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Drag and drop to tag tasks
david.leitner says:
I think it would make RTM even more useful if a list of tags could appear next to the task lists. Especially if they could be dragged and dropped onto tasks. It;s not like it's hard to add tags now, but it's a click and some keystrokes, which for me is just enough time to get frustrated with sorting things. Still the best task program out there for my money though. Just want to see it better.
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
This is now possible with the new Remember The Milk. Just select a task (or tasks) and drag them to a tag name in the left navigation.
Hope this helps!
Hope this helps!
amirmasoudabdol says:
nmvanvliet says:
+1, workshop very intuïtief in gmail (fancy colors too)
wshsh says:
+1, fully agree with the idea of drag-n-drop tags. That's much easier then the current way.
huba.gaspar says:
+1, it would be even more convenient to add/remove a tag with one click in a tag list on the right. That list should only show the first n recently used/frequently used tags.


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Drew Barrymore will be raising her daughter, Olive, with some challah and Manischewitz.
The 37-year-old new mom says her husband Will Kopelman, an art consultant, is "a nice Jewish man from a nice Jewish family" and she has fully embraced his culture.
Barrymore is so on board with Judaism that she has even decided to raise her daughter in the religion.
"I'm a shiksa. I do the seders and we do Passover. I haven't converted yet, [but] Olive will be raised traditionally," Barrymore said on a recent episode of "The View." "We had a very traditional wedding ceremony with Rabbi Rubenstein and I did the ketubah. We wore the yarmulkes and we did the chuppah."
Barrymore is even singing the religion's praises, adding: "I love it! It's a beautiful faith and I'm so honored to be around it. It's so family-oriented … The stories are so beautiful and it's incredibly enlightening. I'm really happy."
But when it comes to discipline, don't expect the former wild child to be easy on her daughter.
"I was such a hippie growing up, but I'm like the least loosey-goosey parent," Barrymore told the women of "The View." "I'm like, 'Bedtime, structure, feeding time' because this baby is so happy knowing when everything is happening. And I as a parent succeed and thrive knowing when everything is happening [under] that type of structure."
"I grew up very differently, which was really fun," Barrymore says of her childhood in the spotlight. "But I think kids need structure so I would not just throw caution to the wind and hope everything works out. I will make sure that it does in a very timely manner."
Watch the full interview below:

subset: commoncrawl


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The civil state: an Egyptian infomercial
I love this short informercial on what a civil state is. It airs on Qabila TV, which I hadn't heard about, and advocates the creation of a civil state. In the cute cartoon, the state is compared to a bride and there are three choices: the theocratic bride, the military bride, and the civil bride. The first two have little tolerance for disagreements, whereas the civil bride-state does. It's well done, the music is good, and the message simple (if of course a secular one.) Personally I'm glad to see it's out there.
[Hat tip: Sarah Carr.]


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The idea of criminalising the purchase of sex continues to be promoted round the world, usually as part of some politician's campaign against immoral sex and the exploitation of children, with a subtext aimed at keeping women at home and migrants out. Sweden's law is thrown out as the model, along with claims that prostitution is practically absent and trafficking nearly non-existent there. Neither of these has been proven. To explore this sort of claim, see tags to the right of this post (sweden, nordic model, laws, gender equality, for example.)
The banning-sex-purchase proposal has been made in countries as far away from Sweden as Brazil and India. Presented abstractly it sounds clear, simple and righteous. But local context and history make a big difference in how a proposed law can come to pass and operate on the ground (as opposed to in starry rhetoric). The Swedish context is unusual in the world, the conditions making this law (sexköpslagen) possible difficult to imagine outside the Nordic region. Nothing slapdash nor sudden was involved but rather deep history in a particular culture. This is not true of other countries that jump on the bandwagon because some politicians see their chance to make names based on simplistic moralising.
The following is an excerpt from a longer article I published a few months ago on the dysfunction of prostitution laws, the idea of whore stigma and the disqualification and actual murder of sex workers. For those who ask Where did the Swedish model come from? How could feminism have led to it? this provides a short version of what might be called an épistème – the epistemological field forming the conditions of possibility for knowledge in a given time and place.
Sweden and prostitution (from Prostitution Law and the Death of Whores, Jacobin, 15 August 2013)
The population of only nine and a half million is scattered over a large area, and even the biggest city is small. In Sweden's history, social inequality (class differences) was early targeted for obliteration; nowadays most people look and act middle-class. The mainstream is very wide, while social margins are narrow, most everyone being employed and/or supported by various government programmes. Although the Swedish utopia of Folkhemmet – the People's Home – was never achieved, it survives as a powerful symbol and dream of consensus and peace. Most people believe the Swedish state is neutral if not actually benevolent, even if they recognize its imperfections.
After the demise of most class distinctions, inequality based on gender was targeted (racial/ethnic differences were a minor issue until recent migration increases). Prostitution became a topic of research and government publications from the 1970s onwards. By the 1990s, eradicating prostitution came to be seen as a necessary condition for the achievement of male-female equality and feasible in a small homogeneous society. The solution envisioned was to prohibit the purchase of sex, conceptualized as a male crime, while allowing the sale of sex (because women, as victims, must not be penalized). The main vehicle was not to consist of arrests and incarcerations but a simple message: In Sweden we don't want prostitution. If you are involved in buying or selling sex, abandon this harmful behavior and come join us in an equitable society.
Since the idea that prostitution is harmful has infused political life for decades, to refuse to accept such an invitation can appear misguided and perverse. To end prostitution is not seen as a fiat of feminist dictators but, like the goal to end rape, an obvious necessity. To many, prostitution also seems incomprehensibly unnecessary in a state where poverty is so little known.
These are the everyday attitudes that social workers coming into contact with Eva-Maree probably shared. We do not know the details of the custody battle she had been locked in for several years with her ex-partner. We do not know how competent either was as a parent. She recounted that social workers told her she did not understand she was harming herself by selling sex. There are no written guidelines decreeing that prostitutes may not have custody of their children, but all parents undergo evaluations, and the whore stigma could not fail to affect their judgements. For the social workers, Eva-Maree's identity was spoiled; she was discredited as a mother on psycho-social grounds. She had persisted in trying to gain mother's rights and made headway with the authorities, but her ex-partner was enraged that an escort could gain any rights and did all he could to impede her seeing them. The drawn-out custody process broke down on the day she died, since standard procedures do not allow disputing parents to meet during supervised visits with children.
In a 2010 report evaluating the law criminalizing sex-purchase, stigma is mentioned in reference to feedback they received from some sex workers:
The people who are exploited in prostitution report that criminalization has reinforced the stigma of selling sex. They explain that they have chosen to prostitute themselves and feel they are not being involuntarily exposed to anything. Although it is not illegal to sell sex they perceive themselves to be hunted by the police. They perceive themselves to be disempowered in that their actions are tolerated but their will and choice are not respected.
The report concludes that these negative effects "must be viewed as positive from the perspective that the purpose of the law is indeed to combat prostitution." To those haunted by the death of Eva-Maree, the words sound cruel, but they were written for a document attempting to evaluate the law's effects. Evaluators had been unable to produce reliable evidence of any kind of effect; an increase in stigma was at least a consequence.
Has this stigma discouraged some women from selling sex who might have wanted to and some men from buying? Maybe, but it is a result no evaluation could demonstrate. The report, in its original Swedish 295 pages, is instead composed of historical background, repetitious descriptions of the project and administrative detail. Claims made later that trafficking has diminished under the law are also impossible to prove, since there are no pre-law baseline statistics to compare to.
The lesson is not that Sweden's law caused a murder or that any other law would have prevented it. Whore stigma exists everywhere under all prostitution laws. But Sweden's law can be said to have given whore stigma a new rationality for social workers and judges, the stamp of government approval for age-old prejudice. The ex-partner's fury at her becoming an escort may derive in part from his Ugandan background, but Sweden did not encourage him to view Eva-Maree more respectfully.
Some say her murder is simply another clear act of male violence and entitlement by a man who wanted her to be disqualified from seeing their children. According to that view, the law is deemed progressive because it combats male hegemony and promotes Gender Equality. This is what most infuriates advocates of sex workers' rights: that the "Swedish model" is held up as virtuous solution to all of the old problems of prostitution, in the absence of any evidence. But for those who embrace anti-prostitution ideology, the presence or absence of evidence is unimportant.
Some of the immediate questions you might have, for instance on Gender Equality and State Feminism, are addressed in the full essay Prostitution Law and the Death of Whores. This kind of background is, of course, not interesting to everyone, and most of what I see on the topic talks about the law as Bad or Good. Discussions typical in parliamentary committees like the Irish are silly because they opt to accept banal lists of supposed successes in Sweden without acknowledging the difficulties of knowing effects at all. Activists on both sides tend to over-state their cases – practically the definition of much activism in social movements. For anyone interested in history, though, the background is crucial, and it can be seen as good news that it's not so easy to simply transfer the logic of a law from one country to another: that kind of homogenised culture is not here yet.
Proof of the law's effects are mostly unknowable so far. The state's evaluation of the law in 2010 admitted ignorance of how to investigate commercial sex online and gave numbers only for street prostitution. This was a tiny number to begin with describing an activity that is diminishing. Claims that sex trafficking have decreased are meaningless since no baseline statistics were kept on this before the law was passed. The claims of eradicating either phenomenon are public-relations trivia. That politicians in other countries reproduce these claims in supposedly serious hearings demonstrates mediocrity and lack of interest in the subject. As I said above, the principle effect we can be sure of is
Sweden's law can be said to have given whore stigma a new rationality for social workers and judges, the stamp of government approval for age-old prejudice.
Increases in stigma, social death and excuses to disqualify women who sell sex as autonomous beings are dire effects to a piece of legislation that emerged from a goal to achieve Gender Equality. Utopian visions can backfire, and this one has.
For another of my views of Sweden's present State Feminists see Extremist Feminism in Swedish government: Something Dark
–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist


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About hodgy
pies are not just desserts...
some parts...?
this ad is based on the the three pigs/big bad wolf, not the "this little pig went to market" nursery rhyme?
I think it's more a case of because of the pirates the lawyers are doing very well indeed. thanks, pirates!
from the outside it looks like america's immune system is being stimulated to attack itself...


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But if turbines that are not grid-connected in China were included, both figures would be very similar to last year.
World wind-energy capacity now comfortably exceeds 300GW, and just over a third of the total is located in Europe. The total amount of new capacity installed in Europe last year was 11.5GW, down from the 13.8GW installed in 2012.
Although progress slowed in Europe last year, the strongest performer in terms of megawatts added, after a slow 2012, was Germany, with 2.98GW, a 9% increase. The strongest performer in percentage terms among those with over 5GW was the UK, which added 2.06GW, a 24% rise. Further down the table, very strong performances were delivered by Poland, which added 36%, and Turkey, which added 39%.
After a long period of sluggish activity, there were signs of growth in the Middle East and Africa, particularly Morocco, Iran and Ethiopia. Although much of the African continent has fairly low wind speeds, there are attractive locations, such as the mountainous regions of Kenya, where a 300MW wind project is close to financial close.
The star performer in the Asia-Pacific region last year was, once again, China, while India, which has been a strong performer in previous years, added less than 2GW.
Progress in the North American continent last year was modest, although the American Wind Energy Association says 12GW of plant is under construction. The US Department of Energy suggests that about 6GW will be commissioned in 2014. The long-awaited surge of activity in South America now seems to be taking off, with nearly 1GW installed — if not grid-connected — in Brazil.
Firmly competitive
Several authorities suggest the amount of capacity that will be added in 2014 will exceed the 2013 figure. The competitive position of wind has improved during the year, especially as construction costs for two new nuclear power stations - one in the US, the other in the UK - became clear. On a level playing field, there is no longer any doubt that onshore wind is cheaper than nuclear. No renewable energy technologies - with the possible exception of biomass in certain locations - can compete with wind, whose principal competitor is natural gas. This is particularly true in the US, thanks to the availability of shale gas, but it became increasingly evident during the year that a shale-gas revolution in Europe and elsewhere was unlikely to have a big effect on gas prices. Although there are undoubtedly shale-gas resources outside the US, their exploitation is unlikely to have a major impact on gas prices.
One development that could strongly affect the growth of renewable energy in Europe is future policy within the European Union. The European Commission has tabled climate and energy goals for 2030, as a basis for "a competitive, secure and low-carbon EU economy". The commission has proposed a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below the 1990 level, an EU-wide binding target for renewable energy of at least 27%, renewed ambitions for energy efficiency policies, a new governance system and a set of new indicators to ensure a competitive and secure energy system. There has been a mixed reaction to the proposals, with some arguing they are too weak, others the reverse. They were to be debated at a Council of Ministers meeting in late March.
Future energy policy in the EU and elsewhere will have a crucial bearing on the continuing development of offshore wind. The UK - the current world leader - recently reiterated plans to retain that lead and develop up to 15GW of wind by 2020 and 41GW by 2030. However, the long-term revision to the UK electricity market structure is creating some uncertainty, and the 2020 figure is now looking more doubtful. German offshore developments, which had been moving forward slowly, accelerated during 2013, and there are some signs that costs are stabilising. The industry is confident that generation costs will come down, but continuing development is a prerequisite.
A major milestone on the path to construction of the first offshore wind farm in the US was reached in December, when Siemens obtained an agreement with Cape Wind to provide the wind turbines. Construction is likely to commence this year.
The quarterly Windicator is an indicator of the state of play. Changes in the table overleaf can be corrections received rather than additions or subtractions. We welcome corrections.


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Alternative News
This Woman's Speech Made The Audience Go Silent. It's About The Food You Eat
Food marketers have the tricky task of figuring out how to get us to buy food. Whether food is healthy or unhealthy food, we have to be willing to put it into our bodies and they will be producing it until they can't convince us anymore.
When it comes to food production, a lot of what we consume, as a whole, is processed food. This means it is food that is not in its natural form but instead has been altered in some way having to do with flavor, color, shelf life etc. Often times healthy foods become very unhealthy after they have been processed, as much of what is added to the foods is harmful to our health.
The reality is, if we saw first hand what is going into our food and also how our food is produced, we probably wouldn't buy it. For example when it comes to animals, if we saw the conditions that they live in, how they are raised from birth, how they are slaughtered and what food and medications go into them, we probably wouldn't eat it. In our minds we have this idea of a chicken, cow or pig in a nice grassy area having a great time with life. Then we see it nicely getting killed and prepared for us to eat. 99% of the time, this is not even close to what is happening.
If you want the full low down on what is going on, you can check this out.
The video below is of a woman giving a presentation about food marketing and how they convince us to buy foods we probably wouldn't otherwise buy.
Note: You may have noticed by the end of the video that this was a mock speech. The reason it was important to see it before knowing this is because of the power of the message. Although the video was scripted, this is precisely what happens in the industry and WE are the ones that have a choice about where it goes from here. Vote with your dollar.
You Can Help Stop The 5G Infrastructure
We plan to investigate the telecom industry, it's ties to politics, and expose its efforts to push 5G while ignoring the dangers and without proper safety testing, but we can't do it without your support.
We've launched a funding campaign to fuel our efforts on this matter as we are confident we can make a difference and have a strong plan to get it done.
Check out our plan and join our campaign here.
Alternative News
The Anatomy of Conspiracy Theories
Whether you believe in conspiracy theories or not, we can all agree that the use of the term has exploded in media and in conversation. The question is, why? Are we now using the term "Conspiracy Theory" more indiscriminately and on more platforms than previously? Are we, as a society, simply becoming unhinged and absurd? Are seemingly nonsensical stories, for some unknown reason, starting to resonate with people? Or are some conventional narratives getting challenged because some of these "alternative" explanations are in fact accurate, despite the fact that conventional sources refuse to acknowledge them as even potentially valid? Notice that the last two possibilities are different sides of the same coin. If you think "conspiracy theorists" are unhinged, it is highly likely that they are suspicious of your sanity as well. Both sides insist that they are right and that the other has been hoodwinked. Note that if you choose to not pick a side, you are, by default, allowing the conventional narrative to perpetuate. That is how convention works.
Merriam-Webster defines the term conspiracy theory as "a theory that explains an event or situation as the result of a secret plan by usually powerful people or groups". The key elements of this definition remain consistent across all authoritative lexicons: the group responsible for an event must be powerful and covert. However, if we refer to the Wikipedia definition as of 11/2018 a new element emerges: "A conspiracy theory is an explanation of an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy—generally one involving an illegal or harmful act supposedly carried out by government or other powerful actors—without credible evidence."
When an explanation is labeled a "Conspiracy Theory," by today's definition, it has no evidence to support it. An explanation with no supporting evidence is a hypothesis, not a "theory." "Conspiracy Theory," as it is used today, is thus an oxymoron. These "Conspiracy Theories" we seem to hear about everyday should really be called "Conspiracy Hypotheses." More concerning is that the "Conspiracy Theory" label identifies an explanation as inherently baseless. Given this linguistic construct, where is there room for a conspiracy that is in fact true?
There is also something troubling about using the term "credible" in the definition of conspiracy theory. Legally, evidence that is credible is that which a reasonable person would consider to be true in light of the surrounding circumstances. If evidence suggests an explanation that seems at the surface to be unreasonable, how does a reasonable person avoid automatically labeling the evidence not credible? If we are not careful, the credibility of the explanation and resultant conclusions would then determine the credibility of the evidence that supports it. Is this really so important? Perhaps you are quick to see that with this approach, our understanding of what is true and real can never evolve. If any evidence arose that radically disproved our understanding or eroded our faith in trusted institutions we would automatically discard it as "not credible" and remain entrenched in our accepted paradigm. "Credible" evidence cannot be a necessary requirement of a theory that challenges what is credible to begin with.
To better illustrate this, let us consider an old but very real "conspiracy theory." About 400 years ago, European civilization was emerging from centuries of scientific and philosophical stagnation known as the dark ages. What more befitting a place for such a renaissance to occur than the center of the universe? You see, the idea that the Earth was one of eight planets revolving around a star that is orbiting the center of one of hundreds of billions of galaxies would have been absurd in Europe in the sixteenth century. Any sane person could see that the Sun and the Moon and every celestial body rises in the East and sets in the West. At that time, if someone went about proposing the idea that everything rises and falls because the Earth was spinning, they would have been laughed out of the tavern. Would that person be a conspiracy theorist? They are not proposing that "powerful actors are carrying out a harmful act," they are merely suggesting an alternative explanation for what is observed. However, the implication of their suggestion seems to incriminate the authority on such matters as ignorant of the truth or, possibly, the perpetrators of a lie. The possibility of a conspiracy has now been introduced.
Now, let us say that this person claims to have proof of their absurd theory. Would you have taken the time to examine the evidence or would you have been more likely to dismiss them without further consideration? The very idea that they could be right would have been not just silly or heretical, but inconceivable to many, if not all. How could the evidence be credible if it implied something inconceivable? Dismissing their idea would have seemingly been the most logical and, therefore, the smartest thing to do.
When Galileo Galilei appeared in 1610 armed with a rudimentary "telescope," few would peer into it. He claimed that the refractive properties of the pair of "lenses" would allow you to see things at great distances very clearly. With it one could see Jupiter and its moons revolving around the giant planet just as our moon revolves around Earth. How enchanting! The difficulty would arise when you put the telescope down: your feet would no longer be planted on the previously immovable center of creation. Would you have looked into his telescope? What would have been the harm in taking a peek? Certainly the fear of being proven more gullible than most would have been on your mind. What about the fear that he might be right?
Imagine what must have been going through Galileo's mind after his monumental discovery. He saw irrefutably that the entire model of the universe had been completely misconceived. One just has to look. Most did not. I can only imagine how hard he must have tried to convince anyone to simply stop, look and listen to what he had discovered. At the time, Galileo was the Chair of Mathematics at the University of Padua and had previously held the same post at the University of Pisa. Despite his bonafides and reputation as a solid contributor to the Italian renaissance, his discovery would likely have died in obscurity if it weren't for the support of an influential family, the Medicis, who offered Galileo a platform from which he could spread his theory. It was only through allying himself with political power that he was able to slowly generate interest in his heliocentric model of the solar system. His proposition eventually caught the attention of the Catholic church, who initially warned him to desist. Eventually, he was brought to trial in the Roman Inquisition 23 years after his discovery. At the age of 70, the intrepid mathematician and astronomer was allowed to return home if he agreed to recant his story. Instead Galileo chose to spend the rest of his years in prison because he believed that that would be the only way to get people to open their eyes.
Did it work? It did not. Galileo died incarcerated while Europe continued to slumber under stars that moved around them. By today's standards, Galileo would have been labeled a Conspiracy Theorist from the day he announced his findings until he was proven right fifty years after his death. When the Principle of Gravitational Attraction eventually became widely accepted as true, the church had to retract their position because the motions of the stars and planets could not be explained under Newton's laws.
On the other hand, Galileo is credited with being the father of not only observational astronomy, but of the scientific method as well. The scientific method demands that one tests an explanation without bias towards an outcome. All data is considered before deductions are made. When all other explanations have been proven wrong, the only explanation remaining becomes a theory. The theory persists as long as all subsequent experiments continue to uphold it. This is how we ultimately know what we know and have an inkling of what we don't. If I had to choose a posthumous title for myself, "The Father of the Scientific Method" is one I could die with. Galileo is credited with this honorific not only because he valued it more than his freedom, but because he had the discipline to regard evidence objectively despite how unimaginable the implications were. This is how a body of knowledge expands. By considering the validity of the evidence first, we then can accept what was previously unimaginable, otherwise what we know tomorrow will be no different than what we know today.
All conspiracy theorists are not Galileos. Neither are all conspiracy theories true. However, can we be certain that all of them are false? At their very core, all conspiracy theories directly or indirectly point at a central authority acting covertly and simultaneously at the media for either missing it or looking the other way. This, of course, is unimaginable, as we all know the government can make mistakes but would never do anything intentionally harmful to its citizens and then hide it. Even if they did, somebody would come forward and the media would let us know about it. This is why such a deception could never occur. The idea that your lover could be in bed with your best friend is inconceivable. Evidence of such a thing would not be credible. Dismissing all conspiracy theories seems logical and therefore seems like the smartest thing to do.
In "Sapiens", Yuval Harari proposes an explanation for why our species, Sapiens, out fought, out thought and out survived all other Homo species on the planet. He suggests that it was our unique ability to describe and communicate situations and events that had no basis in reality which set us apart. In other words, we could tell stories and they could not. By uniting under a common idea, story or even myth, thousands (and now thousands of millions) of Sapiens could come together with a shared purpose, identity or belief system to disband our cousins who were as individuals more sturdy and just as cunning but not nearly as good at cooperating as we were. This advantage, Harari proposes, has not only led our species to eventual supremacy over all others, but has also allowed us to form communities, governments and global alliances.
Siding with the majority has served us well–until it hasn't. One only needs to revisit the history of Galileo and basic astronomy to understand this. In actuality, the first observant minds woke up to the fact that the Earth went around the sun and not the other way round nineteen centuries before Galileo did. The Greek mathematician, Aristarcus, is thought to be the first Western person to place the Sun in the middle of a "solar system" in 270 BC. A human being traveled to the moon just 360 years after Galileo "discovered" what Aristarcus had shown nearly two millennia before. How many centuries was this journey delayed because an alternative explanation in ancient Greece became a "conspiracy theory" against authority and convention?
This poses an intriguing question. Is there something hardwired in our behavioral patterns that push us towards conformist narratives and away from alternative ones at a precognitive level? Is it this tendency that gave rise to our enhanced ability to unite that keeps us in "group-think" more than we should be? How do we know we are looking at the world objectively and rejecting alternative belief systems from a purely rational basis? How does one know whether one is biased or not?
One way is to apply the scientific method. The scientific method demands that every possibility, no matter how outlandish, is tested for its veracity and dismissed only when it can be proven wrong. Without this objective pursuit of truth, misconceptions can persist indefinitely, just as the geocentric model of the universe did. Interestingly, Aristarcus was allowed to retain his theory because he lived at a time and place where philosophers, mathematicians and scientists were revered, protected and free to pursue their notions. The freedom ancient Greek society afforded its scientists only endured for a few centuries after Aristarcus lived. In Galileo's day, the Roman Catholic church had been presiding over such things as facts for well over a thousand years. His incontrovertible proof was suppressed by the power that had the most to lose.
These days, establishing the facts of the matter may not be as easy as we presume. Conspiracy theorists claim to have proof just like the debunkers do. How do we know that the proof offered on either side is valid? Who has the time to apply the scientific method? It certainly seems safer to go with the conventional narrative because surely there are more rational minds in a larger group. Though it seems a reasonable approach, it may be in fact where we misstep. By deferring to others, we assume the majority will arrive at the truth eventually. The problem is that those in the majority who are trained to examine evidence objectively often must take a potentially career-ending risk to even investigate an alternative explanation. Why would an organization be willing to invest the resources to redirect their scientific staff to chase down and evaluate evidence that will likely endanger their reputation with the public without any upside? Thus, conventional narratives survive for another day, or in the case of an Earth-centered universe, for a couple of thousand years.
Whether or not you are not a "conspiracy theorist" we can all agree that there is a possibility, however slight, that some conventional narratives could be wrong. How would we know? Is there a source that we can trust 100%? Must we rely on our own wits? A short inquiry into this question can be disquieting. Most of us must admit that our understanding of history, science and geopolitics are merely stories that we have been told by people, institutions or media that we trust explicitly or implicitly. Because most of us are not authorities on anything, it would be impossible to overturn any conventional narrative with an evidentiary argument. Challenging these paradigms is necessarily left to others. Generally speaking, there is no real reason to argue with convention if everything is seemingly unfolding acceptably. But what if you wanted to know for yourself ? Is there any way to ever really know the truth without having to have faith in someone or something else?
There may not be. However, it is also naive to believe that if someone, scientist or not, was in possession of evidence that challenged our deepest held beliefs that it would take root in the ethos on its own. Galileo enjoyed unsurpassed credibility as one of Italy's foremost mathematicians. He also possessed irrefutable, verifiable and reproducible evidence for his revolutionary theory, yet the convention he was challenging did not crumble through his discoveries. History has shown us that it makes no difference how valid a point is; truth emerges only when someone is listening.
So, rather than seeking to independently validate or refute what we are being told, it becomes more productive to ask a different question: How biased is our society by historical standards? How does our society regard alternative theories? Do we let them co-exist with convention as the ancient Greeks did? Do we collectively invest resources to investigate them openly? Or do we dismiss, attack and vilify them as was done in the papal states in Galileo's time? Which kind of society is more likely to get it right? Which runs the greater risk of being hoodwinked in the long run? Which is more free?
You Can Help Stop The 5G Infrastructure
We plan to investigate the telecom industry, it's ties to politics, and expose its efforts to push 5G while ignoring the dangers and without proper safety testing, but we can't do it without your support.
We've launched a funding campaign to fuel our efforts on this matter as we are confident we can make a difference and have a strong plan to get it done.
Check out our plan and join our campaign here.
Alternative News
US House of Representatives Investigating if the Government Created Lyme Disease As A Bioweapon
In Brief
- The Facts:
A New Jersey lawmaker suggests the government turned ticks and insects into bioweapons to spread disease, and possibly released them. He is not the only one who believes so.
- Reflect On:
This is not the only example of supposed human experimentation on mass populations by the government
There are a number of subjects that were once considered 'conspiracy theories,' which are now no longer in that realm. 'Conspiracy theories' usually, in my opinion, arise from credible evidence. The implications, however, are so grand and so mind-altering that many may experience some sort of cognitive dissonance as a result. One of the topics often deemed a 'conspiracy theory' is weaponized diseases, and the latest example comes from an approved amendment that was proposed by a Republican congressman from New Jersey. His name is Chris Smith, and he instructed the Department of Defence's Inspector General to conduct a review on whether or not the US "experimented with ticks and insects regarding use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975" and "whether any ticks or insects used in such experiment were released outside of any laboratory by accident or experiment design."
The fact that Smith brought this up shows that any intelligent person who actually looks into this has reason to believe it's a possibility, yet mainstream media outlets are ridiculing the idea, calling it a conspiracy instead of actually bringing up the points that caused Smith to demand the review.
The fact that the amendment was approved by a vote in the House speaks volumes. Smith said that the amendment was inspired by "a number of books and articles suggesting that significant research had been done at US government facilities including Fort Detrick, Maryland, and Plum Island, New York, to turn ticks and insects into bioweapons".
Most people don't know that the US government has experimented on its own citizens a number of times. All of this is justified for "national security" purposes. National security has always been a term used as an excuse to prolong secrecy, justify the government's lack of transparency, and create black budget programs that have absolutely no oversight from Congress.
For example, on September 20, 1950, a US Navy ship just off the coast of San Francisco used a giant hose to spray a cloud of microbes into the air and into the city's famous fog. The military was apparently testing how a biological weapon attack would affect the 800,000 residents of the city.The people of San Francisco had absolutely no idea. The Navy continued the tests for seven days, and multiple people died as a result. It was apparently one of the first large-scale biological weapon trials that would be conducted under a "germ warfare testing program" that went on for 20 years from 1949 to 1969. The goal "was to deter [the use of biological weapons] against the United States and its allies and to retaliate if deterrence failed," the government later explained. Then again, that's if you trust the explanation coming from the government.
This could fall under the category of human subject research. It's still happening! A dozen classified programs that involved research on human subjects were underway last year at the Department of Energy. Human subject research refers broadly to the collection of scientific data from human subjects. This could involve performing physical procedures on the subjects or simply conducting interviews and having other forms of interaction with them. It could even involve procedures performed on entire populations, apparently without their consent.
Human subjects research erupted into national controversy 25 years ago with reporting by Eileen Welsome of the Albuquerque Tribune on human radiation experiments that had been conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission, many of which were performed without the consent of the subjects. A presidential advisory committee was convened to document the record and to recommend appropriate policy responses.
When it comes to Lyme disease, the Guardian points out that:
A new book published in May by a Stanford University science writer and former Lyme sufferer, Kris Newby, has raised questions about the origins of the disease, which affects 400,000 Americans each year.
Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons, cites the Swiss-born discoverer of the Lyme pathogen, Willy Burgdorfer, as saying that the Lyme epidemic was a military experiment that had gone wrong.
Burgdorfer, who died in 2014, worked as a bioweapons researcher for the US military and said he was tasked with breeding fleas, ticks, mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects, and infecting them with pathogens that cause human diseases.
According to the book, there were programs to drop "weaponised" ticks and other bugs from the air, and that uninfected bugs were released in residential areas in the US to trace how they spread. It suggests that such a scheme could have gone awry and led to the eruption of Lyme disease in the US in the 1960s.
This is concerning. It's a story that, for some reason, instantly reminded me of the MK ultra program, where human subjects were used for mind control research.
If things like this occurred in the past, it's hard to understand why someone would deem the possibility of this happening again a 'conspiracy theory.' What makes one think this wouldn't be happening again, especially given the fact that there is sufficient evidence suggesting it is?
Lyme disease is also very strange. If you did get it, you probably wouldn't know immediately – unless you're one of the chronic sufferers that have had to visit over 30 doctors to get a proper diagnosis. Lyme disease tests are highly inaccurate, often inconclusive or indicating false negatives.
Why? Because this clever bacteria has found a way to dumb down the immune system and white blood cells so that it's not detectable until treatment is initiated. To diagnose Lyme disease properly you must see a "Lyme Literate MD (LLMD)." However, more and more doctors are turning their backs on patients due to sheer fear of losing their practices! Insurance companies and the CDC will do whatever it takes to stop Chronic Lyme Disease from being diagnosed, treated, or widely recognized as an increasingly common issue.
You can read more about that here.
The Takeaway
It's becoming more apparent that our government as well as our federal health regulatory agencies are extremely corrupt. There are a number of examples to choose from throughout history proving this. The fact that something like this doesn't seem believable to the public is ridiculous and further enhances and prolongs the ability for the powerful elite and the government to continue conducting these activities. Awareness is key.
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Alternative News
The Medical Journals' Sell-Out—Getting Paid to Play
[Note: This is Part IX in a series of articles adapted from the second Children's Health Defense eBook: Conflicts of Interest Undermine Children's Health. The first eBook, The Sickest Generation: The Facts Behind the Children's Health Crisis and Why It Needs to End, described how children's health began to worsen dramatically in the late 1980s following fateful changes in the childhood vaccine schedule.]
The vaccine industry and its government and scientific partners routinely block meaningful science and fabricate misleading studies about vaccines. They could not do so, however, without having enticed medical journals into a mutually beneficial bargain. Pharmaceutical companies supply journals with needed income, and in return, journals play a key role in suppressing studies that raise critical questions about vaccine risks—which would endanger profits.
Journals are willing to accept even the most highly misleading advertisements. The FDA has flagged numerous instances of advertising violations, including ads that overstated a drug's effectiveness or minimized its risks.
An exclusive and dependent relationship
Advertising is one of the most obviously beneficial ways that medical journals' "exclusive and dependent relationship" with the pharmaceutical industry plays out. According to a 2006 analysis in PLOS Medicine, drugs and medical devices are the only products for which medical journals accept advertisements. Studies show that journal advertising generates "the highest return on investment of all promotional strategies employed by pharmaceutical companies." The pharmaceutical industry puts a particularly "high value on advertising its products in print journals" because journals reach doctors—the "gatekeeper between drug companies and patients." Almost nine in ten drug advertising dollars are directed at physicians.
In the U.S. in 2012, drug companies spent $24 billion marketing to physicians, with only $3 billion spent on direct-to-consumer advertising. By 2015, however, consumer-targeted advertising had jumped to $5.2 billion, a 60% increase that has reaped bountiful rewards. In 2015, Pfizer's Prevnar-13 vaccine was the nation's eighth most heavily advertised drug; after the launch of the intensive advertising campaign, Prevnar "awareness" increased by over 1,500% in eight months, and "44% of targeted consumers were talking to their physicians about getting vaccinated specifically with Prevnar." Slick ad campaigns have also helped boost uptake of "unpopular" vaccines like Gardasil.
Advertising is such an established part of journals' modus operandi that high-end journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) boldly invite medical marketers to "make NEJM the cornerstone of their advertising programs," promising "no greater assurance that your ad will be seen, read, and acted upon." In addition, medical journals benefit from pharmaceutical companies' bulk purchases of thousands of journal reprints and industry's sponsorship of journal subscriptions and journal supplements.
In 2003, an editor at The BMJ wrote about the numerous ways in which drug company advertising can bias medical journals (and the practice of medicine)—all of which still hold true today. For example:
- Advertising monies enable prestigious journals to get thousands of copies into doctors' hands for free, which "almost certainly" goes on to affect prescribing.
- Journals are willing to accept even the most highly misleading advertisements. The FDA has flagged numerous instances of advertising violations, including ads that overstated a drug's effectiveness or minimized its risks.
- Journals will guarantee favorable editorial mentions of a product in order to earn a company's advertising dollars.
- Journals can earn substantial fees for publishing supplements even when they are written by "paid industry hacks"—and the more favorable the supplement content is to the company that is funding it, the bigger the profit for the journal.
Discussing clinical trials, the BMJ editor added: "Major trials are very good for journals in that doctors around the world want to see them and so are more likely to subscribe to journals that publish them. Such trials also create lots of publicity, and journals like publicity. Finally, companies purchase large numbers of reprints of these trials…and the profit margin to the publisher is huge. These reprints are then used to market the drugs to doctors, and the journal's name on the reprint is a vital part of that sell."
… however, even these poor-quality studies—when funded by the pharmaceutical industry—got far more attention than equivalent studies not funded by industry.
Industry-funded bias
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), nearly three-fourths of all funding for clinical trials in the U.S.—presumably including vaccine trials—came from corporate sponsors as of the early 2000s. The pharmaceutical industry's funding of studies (and investigators) is a factor that helps determine which studies get published, and where. As a Johns Hopkins University researcher has acknowledged, funding can lead to bias—and while the potential exists for governmental or departmental funding to produce bias, "the worst source of bias is industry-funded."
In 2009, researchers published a systematic review of several hundred influenza vaccine trials. Noting "growing doubts about the validity of the scientific evidence underpinning [influenza vaccine] policy recommendations," the authors showed that the vaccine-favorable studies were "of significantly lower methodological quality"; however, even these poor-quality studies—when funded by the pharmaceutical industry—got far more attention than equivalent studies not funded by industry. The authors commented:
[Studies] sponsored by industry had greater visibility as they were more likely to be published by high impact factor journals and were likely to be given higher prominence by the international scientific and lay media, despite their apparent equivalent methodological quality and size compared with studies with other funders.
In their discussion, the authors also described how the industry's vast resources enable lavish and strategic dissemination of favorable results. For example, companies often distribute "expensively bound" abstracts and reprints (translated into various languages) to "decision makers, their advisors, and local researchers," while also systematically plugging their studies at symposia and conferences.
The World Health Organization's standards describe reporting of clinical trial results as a "scientific, ethical, and moral responsibility." However, it appears that as many as half of all clinical trial results go unreported—particularly when their results are negative. A European official involved in drug assessment has described the problem as "widespread," citing as an example GSK's suppression of results from four clinical trials for an anti-anxiety drug when those results showed a possible increased risk of suicide in children and adolescents. Experts warn that "unreported studies leave an incomplete and potentially misleading picture of the risks and benefits of treatments."
Many vaccine studies flagrantly illustrate biases and selective reporting that produce skewed write-ups that are more marketing than science.
Debased and biased results
The "significant association between funding sources and pro-industry conclusions" can play out in many different ways, notably through methodological bias and debasement of study designs and analytic strategies. Bias may be present in the form of inadequate sample sizes, short follow-up periods, inappropriate placebos or comparisons, use of improper surrogate endpoints, unsuitable statistical analyses or "misleading presentation of data."
Occasionally, high-level journal insiders blow the whistle on the corruption of published science. In a widely circulated quote, Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of NEJM, acknowledged that "It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines." Dr. Angell added that she "[took] no pleasure in this conclusion, which [she] reached slowly and reluctantly" over two decades at the prestigious journal.
Many vaccine studies flagrantly illustrate biases and selective reporting that produce skewed write-ups that are more marketing than science. In formulaic articles that medical journals are only too happy to publish, the conclusion is almost always the same, no matter the vaccine: "We did not identify any new or unexpected safety concerns." As an example of the use of inappropriate statistical techniques to exaggerate vaccine benefits, an influenza vaccine study reported a "69% efficacy rate" even though the vaccine failed "nearly all who [took] it." As explained by Dr. David Brownstein, the study's authors used a technique called relative risk analysis to derive their 69% statistic because it can make "a poorly performing drug or therapy look better than it actually is." However, the absolute risk difference between the vaccine and the placebo group was 2.27%, meaning that the vaccine "was nearly 98% ineffective in preventing the flu."
… the reviewers had done an incomplete job and had ignored important evidence of bias.
Trusted evidence?
In 2018, the Cochrane Collaboration—which bills its systematic reviews as the international gold standard for high-quality, "trusted" evidence—furnished conclusions about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine that clearly signaled industry bias. In May of that year, Cochrane's highly favorable review improbably declared the vaccine to have no increased risk of serious adverse effects and judged deaths observed in HPV studies "not to be related to the vaccine." Cochrane claims to be free of conflicts of interest, but its roster of funders includes national governmental bodies and international organizations pushing for HPV vaccine mandates as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—both of which are staunch funders and supporters of HPV vaccination. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's president is a former top CDC official who served as acting CDC director during the H1N1 "false pandemic" in 2009 that ensured millions in windfall profits for vaccine manufacturers.
Two months after publication of Cochrane's HPV review, researchers affiliated with the Nordic Cochrane Centre (one of Cochrane's member centers) published an exhaustive critique, declaring that the reviewers had done an incomplete job and had "ignored important evidence of bias." The critics itemized numerous methodological and ethical missteps on the part of the Cochrane reviewers, including failure to count nearly half of the eligible HPV vaccine trials, incomplete assessment of serious and systemic adverse events and failure to note that many of the reviewed studies were industry-funded. They also upbraided the Cochrane reviewers for not paying attention to key design flaws in the original clinical trials, including the failure to use true placebos and the use of surrogate outcomes for cervical cancer.
In response to the criticisms, the editor-in-chief of the Cochrane Library initially stated that a team of editors would investigate the claims "as a matter of urgency." Instead, however, Cochrane's Governing Board quickly expelled one of the critique's authors, Danish physician-researcher Peter Gøtzsche, who helped found Cochrane and was the head of the Nordic Cochrane Centre. Gøtzsche has been a vocal critic of Cochrane's "increasingly commercial business model," which he suggests is resulting in "stronger and stronger resistance to say anything that could bother pharmaceutical industry interests." Adding insult to injury, Gøtzsche's direct employer, the Rigshospitalet hospital in Denmark, then fired Gøtzsche. In response, Dr. Gøtzsche stated, "Firing me sends the unfortunate signal that if your research results are inconvenient and cause public turmoil, or threaten the pharmaceutical industry's earnings, …you will be sacked." In March 2019, Gøtzsche launched an independent Institute for Scientific Freedom.
In 2019, the editor-in-chief and research editor of BMJ Evidence Based Medicine—the journal that published the critique of Cochrane's biased review—jointly defended the critique as having "provoke[d] healthy debate and pose[d] important questions," affirming the value of publishing articles that "hold organisations to account." They added that "Academic freedom means communicating ideas, facts and criticism without being censored, targeted or reprimanded" and urged publishers not to "shrink from offering criticisms that may be considered inconvenient."
In recent years, a number of journals have invented bogus excuses to withdraw or retract articles critical of risky vaccine ingredients, even when written by top international scientists.
The censorship tsunami
Another favored tactic is to keep vaccine-critical studies out of medical journals altogether, either by refusing to publish them (even if peer reviewers recommend their publication) or by concocting excuses to pull articles after publication. In recent years, a number of journals have invented bogus excuses to withdraw or retract articles critical of risky vaccine ingredients, even when written by top international scientists. To cite just three examples:
- The journal Vaccine withdrew a study that questioned the safety of the aluminum adjuvantused in Gardasil.
- The journal Science and Engineering Ethics retracted an article that made a case for greater transparency regarding the link between mercury and autism.
- Pharmacological Research withdrew a published veterinary article that implicated aluminum-containing vaccines in a mystery illness decimating sheep, citing "concerns" from an anonymous reader.
Elsevier, which publishes two of these journals, has a track record of setting up fake journals to market Merck's drugs, and Springer, which publishes the third journal as well as influential publications like Nature and Scientific American, has been only too willing to accommodate censorship requests. However, even these forms of censorship may soon seem quaint in comparison to the censorship of vaccine-critical information now being implemented across social media and other platforms. This concerted campaign to prevent dissemination of vaccine content that does not toe the party line will make it harder than ever for American families to do their due diligence with regard to vaccine risks and benefits.
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We plan to investigate the telecom industry, it's ties to politics, and expose its efforts to push 5G while ignoring the dangers and without proper safety testing, but we can't do it without your support.
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Check out our plan and join our campaign here.
"Excuse Me While I Lather My Child In This Toxic Death Cream." (Sunscreen)
Summer is here, and now is the time we see massive amounts of people lather themselves up with sunscreen, alongside...
"Sacrificial Virgins" – A Must-See Film About Young Girls Being Severely Damaged By HPV Gardasil Vaccines
"I would never give my daughter, or my son the shot… This is a massive PR event by the company...


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Galveston dolphin deaths investigated
GALVESTON - Researchers are trying to determine whether more than 100 dolphins stranded on the Texas coast, most of them in Galveston, died because of the BP oil spill, a deadly algal bloom or some undetermined cause.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ruled last month that the dolphin deaths qualified as an "unusual mortality event," said Blair Mase, NASA southeast region marine mammal stranding coordinator. Mase said 123 dolphins were stranded from November through March in Galveston, Aransas, Calhoun, Kleburg and Brazoria counties.
All but four were dead, said Heidi Whitehead, operations coordinator for the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network. The strandings over the five-month period approach the number expected for an entire year, Whitehead said.
Scientists are trying to determine whether there is a connection between the strandings and an algal bloom that stretched along the entire Texas Gulf Coast from September to January, Mase said.
"It's coincidental and it is a prime suspect, but we can't rule anything out," she said.
The strandings also come after a NOAA study found that dolphins in Barataria Bay on the Louisiana coast were in poor health because of exposure to oil. Dolphins in the bay, severely affected by the spill, had low weight and liver and lung ailments.
"We don't know for sure if there is any correlation whatsoever there," Mase said. "We are going to look at things like that, obviously ... it is pretty close and we do share a border."
Disease is another possibility, she said.
The marine mammal unusual mortality event, a declaration made under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, is the fifth on the Texas Gulf Coast, according to NOAA.
Mortality events in 2008 and 2007 were restricted to the Galveston area, Whitehead said.
Although strandings this time occurred along the entire Gulf Coast, 72 of 123 strandings were in Galveston and Brazoria counties, she said.
The laboratory results of samples from necropsies, or animal autopsies, are not expected until the end of July, Whitehead said.
Investigators are not always able to identify a cause. They never determined, for example, why 76 bottlenose dolphin carcasses washed ashore in March 2007.


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Farmers can easily identify the appropriate tips for their self-propelled sprayers thanks to a new mobile app from Hypro announced in February. SprayIT is available in U.S. and metric units for Apple and Android devices.
Users can get a customized list of tip recommendations by entering the following pieces of data:
- Tip spacing
- Speed
- Application rate
- Solution density
- Droplet size requirements
Available languages include English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Get more information by calling Hypro at 1-800-424-9776 or by going to hypropumps.com.


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Warehouse/DC Management: How to maximize your Warehouse Management System (WMS)
Today's warehouse management systems (WMS) come with sophisticated rules and logic, real-time seamless integration to aligned business applications, and effortless interfaces to automated equipment and mobile technology. But why are we still not putting these capabilities to work?
With the implementation of its new WMS in its McDonough, Ga., regional DC (above), the company shed its paper-based systems and maximized its WMS to automate inventory, shipping, and labor. The company is now rolling out the WMS to the rest of its regional facilities.
Warehouse in the NewsAvailability of U.S. industrial & logistics real estate rises after 34 months of declines, says CBRE Finding the Right Fit for New Technologies and Automation in your Warehouse/DC Mobile Robotics Descend on Warehouse Operations Warehouse/DC Site Selection: Demand for space has never been stronger CBRE research shows ongoing demand leads construction of new warehouses More Warehouse News
Warehouse ResourceFinding the Right Fit for New Technologies and Automation in your Warehouse/DC In this white paper, Canon Solutions explores the challenges companies face when automating, explain why there's no need to rip-and-replace existing systems
All Resources
Early warehouse management systems (WMS) stuck to the basics—tracking what was coming in, what was going out, with workers manually keying in data along the way. Since then, the technology has matured to expand beyond the core functions of receiving, picking, and shipping to include an extensive menu of modules to execute and support every conceivable task occurring under the roof of a warehouse or distribution center (DC).
Many come with sophisticated rules and logic, real-time seamless integration to aligned business applications, and effortless interfaces to automated equipment and mobile technology. Yet, despite having many of these technological advancements within their reach, users are still not using their WMS to their fullest potential. "Industry and market folklore suggests that users are availing themselves of no more than 60 percent to 65 percent of the functionality of contemporary WMS," says John Hill, director for supply chain and logistics consulting firm, St. Onge Company.
Dwight Klappich, vice president for research and consulting company at Gartner Inc., goes as far as saying that a name change may even be in order. "We shouldn't call it a warehouse 'management' system, we should actually call it a warehouse 'execution' system, because that is basically what companies are using it for—the execution of specific warehousing tasks."
Over the next few pages we'll put a spotlight on WMS functionalities and capabilities that warrant a second look. Many have documented benefits and savings that can maximize the return on your WMS investment. So, if you feel your WMS has yet to reach its potential, it may be high time for you to take notes.
Task interleaving
Any discussion on maximizing your WMS deployment is not complete without a discussion on task interleaving. Also known as dual cycling, task interleaving involves having the system direct a worker with a queue of prioritized tasks that can be performed based on his travel paths and the specific handling equipment being used.
Although it's typically been a standard offering in WMS, this functionality has not been used extensively in many DCs. Users may be wary of any additional WMS set-up and training required, especially for workers accustomed to performing mostly one job.
If done right, however, it can increase worker productivity by a reported 20 percent by eliminating movement of a truck with no load. For example, a driver may need to put away a pallet at location A21. Instead of heading back to the dock "empty" or with no pallet, the task interleaving function of the WMS instructs him to pick up a replenishment pallet at location A23, because he's right there. Bob Silverman, senior vice president of Supply Chain & Logistics Solutions, a consulting group within the real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), warns however that to be truly efficient, task interleaving requires significant activity moving in multiple directions simultaneously. "If not properly planned and controlled this can result in congestion and lost productivity."
Integration with labor management systems (LMS)
By interfacing with the WMS, labor management systems are able to track and monitor each worker's performance in a DC.
How does it work? The WMS tracks critical data for each worker such as the number of units picked, the number of orders completed and the time elapsed to pick an order. The LMS then extracts this data and uses it to compare how well workers are performing against established labor standards. Above-standard performance is rewarded, while poor performance is reviewed to determine if there were any barriers to productivity. "It provides the ability to measure and reward employee performance," says Silverman. "As a result, you get better labor productivity."
In addition, with advanced visibility into future workloads from the WMS, you could also plan exactly how many workers you need for a task and put together a much better budget with this solution.
Yet Klappich notes that LMS penetration is only at 20 percent to 25 percent of the market. Many feel implementation can get quite involved because labor standards first need to be developed at the granular level. He speculates, however, that as more managers are pressured to enhance productivity and efficiency in the warehouse, LMS installations will increase.
Steve Banker, service director of supply chain management for the ARC Advisory Group, reports that LMS, specifically those based on engineered labor standards, has, in fact, been getting very good payback periods. "Whereas on average the payback period for WMS is about two years—which is pretty much average for supply chain applications—it's often under a year for LMS."
Banker adds that the ROI is getting bigger and better even for smaller warehouses, with some lower-cost solutions now readily available.
Integration with transportation management systems (TMS)
Warehouse and transportation management are becoming more closely entwined than ever. As a result of this trend, a growing number of WMS vendors are either adding transportation management capabilities to their systems or offering compatibility with the goal of providing seamless logistics visibility.
But why aren't users taking advantage of this integration? To some shippers, size matters. "If I've got 10 parking spaces and five docks, I don't need a system to do that," says Klappich, "But if I've got 200 parking spots and 25 docks with a number of trailers coming in and going out every day, then dockscheduling [from the WMS] and yard management modules [from the TMS] may be needed."
Many are taking advantage of this integration by streamlining the flow of outbound product from picking to trailer loading. Shipping documents are printed, along with pick labels, so that completed orders are picked and immediately routed to the outbound carrier's lane.
"By interfacing with each other, WMS and TMS decisions can be made even before product is received," says Silverman. "Carriers and customers have access to information in advance of shipments being picked up and delivered."
If you're picking orders with products in different quantities, sizes, and weights, then you need to know the right carton to pack that order. The cartonization module, resident in many WMS but not being used, the selection of the right carton based upon the sizes and weights of items for a given order.
According to St. Onge's Hill, not everyone needs cartonization, but often times those that do are unaware of its availability. "I don't think they're neglecting it. They might think that for whatever reason that it's too complicated. I have seen it in operation and the benefits are incredible," says Hill.
It begins with the determination of whether you've got the right-sized box for a given order. This minimizes the amount of air shipped, keeping transportation costs low. Using the right-sized box also decreases the need and costs for dunnage, while reducing shipping damage. Hill suggests investigating historical order sizes and weights in order to determine the range of order sizes and total order weights that a family of box sizes would be able to handle.
"If it turns out that there are 50 or 60 different box sizes, it's probably not going to make a whole lot of sense to use this module," adds Hill. "But most people wind up with about eight to twelve different box sizes."
When a wave of orders is scheduled for picking, a message is sent to workers preparing the boxes to make the proper assortment of boxes for the next wave of orders. With every order, the system can recommend the proper box size—instead of the picker wasting valuable time trying to figure out which box best fits that order. "It's one of many WMS features that people aren't using, but that can be a real contribution to the market," says Hill.
Performance event management
Performance event management is the transformation of a hodge-podge collection of data transactions collected by a WMS into timely business intelligence that can be used to make immediate or long-term decisions.
The reality is that while most systems do offer some form of performance event management, or analytics, with their packages, users don't always take the time to go over all the options to determine which reports will provide the most accurate picture of current performance without being overwhelmed by too much information.
For example, a warehouse manager may be concerned that he may not be able to make delivery on an order. "Today's WMS can be set up so that it notifies the warehouse manager and shows him a dashboard that says here are all your orders," says Gartner's Klappich. He notes that WMS providers have even created Apps for mobile equipment—tablets, smart phones, handheld computers—so that a manager can be alerted when 20 orders are potentially going to be late.
"He can click on the alert and scroll down to see the problem," says Klappich. "In the past, they used to have to print out reports and be very paper intensive."
Slotting determines how best to organize inventory based on product velocity. Fast-moving items are located in the most accessible areas closest to the docks, while products that don't sell very often are assigned to locations in elevated racks towards the back of a warehouse.
Unfortunately, it's not always that simple. Putting all fast movers in one aisle can lead to congestion, while sometimes it may make more sense to group products that are generally sold together. Because of this complexity and the amount of data generally required by slotting optimization software, users typically buy the slotting module as part of their WMS package, but have yet to use it.
According to Hill, when done properly, a good slotting plan reduces pick paths, increases pick rates, thus improving productivity. Storage space utilization also improves while reducing damage and improving safety.
"If you've got relatively static inventory, with no seasonal cycles, and you've got good forecasting and planning because your market doesn't change all that dramatically, slotting may not be that important," says Hill. "But if the flipside is true, then maybe once or twice a year you ought to take a look at making certain that you're putting your fast movers where it's most accessible."
Regardless of the size and complexity of your warehouse or DC facility, Hill recommends a post-implementation audit after every WMS deployment or upgrade. "Users have to take responsibility for defining what they need," says Hill. "The audit will compare what the WMS is doing against those needs. Only then will you know if you've truly maximized your WMS investment."
About the AuthorMaida Napolitano Maida Napolitano has worked as a Senior Engineer for various consulting companies specializing in supply chain, logistics, and physical distribution since 1990. She's is the principal author for the following publications: Using Modeling to Solve Warehousing Problems (WERC); Making the Move to Cross Docking (WERC); The Time, Space & Cost Guide to Better Warehouse Design (Distribution Group); and Pick This! A Compendium of Piece-Pick Process Alternatives (WERC). She has worked for clients in the food, health care, retail, chemical, manufacturing and cosmetics industries, primarily in the field of facility layout and planning, simulation, ergonomics, and statistic analysis. She holds BS and MS degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of the Philippines and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, respectively. She can be reached at
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Article TopicsARC Advisory Group · June 2012 · Supply Chain Technology · WMS ·
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Sophomore Conor Szarek
Final Stats
NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA-Several members of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's swimming team stood out at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational at the Tripp Athletic Center Pool Saturday. No team scores were recorded at the meet.
For the women, winners included senior Kim Moore (Billerica, MA/Billerica HS), who won the 1650 freestyle in 19:34.98, sophomore Katelyn Kidney (Lynn, MA/Lynn Classical HS/Bryant), who took the 200 yard freestyle in 2:06.94, sophomore Morgan Cooper (Sunderland, MA/Frontier Regional HS), who won the 50 yard breaststroke in 33.33 seconds, and the 400 yard freestyle team of junior Maggie Conlon (Methuen, MA/Methuen HS), senior Meredith Maki (Holden, MA/Wachusett Regional HS), Kidney and Cooper with a season best time of 3:56.81.
For the men, freshman Eddie Olean (Seekonk, MA/Seekonk HS) won the 200 freestyle in 1:54.30, the 500 yard freestyle in 5:07.90, and the 200 yard individual medley in 2:13.59, sophomore Conor Szarek (Leominster, MA/Leominster HS), who won the one meter diving with 199.25 points and the three meter diving with 159.10 points, the 200 yard medley relay team of sophomore Matthew Lee (Chelmsford, MA/Chelmsford HS), junior Kevin Janofsky (Brookfield, CT/Brookfield HS), Olean and senior Nick Poliseno (Brockton, MA/Brockton HS) finished first in 1:51.41, and the 400 yard freestyle team of Poliseno, Olean, Janofsky and Lee was victorious in 3:39.78.
"We had some great swims," said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Cathy Motta. "I always enjoy hosting this meet, since it gives the student-athletes an opportunity to compete against the clock rather than an opponent to score points. We allowed our athletes to choose the events they competed in today to give them some variety in their meet events."
The Corsairs will return to action when they host Bentley Wednesday evening.


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While this whole rapture thing was admittedly hilarious for we non-believers (and most Christians alike), it serves to highlight an important point about what a colossal waste of resources humanity's obsession with superstition and mythology are.
It also highlights how absurd and outdated the practice of affording tax-exempt status to religious organizations is. Camping's organization reported $18.3M of donations in 2009 and had assets of more than $104M. Tax free.
The cherry on top of the sad reality that untold billions are spent on the spread of ignorance (as opposed to technological and medical advancements to, you know, actually improve the lives of conscious creatures) is the fact that people like you and I donate money to organizations specifically designed to keep the ignorant out of our affairs; ie we have to keep fighting for church and state separation.
I'm passionate about maintaining the wall between church and state, but I wish its upkeep weren't so expensive. Those are dollars that would be much better spent funding cancer research or making the widespread use of clean energy a reality.
Do you think going after the tax exemption is a fight worth fighting?
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Yeah, definitely. Religion is a waste of money, time & human potential.
I think religion & other such loony businesses(yes I believe that religion is a business - one of the 3 biggest in the world - prostitution & education being the other two) like astrology, fortune telling, speaking to the dead business & other businesses of the same type should also be hit with an extra tax - for destroying the brain cells of the people who believe in it.
While I don't disagree that there are worthwhile social programs affiliated with churches/temples/etc, the same argument could be made for oil companies, pharmaceutical companies, Google or any large corporation. They all have philanthropic arms.
This is good, don't get me wrong, and activities associated directly with the philanthropy should received some type of tax advantage, but that's it.
Furthermore, if such social services (education, healthcare) contain a proselytizing component, that should void the exemption.


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Amir Taheri reports from the annual awards program put on by the Foreign Press Association in London:
[T]here was an even bigger reason why I was interested in the occasion. The FPA had decided to award its very first prize for a dialogue of cultures to Akbar Ganji, an Iranian investigative reporter who is on a hunger strike in Tehran's Evin Prison.
Together with several colleagues, I had been trying for months to persuade the Western media to take an interest in Ganji, a former Khomeinist revolutionary who is now campaigning for human rights and democracy. But we never got anywhere because of one small hitch: President Bush had spoken publicly in support of Ganji and called for his immediate release.
And that, as far as a good part of the Western media is concerned, amounts to a kiss of death. How could newspapers that portray Bush as the world's biggest "violator of human rights" endorse his call in favor of Ganji?
To overcome that difficulty, some of Ganji's friends had tried to persuade him to make a few anti-American, more specifically anti-Bush, pronouncements so that the Western media could adopt him as a "hero-martyr." Two years ago, similar advice had been given to Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She was made to understand one stark fact of contemporary life: You will not be accepted as a champion of human rights unless you attack the United States.
Ebadi had accepted the advice and used her address during the prize ceremony in Oslo to launch a bitter attack on the United States as the arch-violator of human rights. ***
Would Ganji adopt a similar tactic in order to get media attention in the West? The answer came last January and it was a firm no.
The result was that Ganji, probably the most outspoken and courageous prisoner of conscience in the Islamic Republic today, became a non-person for the Western media. Even efforts by the group Reporters Without Frontiers, and the International Press Institute, among other organizations of journalists, failed to change attitudes towards Ganji.
How utterly sickening.
So, it was heart-warming to see the FPA honor Ganji as a champion of freedom. An audio-message from Ganji's wife, smuggled out of Iran, was broadcast, creating the evening's highest moment.
But the evening took a sharp turn for the worse when a "UNICEF ambassador" took the stage to award the prize to the absent Ganji. The "ambassador" was apparently unknown to Taheri, who describes her as "a petite middle-aged lady dressed all in black… [who] was introduced as one Bianca Jagger." Ah, yes, the same Bianca Jagger who was observed in Nicaragua by P.J. O'Rourke, who chronicled her desolation at the electoral defeat of the Communists there, and consigned her to the "lonely hell of the formerly cute." Taheri continues:
She started by telling us about her recent trips to Tehran and Damascus, presumably the two capitals of human rights that she likes best, and how she had been told "by officials and others" that she and other Westerners had "no moral authority" to talk about human rights and freedom.
She then proceeded by saying it is all very well to remember Ganji but that should not prevent us from remembering "those held in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, and all other secret prisons" that the United States is supposed to be running all over the world.
Taheri points out some of the rather obvious difference between Ganji, who is imprisoned for the crime of being a journalist, and those who are imprisoned for being terrorists. But this distinction was apparently too subtle for the famously-dense Bianca J.:
Having swallowed my anger, I gave the "UNICEF Ambassador" a piece of my mind. She seemed surprised. No one had ever told her such things, especially not in a polite society of dinner jackets and long robes. "Is Ganji the same as the alleged terrorists in Guantanamo Bay?" I asked.
"Well, yes, I mean no, I mean yes," she mumbled. "But they are all prisoners, aren't they?"
It was eventually explained to Mr. Taheri that Bianca "had once been married to a British pop singer." He concludes:
Well, it had been a good evening. In the end, however, as the lady's husband had once crooned: I could get no satisfaction.


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Some 12 million gallons of this supercharged weed killer, enough to douse 18,000 square miles, were sprayed on the 66,000 square miles of South Vietnam during the War.
In the American effort to fight an invisible enemy who hid in the jungles while living of the land, some 5 million acres (7,813 square miles) of mangrove and upland forest were defoliated, while 500,000 acres (781 square miles) of crops were destroyed. Cambodia and Laos were sprayed and affected to a lesser extent. Much of this destruction will not be rectified for decades to come, even though the herbicidal components of Agent Orange—which did not directly affect people—dissipated soon after the spraying.
However, two-thirds of these herbicides were contaminated with TCDD, a form of dioxin—a highly toxic substance linked to at least 15 classes of cancer and other medical conditions, as well as several birth defects. The toll on the Vietnamese may continue for generations, even though the dioxin contaminant may eventually be cleansed from the "hot spots" remaining in parts of southern Vietnam to this day.
So, ever since the spraying, the Vietnamese have been saddled with an invisible enemy of their own. As have those who served in Vietnam during the war, their families, and many others who were exposed to the toxic herbicides where they were manufactured, used or stored.
Vietnam today is no enemy, but one of America's strongest Asian allies. Yet the dioxin from Agent Orange is placing a new generation at risk on both sides of the Pacific. The newly cooperative relationship between the two countries lets us work together to address the ongoing health and environmental impacts of Agent Orange.
The Agent Orange Record tries to show, in an objective way, the complete story of the Vietnam War's most devastating defoliant: its history; its impact, intended and otherwise, on Vietnam; and its completely unintended impact on the United States. The Record also describes the efforts to repair the damage from the herbicides to the land and to the people of Vietnam, to the United States, and to the other places that the toxic legacy of Agent Orange remains.
AOR includes a repository of the most critical resources on Agent Orange in English and Vietnamese. Site viewers are encouraged to post additional materials through the Forum.
By providing the first online comprehensive examination of the Agent Orange problem, we hope to promote greater understanding and an appropriate response for all those who have been affected by the tragic legacy of this deadly chemical. We can Make Agent Orange History, as in this video.
Agent Orange. A humanitarian cause we can do something about.


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These light and crispy shrimp are fairly low in calories, even though they are fried. You only need about 1 cm / 1/2 an inch of oil to fry these in a regular frying pan, so don't be afraid to try them even if you don't do much deep-frying. They are very easy to make with frozen shrimp, and just a bit more work with fresh shrimp.
Adapted from a recipe in Today's Cooking: Beginners magazine. Each shrimp is about 30-40 calories depending on how well you drain off the oil.
Prepare your shrimp. If you're using frozen shrimp defrost them beforehand. (Leave them in the refrigerator overnight, or microwave them on DEFROST for 2-3 minutes. Don't let them get cooked while you're defrosting them.You can proceed with the marinating even if the shrimp are a bit frosty. ) I like to leave the tails on for appearance and flavor - they get crispy and crunchy enough that you can eat them too.
Combine the soy sauce, mirin, sake and grated ginger in a bowl. Put the shrimp in there, and let marinade for 5-10 minutes. I prefer not to let them marinate for too long, since it sort of kills the shrimp flavor, but you may prefer a longer marinade.
Drain away the liquid. Toss the shrimp in enough cornstarch or potato starch to coat them completely.
Heat up about 1/2 an inch (1 cm) of vegetable oil (I use peanut oil or canola oil or rapeseed oil) in a frying pan. Put the shrimp in in one layer, not overcrowding the pan. Fry for a couple of minutes, then turn over and fry for an additional 2-3 minutes, until they are a reddish golden-brown. Drain the oil well on a rack or on paper towels.
Sprinkle with sansho pepper or freshly ground black pepper before serving.
These are delicious hot or cold. If you're using them in a bento, let them cool down completely before packing, and they should stay crispy until lunchtime. You may want to add a dipping sauce, but I find it unnecessary since the shrimp are already seasoned well.
Sure, if you balance it out with non-fried food, as I did in this bento, which has just 4 shrimp (120 calories):
Fried food in small amounts is more filling and satisfying, as opposed to only eating food that's boiled, steamed, or raw or whatever. Of course if you are feeding a teenager or an athlete, you can really fill them up with fried food.
Long time readers of Just Bento and Just Hungry may notice that the marinade and method is very similar to the one for Chicken Karaage. The -age (pronounced ah-GEH) means 'deep fried'. So what's the difference between karaage (唐揚げ) and tatsutaage (竜田揚げ)? Not much really, except that 'karaage' is used for several kinds of deep fried dishes that are coated in a flour, while 'tatsutaage' means something that is marinated, coated with flour of some kind and fried. Either kind of frying method is excellent for bentos. (Incidentally I've seen it stated on the interweb that karaage means 'sesame fried chicken'. That is false information. Sesame fried chicken is called 'gomaage' - sesame-fry.)
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Mmm looks good! Can't wait to try these!
I've never actually made shrimp before. When you say 'shelled and de-veined', do you mean 'with the shells removed', and can you use this recipe with cooked shrimp, or must it be uncooked. I assume uncooked.
You could have split the back of the shrimp a little more such that it opens up nicely during cooking. However, they look as if they have butterfly butts - which is alright IMO.
I've done this a couple of times over the past year but with sesame oil and a dash of sugar instead of ginger and mirin. I'll try your recipe as soon as I have fresh shrimps on hand. Thank you, Maki-san ^^
I have always liked shrimp, but I've never been in love with it because of it's texture. I think the crunchy'ness in this recipe is exactly what I've been looking for. I'm definitely going to try it.
Thanks for the recipe!
I got invited out to games & visit with Boston friends, and I'm bringing these in my bento. Thanks for the yummy recipe!
Another way to defrost frozen shrimp (or anything) from Good Eats: put them in a bowl or container (I think stainless steel is best) and fill it with the coldest water your tap can manage. Set the bowl in the sink and leave the tap running into the bowl at a small stream, so the extra water is continuously flowing out. It is not as fast as the microwave, but a) the cold water should keep them in a safe temp zone and b) they won't get cooked.
Also, thanks for this recipe - I think I'll try it today!
How do you manage to keep the shrimp (and other items) from getting soggy? I made salted chicken per your recipe, and while it turned out scrumptious, it was but a shadow of its crispy self by the time lunch rolled around. I even let it cool down before putting it in the bento box to prevent steam and moisture from building up.
Thanks Maki, I made this for our lunches today and they were all well received. Your recipes always are!
Hi, I know you put substitutes for the mirin already, but what would you suggest as a non-alcoholic? I still have a few months before I can buy it.
@justbento - strictly site updates
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Why is SAM Important?
Nationally, more than one in five students who complete a degree do so at an institution other than the one where they started, according to a recent study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Yet the typical method for calculating graduation rates, as stipulated by federal legislation, counts only those students who enroll full-time and then start and finish at their first college or university. SAM better accounts for the success of these students.
For institutions of higher education, the SAM offers an innovative reporting tool that provides a more comprehensive overview of student outcomes and includes a greater number of students. For policymakers and the public, SAM provides a more complete picture of student progress on the path to a degree or certificate.
What is SAM?
There are three models included in SAM, two for students enrolled in bachelor's degree programs and one for students enrolled in associate's degree or certificate programs. For more information on the three SAM models and the calculations, please see the Resources page.
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Happy Belated-Thanksgiving, everyone ^^ I hope you had a lovely holiday full wining, over-dining, and long, awkward conversations. There are a lot of things I'm thankful for, and right at the top of my list is my large, close-knit family. Every time I visit we try to make it memorable, and one of my favorite family outings this year was to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire in Manheim, PA.
My family was a little resistant to the idea of dressing up at first, but when I found out they'd booked the trip the weekend right before Halloween, I explained to them that it was non-negotiable–"you have absolutely no choice" I think were my exact words. Though the Renaissance Faire has an obvious, err, Renaissance theme, there are no strict rules you need to adhere to. In previous years I've seen everything from Ghostbusters to werewolves to Spock and Kirk galavanting about amidst the jesters and maidens. That being said, my father went as a vampire prince, my mother as a maiden, my grandmother as a glam witch, and I went as a Demon Mage.


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Hey guys, I've recently been trying to get into app cracking, and have been wondering how to write my own patcher. I have some programming experience in vb, and C++, among others, so I'd like some help in c++ preferably...
I've tried so many different techniques, downloaded source code, basically everything I can, but I just can't get it right!
I have, until now been using programs to create patches, such as dUP2, and CodeFusion, but I'd simply like to actually make my own
Hopefully someone out there can help, thanks!