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Hard News: Practically jokers
60 Responses
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"Why should, say, a 70-year-old who's had one partner all their life be paying for a young woman to sleep around? We are the country with the most promiscuous young women in the world. This does nothing to help us at all."
To be fair, I rather like this line of reasoning. Now, could Colin Awful-Hypen-Namesake please cut me and the significant other a refund for all the money we've forked over to the government to subsidize the heterosexual lifestyle choices of people like him? Really, I've got nothing against you people, but I don't see why I should be paying for the education and healthcare of your children.
(In the unlikely event anyone missed the snark: Of course it's a bullshit argument. After all, I suspect Mr Craig's hypothetical 70-year old is drawing super, accessing geriatric health and social services and working that Gold Card for all she can get. I'm OK with paying for that, and I suspect most people feel the same. Because that's how a civil society more or less works.)
Steve Barnes, in reply to
Nail, meet head.
Abbasolutely Craig, you had your name first and kept it that way. I have always had a problem with people with two of them.
Plus the fact that Mr Twofirstnames is a complete dick. -
Seriously? The term "correctional facilities" is creeping liberalism now?
Actual lolz. Does Mr Wang know that the government department responsible for prisons is the Department of Corrections?
The idea of prisons being used to "correct" the prisoner is a centuries old idea. And isn't it, ideally, what we'd want? That rather than going back to their old ways upon release, instead the prisoner has have learned to be a better person?
Does... not... compute.
Craig Young, in reply to
Methinks I spotteth a Cunning Plan to Nab New Zealand First's core social conservative constituency. Which isn't working very well and couldn't be described as a weasel.
As for CC's 'informed consent' abortion tactic, for 'informed consent' read 'ram graphic and mendacious anti-abortion propaganda down women's throats under the pretence of "counselling" but actually do bugger all in the way of providing meaningful social support if she does choose to continue the pregnancy.
Mr Twofirstnames is a complete dick
BenWilson, in reply to
There is a golden thread in conservative law and order, that the main purpose of sentencing is for revenge on the wrongdoer.
In other "news" I hear the Gerry Brownnose is pushing the Cycleway bs again. Isn't that the "mandate" Jonkey got in on in the first place"
Having, last week, driven down from the far North in a storm and watched State Highway 1 disintegrating before my eyes I was beginning to think the cyclepath was becoming a reality, as in "How do you create a third world country? Give John Key a first world one and wait a few years..."
And another thing. Did anyone else get one of those Electoral "Adverts" from JK's orafice the other day? paid for by Parliamentary Services. Apparently it's ok for him to campaign on the public purse but no so Labour with the old pledge card. -
Steve Barnes, in reply to
There's always deed poll.
Sorry Mark, or Thomas.
;-) -
Serco. The tapeworm in the bowels of government. How did they get in here? Did David Cameron have something to do with it?
Steve Barnes, in reply to
Serco was founded in 1929 as a United Kingdom division of the Radio Corporation of America and initially provided services to the cinema industry
Bloody Hollywood at it again.
Methinks I spotteth a Cunning Plan to Nab New Zealand First's core social conservative constituency. Which isn't working very well
He will insist on taking pages from the Tea bagged/Theo-Conned GOP playbook without properly acclimatizing them to New Zealand or properly committing to the sheer awfulness required. You call that slut-shaming, Colin Craig? This is slut-shaming.
What were Kenneth Wang and his ilk expecting Serco to name their new prison wing? Abu Ghraib? Guantanamo? This is the very same Serco that courted criticism from Garth "Gay Crime Wave" McVicar for its "Club Med" facilities at Mt Eden.
The real driving force behind Wang and McVicar et al isn't exactly justice. It's more likely fundamentalism of some sort.
Speaking of Practically Jokers…
Our Prime Joker had this to say this morning on News Waffle ZB about the Americas Cup challenge…
Reported in Te Harold"This can't be a government-led thing," he said.
Well, apparently, according to the same tabloid…
An evaluation of the economic benefits of the 2013 America's Cup to New Zealand found that from a $36m investment, the domestic economy received an $87m boost.
Well we can't have the Gummint investing in the domestic economy can we? God forbid, That would take money out of the pockets of the Top 10% and we couldn't do that… could we?.
And with the happiest of timing, Richard Easther has published his analysis of the Conservative Party's stance on climate change, which is apparently partly caused by "astological events" [sic].
BenWilson, in reply to
Sun Flares are coming back, man.
Craig Young, in reply to
Don't forget some quite mouldy UKIPpers as well... in fact, if it's populist and rabidly socially conservative, it gets the Colon stamp of approval...
Richard Aston, in reply to
Thanks Russel, just love this ..
Man made carbon generation and other human activity does have an influence on temperature locally. Stand on an asphalt pavement in the middle summer and compare this to standing in an open field and you get the point.
.Asphalt causes global warming! Well a little bit . Yes Colin I get the point , bloody genius.
Russell Brown, in reply to
Asphalt causes global warming! Well a little bit .
Isn't that amazing?
Steve Barnes, in reply to
the Conservative Party's stance on climate change
Spotted another mistake in that pamphlet, Canute.
The correct spelling is actually Cnut, a name not to be messed with. -
I just wish the ACT party, SST and other psycopaths (I use the term correctly according to my understanding of neuroscientist Sam Harris of 1% of humans genetically unable to feel empathy for other human beings) would at least try "intellectually" to understand why mandatory sentencing fails them, fails victims, fails convicted people and fails the whole community.
http://kmccready.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/sensible-sentencing-trust-sst-mandatory-sentencing/ -
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Going dam busters…
(first names) I have always had a problem with people with two of them.
Uh oh!
Ahem, Steve, meet Barnes Wallis!:- )
Tom Beard, in reply to
apparently partly caused by "astological events"
Astology, noun. A branch of histology specialising in studying the part of the human anatomy from which Colin Craig plucks his policies.
I read analysis of the Canute story somewhere.
It has come down to us in two forms. One, in which Canute was a prideful king who was showing off and two, in which he was a wise king who wanted to teach his foolish sycophants a lesson.
The possibility of the first happening on climate change doesn't really bear too much thinking about. Not a great idea for us.
Also: David Mitchell who is mostly the rant king. -
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
I just wish the ACT party, SST and other psycopaths (I use the term correctly according to my understanding of neuroscientist Sam Harris of 1% of humans genetically unable to feel empathy for other human beings)
It would be useful if we treated being an wilfully ignorant shill for junk public policy as the lifestyle choice it is not a medical condition.
Sometimes I detect a strange resonance between Colin Craig and Tony Abbott. Anyone else think they have much in common?
Post your response…
This topic is closed.


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Tomi Lahren Gets Dragged By the Beyhive for 'Police-Hating Beyonce' Remark
On Tuesday night (Dec. 5), Beyonce surprise Colin Kaepernick by presenting him with Muhammad Ali Legacy honor at the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Show. Not everyone was happy with Kaep receiving his award, particularly conservative pundit Tomi Lahren.
Lahren went on her Twitter account and delivered a slanderous tweet to Beyoncé and Kaep. She tweeted, "Police-hating Beyoncé presents police and America-hating Kappy with a "legacy" award. This is how far we've fallen. Wow."
Apparently, Lahren didn't get the memo that disrespecting Queen Bey would only lead to the Beyhive swarming in her mentions with stinging responses. And that's exactly what happened.
Lauren's Twitter account is currently flooded with bumblebee emojis and unpleasant comments about her and what she stands for.
"Poor @TomiLahren, so embarrassingly obsessed with Colin! Meanwhile she encourages and spreads hate among her followers. Find something to do with your time that helps people Tomi," wrote one user. Another person tweeted, "Tomi Lahren has to be one of the most delusional people on the planet. No one hates Bey, get this woman a damn job. She suffering from unemployment boredom."
Check out more Twitter reactions from people below.

subset: commoncrawl


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Chris Webber rates his 5.5 Greatest Hornets players of all time!
This is incredible. Old-school Charlotte NBA fans are gonna love these highlights.
Who knew C-Webb was gonna be such a great TV personality!
What about the Baseline Readers out there? Who's your All Time Charlotte Starting 5 (plus a 6th man)???!!!


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A year ago, Cheyanne Wright was pregnant and living with her 4-year old son, her boyfriend and his mother. And things were not going well.
"I would say for six months, it was really bad," Wright said.
Wright and her boyfriend hadn't intended to crash with his mom. They had moved to the Central Valley city of Stockton to find their own place. But all the rentals they saw were too expensive. So her boyfriend's mom said they could stay with her. But that was a problem, too.
They were fighting a lot. And after one blowup his mom threw their furniture in the garage. Space got even tighter after Wright gave birth to their son, Romeo.
"I was just worrying about where we're going to stay the next night. Or what we're going to eat. Or if I have enough gas to get somewhere," Wright said.
This kind of hidden homelessness is prevalent among Indigenous people, who make up an outsized portion of people experiencing housing insecurity or living on the street. Nationally, Native Americans have the second-highest rate of homelessness among all racial groups, behind Pacific Islanders. That often translates into overcrowding, where two or three families live under one roof, as Wright was doing back in Stockton.
With nowhere else to go, Wright reached out to Joshua Ray, who is a social worker with their tribe, the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians. They're headquartered in the rural town of Lakeport about a two-hour drive north of San Francisco.
Ray says homelessness and poverty are huge problems for their tribe. That's why they applied for a $1.2 million grant from the state to purchase and renovate a 10-unit apartment complex in Lakeport, Calif. It's part of a new program called Homekey, a statewide effort to quickly convert existing properties into temporary or permanent long-term housing.
Since launching in June 2020, Homekey has created nearly 6,000 new units statewide for people experiencing homelessness. They did it by cutting through a lot of red tape and using existing buildings, mostly hotels and motels, but also vacation rentals, a college dormitory, single-family houses, office buildings and apartment buildings.
Turning unused hotels into housing became more than just a dream during the pandemic
As the coronavirus started to spread, California scrambled to get thousands of homeless seniors and people with medical conditions into hotels and motels.
"We had commercial hotels that were not being utilized because of the pandemic," said Tomiquia Moss, founder and CEO of the policy group All Home. "And we had a public health crisis where our unhoused neighbors were most vulnerable."
California began renting hotel rooms throughout the state for unhoused people, but those were always meant to be temporary. Officials had to come up with a plan for what would happen next. The state then launched Homekey to buy some of those sites and turn them into permanent housing. Marin County bought an 18-room hotel called Casa Buena. That's where 73-year-old Michele Griffin Young has been living for the past four months.
Before the pandemic she was living in her car with her son John Young. It was hard to keep insulin cold for John's diabetes.
"We'd just have to go to the store and get ice, you know, bags of ice and put it in the cooler," Griffin Young said. The two moved to a Travelodge and Griffin Young says getting the room was a lifeline.
"We had a refrigerator to keep the insulin in. We had a microwave we could heat up whatever we needed to eat," Griffin Young said.
Then a few months ago they moved to Casa Buena, a two-story hotel on a small side street next to the freeway.
"I mean there was food every morning and food every night. And our own showers and bathrooms," Griffin Young said. "It was just fantastic."
The idea of turning hotels into housing had been talked about for years, said Jason Elliott, who works for California Gov. Gavin Newsom on housing policy.
"Everyone always says I wish we could," Elliot said. "And the pandemic provided us with an opportunity to go from I wish we could to we will."
Homekey may be what brings the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians back home
Joshua Ray, the social worker with the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, says the units in the apartment complex they bought through Homekey were run-down, but the building has since been renovated with a fresh coat of paint, laminate wood flooring, a new roof and new appliances — including air conditioning. He hopes the complex will become a small modern-day village, with Native people lifting each other up.
"The goal is for me to help you become better than you were when you moved in here. To get you a better job. You're going to be saving money," he said, money that could go toward a down payment.
In Lake County, Native Americans make up about 4% of the general population but account for over 22% of the homeless population, according to the county's 2021 point-in-time homeless count.
Part of the problem is that the tribe of a little more than 300 doesn't have its own reservation.
"We don't have a big tribe, but we do have a tribe that doesn't have housing," said Ray. "We don't have a reservation, so we got to think outside the box."
The story of how the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians lost their land is rooted in our country's origin story. It's a history of disenfranchisement, relocation and assimilation forged by European settlers and the federal government, with the goal of eliminating tribes and erasing Native culture.
But two government policies, in particular, were most harmful: the termination of tribal status and the voluntary relocation of Native people off their reservation and into urban cities.
"Our members didn't know it then, but it was part of an assimilation," said Patricia Franklin, a former council member with the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians. "Where the hopes from the government was that we would marry in and pretty much not really be Native anymore."
As a result of these programs, about 70% of Scotts Valley tribal members had relocated to the Bay Area by the 1970s. After a years-long court battle, the tribe had its status restored in 1992, but its homeland was never replaced.
Franklin says homelessness is one of the effects of relocation her tribe still lives with today. Now she's hoping the Lakeport apartments can start to bring them home.
"It's a tough thing when you don't have a place to call home and lay your head," Franklin said. "I want my tribe to have a home, too."
The government paying for homeless housing for Native people is long overdue, says Colleen Echohawk, the founder of the National Coalition to End Urban Indigenous Homelessness.
Echohawk says Native-led shelters or housing projects like the one in Lake County are critical to building trust and community.
"When we build our own housing, when we own our own housing, when we run our own housing, we're continuing to message that we are healing, that we are resilient," Echohawk said.
Members of the Scotts Valley Tribe hope the apartment building in Lakeport can be a start.
Some of the apartments are still being renovated, but every month more tribal members are moving in, including Wright and her family.
"When I saw the apartments here, I was like, oh, it's actually really big," Wright said. "You have a big living room, two big bedrooms, a tub. Usually you don't get tubs."
Her 4-year-old likes it a lot, too. He has his own room now. And at $450 a month, the rent is something Wright and her boyfriend can afford.
She looks out from the second floor deck and takes in the view of Clear Lake. It was once a rich resource for her tribe, where they would fish and harvest tule reeds to make boats and even entire homes.
"I can figure out what I want to do for my future and my kids' future," Wright said. "Feels very rewarding because my kids get to grow up in a happy, healthy situation and a home."
Homekey doesn't solve the problem but it's a step toward fixing it
In Marin County, Michele Griffin Young and her son were thankful for the chance to live in a safe, stable place. But for John, it came too late.
His mom says the 32-year-old's kidneys started to fail when they were living in the car. Then his eyesight started to deteriorate not long after that. He died in the middle of the night after the move to Casa Buena.
But those few extra months indoors bought them a little more time together.
"And I just can't tell you how much it helped to keep us going as long as we did," Griffin Young said. "It was really incredible.
It's already become a national model with Washington, Oregon and the city of Baltimore following in California's footsteps, according to Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Congress recently approved $5 billion to turn hotels across the country into housing, and California recently approved nearly a $3 billion expansion of Homekey over the next two years. Advocates say it can't come soon enough. At last count, more than 161,000 people were homeless in California.
Copyright 2021 KQED


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By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) — Hiroshima on Aug. 6 remembered the atomic bombing 77 years ago as officials, including the head of the United Nations, warned against nuclear weapons buildup and as fears grow of another such attack amid Russia's war on Ukraine.
"Nuclear weapons are nonsense. They guarantee no safety—only death and destruction," said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who joined the prayer at the Hiroshima Peace Park.
"Three quarters of a century later, we must ask what we've learned from the mushroom cloud that swelled above this city in 1945," he said.
The United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. It dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and Japan's nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.
Fears of a third atomic bombing have grown amid Russia's threats of nuclear attack since its war on Ukraine began in February.
"Crises with grave nuclear undertones are spreading fast" in the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula, Guterres said. "We are one mistake, one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from Armageddon."
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, in his peace declaration, accused Putin of "using his own people as instruments of war and stealing the lives and livelihoods of innocent civilians in another country."
Russia's war on Ukraine is helping build support for nuclear deterrence, Matsui said, urging the world not to repeat the mistakes that destroyed his city nearly eight decades ago.
Attendees including government leaders and diplomats observed a moment of silence with the sound of a peace bell at 8:15 a.m., the time when the U.S. B-29 dropped the bomb on the city. About 400 doves, considered symbols of peace, were released.
Guterres met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida after the ceremony and raised alarm over the global retreat in nuclear disarmament, stressing the importance for Japan, the world's only nation to have suffered nuclear attacks, to take leadership in the effort, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.
Kishida escorted Guterres in the peace museum, where they each folded an origami crane—a symbol of peace and nuclear weapons abolition.
Russia and its ally Belarus were not invited to this year's peace memorial. Russian Ambassador to Japan Mikhail Galuzin offered flowers at a memorial epitaph in the park and told reporters his country would never use nuclear weapons.
The world continues to face threats from nuclear weapons, Kishida said at the memorial.
"I must raise my voice to appeal to the people around the world that the tragedy of nuclear weapons use should never be repeated," he said. "Japan will walk its path toward a world without nuclear weapons, no matter how narrow, steep or difficult that may be."
Kishida, who will host a Group of Seven summit meeting next May in Hiroshima, said he hoped to share his pledge with other G7 leaders "before the peace monument" to unite them to protect peace and international order based on the universal values of freedom and democracy.
Matsui criticized nuclear weapon states, including Russia, for not taking steps despite their pledge to abide by obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"Rather than treating a world without nuclear weapons like a distant dream, they should be taking concrete steps toward its realization," he said.
Critics say Kishida's call for a nuclear-free world is hollow because Japan remains under the U.S. nuclear umbrella and continues to boycott the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Kishida said the treaty, which lacks the U.S. and other nuclear powers, is not realistic at the moment and that Japan needs to bridge the divide between non-nuclear and nuclear powers.
Many survivors of the bombings have lasting injuries and illnesses resulting from the explosions and radiation exposure and face discrimination in Japan.
The government began to provide medical support to certified survivors in 1968 after more than 20 years of effort by them.
As of March, 118,935 survivors, whose average age now exceeds 84, are certified as eligible for government medical support, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry.
But many others, including those who say they were victims of the "black rain" that fell outside of the initially designated areas, are still without support.
Aging survivors, known in Japan as hibakusha, continue to push for a nuclear ban and hope to convince younger generations to join the movement.
Guterres had a message for younger people: "Finish the work that the hibakusha have begun. Carry their message forward. In their names, in their honor, in their memory—we must act."


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Violent clashes in Sudan's Darfur region have driven tens of thousands of people across the border into Chad, where a lack of food, water, shelter, and basic services is developing into a humanitarian crisis.
Chad 2013 © MSF
TISSI, CHAD/NEW YORK, APRIL 26, 2013—Violent clashes in Sudan's Darfur region have driven approximately 50,000 people across the border into southeastern Chad since early March, where a lack of food, water, shelter, and basic services is developing into a humanitarian crisis, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today.
In addition to Sudanese refugees, the displaced population includes citizens from Chad and the Central African Republic who previously took refuge in Darfur. Humanitarian assistance is urgently needed before the looming rainy season cuts off road access to many areas, MSF said.
"We arrived in Tissi in the first week of April to respond to a measles outbreak among the local population and refugees," said Stefano Argenziano, head of mission for MSF. "It soon became clear to us that families have other urgent needs. Most of the recently arrived refugees have no access to health care, food, or clean water. They live mostly under trees, which do not provide much shade, and they have nothing with which to protect themselves against the dust and heat during the day and the cold during the night."
The health status of the refugees is likely to deteriorate rapidly, making them vulnerable to malaria, malnutrition, and epidemics.
Since the Tissi area has no functioning hospital, MSF teams are providing emergency and primary health care to the refugee and Chadian populations. An emergency room has been set up in the town of Tissi to treat the wounded, children under the age of five, and pregnant women. To date, MSF has treated 40 patients who suffered from bullet and knife injuries while fleeing the conflict, and an additional 24 local residents who were wounded in a road accident. Eighteen severely wounded patients were stabilized and evacuated to the town of Abeche, in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
In Tissi itself, MSF has improved the capacity of the town's only source of clean water and is planning to hold mobile clinics at the surrounding sites. An emergency team has completed vaccinating 30,200 people under the age of 15 and has treated 52 patients for measles. During a measles vaccination, MSF screened 13,700 children for malnutrition and admitted 120 children into a therapeutic feeding program.
The living conditions of the displaced population, the majority of whom are women and children, are deteriorating quickly. Parents have told MSF teams that their children are increasingly falling ill. With the onset of the rainy season just two months away, time is running out, MSF said.
"Once the rainy season starts, our access to these camps will be impossible by road and the refugees will be completely cut off," Argenziano said. "With poor sanitary conditions and the lack of access to clean water, we are monitoring for an increase in malaria and respiratory infections, and also for a possible outbreak of cholera."
None of the sites where the refugees have settled are official refugee camps. Due to the proximity of the sites to the Sudanese border and security concerns, UN agencies and most aid organizations have to-date been reluctant to provide assistance.
MSF has been working in Chad since 1983 and currently has projects in Am Timan, Abeche, Massakory, and Moissala.


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SUMMARY: Not quite a week after Gov. Sarah Palin joked about hockey moms being like pit bulls with lipstick, the McCain and Obama campaigns spar sharply over the phrase, "it's like putting lipstick on a pig."
The story begins, like so many these days, with Gov. Sarah Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention last week. Having stirred the crowd to its feet more than once, Palin delivered a knock-out line when she deadpanned:
"I love those hockey moms. You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick." The line drew cheerful applause and has echoed ever since, which seems to explain how Sen. Barack Obama found himself in the middle of an uproar when he uttered a time-worn phrase to denigrate Sen. John McCain's proclaimed agenda for "change" in Washington.
After declaring that McCain will follow the policies of President Bush on economics, health care, taxes, education and foreign affairs Obama said, "That's not change. That's just calling the same thing something different. But you know, you can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig."
Gasp! He just said lipstick! Did he just call Sarah Palin a pig??!!!
That's the charge.
Later that day, the McCain campaign arranged a conference call for reporters with Jane Swift, the former governor of Massachusetts. She said that when you add up Obama's comments and Palin's comments, you get Obama calling Palin a pig. Swift said Obama should apologize.
"Calling a very prominent female governor of one of our states a 'pig' is not exactly what we want to see," Swift said.
The issue has dominated the presidential campaign for two days, with the McCain campaign stirring a controversy by having local lawmakers call for Obama to apologize, and the Obama campaign responding with examples of how often he and others have used the phrase. The Obama campaign called McCain's campaign tactics "lies and phony outrage and Swift-boat politics.
On Wednesday, the McCain campaign released a Web ad called "Lipstick." It begins with a clip of Palin delivering her lipstick line, then text flashes on the screen saying "Barack Obama on: Sarah Palin." A moment later, the ad plays a small portion of Obama's "lipstick on a pig" remark, but not enough of his quotation to make clear what he was talking about. The ad concludes with a clip of CBS anchor Katie Couric soberly remarking on sexism on the campaign trail.
The ad has two big problems, as does the complaint of former Gov. Swift. First, in the full text of the remarks it's clear that Obama isn't talking about Sarah Palin. He's talking about McCain's argument that he represents change.
Second, "putting lipstick on a pig" is a popular put-down, especially among politicians. It generally means taking a bad or unattractive idea and trying to dress it up.
We weren't able to pin down the origins of this folksy expression, but we found tons of instances of people using it. It's so common, the political newspaper The Hill labeled the phrase "Congress Speak" back in June, and gave it an official definition: "an expression used to illustrate that something unattractive cannot be beautified or otherwise positively changed by any amount of makeup or other exterior alterations."
Obama and McCain both have used the expression.
In September 2007, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson quoted Obama using the phrase to discuss Iraq policy:
"I think that both Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker are capable people who have been given an impossible assignment," Obama said. "George Bush has given a mission to Gen. Petraeus, and he has done his best to try to figure out how to put lipstick on a pig."
In Iowa on Oct. 11, 2007, McCain panned Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan, calling it "eerily reminiscent" of the plan that failed during Bill Clinton's administration, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune .
"I think they put some lipstick on a pig," McCain said, "but it's still a pig."
On Feb. 1, 2007, McCain blasted a Senate resolution that would have criticized President Bush's strategy in Iraq. Some had praised the resolution as a compromise measure, but McCain disagreed. "It gets down to whether you support what is being done in this new strategy or you don't," McCain said. "You can put lipstick on a pig, [but] it's still a pig, in my view."
It is simply impossible to view the complete remarks by Obama and conclude that he's making a veiled and unsavory reference to Palin. Her name never is used in the preceding sentence. In fact, it's hard to see how one could interpret Obama's lipstick-on-a-pig remark as referring directly to McCain, either.
We think it's very clear that Obama was saying McCain's effort to call himself the "candidate of change" is like putting lipstick on a pig, trying to dress up a bad idea to look better. Agree or disagree with Obama's point, but his remark wasn't the smear that McCain's people have tried to make it.
If anyone's doing any smearing, it's the McCain campaign and its outrageous attempt to distort the facts. Did Obama call Palin a pig? No, and saying so is Pants on Fire wrong.


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Up front: November 2012
Who reads us
The October issue had been out only a few days when I received an email. "I enjoy reading BNC and have for some years," it began. "Generally, I find the articles of interest and well written with proper grammar. So I was stunned when I received my latest copy, which bears the headline Who's Best for Business?" He pointed out that it should have been Who's Better for Business? "There were only two candidates under review, so how can one or the other be best?"
Doh! If I were a lawyer, I would have mounted a defense: Sure, the cover on which that headline appears shows only Democrat Walter Dalton and Republican Pat McCrory, but the ballot also bears the name of Barbara Howe, the Libertarian running for governor, plus a line for write-in candidates. But that doesn't wash: Fact is, we had confounded the superlative with the comparative usage.
That a Business North Carolina reader took us to task for such a slip is not surprising. You're an erudite, well-educated bunch — 85% having graduated from a four-year college, 27% with a master's degree, 9% a doctoral degree and 15% with some sort of postgraduate study short of a degree. Oh, I know about you guys (88% male) because I've seen the draft of our latest readership survey, conducted this summer by Lewis & Clark Inc., an independent Raleigh market-research firm.
Among the highlights: Respondents reported an average household income of about $183,000 in 2011, individual income of $110,000, household net worth of $1.7 million and investment portfolios with a value exceeding a million dollars. Those who own their homes reported an average value of $377,000, and their other real-estate holdings had an average value of $655,000.
That we have such an affluent audience is great news for BNC's advertisers and for me and my son, its owners. But as the editor, I am delighted to see that the relationship between the magazine and its readers remains strong. Not only do you give us high marks on content and design, but you're willing to invest that most precious resource — your time — in us. The survey indicates you pick up each issue three times and spend about 50 minutes reading it. Four-fifths of the respondents share their issue with at least one person, the average being with two. And you're loyal: "On average, respondents have subscribed to Business North Carolina for eight years."
Yes, you're special. And, we like to think, so are we. You'll find the complete version of the survey's results on BusinessNC.com by the end of this month.


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For many of us, Thanksgiving is just not the same without turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. In other words, tradition tends to trump trendy.
Yet food magazines always encourage going beyond the usual suspects. And who among us has time to try them out in advance of Thanksgiving?
Zach Patton and Clay Dunn, that's who. They're the married couple behind the food blog The Bitten Word.
The two surveyed 11 food magazines and came up with word clouds to show what's trending in Thanksgiving fare. Overall, they found some creative new recipes that shine on the plate, but overall, classic dishes are holding steady.
Among their findings: Mashed potatoes are making something of a comeback. "The last couple years," Dunn tells All Things Considered's Melissa Block, "sweet potatoes have been far outnumbering the number of regular white potato, mashed potato dishes."
Kale and cauliflower, Dunn says, which in recent years had earned a spot on Thanksgiving tables (at least according to food magazines), also fell off the list this year.
But the sides weren't the only things going back to basics, Dunn says.
"This year we're back to more tried-and-true roast turkeys," says Dunn. The crazier takes on turkey from years past, like tandoori turkey or turkeys prepared on the grill, got less attention.
"The flip side to that is things like Cornish game hens, duck, ham or even barbecue ribs," which appeared as turkey alternatives, says Patton. Food & Wine, he says, even has a Thanksgiving menu featuring sushi.
To figure this all out — and test what's yummy — the two concocted "Fakesgiving." It's a full day of cooking as many dishes as possible. Friends are invited over to help judge.
One of those Fakesgiving dishes tested was sausage pear stuffing from Martha Stewart Living. The two described it on their blog as "boarding the train to blandville." They admit that might've been a bit harsh.
But by far, says Patton, "the runaway hit" of Fakesgiving was a carrot mash with orange and mintfrom Fine Cooking. "We didn't expect too much out of it. But everyone loved it."
And the king of dessert this year? Patton says the brûléed pumpkin pie from Martha Stewart Living. "It's a pumpkin seed crust, so it's kind of a few of the trends coming together."
So would any of these make it on their Thanksgiving table? Patton says he'd "love an excuse" to make the carrot mash again and certainly the brûléed pumpkin pie, because, he says, "there's never enough."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Sloths meet's Kunterli Art - Under this title you will find cute, detailed drawn sloth / sloth / pereza motifs in high quality, lovingly designed. Striking motifs, real eye-catchers. In this motif hangs a sloth with his young upside down on a branch - These cute sloths are sure to be super. All motifs offered under the Kunterli brand are available in different color variations and clothing sizes for women, men and children. It doesn't matter where you wear the motif, at the office, at sports, at a party, at the disco, a family reunion, at school, at kindergarten or at a child's birthday party... You will definitely be addressed on it. A super gift idea for grandma, grandpa, mom, dad or the kids.
Our series of really cute sloths at Amazon:
The illustrations are only selected examples. The motifs are also available on various other products such as hoodies, t-shirts, sweatshirts and tank tops as well as in various colors and many clothing sizes for women, men and children. The mockups below are examples only. The attached links will take you directly to the product page on Amazon.
Amazon | Amazon | Amazon |
One more note about the provider Spreadshirt. Here you have the opportunity to further customize the motifs we offer on the products. You can change the size and positioning and add your own texts. Also, you can combine the motifs offered by us on Spreadshirt individually. Try it out!


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Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has spoken forcefully about his plan to address the challenges that have impeded Mexico's economic and social progress. And recently, he laid out his intention to address perhaps the most contentious: Mexico's energy sector.
Many believe the president will achieve his goal to allow increased private and foreign participation in the oil and gas and power sectors. That's partly due to his political savvy, but also because reform is sorely needed from the standpoint of energy production and the nation's fiscal sustainability.
The prospect of liberalization in Mexico's energy sector has long been of interest to global oil companies and service providers. The country has significant resources - deepwater and unconventional. And the national oil company, Pemex, has been unable to develop much of them, largely due to both insufficient investment capital and technological capability.
Deepwater is thought to hold the strongest lure, but Mexico's unconventional hydrocarbons potential is great. In 2013, the country's prospective shale gas resources were estimated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration as the sixth-largest in the world.
Indeed, it is in the development of these unconventional resources that the most transformative effects of Mexico's energy reform may be felt. For proof, consider the dramatic turnaround in U.S. energy fortunes due largely to new techniques that have made the country's plentiful stores of shale oil and gas economically recoverable.
U.S. oil production has reversed a 30-plus year decline and by some estimates the country will become the world's largest oil producer by as early as 2017 and will achieve full energy self-sufficiency by 2030. And, abundant natural gas benefits the U.S. economy in a number of ways, including the lowering of manufacturing costs, thus boosting economic competitiveness.
Mexico will likely experience a ramping up of shale gas development once the energy reform measures take effect. Not unlike when NAFTA entered into force many believe that given its geology contiguous to Texas' Eagle Ford region, northern Mexico will experience the most profound change.
And that means the demands on the region for improved transportation infrastructure will be great. As will the demand for improvements in water and wastewater infrastructure, new housing, schools and health care facilities.
For an idea of the potentially transformative effects Mexico's energy reform may bring to its northern border, consider the major changes that have occurred over the last few years in south Texas. The natural gas production boom enabled by new techniques such as hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") and horizontal drilling took off around 2009. The economic impact of the subsequent boom in a roughly 20-county region has been huge. And, while communities in the region have by and large welcomed the positive economic benefits of the boom, not all the impacts have been positive.
For Mexico's border region, it's important to not lose sight of the fact that Texas' energy boom has had both positive and negative impacts. While new economic activity and tax revenues will bring a welcome infusion of funds to government coffers, the demands of a boom in shale activity could prove daunting.
Mexico's likely reform of its energy sector brings the promise of new opportunity for the country and for our shared border. Investment, cross-border collaboration and a sustained commitment are necessary to ensure that further changes the energy opening will bring to the region are largely positive.
The U.S. needs to awaken to this fact and prepare to work more strategically with our neighbor. Both countries have much to do to ensure that the region gets in front of the impending change and addresses those issues that matter most to the economic strength of the region and the quality of life of its residents; on both sides of that border.


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BROOKS v. ESTELLE, 459 U.S. 1061 (1982)
Subscribe to Cases that cite 459 U.S. 1061U.S. Supreme Court
BROOKS v. ESTELLE , 459 U.S. 1061 (1982)
Charlie BROOKS, Jr.
W.J. ESTELLE, Jr., Director, Texas Department of Corrections
No. A-504
Supreme Court of the United States
December 6, 1982
This matter was presented to Justice WHITE on December 2, 1982, on an application for a stay of execution, and by him referred to the Court.
When the matter came before the Court the opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dated December 6, 1982, was before us. That opinion after a review of the facts and procedural history concluded as follows:
"Despite the eleventh-hour presentation of new issues, we have reviewed each of the new issues carefully and again reviewed each of the issues previously presented to us. Each member of this panel is acutely aware that Brooks' life may depend on our action. Each of us is determined to fulfill our sworn obligation to up-
hold and defend the Constitution and Laws of the United States, doing justice to the rich and to the poor alike, favoring neither the rich because he is rich, nor the poor because he is poor. We have the same duty to act impartially between the condemned and the state, favoring neither the state nor the condemned. That duty compels us to declare that we find no substantial question presented."
* * *
"The merits of Brooks' claims have been presented by a total of twelve lawyers, in nine separate hearings, and have by this time been reviewed by 23 judges, state and federal. Despite this, we would not hesitate to grant the stay were we aware of any argument of substance, any contention that would benefit by further briefing and oral argument. The application for stay has received the sober, reasoned, and deliberate consideration of Brooks' claim that the irrevocable nature of the penalty demands. Our granting of yet another stay at this late hour for further review of claims so often considered and of such little merit would be abdication of our duty to face and decide the issue before us in accordance with the Constitution and Laws of the United States. "For these reasons, the application for stay is denied."
(1) Addressing first the application for a stay of execution, reconsideration of which was denied by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the application for a stay of execution is hereby denied.
(2) This Court denied applicant's petition for a writ of certiorari on June 29, 1981, 453 U.S. 913, and denied rehearing on September 23, 1981, 453 U.S. 950; treating the papers filed since then as a second petition for rehearing of the denial of certiorari, the same is hereby denied.
(3) Treating the papers filed since December 2, 1982, as a petition for certiorari, or alternatively as a petition for certiorari before judgment, the same is hereby denied.
Justices BRENNAN, MARSHALL, and STEVENS, dissenting.
We would grant petitioner's application for a stay of execution. Our cases make it absolutely clear that where a certificate of probable cause to appeal from the denial of habeas relief has been issued, a court of appeals must consider and decide the merits of that appeal. A court of appeals cannot fulfill that obligation if a State is permitted to execute a prisoner prior to the consideration and decision of his appeal.
On At trial the State presented evidence that Brooks went to a used car lot and asked to test-drive a car. He was permitted to drive the car accompanied by Gregory, an employee. Brooks picked up a friend, Woody Loudres, and drove to the motel where Loudres lived. Brooks and Loudres took Gregory into a motel room. A single shot was fired, killing Gregory.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty. In the penalty phase of the trial, the judge instructed the jury, pursuant to Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann., Art. 37.071(b)(1) and (2), to give "yes" or "no" answers to the following questions:
(1) "Do you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the conduct of the defendant that caused the death of the deceased was committed deliberately and with the reasonable expectation that the death of the deceased or another would result?"
(2) "Do you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that there is a probability the defendant
would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society?"
The judge told the jurors that affirmative answers to both questions would result in a death sentence. Over Brooks' objection, the judge also instructed the jurors that they could not consider or discuss the effect of their answers. The jury answered "yes" to both questions, and the court accordingly imposed the mandatory sentence of death.
Following the affirmance of his conviction and sentence on direct appeal, Brooks v. State, 599 S.W.2d 312 (Tex.Ct.Crim.App.1979), cert. denied, 453 U.S. 913 (1981), Brooks filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. On October 28, 1982, the District Court denied the petition. The District Court's order was accompanied by a 26-page opinion discussing Brooks' claims.
On November 9, 1982, the District Court issued a certificate of probable cause to appeal but denied Brooks' application for a stay of execution pending appeal. Brooks immediately filed a notice of appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and on November 12 he applied to that court for a stay of execution. In his application he described the constitutional claims that he planned to present on appeal if afforded the opportunity to do so. On November 17 the State filed a brief statement opposing the application. Oral argument on the application was held before the Court of Appeals on November 26. Later that same day, the Court of Appeals denied the application in a five- sentence order that did not dispose of the still pending appeal. Although the Court of Appeals has filed an additional opinion today, it still has not acted on the merits of the appeal.
Petitioner is entitled to a stay of execution in order to protect his right to appeal the District Court's denial of habeas corpus relief. This conclusion follows inexorably from the
District Judge's issuance of a certificate of probable cause to appeal, for "if an appellant persuades an appropriate tribunal that probable cause for an appeal exists, he must then be afforded an opportunity to address the underlying merits." Garrison v. Patterson, 391 U.S. 464, 466, 1688 (1968) (per curiam) (emphasis added).
A district judge's order denying an application for habeas corpus " shall be subject to review, on appeal," so long as a judge or circuit justice issues a certificate of probable cause. 28 U.S.C. 2253. In order for the District Court to issue a certificate of probable cause, a petitioner must make a "substantial showing of the denial of [a] federal right." Stewart v. Beto, 454 F.2d 268, 270, n. 2 (CA5 1971) cert. denied, 406 U.S. 925 (1972); Harris v. Ellis, 204 F.2d 685, 686 (CA5 1953). Once the certificate has been issued, the habeas petitioner is entitled to a review and decision on the merits of his appeal, according to the decisions of this Court.
In Nowakowski v. Maroney, 386 U.S. 542 ( 1967) (per curiam), we reviewed a court of appeals' summary denial of a habeas petition after the district judge had issued a certificate of probable cause under 28 U.S.C. 2253. We unanimously concluded that the court of appeals had erred in denying the right to appeal and held that " when a district judge grants such a certificate, the court of appeals must . . . proceed to a disposition of the appeal in accord with its ordinary procedure." Id., at 543 (emphasis added). See Carafas v. LaVallee, 391 U.S. 234, 242, 1561 (1968) ( Nowakowski requires that appeal be duly considered on its merits where a certificate of probable cause has been issued).
Our decision in Garrison v. Patterson, supra, is particularly relevant. There, a habeas petitioner was under sentence of death for murder. The district court had denied a certificate of probable cause but had granted a stay of execution to allow time to appeal from that denial. The petitioner then requested that the court of appeals issue the certificate and also requested from that court a further stay of execu-
tion. After a hearing, the court of appeals issued an order granting the certificate of probable cause. At the same time, however, the court simply affirmed the district court's denial of habeas corpus without receiving further submissions on the merits. Justice WHITE, sitting as Circuit Justice, granted a stay of execution pending review by this Court. Relying on Nowakowski, the full Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeals and remanded for further consideration of Garrison's appeal on the merits. Moreover, the Court continued the stay of execution pending the disposition of the appeal. 391 U.S., at 464.
The courts of appeals have consistently followed the mandate of Nowakowski that a court of appeals must review the merits of an appeal when a certificate of probable cause has been issued. See, e.g., Dobbert v. Strickland, 670 F.2d 938, 939 (CA11 1982) (upon issuance of the certificate "[a] review on the merits is required"); Gross v. Bishop, 377 F.2d 492, 492 (CA8 1967) (when certificate is issued, the court of appeals " must review"). As then-Judge Blackmun stated, Nowakowski requires that " when the district court issue[s] the certificate the appellate court must indulge in a full review." Allowance of In Forma Pauperis Appeals in 2255 and Habeas Corpus Cases, 43 F.R.D. 343, 351 (1968) (emphasis added).
In this case the District Court granted a certificate of probable cause to appeal on November 9, 1982. On November 12 petitioner applied to the Fifth Circuit for a stay of execution pending his appeal to that court . On November 17 the state opposed the stay of execution. The State also requested that the court require an expedited briefing schedule and determine the merits of the appeal as soon as possible, but the Court of Appeals did not grant the request. Instead, after hearing oral argument on the application for stay on November 26, the court that same day simply denied the stay in a one-paragraph order.
On this record it is manifest that the Court of Appeals did not " proceed to a disposition of the appeal," Nowakowski, 386 U.S., at 543, and that it clearly failed to afford petitioner an opportunity "to make his argument on the underlying issues in full." Garrison, 391 U.S., at 467, n. 2, n. 2. Indeed, the lower court did not even order briefing on the merits under an expedited schedule as permitted by its own rules. In the absence of the appellate review that must follow from the grant of a certificate of probable cause, a stay of execution is required. Any other conclusion would eviscerate the prior holdings of this Court as to the significance of the issuance of a certificate of probable cause. "[I]f there is probable cause to appeal it would be a mockery of federal justice to execute [petitioner] pending its consideration." Fouquette v. Bernard, 198 F.2d 96, 97 (CA9 1952) ( Denman, C.J.).
For the foregoing reasons, we would grant the application for a stay of execution.


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The coronavirus pandemic is adding to the mood issues that many pregnant women and new moms experience, according to a new study.
One in 7 women experience anxiety or depression immediately before or after giving birth — and researchers say the pandemic has made it even worse.
"The social and physical isolation measures that are critically needed to reduce the spread of the virus are taking a toll on the physical and mental health of many of us," said study co-author Margie Davenport, an associate professor of kinesiology, sport and recreation at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.
The study included 900 women — 520 who were pregnant and 380 who'd given birth in the past year. They were asked about their depression and anxiety before and during the pandemic and its accompanying isolation.
Before the pandemic, 29% had moderate to high anxiety and 15% reported symptoms of depression. During the pandemic, those rates increased to 72% and 41%, respectively.
The women were also asked about their exercise habits. Researchers wanted to know if lack of access to gyms during the pandemic and reduced physical activity were taking a toll, because exercise can help ease depression.
Sixty-four percent of women said they were getting less physical activity now, while 15% were doing more and 21% had no change in activity. Women who were getting at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week had significantly lower symptoms of depression and anxiety, the study found.
The findings were recently published in the journal Frontiers in Global Women's Health.
"We know that experiencing depression and anxiety during pregnancy and the postpartum period can have detrimental effects on the mental and physical health of both mother and baby that can persist for years," Davenport said in a journal news release.
Those effects can include premature delivery, reduced mother-infant bonding and developmental delays in infants.
Davenport said it is important to highlight the impact of isolation on the mental health of pregnant women and new moms because increased awareness makes diagnosis and treatment of anxiety and depression more likely.
More information
The American Pregnancy Association has more on depression during pregnancy.
Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.


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We keep you up to date on the latest tax changes and news in the industry.
QuickBooks Online provides numerous ways for you to know which customers owe you money – and who is late.
There are so many financial details to keep track of when you're running a small business. You have to make sure your products and services are in good shape and ready to sell. You have to stay current with your bills. Orders need to be processed as quickly as possible, as do estimates and invoices. And you may have numerous questions from customers and vendors that must be addressed.
Your number one priority, however, is ensuring that your customers are paying you. Whether you accept credit cards or bank transfers or issue sales receipts for cash and checks, you need to always know where you stand with incoming payments. "Are my receivables current?" should be a question you're asking yourself or your staff frequently.
QuickBooks Online offers numerous ways to know whether you're being paid for your products and/or services and who might be falling behind. That information is critical to your understanding of how your receivables are stacking up against your payables. You should be able to gauge whether you're making a profit, staying even, or losing money. Here's a look at the tools you can use.
Learning When You Launch
QuickBooks Online provides a good overview of your current cash flow as soon as you log into the site and see your two-pronged Dashboard. The first thing you see when you click the Business overview tab is a cash flow forecast that goes up to 24 months. Other content includes a profit and loss graph and charts showing expenses, income (including open and overdue invoice totals), and sales. Your account balances are there, too.
This is helpful data, but it's broad. To get far more detailed information, hover your mouse over Sales in the toolbar and select All Sales. The horizontal bar across the top displays dollar and transaction totals for estimates, unbilled activity, overdue (invoices), open invoices, and (invoices) paid last 30 days. When you click one of the bars, the list changes to show only that particular set of transactions.
Partial view of the toolbar at the top of the Sales Transactions page
The table of transactions is interactive. That is, there's an Action column at the end of each row. Click the down arrow next to any of the activity listed there, and you'll see a menu of options. Depending on the status of each, these options include commands like Receive payment, Send reminder, Print packing slip, Send, and Void.
Running Reports
The Sales Transactions page provides more of your receivables nuts and bolts than the Business overview screen does. But to get the most in-depth, customizable, comprehensive view of who owes you, you'll need to run reports. Click Reports in the toolbar and scroll down to Who owes you.
There are three columns here. You'll land on Standard, which is a complete list of all of the pre-formatted reports that QuickBooks Online offers. Click Custom reports to see the reports you've customized and saved. Management reports opens a list of three reports that can be viewed by a variety of date ranges: Company Overview, Sales Performance, and Expenses Performance. You can view, edit, and send these, as well as export them as PDF and Microsoft Word files.
There are five reports listed under Who owes you that you should be creating on a regular basis. How regularly? That depends on the size of your business. The greater your sales volume, the more frequently you should run them.
When you select A/R Aging Summary, you'll see at a glance which customers have current balances and those that are 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, and 91+ days past due. A few customization options appear at the top, like Report period, Aging method, and Days per aging period. To really zero in on the precise data set you want, click Customize. The panel that slides out from the right contains option in several areas: General, Rows/Columns, Aging, Filter (by customer), and Header/Footer.
QuickBooks Online helps you target the data set that you want.
There are four other reports that can help you track your receivables:
Open Invoices displays a list of invoices that still contain a balance.
Unbilled Time tells you about any billable time that hasn't been invoiced.
Unbilled Charges lists billable charges that haven't been invoice.
Customer Balance Summary simply provides all open balances for you customers.
These are all very simple reports that you shouldn't have any trouble customizing and running. They can give you a complete picture of where your receivables stand. But there are other reports that will require our help. These are standard financial reports that should be created monthly or quarterly, including Statement of Cash Flows, Profit and Loss, and Balance Sheet. You'll need these critical financial statements if, for example, you're applying for a loan or trying to attract investors. Please let us know if you want us to run and analyze these so you can get a detailed, comprehensive view of your financial health.
Does your business have cash flow issues? We can walk you through the QuickBooks Online tools that help identify them.
Each month, we will send you a roundup of our latest blog content covering the tax and accounting tips & insights you need to know.
We care about the protection of your data.
Sign up for our newsletter.


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About the Episode
Welcome to Practically Speaking, a show dedicated to highlighting practically genius ideas in less than 15 minutes. Get takeaways from Prabhjot Singh's Genius Spotlight episode on automation, like why process is the key to automating well. Lindsay and Ryan then dig into data from Formstack's State of Digital Maturity report. This week, they cover how the most optimized organizations use automation to improve the employee experience. Learn how automation can help make employees feel happier, less stressed, and more fulfilled.
Episode Highlights
Meet Our Guest
Our featured Genius Spotlight guest was Prabhjot Singh, President and CEO of Pyze. He's passionate about helping organizations reach maximum efficiency through automation. He has over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and product management, making him an expert on the intersection between people, process, and technology. Listen to his episode Automation Can't Save You from Broken Processes now.
Episode Transcript
Lindsay McGuire: Hey, everyone. Welcome to practically speaking a show from form stack, where we dive deeper into the topics that matter to change makers like you. I'm Lindsay
Ryan Greives: And I'm Ryan on this episode, Lindsay and I are reflecting on her conversation from last week with Prabhjot and the topic of automation and its impact on the employee experience. Later in the episode, we'll be diving into some data driven insights around this topic, but let's start with some of your thoughts about the conversation you had with Prabhjot Lindsay. What were your big takeaways?
Lindsay McGuire: The biggest thing to me was the fact that you have to put the process before apps or automation or any other type of technology. A lot of times people think about automation or just tech in general, as the silver bullet that can fix everything, solve everything, tame, the wild chaotic data beast that we're all trying to get a handle on, but you can use whatever tools you want. But if the process is crap, essentially, it's really not gonna work out. You have to identify where there are broken processes, improve on those processes. First, before you even think about using any kind of tech or app or automation or adding in any kind of coding, either no code tool, low code tool, whatever you wanna call it. And he even brought up the fact that even if it's as simple as moving from a paper process to a digital process, if you're moving a really crappy, terrible paper process from paper to digital, it's really not going to be that much better beyond it simply being a crappy process. You put into a digital tool. How about you, Ryan?
Ryan Greives: Yeah, I love that. I think the other thing that he said that really stood out to me kinda in that same vein was the idea of process debt. We hear so much about tech debt, especially in the software and technology industry that we're in code over time gets extremely bloated. Applications are incredibly hard to keep up with and update and build upon because of the code index being so big over time and how that's so hard to continue to have innovation. And I love the way he thought about it. From the process standpoint, we have so many of these legacy processes, maybe inside of organizations and people maybe even spot opportunities that they can improve upon, but they actually have to still deal with the legacy processes, the process debt, as he calls it inside of organization that you have to deal with. If you actually want to scale a process or refine a process over time.
Lindsay McGuire: Yeah. It's one of those things where you need to break away from that comfort of this is the way it's always been done, or this is the way that it works. Cause a lot of the times there are tiny little minuscule problems that sit underneath the surface and you can't quite see if you are just in that one section of the process, but when you pull it out big and you look at that overarching data and those bottlenecks, you'll be able to see where, well, this might have been the way we've always done things, but does it actually work effectively and efficiently? One other thing he brought up was this idea of the ping pong problem, talking about having to bounce from one person to the next person, then back to the next person, then over here and back there, and it being this chaotic mess of random communications and Ryan, I know you'll know this phrase well, but one phrase we use at form stack is less work, more flow.
Lindsay McGuire: And I really think that he did a great job of talking about how we can identify areas that can have more of that less work, more flow added in of you shouldn't have to ping pong across these people 18 million times, or if this one person isn't available, then it has to wait. And then once they're back into the process, it be able to move on. I think we need to focus on areas where we can streamline that and be able to then bring in that automation, bring in that tech and those tools that will make it so that this communication is more linear and straight versus just back and forth like pong from the 1980s, perhaps
Ryan Greives: <laugh> I do love ping pong, but just not in the process automation. Now let's dive deeper into what the most optimized organizations do to reduce busy work and turnover with automation.
Lindsay McGuire: So the data we're about to highlight comes from Formstack's 2022 State of Digital Maturity report. This report surveyed 2,000 workers across the U.S. about how they use technology, how they think about digital transformation, their usage of workflow automation. These stats are from the most optimized organizations. Those that have reached the optimal level of digital maturity and are continuing to improve on their efficiencies. So first I wanna talk about how 66% of these optimized organizations spend one hour or less on inefficient tasks every day. Now that might not seem like the biggest number you would think maybe it should be higher, but we found across a whole spectrum of digital maturity. A majority of organizations spend at least two hours or more. So there's a huge time savings at these most optimized organizations. We found that they have an ability to use automation to reduce inefficiencies, and that directly correlates to the health, happiness, and satisfaction of employees.
Lindsay McGuire: When we dug into our data, we realize that the most optimized organizations have employees who are just overall happier, less stressed, more fulfilled with their job. We found that there's a strong correlation between their use of automation and that being able to benefit employees of all departments, all job roles, all functions because their days are spent less on those annoying, repetitive tasks that take up so much time and take us away from that impactful work. And so this then relates to the next stat I wanna talk about, which is 33% of optimized organizations. Don't find it challenging to retain talented employees. We believe this is because the employees at the more digitally mature organizations are happier, less stressed and more productive, their ability to have access to the tools, technology, processes, automation that lift those repetitive tasks out of their to-do list and give them more time to do impactful creative work makes them more fulfilled employees. So they are able to see the worth in their Workday instead of slogging through these repetitive tasks, these 80 million emails, trying to figure out who needs to know what thinking back to that ping pong effect, right? They're able to actually get to the work they need to get done without being bogged down by two, three, sometimes even four hours of those repetitive tasks every day. So what contributes to this happiness and this better employer attention, Ryan, I think, you know, the answer to that one
Ryan Greives: 89% of the most mature organizations track, which systems require the most time from employees and as prob, Joe said in last week's episode is if you do not know where those issues are within the process, you'll never be able to remove the efficiencies no matter what the tool you use. And these most optimized organizations found that they know where the efficiencies exist. They track systems, the processes, employees efforts, to be able to identify where the bottlenecks and the breaks are. And I know over time I've hated the time tracking systems or any of those things because they just seem like they're so tedious and pointless. But the great part about a lot of the systems now project management systems and whatnot is they automate a lot of that stuff for you. So you can actually see it. And on the backside of that, you are able to see what can be automated over time. And it's extremely relevant in today's current business climate, where a lot of organizations are pausing, hiring, maybe having to scale back and having to do more with less. And first of all, having to tracking the systems, which require the most time, but then also building an automation to enhance the employees that you already have there. So they are able to get back to do in more impactful work.
Ryan Greives: Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of practically speaking tune in next week, to hear Lindsay talk with Annette Franz about creating an amazing customer experience, check out the show notes for a link to the 2022 state of digital maturity report. And as always you can find next practically genius idea at formstack.com/practically-genius.


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FWC passes rule prohibiting importation of deer
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) at its Pensacola commission meeting today, Sept. 6, passed a rule prohibiting the importation of live captive deer into Florida from out-of-state sources.
The rule was passed in an effort to reduce the chances of chronic wasting disease (CWD) being introduced into the state. Eighteen other states, including Georgia and Alabama, also prohibit the importation of live cervids (deer, elk and moose).
CWD is not known to affect people but is a contagious neurological disease affecting cervids. It is always fatal, and there is no known cure or vaccine. So far, the disease has been discovered in 22 states, two Canadian provinces and in South Korea.
To implement the decision immediately, the FWC also issued an executive order prohibiting importation of cervids effective today, Sept. 6, 2013. The order includes limited exemptions for reindeer and zoos.
The Commission also directed the executive director to create a working group to include the industry to develop other measures to safeguard the state from CWD. If these other measures are determined to be sufficient to adequately reduce risk, the Commission gives the executive director authority to then allow importation.
Since the beginning of May, the FWC has received much public comment on this and answered questions and concerns. During this process, those who have deer farms and hunting preserves , hunters and conservationists provided suggestions for additional prevention measures to consider. The Commission used this important feedback to guide its decision making.
For more information on chronic wasting disease, this rule and the CWD Alliance, go to MyFWC.com/CWD. To see the executive order, go to MyFWC.com/About and select "Inside FWC" then "Executive Director."


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Scenes from the Stone Age: The Cave Paintings of Lascaux
Discovered by chance in 1940 by four teenagers, the Lascaux caves in southern France have inspired and awed anthropologists, pre-historians, scientists, and artists ever since. Beautifully subtle paintings and engravings of animals line the deep cave walls – sophisticated artwork created at the hands of our early ancestors nearly 20,000 years ago. In an effort to preserve their fragile existence, the caves have remained closed indefinitely, denying us even a glimpse of their shadowed majesty.
But now, during its North American debut, experience your own thrill of discovery in the new exhibition, Scenes from the Stone Age: The Cave Paintings of Lascaux. Walk through exact cave replicas by flickering light, marveling at full-size copies of the paintings—including some never before seen by the public—and see them through the eyes of ancient artists. Deconstruct the paintings' many layers of complexities, meet a lifelike Stone Age family, and discover why the true meaning and purpose of the caves remain a mystery even today. For a limited time, uncover the birthplace of artistic creativity, only at The Field Museum.
This exhibition was created by The General Council of Dordogne, with support provided by the Regional Council of Aquitaine, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, and the European Union.


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When a generic function is called with particular arguments, it must determine the code to execute. This code is called the effective method for those arguments. The effective method is a combination of the applicable methods in the generic function that calls some or all of the methods.
If a generic function is called and no methods are applicable, the generic function no-applicable-method is invoked, with the results from that call being used as the results of the call to the original generic function. Calling no-applicable-method takes precedence over checking for acceptable keyword arguments; see Section 7.6.5 (Keyword Arguments in Generic Functions and Methods).
When the effective method has been determined, it is invoked with the same arguments as were passed to the generic function. Whatever values it returns are returned as the values of the generic function.
188.8.131.52 Determining the Effective Method
18.104.22.168 Standard Method Combination
220.127.116.11 Declarative Method Combination
18.104.22.168 Built-in Method Combination Types


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Artificial Plants Pine Mountain
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An important task of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is to provide diplomatic maintenance and assistance in holding negotiations on concluding bi- and multilateral free trade agreements (further - FTA).
The FTA conclusion provides the creation of favorable conditions for development of trade and economic cooperation with the certain states or groups of states and therefore is the efficient instrument for increasing the Ukrainian export volume through the liberalization of access of goods and services on foreign markets. The establishing a free trade regime with the perspective trade and economic partners allows Ukraine to diversify geography and range of national export production due to liberalized terms of market accession in the long term.
First of all, the FTA conclusion pursues the aim of advance and protection of economic interests of the Ukrainian producers and exporters and also provides balanced tariff policy, including, in relation to sensitive groups of industrial and agricultural goods which have to become a basis of creating favorable conditions for the development of commerce and economic cooperation.
Ukraine concluded free trade agreements with The European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the CIS and also with Montenegro, Macedonia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan.
Creation of Deep and Comprehensive FTA between Ukraine and the European Union is provided by the economic part of EU- Ukraine Association Agreement, which was signed on June 27, 2014.
The Agreement on free trade between Ukraine and the states of EFTA (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) was signed at Reykjavík (Iceland) on June 24, 2010; ratified by the Law of Ukraine No. 4091-VI of December 07, 2011 and came into force on June 1, 2012. The present Agreement covers trade in goods (industrial, agricultural, fish and sea production), services and settlements of disputes. Given the difference between economic and social development levels of Ukraine and EFTA member states the agreement provides the principal of asymmetrical obligations of the Parties which allows Ukraine to adapt its trade with the EFTA states with the free trade terms.
Two more documents were signed in the scope of Agreement in order to render technical and financial assistance to the Ukrainian Party for adaptation to the new terms of trade, namely: the Memorandum of understanding concerning the Program of bilateral cooperation in agriculture between the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs; and the Joint Statement on cooperation in the field of fisheries between the State Agency of Fisheries of Ukraine, the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture of Iceland and the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs of Norway.
CIS Free trade Agreement (member countries: Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) signed on October 18, 2011 and ratified by Ukraine on July 13, 2012.
Besides, bilateral FTAs between Ukraine and Azerbaijan (was ratified on July 12, 1996), Uzbekistan (November 04, 1995), Tajikistan (July 06, 2001) and Turkmenistan (November 05, 1994) are valid. The largest trade partners of Ukraine within the CIS are Russian Federation, Belarus, Moldova and Kazakhstan.
The free trade area between Ukraine and Georgia is valid since 1996 under the Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of Democratic Republic of Georgia on January 09, 1995 (came into force on June 04, 1996), and also under the intergovernmental Protocol on modification and additions in the Agreements specified on June 17, 2009 that is connected with Georgia's withdrawal from the CIS.
The Agreement on free trade between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of Montenegro was signed at Kiev on November 18, 2011 and was also ratified by the Law of Ukraine No. 5445-VI of October 16, 2012; became effective on January 01, 2013. The present Agreement covers trade in goods, services and settlements of disputes. Under the terms of the Agreement after the entry into force, Montenegro provides abolition of the import duties. Thus, for the purpose of prevention of potential negative consequences for the economy of Ukraine, the Ukrainian party within the Agreement excluded a number of sensitive groups of agricultural goods from the free trade area. Also, the right for application of export duties by Ukraine according to the existing obligations within the WTO is kept.
The Agreement on free trade between the Republic of Macedonia and Ukraine was signed at Skopje on January 18, 2001 and was ratified by the Law of Ukraine No. 2599-III of July 05, 2001. The present Agreement covers the removal of trade restrictions in industrial and agricultural goods, providing conditions for the fair competition in trade, creation of conditions for further investment promotion, development of joint investment projects, and also protection of intellectual property and cooperation between the Parties in the markets of the third countries.
The concluded FTAs promote the free movement of goods and services between the countries that, in turn, promotes attraction of investments, reduction in cost of import, development of domestic production and infrastructure, exchange of experience and technologies, provides employment of the population, receipt in budgets of taxes and fees and maintenance of close interstate connections.
For the time being, negotiation processes on the conclusion of bilateral FTAs between Ukraine and Canada, Turkey and State of Israel are under way.
The work on determination of economic expediency of the conclusion of FTAs with other important trade partners of Ukraine is being conducted. Along with the carrying out the corresponding scientific researches we try to define the perspective countries for the FTAs conclusion through the consultations with business associations and leading producers and exporters of Ukraine.


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Every once in a while I'll come across the sneaky devils and they always flee. What determines when they flee (time, distance, etc.) and do I get better loot by killing them faster? Is there anything else I should know in order to get the most out of the encounter?
EDIT: What I mean is: Is the final drop better based on how effectively I defeat them?


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July is UV Safety Month: What You Eat Can Protect Your Skin from the Sun
Researchers from Harvard University recently announced that lutein (LOO-teen) —a potent antioxidant found in such dark green, leafy vegetables as spinach and kale —may protect the skin from sun damage.
"Lutein has been widely recognized for its eye health benefits for several years, but, our data is the first of its kind to suggest that lutein may have the potential to act as a preventative agent against UVB-induced skin cancer," said Salvador Gonzalez, M.D., Ph.D., leader of the Harvard research team. "In addition, because these data suggest that lutein protects the skin against damage caused by exposure to UVB light, it further validates our position that lutein is a critical component to overall skin health."
Lutein is a yellow pigment (the yellow is covered up by chlorophyll in green leaves) found predominantly in vegetables. It is also present in the eyes and skin of the human body. As an antioxidant, lutein protects the eyes from the damaging effects of aging. Lutein also acts as a light filter, protecting against the sun's harmful rays.
UVA and UVB rays are two types of harmful rays found in sunlight. UVA rays contribute to wrinkling the skin, as well as to the development of skin cancer. UVB rays are the ones that are the primary cause of sunburn and skin cancer.
Don't just protect yourself by eating well! Good sunscreens block both UVA and UVB rays and are critical to skin health.


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The ability to reason clearly in the face of uncertainty.
If everybody could learn to deal better with the unknown, then it would improve not only their individual cognitive toolkit (to be placed in a slot right next to the ability to operate a remote control, perhaps), but the chances for humanity as a whole.
A well-developed scientific method for dealing with the unknown has existed for many years — the mathematical theory of probability. Probabilities are numbers whose values reflect how likely different events are to take place. People are bad at assessing probabilities. They are bad at it not just because they are bad at addition and multiplication. Rather, people are bad at probability in a deep, intuitive level: they overestimate the probability of rare but shocking events -- a burglar breaking into your bedroom while you're asleep, say. Conversely, they underestimate the probability of common, but quiet and insidious events — the slow accretion of globules of fat on the walls of an artery, or another ton of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere.
I can't say that I'm very optimistic about the odds that people will learn to understand the science of odds. When it comes to understanding probability, people basically suck. Consider the following example, based on a true story, and reported by Joel Cohen of Rockefeller University. A group of graduate students note that women have an significantly lower chance of admission than men to the graduate programs at a major university. The data are unambiguous: women applicants are only two thirds as likely as male applicants to be admitted. The graduate students file suit against the university, alleging discrimination on the basis of gender. When admissions data are examined on a department by department basis, however, a strange fact emerges: within each department, women are MORE likely to be admitted than men. How can this possibly be?
The answer turns out to be simple, if counterintuitive. More women are applying to departments that have few positions. These departments admit only a small percentage of applicants, men or women. Men, by contrast, are applying to departments that have more positions and that admit a higher percentage of applicants. Within each department, women have a better chance of admission than men — it's just that few women apply to the departments that are easy to get into.
This counterintuitive result indicates that the admissions committees in the different departments are not discriminating against women. That doesn't mean that bias is absent. The number of graduate fellowships available in a particular field is determined largely by the federal government, which chooses how to allocate reserach funds to different fields. It is not university that is guilty of sexual discrimination, but the society as a whole, which chose to devote more resources — and so more graduate fellowships — to the fields preferred by men.
Of course, some people are good at probability. A car insurance company that can't accurately determine the probabilities of accidents will go broke. In effect, when we pay out premiums to insure ourselves against a rare event, we are buying into the insurance company's estimate of just how likely that event is. Driving a car is one of those common but dangerous processes where human beings habitually understimate the odds of something bad happening, however. Accordingly, some are disinclined to obtain car insurance (perhaps not suprising when the considerable majority of people rate themselves as better than average drivers). When a state government requires its citizens to buy car insurance, it does so because it figures, rightly, that people are underestimating the odds of an accident.
Let's consider the debate over whether health insurance should be required by law. Living, like driving, is a common but dangerous process where people habitually underestimate risk, despite that fact that, with probability equal to one, living is fatal.