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Need to sell your house? Whether that is right away, or just knowing it is on the timeline, it may be stressing you out. So many thoughts and steps are involved in the process.
It can feel overwhelming figuring out if your house is worth the effort of fixing it up or selling as is. You are probably not the only one who feels this way. Selling your house as is may be the perfect thing for you to look into.
Time is hard to come by, funds can become crunched, the house seems helpless, and you may just want someone to take it off your hands. Unfortunately, financially that is not realistic. So what should you do?
Don't sweat it, maybe selling to a cash buyer can be the alternative you did not know about. We are here to help put your mind to rest, and help you weigh if it is worth the costly minor changes to your house. Or if selling your house as is, is the right thing for you.
Low on Funds
Extra money is hard to come by. It may sound simple to paint the walls, change the flooring, and add a little shazam to the place. But mathematically, is it worth it? Unfortunately, these time consuming and cash eating things really don't add that much value to your house.
So why go through the trouble then? Well, if you're able to do these things it can look pleasing to the eye. It can be a selling point to a buyer so that they don't have to do it and can move in as is. But what does that do for you? It causes a big headache and it means less money in that savings account.
If you sell your house as is, you don't have to do anything. You don't even need to wipe up that coffee spill from this morning, we won't judge. Save your money for your next house instead. Don't worry about scrambling to make a place you are about to sell look perfect for a stranger.
On top of those funds, selling your house as is to us saves you money on closing fees. According to Zillow, the average person pays $13,357 in closing costs. Well, save your money and sell your house as is to us. You won't have to worry about all of that extra spending you are putting into someone else's pocket.
No Time
Selling your house as is doesn't require all the time and effort you have to put into repairs, paint, and an all-around facelift of your house. Making these changes not only costs money, but also takes you away from your loved ones. Trust us, we know what it's like to have baseball games, ballet recitals, and to be running to PTA meetings all at the same time. We understand that life gets hectic. Let's not add to it.
So, let us ease that burden. We will pay you cash and get it to you within 7 days. Selling your house as is has never been easier. No need to keep your house tidy for all of those unnecessary open houses. You don't have to put in any extra time into a house that you have grown tired of.
Lack of Desire
Maybe you need to sell your house as is because sweet Grandma Jones liked orange carpet and green woodwork, and you're almost certain that no one else does. Modernizing a house takes a lot of effort and sometimes that just isn't worth the time and hassle.
We all know that person who loves carpet in the bathroom or loves layering wallpaper on the already set wallpaper. This is such a pain. Have you looked under that carpet or tried to remove that wallpaper? No, thank you. Even if you have the time, who really wants to fix that? Especially if it's a house that you inherited from your Auntie Harriet and her 50 cats. But in all seriousness, it can be hard to want to fix something you have no attachment too. So, sell your house as is and let someone else deal with the mess.
Sell Your House Quickly as Is
We all know that it is overwhelming to have an unwanted house. We know you don't want to find the money to dump into a house that you are trying to get rid of. Even if the funds are there, the time it is going to take to redo things that will please a buyer's eye doesn't feel worth it. Luckily there are other solutions, and we are here to assist you with them.
Selling your house in Oklahoma as is probably feels like the right thing to do right about now. Let us help you decide if it will benefit you and your family. Fill out the form below, or give us call today. We can help you feel more comfortable in your decision, and hopefully take your unwanted house off your hands, and get the cash in your hands.


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The President's Budget Proposes Smart Health Savings
Much of the health care discussion in President Trump's FY 2019 budget has focused on his $700 billion plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA or "Obamacare"). Importantly, though, President Trump's budget also includes a number of thoughtful reforms and changes to save money in Medicare and Medicaid. Most of these proposals are new in that they were not proposed in President Trump's first budget, and many of them are similar or identical to changes proposed by President Obama.
Taken on the whole, President Trump's (non-ACA) health care proposals would reduce projected Medicare spending, lower premiums and costs for seniors, and slow overall health care cost growth. Many of these proposals work to more closely align Medicare with private insurer policies, equalize reimbursement rates regardless of site of service, and lower drug prices.
Non-ACA Health Savings in the President's FY 2019 Budget
Policy | 2019-2028 Savings |
Create a unified payment system for post-acute care regardless of setting | $80 billion |
Move payments to hospitals for uncompensated care out of Medicare and establish a new system for lower payments | $70 billion |
Enact medical malpractice liability reform | $50 billion |
Consolidate GME payments into a new grant program outside of Medicare | $50 billion |
Align Medicare coverage of bad debts closer with private payers | $35 billion |
Pay off-campus, hospital-owned providers at normal physician office rate | $35 billion |
Continue Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) cuts | $20 billion |
Enact payment and delivery system reforms – expand ACOs, increase competitive bidding for durable medical equipment, and reduce payments for hospital transfers | $10 billion |
Increase state flexibility for Medicaid – allow states to apply asset tests to expansion population, require immigration documentation, and increase copayments | $5 billion |
Reform Medicare Part D benefit design | $5 billion |
Other savings proposals | $5 billion |
Extend mandatory sequester to 2028 (health portion) | $25 billion |
Total, Health Savings | $390 billion |
Sources: Office of Management and Budget and Department of Health and Human Services.
Certain other policies are not scored but would generate savings. All savings rounded to the nearest $5 billion and totals may not sum due to rounding.
Create a unified payment system for post-acute care regardless of setting ($80 billion savings). Medicare reimburses post-acute care based on many factors, including the setting in which the care is performed – usually offering higher reimbursement to hospital settings. Under this policy, starting in 2024 post-acute care payments would be prospectively set based on episodes of care rather than the setting it is performed in. This is similar to a proposal from President Obama's FY 2016 and FY 2017 budgets.
Move payments to hospitals for uncompensated care out of Medicare and establish a new system for lower payments ($70 billion savings). Under current law, Medicare pays hospitals for a portion of uncompensated care by distributing funding from a pool based on how many low-income individuals the hospital treats – which is partially disconnected from the Medicare program itself and might not belong under Medicare's purview. Under this proposal, a new process for distributing payments for uncompensated care would be established that aims to more closely align Medicare policy with that of private insurers (who don't cover uncompensated care). It would freeze payments at the FY 2018 level and grow it with CPI-U, funded out of general revenue rather than via Medicare. Payments would be distributed by evaluating each hospital's share of charity care and non-Medicare bad debt.
Enact medical malpractice liability reform ($50 billion savings). The President's budget includes an identical proposal to the FY 2018 budget to reform medical liability – also known as medical malpractice or tort reform. This includes limiting non-economic damages to $250,000 adjusted for inflation, instituting a three-year statute of limitations, and establishing "safe harbors" against claims that have clinical justification.
Consolidate Graduate Medical Education (GME) payments into a new grant program outside of Medicare ($50 billion savings). Under current law, federal health programs (including a large portion from Medicare) individually subsidize the direct costs of graduate medical training in hospitals. This proposal would consolidate all of the current programs from Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Hospital Insurance Program (CHIP) for GME spending into a single program for teaching hospitals. It would grow with inflation minus on percentage point annually. While this proposal is new, past Presidents' budgets have proposed various reforms to GME payments as well.
Align Medicare coverage of bad debts closer with private payers ($35 billion savings). Most private payers do not reimburse for bad debts; this policy would move Medicare toward this by lowering its coverage from 65 percent of bad debt to 25 percent over three years. Certain small hospitals and low-income clinics would be exempt from these cuts. An identical proposal appeared in President Obama's FY 2017 budget.
Pay off-campus, hospital-owned providers at normal physician office rate ($35 billion savings). Furthering the effort to reduce reimbursement variation based on site of service, this proposal would lower payments for physicians who work in hospital-owned offices that are not located in the hospital at the normal physician rate. This proposal would remove all exemptions for grandfathered facilities.
Continue Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) cuts ($20 billion savings). The President's budget would continue the Medicaid DSH cuts for 2026 through 2028 at $8 billion per year. Importantly, the recently-passed Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 prevented DSH cuts from happening in 2018 and 2019 and extended the cuts through 2025, but they have never been enacted since they were first set to go into effect in 2014.
Enact payment and delivery system reforms – expand ACOs, increase competitive bidding for durable medical equipment, and reduce payments for hospital transfers ($10 billion savings). Building on past Presidents' budgets, the FY 2019 budget proposes to increase enrollment in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), increase bidding for durable medical equipment, and reduce payments for hospital transfers. These delivery reforms have significant longer-term savings potential. ACOs hold potential for long-term cost control by better coordinating care and incentivizing physicians with shared savings. Changing competitive bidding for durable medical equipment would allow the administration to pay lower amounts for equipment based on geographic location. The budget would also reduce payments to hospitals when patients are quickly transferred to hospice, representing the resources required for the stay. Several other smaller delivery reform proposals, like encouraging the use of telehealth, have savings potential as well.
Increase state flexibility for Medicaid – allow states to apply asset tests to expansion population, require immigration documentation, and increase copayments ($5 billion savings). The President's budget includes several proposals to allow states more flexibility with Medicaid aside from ACA repeal and replacement. It would allow states to increase co-pays for using emergency rooms when there's no actual emergency, let states use asset tests for the Medicaid expansion population, and prohibits payments for Medicaid enrollees who haven't proved citizenship yet.
Reform Medicare Part D benefit design ($5 billion savings). Under current law, a typical Part D plan covers three-quarters of ordinary drug costs (after a deductible) and then 95 percent of "catastrophic costs" – costs above roughly $5,000 per year. The President's budget would eliminate patient cost sharing above that threshold so that Medicare covers 100 percent of catastrophic costs. To offset this cost while providing additional cost reduction for seniors, the President's budget would require one-third of the drug discount ("rebate") offered to Medicare to be given directly to the consumer, and it would measure the catastrophic threshold on a post-rebate basis rather than pre-rebate costs. Finally, the increase would allow insurance companies in Part D to narrow formularies to contain as few as one (rather than two) drugs for a given medical need.
Extend the mandatory sequester to 2028 ($25 billion savings from Medicare). The President's budget proposes to extend the mandatory sequester – which mostly cuts Medicare spending -- from 2025 to 2028. The full three-year extension would result in Medicare savings of $61 billion, but the sequester was already extended to 2027 in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. The resulting incremental Medicare savings for 2028 would be about $25 billion.
The President's budget has many thoughtful ideas for curbing costs in Medicare and Medicaid that lawmakers should consider adopting. However, it could have gone further by making sensible changes like limiting Medigap plans, increasing means testing for premiums, and other beneficiary changes that preserve the programs for the most vulnerable. Regardless, this is a good start for helping to further slow cost growth in the health care space.

subset: commoncrawl


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Concept art exploration of possible locations for the City Explorer children's game wall installation at the NYU Hassenfeld Children's Hospital in New York City. Featured: the Bronx Zoo. We wanted each location to have a strong individual graphic feel; separate from the others.
(Visit the Illustration section of my website to see some of the completed illustrations and video of the final installed animated game wall.)


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Atom | ||||||
Helium atom model (not to scale) Showing nucleus with two protons (red) and two neutrons (green) and with a probability cloud (gray) of two electrons (yellow). | ||||||
Classification | ||||||
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Properties | ||||||
An atom (Greek άτομον from ά: non and τομον: divisible) is a submicroscopic structure found in all ordinary matter. Originally the atom was believed to be the smallest possible indivisible particle of matter. Later, atoms were found to be composed of even smaller subatomic particles. Consisting of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons, atoms exhibit the duality of positivity and negative that is characteristic of all existing beings. Atoms are the fundamental building blocks of matter. They can be classed into elements, and combine in definite ratios to form compounds through ionic or covalent bonding. In chemical reactions they are neither created or destroyed, and are said to be conserved.
Atomic theory
Atomic structure
Atoms are composed of three primary types of subatomic particles:
- electrons, which have a negative charge;
- protons, which have a positive charge; and
- neutrons, which have no charge.
The protons and neutrons together form the nucleus of the atom; a small, dense, positively charged region at the center of the atom where most of the mass of the atom resides. The protons and neutrons are themselves composed of smaller particles called quarks. The quarks, and the nucleus itself, are held together by the strong interaction. This is one of the four interactions of the physical universe. The electrons surround the nucleus in a diffuse region of negative charge that is much larger than the nucleus itself and is responsible for the size of the atom. Quantum mechanical calculations show us that these electrons have an orbital structure that is responsible for the physical and chemical properties of the atom.
Each type of elementary particle also has a corresponding antiparticle (see particle physics). Thus atoms of antimatter can potentially form, composed of antielectrons, antiprotons, and antineutrons.
Atomic size
The size of an atom is not easily defined since the electron orbitals just gradually go to zero as the distance from the nucleus increases. For atoms that can form solid crystals, the distance between adjacent nuclei can give an estimate of the atom size. For atoms that do not form solid crystals other techniques are used, including theoretical calculations. As an example, the size of a hydrogen atom is estimated to be approximately 1.2×10-10m. Compare this to the size of the proton which is the only particle in the nucleus of the hydrogen atom which is approximately 0.87×10-15m. Thus the ratio between the sizes of the hydrogen atom to its nucleus is about 100,000. Atoms of different elements do vary in size, but the sizes are roughly the same to within a factor of 2 or so. The reason for this is that elements with a large positive charge on the nucleus attract the electrons to the center of the atom more strongly.
Elements and isotopes
Atoms are generally classified by their atomic number, which corresponds to the number of protons in the atom. The atomic number defines which element the atom is. For example, carbon atoms are those atoms containing 6 protons. All atoms with the same atomic number share a wide variety of physical properties and exhibit the same chemical behavior. The various kinds of atoms are listed in the periodic table in order of increasing atomic number.
The mass number, atomic mass number, or nucleon number of an element is the total number of protons and neutrons in an atom of that element, because each proton or neutron essentially has a mass of 1 amu. The number of neutrons in an atom has no effect on which element it is. Each element can have numerous different atoms with the same number of protons and electrons, but varying numbers of neutrons. Each has the same atomic number but a different mass number. These are called the isotopes of an element. When writing the name of an isotope, the element name is followed by the mass number. For example, carbon-14 contains 6 protons and 8 neutrons in each atom, for a total mass number of 14.
The simplest atom is the hydrogen atom, which has atomic number 1 and consists of one proton and one electron. The hydrogen isotope which also contains 1 neutron is called deuterium or hydrogen-2; the hydrogen isotope with 2 neutrons is called tritium or hydrogen-3.
The atomic mass listed for each element in the periodic table is an average of the isotope masses found in nature, weighted by their abundance.
Valence and bonding
The chemical behavior of atoms is largely due to interactions between electrons. Electrons of an atom remain within certain, predictable electron configurations. Electrons fall into shells based on their relative energy level, which is usually visualized as their mean distance from the nucleus. The electrons in the outermost shell, called the valence electrons, have the greatest influence on chemical behavior. Core electrons (those not in the outer shell) play a role, but it is usually in terms of a secondary effect due to screening of the positive charge in the atomic nucleus.
Each shell, numbered from the one closest to the nucleus (lowest in energy), can hold up to a specific number of electrons due to its differing sublevel and orbital capacity:
- Shell 1: 2 electron capacity - s sublevel - 1 orbital
- Shell 2: 8 electron capacity - s and p sublevels - 4 orbitals
- Shell 3: 18 electron capacity - s, p, and d sublevels - 9 orbitals
- Shell 4: 32 electron capacity - s, p, d, and f sublevels - 16 orbitals
To determine the electron capacity of a shell, the formula 2n ² is used, where n is the shell number or principle quantum number. Electrons fill orbitals and shells from the inside out, beginning with shell one. Whichever occupied shell is currently most outward is the valence shell, even if it only has one electron.
The reason why shells fill up in order is that the energy levels of electrons in the innermost shells are significantly lower than the energy levels of electrons in outer shells. So if the inner shells were not completely full, the electron in an outer shell would quickly "fall" into the inner shell (with the emission of a photon that would carry away the difference in the energy).
The number of electrons in an atom's outermost valence shell governs its bonding behavior. Therefore, elements with the same number of valence electrons are grouped together in the periodic table of the elements. Group (i.e. column) 1 elements contain one electron on their outer shell; Group 2, two electrons; Group 3, three electrons; etc. As a general rule, the fewer electrons in an atom's valence shell, the more reactive it is. Group 1 metals are therefore very reactive, with caesium, rubidium, and francium being the most reactive of all metals.
Every atom is much more stable (i.e. less energetic) with a full valence shell. This can be achieved one of two ways: an atom can either share electrons with neighboring atoms (a covalent bond), or it can remove electrons from other atoms (an ionic bond). Another form of ionic bonding involves an atom giving some of its electrons to another atom; this also works because it can end up with a full valence by giving up its entire outer shell. By moving electrons, the two atoms become linked. This is known as chemical bonding and serves to build atoms into molecules or ionic compounds. Five major types of bonds exist:
- ionic bonds;
- covalent bonds;
- coordinate covalent bonds;
- hydrogen bonds; and
- metallic bonds.
Historical theories
Democritus and Leucippus, Greek philosophers in the fifth century B.C.E., presented the first theory of atoms (atomism). They held that each atom had a different shape, like a pebble, that governed the atom's properties. Dalton and Avogadro rediscovered the works of Democritus and Leucippus and suggested in the nineteenth century that matter was made up of atoms, but they knew nothing of their structure. This theory was conflicting with the theory of infinite divisibility, which states that matter can always be divided into smaller parts.
The controversy settled down in 1911 when Perrin discovered the meta-particle we nowadays call an atom. Jean Perrin thought that he had found the "atomos" that Democritus talked about and so named his particles atoms.
Through this time, atoms were thought to be the smallest possible piece of matter. However, it was later shown that atoms are made up of subatomic particles. Thomson's experiments discovered the electron, the first of the subatomic particles to be discovered. This showed that atoms are actually divisible, and not the indivisible "atomos" Democritus talked about. Work on radioactivity toward the end of the nineteenth century also hinted at the divisibility of atoms. Physicists later invented a new term for indivisible units, namely elementary particles since the word atom had already been taken and come into common use.
At first, it was believed that the electrons were distributed more or less uniformly in a sea of positive charge (the plum pudding model). However, an experiment conducted a few years later by Rutherford demonstrated that atoms are mostly empty space, with a lot of mass concentrated in a nucleus. In the gold foil experiment, he shot alpha particles (emitted by polonium) through a sheet of gold. He observed that most of the particles passed straight through the sheet without deflection (striking a fluorescent screen on the other side), but that, surprisingly, a small number were bounced right back (having come close to a nucleus). This led to the planetary model of the atom, in which the electrons orbited the nucleus like the planets orbiting the sun.
The nucleus was later discovered to contain protons, and further experimentation by Rutherford found that the nuclear mass of most atoms surpassed the number of protons it possessed; this led him to postulate the existence of neutrons, whose existence would be proved in 1932 by James Chadwick.
Later, experiments by Max Planck and Albert Einstein demonstrated that energy is transferred in tiny fixed amounts known as quanta. This led Bohr to propose an updated model, wherein the electrons orbited the nucleus in fixed circles. Because their energy could only change by fixed quantities, they couldn't move closer to or farther from the nucleus in spirals; they could only make quantum leaps from one circle to the next.
Study of atoms
The study of atoms was done by largely indirect means through the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. In recent years, however, new techniques have made the identification and study of atoms easier and more accurate. The electron microscope, invented in 1931, has allowed pictures to be taken of actual, individual atoms. Atomic force microscopy is another technique by which individual atoms can be visualized. Methods also exist to identify atoms and compounds. Elemental analysis allows the exact identification of the types and amounts of atoms in a substance.
Related topics
External links
All links retrieved August 21, 2023.
- All About Atoms Jefferson Lab.
- How Atoms Work by howstuffworks.
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Introducing the world's most advanced circular polarizer.
The moment you use the X4 CPL, you know you've never used anything like it. Featuring our all-new American made CPL film and an all-new brass traction frame features best-in-class design and durability. And that's just the beginning.
World's most color neutral CPL. Guaranteed.
Our all-new and internally developed CPL film is at the core of the X4 CPL, and we manufacture it right here in California. To achieve the worlds most color neutral performance, we had to develop a unique approach to manufacturing rather than selecting off-the-shelf CPL film common among filter manufacturers, which is designed and intended for LCD panels, not photographic optics.
All commercially available CPL filters exhibit a yellow cast due to a gradual transmission increase starting around 600nm and then spiking at 650nm onward into IR. With our X4 CPL film we achieved a gradual transmission decrease from 600nm onward, and instead of spiking uncontrollably near 650nm and far into infrared, the X4 CPL sees very controlled transmission into IR, without the curve spike. The real world result? Warm and lively images without the apparent color cast.
Transmission Curve
Spectrometers are optical instruments that can detect spectral lines and measure their wavelength or intensity. Spectrometers can also be used to test the efficiency of an optical filter in order to evaluate color neutral performance.
A perfectly flat transmission curve would yield a perfectly color neutral result, and while there is no such thing as a perfectly neutral CPL filter (contrary to what other filter makers may claim) the X4 CPL is the most color neutral any CPL filter, guaranteed.
When filter makers use off-the-shelf polarizing films originally designed for LCD panels, it produces a predictable transmission increase at 650nm onward and a spike in transmission around around 680nm and into IR. During our research into alternative manufacturing methods, we were able to solve this problem. As a result the X4 CPL sees a decline in IR transmission across the visible spectrum and is very well controlled throughout the IR range.
Dynamic Range
Expand your dynamic range in-camera.
Outdoor photographers frequently struggle with dynamic range, as the human eye has a dynamic range over 20-stops, while a mid-day outdoor scene (like the one below) may range between 15-18 stops. Professional camera systems range between 12-14 stops, and during the last decade very little expansion progress has been made. You can sometimes recover detail in shadows if there's enough data there in post-processing, but you can't remove glare in post-processing, and the removal of glare adds vibrancy, contrast and reveals details that are otherwise unseen.
When you rotate a circular polarizer you will see it turn ON and OFF through the viewfinder, allowing you to control the amount of polarization necessary for your shooting situation. The higher in elevation you shoot, the more pronounced the polarization, and the more dynamic range is increased as a result.
A winning design proven by outdoor photographers.
We took all we learned from the success of the X4 ND and designed an entirely new circular polarizing frame, unlike you've ever seen before. And like the X4 ND, we specifically designed the X4 CPL as a workhorse CPL for field work, built to withstand extreme wind, salt water, dust and other abrasive conditions and elements where other filters may fail. And we guarantee each and every X4 CPL to perform with optimal optical clarity and color neutrality for 25 years even in the harshest of conditions.
We specifically designed X4 CPL as a workhorse circular polarizer for field work, built to withstand extreme wind, salt water, dust and other abrasive conditions and elements.
X4 CPL incorporates our state-of-the-art nanotec® Nano Coatings Technology, which beads water and other elements rather than absorbing and smearing.
We stand behind each X4 CPL filter with our 25 Year Ironclad Guarantee with US-based phone, email and live chat support.
World's sharpest CPL filter. Guaranteed.
The X4 CPL features SCHOTT Superwhite B270® optical glass, which is an ultra clear crown glass. It is produced by melting high purity raw materials and then made using the continuous draw process. The result is excellent transmission in the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared spectrums, and a high surface quality that accepts our state-of-the-art MRC and nanotec® coatings exceptionally well.
Our state-of-the-art multi-resistant coating (MRC) is an optical coating applied to both surfaces of the glass disk to reduce reflection and to increase surface durability. Our proprietary MRC coating is structurally harder than the glass itself and the reduced reflections improve the efficiency since less light is lost. The reduction of reflections also improves the contrast of the image by elimination of stray light. The real world result? Better contrast and color.
Low light transmission and green flaring are common problems with uncoated glass. As MRC coatings are added to each side of the optical disk light transmission steadily increases with flaring steadily decreasing. In our lab tests light transmission apexes at about 16-layers of MRC, and slowly decreasing in transmission at 18 and above. 8-layers of MRC are applied evenly to both sides of each optical disk resulting in MRC16.
Glazer's SKU | 35248 | ||||||||||||||||
Manufacturer | Breakthrough Photography | ||||||||||||||||
Product Specs |


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Branded at the GrillStock Food festival! Mr. S was all starry eyed and getting excited with wood chips for smoking meat and giant BBQ grills! Men!!!
Walking on the Harbour Rail tracks... kept expecting the train to come along any moment!
Tapas at The Olive Shed!
Came across this beautiful Decoupaged table with Vintage Postcards at the Tobacco Factory Sunday Market.
Some seriously gorgeous graffiti!
Real Ale Chutney at the Tobacco Factory.


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Neck Tie | Bias Stars & Stripes
Neck Tie | Bias Stars & Stripes
Regular price$15
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Neckties For The Dapper Dog! The Perfect Accessory For Instant Style! Dress Up Your Pup Quickly And Get Ready For That Photo! Easy To Attach To Or Remove From Almost Any Collar Featuring A Soft And Secure Double-Sided Touch Fastener Strip On Back.
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Most Products Are Shipped Within 3 Days. Some Of Our Beds Are Made-To-Order And Can Take Longer To Ship. If You Are In A Rush To Have A Bed, Please Call Before Ordering To Inquire About The Turnaround. Shipping Cost Is A $5 Flat Rate For Orders Under $75. Periodically, There Will Be Shipping Promos Sent To Subscribers. Products May Arrive In Separate Deliveries. See FAQs For More Information On Shipping Details. Any Questions Can Also Be Answered By E-Mailing email@example.com


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Roof Replacement In Georgetown CT
New Construction & Replacement
H&J Roofing provides expertise with a range of residential roofing systems, from the shingle and tile roofs most common, to materials others contractors rarely use, such as metal and cedar. We use high–quality materials designed to be the most long–lasting and cost–efficient on the market.
At H&J, we are not assembly–line roofing installers. Each project we take on is properly treated as a custom roofing assignment, installed with skill and great attention to detail. A lot can go wrong if a roof is not properly installed by experienced roofers. Our commitment to you is to build total reliability into your roofing system.
We strive to complete all projects as quickly and efficiently as possible. That's why we use the Equipter RB4000 to streamline our roof replacement processes and prevent residual damage to your property. Click here to learn more.
ROOFinG REPAIR & EMERGENCY SERVICE
At H&J Roofing, our team of expert contractors have been helping residents and commercial propery owners in Westport, Stamford, New Canaan, Wilton, Old Greenwich CT and throughout Lower Old Greenwich for years. If your roof is leaking through cracked or missing shingles or has become damaged from storms, fire or accidents, you have peace of mind knowing we're only a phone call away.
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Doing Good Can Pay Off in Care Bears™ Online Video Challenge
For more than 30 years, the Care Bears™ have been on a mission to help make the world a better place by spreading messages of sharing and caring wherever they go. Now, in an online campaign, the Care Bears are asking people to #ShareYourCare and post videos telling the Care Bears how you make the world a better place by showing how you LOVE, CARE, SHARE and HELP others every day! The #ShareYourCare contest will award some lucky Care Bears fans with pre-paid Care Bears branded Mastercards and themed merchandise.
From May 4TH through May 31ST, participants can enter the challenge by uploading 15-30 second videos to Care Bears Share, and using hashtag #ShareYourCare. Videos should identify how Care Bears fans share their care, based on four themes: Love, Care, Share and Help. Here is an example of New York – Sharing Their Care.
Each week, one video will be chosen and the winner awarded a $500 pre-paid Care Bears branded Mastercard and prize pack. Videos will be judged on the following criteria:
· Originality
· Best use of Care Bears brand
· Best use of Love, Care, Share or Help theme
· Most charitable
· "Awwhhh factor"
Then, from June 1 through June 7, fans will be able to vote on the four weekly winning videos to determine the video that will be selected as the grand prize winner. This winner will be announced on June 8 via social media and receive a $1000 pre-paid Care Bears branded MasterCard.
In addition to viewing submissions on CareBearsShare.com, fans can find highlights of the #ShareYourCare video challenge on all of the Care Bears social media. All winners and announcements will be communicated via social media. (see below)
Care Bears Social Media Handles:


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The term Lead Scoring in the marketing automation space can be a bit confusing for Dynamics users. This is because CRM systems like Microsoft Dynamics have records for individuals named Leads and Contacts. For the purposes of this post, we'll just talk about scoring and it will refer to any individual. That works a lot better when talking about ClickDimensions because our solution actually scores Leads, Contacts and Anonymous Visitors, the latter being a ClickDimensions custom entity.
With the introduction of our new Score Models, we will no longer be applying further improvements, enhancements, or fixes for the legacy scoring system. We are working to ensure that the new Score Models cover the same functionality while also providing some new features, so we highly recommend that you consider migrating to the new Lead Scoring if you have not already.
- Learn about the distinction between scoring and grading
- Learn about aggregate scoring for an account
Scoring specifically refers to the interest level of the individual (i.e. Lead, Contact or Anonymous Visitor). This is because the score is calculated based on email clicks, web form submissions, visits, page views, link clicks and file downloads. The more someone clicks on your emails and visits your site, the more interested they probably are. To see where you can find this information within Dynamics click here. However, their level of interest doesn't mean they are a good prospect for you. That is where grading comes in.
Lead grading is the right term for the 'fit of the individual. You can define fit in a number of ways. Depending on the complexity of your product/service line, someone who is a fit for one product/service may not be a good fit for another. Fit can be based off of both demographic (e.g. a person's title) and firmographic (e.g. a firm's industry) attributes. Referring to the graphic in this post, for our prospects a good fit is someone whose company uses Dynamics and whose role involves marketing. In addition, if the company is a high-tech company, then it'll tend to be even more suited to our solution because high-tech companies are early adopters of marketing technology. So, when we see someone with these attributes and a high lead score, we drop everything we're doing and sell. If you have a lot of prospect volume, Dynamics' Filter tool can be a great way to pull out which Leads/Contacts fit your criteria. Sort by score (i.e. interest) and you've got a nice, prioritized list.
How we use our scoring
Internally, we've tweaked our default scoring values to a weight that is right for us. Email link clicks are high value so they get 10 points each by default. Likewise, form submissions are worth 25 points. Each visit is worth 5 points. Page views are worth 3 points each but all of our product tour pages are custom set to 5 (except for the main tour page which is 10) and our overview video is worth 15. When someone passes 50 points, they are interested. When they hit 100, it is time to really give them attention.
Summarizing interest at the organization level
If you are a B2B company, which most Dynamics users are, then you might be asking yourself if we should look at the score at the overall organization level. Well, we do. Since our solution also scores Anonymous Visitors and since we correlate all visits (anonymous and identified) at the organization level (i.e. at the IP address level), we can often see a bigger picture of interest being generated from a single organization. For example, there may be 5 different people interacting with us (i.e. with our emails, web site and blog) from one organization but we'll see that activity grouped in a single place (i.e on our IP Organization records). So, we can sell with confidence knowing the overall organization is clearly interested. This is informative and encouraging. We are no longer flying blind wondering who is interested, what they are interested in and how interested they may be.


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Taylor Greeson
Review by Katherine Follett
Posted on 05 May 2008
Source 35mm print
Categories The 2008 Independent Film Festival of Boston
The summer when Taylor Greeson was twelve years old, three things happened to him. First, he was ordained as a priest in the Mormon faith. Second, he lost his virginity to a much older man. Third, his brother was stabbed to death by an acquaintance. Years later, Greeson returned to his hometown to film a documentary about the events of that summer, often chronicling his own research and filming process along the way. As he mentions while filming, he could have made three separate films about the events, but he feels the three are inexorably linked because they all occurred at a single point in his life. In some ways, Greeson is right; this could have made three separate films, and I would argue that one of the incidents makes up the bulk of both the running time and the power of Meadowlark. But even if the three events could have been weighted differently, the result is still a moving personal story that manages to transcend simple self-examination and become about larger issues that touch everyone's lives.
One thread, the loss of Greeson's virginity to a 21-year old man, remains relatively separate from the other events. Greeson adamantly sees the sexual activity as a consensual relationship, rather than a molestation, and as such, the event serves as an awakening of his sexual identity as a gay man rather than as a trauma. And while the director's sexuality does come to have some connection with the other events of the film, I found this to be the least integrated part of the documentary. The phone conversation with the (now regretful) man who had sex with him was enlightening as far as the relationship went, but basically unnecessary. The second thread, Greeson's Mormonism, feels more interconnected to the rest of the film, but it acts as a background event. (Viewers unfamiliar with Mormonism should note that being "ordained into the priesthood†does not make one part of the clergy; all young men are ordained at about twelve years old, so becoming a "priest†functions something like confirmation or bar mitzvah.) Greeson's Mormonism is strongly linked with his memories of his grandfather, who was both a pillar of the church and an almost central-casting-perfect cowboy, a human embodiment of both traditional morals and the immense Montana landscape that dominates almost all the action of the film. Greeson, unlike the rest of his family, felt particularly close to his grandparents and the traditional roles they represented. His relationship with his grandparents, their religion, and with the land around him comes to have powerful resonance when the documentary delves into the third and most wrenching event, the murder of Greeson's brother Charlie.
I would argue that Charlie's murder is the true focus of the film. As such, the documentary could have been stronger had Greeson re-edited his footage with this in mind, paring down the other events and focusing his ideas more on Charlie and how his murder affected Greeson's life. But even without re-focusing the narrative, Greeson's examination of Charlie's life is still deeply moving. The narrative slowly closes in on the events of Charlie's death, which occurred while the rest of the family was on vacation. No one is quite sure how or why it happened; a mysterious argument escalated into violence, with the murderer still claiming that the initial attack was an accident or self-defense. One theory points to physical evidence that Charlie and his killer may have had a homosexual relationship that contributed to the fight. Greeson takes an unflinching look at the police evidence, including the weapon, a bloodstained coat, even photos of the wounds. Finally, he travels to the prison to speak with the man who killed his brother.
Throughout the film, the tone is often one of grief, disconnection, and loss. Greeson films his mother as she struggles to support both his sister and the sister's son. He records his sister blaming their mother for taking them on a trip during what turned out to be Charlie's last days. He managed to shoot a few last blurry frames of his grandfather in his hospital bed shortly before he died. And quite often, the shots of the overwhelming emptiness of the Montana landscape dwarf any human figures, isolating them, swallowing them in sky and distance. The formidable beauty of the surroundings seems both awe-inspiring and chilling, especially the shots of the murder scene, a lonely hilltop just outside town, with little but wind and grass as witnesses to the last moments of Charlie's life. The prison where Charlie's murderer is housed also feels lifeless and isolating, but claustrophobic instead of agoraphobic. Here, Greeson sits down and talks with Charlie's killer, in a conversation that necessarily remained unfilmed—the audio is pared with shots of the low, institutional prison hunkering in the massive landscape.
In these last scenes, sexuality, religion, and death finally converge around one issue—forgiveness. At the very end of the film, Greeson states that unlike his grandfather, whose church compels him to forgive and reassures him that justice will be done in the afterlife, he is not ready to forgive Charlie's killer. But he does offer him some comfort, advising him to remember Charlie's life rather than his death, to remember their relationship, whatever it was, rather than how it ended. Greeson manages to find humanity in a murderer, and to unflinchingly expose both his inability to forgive and his inability to prevent himself from seeking human connection with another person whose life was changed by the same tragedy. At the very end, isolation becomes a connection between two very unlikely people. It is a powerful, moving moment that stays with the viewer long after the film is over.
2007American Teen
2008Mister Lonely
2008Second Skin
2008The Linguists
2008Big Man Japan
2007At the Death House Door
2008The Beaver Trilogy
2000The Beaver Trilogy
2000Nerdcore Rising
2008The Tracey Fragments
2008Medicine for Melancholy
2008Severed Ways
2007Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie
2008Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie
2007Encounters at the End of the World
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Heighten Science trail a critical evaluation prior to selection of Editorial Board members. In order to streamline our scholarly publication and to assess the quality quotient of articles being published, we have defined certain eligibility criteria for editorial board members. We expect all the members to encourage and maintain ethical publications standards in accordance to International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) instructions. Our editorial board comprises following eminent members:
In order to ensure that the editorial board significantly contributes in fostering the quality of a manuscript prior to publication and the general content of the journal, certain roles and responsibilities for our editors has been formulated.
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Editor-in-Chief plays a vital role in assuring the quality and integrity of the manuscript content. He/she is expected to possess extensive editorial and interpersonal skills.
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This was published 10 years ago
The tree whisperer
An Australian aid worker's eureka moment has turned the tide for drought-ravaged lands in Africa. Now he is looking to do the same closer to home in East Timor.
By Mark Baker
In 1983, a young Australian driving along a sandy track in the wilds of Niger in west Africa stumbled on a revelation that would transform his life and the fortunes of millions of Africans. Tony Rinaudo had spent three exhausting and dispiriting years trying to bring God and sustainable agriculture to poor, famine-plagued village communities on the southern fringes of the Sahara Desert. His efforts to help replant forests in one of the harshest climates on earth had been met with suspicion, hostility and failure. Then came what many of Rinaudo's faith would count a miracle, or at least a road to Damascus moment, in the desert. Stopping briefly before heading into a particularly rough section of track, Rinaudo paused and, while pondering his misfortune, gazed at some small shrubs growing nearby.
"I had a trailerload of trees in the ute and I stopped to let pressure out of the tyres to go through the sandy track better," he recalls. "It dawned on me how useless it all was. In every direction there were no trees. And here I was with this piddly little trailerload of trees and I knew the farmers weren't going to look after them and most of them would die. But these shrubs caught my eye and I saw very quickly that this was the same leaf structure as some of the existing trees. I suddenly realised this wasn't a shrub but a tree trying to regrow."
Bauhinia reticulata is a tough hardwood mostly used for firewood. Fast-growing, it produces abundant foliage for fuel and fodder, enhances soil fertility and crop yields, and allows farmers to plant crops right up to the trees' trunks. What Rinaudo realised that day was that Bauhinia reticulata and many other native tree species had not, as people thought, vanished over the decades after being relentlessly felled for firewood or to make way for agriculture, torched by marauding herdsman and ostensibly killed off by the extremes of climate. Instead, many of the trees were simply dormant beneath the ground, their vast root systems still alive - in some cases a century or more after the trees had gone.
What was needed to bring back the forest vegetation of Niger was not replanting but regeneration - protecting the first regrowth from the old root systems, from grazing livestock and from human plunder, then carefully pruning to encourage growth and guarding the reborn trees from premature harvesting. The methods Tony Rinaudo pioneered to achieve that end become known as Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR).
Three decades on, FMNR is transforming the landscape not only of Niger but also vast areas of Africa and Asia. More than five million hectares, or half Niger's farmland, has been regenerated through FMNR, and substantial tree regeneration has also been achieved in Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Mali. Rinaudo, who joined World Vision Australia after returning from Niger in 1999, is now driving FMNR programs in 11 African and five Asian countries, including East Timor, and is about to start work in Haiti. Chris Reij, a senior fellow with the non-profit World Resources Institute, has described it as "probably the largest positive environmental transformation" in all of Africa.
Tony Rinaudo grew up in Myrtleford, northern Victoria - once the tobacco-growing capital of Australia - one of six children in a devout Catholic family. The environmentally-destructive farming practices of the 1950s and '60s had a powerful impact on the boy. "At that time they were using planes to spray the crop," he remembers. "It would kill fish in the stream. They would clear-fell the native bush, which I loved, and replace it with a monoculture of pines. I would see little kids in India or Africa going hungry and it didn't add up that we were putting so much effort into these things that seemed to be destructive, and children over there just needed food. Something clicked in my heart."
After studying agricultural science at the University of New England in Armidale in northern NSW, where he met his wife, Liz, Rinaudo joined Serving in Mission, a missionary society with a substantial presence in Africa. He wanted to go to English-speaking Nigeria or Ghana, but Serving in Mission had other ideas and sent him to Francophone Niger, one of the poorest and most environmentally-challenged nations in west Africa.
The southern third of Niger was once covered with dense dryland forest teeming with elephants, giraffe and buffalo. "For generations the trees had served all of the people's needs; it was their pharmacy, their supermarket, their hardware store," says Rinaudo. That began to change radically around the 1970s, when severe drought hit the Sahel, the semi-arid region that spans sub-Saharan Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Niger, once home to more than 50 species of trees, saw massive deforestation and the disappearance of most forest diversity. Successive droughts killed many trees and resulted in many more being cut down by people desperate for income from firewood.
In 1960 Niger's population had been about four million. By 1980 it had doubled and has now redoubled to about 16 million. "As the population grew, so did the cities," says Rinaudo. "There was a significant market for wood for fuel and timber. In the past, famine might strike in west Africa every 50 or 70 years. In the 1970s they started to occur more frequently and more recently; big famines have been happening about every five years."
That reality confronted Tony and Liz Rinaudo when they arrived in Niger in 1980 with their six-month-old son, Ben. They would stay for nearly two decades, raising another son and two daughters. The mission station they were assigned was a farm school in a village near Maradi, Niger's second largest city. Rinaudo was tasked with running a project planting windbreaks and woodlots. "It had been born out of the 1975 famine. There was a little money left over and the missionaries asked to use that for tree planting. Most community members weren't interested at all. Everything was so hard: the climate, the people, the work, and I thought, 'Why on earth am I here?' "
By 1983, Rinaudo began experimenting with FMNR. Well aware that Australian gum trees coppiced when cut (a process whereby the stumps regenerate with new shoots and stems), Rinaudo says he had been blind to that possibility in Africa. "Other organisations - USAID, World Bank-funded projects, the Niger government - were planting trees, so there was a certain mindset: have desert, will plant. Even in the face of failure, you just worked harder. And it still didn't work."
Even after Rinaudo realised the potential to regenerate the forests, he struggled to persuade the village farmers. "People's hearts weren't in it. They were more concerned to earn money or grow food and not many people saw the link between deforestation and declining soil fertility and crop yields."
It is not just about tree-hugging. It is actually crucial for survival.
the turning point came in 1984, when another devastating drought swept the Sahel. In Niger there was almost no rain and total crop failure, which triggered one of the worst famines recorded. Official estimates were that 100,000 people died across the Sahel but Rinaudo believes the toll was higher. "Suddenly people started to think that maybe there was something wrong with cutting all the trees down," he says.
Rinaudo turned his limited famine relief funds into a food-for-work program that pressed villagers into compulsory tree-management projects. Over 12 months his mission raised about $500,000, purchased 1800 tonnes of grain and helped 50,000 people - provided they agreed to manage the regenerating trees.
"But at the end of the famine," he says, "when their crops came in and we discontinued the food aid, of the 500,000 trees that were pruned and on our books, two-thirds were immediately cut down for fuel or cash. Many people were ticked off that I had required them to protect the trees on their own land when they were not convinced of the benefits, but one-third of the farmers said, 'No, Tony's not completely mad. We still got a crop and, in fact, the crop did very well and we had some extra firewood that we wouldn't have had before and there's fodder, so we are going to try this.'
"Before the famine, the project had been working in just 10 villages. It intensified and expanded during the famine to 100 villages, then would have scaled back a bit after that, but the message was the same: food or no food, this is a good thing to do, the right thing to do economically, biologically and environmentally. People who had lost hope and were leaving for the cities were content to stay. They started to dream."
And the word spread. "We trained some of the Care International people and other non-government organisations and we sent farmers to other parts of the country to show them what we were doing." In search of hardier species to withstand the droughts, Rinaudo also promoted some species of Australian acacias, a traditional food source for Aborigines. "The nutritional profile is quite astounding. The seed contains about 20 per cent protein, 40 per cent carbohydrate and 6 per cent fats. Many of these species thrived under the conditions in west Africa."
World Vision Australia is exploring the food and fodder potential of about 40 species of acacia. But Rinaudo - and many Africans - are already convinced. "There are villagers in Niger who love that food. They have dances and songs about it. The guys tell me, 'If you eat this stuff you can see further and you are stronger, you can work harder, and you are better in bed as well.' "
It wasn't until he was back in Australia in 2004, five years after he returned from Niger, that Rinaudo discovered how profound the impact of FMNR had been. Now with World Vision Australia, he returned to Niger to explore a new resource management project. There he met Chris Reij, a human geographer then working at Vrije University in the Netherlands who had just completed a national forestry survey.
"He said, 'There is something amazing happening here.' He did a back-of-the-envelope calculation and said there had been more than a million hectares of regeneration. He banged his pen down and said, 'It's time to stop researching. This story needs to get out.' "
Reij helped to persuade the Dutch government to commit €40 million to FMNR projects in Africa. "Now the Dutch are talking about this being a pilot," says Rinaudo. "Can you imagine how big the mother will be?" He says there's at least a doubling in crop yields in areas where FMNR is being practised, with regenerating trees providing shade for crops, retaining moisture in the land and fodder for livestock that enrich the soil with their waste. "We have had this depressing story about the Sahara encroaching south into the Sahel and now, against the odds, satellite images are showing the opposite, not just in Niger, but in Mali, Burkina Faso and now in Senegal."
The forests of East Timor saved Manuel da Silva's life. Now he is their champion and guardian. "In the past it was just slash and burn," he says. "Now if I see people doing this I will call the police and I will fight them myself, if necessary, to make them stop. We have seen what happened in Africa and we don't want to see the same thing here."
Da Silva once was a soldier, a member of the Falantil guerrilla movement led by Xanana Gusmão that resisted Indonesia's 25-year occupation of East Timor. "For four years I lived in the forests. We didn't burn them. The forests protected us. They saved us."
After East Timor won its independence in 1999, Da Silva returned to the farming district of his birth near the town of Aileu in the hill country behind Dili. Now, with his wife and 12 children, he is building a garden oasis, an instinctive pioneer of the principles of FMNR. Thousands of trees once clear-felled are now regenerating around groves of coffee, pineapple and cinnamon. A nursery provides seedlings to other farmers keen to restore their environment.
"Before, there was nothing here, just red soil and the stumps of old trees," Da Silva says. "There were landslips and severe erosion. Now the trees are coming back and many other types of plants are regenerating and the soil is more fertile. At first people thought I was crazy. Now everyone wants to do what I am doing."
East Timor is a new frontier in FMNR. One of the poorest countries in south-east Asia, it also has one of the most degraded natural environments, having lost most of its native forest cover. The Portuguese colonists stripped most of the valuable timbers, the sandalwood, mahogany and teak, unravelling the traditional code of tara bandu, which carefully guarded and managed the forest resource. During World War II, both the Japanese and Allied forces used fire to try to flush out the enemy. After the Indonesians invaded in 1974, what remained of the native timber was plundered.
"There are whole valleys and hills with just stumps left," says Rinaudo. "This would once have been a country of dense tropical rainforest." Rinaudo sees regenerating the forests of East Timor as crucial to the task of improving the lives of the predominantly rural population. "They won the battle for independence but they have still to win the battle over poverty."
There is a strong commitment by the Timorese government to conserve and protect forests. The rules of tara bandu were reimposed about three years ago, halting seasonal burning in rural areas.
"Already we are seeing a reduction in the amount of flooding and landslides, which is a great saving to the economy," says Rinaudo. "As the trees recover, there will be more biodiversity, so more options for people to earn income and to harvest different kinds of food.
"At the moment, they rely on rice and maize. If the forest comes back, we can have honey, a very valuable commodity. We can sell wood. There might be high-value fruits and spices that people can plant in among the regenerating trees."
Tony Rinaudo's experience has also convinced him that FMNR offers a powerful weapon in fighting the impacts of climate change. "It is not just about tree-hugging. It is actually crucial for survival."
Over the past 25 years, west Africa has seen a 20 per cent drop in rainfall, he says. And there are predictions that inland temperatures will rise by between five and 10 degrees in the coming years. But he is convinced FMNR is helping change that grim outlook.
"You are affecting rainfall patterns, and what rain does fall is more effective with FMNR because wind speeds are lower, evaporation is less, more soaks into the ground and is held there in organic matter."
With carbon dioxide emissions from agriculture making up about 25 per cent of total emissions globally, Rinaudo sees great potential for FMNR. "Imagine if agriculture changed from being a net emitter of carbon dioxide to a net sequester, locking in more than it is emitting? When farmers plough the soil, organic matter is oxidising, emitting more carbon dioxide, so the combination of this type of agri-forestry and conservation agriculture where you leave the crop residues on the surface can reduce emissions.
"The trees will actually absorb carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The potential, if this becomes a global movement, is enormous."
Mark Baker and Angela Wylie visited East Timor as guests of World Vision Australia.


text: RSS Open House. Open House on Sunday, July 8, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Posted on July 4, 2012 by Andrew Hasman Posted in Kitsilano, Vancouver West Real Estate Please visit our Open House at 310 2228 MARSTRAND AVE in Vancouver. See details here Open House on Sunday, July 8, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Best Priced 2 bdrm in Arbutus Walk. Lovely spacious 2 bdrm plus den facing south towards the Greenway. Lovely quiet treed outlook. The suite boasts brand new HW floors in the Living & Dining Room. Brand new washer, dryer and paint. It ismove in ready! Both bdrms have ensuites. Large insuite storage too plus 2 parking and bike storage. This suite is a winner! Rentals OK, Pets have restrictions. Open House Sat June 23rd from 2-4pm.


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Monday, April 27, 2009
Is Bourbon Officially America's Native Spirit?
I'm warning you right now, this is about as esoteric as it gets.
Part of what got me interested in writing about American whiskey 20 years ago was how much misinformation I found whenever I researched the subject. It was obvious that many writers simply repeated what they read without probing to determine how credible it was. I started to probe and kept finding out that many of the accepted facts are wrong.
It hasn't been easy to correct the record. Even where I think certain facts are good they can be hard to verify. Also, some myths are more satisfying than the truth, and some tales benefit commercial interests, so they persist. In many cases, the oft-repeated facts aren't so much wrong as they are not quite right. The differences can seem minor until you think about them.
It is still happening.
In 2007, the U.S. Senate declared September to be "Bourbon Heritage Month." They did it again in 2008 and will, presumably, three-peat in 2009.
Congress did not make this declaration unbidden. Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky introduced it at the behest of Beam Global, makers of Jim Beam Bourbon, working through the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., the industry trade group of which Beam Global is a prominent member.
Although the rest of the American Whiskey industry has yet to fully embrace Bourbon Heritage Month, most agree it is an okay idea. An official month gets a subject onto a lot of editorial calendars. It also motivates producers and retailers to promote their bourbons a little harder during that month. It might even inspire some non-bourbon drinkers to try a taste of bourbon out of respect, much as Cinco de Mayo sells a lot of tequila. It has the potential to extend the fall quarter, traditionally the key selling season for all distilled spirits, forward a month for bourbon.
In the typical form of such things, the resolution doesn't just say, "the Senate designates September 2007 as National Bourbon Heritage Month." It takes about 300 words to get there.
Most of those words are devoted to statements supporting the resolution, each preceded by the word "whereas." The resolution has nine "whereas" statements.
I have an issue with the first.
"Whereas Congress declared bourbon as 'America's Native Spirit' in 1964, making it the only spirit distinctive to the United States."
While the sense of that statement is correct, it is not literally true, in that the three words contained within quotation marks do not appear in the 1964 resolutions introduced by Senator Thurston Morton and Representative John C. Watts, both of Kentucky. Many readers of the 2007 resolution will assume, because of the quotation marks, that those three words appear in the 1964 resolution. They do not.
Here, as quoted in the Regans' The Book of Bourbon, is that 1964 resolution:
"Bourbon whiskey is a distinctive product of the United States and is unlike other types of alcoholic beverages, whether foreign or domestic; and whereas to be entitled to the designation 'Bourbon whiskey' the product must conform to the highest standards … and whereas Bourbon whiskey has achieved recognition and acceptance throughout the world as a distinctive product of the United States … it is the sense of Congress that the recognition of Bourbon whiskey as a distinctive product of the United States be brought to the attention of the appropriate agencies."
Although one could readily argue that the claim 'America's Native Spirit' is supported by that language, the 2007 text quotes that phrase, and capitalizes it for good measure, as if it was bestowed as an official title. It was not.
Why didn't the drafters of the 2007 resolution use an actual quote from the 1964 resolution? That short text repeats the phrase "distinctive product of the United States" three times, which is sort of like saying, "America's Native Spirit," but not quite.
The 2007 drafters might refute this by saying that 'America's Native Spirit' is capitalized and quoted not to indicate that it is a quotation, but to tag it as a common expression or catch-phrase, one which accurately encapsulates the meaning of the 1964 text.
Fair enough.
The claim "Bourbon is America's Native Spirit" itself can be parsed a couple of different ways. The best way to interpret it is that bourbon whiskey is the only major type of distilled spirit that originated here, if just for purposes of that statement you consider Tennessee Whiskey to be bourbon too, since it is just as native. Gin, vodka, malt whiskey and even rye whiskey all originated in Europe. Tequila is Mexican. Of all the major drink types, only corn-based bourbon whiskey (and Tennessee whiskey) originated in what is now the United States.
Google "America's Native Spirit" and up pops a web site all about bourbon. The web site is run by Beam Global.
I warned you. This is esoteric and nit-picky in the extreme. And complicated too. I want to make it clear that I am not accusing anyone of lying or obfuscating or even exaggerating.
So, did Congress or did it not declare bourbon whiskey to be "America's Native Spirit"? Literally, no, it did not. The 1964 resolution passed by Congress does not contain those words. Whether or not the words it does contain express that same meaning is a different question.
At this point you are entitled to ask, "so what?" What is the difference between "America's Native Spirit" and "a distinctive product of the United States"?
The difference is that while one phrase sounds good in press releases, the other one actually means something.
"America's Native Spirit" is a vaguely patriotic, feel-good claim that Beam has captured as a web address, and while it only uses that web site to promote the bourbon category, Beam's brands get in there too in subtle ways. Beam believes in doing well while it is doing good.
In contrast, the legal effect of the 1964 "distinctive product of the United States" declaration has been major, benefiting every bourbon producer equally. Because of it, the United States will not allow any product labeled as "bourbon" to be sold within its borders unless that product was made in the United States, and through treaties it has gotten many other important jurisdictions to enforce that rule on their soil too. Most of those treaties explicitly give Tennessee Whiskey the same protection. This is the significance of that 1964 resolution.
Similarly, you will often see it stated that the 1964 resolution created something called the Federal Standards of Identity for Bourbon Whiskey. This is also not quite true. The U.S. Government has rules defining bourbon, but they are contained within the Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits (SIDS), which is part of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 27, Part 5; "27 CFR 5" for short.
Again, it is a smallish point, but all of that stuff about "not exceeding 160[deg] proof" and "not less than 51 percent corn"? That stuff is not mentioned in the 1964 resolution. That's all from SIDS, which has nothing to do with the 1964 resolution. The SIDS were first codified in 1935, not long after distilled spirits were made legal again following Prohibition, but they have their roots in the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897.
Several of the rules that are repeatedly cited to the mythical Federal Bourbon Standards are themselves mythical, such as the ones that say bourbon must be all-natural, that it cannot be colored or filtered, and that it must be distilled and aged in Kentucky.
In reality, "all-natural" is a reasonable conclusion one can draw from reading the SIDS, but it is not a standard itself. Coloring is prohibited by the real rules but filtering is not. Kentucky is nowhere mentioned, although there is a general requirement that any statement made about origin must be truthful.
The SIDS are essentially labeling rules. They don't tell a producer what to make, they tell them what they have to do if they want to label their products with certain words, such as "straight bourbon whiskey." It is in the SIDS where the following statement appears: "the word 'bourbon' shall not be used to describe any whisky or whisky-based distilled spirits not produced in the United States."
That rule, and only that rule, is a consequence of the 1964 resolution.
Once, when I was in law school, I complained to a friend about how boring it was to read insurance policies. "If lawyers don't read them," she replied, "who will?" Point taken. Maybe none of this matters, but at least now I feel better for getting it all out in the open.
3 comments:
- Davin de Kergommeaux said...
"As America's only indigenous spirit, bourbon was recognized in 1964 by an act of Congress when it declared bourbon 'America's Native Spirit'."
Frankly Chuck, I see this as racist disrespect of America's real Native spirit - its indigenous people. I'm glad to learn Congress didn't actually make that declaration and I hope the press aren't going to repeat this tidy little appropriated sound bite. - April 27, 2009 at 6:53 PM
- Whiskey Revolutionary said...
I'm writing a paper on Bourbon post-prohibition and this myth is critical.
How were you able to find the exact wording of the resolution, I havn't had much luck with that.
More importantly, how did you find the SIDS from 1935? It looks like it has been updated since then. Either that or I misunderstand the date at the bottom of this: http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/27/5.22
I really don't have any legal background. Could you help? - November 19, 2013 at 2:54 PM
- rtr said...
Marking the anniversary (including a link and other resources).
http://the60sat50.blogspot.com/2014/05/monday-may-4-1964-bourbon-whiskey.html - May 1, 2014 at 7:36 AM


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Vatican City, Oct 15, 2013 / 06:25 am
Updated on Oct. 15, 2013 at 5:44 p.m. Rome time: a Vatican source told CNA that Archbishop Parolin was absent from the ceremony due to appendicitis.
In a farewell ceremony held at the Vatican, former state secretary Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone stepped down from the position – which will soon be filled by his successor, Italian Archbishop Pietro Parolin.
During the short Oct. 15 event, which was held in the library of the Secretariat of State, Pope Francis lauded Cardinal Bertone for his personal contribution to the organization and running of the Holy See.
"Thinking about his long service to the Church, the teaching as well as the ministry of diocesan bishops and also his work as Secretary of State," he said, "I can see that the driving force is that of a priestly Salesian vocation that has affected him since childhood."
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The now 78-year-old Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a canon lawyer and theologian, was appointed to the position by Benedict XVI in 2006, and continued to serve Pope Francis since his March 13 election until today.
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Although the archbishop was expected to take office today, he was not present at the ceremony.
Pope Francis stated that "Monsignor Parolin will take up his new post within the next few weeks," the reason being that he is recovering from "a small surgery that he has had to undergo."
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You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter and Facebook. If you'd like to contact him, Twitter is the most effective means of doing so.