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Top 10 Keith Whitley Songs
Keith Whitley crammed a lot into his short life. In the less than four years between the release of his freshman record, L.A. to Miami, and his untimely death in 1989 from alcohol poisoning, Whitley managed to release two albums, an EP and 12 singles. Two more studio albums and several additional singles followed after he passed away.
Whitley's rich musical legacy makes us wonder what kind of impact he would have made on country music had he lived longer; still, what he did create during his abbreviated time in the genre is extraordinary.
Below, The Boot counts down our picks for 10 of Whitley's most memorable hits:
- 10
"Homecoming '63"
From: 'L.A. to Miami' (1985)Written by Dean Dillon and Royce Porter, this Top 10 song features slightly risque lyrics that tell the story of a high school couple who went to a dance first, followed by some "backseat lovin'" later. The success of the song was undoubtedly due, at least in part, to its sexy music video, which featured the just-married Whitley and Lorrie Morgan.
- 9
"Hard Livin'"
From: 'L.A. to Miami' (1985)Written by David Halley, this song could have been written by Whitley. In part, its lyrics say, "Well, give me some more high-octane juice / You know there ain't no cure for these honky-tonk blues / And if they come up with somethin', I'll develop an immunity / But I wish hard livin' didn't come easy for me" -- a brief glimpse into Whitley's struggle with alcohol.
- 8
"Some Old Side Road"
From: 'Don't Close Your Eyes' (1988)Roger D. Ferris wrote "Some Old Side Road," which was the second single from Whitley's sophomore record. The song describes the lengths to which its narrator will go to get to his girlfriend, including "a high road, low road, some old side road" and "jet plane, fast train, bus in a hard rain, any ol' way you please," and became Whitley's first Top 20 hit from Don't Close Your Eyes.
- 7
"Ten Feet Away"
From: 'L.A. to Miami' (1985)"Ten Feet Away," written by Billy Sherrill, Troy Seals and Max D. Barnes, tells the story of a romance that developed at two separate tables in a restaurant, "10 feet away." Whitley sings, "It was love 10 feet away. / Imagine her in my arms, with that look on her face / Lying somewhere in some shadowy place / It was love just 10 feet away," and the song became his first Top 10 hit.
- 6
"I Wonder Do You Think of Me"
From: 'I Wonder Do You Think of Me' (1989)Sanger D. Shafer wrote "I Wonder Do You Think of Me," which was Whitley's first posthumous single, and his fourth consecutive No. 1 hit. The singer recorded the song shortly before his death, and its lyrics foreshadow how his friends and family likely felt after his death: "If you drive around / Back in our old hometown / I wonder, do you think of me? / When you drive by a school / Do you remember two fools? / I wonder, do you think of me?"
- 5
"Brotherly Love"
From: 'Kentucky Bluebird' (1991)Jimmy Stewart and Tim Nichols wrote "Brotherly Love," which appears on Whitley's first posthumous album. The song, recorded as a duet with Earl Thomas Conley, became Whitley's final Top 10 hit. Other artists who have recorded "Brotherly Love" include Moe Bandy and Billy Dean.
- 4
"I'm No Stranger to the Rain"
From: 'Don't Close Your Eyes' (1988)"I'm No Stranger to the Rain," written by Sonny Curtis and Ron Hellard, was the final song that Whitley released before he passed away. It stayed at No. 1 for two weeks, claiming the top spot less than a month before his death.
"I was completely blown away," Hellard recalls to the Tennessean of the first time he heard Whitley's version of the song. "I didn't know the song could be sold like he sold it. I was elated. It was one of the best cuts I ever had in my life."
- 3
"Don't Close Your Eyes"
From: 'Don't Close Your Eyes' (1988)"Don't Close Your Eyes," written by Bob McDill, not only became a No. 1 hit for Whitley, but was also the No. 1 country song of the year on Billboard charts. The narrator of the tune laments that the person he is with wishes he was someone else: "Don't close your eyes, let it be me / Don't pretend it's him in some fantasy / Darling just once, let yesterday go / And you'll find more love than you'll ever know / Just hold me tight when you love me tonight / And don't close your eyes."
- 2
"'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose"
From: 'Greatest Hits' (1990)"'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose" was recorded as a duet between Whitley and Morgan. Released a little over a year after Whitley's death, the song says in part, "Darling, I can see the clouds around you / And in your heart, I know a sorrow grows / But if you weep, I'll be right there to hold you / 'Til each tear you cry becomes a rose" -- lyrics made even more poignant by Whitley's passing.
The only single from Whitley's Greatest Hits album, "'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose" was written by Leon Everette. The song was nominated for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals at the Grammy Awards, and earned Whitley and Morgan a CMA for Vocal Event of the Year.
- 1
"When You Say Nothing at All"
From: 'Don't Close Your Eyes' (1988)Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz wrote "When You Say Nothing at All," which stayed at No. 1 for two weeks. Although the song's writers weren't initially convinced that "When You Say Nothing at All" was a hit, Whitley -- who had previously passed on "Nobody in His Right Mind Would've Left Her," which became a hit for George Strait, and "On the Other Hand," a No. 1 single for Randy Travis written by Overstreet and Schlitz -- was determined to not let anyone else record "When You Say Nothing at All."
"After I let those two get away, we had a runnin' joke that Don and Paul wanted me to record another one of their songs, and get the first crack at a single on it," Whitley said. "So when I heard "When You Say Nothing at All," I wasn't about to let that one slip through my fingers."


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Goalkeeper Tim Howard Taking Break From National Team
Star goalkeeper Tim Howard is taking a one-year break from the U.S. national team because of a "commitment" to his family.
The three-time World Cup veteran asked U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann to not consider him for the roster until September 2015. The 35-year-old Howard will continue to play for Everton in the English Premier League.
"Having played overseas for the last 12 years and missing out on spending time with my family, making this commitment to my family is very important at this time," Howard said in a statement Thursday. "It's the right decision at the right time. Jurgen has always been up front with all the players in saying you have to earn your place, which is something I agree with. So I look forward to coming back next fall and competing for a spot."
Howard starred in this year's World Cup in Brazil, particularly in a second-round 2-1 loss to Belgium in which he made 15 saves.
He is United States' career leader for goalkeepers in appearances (104) and wins (55). He has played every minute for the U.S. in the last two World Cups. The main event he will miss is the Gold Cup next summer.
"I totally understand Tim's situation," said Klinsmann, who spoke extensively with Howard about the decision. "He was very straightforward and honest in his approach, and I admire him for that.
"I told him as long as he is the same Tim Howard that we always see performing well, he will be welcome back with open arms and right back competing for a spot. He knows that he has to prove that he deserves to be back."
Howard's backup on the national team is Brad Guzan, who also plays in the EPL for Aston Villa. Real Salt Lake's Nick Rimando was the third `keeper at the World Cup.
Klinsmann sees plenty of opportunity for the other goalies to prove themselves.
"Always when somebody steps aside for a moment," Klinsmann said, "it gives an opportunity for the next ones in line."

subset: commoncrawl


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Whether it is Jimmy Carter watching more than four hundred movies in the White House cinema or Barack Obama telling people that the flamboyant killer Omar on HBO's "The Wire" is his favorite character, presidents have long engaged with pop culture. The content of that pop culture, however, has changed dramatically over the years. Here, in the third of a series of short installments from What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in the White House, we look at some of the presidents favorite ways to pass the time. Read the first installment here and the second here.
Most Americans know that President Franklin Roosevelt skillfully used "Fireside Chats" to communicate with the American people. What is less well known is the extent to which skillful use of radio enabled him to become president. In 1932, as the American economy sank deeper into the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover tried and failed to use radio to instill confidence. His relations with the press were terrible, giving Roosevelt a golden opportunity to start over with the American people.
Roosevelt was well equipped to take advantage of the opportunities that radio offered. He was a great radio speaker. He has been said, in fact, to have had the best radio voice in American politics of his era, better even than that of his 1944 opponent, Thomas Dewey, who was a trained opera singer.
Unlike his predecessors as president, Roosevelt was already practiced in the new medium before becoming president. In his home state of New York, most of the major newspapers were Republican-leaning, and FDR realized that he could use radio to go directly to the people. As governor, he had begun an early version of the fireside chat as early as 1929.
Radio helped make Roosevelt into a national figure. His nationally broadcast speeches at the Democratic conventions had introduced him to the American public in the same way that Barack Obama's televised speech to the 2004 Democratic convention launched him toward the White House. At the 1924 convention, he put New York Governor Al Smith's name in nomination with a speech that bestowed on Smith a famous sobriquet from Wordsworth, the "Happy Warrior." The line was inserted by the New York lawyer Joseph Proskauer, Smith's campaign manager, over Roosevelt's strenuous objections. "You can't give poetry to a political convention," he complained. Roosevelt and Proskauer fought over the draft for hours before Roosevelt eventually gave in. Later, after the speech was a success, Roosevelt claimed it was his draft, and that he "stuck in" a recommended line of poetry from Proskauer.
The "Happy Warrior" line lived on in part because of radio's growing reach. In 1928, when Roosevelt delivered another well-received speech at the Democratic convention nominating Smith, radio was even more important. In 1924, only 4.7 percent of households owned radios; in 1928, 27.5 percent of households did. In 1932, the figure was 60 percent of households, not to mention a quarter of a million cars with radios. Roosevelt tailored that 1928 nominating speech for the radio audience rather than just those listening in the convention hall. There were more staccato pauses that one would typically use when preaching to the true believers. He told his listeners that Smith had "that quality of soul which makes a man loved … a strong help to all those in sorrow or in trouble … the quality of sympathetic understanding of the human heart." The speech was a hit; Time called it "the most intelligently well-bred speech of either of the big conventions." Roosevelt was also doing something different from other politicians at the time. As Time put it, "Compared to the common run of nominating effusions, Mr. Roosevelt's speech was as homo sapiens to the gibbering banderlog."
As radio grew, Roosevelt recognized that it would allow him to reach vastly more people than ever before. In 1932, he telephoned his 72-year-old mother to let her know that he had secured the Democratic presidential nomination. But "I had already heard it over the radio in my own home," Mrs. Roosevelt later recalled.
In the spring and summer of 1932, thousands of impoverished World War I veterans and their supporters converged on Washington. Led by the unemployed ex-sergeant Walter W. Walters and calling themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force, they demanded the early payment of a promised bonus for their services. The protest, known as the "Bonus March," received intense and sympathetic coverage from the press. Douglas MacArthur, then the Army chief of staff, moved in with troops to clear the protesters from their camp, and violence ensued. Radio was there, and Franklin Roosevelt joined the rest of the nation in listening to the reports. Struck by the immediacy of the dispatches, Roosevelt suddenly realized that Hoover was going to lose the election. He saw that radio had brought politics into a new era and that it required its own methods of communication. It was a lesson he would never forget when he was president.
Excerpted from What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in the White House. Tevi Troy is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.


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Along the path toward the creation of a global capitalist system, some of the most significant steps were taken by the English enclosure movement.
Between the 15th to 19th centuries, the rich and the powerful fenced off commonly held land and transformed it into private property. Land switched from a source of subsistence to a source of profit, and small farmers were relegated to wage laborers. In Das Kapital, Marx described the process by coining the term land-grabbing. To British historian E.P. Thompson, it was "a plain enough case of class robbery."
More recently, a similar enclosure movement has taken place. This time, the fenced-off commodity is life-saving medicine. Playing the role of modern-day lords of the manor are pharmaceutical corporations, which have taken a good that was once considered off-limits for private profiteering and turned it into an expensive commodity. Instead of displacing small landholders, this enclosure movement causes suffering and death: Billions of people across the globe go without essential medicines, and 10 million die each year as a result.
Many people curse the for-profit medicine industry. But few know that the enclosure erected around affordable medicines is both relatively new and artificially imposed. For nearly all of human history, attempting to corner the markets on affordable medicines has been considered both immoral and illegal.
It's time now to reclaim this commons, and reestablish medicines as a public good.
Medicines as a Public Good
Most of us define public goods broadly. We use the term to refer to benefits like law enforcement, street lights, and mass transit, which are collectively provided and deliver shared value to all. Economists narrow down that definition somewhat, saying that public goods are non-rivalrous and non-excludable in their consumption.
Non-rivalrous means that any one person can benefit from a good without reducing others' opportunity to benefit as well. My eating an apple prevents you from consuming it, so that's a rivalrous good. But I can watch the same TV show as you without lessening your opportunity to enjoy it as well — that's non-rivalrous.
Non-excludable means what it sounds like: A person cannot be prevented from consuming the good in question. Clean air is a good that can be enjoyed by all without the possibility of denying access to those who don't register or pay a fee. But access to a private swimming pool is an excludable good. The classic example of a non-rivalrous, non-excludable public good is a lighthouse: One ship benefitting from its warning doesn't subtract from any other ships' chances of enjoying a similar benefit, and there's no practical way of limiting the lighthouse's warnings to a select few.
As the English enclosure movement proved, exclusivity can be artificially created by literally or figuratively walling off common access. Exclusivity can be undone as well: The modern open-source software movement takes a good that some have tried to make exclusive — software code — and freely shares it, leading to a plethora of creative developments.
In terms of medicines, an individual pill is rivalrous, but the details of the formula for creating that pill are not. Knowledge is a classic public good, in that it can be shared widely without penalty to the original owner. As Thomas Jefferson said, "He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening me; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."
The public health implications of access to medicines generate another core quality of public goods: positive externalities.
One person's consumption of an essential medicine provides clear benefits beyond the direct consumer. Vaccines, for example, prevent the recipient both from getting ill and from spreading the disease to others. If a society vaccinates widely enough, the chain of disease transmission is broken, leading to the quintessential public good of mass immunity. Global distribution of the smallpox vaccine, for example, has led to the eradication of a disease that once infected 50 million people a year.
Even less obviously social medicines allow their recipients to better contribute to the social fabric and economic productivity of their communities. These medicines save costs for the broader society, too. When a diabetic takes insulin or a person with a risk for heart disease takes cholesterol-reducing medicine, they not only function better: They also lower their prospects of needing more expensive medical treatment, which is a cost often shared across societies.
Conversely, a lack of access to medicine causes enormous social problems in terms of contagion and economy-depressing illnesses.
So it's little wonder that, for nearly all of human history, societies have treated medicine as a commonly held benefit. Until well past the middle of the 20th century, few countries allowed individuals or companies to hold exclusive rights to produce medicines. And governments have long been involved early and often in the pharmaceutical industry, creating the very opposite of a laissez faire market. Most industrialized governments tightly regulate the production and distribution of medicine, while actively promoting vaccinations and encouraging safe use of other medicines. Governments are both leading funders of medicine research and top purchasers of the end products of that research.
When governments don't take a sufficiently activist role in the field of medicines, public opinion pushes them further. In the 1990s and 2000s, advocates gave voice to passionate outrage over the devastating human cost of patent-priced HIV/AIDS medicines, which limited access to sufferers who could afford expensive treatments. U.S. activists threw the ashes of AIDS victims on the lawn of the White House, while African activists called treatment-resistant government ministers murderers. The protests led to the dismantling of patent price barriers — and then to massive public programs to distribute the medicine at low or no cost.
Among governments and the public alike, medicines continue to be treated as a good quite distinct from consumer items like cell phones or flat-screen TVs. A human right to access essential medicines has found its way into international treaties and national constitutions. A moral claim for universal access to essential medicines has been put forth not only by faith-based organizations and civil society actors, but also by many drug developers themselves. Jonas Salk, for example, declined to pursue a patent for the polio vaccine, saying the patent belonged to the people. The creator of the first synthetic malaria vaccine donated the patent to the World Health Organization.
As Salk said in 1952: "Would you patent the sun?"
The Enclosure of Essential Medicines
The origins of modern intellectual property law can be traced back to the occasional awards of exclusive rights to artists in ancient Persia and Greece.
"Letters patent," meaning open letters, were issued in 14th century England to induce foreign craftsmen to relocate there. Attempts to coordinate global intellectual property rules led to the 1883 Paris Convention and the 1886 Berne Convention, and eventually to the creation of the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization in 1967. But nations who signed on to those agreements retained the ability to determine the length of patents and what products would be covered. For many nations, that flexibility meant excluding medicines from patent protection. For example, Germany's patent law of 1877 labeled medicines as "essential goods," along with food and chemicals, and prohibited any attempts to patent them.
In the middle of the 20th century, several post-colonial nations adopted similar laws. India's patent law extended only to the processes for creating medicines, not the drugs themselves. The law opened the door for Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers to reverse-engineer patented drugs and then devise different, cheaper production methods. India soon became known as "the pharmacy of the developing world." Brazil, Mexico, and other Central and South American countries also adopted limits on the patentability of medicines.
European countries like Italy and Sweden didn't grant pharmaceutical patents until the 1970s, and Spain refused to do so until 1992. Even when medicine patents were given, many nations granted liberal access to compulsory licenses for patented drugs, meaning that generic manufacturers were free to make the drugs and pay a royalty to the patent holders. During the period between 1962 and 1992, Canada granted 613 licenses to import or manufacture pharmaceutical products.
As commerce became increasingly global, this state of affairs deeply concerned pharmaceutical companies. Over time, an industry that once competed on the basis of manufacturing innovation and price had come to rely on the profits of patent monopolies. At one time in the mid-20th century, for example, Pfizer drew a full 33 percent of its global sales from just two patented drugs. So — as extensively chronicled in Peter Drahos' and John Braithwaite's 2002 book, Information Feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy? — Pfizer took the lead in an ambitious campaign to create a global system of intellectual property protection: an enclosure of essential medicines.
The first step in that effort was countering the dominant international view that medicine compounds were not private property that could or should be owned by companies and individuals. Economists call this process the transformation of a public good into a "club good," like taking a public park and turning it into a gated dues-required golf course. A July 1982 op-ed in the New York Times by the chair of Pfizer International, entitled "Stealing from the Mind," started the process of creating that club good. The column charged that U.S. inventions were being "stolen" by governments that didn't protect patent rights. When governments outside the U.S. refused to block generic manufacturing, the pharmaceutical industry argued, they were indulging acts of piracy.
But there was little in the way of binding international law to back up that position. So the industry pushed directly for the U.S. government to make intellectual property protection a priority in all trade negotiations. Of course, inserting monopoly patent rights into trade agreements runs counter to those agreements' stated purpose of dismantling barriers to global competition. Yet the pharmaceutical industry, reliably at the top of the list in both lobbying expenditures and political campaign contributions in the United States, quickly found willing partners on Capitol Hill and in the White House. The U.S. soon adopted intellectual property protection as a litmus test for its trade partners.
The approach was to offer carrots to patent-resistant countries — enhanced access to U.S. markets and some reductions in the subsidies of U.S. agricultural exports — while simultaneously brandishing some imposing sticks. In 1984, aggressive pharmaceutical sector lobbying helped amend the U.S. Trade Act to give the president the authority to impose duties on or withdraw trade benefits from any nation that did not provide "adequate and effective" protection for U.S. intellectual property.
A few years later, the law was amended again, this time to give the U.S. trade representative the power to put offending countries on what became known as a Special 301 watch list, a designation dreaded by countries whose economies relied on trade with the United States. The two countries that resisted pharmaceutical patents most vigorously, India and Brazil, were placed in the more serious "priority" watch list.
Against this ominous backdrop, the World Trade Organization in 1986 convened talks to create a global intellectual property agreement. At the time the talks began, more than 40 of the 90 counties involved refused to grant patents for pharmaceutical products, and others that did grant them adopted strict limits. But over the course of years of negotiations, U.S. trade pressure wore down the resistance. By April of 1994, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, aka TRIPS, was signed by 123 government ministers. The deal was one of the foundational documents of the World Trade Organization, and immediately became the most significant intellectual property agreement of modern times.
TRIPS transformed an uneven worldwide patchwork of intellectual property law into a blanket of standards mandating protection for holders of patents, copyrights, and trademarks. For patent holders, that protection features at least 20 years of government-granted monopolies on their products, including medicines. TRIPS also requires each nation to award intellectual property rights regardless of national origin, a boon for multinational pharmaceutical corporations and a death blow to their local manufacturing rivals.
The enclosure of essential medicines was complete.
The Fallacy of the Patent Incentive
When pushing for the TRIPS agreement and other mechanisms to extend medicine patent rights, pharmaceutical corporations justify enclosure by claiming that patents are necessary to spur innovation. If medicinal discoveries can be immediately copied and sold to others, the argument goes, no organization will devote the resources needed for research and development of new medicines.
In economic terms, this presents the classic "free rider" problem. Their solution was the temporary patent monopoly, which is lucrative enough to incentivize medical research.
Again, the echoes reverberate from the land enclosure movement, where the justification for massive property appropriation was the so-called "tragedy of the commons": A good communally held doesn't provide anyone with the incentive to invest in its development. (The second component of the tragedy of the commons — that freely available goods are subject to overuse — doesn't apply to the medicine situation. Remember that a medicinal formula is non-rivalrous, so its use by a manufacturer in India doesn't prevent a Connecticut company from using the same formula as much as it wishes.)
This argument for medicine enclosure presents two important ironies.
First, it concedes the accuracy of one of the core complaints against the modern pharmaceutical industry: Namely, pills can cost up to $1,000 each because their makers enjoy a monopoly, not because they're so expensive to manufacture. Even many high-priced medicines are produced for just pennies per dose.
And second, the enclosure argument advanced by seemingly uber-capitalist corporations is decidedly socialist in nature. It demands a government-imposed override of the free markets of generic production that have been proven to dramatically push down the cost of medicines. In fact, patents exist to enable one of the most reviled forms of economic behavior: rent-seeking, the act of obtaining economic gain without contributing anything back to society. This state of affairs may be distasteful, pharmaceutical corporations say, but it's unavoidable. Even Thomas Jefferson conceded that the artificial imposition of intellectual property rights is sometimes a necessary evil.
Yet when it comes to inducing innovation for essential medicines, it turns out that the evil of monopoly patents isn't at all necessary.
The history of pharmaceutical innovations, especially vaccine developments and life-saving treatments for infectious and chronic diseases, shows that the critical research behind these developments was created outside the patent system. Even in the current post-TRIPS era, patent-seeking private industry still looks to governments to provide funding for pharmaceutical research, especially for essential medicines. The U.S. National Institutes of Health alone provides $30 billion annually for medical research; governments provide tax credits to support corporate research; and government health programs are bulk purchasers of patented medicines priced far above the costs of production.
When it comes to medicines, the taxpayers of the United States and other research-supporting countries are the very opposite of free riders: They pay to build the bus, fill it with fuel, and hire the driver. But they're still asked to pay a steep fare if they wish to take a seat.
In fact, a decade ago, U.S. economist Dean Baker crunched the numbers and estimated that the U.S. could save over $140 billion a year if its health systems could provide medicines without the artificial mark-up imposed by monopoly patents. That money could fund the replacement of all private industry research and development several times over, while still leaving billions of dollars in remaining public benefit. A significant source of those savings derives from eliminating the for-profit pharmaceutical companies' expenses on marketing, a cost that exceeds their investment in research and development. As it happens, there are more efficient uses of resources than funding television ads for erectile dysfunction drugs.
The enclosed medicine system inflicts additional damage beyond the artificially inflated cost of patented medicines. The resources of for-profit corporations are inevitably concentrated on the development and promotion of medicines that can be sold at a high mark-up to wealthy consumers. "Lifestyle" drugs that address male pattern baldness or sexual performance are exhaustively researched and marketed, yet the past half-century has seen just one drug developed to treat tuberculosis, which kills more than a million people each year. A landmark study published by the British medical journal The Lancet showed that of the 1,556 new chemical entities marketed between 1975 and 2004, only 21 were for tropical diseases.
When corporations do develop a new drug, it more than likely doesn't provide much value to society. Remarkably, a full 70 percent of the medicine brought to market by the industry in the past 20 years provided no therapeutic benefit over the products already available. Instead, these "me too" drugs were put forward in order to grab a share of an existing lucrative market.
The inefficiency of the enclosed medicine is paired with the creation of real barriers to medicine innovation across the board. By definition, a reward system based on artificial exclusivity will wall off knowledge from being shared. For-profit pharmaceutical corporations are known for discouraging innovations by creating voluminous "packet thickets" and seeking extended protection for their monopolies in a process known as "evergreening" their patents.
Seen through the lens of a pharmaceutical corporation, all of these approaches are fully rational: The industry is one of the most profitable in recent history. The rest of us are not faring as well. Law professor Michael Heller has labeled the costs associated with over-enclosure and lack of knowledge sharing as the "tragedy of the anti-commons."
It is an economic theory, of course. But, for the millions of people who die each year from diseases neglected by the current medicine system, the tragedy is not the least bit theoretical.
Opening the Gates to Essential Medicines
The good news is that medicine enclosure is ripe for dismantling.
There's no shortage of popular frustration with the current system, especially now that the dire effects of enclosure have reached beyond low-income countries to cause real harm to the residents and governments of the Global North. An August 2015 poll showed that nearly a quarter of U.S. residents struggle to pay for prescriptions, and that strong majorities feel that drug costs are unreasonable and believe drug companies prioritize profits over people.
Last year, U.S. social media and politicians exploded with anger when a young pharmaceutical company executive increased the price of a toxiplasmosis drug by some 5,000 percent overnight. Over a hundred leading U.S. cancer physicians co-authored an article decrying the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, noting that the cost of cancer medicine averages over $100,000 per patient annually.
Similarly, there's no shortage of proposals for reform of the current system. Those plans range from buy-outs of corporate patents to open generic medicine production in low-income countries. Many proposals are grounded in redirecting the enormous government investment in the current patent system to greater support for early-stage research and prize-oriented funding to motivate late-stage drug development. At varying levels, many of these proposals are already in operation.
Popular discontent and ideas for reform don't always lead to change. After all, the land enclosure movement triggered plenty of passionate protests, but the enclosure proceeded without significant interruption. For the resistance to medicine enclosure to see better results, it needs to make clear the life-and-death nature of the struggle, and highlight the injustice inherent in the collective contribution to private profits.
Some of those messages are already being delivered.
The Nobel Peace Prize-wining medical aid program Médicins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, conducts a medicine access campaign that includes public education and direct calls for advocacy on issues like vaccine pricing. MSF joined several organizations in using negotiations over the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement as a platform for activism on medicine access. A student-oriented group, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, has recruited prominent members of the international scientific and academic communities to push for a global medicines research agreement, which would fund research and require medicines to be cheaply available.
A petition now circulating for a global research agreement calls on policymakers to "Make Medicines for People, Not Profit." For that noble goal to be achieved, the fence surrounding essential medicines will need to be torn down once and for all.
This piece was reprinted from Foreign Policy In Focus by RINF Alternative News with permission.


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Welcome! Quilting Bits & Pieces
Quilting Bits & Pieces, located in Eudora, Kansas, has been in business since 1997. Eudora was named for a Shawnee Chief's daughter whose name means "giving" and "generous." When you walk in our staff will welcome you with a smile and a desire to help with all your quilting needs. Through the years hometown friendliness has been our trademark and our "giving and generous" personal assistance is widely known as well.
Whether you visit in person, or on line, you will be inspired by the many quilt examples, many of which are original designs. You will also find a wide range of books and patterns available. Everything you need to make a lovely quilt of any size for every occasion is at your fingertips.
If you should be traveling through Northeastern Kansas, be sure to stop by, you will not be disappointed!
Shop Hours:
Monday - Friday: 10:00 - 5:00
Saturday: 10:00 - 3:00


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If you love a gourmet treats you can get two bags for £115. A luxurious bargain if ever we saw one.
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Choice cuts of luxurious and silky Scottish Salmon are gently prepared with Dill, Spinach, Fennel, Asparagus & Tomato to make every meal a gourmet experience.
Selected cuts of Angus Beef are gently prepared with Carrot, Green Beans, Cauliflower, Tomato and Courgette. Our unctuous Beef is steamed to lock in nutrients and freshness.
British Free Range Chicken is gently steamed and added to complimentary fruit and vegetables, ginger, pomegranate, kale, artichoke and blueberry for a meal packed with superfoods and superior flavour.
The finest cuts of English duck and specially selected, complimentary fruit and vegetables are packed into our Reet Good Gourmet Duck, Parsnip, Beetroot, Orange, Asparagus and Pumpkin.


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I was uploading a bunch of files to a free FTP server to see if it would work well with a game server and when I tried to test it out, I was told I had reached my maximum allowed download for the month. I haven't even tested it out yet.
I read I was allowed to download 1 terabyte per month but i'm not even allowed to download?
This is a frequent question, and it is because you have a group account. You created a sub-user account and allocated all your download bytes to your sub-user, leaving your own account with 0 download bytes.
Please logon www.drivehq.com, click on Group Admin link, then select the sub-user and click on "Set Storage". Once you reduce the storage and download bytes allocated to your sub-user(s), your account storage and download bytes will increase.
Free service account has a small limit on storage space and download bytes, upgrading to our premium service is recommended.
User: DriveHQ Webmaster - 3/9/2010 7:54:03 PM
ahh! thank you for your quick response. that solved my problem.
Please logon and reply, Not DriveHQ Member?


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Free Fight
"Am I a new rising star? I'm not gonna say that, but I think that I have the capability of beating anyone in the division, and I have every intention of going in there and every fight that Dana White and Joe Silva ask for, I'm gonna say yes. And as long as I'm healthy and ready to go, I think I can be competitive against anyone in the division."
Where have you gone, Gabe Ruediger? It was the phrase on the lips of many MMA fans in the nearly three years since his last Octagon appearance against Melvin Guillard in September of 2006.
But he didn't go anywhere. The most talked about man in the sport in the weeks after his short stint on The Ultimate Fighter's fifth season, Ruediger instead settled on the slow and more obscure road back to glory. He lost a couple, won more than that, stayed in the gym, and even had Paris Hilton as a student for one day ("We did one private lesson for self-defense," said Ruediger, "and that was the extent of that.").
And by the time the summer of 2010 was halfway through, he had won six fights in a row and seven of nine since leaving the UFC. It was then that the call went up from fans for him to grace the Octagon again, and that opportunity was just around the corner.
"When you feel that you're ready, there's always that question – when am I gonna get that call back?" said Ruediger. "After I won the Tachi Palace belt (with a first round TKO of Lenny Lovato on July 9th), my manager said that there was interest, but that Joe Silva just didn't know what matchup to give me. The UFC's so talent-rich, and the lightweight division's so deep, but obviously when Joe Lauzon's opponent pulled out, I couldn't think of a better matchup than that."
Joe Lauzon. A castmate of Ruediger's on TUF who is already seven fights deep into his UFC career (the first against Jens Pulver occurring before TUF5). For Ruediger, short notice or not, it was an offer he couldn't refuse.
"It's an opportunity you don't turn down," he said. "When the UFC calls you and you're able-bodied, you go. Obviously I would have liked more time to prepare, but even with the short time, I feel surprisingly well. I don't think that's gonna be a concern."
What may be a concern has nothing to do with Ruediger himself, but with public perception of his return. While in the world of reality television, whatever impression you leave with viewers is one that will likely follow you throughout the rest of your life. For Ruediger, the lasting impression of him eating cake in the house and then being unable to make weight for his first fight against Corey Hill. He was then removed from the competition and skewered by message boarders around the world.
He admits now that the abuse he took was hard to swallow at times, but the more he thought about it, he was amazed that his pre-TUF resume – which included a WEC lightweight title – was tossed to the side, in some cases, permanently.
"When everything initially happened with the show, and the show aired, I think all that stuff did affect me," he said. "But I'm at a point now where I don't pay attention to any of that. There are always going to be naysayers, and I'm still completely perplexed at people who think I'm a horrible fighter because of me being on a TV show where I didn't even fight. I don't understand how you can gauge the type of fighter I am from that alone."
That's show-biz, and after it happened, it forced Ruediger to re-evaluate everything in his life, in and out of competition.
"To some extent, I think sometimes to reach our potential we have to fall, and I think I needed that fall," he said. "In retrospect I needed to have a wake-up call and figure some stuff out about myself. Was it the best thing that could have happened? No, it was very difficult and so was climbing back up. But through that, I've become a stronger person, and regardless of fighting or not, I think that it helped establish my own inner will."
Ruediger's lone Octagon appearance stuck him with a knockout loss courtesy of a Guillard body punch, and after a nearly year-long layoff that included a scrap with the California State Athletic Commission over his fitness to fight, he returned with a win over George Kassimatis, but then dropped his next two bouts to Akbarh Arreola and Justin Wilcox. If his career prospects were getting dim before, it was downright dark now.
"That was a really bizarre time in my life and people don't realize that those two losses were because I had my neck fused," he explains. "The first one, my whole left side was shut down because my C7 vertebrae had popped out of place and was shutting down my entire left side. And then my second loss was that I came back too prematurely. I needed to heal more (from the surgery) and I needed a lot more time training. Who knows, maybe those guys would have beaten me anyway, but it was more of circumstance than anything."
Knowing that he still had some gas left in his competitive tank, Ruediger started fresh in February of 2009, and he hasn't looked back since, running off six wins in a row, five by submission and one by KO over Lovato. So with his confidence sky high, there was no question that he would accept the Lauzon fight in place of the injured Terry Etim.
"I was training for a championship, so I was in shape for five fives," said Ruediger of the Lovato fight last month. "The three weeks after that I was off, when I jumped back in the gym, it was surprising how easily everything came back. And all of the concerns that I'm sure people might have had, including my weight, are not concerns at all."
Now coming back to the dream destination for all fighters, Ruediger returns as a veteran who has seen the organizations he has fought for in the past – the UFC and WEC – explode in popularity around the globe, making it a surreal sort of homecoming.
"You see how fighters you know that you're better than are getting accolades and making money, and you look back on the mistakes that you made," he mused. "I think it's incredible the way the sport's growing and the way the WEC and UFC are both growing."
He's also kept a close eye on the fighters he befriended on The Ultimate Fighter, like Cole Miller, Gray Maynard, and Rob Emerson.
"I'm a fighter and a fan, so I'm always keeping up with all the shows, but the guys that I went through that process with I'm gonna be following a little bit more," he said.
One name is conspicuously missing from that list, and that's his Team Penn teammate Lauzon, but that's not to say there's bad blood between the two despite some message board back and forth a few years back. As "Godzilla" puts it, "Joe and I were actually friendly (on the show). Training wise, it was funny because Joe's perception of what happened on the show and my perception are two separate things."
And it's clear that despite what happened in 2007, these two have both evolved as athletes, and they're both going to have to fight on Saturday night in Boston.
"That was over three years ago, and I've improved and Joe's improved, and it was a TV show and wasn't a normal format for training," said Ruediger of their time on the show. "And again, it was training. So what do I know of Joe? I know he's a tough kid, I know that he's not gonna give up and that he's coming to fight. I think it's gonna be a good matchup for me."
If so, it may be the start of a more extended stay in the UFC for the 32-year old Van Nuys product.
"Am I a new rising star?" he asks. "I'm not gonna say that, but I think that I have the capability of beating anyone in the division, and I have every intention of going in there and every fight that Dana White and Joe Silva ask for, I'm gonna say yes. And as long as I'm healthy and ready to go, I think I can be competitive against anyone in the division."
Even against an old buddy fighting in his hometown.
"I'm very aware that I'm walking into Joe Lauzon's backyard, but what I'm hoping for is, do you remember the scene in Rocky IV where Rocky goes to Russia?" he smiles. "I'm hoping that the Boston crowd, by the end of the fight, is screaming "Gabe, Gabe, Gabe."


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Quality Improvement Program
- Checks providers to be sure you have access to a qualified health care team
- Reviews and takes action when there is an issue with the quality of care that has been provided
- Promotes safety in health care by educating for our members and our providers
- Provides a Grow and Stay Healthy Guide to help members know what services are needed when
- Evaluates the quality of health care through HEDIS® (Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set)
- These scores tell us if you have received the preventive screenings and treatment care you need. The scores look at how often members receive services such as flu shots, immunizations, eye tests, cholesterol tests and prenatal care for members who are pregnant
- Check out our HEDIS® rates and results
- Surveys members' satisfaction with health care. One type of survey is called CAHPS® (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems)
- This tells us if you are happy with your care and your provider. It also tells us what we can do better for our members, like getting the right type of appointment at the right time and having enough providers to take care of your needs
- Check out our CAHPS® results
To learn more or to request a copy of our QI program, you can call Member Services. For more information about quality improvement programs for pharmacy, please visit the Prescription Drugs page.
HEDIS® is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
CAHPS® is a registered trademark of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
*Printed copies of information posted on our website are available upon request.


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Well, "someday soon" has finally arrived and I'd like to make my first post addressing the "slow down" but before I do, I just really quick want to thank you for your continued support through all the comments, tweets, pins, stumbles and referrals. All that LOVE kept this blog alive and even helped it grow. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Now…. let me tell you about what's been keeping me.
No, it's not a Green Monster Smoothie that's been keeping me from posting. This is just what I'm using to illustrate the story….it serves several purposes:
So…a summation of the past 6 months of my life presented in parable form (so as to allow everyone the opportunity to relate. I see no good reason to alienate anyone just because they haven't had a similar experience.) Here it goes....
My bucket has never failed me. It has always held the sweet refreshment I needed, exactly when I needed it, until late last summer (2011).
Being wise (like I so often am) I decided that even thought the fountain was still flowing I should go and check on my bucket…you know, just to make sure it was filled and prepared for when I needed it. Well, when I took a peek inside, I was a bit astonished. There was nothing in it. It was completely empty.
"Someone must be taking my goodness." I thought. "Oh well, I'll just fill it back up." So I pushed it under the full stream of the fountain. When I thought the bucket should be close to full, I took a second glance inside. That is when I began to panic (just a little).
First, I tried to fill it up, again. When that didn't work I thought that maybe the integrity of my bucket had been compromised so I began to inspect it for holes or leaks. When I found none, full on panic ensued.
Quickly, I decided to put my bucket down and take a step back in order to give myself some distance to either calm down or get some perspective in order to see if there was something I had missed.
In a frantic effort to find what I was looking for I called everyone I knew who I thought might know anything about buckets or might have one for me to borrow until I could find my own. It seemed my peace was dependant on finding something big enough and sturdy enough to hold the goodness that came from the fountain.
Finally, after making a colossal mess from pulling everything off of my shelves, out of storage and from the places I go to look for lost things....I found what I was searching for. I can now report that what I found holds water very well.
Now, not wanting to repeat this event anytime in the future, I have decided to keep my eye out for bigger and sturdier buckets - you know, just in case there comes a day when the pressure of the fountain is turned up again and the bucket I have is no longer enough to hold what it needs to. When that happens, I'll know exactly where to go to replace it.
The only real problem I have now (beside the mess that I made that I may never be able to clean up) is that I can't get the goodness out as fast as it's coming in, so it often… runneth over!
Thanks again everyone for sharing your goodness with me through this phase in my journey when I thought I had none.
Now get out your blender (a Blendtec if you have it) and blend up a delicious, healthy Green Monster so that we can raise our "cups" to the New Year. May this year be filled with enough goodness to share with everyone. May our world view be big enough to find goodness in every relationship. May our minds be open to new information and may our hearts allow us to receive it.
- Place all the ingredients into the Blendtec, hit the smoothie button and when it's done, ENJOY!
- Place the
ingredients into your blender in the following order: 1) chia seeds, 2)
spinach, 3) banana, 4) milk. The reason for this order is so the heavier
ingredients weigh down the chia seeds and spinach and keep it from flying
up around the blender and sticking to the side.
- Blend everything on the highest setting for 1 minute or so. Finally, add ice and blend on the ice setting. Pour into a large glass.


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Seasons greetings and farewell 2012
So today is the day. Well tomorrow is really but we swear we thought there were at least three more days to go! Personally we've had a helluva year of extreme highs and terrible lows, and are both pretty glad to put this year to rest. That being said we have so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to.
We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all lovely readers for checking in on HML this year and hope you continue to find us a source of info, inspiration and humour (usually at our own expense). We'll be back Jan 1st with more craft news, crews, reviews, clues and...um stuff. Can you tell we're tired? Love to you all! XXXX


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Cocoa Orange
Our boho Kimono bridal gown in floral ivory lace is effortlessly beautiful. Carefree and romantic, from the lace kimono sleeves to the full and floaty skirt which falls from the flattering empire line - the Edith is the perfect dress for the bohemian bride.
- Sheer, loose-fitting kimono sleeves
- Blissfully soft stretch ivory lace
- Flattering gentle V neckline
- Sweeping full length sheer lace skirt
- Fully lined in baby-soft premium jersey
- Lovingly designed and made in Britain
Skirt length from under bust to hem: Approx 124cm.


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the Author
Kristie Cook is a lifelong,
award-winning writer in various genres, from marketing communications to
fantasy fiction. She continues to write the Soul Savers Series, a New Adult
paranormal romance/contemporary fantasy, with the first four books, Promise, Purpose, Devotion and Power available now and the next book
coming in June 2013. She's also written a companion novella, Genesis: A Soul Savers Novella,
currently available. Over 160,000 Soul Savers books have been sold, with Promise peaking at #54 on the Amazon Top
100 Paid list and at #1 in the Amazon Fantasy category.
Space Between, which releases April 2013, kicks off her second New Adult
paranormal series, The Book of Phoenix.
Besides writing, Kristie enjoys
reading, cooking, traveling and riding on the back of a motorcycle. She has
lived in ten states, but currently calls Southwest Florida home with her
husband, three teenage sons, a beagle and a puggle. She can be found at:
Author's Website
& Blog: http://www.KristieCook.com
Soul Savers Series
Website: http://www.SoulSaversSeries.com
When Life Falls to
Pieces, Answers Lie in the Space Between
a month-long dance tour through Italy, 20-year-old Leni Drago returns to
Georgia to care for her great-uncle, only to find him gone, the home they
shared empty and any evidence he ever existed wiped out. All that's left is a
journal she can't open.
Winters has been searching for a piece of his past for over a year, only to
reach a dead-end in Georgia. When an urgent and magnetic pull draws him out of
his hotel room, he comes face-to-face with the beautiful dancer who's been
haunting his dreams day and night.
one to stay away from—a bad-boy, hit-it-and-quit-it type—but Leni can't escape
the fervent feelings between them. As their own existences begin to crumble
around them and shadowy forms that are more monsters than men attack, they
realize there's more to the connection between them than physical fascination.
solve the riddle their lives have become, they must embark on a journey that
requires them to face their pasts and release their true souls. And they must
do it fast—dark ones from another world are closing in, intent on killing them.
I was so excited to get the chance to share this cover reveal with you guys I almost couldn't stand it! While this book does not fall into the YA literature that is normally featured on my blog, there is always room for an exception. Just about anything Kristie Cook writes is going to fall in that category. This is an upcoming release that is intended for those readers 17 years of age and older but if you fall into that bracket, get excited!
April 5th is the release date so mark it down on your calendars and race out to the store or pre-order the title now so it's all taken care of. I know I'm not alone when I say how excited I am to see what Kristie is bringing to her readers this time around with an entirely new series with new characters and adventures for us to enjoy! Stay tuned for the blog tour featuring this upcoming release which will take place from April 1-30 because you won't want to miss out on even one stop along the way.
Is this cover spectacular or what?! I loved it and so did Kristie! She wanted to make sure to point out that this cover wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for the amazing talent that is Regina Wamba (the cover artist) of May I Design. I had a blast checking out her site and seeing that while this cover was fabulous, her talent certainly doesn't stop there.
**I've got an excerpt from the upcoming release below so keep reading to check it out and amp up the excitement that much more! Once you start reading you won't want to stop!!!
The Space Between
Kristie Cook
Releasing April 5,
An Excerpt
LENI – The overhead lights fell dark for the last time as I
opened the dressing room door. The back exit stood open at the end of the hall,
allowing in enough light from the streetlamp outside to show my way. I inhaled
slowly, cherishing the musty smell of an old theater mixed with the odor of
dancers' sweat and the fragrance of white roses. I silently said my goodbyes as
my feet carried me outside.
"Thank you, Uncle Theo," I whispered as I left the theater
for the last time. Only because of him did I even have this opportunity. I
couldn't wait to tell him all about it.
A large, muscular body flew at me, swept me into his arms
and twirled me around as though we were still on stage. Laughter bubbled out of
my chest.
"You ready to celebrate, cara
mia?" Alberto asked as he set me down.
"Celebrate that you're finally getting rid of me?" I teased.
He clapped his hand over his heart, and his face fell into
an exaggerated expression of pain. "Oh, Leni, you do not know how I will miss
you and your mane."
He swatted playfully at the bottom of my curls. He had no
idea how I would miss the way he said my name, drawing out both syllables,
"laaaay-kneee," like only an Italian could do.
"But you won't miss my heels on your toes or my arm in your
face?" I said in mock disbelief.
He took my hand and danced me down the cobbled street toward
the plaza at the center of town. "You are a stunning dancer, cara mia. Don't let anyone tell you
otherwise." He spun me under his arm, my duffle bag banging me in the butt the
whole time. "Of course, you have become much better since becoming my partner.
But everyone does."
He winked at me before dropping me into a dip. My bag slid
off my shoulder and a hand darted beneath me to catch it. Alberto swung me up
and around so that I came face-to-face with the most unbelievably stunning
vision I'd seen my whole time in Italy. Which was saying a lot. His eyes—blue,
I thought, though the light from the corner post wasn't enough to be
sure—enraptured me. He held my bag out with a small smile that hinted at
"Grazie," I said
breathlessly as I wrapped my hand around the strap of my bag. He gave me a nod
almost deep enough to be a bow, his shaggy blond hair falling in his face.
Then, without a word, he turned and walked away. My mouth fell open. "How
"Must be American," Alberto said. I punched him in the arm.
"Who goes out of their way to catch a falling object and
then can't even say 'you're welcome'?" I asked absent-mindedly as I stared
after the retreating body that rivaled Alberto's. No, scratch that. It totally
beat out Alberto's even on his best day.
"What an ass," Alberto muttered.
"Rude, yes, but I don't know if I'd go that far."
"No, I mean what an ass
that man has." He let out a low whistle.
I laughed and admired the view as well. "I can agree with that."
~ ~ ~
JERIC – I flipped to the picture I'd drawn a couple of weeks
ago during my search in Italy. I'd woken from a dream, one I'd been having for
years, and as I had previously, I'd felt the need to sketch the girl who had me
waking with a painful boner. Now that I'd met her in real life, I couldn't deny
the girl in my sketches was Leni—curly hair, exotic green eyes, full lips and
breasts, her skin … as if the absolute best features of both African and
European blood had been blended together and given to her. The Leni I'd just
met would probably never wear the leather bra, miniskirt, and knee-high boots
I'd drawn her in, but damn if she wouldn't look hot in them. The vision came to
me clearly. Too clearly. I had to place the book over my lap to hide the
full-blown wood pressing against my jeans.
I needed a distraction. I needed to get her out of my head.
I bought several little airline bottles of rum and dumped them in my Coke, but
they weren't enough to blur the image of Leni's face in my mind. When the
smoking hot flight attendant ran her finger over my arm then dropped a napkin
with a message on my tray ("Meet me upstairs?"), I couldn't resist. I snuck up
the spiral staircase to the empty upper level and found her in the bathroom
wearing nothing but heels and thigh-high stockings, tendrils of bottle-bleached
hair barely hiding her fake tits. Flight attendants like this had made me a
lifetime member of the mile-high club—they wanted nothing more than something
to make the transatlantic flight more interesting. My perfect kind of girl.
Unfortunately, my eyes only saw Leni's body under my hands.


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Pink Flower of Life Mandala Orgone Pendant
Harmonizer and EMF mitigator, emits the energy of perfection and growth.
Contains a Flower of Life mandala from the sacred geometry, which symbolizes harmonious transformation and growth.
Semi-precious and precious gemstones: white quartz crystal and emerald.
Precious metals: brass shavings, 24K gold, copper coil.
Fine mineral powders: Selenite, blue kyanite and pyrite.
Can also be used as a pocket device.
Cylinder shaped.
Size: 4cm diameter, 8mm high.


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Updated 9 May 2018
Riverdream Productions and its agents (collectively "Riverdream") respect your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how any personal information you provide to us on our site is processed and used by us. This Privacy Policy is designed to protect you, our users, by informing you what personal information is collected, what we do with that information, with whom we share it, the methods we use to collect it and how we endeavour to always protect it in compliance with Data Protection Legislation. Your continued use of the HeartbeatofHome website is subject to your agreement with this Policy.
Information we collect
The function of the HeartbeatofHome website is to provide you with information about Heartbeat of Home generally and in particular in relation to performances of Heartbeat of Home and merchandising relating to Heartbeat of Home. In carrying out this function the collection of personal information from visitors to the website is limited and always voluntary. As a user of our website, you must opt-in to receive information from us.
Personal Data
This is data that identifies you or can be used to identify or contact you and may include your name, address, email address, user IP addresses in circumstances where they have not been deleted, clipped or anonymised, telephone number, birth date and billing and credit card information. Such information is only collected from you if you have confirmed your consent that we may so do.
We will process any Personal Data you provide to us for the following purposes:
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In this video, I shared an experience that I had with a church greeter / usher during a worship time at a conference. The experience impacted me deeply, even though it occurred in 1997.
(Feed Readers: you may need to click through to see the video).
Church Greeters and Ushers should notice people
The key point here is that some church greeters or ushers may alert for situations like the one described in the video.
Even if they are not comfortable offering to pray with people, they should be able to find someone on your church's prayer ministry team to accomplish the same action.
Let me ask you this?
Do you think this is a good skill for greeters, or do you accomplish this same practice through other ways?
Do you think greeters and ushers should play this kind of role?
I invite your comments.


text:
In Liberia this morning, security forces attempted to quarantine the West Point neighborhood in the capital Monrovia, but residents broke out in a riot.
The Ebola holding center in West Point has been keeping residents on edge. On Saturday, an angry mob attacked the center, chasing and carrying out patients.
NPR photographer David Gilkey talks to Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabari about what he saw this morning as the riots began.
- David Gilkey, staff photographer and video editor for NPR, covering both national and international news.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Are Your Feet Causing Back Pain?
Back pain can be a debilitating condition. When you suffer with it, there is nothing you want more than to get rid of the pain. So, what role do your feet play in the cause of your back pain? It's all about structure.
Our technology has evolved faster than our bodies. People were not designed to walk on hard surfaces like tile, marble, wood, or concrete—instead, we were designed to walk on grass, dirt, sand, mud, and other natural terrain. These natural, softer terrains are more conforming to the shape and structure of the foot, thereby keeping the arch supported, and causing the muscles, ligaments and tendons of the foot and ankle to work in a supportive fashion.
The Connection to Low Back Pain
The three main shock absorbers of the body are the feet, knees, and lower back. It only makes sense that if the feet are flat (unsupported by the ground or shoes) they are not absorbing shock. When that happens, the knees have to work twice as hard, but that can only go on for so long. Eventually, the lower back takes the heat. It now has to make up for the extra shock, and that can wear out the parts, particularly if there is a misalignment of the lower back or pelvis. Imagine a bent axle of a car, riding off road with a tire that is underinflated, with a cracked spring for the shocks!
So what can you do? Here are a few tips:
- Wear good structured shoes or sneakers that support the foot and absorb shock.
- Wear a custom orthotic made by someone who understands the structural relationship of the foot and the body (if that is out of your budget, a generic may be sufficient, but understand that it will not be made specifically for you).
- Have your spine, pelvis, and lower extremities specifically adjusted at our practice.
Wondering what else you can do to combat low back pain? Ask us at your next visit.


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Tired of Copying Leads from LinkedIn and Recruiter Into Excel Spreadsheets?
If yes "Recruiter" is the right choice saving your valuable time and money. LinkedIn and LinkedIn Recruiter sites are the best source of contact information of professionals worldwide with 400 million users and extensive targeting capabilities to allure advertisers. You can approach Physicians to freshly baked food providers listed on LinkedIn in through our Recruiter.If your product is particularly useful for community e.g selling surgical apparatus to hospitals you can get contact information of the Administrators rightly divided up by category on LinkedIn. Simple searches in your field will reveal thousands of experts, service providers and potential clients. LinkedIn Lead Extractor will help you to extract that data within minutes.
Recruiter Main Features
Extract Leads
Recruiter can extract your targeted customer's LinkedIn contact information and complete profile.
Recruiter Account Support
It can extract your targeted customer's data from LinkedIn as well as LinkedIn Recruiter.
Keyword based searching
Recruiter Extractor searches your targeted customers based on your search keywords.
Advance Search
Using LinkedIn Advanced search feature, search for people by keywords, industry, location, company, experience level, and more.
Auto-save and Recovery
Sometimes computer/software shut-downs unexpectedly; don't worry you can recover your search results just by one click.
Save Viewed Profiles History
Recruiter has the ability to save the history of viewed and saved profiles so that already saved profile should not view again.
Delay Option
Options to set fixed or random delay between requests to simulate as a human being is surfing in a browser.
Unicode Support
Recruiter support Unicode character-set. You can save fetched search results in Unicode format.
Internet Failure Detector
Recruiter automatically pauses/resumes on internet failure during processing.
Contacts Filtering
You can also apply filters to get your targeted contact list.
Export Data
Software provides options to save extracted data in EXCEL format, .CSV files (Opens in EXCEL), TAB delimited (.txt files) format.
Why Use Recruiter?
LinkedIn has been creating buzz in social media circles for many years now, however many businesses are yet to fully capitalize on this remarkable tool for their online marketing and promotional needs. Recruiter is the best tool to get contact information from LinkedIn and Recruiter according to your business needs.Why Use Recruiter
Sales prospecting is now easier. LinkedIn Recruiter helps you find the right prospects, fast. With LinkedIn,s sophisticated algorithm, this sales tool gives you lead recommendations that are tailored to you. Easily save leads and follow updates of your prospects to turn cold calling into warm conversations.Something about what is LinkedIn?
This might appear a rather simplistic question; however it's important to understand that LinkedIn is not merely a social network aimed for business users. Rather, it should be viewed as an online network of influential people all over the world. For most individuals, gaining contact with the most powerful people in business is one of their biggest challenges. Getting round conventional 'real-life' obstacles, LinkedIn essentially brings business people together in a new and unique way. If utilised properly, this tool can even allow the humble office junior to engage in discussion and build connections with company CEOs.Find Business Partners, Clients and Service Providers
Whatever your business objectives, LinkedIn will help you to build a network of useful contacts. Simple searches in your field will reveal thousands of experts, service providers and potential clients. If you do not personally know an individual, you may request to be introduced through a mutual contact or can send an introductory email.Recruitment
If your business is recruiting, LinkedIn can provide easy access to potential candidates. There are both paid options and those involving no financial outlay. Businesses can search for candidates that fit their required level of expertise and approach them directly, provided they are at least '2nd degree' contacts. In order to search further afield, a monthly subsciption is needed. However, even the basic or 'business' package allows users to contact any individual with a LinkedIn profile.Whatever your recruitment objectives, LinkedIn is the ideal networking site to find the connections you need to grow your business and here is LinkedIn Lead extractor to help you.System Requirements:
- Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows 2000
- Net Framework v4.0
LinkedIn has some commercial use limitations on search:
- Basic Account: 100 profiles daily. It has monthly limit as per the number of first degree connections in your account. On ending monthly limit it will not allow to extract further.
- LinkedIn Premium Account:
- Business Plus: 300 profiles daily.
- Executive: 400 profiles daily.
- Pro: 500 profiles daily.
- Recruiter Lite: 1800 profiles daily and for more safety it is better to keep daily extraction upto 1500
- Do not do continues extraction more than 3 hours.
- For reading commercial use limitations on LinkedIn click More
- LinkedIn also blocks user accounts/IP address if too many requests are fired within a certain time limit. For example 70 - 100 requests in 2 - 3 minutes therefore apply proper random delay on software settings.
- Software extracts only what LinkedIn provides.
- LinkedIn provides Email address, Phone, Website and Address for your first degree connections profiles but in case of second, and third degree connections profiles, email addresses and phone numbers will be available only if LinkedIn member has made these public. Same will apply to your out-of-network connections.
- The product may not work properly or show error if there is any change in LinkedIn.com structure.


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From May 2018 Europe's data protection rules will undergo their biggest changes in two decades. Since they were created in the 1990s, the amount of digital information we create, capture, and store has vastly increased. Simply put, the old regime was no longer fit for purpose.
The solution is the mutually agreed European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will come into force on May 25th, 2018 and become part of Law. It will change how businesses and public-sector organisations can handle the information of customers.
GDPR means that we at Tooth Club will be more accountable for handling of people's personal information and as such we have updated our data protection policies.
Data Protection Code of Practice
Our data protection code of practice lays out our procedures that ensure Tooth Club and our employees comply with The Data Protection Law, 2001 and The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679)
What personal data do we hold?
To provide patients with a high standard of dental care and attention, we need to hold their personal information. This personal data can include:
- Past and current medical and dental condition; personal details such as age, address, telephone number and general medical practitioner
- Radiographs, clinical photographs and study models
- Information about their treatment that we have provided or propose and its cost
- Notes of conversations or incidents that might occur for which a record needs to be kept
- Records of consent to treatment
- Any correspondence relating to them and other health care professionals, for example in the hospital or Medical Specialist Group.
Why do we hold information about you?
We need to keep comprehensive and accurate personal data about patients to provide you with safe and appropriate dental care. We will ask you yearly to update your medical history and contact details.
Retaining information
We will retain your dental records while you are a practice patient and after you cease to be a patient, for at least eleven years, or for children until age 25, whichever is the longer.
Security of information
Personal data about you is held in the practice's computer system and/or in a locked manual filing system. The information is only accessible to authorized team members. Our computer system has secure audit trails and we back up information routinely.
Disclosure of information
To provide proper and safe dental care we may need to disclose personal information about you to:
- Your general medical practitioner
- Hospitals
- Scanning and X-ray facility units
- Other health professionals caring for you
- Social Security Authority
- Private dental schemes of which you are a member
- Medical Specialist Group
- Agents and Third parties as required by legal and law
Disclosure will take place on a 'need-to-know' basis. Only those individuals/organisations who need to know to provide care for you and for the proper administration of Government (whose personnel are covered by strict confidentiality rules) will be given the information.
In very limited circumstances or when required by law or a court order, personal data may have to be disclosed to a third party not connected with your health care. In all other situations, disclosure that is not covered by this Code of Practice will only occur when we have your specific consent. Where possible you will be informed of these requests for disclosure.
Access to your records
You have the right of access to the data that we hold about you and to receive a copy. Parents may access their child's records if this is in the child's best interests and not contrary to a competent child's wishes. Formal applications for access must be in writing to The Practice Manager.
If you do not agree
If you do not wish personal data that we hold about you to be disclosed or used in the way that is described in this Code of Practice, please discuss the matter with your dentist. You have the right to object.
You have a right to withdraw your consent at any time, however this will not be retrospective.


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Welcoming and Entering
Part of Circle of Trees
Materials for Activity
- Cloth for altar or centering table
- Leaf name tags from the previous workshop, plus a few blank extras, and markers
- Basket for name tags
Preparation for Activity
- Place the cloth and chalice on the altar or centering table.
- Set the name tags in the basket with a marker nearby.
Description of Activity
As participants arrive, direct returning participants to retrieve their name tags from the basket, and invite newcomers to choose and write their first name on a name tag.


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Dear Word Detective: I was watching a cops-and-robbers show the other night, and one crook mentioned to another that "the coast is clear," meaning that it was time to make their getaway. Where did this phrase come from? It sounds almost like another nautical expression, but I can't imagine anyone referring to the whole coast of an island or continent at once. — Dave.
Good point. Of course, by the established conventions of crime shows, "the coast is clear" falls into the category of "famous last words." It's right up there with classic movie uh-ohs like "You guys go on ahead; I'm just gonna retie my shoes," "I grew up eating these mushrooms" and "Look, a baby bear!" I'm sure there's actually a room full of impossibly stylish and attractive cops employing technology that doesn't exist to scan the crooks' fingerprints from ten miles away. And they'll have the crooks' baby pictures before they're halfway to the getaway car.
"Coast" is an unusually interesting word. For instance, we all know what's meant by, say, "Barry moved to the West Coast." But how, if at all, is that "coast" related to "Barry took his car out of gear and let it coast down the hill"? It would seem logical that the answer would be that there are two separate "coasts" in use, but they're actually the same word.
"Coast" first appeared in Middle English (in the form "coste"), borrowed from the Old French "coste" (in modern French "côte"), which in turn was derived from the Latin "costa," which meant "rib, flank or side" of a thing. In English in the 15th century, "coast" meant particularly the flank of a person or animal, the part protected by the ribs. The expression "by my coste" was equivalent to "by my side" ("This curdog by my coste .?will serve my sheepe to gather," 1591).
"Coste" in Old French had also been used to mean "the edge or side of the land meeting the sea," and English followed along and adopted this meaning too. A "coast" in English can be hundreds or thousands of miles long, but historically it can also be short stretch of "coastline" or even a small, specific place at the edge of a body of water. The phrase "the coast is clear" dates back to the 16th century and originally meant that if one were attempting a landing from the sea in hostile territory, the beach was clear of enemies. Similarly, if one were setting out from land on a mission that might meet opposition from ships, "the coast is clear" meant that enemy vessels were nowhere in evidence. "The coast is clear" was such a vivid turn of phrase that it almost immediately came into use in contexts far from any water to mean simply "the danger is over" or "there is no risk" ("With their supervisor gone for the afternoon, the coast was clear for the wastebasket basketball championships").
Meanwhile, back in French, "côte" had also been used to mean "the side of a hill," i.e., a slope, and in the 18th century we adopted (probably via French-speaking Canada) this sense of "coast," but with the very specific meaning of "snow-covered slope down which one slides on a sled" ("The boys of Boston are as fond as the boys of the Revolutionary days of the coast on the Common," 1883).
English had developed the verb "to coast" about the time that we adopted the noun, but we had always used it to mean things like "sail close to shore" or "move around the edge of something." In the early 19th century, however, based on the "sled run" sense of the noun, we began to use "to coast" to mean "roll along on a bicycle, in a car, etc., with no power being applied, either downhill or by momentum." By the 1930s, we were using "to coast" in a figurative sense to mean "to progress with little or no effort" ("The English team coasted comfortably to a total of 246," 1957). So the "coast" in "the coast is clear" really is the same word as the "coasting" we do on a slow afternoon at work.


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WASHINGTON — With President Bush promising to respond
to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina by launching "one of the largest
reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen," The Concord Coalition said
today that at least a portion of the mounting costs should be offset by
rescinding all $24 billion of earmarked projects, or "pork," approved in this
year's transportation bill. To prevent further erosion of the nation's fiscal
WASHINGTON — With President Bush promising to respond
to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina by launching "one of the largest
reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen," The Concord Coalition said
today that at least a portion of the mounting costs should be offset by
rescinding all $24 billion of earmarked projects, or "pork," approved in this
year's transportation bill. To prevent further erosion of the nation's fiscal
outlook, Concord also recommended that tax cut proposals, including those
anticipated in the Congressional Budget Resolution, be subjected to a
pay-as–you-go policy and that the entitlement spending cuts anticipated in the
Budget Resolution go forward, even if it means reassessing which programs should
be targeted for reduction.
"President Bush and Congress must respond fully and swiftly
to the emergency needs brought about by Hurricane Katrina. However, as the flood
waters recede and a more comprehensive relief plan is developed, they must
carefully consider the nation's overall fiscal outlook. Simply adding $200
billion or more to the deficit is unwise and unnecessary," said former Senator
Warren B. Rudman (R-NH), Co-Chair of The Concord Coalition.
"Congress and the President should find cuts in non-priority
spending, such as the extravagant amount of earmarked local projects in the
transportation bill, and apply the savings to the much more urgent needs of the
Gulf Coast region. While this, alone, would not come close to paying for the
relief efforts it would mitigate the damage to the budget and demonstrate that
politicians in Washington are willing to set aside narrow parochial interests
and make hard choices for the common good. The American people would respect and
strongly support such action," Rudman said.
"The question is not whether we can afford to assist the
devastated Gulf Coast region. We can, and must. The real question is whether the
President and Congress will call for any sacrifice or go on pretending that we
can keep spending everything we are spending while cutting taxes at the same
time. We already have too many unfunded entitlement promises on the table to
engage in such choice-free budgeting. If we can't make some relatively modest
sacrifices now, the prospect of our being able to cope with the fiscal challenge
of the baby boomers' retirement years is remote," said Concord Co-Chair former
Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE).
"President Bush and Congress have already approved $62.3
billion of emergency relief and Congress has passed a $5 billion package of tax
breaks. The President has made clear that much more assistance is on the way.
Yet in the face of this, and with war costs continuing to climb, no rescissions
of current spending have been proposed, nor have additional revenues been
requested. With the budget already projected to run deficits in excess of $300
billion for the next five years, all of the clean-up and relief aid for
Hurricane Katrina will come from borrowed funding unless steps are taken to
reorder budgetary priorities," Kerrey said.
As relief and rebuilding initiatives take shape, The Concord
Coalition recommends three initial steps for the short-term:
Transportation Projects: Rescind and Send
This year's transportation bill was larded with 6,373
earmarks totaling roughly $24 billion. These earmarks should be rescinded and
the money sent instead to help pay for rebuilding in the Gulf Coast region. In
congressional jargon, items such as the infamous "bridge to nowhere" are labeled
"high priority." It is morally indefensible and fiscally irresponsible to
pretend that items such as these local pork projects are "high priority" when
compared to the needs of the Gulf Coast region, the roughly $70 billion annual
cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a budget deficit now expected to
soar back over $400 billion in 2006.
Tax cut proposals: Pay-as-you-go
All tax cut proposals should be subjected to the
pay-as-you-go principle. This would not prevent targeted tax relief for those
affected by Hurricane Katrina but it would require offsets to stem the net
revenue loss. It simply defies experience and common sense to think that we can
finance relief efforts along the Gulf Coast – and other recent initiatives such
as the war against terrorism, homeland security improvements and a Medicare
prescription drug benefit – by cutting taxes. There are plenty of revenue
offsets available. The Joint Committee on Taxation has identified over $350
billion worth of options to improve tax compliance and reform tax expenditures.
Entitlement spending reductions: Keep the goal but widen
the net
The Congressional Budget Resolution calls for cuts in
entitlement spending totaling $34.7 billion over five years. The increased
spending and yawning long-term deficits make these cuts more relevant than ever.
While some have argued that these cuts should not go forward because they might
target programs such as Medicaid and Food Stamps — both of which will likely
need increased resources in the near-term as part of the relief effort — there
is nothing in the Budget Resolution that requires cuts in those programs.
Committees with instructions to find savings are free to look at any programs
under their control. For example, instead of looking at Medicaid, they could
look at the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, an enormous expansion of the
program that is scheduled to take effect in 2006. Because it has not yet taken
effect, no one would lose a benefit they now have.
The Concord Coalition is a nonpartisan, grass roots
organization dedicated to balanced federal budgets and generationally
responsible fiscal policy. Former U.S. Senators Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) and Bob
Kerrey (D-Neb.) serve as Concord's co-chairs and former Secretary of Commerce
Peter Peterson serves as president.
Tristan Cohen
(703) 894-6222
[email protected]