, which includes identity-theft insurance covering certain expenses during the time you take corrective action as a result of identity theft. According to their websites, Equifax charges $16.95 a month, and Experian charges $15.95.
Another step is to opt out of credit offers based on your credit record. You can do that by going online to http://www.optoutprescreen.com or by calling 888-5-OPT-OUT (888-567-8688). You can choose to opt out for five years or permanently.
You can opt out of mail and telephone lists produced by the Direct Marketing Association by calling 212-768-7277, ext. 1888.
More than 16.6 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2012, up from 11.7 million during the three-year period between 2006 and 2008, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
More recent statistics can be found in Victims of Identity Theft, 2012, a National Crime Victimization Survey done by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, at http://tinyurl.com/knq64aj The vast majority (85 percent) of identity theft involved the fraudulent use of existing account information, such as credit-card or bank-account information.
Julie Jason, JD, LLM, a personal money manager (Jackson, Grant of Stamford, Conn.) and award-winning author, welcomes your questions/comments (firstname.lastname@example.com).


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KINGSTON, R.I. - As turnarounds go, the one pulled off by the Yale men's swimming and diving team this year has been impressive: after going 2-8 a year ago, the Bulldogs rounded out this regular season with a 6-2 record by dint of a 180-120 win over Brown at the University of Rhode Island Saturday.
Yale set two pool records in the meet, one with its meet-opening win in the 200-yard medley relay (1:34.90) and the other from freshman Rob Harder in the 200-yard backstroke (1:49.91). The win was one of two for Harder on the day, who also took first in the 1000-yard freestyle (9:36.15) and second in the 200-yard IM (1:54.82).
The Bulldogs got the meet started with that record-breaking relay win thanks to the corps of freshman Mike Lazris and Ronald Tsui and sophomores Paschall Davis and Pat Killian. Yale's second relay quartet of junior Mike Dominski, captain Christopher Luu and sophomores Ed Becker and Calvin Jones took third (1:35.57).
Harder followed that up with his win in the 1000 free, a race in which sophomore Danny Clarke finished close behind for second-place (9:53.09). Bulldogs grabbed two of the top three in the 200-yard version, as well, as freshman Josh Ginsborg earned the victory in 1:40.12 while senior Goksu Bicer took third (1:42.19).
Lazris won the 100-yard backstroke in 52.12 and senior Alex Benz made it five straight Yale wins with his impressive victory in the 100-yard breaststroke (58.98). Dominski (1:53.89) and sophomore West Cuthbert (1:56.46) combined to give the Elis two in the top three in the 200-yard butterfly, taking second and third respectively. Freshman Andrew Heymann took second in the 50-yard freestyle (21.63), and third in the 100-yard edition (46.65). Bicer took first in that 100-yard freestyle race in 45.93.
Sophomore Danny McDermott then took second in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:07.56) before the Bulldogs turned in one of the most impressive team performances of the day in the 500-yard freestyle. Elis were the top four finishers in that event, led by Ginsborg (4:35.30). Cuthbert took second (4:49.60), Clarke third (4:52.58), and Becker fourth (4:54.30).
Bicer was just touched out in the 100-yard butterfly (49.75), and settled for second just ahead of third-place finisher Dominski (51.29). Heymann (1:52.84) rounded out the day's individual events with a win in the 200-yard IM.
On the diving side, junior Colton Staab and sophomore Tyler Pramer went 2-3 in the 1-meter event, and bumped up to 1-2 for an excellent finish in the 3-meter.
With the win, Yale heads to the Ivy League Championships with a 6-2 record, a near complete reversal of last year's record. The Bulldogs had impressive wins at the Terrier Invitational, as well as against Penn and Dartmouth - meets in which they struggled last year. Much of the Bulldogs' success was due to the stellar freshmen class, which revealed itself as one of the best in the Ancient Eight. The Elis will head to Princeton, N.J. for the Ivy League Championships Mar. 1-3 to try to make a run at Harvard and Princeton and establish themselves as the third of a trio at the top of the Ivy League.
Report filed by Chelsea Janes '12, Yale Sports Publicity

subset: commoncrawl


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http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/09 ... ugeot.htmlPeugeot introducing eU01s 45 km/h electric bicycle
. . . Bridging the gap between traditional 25 km/h electric bicycles and scooters, the eU01s offers the rider an agile and rapid cross-town journey. The eU01s will be presented at the Paris Motor Show and launched at the end of 2016.
Peugeot has made urban mobility a core priority with several new innovations being introduced this year: the eC01 electrically-assisted bicycle with automatic transmission, the e-Kick electrically-assisted scooter and the eF01 electrically-assisted folding bicycle.
The eU01s comes under the moped category requiring insurance, registration and a helmet. A Bosch Performance Line electric motor combines with a 400 or 500 Wh lithium-ion battery to offer a range of 75 or 95 kilometers (47 or 59 miles). . . .
LeftieBiker wrote:The EZIP's Pedelec Mode is rather dangerous from a standing start, as it comes on only after one full pedal revolution (as you're struggling to get moving quickly), and then with its full power (about 1/3 of maximum available), all at once. Do these bikes have a better Pedelec system? I use the throttle mode from standing starts, and it works great for that. I then switch to Pedelec when moving and not expecting to stop.
LeftieBiker wrote:Basically, I was wondering if the sensors on the new systems have to "see" one full crank revolution like the primitive one on the EZIP before providing assist, or if they only need a small fraction of one. And also, of course, if the power is applied all at once, or ramps up. It sounds like you answered the second question, but I'm still wondering about the first. Did you have to drive the bike's full weight briefly when you started off, or did the assist come on so quickly it wasn't a problem?
On the Stromer, from what I recall it took less than one full rev for the assist to be noticeable and it increased very quickly on the highest assist setting, but you definitely started off pushing the full weight. On the others, IIRR it was a more gradual increase, or maybe that just reflected the lower torque they provided, but as with the Stromer you still had to push the bike's full weight initially.
LeftieBiker wrote:On the Stromer, from what I recall it took less than one full rev for the assist to be noticeable and it increased very quickly on the highest assist setting, but you definitely started off pushing the full weight. On the others, IIRR it was a more gradual increase, or maybe that just reflected the lower torque they provided, but as with the Stromer you still had to push the bike's full weight initially.
That's what I wanted to know. You wrote earlier that E-bikes might result in cyclists better following traffic laws if they could accelerate easily, but as long as you have to pump against the full weight of the bike at startoff, that's not likely to happen. That's why I'm grateful to have throttle mode (aka "Twist & Go") as well as pedelec. I can stop at those stop signs and still take off again easily.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/12 ... 7-ups.htmlFirst UPS US delivery eBike debuts in Portland, Oregon
UPS has introduced its first eBike in the US. This new electrically-assisted tricycle began delivering packages in Portland, Oregon, on 21 November 21. UPS anticipates this eBike prototype could become a component of its delivery capabilities in some other cities across the country. . . .
The success of this pilot program was first demonstrated in 2012 in collaboration with the city of Hamburg, Germany . . . UPS placed four containers at central locations in the city for interim storage of packages for UPS service providers. From these points, deliveries were made on foot or with specialized bicycles called "Cargo Cruisers," UPS' electronically-assisted tricycles.
These alternate delivery solutions helped ease traffic congestion and reduce emissions each working day. Due to the success of the pilot, the Hamburg program was extended in February 2015 for another two years. That model serves as a guidepost for the company's new program in Portland. . . .
Portland was a logical choice for the first US deployment as UPS already uses traditional bicycles for delivery seasonally in the city.
The eBike is equipped with battery-powered electric motors that makes it possible to cover further distances, carry substantial loads, and navigate hills and other terrain. Maximum energy efficiency is achieved when combining battery power and human power simultaneously. The eBike can be operated solely on battery power or pedal power. During the testing phase, UPS will evaluate the reliability, design, integration to the city's infrastructure and acceptance of the vehicle. If successful, UPS envisions additional eBike deployment and testing in 2017. . . .


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Judge Issues Temporary Injunction to the Episcopal Church to Block Use of Diocese's Name, Seal and Mark
St. George, SC, January 31 – The Episcopal Church (TEC) opted to forgo court on Friday and not put up a fight as South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Diane S. Goodstein today issued a Temporary Injunction to replace the Temporary Restraining Order she signed on January 23 to block TEC, its continuing parishes, individuals, organizations or any entity associated with it from, using, assuming or adopting, in any way, directly or indirectly, the registered names and the seal or mark of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina.
The Temporary Restraining Order would have been lifted or extended on February 1st following a hearing. The injunction will remain in effect unless the court decides otherwise or until the court rules on the lawsuit filed by the Diocese, its trustees and 31 congregations, seeking to protect the Diocese's real, personal and intellectual property and that of its parishes from a TEC takeover.
The Diocese sought legal protection to prevent TEC from repeating the behavior it has displayed in the past, when it used the courts to seize diocesan and parish property, including real estate, bank accounts, intellectual property and trademarks. The national church has filed more than 80 lawsuits against parishes and dioceses that disassociated from TEC.
The injunction was consented to by Thomas Tisdale Jr. who signed it on behalf of The Episcopal Church. Either party may ask the judge to conduct a hearing on the injunction and to request changes in the injunction.
"We are gratified that The Episcopal Church has consented to a temporary injunction protecting the identity of our Diocese and its parishes," said Jim Lewis, Canon to the Ordinary. "We pray that sentiment fuels the prompt and reasonable resolution we all seek."


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Annual Proceedings: 1948
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Successfully complete the game to unlock the "Reel Select" option for that and lower difficulty settings.V-Rated mode
Successfully complete the game in Adult mode to unlock V-Rated mode.Ultra V-Rated mode
Successfully complete the game in V-Rated mode to unlock Ultra V-Rated mode.Super VJ mode
Successfully complete all 37 Chambers to unlock Super VJ mode.Alternate saved game icons
Successfully complete all 37 Chambers to get a Rainbow V saved game icon. Successfully complete the game on the Kids or Adult difficulty setting to get a Red V saved game icon.Use the Six Cannon
To use the Six Cannon in battle or anywhere else, you must have an almost entire bar of VFX (plus the four to five mini-bars). Then, hold Z until it gets to the last two VFX. A cannon will appear and shoot a large beam with the switched character in it. This works well against Bosses.Silvia attacks
Switch to Silvia, then do Slo Mo and Replay followed by Close Up. Then, punch the enemy for three times the damage.
Get the Blue Cool Kick power up. Then while in battle, use Blue Cool Kick (while in the air, hold Down, and Kick). She will use a diagonal kick, then use Slo-mo, Replay, and Zoom in. This will do a lot of damage. Note: This works well against Bosses.
Whenever playing as Silvia transformed, double jump into the air and rapidly press Punch. She will slowly fall to the ground while firing her gun. This is useful when facing multiple enemies.Slo Mo saves
Use Slo Mo when enemies are about to attack you.Fire Leo and Frost Tiger
Not only are Fire Leo (one of the Bosses from the original Viewtiful Joe) and Frost Tiger brothers and look alike, but they fight exactly the same except that Fire Leo goes in lava to get his aura back, while Frost Tiger grows his aura.Lighting torches in Reel 4
In Reel 4, there are three torch stands that need to be lit towards the end of Scene 1. To do this, you must flare up as Joe using Mach Speed then switch to Sylvia. By switching, you will transfer the fire to Sylvia. Activate Replay and attack with something that will activate the Replay action. There is another set of six not too far from there. You must flare up as Joe, switch, and Replay/Zoom/Spin Kick to light them.Defeating Dr. Cranken
To defeat Dr. Cranken easily, use Sylvia. It is possible to defeat him in the first part with Joe, but it is much easier to use Sylvia for the entire battle. Cranken has three main attacks. He will sprout three tentacle things from his back, and they will have one of three things on them: drills, magnets, or buzz-saws. They will also appear in that order. Drills will stab at you, magnets will pull drills from the ceiling to fall on you, and buzz-saws sweep across the floor and up in the air to hit you. On one of the tentacles will be a yellow ball. This is your target. Go Slow Mo and shoot it with Sylvia (or punch with Joe). After four hits, the tentacles and Cranken's shield will break. Use this chance to run up with Sylvia, go Slow Mo, then activate Replay, Zoom In, and Spin Kick all at once. You can get about three of those in. Repeat this quite a few times. When he gets to two life bars, he starts to glow red. He will use his magnets to pull down about four of the six pieces of ceiling, raises a column forcing you jump over it, and makes avoiding the ceiling difficult. He will also call out three of the flying probes. After a few of those, he will pull out a drill/buzz-saw mix. Repeat what was doenbefore and hit the ball. After you take out his life bar, his body will explode and you will fight his head. You will have to use Sylvia for this. He will be shooting drills, and balls with be around his head. Hit the one that is glowing. Once you hit it, it will start moving around his head. Use Slow Mo and shoot. When his shield disappears, do your Slow/Zoom/Replay/Kick. Keep pressing Kick and you will kill him easily, because his defense is nothing in that form.Defeating Frost Tiger
To beat Frost Tiger, you must use Joe for the entire battle. First, make Frost Tiger freeze one of the platforms. Go under the platform, then he will also come down. Use Mach Speed and punch one of the pillars that are under the platform until you catch Mach Speed Fire. Then, let Frost Tiger come to you (or vice versa) and punch him. His aura will go away and he will jump to the nearest pillar. If the pillar that he is on is unfrozen, he will freeze the platform. I you are in front of him, he will start attacking you. Use Slo Mo to see his skull, because his attacks are very fast. Keep dodging his Skull symbols until he starts spinning, then use Red Dragon Kick (Red Hot Kick and Zoom In). He will try to get his aura back. While he is getting that, use Red Dragon Kick again. Keep doing this until he is defeated.Defeating Ms. Bloody Rachel
Ms. Bloody Rachel is your big replay against the bosses Big John, Flinty Stone, Camoleon, and Frost Tiger (in that order). There is no big change in their attacks, but their patterns are slightly different and HP is much higher. They are also yellow now.Chambers
Unlock the following chambers by completing the indicated task:
- Chamber 1: Successfully complete Reel 1, Act 4.
- Chamber 2: Successfully complete the slippery floor scene in Reel 5 Act 1 with over four lives remaining.
- Chamber 3: Get killed by a Rocker.
- Chamber 4: Successfully complete any scene with one life remaining.
- Chamber 5: Clear Reel 2, Act 3.
- Chamber 6: Successfully complete Chamber 1.
- Chamber 7: Collect all 250 Film Canisters in any Reel.
- Chamber 8: Get a game over and do not reset.
- Chamber 9 : Successfully complete Reel 3, Act 1.
- Chamber 10: Successfully complete Chamber 1 and enter the bonus scene in Reel 4, Act 2.
- Chamber 11: Successfully complete Chamber 2 with at least an "A" rank.
- Chamber 12: Get a "V" time rank in five consecutive scenes.
- Chamber 13: Use only one life from start to end in a scene.
- Chamber 14: Successfully complete Reel 4, Act 2.
- Chamber 15: Get a "Rainbow V" rank on the UFO fire scene in Reel 4, Act 1.
- Chamber 16: Successfully complete the last scene in Reel 2, Act 1 without using VFX.
- Chamber 17: Successfully complete Chamber 8.
- Chamber 18: Successfully complete Chamber 9 and buy the Sliding power-up.
- Chamber 19: Defeat Long John in Reel 3, Chapter 2 with at least an "A" rank.
- Chamber 20: Successfully complete the kitchen scene in Reel 1, Act 3 with a "Rainbow V" rank.
- Chamber 21: Successfully complete Chambers 3 and 12.
- Chamber 22: Successfully complete Chamber 13.
- Chamber 23: Successfully complete Reel 7, Act 3 with over 200,000 Viewtifuls saved.
- Chamber 24: Get Joe thrown out of the bathroom ten times in the Monorail scene in Reel 3, Act 1.
- Chamber 25: Do not use VFX after the gear scene ends in Reel 3, Act 2 until the next one starts.
- Chamber 26: Successfully complete Chamber 17 and Story mode on the kids difficulty setting.
- Chamber 27: Successfully complete Chamber 18 and buy the Redhot Kick power-up.
- Chamber 28: Successfully complete the switch scene in Reel 7, Act 1 with over 30 seconds remaining.
- Chamber 29: Collect all the Film Canisters in Reel 5, Chapter 1.
- Chamber 30: Get a "Rainbow V" rank in five consecutive scenes.
- Chamber 31: Use the Ukemi move successfully ten times in Reel 7, Act 1.
- Chamber 32: Successfully complete Reel 1, Act 4.
- Chamber 33: Successfully complete Chamber 24.
- Chamber 34: Successfully complete Reel 1, Act 4 without getting any Film Canisters.
- Chamber 35: Successfully complete story mode on the Adult difficulty setting.
- Chamber 36: Successfully complete Chamber 27 and complete story mode on the Kids difficulty setting.
- Chamber 37: Successfully complete Chamber 6, complete story mode on the Kids difficulty setting, and get an overall "D" rank three times.


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|The President's proposed budget for the next fiscal year zeros out funding for Yucca Mountain, a proposed nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada. In this segment, Ira talks with author John D'Agata about his book about the late Yucca Mountain, the development of Las Vegas, and the nature of knowledge.


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On June 14 2007, 9:15 PM, Lisa wrote:I was appoved the other day, for the house I am buying, by State Farm. They knew the dogs I have... GREAT!
Today they leave a message on my answering machine, That because I am going to have a dog training business on my property, they approve me for the homeowners.
Obviously I am going to have business insurance... so whats up with that?
Anyone know of a homeowners insurance company that will do both?
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Los Angeles parents upset after teen linked to murder investigation allowed to continue schooling
Parents in south Los Angeles reportedly gathered in protest after learning a high school student accused in a recent murder investigation could be returning to class.
ABC7 reported that Cameron Terrell, 18, is allegedly facing one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder after being involved in an incident that left at least one person dead. Justin Holmes was fatally shot and, according to authorities, Terrell is under suspicion for driving the vehicle that held the suspects who are accused of firing the fatal shot.
After posting bail, reported ABC7, Terrell was released and allegedly did not inform his high school that he was facing charges, technically allowing him to return to class.
While it wasn't made clear if he did return, parents of students at Palos Verdes High School took to an offsite location to protest his potential return.
Parents told ABC7 that they were concerned for students' safety if Terrell, who some believe to possibly be linked to a South Los Angeles gang, should return.
"To have an adult who is charged with the worst crime possible being allowed to attend school with 3,000 kids, it's not right, and I believe the education code supports his suspension," said parent Rod Uyeda to ABC7.
ABC7 reports that the school's principal Charles Park confirmed that Terrell's parents accepted an offer to have their son finish his education at an offsite location starting immediately.


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Ann Michel and Phil Wilde have been an integral part of FLEFF for several years. This year the Ithaca-based multimedia producers -- and real-life couple -- participated in a FLEFF lab based on their video project The Estrogen Connection, which seeks to educate students about cancer prevention.
The couple also produced the screenings of three silent film classics, including Nosferatu (1922), The Black Pirate (1926), and The Wildcat (1921), at Cinemapolis in downtown Ithaca. The films were accompanied by live musical interpretations from area musicians.
Watch Michel and Wilde's interview with FLEFF codirector and professor of politics Tom Shevory, and find out more about their experience at FLEFF.
Video by Kyle Kelley '10.
Are you a prospective student with college planning questions? Then myIthaca has got you covered.Sign-Up Learn More
Fuse is a student produced publication about the Ithaca College experience. All content in the print and web versions of Fuse is developed by current Ithaca College students in a breadth of different areas of study.


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Main navigation | Main content
|Peter Solfest, Jim Peterman, and Jon Schmidt together with their physics teacher and Minnesota QuarkNet leader Jon Anderson
A University of Minnesota QuarkNet team from Centennial Senior High School was one of six chosen from the United States to travel to Geneva, Switzerland (CERN).
QuarkNet is an outreach program of the University of Minnesota, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, designed to help bring the world of particle physics into high schools. They will report on the preparations of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), soon to be the world's highest energy particle accelerator. Peter Solfest, Jim Peterman, and Jon Schmidt together with their physics teacher and Minnesota QuarkNet leader Jon Anderson. Their blog will be available at http://www.lhcscience.org/journalists.
The team will document the LHC activity using video, photographs, and blogs during their April 4 – 6th visit. At CERN they will meet with the University of Minnesota physicists helping to build the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector. They will also interview physicists from the 94 universities and national laboratories in the United States and from 40 countries around the world working on the accelerator and its massive detectors. The Minnesota team will fly into Geneva on April 3rd and post their first blog the next day. The six teams from five states across the U.S. were the winners of a competition sponsored and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and the National Science Foundation. Each team consists of a teacher and three students who will combine their expertise in physics, communications and video production to communicate the science and excitement of preparing for the grand experiment.
The LHC is a proton accelerator seven times more powerful than the Fermilab Tevatron located in Batavia, Illinois, the current high energy champion. It is essentially a 27 kilometer circle of superconducting magnets that is 100 meters underground. The circle is so large it goes under the border between Switzerland and France. Threading through the centers of the magnet circle are two vacuum pipes each containing a powerful beam of 7 TeV protons. These protons collide head-on 40 million times a second at the center of two huge detectors, CMS http://cms.cern.ch and ATLAS http://atlas.ch. Physicists will use the data collected from the detectors to investigate the basic forces of the universe. They have designed the accelerator and its detectors to find the origin of mass, explore the existence of extra dimensions of space, look for microscopic black holes, and determine the composition of dark matter.
Centennial High School is located in Blaine, Minnesota. It offers a full range of physics courses including "College-in-the-Schools" physics, from which the team was drawn. Jon Anderson is an award winning teacher, QuarkNet Lead Teacher, a member of the University of Minnesota Physics Force demonstration team, a teacher-in-residence at the University of Minnesota School of Physics and Astronomy in the PhysTEC program, and a Physics Teacher Resource Agent of the American Association of Physics Teachers. Peter Solfest is an accomplished trombone player and is planning to major in physics when he attends college next year. Jim Peterman is a three sport athlete and plans attend college next year to be an elementary teacher. Jon Schmidt plays lacrosse and plans to major in a science or math related field when he attends college next year.
For more information contact:
Jon Anderson (Centennial High School physics teacher and University of Minnesota teacher in residence) - firstname.lastname@example.com
Dr. Roger Rusack (University of Minnesota physics professor and CMS leader) firstname.lastname@example.com
Dr. Jeremiah Mans ( University of Minnesota physics professor and CMS leader) firstname.lastname@example.com
Dr. Dan Cronin-Hennessy (University of Minnesota physics professor and QuarkNet leader) email@example.com


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A collection of individual hotels in London and Manchester locations, Radisson Blu Edwardian, London hotels range from bijou boutique to large-scale luxury. Think contemporary design that doesn't compromise on comfort, high-speed complimentary Wi-Fi throughout and world-class dining, with service that anticipates but never assumes. It's an experience that relaxes and stimulates in equal measure. Find out how more about Responsible Business at Radisson Blu Edwardian hotels and how you can be a green traveller.
*Hotel deals*
Discover our special offers to make the most of your stay with us.
Check-in time is at 15:00 and check-out is at 11:00


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Vietnamese Meal Recipes
Vietnamese Bi Recipe
Going through the website, I realized I've posted several vegetarian bì recipes but never showed how to make it with meat. Today, I made it with veal. A more authentic version would use pork meat, fat and skin. In any case, the meat is cooked, then shredded and tossed in a finely-ground dry-toasted rice powder mixture. This version is healthier than the original and every bit as tasty.
It's eaten at room temperature. You can serve it with bún (cold rice vermicelli noodles), steamed cơm tấm (Vietnamese broken rice) or in bánh mì (Vietnamese-style baguette sandwiches). I usually accompany the meat salad with đô chua (pickled carrots and daikon), Vietnamese herbs, fresh sliced chiles, lime wedges, shredded lettuce or cabbage, cucumber and nước mắm dipping sauce on the side. It's a fairly easy treat, so give this recipe a try!
Full Recipe...
Banh Hoi Chay Recipe (Vietnamese Thin Rice Vermicelli Noodles)
Bánh hỏi is a Vietnamese specialty dish. It's composed of very thin rice vermicelli noodles, often steamed and seasoned with fried green onions. They're usually served with barbecued beef or pork but for my husband who's a vegetarian, I accompanied them with a combination of sautéed tofu, bamboo, jicama, carrots and straw mushrooms. That's why I call this dish bánh hỏi chay (hint: chay means "vegetarian" in Vietnamese).
As a child, I remember having this dish at celebrations, though I don't really know why. I make it pretty regularly in our home because in my opinion, it's very simple to prepare and always enjoyable.
Full Recipe...
Vegetarian Spring Rolls
Spring rolls are traditionally made of sliced pork, boiled shrimp, rice vermicelli noodles and Vietnamese herbs wrapped in rice paper called bánh tráng. Since I cook for a vegetarian crowd every day, today I made "salad" rolls with sauteed carrots, beech mushrooms, shredded white cabbage, soybean sprouts, fried tofu and the usual rice vermicelli noodles, lettuce and Vietnamese mint.
Served at room temperature with a vegetarian dipping sauce, they make the perfect summer entree. And speaking of summer, wrapping almost anything is a really great way to exercise portion control, which will do wonders for your bikini bod!
Full Recipe...
Vegetarian Spring Rolls: Bi Cuon Chay Recipe
For this dish I made a traditional bì chay with jicama, tofu, a protein element and soy sauce dipping sauce. Then I wrapped the tofu mixture in rice paper disks, forming tasty and healthy spring rolls. Rice vermicelli noodles, shredded lettuce and cucumber were added to form the rolls as well.
Once you master forming the spring rolls, you can experiment with many different combinations of noodles, vegetables and protein. Just try to maintain the same ratio of ingredient types as in this recipe.
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Bun Bi Chay Recipe
Bun is a popular Vietnamese meal, which consists of rice vermicelli noodles, shredded lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumber, a protein element and dipping sauce. Bun bì chay is a vegetarian version that replicates shredded pork by using fried sliced jicama and fried tofu.
This is an ideal and very refreshing hot weather dish. The preparation is labor intensive, especially with chopping and frying, so I usually make a large quantity. It's delicious and keeps for a few days, so it's definitely worth the effort.
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The Northwest District is an exciting and large region of The Wesleyan Church! We are composed of 75 churches (and growing!), serving Alaska, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
We are made up of church congregations that are quite varied in style, in size, and in setting. Our churches range all the way from a very small rural church, to a church of over 4,400 in a growing city, to a network of Native churches totaling over 6,000. The Northwest District places a high value on a "team spirit" that embraces us all - no matter the size or location of the church! Every church matters! We are passionate about connecting people with Christ - and about helping them grow to be like Him! And, because planting new churches is a very effective way to accomplish this, we are totally passionate about birthing new churches.
We welcome you to visit us any time! But, since a trip to our area may not be possible, we hope that this web site will provide for you a small glimpse into what is happening among our Northwest District family!


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DSEA, 136 E. Water St.
Dover, DE 19901
1-866-734-5834 (toll-free)
DSEA, 4135 Ogletown-Stanton Rd.
Suite 101 Newark, DE 19713
302-366-8440 (not a toll-free number)
Contact DSEA by Email
DSEA Elected Officers: email@example.com
Executive Director: email@example.com
Website Concerns: email@example.com
Contact DSEA Departments
Communications: email@example.com
Instructional Advocacy: email@example.com
Government Relations: firstname.lastname@example.com
Membership: firstname.lastname@example.com
Member Benefits: firstname.lastname@example.com
Regardless of what job you do in your school district, it's important to build relationships with your fellow workers--and that's not only the support staff. Getting to know the other staff members and the administration can only help to make your time at work be more pleasant. Knowing what staff members do can help you better understand their specific needs.
The Supervisor
Assess your supervisor's style as soon as possible. Talk to your colleagues to get some idea of what he/she is like. At the same time, don't take everything you are told as the absolute truth. Don't make hasty judgments. Probably the best advice is to try to deal with as many things as possible on your own or with the help of the association. Reserve going to the supervisor for major issues.
The Principal
The principal may or may not be a factor in your daily work life, but he/she is still someone to know. Follow the same advice for the principal as you would for your supervisor.
The Teachers
"Make friends before you need them," is good advice with the teachers in a school building. Getting to know who teaches what and what their classroom rules are can make doing your job easier. It may sometimes feel as if teachers are just another level of supervisors above you. Remember, you all share the same concern - kids. Doing what's best for the teacher can also be what's best for the students.
The School Secretary
Many people consider the secretary to be one of the most important staff members. Secretaries can hold things together and keep the school running smoothly, even when no administrator is present. They can answer school-related questions, handle your paperwork for the district, and help you with emergencies. It's a good idea to get to know the secretaries. You can help them do their job by doing everything they request in a timely fashion.
The Custodian
Like many other support staff employees, good custodians don't get paid nearly what they're worth. With their help, the building runs smoothly and efficiently. Find out what their specific job duties are. Can you change a light bulb or is that in their job description? If you have a concern about the cleanliness of a room, talk to them first before going to their supervisor.
The Bus Driver
Each day they perform the miraculous job of getting students safely to school and home again while driving a massive piece of machinery. Since their job demands that they stick to a schedule, their needs are usually urgent. Safety is their primary concern and they will do everything necessary to make sure that their bus is in the best working condition possible. Realize that the school bus is their classroom.
The School Board
They are your ultimate employers. They decide the rules and policies that run the school district. Find out who your board members are. Did you vote for one of them in the last election? Find out how he/she is doing by going to a board meeting.
The Cafeteria Staff
It seems that food service employees come with their own built-in reputation of being mean and never smiling. Yet every day they try to please everyone with a nutritious meal that many times relies on limited resources. If your work takes you into the food service area, know the rules and help these employees keep a safe and happy and work environment.
The Paraprofessionals
In comparison to other support staff employees, this group probably has the more direct daily contact with students. The parapro may be your direct contact into a teacher's classroom when there is a question or concern about a student or a classroom need. Find out who they are and what they do.
Library or Media Specialist
They are in charge of one of the most used areas in a school building. In addition to being a storehouse for all books and magazines, the media center may also be a place for meetings, to house technology and to serve as a classroom. The media specialist may also be the only person doing that job in the whole district.
The School Nurse
If your district or school is lucky enough to have a nurse on staff, you can help keep them informed of health-related situations you encounter. Many times support staff employees are more aware of bruises, upset stomachs and bloody noses than classroom teachers are.


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But it's interesting.
According to a survey published in AIM, 59% of physicians favor legislation to establish national health insurance.
Predictably, Physicians for a National Health Care Program jumped right out there claiming that doctors support single payer, which I think is not at all supported by the study, which did not even try to define the type of national plan. Moreover, that 55% support "incremental" reform probably indicates underwhelming enthusiasm for single payer.
While there's some reliability in comparing this poll to a similar one in 2002 and concluding that support among docs for reform is building, I just can't accept it at face value. The responder bias alone probably undercuts the validity -- the docs most enthusiastic for reform are much more likely to take the time to fill out a survey.
Still, interesting.
01 April 2008
I have no idea what to make of this
But it's interesting.
Posted by shadowfax at 9:46 PM
6 comments:
Wow, that was a reserved (and, I think wholly correct) summation of the article.ReplyDelete
Who are you, and what did you do with Shadowfax?
It is so disappointing when you see something you support, "supported" with bogus evidence.ReplyDelete
GD --ReplyDelete
Are you more surprised at the reserved tone or the correct interpretation?
Jim2 --
It's not bogus per se, I just saw the headline and said "aha!" but then realized it wasn't as awesome as I would have hoped. Oh well. You wind up looking bad if you get out ahead of the evidence
- Catron4/02/2008 10:46 AM
You're wise to be cautious on this one. The lead author of this "survey" is a Board member of PNHP.ReplyDelete
And it gets worse: The survey involves a self-selected subset of another subset (AMA physicians), which means it isn't statistically valid or representative of docs in general.
Methinks we have another piece of single-payer agitprop here.
- Anonymous4/06/2008 4:56 PM
In Saskatchewan (yes, I know, "bless you") the single-payer system started in Canada in 1969.ReplyDelete
Although there were fair fee-for service payment rates, physician fear about a powerful single payer was so great that there was a mass walkout.
Nevertheless, the system was so successful over the next several years that other provinces adopted similar ones. Today, most Canadian MDs understand they could make more money in a private system, but they seem to like the public one.
I guess the trick will be trying to get the government to pay something sensible for your services.
More or less you have to take these polls with a grain of salt.ReplyDelete


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You don't have to navigate sketchy websites to obtain stolen credit card information.
According to a new report, it's surprisingly easy to find stolen credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other types of personal information through YouTube.
And Google has probably made more than $1 billion from it, according to estimates.
The Digital Citizen's Alliance Breach of Trust report, first spotted by Re/code, pointed out that ads for retailers such as Target sometimes run alongside illegal videos claiming to sell stolen credit card numbers and other private data.
In turn, Google makes revenue off these ads that run alongside video scams.
The Digital Citizen's Alliance and state attorney generals have previously voiced concern over the fact that Google is actually making money from videos that claim to sell stolen information, which is why the Alliance plans to raise awareness with brands.
The alliance cited a report from Forbes in 2013 in which Harvard Business School Professor Ben Edelman estimated that Google has made more than $1 billion from these "illegal activities" on YouTube.
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt wrote a letter to Google officials last year requesting information regarding how many illegal videos were removed between January 2011 and June 2013. In response, Google claimed that it makes "minimal" income from ads running along these videos claiming to sell illegal content, local Oklahoma City newspaper NewsOK reports.
Google typically takes these videos down from YouTube once the company finds them. However, Digital Citizens Alliance notes that these types of videos continue to resurface.
Here's a sample from the Alliance's report. Notice the ad for Target on the upper right-hand side.
A YouTube spokesperson offered the following comment to Business Insider:
Our Guidelines prohibit any content encouraging illegal activities, including videos promoting the sale of illegal goods. YouTube's review teams respond to videos flagged for our attention around the clock, removing millions of videos each year that violate our policies. We also have stringent advertising guidelines, and work to prevent ads appearing against any video, channel or page once we determine that the content is not appropriate for our advertising partners
Some of the most popular search terms for illegal information on YouTube include "how to get credit card numbers that work 2014," "buy CC numbers," and "CC info with CVV," the report says.
This isn't the first time reports have indicated Google is benefiting from illegal activity. In August 2011, Google paid $500 million following an investigation from the Department of Justice regarding ads offering to sell illegal pharmaceuticals, according to Forbes.
The Digital Citizen's Alliance plans to educate brands about these practices, although the organization doesn't specify exactly how it intends to do that.
Get the latest Google stock price here.


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Strengthening communities and bringing people together to move lives forward. Services include case management, education, support groups and emergency assistance.
CDU is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC, 1101 17th Street, NW, Suite 808, Washington, DC 20036, 202.234.5100). The Distance Education Accrediting Commission is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a nationally recognized accrediting agency.


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Customize the perfect home you're looking for and we'll send you listings that best fit your criteria. This will include pre-MLS properties!
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Provide your seller with a detailed listing report with all the statistics of how their property has been seen on social media.
To UNLOCK your Listing Report for 2 Pine Swallow COURT start by clicking on "Schedule a Listing Post" below.


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Lighthouse Studio is our flagship software for producing and analyzing online and offline surveys. It contains modules for general interviewing, choice-based conjoint, adaptive choice-based conjoint, adaptive choice analysis, choice-value analysis, and maxdiff exercises.
This survey will illustrate how Choice-Based Conjoint surveys work. It involves choosing food for dinner at a baseball game. You will take a quick 9-question CBC questionnaire, and then, using simple addition arithmetic, we will analyze your results and place the results into a "what-if" market simulator to see how your results stack up against others who have completed this survey.


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On street corners, in alleys, lurking outside the ancient hotels. All over Downtown Eastside there's also help available for junkies, addicts, alkies—detox programs, 12-step meetings, residential treatment centers, methadone clinics, safe-injection protocols. Some of the programs are sponsored by the local churches. There are also doctors and shrinks and healers and pipe carriers and studies and grants and.… It goes on.
And yet there always are more junkies, addicts and alkies in Eastside.
"It has a long history as an enclave of rather traumatized and damaged and hard-living individuals. It's 20 or 30 or 40 years of this going on," said Gerald Thomas, a researcher with the University of Victoria's Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia (CARBC).
Philippe Lucas, another CARBC researcher, described Downtown Eastside as a "site of the highest rates of drug use, hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS in the Western world. And a large percentage of that is a First Nations population, an urban Indian population."
In light of such persistent and pervasive pain, poverty and disease it is clear that most treatments for addiction offer only short-term relief. Is that the fault of the junkies, the addicts and the alkies? A failure of will?
Or perhaps, argues one physician who works intensively with addicts, mainstream treatments for addiction "completely ignore causes and only deal with effect." Dr. Gabor Maté says that if we don't get to what causes addiction, we can never effectively treat it. He thinks the answer is another drug, ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant mixture from the Peruvian Amazon.
Maté's recent work conducting ayahuasca ceremonies for 150 to 200 addicts, often among British Columbia First Nations bands, created a media stir, including a documentary, The Jungle Prescription, that aired on the CBC in November. The buzz caught the attention of authorities at Health Canada, who sent Maté a letter last November ordering him to cease or face loss of his license and even prosecution.
Canadian national drug policy mirrors that in the United States, which considers three of the ingredients in ayahuasca—harmaline, harmalol and N,N-dimethyltryptamine—to be dangerous, even though, consumed in its indigenous state as a thick brew, it's hard to find any evidence of addiction concerns associated with it.
Maté complied with the order, but he's not happy about it, citing a Health Canada exemption issued a few years ago that allowed a Montreal church to use ayahuasca as a sacrament. "Health Canada agreed the plant was not addictive or toxic," he says. "So what is their problem then, exactly? Why is it restricted to a particular religion when it can be used to help so many other people?"
It's not an easy question to answer, apparently.
"Look at them. They're stuck here." Stan, a 45-year-old Native, a drug-addict just back on the streets after spending 18 months in jail, is looking out a window in a Downtown Eastside clinic and describing the cluster of fellow addicts gesticulating and pacing across the street in front of the Army and Navy store to Maté, who treats patients at a clinic run by the nonprofit Portland Hotel Society. "You know, Doc, their life stretches from here to maybe Victory Square to the left and Fraser Street to the right. They never get out. I want to move away, don't want to waste myself down here anymore. Ah, what's the use? Look at me—I don't even have socks."
He tells Maté that whenever he gets on a city bus—sockless and in his tattered sweats—"People…move away from me. You know what that feels like? Like I'm an alien. I don't feel right till I'm back here. No wonder nobody ever leaves."
Maté recounts this conversation early in his most recent book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction, in which he lays out findings in early childhood development and brain research to argue that the war on drugs does little to deal with addiction except to marginalize and imprison people.
In the late 1990s, when he was in his mid-50s, an age when many turn their thoughts to retirement, Maté, a longtime family physician in Vancouver, began working with junkies, addicts, alkies in Downtown Eastside. "That was…a population that needed a lot of medical help. It was a population I very poorly understood, but…it was something, that as a physician, called to me," he says. He has been there 13 years and has become increasingly frustrated at mainstream treatments that ignore the roots of addiction.
Addictions of all sorts can be traced to early trauma and abandonment issues in childhood, he believes, that leave an emotional hole that neither shaming nor incarceration will never fill. "Everybody I work with has been traumatized as children. Everyone. All the women, for example, have been sexually abused.… It's not just my personal interpretation. The research literature is totally clear: Drug addicts, almost without exception, suffered severe adversity in childhood, and that's exactly how addiction arises."
But somehow, he says, the research "is not very well known by most physicians." Further, any sort of compassionate, cause-addressing treatment is pushed aside in the war on drugs. As a result, as Stan pointed out, people are trapped. Trapped in places like Downtown Eastside by poverty and demons and addictions. Further trapped inside addiction by early childhood trauma and abuse. Until those are addressed, addicts often repeat their behaviors.
How to break out? Maté insists that neither punishment nor moralizing is the way. He's become a proponent of harm-reduction strategies (such as Downtown Eastside's controversial safe injection site, where clean needles reduce the spread of hepatitis and HIV/AIDS) and his support for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, whose members fight for better treatment and have gained some political clout. More recently, Maté has been exploring the use of shaman-led ayahuasca ceremonies in which the drug becomes a spirit guide—there's really no other way to describe it, according to those who've experienced it—that can lead people out of the emotional emptiness causing their addictions.
Maté estimates that he has helped as many as 200 people explore the roots of their addictions via ayahuasca ceremonies in the last couple of years. Last year, he approached a coastal British Columbia First Nations band seeking permission to conduct an observational study among their members. CARBC researchers Lucas and Thomas signed on as coinvestigators. (Neither CARBC nor the University of Victoria had a role in the study.) Lucas says participants should remain unnamed—including the name of the band itself—to protect the integrity of the study and also to shield against any blowback from Health Canada or other authorities. (The director of the band's health department did, however, speak freely about the study.)
"I've been looking at the use of cannabis or ibogaine and, more recently, ayahuasca [for addiction treatment]," says Lucas. "I've known Dr. Gabor Maté through his work in harm-reduction, and I'd heard that he'd developed this new methodology to treat addiction. He said he was having amazing success with this new methodology, which includes a combination of psycho-spiritual group counseling and two ayahuasca ceremonies in the Shipibo tradition. The Shipibo is an indigenous Peruvian tribe that has been using ayahuasca for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. So I coordinated a research project in order to be able to both observe the process and then follow up with 20 participants."
Guillermo Arrévalo, one of the best-known Shipibo shamans, or ayahuasqueros, traveled by ferry from Vancouver to the First Nations band along with Maté and the researchers to meet the band's chief, leadership council, its council of elders and health administrators in February 2011. "We came in and asked in a very respectful way and, believe it or not, the shaman was actually there," Thomas says. "And this guy has some presence, man. Even through an interpreter, he really conveyed to [the tribal officials] that this had some potential for helping their people, and that he respected their culture…developing really nicely the parallels that his culture was damaged by Westernization and all those kinds of things, but that they had to hold onto this ritual and bring it forward into the modern world."
The band granted permission for the ceremonies to be conducted in its longhouse. "Which was an amazing honor," Lucas says. "One participant described the longhouse as being the church, the courthouse and the hospital for the band members. It seemed to be the ideal place to be conducting these retreats."
The band's health director said the ayahuasca rituals were permitted because addiction among members is "rampant—almost epidemic. We had to try to think outside the box. I can send people away for a long period of time and spend a whole lot of money on treatment—which has been the traditional course of doing things—but then they come back. We wanted to give a shot to something different. We've been supporting people [at residential treatment programs] in staying away till they get strong. Here, you do a four-day retreat with pretty astounding impact."
About 20 band members with addiction issues—ranging from gambling to heavy drug use—were recruited and screened for general health and for medications they were taking that might react poorly with ayahuasca. The recruits had their resolve challenged several times to determine how serious they were, and were placed on special diets.
Two retreats were scheduled, one in summer and one in fall. Each lasted four full days, and each featured two ayahuasca ceremonies, along with plenty of group discussion. There were eight people in the summer retreat, 12 in the other, including four from the first who wanted to do it again. "For them, it was a positive enough experience [to repeat] despite the emotional pain that many people go through—open weeping is not unusual at an ayahuasca ceremony," Lucas says.
"The first day starts with Dr. Gabor Maté talking about peoples' addiction and in a very novel way," recalls Lucas. "He starts out by asking, first and foremost, what was positive about peoples' addictions, which was fascinating to observe. It really cut to the chase. People's responses were that it gave them a sense of belonging, that it filled an emotional hole in their heart. So he [explained] it's pretty normal for people to not want to be in pain, for people to want to feel they belong. And so the idea that people would seek a substance if nothing else were available to them to reach those outcomes is not an unusual step. In fact he said it was very normal under the circumstances and the trauma these people have suffered that they seek an outlet like this and that they shouldn't be shaming themselves.
"And then he asked folks what's negative about their addiction, and the responses were the very thing that was positive in the first place in that eventually it made them feel bigger holes in their heart, and made them feel more disconnected from their loved ones, it made them feel more pain rather than less pain."
The health director said this daylong, opening conversation about addiction is important: "Alcoholism or drug addiction seems to be a symptom of something much worse. We're peeling back those layers and getting at a cause. They spend a whole day working on their intention. They spend a whole day formulating and reformulating it so it's clear.… That's what Gabor and the ayahuasqueros do is they work with the people around formatting it in way that it will be somewhat positive."
"The first evening, they set what they were hoping to get out of their ayahuasca experience," Lucas says. "For everyone, it was something a little bit more symbolic and deeper than 'I want to get off drugs,' with the common factor being people wanting to have a greater sense of self and self-worth. Many of the participants had been through drug treatment processes, some of them six or seven times, unsuccessfully. They've talked about their substance use and abuse with counselors and therapists in the past, and so at some point you could see them leave the script and start a much deeper exploration."
On the second day, Lucas says, "the entire group is together and the room is darkened. The head ayahuasquero is there with two or three apprentices, and on top of that, there were two or three other helpers from the band health office to assist. So it has a very high safety level. People drink the [ayahuasca] brew. There's about an hour of silence and it's dark while the brew takes effect. Then the ayahuasqueros start chanting songs, known as icaros, that both call in the healing spirits and also help with the purging.
"Part of the ayahuasca process—for most people—is purging, vomiting. It's not a drug experience, per se. You wouldn't take this for a rave.… It's mostly very internal. Most people lie very still, other than the purging."
Thomas adds, "I didn't have visions, but I did have a sense of a feminine presence walking around to each of the people as they were purging, talking to them and coaxing the darkness out of these people. I became aware of how the ayahuasquero works to bring the energy out, and how sacred this work is, how important it is."
Lucas, Thomas and others have been conducting monthly follow-up research ever since the last ceremony in September to "see if it actually has affected quality of life, substance use, and a construct that we call internal freedom," Lucas says. "Internal freedom is what we describe as the ability to make positive decisions about your life that lead to good outcomes.
"It's fair to say we are dealing with a very traumatized population—many have been through high levels of physical and sexual abuse," Lucas says. "The more I study addiction, the more I really I believe I am studying trauma—with addiction just being one of the outcomes of serious physical, psychological and sexual trauma."
He cautions that results are preliminary, but "the early signs are that this has been a very successful intervention, but it appears we need more pre- and post-care follow-up. For some it has really stuck, had a lasting effect, while for others, purely in terms of substance use and some of the other challenges, it's been more short-term."
The band's health director had similar observations. "I would say definitely there was some good. The key now [for participants] is integrating their experience into their lives."
To people in the mainstream, just hearing about such a drug-treatment regimen, Maté can come across as a "rogue" doctor, as one British Columbia health agency administrator described him. "He's a bit of a pariah. He's on the edge, for sure," Thomas says. "But he's not a loose cannon. He's just willing to take some risk."
Shelley Reilly, Métis, an addiction counselor at the Association of BC First Nations Treatment Programs, in Creston, British Columbia, says, "I really like his approach. It resonates with the way our program is structured here. Our belief is that addiction is just the symptom, right? So it's imperative there be some trauma healing in order for there to be any success." Reilly works in five-week residential treatment programs that mix Western counseling and psychotherapy with ritual and ceremony. "Ceremony is huge in healing," she says. "Cultural and traditional ceremony are huge."
Even one of Maté's critics—Perry Omeasoo, who works for Vancouver Coastal Health, who called Maté a "rogue" doctor—cites the importance of spiritual and cultural elements to addiction treatment, but he argues that plenty of addiction-treatment programs already incorporate elements of coastal and prairie indigenous culture. He adds that Sun Dance and other ceremonies from his Cree heritage learned during his childhood on Alberta's Hobbema reserve, helped him out of addiction.
But when it comes to ayahuasca ceremonies, "I would say no to that. I wouldn't encourage any of my clients or any of my people to start taking a foreign plant that we don't know of, that's not from here, and think that addiction's going to get fixed by it," Omeasoo says.
Others seem to think that if a house is on fire, don't argue about which hose to use.
"For me, on a personal level, anything that can help us has value. If you can help one person change that [addicted] lifestyle around before death—or creating any more trauma—there's value in it," the addiction counselor Reilly says.
There is no argument that alcoholism and addiction is a scourge among First Nations people—a house that's on fire. "Addiction is well-recognized as an aboriginal health issue," says Dr. Evan Adams, aboriginal health physician advisor for the British Columbia Ministry of Health.
For First Nations people with addiction problems, Downtown Eastside has become the burning house where they attempt to live.
Omeasoo agrees with Maté's claim that there are traumatic roots to Native addiction. He says he grew up nested in traditional culture on the Hobbema reserve, not even speaking English until he went away to residential school as a sixth-grader. In mainstream culture he hid his "Indian-ness" and, he says, even though "I bought a house and met a nice woman and had nice kids on a soccer team, I always felt there was an emptiness."
A void he filled with substance abuse, he says. He got sober when he reconnected with the traditional ceremonies his grandfather had once conducted. And now he has become a pipe carrier, and is honored to carry his grandfather's pipe to sacred ceremonies.
Which is just the sort of message Maté would like agencies such as Health Canada to hear. "If you look at traditional healing practices around the world, they all seem to involve plants and ceremonies and rituals," Maté says. "There is nothing unique about ayahuasca. The shamans in the Amazon jungle didn't invent it in order to deal with addiction—it's something that came along as a spiritual healer and teacher, like many other plants. Like Native North Americans might use tobacco or peyote."
Maté is both irritated and baffled that Health Canada threatened him with arrest last fall in a two-page letter from Johanne Beaulieu, director of Ottawa's Office of Controlled Substances (as recounted in The Globe and Mail). Beaulieu was also quoted as saying, "We'd welcome scientists like Dr. Maté talking to us before they start their work. Our intent is not to stop research or treatment. It's to ensure the safety of Canadians."
Lucas, Thomas and Maté feel strongly that ayahuasca is not suited for clinical medical trials. "Clinical trials are designed for factory-based pharmaceuticals, not for traditional plants.… They can't fit that particular square peg into this round hole—you just can't do it," Maté says.
The trials would also be costly—up to a half-million dollars, Thomas says. The observational study they conducted last year lacks key elements of a clinical trial—they had no control group, the sample population was small (making statistical analysis difficult), and the drug was consumed as a brew, with variable potency.
Adams, the aboriginal health official, points out another problem: "If ayahuasca isn't patented, who will fund these trials? Usually a pharma company would take on that risk, not Health Canada, taking a hit if it failed, and reaping the benefits if it works. I'm not saying it's right, it's just how new drugs are developed."
People who have observed the ayahuasca ceremony argue there is a spirituality and an art to it that is not suited for a clinical trial. Instead, Maté suggests First Nations groups seek an exemption on sovereignty and the cultural grounds of traditional plant-based healing. "They need to establish their own way of dealing with things because certainly nobody can argue the Western modalities are doing the Native communities a whole lot of good," Maté says.
The First Nations band that allowed the ceremonies last year has said it is willing to help. "When it comes to going after Health Canada to get approval, we would be more than supportive," the band's health director says.
But other First Nations health and governmental officials are reluctant take a position on the matter. Adams is the one of the few willing to comment, and while he "generally supports" traditional medicine, he adds, "Traditional medicines from other countries being used in new ways by health professionals? No comment. Sovereignty over our traditional medicines and our ability to use and make laws concerning them? Absolutely!"
Adams holds out little cause for hope: "I haven't been directed by the chiefs to investigate either this traditional medicine or the process to access it.… I would think First Nations have bigger fish to fry with their law-making abilities. Why fight federal law with a sovereign law around the legality of ayahuasca when they could be creating laws banning alcohol, legalizing marijuana, changing school attendance requirements, official language designations, etc.?"
Why fight for ayahuasca? Maté has an answer ready: The plant helps people get well. "It is not something you take in order to feel better. It's a teacher, and it's a healer. And it needs to be approached respectfully and in the right context with the right kind of support and the right kind of leadership and the right kind of ceremony. It's not something that you just take as you would a medicine to make you feel better. It's not about that at all."
But right now, it does seem to be about politics which means ayahuasca is at a dead-end in Canada—for now.


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Every once in a while someone on one of the airgun, survival or preparedness forums raises the question: "What would be a good choice of airgun for a survival-type situation in which you need to shoot small game for food?"
I love to watch disaster movies and read books about people suddenly thrust into survival situations (when I'm in this mode, my wife just looks at me, shakes her head, and sighs), and I've thought about the question of which airgun would be best.
For a survival airgun, here are the characteristics that I would prefer:
1. Portability. That means either a pistol or a rifle than can be readily broken down. That eliminates many air rifles.
2. Self-contained. I want to reduce the need for ancillary equipment and consumables. That eliminates all CO2 airguns (which don't work well in cold weather) and pre-charged airguns which require a tank or pump for recharging.
3. Sufficient power for taking small game. Target air pistols won't get it done. Some springer pistols make 6 foot-pounds of energy, which is sufficient if you skills allow to stalk within 10-15 yards on small game. Some multi-stroke pneumatic pistols make 8-10 foot pounds of energy. Most air rifles generate enough energy to do the job. I have reliable reports of one shooter killing a feral goat with a multi-stroke pneumatic rifle, and another shooter inadvertently killing a deer with a cheap Chinese spring-piston rifle (he was trying to chase it away from the plants in his yard and caused a pneumo-thorax).
4. Stealthy report. I don't want to be noticed. Spring-piston powerplants are inherently quieter than most others because of the smaller quantity of air used to drive the pellet. Multi-stroke pneumatics tend to generate more noise than springers, but can be quieted with barrel shrouds or by reducing the number of pumps (which reduces the power).
5. Easy to shoot well. Spring-piston powerplants are the hardest to shoot well because of their whiplash forward and back recoil. Multi-stroke pneumatics are easy to shoot well.
6. Reliability. Airguns dealers tell me that springers are the most reliable powerplant. You can usually put at least a couple of thousand rounds through one before a rebuild is needed, and some are far more reliable.
7. Ease of maintenance. Spring piston powerplants typically require a spring compressor for assembly and disassembly. MSPs usually can be taken apart with hand tools.
The careful reader will have noticed that sometimes these characteristics are at odds with each other, so you have to make your gun selection based on what's most important to you.
Recently, the folks at UmarexUSA sent me a sample of the Browning 800 pistol in .22 caliber and it appears that it meets many of the criteria above. The 800 Mag is a large air pistol. It stretches 18 inches from the muzzle to the end of the receiver, weighs 3.9 lbs., and has an anti-recoil rail system that reduces felt recoil and makes it easier to shoot well. For a more detailed physical description of the Browning 800, please check out my blog on the .177 version here.
What makes the .22 version of the Browning 800 of particular interest is that launches .22 cal Crosman Premier 14.3 gr. pellets at an average velocity of 501 fps (516 high; 485 low), for just about 8 foot-pounds of energy, which ought to be sufficient for dispatching small game at modest ranges. Further, the .22 version seems to shoot much smoother than the .177 model, making it easier to hit what you're pointed at. From a Creedmore position outdoors with a red dot mounted, I shot a .65 inch CTC 5-shot group at 13 yards with Gamo Hunter .22 pellets. Because of the energy transmitted to the sighting system by the anti-recoil setup, you will still need a high-quality scope or red-dot if you plan to mount one.
In all, I found the Browning 800 in .22 has a lot going for it: portability, self-contained, sufficient power for taking small game, stealthy report, easy to shoot well (for a springer pistol), and probably highly reliable (although only time will verify that). I keep one with a Bushnell Trophy red dot handy by my desk in case the bird feeder needs defending.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight,
– Jock Elliott


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Ed's News
Weird Big Bank Trick Raises Price of Beer and Soda
UPDATE August 8: In his New York Times column, Professor Simon Johnson discusses the extensive debate triggered by the Senate Banking Committee's recent hearing into Goldman's alleged manipulation of aluminum prices. Here is an excerpt from "."
"This may be the strangest debate we have had about banking in the United States in the last five years, because the answer is completely obvious: it is a new and very bad idea to allow big banks to also dominate any dimension of the commodities business. It is also not sustainable politically, and the big banks will soon have to divest themselves of these activities. [...] When you allow any companies both cheap government-backed financing and carte blanche to take over other sectors, what would you expect to happen? And if you allow any kind of unfair market power to develop, surely it would be a shock if this did not result in higher prices or less good service – or even some kind of manipulation."
ORIGINAL POST: What's raising the price of beer and soda? Hint: It's not the cost of hops or sugar. If complaints to regulators and Congress are accurate, it's the manipulation of aluminum markets by mega-bank Goldman Sachs.
Many of the failed, once-high-flying super-corporation Enron's alleged schemes to manipulate markets and defraud small investors and pension funds involved sham transactions with itself that the These "artifices" enabled Enron to falsely inflate its profits and unjustly enrich its insiders.
Now comes Goldman Sachs, updating a page from Enron's book. According to a major Sunday New York Times investigation called "," by reporter David Kocieniewski, workers driving trucks and forklifts move tons of aluminum around and around its Detroit warehouses for what appears to be no reason at all.
"Two or three times a day, sometimes more, the drivers make the same circuits. They load in one warehouse. They unload in another. And then they do it again. This industrial dance has been choreographed by Goldman to exploit pricing regulations set up by an overseas commodities exchange, an investigation by The New York Times has found. The back-and-forth lengthens the storage time. And that adds many millions a year to the coffers of Goldman, which owns the warehouses and charges rent to store the metal. It also increases prices paid by manufacturers and consumers across the country. Tyler Clay, a forklift driver who worked at the Goldman warehouses until early this year, called the process 'a merry-go-round of metal.'"
At a yesterday chaired by Sherrod Brown (OH), an expert, Professor Saule T. Omarova of the University of North Carolina School of Law, confirmed the New York Times' analysis and that Goldman "has caused serious turbulence in the global market for aluminum, the second most widely used metal in the world after steel." She also explained that all the biggest mega-banks are branching out into the physical commodities markets.
That "turbulence" Professor Omarova highlighted was brought home by a witness for a beer company hampered and frustrated by Goldman's alleged actions. From a followup by Edward Wyatt in today's
"Major beverage companies have complained about the maneuvers. , a MillerCoors executive, told the panel on Tuesday that while consumers might not think they have much at stake from tons of aluminum bars stored in a warehouse near Detroit, the actions of Goldman and others have raised prices, cost jobs and hindered innovation. [...] Imagine going to a liquor store to buy a case of beer, and taking it up to the cash register to pay, Mr. Weiner said. Then instead of taking the case of beer to your car, the clerk told you to visit the store's warehouse, where you can retrieve the beer in 16 months."
Professor Omarova points out in her that while the big banks have pushed the envelope between the letter and spirit of the law, that the practices, while not at all transparent, are not necessarily illegal.
She explains how the big banks have exploited loopholes created by both the Federal Reserve and Congress, including those established by the infamous and PIRG-opposed of Depression-era legislation separating banking and commerce, which also helped trigger the 2008 economic collapse. She explains how cracks in that once solid wall between banking and commerce have been substantially widened into full-fledged breaches large enought to drive trucks, or oil tankers, through. She explains how the historic events of September 2008, when the surviving giant investment banks -- Goldman and Morgan Stanley -- were brought under the Federal safety net (because they were too big to fail), were actually a boon to the firms' efforts to expand their physical commodities activities.
She goes on to point out how in 2008 and 2009 JP Morgan Chase took advantage of "once-in -a-lifetime" opportunities to acquire the commodities assets of two failing investing banks, Bear Stearns and UBS, which essentially grandfathered JPMC into the business, too.
She explains that these big banks are involved not only in aluminum, but other physical commodities markets, including other metals, oil, asphalt, chemicals, oil tankers, mines, refineries, electricity production "and other things." She explains how the fuzzy language of the laws aids mega-bank efforts to expand their footprint and how the banks actively and successfully sought language to give them an "open-ended source of legal authority for banking organizations to engage in any commercial activities that may become feasible or potentially profitable in the future."
So if the banks are making more money, what's the problem? She further explains that not only do the physical commodities trading practices pose both reputational risk to an individual firm's safety and the risk of "contagion" to the entire financial system, they also raise important questions related to the principal policy arguments that led to the separation of banking and commerce: conflicts of interest that could lead to credit mis-allocation, the potential for market manipulation and higher consumer prices and the risk of an even greater concentration of economic and political power than the big banks already enjoy.
Professor Omarova's concerns were echoed by , a managing partner at Graham Fisher and Company, who argued that these and other mega-bank tactics are part of their strategy to increase revenue through "control of nonfinancial infrastructure assets."
The committee's hearing certainly drilled deeply into a variety of complex and technical issues. But, as is often the case, Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) provided a clear summary, according to today's :
"The notion that two of largest financial companies are adopting a business method pioneered by Enron," she said, "suggests that this movie will not end well."
In a today, Gretchen Morgenson and David Kocieniewski point out that:
"The has taken the first step in an examination of warehouse operations that are controlled by Goldman Sachs, Glencore Xstrata, the Noble Group and others and used to store vast amounts of aluminum."
The banks may claim that "it's all legal." Certainly their phalanx of lobbyists and PR firms and their various political patrons will try to dismiss the significance of these important inquiries by Congress, major media and the CFTC. Yet, as :
"Ohio manufacturers and consumers should not have the price of their gas, beer, soft drinks, or electricity driven up by Wall Street speculators," Brown said. "When Wall Street banks control the supply of both commodities and financial products, there's a potential for anti-competitive behavior and manipulation. It also exposes these megabanks - and the entire financial system - to undue risk from mine collapses, oil spills, and refinery explosions."
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text: Could the PS4 emulate PS1/PS2 games? Eurogamer's Digital Foundry reports today that Sony is planning on it—and that they might add visual enhancements to those old games. No word on whether we'll have to re-buy the ones we already own on PSN, if the rumor is true. (We've reached out to Sony for comment.)


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Industry groups react to Obama's energy, environmental appointments
Oil and gas associations emphasized natural gas's potential near-term contribution in reaching long-term goals as they responded to President-Elect Barack H. Obama's nominations to four key energy and environment posts on Dec. 15.
Oil and gas associations emphasized natural gas's potential near-term contribution in reaching long-term goals as they responded to President-Elect Barack H. Obama's nominations to four key energy and environment posts on Dec. 15.
But other groups' responses ranged from elation to concern after the president-elect announced that he has nominated Steven Chu as US Energy secretary, Lisa Jackson as Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and Nancy Sutley to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Obama also nominated Carol Browner, who was EPA administrator during the Clinton administration, to a new post as his assistant for energy and climate change. He also named Heather Zichal, currently co-chair for energy and environmental policy at the Obama transition team, as deputy assistant for energy and climate change.
"In the next few years, the choices that we make will help determine the kind of country, and world, that we will leave to our children and grandchildren. All of us know the problems rooted in our addiction to foreign oil: It constrains our economy, shifts wealth to hostile regimes, and leaves us dependent on unstable regions. These urgent dangers are eclipsed only by the long-term threat of climate change which, unless we act, will lead to drought and famine abroad, devastating weather patterns and terrible storms on our shores, and the disappearance of our coastline at home," Obama said.
"For over three decades, we've listened to a growing chorus of warnings about our energy dependence. We've heard president after president promise to chart a new course. We've heard Congress talk about energy independence, only to pull up short in the face of opposition from special interests. We've seen Washington launch policy after policy. Yet our dependence on foreign oil has only grown, even as the world's resources are disappearing," he continued.
'To control our destiny'
"This time must be different. This time we cannot fail, nor be lulled into complacency simply because the price at the pump has, for now, gone down from $4/gal. To control our own destiny, America must develop new forms of energy and new ways of using it. This is not a challenge for government alone; it is a challenge for all of us," Obama declared.
"The pursuit of a new energy economy requires a sustained, all-hands-on-deck effort because the foundation of our energy independence is right here, in America: in the power of wind and solar; in new crops and new technologies; in the innovation of our scientists and entrepreneurs, and the dedication and skill of our workforce. Those are the resources we must harness to move beyond our oil addiction and create a new, hybrid economy," he maintained.
Many oil and gas association officials did not seem surprised that these four appointments seemed to emphasize research and development of alternative and renewable energy technologies. They are clearly more interested in Obama's choice for US Interior secretary, which he said he would announce later in the week. US Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), who has tried to delay federal oil shale leasing, was reportedly a top contender.
Obama said that his selection to lead the US Department of the Interior would fill out his energy and environment team. "The Interior Department will play a critical role in meeting the challenges I have discussed today," he indicated.
Leading oil and gas associations still responded to Obama's Dec. 15 energy and environment appointments. The American Petroleum Institute said that it looks forward to working with the officials in developing "a comprehensive, fact-based and realistic energy policy. We remain hopeful that the president-elect's energy and environmental nominees recognize the important role oil and natural gas will play in our nation's economic recovery and we hope that they will strive to strike a fact-based balance between protecting the nation's environment and ensuring adequate supplies of energy for American consumers."
Important choices now
Independent Petroleum Association of America President Barry Russell said that the speed with which the national economy finds its way back to the path of prosperity and long-term job creation will depend on steps the country takes now to assure that affordable domestic energy sources remain available and accessible in the future. "Each of the talented and experienced men and women the president-elect has chosen to lead his energy team will play an important role in ensuring that future access, and it is our hope and expectation to be in a position to work with these leaders moving forward as we look for ways to create new jobs, deliver new revenue, and produce more American energy for the use and benefit of the American people," he said.
"Of course, the easiest and most direct way of accomplishing those goals while continuing to build a sustainable bridge to an alternative energy future is through the safe and responsible development of clean-burning natural gas and the abundant reserves of American oil that remain central to our country's near-term recovery. The platform on which the president-elect campaigned often acknowledged this fact, and our members look forward to building upon that awareness while continuing to deliver the affordable energy our country needs to remain in the future the first-rate nation that it is today," Russell continued.
Others said that Obama's selection of Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Jackson, leader of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection; Sutton, deputy Los Angeles mayor for energy and environment, and Browner for the four major energy and environmental positions reflected a determination to place highly qualified people in the posts.
"These accomplished individuals bring stellar credentials to the job at hand," American Gas Association President David N. Parker said. He called Chu "a brilliant individual whose lifetime of accomplishments can only help our country in these uncertain times" and said that Browner "will provide direction and oversight to ensure balance to the policy development process" in her new role.
"To meet the challenges we face as a nation, we need a green team like the one President-elect Obama has amassed. AGA is eager to work with this team to help build a secure energy future with clean, abundant, efficient fuels such as natural gas. That way, all Americans can be confident they are making responsible choices," Parker said.
Possible 'final bridge'
American Public Gas Association President Bert Kalisch said that the association of municipal gas distributors also looks forward to working with the Obama energy and environment team, particularly on more methane hydrate research. "Methane hydrates are an abundant untapped domestic resource of natural gas that could serve as the final bridge between fossil fuels and renewable, however it will take leadership and commitment from the Department of Energy and others to make commercialization of this resource a reality," he said.
T. Boone Pickens, who has prominently promoted construction of more wind and solar power plants to make more natural gas available as a motor fuel, said that Chu and Browner's appointments "are excellent signals that the new Administration is going to be very serious about developing a national energy policy which is strong on alternative fuels, on using domestic resources and on conservation."
National Association of Manufacturers President John Engler said that Obama's selection of Chu, Browner, Jackson and Sutley "reflects his continuing determination to bring highly qualified people into his administration, and his commitment to the vitally important task of bridging the nation's energy needs with the complex challenge of climate change."
The nominees are highly regarded in their fields and bring a strong public service commitment to their positions, he continued. "The challenge they face is daunting, not only in its scope, but also in the potential it holds for jobs and energy security. The manufacturers of America look forward to working with the new energy and environmental team to balance energy needs with environmental considerations," Engler said.
"This green dream team is principled, pragmatic, and knows how to get the job done. Joining with other Cabinet experts on energy like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Commerce Bill Richardson, this talented group will quickly establish America as the world's leader in clean energy. Under their direction, we will achieve Barack Obama's plan to harness renewable energy sources, rebuild our economy, strengthen our security and solve the challenges of global warming," said League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski.
Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agreed that the nominees are well-qualified and capable. "The problem is that Ms. Browner and Dr. Chu enthusiastically support President-elect Obama's energy and global warming policies, which would push America in the wrong direction," he continued. Ebell said that Obama's policies could raise US gasoline prices to "European levels of $5-6/gal" and his global warming proposals would send domestic electricity prices "through the roof."
Contact Nick Snow at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Environment, Populations, Consumption, and Sustainable Development - The Great Challenges of Our Time with Norman Myers
Date: 1/27/2012; 84 minutes
Dr. Norman Myers is a well respected and influential authority on environmental science and has worked as a consultant to the World Bank, the United Nations, the World Wildlife Fund, the Smithsonian Institution, and several world governments. He was appointed by the Queen to the Order of St. Michael and St. George, "for services to the global environment." (#23327)
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