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I'm sorry I haven't been posting as much on this blog or any of my other blogs lately. I'm sure many of you have also been busier than normal this month and might not have blogged quite as much as you usually do too.
My reason for blogging less than normal doesn't really have much to do with the holidays. It has everything to do with my new puppy and my health. My Crohn's has been acting up more than normal in the last few weeks and I'm sure it has a lot to do with a little fur ball called Midnight that we adopted on November 23rd.
Having a young puppy to care for is similar to having an infant in the house. Both need a lot attention, frequent feedings, care and changes or well, in the case of a puppy, frequent trips outdoors for potty time. If a puppy or infant is sick double everything – including the stress and lack of sleep!
Midnight is still sick. In fact she gave me quite a scare on Wednesday.
That morning Chris had given her, her last dose of Drontal Plus – her worming meds. I guess he gave her the pills at about 8 am. Well at 12:30 pm, just as I was thinking of giving her, her second meal of the day she started hacking and ended up vomiting a little bit of her breakfast. Then I took a good look at her and noticed that her right eye looked really funny.
The inner lower lid was all swollen and it made her eye look like it was rolling back into her head. She seemed kind of out of it too.
Not knowing whether she was having some kind of reaction to the worming meds or to the food that we'd just changed her to on Monday night (Blue Buffalo large breed puppy food) or if being sick had caused some blood vessels to break in her inner eyelid and cause the swelling, I decided to call Chris at work and then called the vet.
Chris quickly came home from work. He'd been just about to take his lunch break so that worked out well and I was able to get a vet appointment within a half hour of my call.
This would be Midnight's fourth vet appointment in only three weeks!
By the time we got to the vets office an hour had passed since she'd vomited and her eye was looking better. The vet noted that there was still some swelling. We felt a little foolish since it seemed that her eye had gone back to almost normal. The vet told us to keep an eye on it and to give her eye drops if the redness and swelling continued after a day or two. She'd already been treated for an infection in her left eye so we had eye ointment at home.
While we were there I told the vet that she'd been scratching her right ear an awful lot so he took a look and her ear drum was reddened so we went home with medication for her ear. All in all it was our cheapest vet appointment at only about $40.
I think they are beginning to feel sorry for us and our sick pup.
Poor Midnight. Since we got her on November 23rd She's had or been diagnosed with:
- – Pine shavings in her stool (that was the bedding at the breeders farm)
- – bacteria in her stool treated twice with three antibiotics and two stomach medication
- – Antibiotic and Stomach medication injections
- – 2nd set of vaccinations
- – left eye infection
- – right ear infection
- – roundworms – treated three times with Drontal Plus
- – swollen right eye
- – three stool tests including Culture and sensitivity
- – diarrhea, diarrhea and diarrhea ….. and that continues!
Her stool has been tested three times. The last test was an expensive stool culture and sensitivity test to rule out Giardia, salmonella and other dangerous bacterial infections. It was all negative. So she no longer has any kind of intestinal bacterial infection.
She's underweight and has only gained .5 of a kilo (that's just over a pound) in the three and a half weeks that we've had her.
Now, since it seems that the minor intestinal bacterial infection that she came to us with is gone we've decided to change her diet.
I know the round worms might be the soul cause of her diarrhea but she's had three treatments for it now so that too should be gone or just about gone. So the only other thing that we could try to resolve her diarrhea was to address her diet. Perhaps some of the ingredients in her food were causing upset or maybe she has an allergy to some of the ingredients. So we changed her diet to Blue Buffalo Large breed puppy food. It's all natural with no preservatives, no wheat, no corn and no soy. She's only been on it since Monday evening and we were mixing it with the remainder of her medical diet so we haven't seen any big improvement in her stool yet, but I'm hoping things will change soon.
The vet thought we'd give her a rest of medications over the next few weeks unless she gets worse. Since she's had a lot of meds her bodies been through a lot and it might just need time to adjust back to normal before her diarrhea goes away. He also brought up the fact that she might have some kind of congenital problem that could be causing her symptoms like liver shunts. Her heart sounds fine so he thinks her heart is probably ok.
Poor thing. After she vomited on Wednesday the vet told us to not allow her to have any water for 12 hours (yeah, try walking a snow loving puppy and have her not eat some snow!) and not to eat for 24 hours. Well our little puppy loves her food and treats. In fact we're training her with treats so going 15 minutes without a little morsel is painful for her. LOL
Needless to say there was a lot of whining that day. Midnight ran to the kitchen to check her food and water bowls constantly and my patience was worn thin.
Even worse, whenever she got excited … like playing fetch with Chris when he came home from work, her right eye would swell up again. I was starting to think that maybe she had a blood pressure problem or maybe the pressure had increased in her head causing her eye to swell.
Yes, nurses who know too much get some pretty scary thoughts!
It was a long day.
Late in the evening I was able to give her some ice cubes to suck on and she had a ball chasing the ice cubes around on the floor. She made a game of it, but she had a drink.
On Thursday morning her right eye looked a lot better, but it swelled up again when she ate her breakfast. I thought about food allergies then, but I also remembered that a few times the day before when she got excited her eye swelled. Worst of all her left eye swelled up a bit too!
I'm still not sure what's going on there. Her eye hasn't swollen badly again since Thursday morning but both eyes look a little glossy. I've been giving her eye drops just in case there's an infection going on.
So as you can see I've been pretty busy over the last few weeks caring for my sick, yet energetic, Labrador Retriever puppy.
She's been on a special medical diet and we were adding white rice and broth to her food to treat the diarrhea and to help keep her hydrated. Heck we even added Gatorade to her water to help in that regard.
I'm at my wits end as to how to help her. We've done just about everything we can – I think. She'll have a few good days and then something like the eye swelling will happen.
All I can do is keep my fingers crossed that the new diet helps and that she starts to get better as time goes by.
Wish me luck and bear with me if my blogging is a little less than normal please. I have a sick fur baby.


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ajDaniel Bryanjerry lawlerjim rossJohn CenaMichael Colesantino marellaSheamustyson kiddVince McMahonWWEWWE Money in the Bankwwe nxtWWE RawWWE SmackdownHave a news tip? Attended an event and want to send a live report?
This week's RAW started off like the old attitude era days where every time someone is trying to make a point, someone else comes out to ruin the party. I enjoyed the segment and Jericho is finely placing himself between being a heel and a face with his recent comedic actions. His segment with Bryan in the back had me in stitches! Even Jericho looked like he was fighting back a laugh!
The AJ story continues and WWE have done a great job of making her look impartial as well as insane. Even I was wondering whether she was just going to dive through the table on RAW to end a rather bizarre segment. The reason why AJ is so compelling at the minute is because we have no idea what direction they will take with her next.
The only thing that worries me about this is where it will eventually lead too. I cannot imagine AJ is going to be an insane character for the rest of her WWE career so at some point she either has to distance herself from the WWE Championship story and go on her own in the Divas division or side with one person for the near future. Either way I'm just enjoying the ride as we are being treated to a great story and their segment was actually the ending to RAW this week rather than John Cena. It's nicely paced and puts more credibility on the WWE Championship again. Last week's RAW was frustrating as we had the both world champions in the first match of the show whilst Cena took the helm at the end.
I was extremely happy for Tyson Kidd getting the win over Tensai. It creates doubt for the MITB match and also gives Kidd the chance he so desperately deserves. I would love for someone like Kidd or Sandow to win the SmackDown MITB match and even though it won't likely happen I'm glad that they are being used rather than thrown on 'Superstars.'
The only danger with the underdog winning the MITB for SmackDown and looking to take Sheamus' title is the fact that it may drop the World Title down a notch further. At the moment it feels more like a glorified US Title with no purpose, so what's really the value in winning it. If an underdog from SmackDown wins the MITB I would love them to hold the briefcase for some time and use it to improve their TV time slowly becoming a viable threat to whoever is champion.
Santino and Christian do not need to be in this match because again the Intercontinental and US Titles suffer. Both guys will obviously add something to the match as competitors but either unification or separate defences would have been much preferred.
I also love how WWE throw about the 30 day defence rule whenever they want too. On RAW last week Cole announced that Santino hadn't defended his Championship since April! Why would you make such a statement? I would have preferred Cole to have said something along the lines of "In case you were wondering when the last time Santino has defended his US Championship, the last televised defence was back in April on RAW but he has since defended at many local events in the past few weeks!" It's not hard to do and people wouldn't have complained.
I would also criticise the fact that Michael Cole made the statement last week that Big Show continues his dominance. 7 days prior to this moment he lost a steel cage match to John Cena. How is that being dominant? Cole is also taking the biscuit when he starts calling Ryback's moves 'Vintage.'
Thank god that I can listen to some JR commentary on the new NXT otherwise I think I would go insane. The RAW commentary team should be changed up severely. People like Josh Mathews, Matt Striker and William Regal all provide more entertainment and focus on the match and should be used. I love Booker T in small doses but the sheer fact that his mind can't keep up with his mouth doesn't do him any favours and if that wasn't bad enough he will always have Cole there to pick him up on any faults he makes.
Whatever happened to the glory team of Vince, King and JR? Vince was the passion, King was the heel and JR was the brains. I know people will argue that Heenan and Monsoon were the team and I can respect that. It depends who was the first team you ever witnessed, after all, first is always the most memorable.
I just loved the chemistry between them. Vince had his crazy "what a manoeuvre" and passion to count every pinfall like it was the victory. King always pulled JR's strings and got him wound up and JR was constantly talking tactics and strategies in the matches whether it be a matching strength with somebody or "destroying the vertical base." It had it all. Anyway I digress.
Money in the Bank is shaping up to be a good event again and no matter what was done this year I couldn't imagine the same hype being created as we got 12 months ago with the infamous Punk pipebomb.
That being said we have new blood being given opportunities and the chance to see another clinic between possibly the two best in the company right now.
Here is hoping that momentum continues and with the 1000th episode of RAW only a few weeks away I'm hoping we are treated to another 'big' angle for the summer.
Check out VOWlive.com for all the latest news regarding Virtually Reality and the next episode should be going live this weekend! It's sure to be a lot of fun!
Keep your eyes peeled!

subset: commoncrawl


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Vortex (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, Book 6)
by Troy Denning
Cover Artist: Ian Keltie
Review by Bill Lawhorn
LucasBooks Hardcover ISBN/ITEM#: 9780345509208
Date: 30 November 2010 List Price $27.00 Amazon US / Amazon UK / Show Article /
Peace is a lie. There is only passion. That is the start of the Sith Code. Luke and Ben Skywalker are working with the Sith and must remember those words. The death of Abeloth in the prior entrant in the series seemed to bring a conclusion to part of the series, but life is never that simple. Abeloth lives and has escaped her prison. Luke and the Sith must continue to work together, while both sides wait for the moment of the Sith betrayal. Vestara and Ben continue their strange and developing relationship. From official release/information:
Product Description: In a stunning turn of events, Luke Skywalker and his son, Ben, joined forces with members of the Sith armada sent to kill them—and turned their combined might against the monstrous being Abeloth. But with Abeloth gone, the Sith reverted to form, making a treacherous attempt on Luke's life.
(Source: LucasBooks)
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© 2002-2018SFRevu


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Chicago Public School Closings 101: 10 Things To Read and Hear…
Over the past few months, I have heard a number of people speak about Chicago school closings. Unfortunately, many people were woefully uninformed about the key issues. As a public service, I have aggregated some articles and resources that I found most informative and useful in understanding the Chicago school closings struggle. I have intentionally limited the list to 10 items.
Fact Check: Chicago school closings by Becky Vevea and Linda Lutton, May 16, 2013 – If you only read one piece, read this one. It provides the most comprehensive consideration of all of the claims that have been made by the Chicago Public Schools about the necessity to close over 50 schools.
Common Sense on School Closings by Curtis Black, May 20, 2013 — Curtis does a terrific job in this post separating lies from truth.
CReATE Research Brief on School Closures by Chicago Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education, March 19, 2013
Chicagoans Talk About What Will Be Lost If Their Schools Close, WBEZ (Audio), May 22, 2013
CPS Closings: Interactive Map with Affected Schools, Gang Lines by Mark Konkol, May 21, 2013
Analysis and Larger Context
Disaster Capitalism, Chicago Style by Kenzo Shibata, February 22, 2013
Marching in Chicago: Resisting Rahm Emanuel's Neoliberal Savagery by Henry A. Giroux, May 20, 2013
No Act of God Caused Chicago Schools to Close by Rev. John Thomas – CHICAGO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, May 23, 2013
School Closings, Spring 2013 Issue of Catalyst Magazine
Where The Real Danger Lies by Marilyn Katz, May 23, 2013
Reactions and Aftermath – [BONUS ITEM]
Karen Lewis Reacts to Largest Mass Closure of Public Schools in U.S. History
Watch the following excellent video. The struggle continues!


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I may not be a pinball wizard like many out there, but I do enjoy a good pinball game. Zen Studios has a knack for making some very interesting tables that feel realistic in their mechanics, but also keep that nice "video game" feel to them. Now, with their second batch of Star Wars themed tables hitting their hub of PinballFX 2, I can see the force is very strong with Zen Studios.
The Balance of the Force pack comes with three new tables: Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader and Starfighter Assault. Each has their own take and specialties all set within the Star Wars universe.
Return of the Jedi looks like a diorama of sorts, with multiple characters and familiar faces seen throughout the table. It is relatively small compared to the others in the pack, and will require some quick thinking and fast reflexes. Since the ball is moving so fast, it was challenging to hit it exactly where I wanted it. There are numerous missions the player can choose to accept while playing. Every mission is a scene from the film and has different objectives. Certain missions will offer up multi-ball chances and big score multipliers.
The Darth Vader table is a rather unique one. This table has the highest score possibilities of the three, and certain missions the player can take on offer up big score bonuses. Assembling Vader as the first mission can offer up some huge points early on. By hitting certain points on the table, players can get a million points per hit, and this is just at the start of the game. This table is more open than the others with a bit more breathing room for calculated shots, and with a giant Vader helmet staring at me in the background, it gives off a great look and feel.
Finally, the Starfighter Assault table begins with players choosing to be part of the Rebel Alliance or the Empire. Depending on the side players choose, they will have different missions accordingly. Granted the missions all revolve around the same mechanics, but with a table split down the middle with the dark side on the left and the light side on the right, there isn't much else that can be changed. This table has players doing extra things aside from pinball. Small mini games will occur during missions, the first of which is a Galaga-type game where the player moves a band of fighters left and right using the bumpers and the ball shoot button to fire. It's a bit clunky, but after some practice, it becomes easier.
Starfighter Assault is the weakest out of the bunch as far as table mechanics go. There is a limited amount of space on the board and even less to shoot at. The ramps seem to need almost perfect shots to ring, and aside from the slots players need to hit to start a new mission, there's not much else to hit. Still, the missions offer up plenty of variety.
The Balance of the Force is a great pack for the PinballFX 2 player. The presentation and look of all the tables fit right in with the Star Wars theme, and all of them offer up a different feel. While Starfighter Assault may rely on the mini-games a bit too much, it's still fun to play. Darth Vader is where the casual pinball players will find their fun, and skillful, quick thinking players will have a blast with The Return of the Jedi. For ten bucks, pinball fans will get a decent set of tables to add to the addiction. If you enjoy Star Wars or pinball in general, you may want to pick these up.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.


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Karen's Kakery ...
No matter how much time I think it will take, because I get so wrapped up in the detail it always takes longer.
I always seam to get my orders done by the skin of my teeth too…..lol :-)
© 2011-2018 CakesDecor.com. All Rights Reserved.
DISCLAIMER: Any posts on CakesDecor.com (CD) are posted by individuals acting in their own right and do not necessarily reflect the views of CD. CD will not be held liable for the actions of any user.


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It has been clear for years that the MSM cannot be depended on to tell the American people the truth. They ignore the truth (can you spell Kermit Gosnell?), they slant it, they twist it to fit whatever Obama/progressive narrative is needed at the moment.
The Boston Marathon bombing coverage has been like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Lots of dramatic pictures, "clever" headlines, gory details, and SPECULATION ad nauseam!
Yesterday was a particularly bad day for the clowns calling themselves journalists, particularly at CNN! We were subjected to news conferences and "arrests about to be made" being reported by multiple news outlets that never happened. Oops, is that egg on your collective faces?
All of this pales in comparison to the pictures below. The narrative many are so desperate for us to believe is that a "lone wolf" was responsible or a "right-winger" but they can't find a credible way to make it stick.
Take a look at these pictures and ask yourself does anything we are being spoon fed by the MSM ring true? No? It looks to me like there are multiple persons who are involved in the bombing. There are over 50 pictures for you to examine, take your time and think about what you are seeing.
BTW, here's another question to ask yourselves, why it that the Saudi 'Person Of Interest' allegedly cleared of charges he was involved with the bombing suddenly being deported?


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A virtual machine is a computer defined in software. It's like running a PC on your PC.
This free desktop virtualization software application makes it easy to operate any virtual machine created by VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, VMware Server or VMware ESX.
Key Features Include:
- Run multiple operating systems simultaneously on a single PC.
- Experience the benefits of preconfigured products without any installation or configuration issues.
- Share data between host computer and virtual machine.
- Run both 32 and 64 bit virtual machines.
- Leverage 2-way Virtual SMP.
- Use 3rd-party virtual machines and images.
- Share data between host computer and virtual machine.
- Broad host and guest operating system support.
- Support for USB 2.0 devices.
- Get appliance info at start-up.
- Gain easy access to virtual machines via intuitive home page interface.
VMware Player also supports Microsoft Virtual Server virtual machines or Microsoft Virtual PC virtual machines.
# Resolved Issues
* In some cases upon starting a virtual machine, the USB arbitration service might fail to start on systems that do not have a device identified as USBFDO-0 and prevent the use of USB devices in the virtual machine. The following error message appears, "Host USB device connections disabled". For this release, the USB arbitration service is updated to start whenever a USB device exists even if no devices meet this criteria.
* When a host system failure occurs during a virtual machine disk operation, attempting to power on the virtual machine or mount the virtual disk using the VMware Disk Mount utility causes the following error messages to appear, " Cannot open the disk... The specified virtual disk needs repair" and "Error reading volume information. Please select another disk file". There is no data lost during this process. VMware Player 3.1.1 fixes this issue and enables virtual machine operations to resume.
* Mapping a virtual disk with multiple partitions to a drive on the host machine and enabling write access only succeeds if you are mounting the first partition. This update enables other partitions to be successfully mounted and accessible to the host operating system.


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NC's Labor Market Disappoints In 2013's First Half
(August 8, 2013) – North Carolina's labor market recorded little net employment growth (seasonally adjusted) over the first six months of 2013. During the first half of the year, the state gained 16,100 more payroll jobs than it lost (+0.4 percent). The private sector accounted for all of the net job growth. Moreover, all of the net job growth experienced so far in 2013 occurred during the year's first three months; in fact, the state experienced no net job growth during the second quarter of 2013.
Given such weak job growth, relatively little progress was made against unemployment. While the number of unemployed individuals and the unemployment rate fell during the first half of 2013, those drops were intertwined with a 1.2 percent decline in the size of the state's labor force. Compared to a year ago, 4,441 fewer North Carolinians were part of the labor force (-0.1 percent). And compared to five years earlier, only 6,049 more North Carolinians were employed in June (+0.1 percent), while 140,765 more persons were unemployed (+51 percent).
Six Months of Slow Job Growth
During the first six months of 2013, business establishments in North Carolina added 16,100 more payroll jobs than they shed (+0.4 percent). The private sector drove that growth by netting 16,900 positions (+0.5 percent), but the public sector shed 800 more positions than it gained (-0.1 percent). With those changes, North Carolina's public sector (federal, state, and local) employs 5,800 fewer persons (-0.8 percent) than it did in June 2008. All of the public-sector losses occurred in the state government and local government subsectors, both of which now have fewer positions than they did five years ago.
Fig. 1 shows, the monthly pattern of job growth in 2013. When the monthly totals are grouped into calendar quarters, distinct patterns emerge. In Q1 (Jan.-Mar.), private payrolls gained 15,100 more positions than they lost (+0.5 percent), and public payrolls netted 1,100 jobs (+0.2 percent), resulting in a net gain of 16,200 jobs (+0.4 percent). In Q2 (Apr.-Jun.), private-sector growth slowed (+1,800 jobs, +0.1 percent), and public-sector employers shed 1,900 positions (-0.3 percent), leading to a net loss of 100 jobs (+/- 0 percent). The cumulative result was a six-month net gain of 16,100 jobs.
The first half of 2013 was the most disappointing one for net job growth in North Carolina since the onset of the recovery. The net gain of 16,100 jobs was 64.4 percent smaller than the gain recorded during the first half of 2012, 23.7 percent lower than the gain recorded during the first half of 2011, and 34.8 percent smaller than the gain recorded during the first half of 2010. The 0.4 percent rate of net job growth logged during the first half of 2013 also was lower than the growth rates posted during the first halves of 2012, 2011, and 2010 (+1.2 percent, +0.5 percent, and +0.6 percent, respectively).
Job growth during the first part of 2013 did not occur uniformly across industries (fig. 2). The leisure and hospitality sector grew the most in absolute terms (+12,200 jobs, +2.9 percent); some 75.4 percent of that growth was attributable to the accommodation and food services subsector (+9,200 jobs, +2.5 percent). The next largest net increase was in the professional and business services sector (+7,900 jobs, +1.5 percent), with 77.2 percent of that growth originating in the administrative and waste management subsector. The information sector contributed 3,000 jobs (+4.3 percent) to the six-month net change, followed by the finance sector (+2,500 jobs, +1.2 percent.)
In terms of contracting private-sector industries, education and health services lost the most jobs in absolute terms (-2,700 jobs, -0.5 percent), followed by manufacturing (-1,700, -0.4 percent, with 70.6 percent of the decline linked to manufacturers of non-durable goods), construction (-1,500 jobs, -0.9 percent), trade, transportation, warehousing, and utilities (-1,400 jobs, -0.2 percent), and other services (-1,300, -0.9 percent).
Note that the industrial employment patterns seen since the February 2010 onset of a labor market recovery are inconsistent with the claim that joblessness is the result of mismatches between workforce skills and job requirements. Some 23.6 percent of the net private-sector job growth recorded between February 2010 and June 2013 occurred in the administrative and waste management (including temporary help services) subsector, while another 35.4 percent originated in the accommodation and food services (20 percent) and the retail trade (11.8 percent) industrial subsectors. All three of those fields generally employ significant numbers of workers with modest skill levels. They also are industries that tend to pay relatively low wages, offer few benefits, and provide little stability or predictability. Workers consequently tend to turn toward these industries when they have few other employment options.
A Sizable Job Gap Remains
The weak job growth recorded during the first half of 2013 did little to replace the jobs lost earlier in the business cycle. From the onset of the "Great Recession" in December 2007 through June 2013, North Carolina lost, on net, 119,600 positions, or 2.9 percent of its payroll employment base. The maximum job loss recorded during the period occurred in February 2010, when the state had 327,800 fewer jobs (-7.9 percent) than it did 26 months earlier. Between then and June 2013, North Carolina netted an average of 5,200 payroll jobs per month, resulting in a cumulative gain of 208,200 positions (+5.4 percent).
While the state's economy added more jobs than it lost during the first half of 2013, the rate of job growth was too subdued to alter materially the employment situation. Even if the North Carolina labor market succeeded in adding another 16,100 jobs during the second half of 2013 and then managed to replicate that gain every six months going forward, it would take through the end of 2016 to close the jobs gap that existed in June, holding all else equal.
As fig. 3 shows, the job losses recorded during the Great Recession have proven more severe than the ones experienced during the 2001 and 1990-1991 recessions. At the height of the 2001 recession, the state lost 4.5 percent of its jobs base, and the comparable drop during the 1990-1991 recession was 1.9 percent. In both of those recessions, the job gap closed steadily after the peak losses were realized. During the current cycle, however, the peak contraction was greater, and the recovery has proven much slower.
To further understand the magnitude of the job gap facing North Carolina, consider how the state had only 111,800 more payroll jobs (+2.8 percent) in June 2013 than it had in June 2000, despite having a much larger economy. Between 2000 and 2012, the last year with complete data, economic output in North Carolina rose by 24.1 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. Moreover, the state has regained all of the economic output lost earlier in the Great Recession, and the statewide economy was, in real terms, 3.7 percent larger in 2012 than it was in 2007. Such growth, however, has not sparked job growth.
Remember, too, that the job shortfall facing North Carolina actually is larger than the one caused by the destruction of jobs during the recession. Between December 2007 and June 2013, the number of working-age persons residing in North Carolina grew by 8.9 percent. That means that the state should have added an estimated 390,000 jobs to keep pace with population growth. If one considers the jobs that should have been created since December 2007 but were not, the job gap facing the state in June 2013 was 509,000 positions (fig. 4).
To close that gap by June 2016, holding all else equal, North Carolina would need to net 14,100 jobs per month for each of the next 36 months — an average monthly net gain 2.7 times greater than the one experienced between February 2010 and June 2013. At no point since 1990 has North Carolina sustained such growth for so long. In fact, North Carolina has netted at least 14,000 payroll jobs in just 39 of the 282 months (13.8 percent) stretching from January 1990 to June 2013.
Unemployment Still Alarmingly Elevated
Weak job growth during the first half of 2012 did little to reduce the problems of unemployment and joblessness across North Carolina. The monthly number of unemployed Tar Heels (seasonally adjusted) averaged 431,126. Unemployment was higher in both absolute and relative terms during the first quarter of the year than in the second quarter. From January 2013 to June 2013, the statewide unemployment rate fell from 9.5 percent to 8.8 percent, which was the lowest level recorded since December 2008. That said, unemployment remained elevated by any objective measure. In June 2013, for instance, the statewide unemployment rate was almost double the rate posted in June 2007 (8.8 percent versus 4.7 percent), and the total number of unemployed persons was 96.7 percent larger.
When judged in terms of the statewide unemployment rate (seasonally unadjusted), the recent recession has proven to be the longest and most severe of any post-1980 downturn (fig. 5). Between 1980 and 2008, the highest unemployment rate recorded in North Carolina was 11.3 percent in March 1983. During the same 28-year period, the unemployment rate exceeded 10 percent in four months, all in the early 1980s. Since February 2009, however, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate has exceeded 10 percent in 34 of 53 months (64.2 percent) and has fallen no lower than 8.8 percent.
In every other post-1980 recession, the state unemployment rate had returned to its pre-recessionary level by 45 months following the onset of the downturn. Despite the passage of 66 months since the onset of the most recent recession, North Carolina's seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate of 9.3 percent in June was 4.4 percentage points higher than the December 2007 level of 4.9 percent.
Unemployment Is One of Many Labor Market Problems
The size of the state's civilian labor force (seasonally adjusted) contracted by 57,970 individuals (-1.2 percent) during the first half of 2013. In June 2013, the state's labor force had 4,441 fewer individuals (-0.9 percent) than the year before, even though the number of working-age people in the state had grown by 78,000 individuals, or 1 percent (fig 6).
An important reason why the size of the labor force has held relatively constant despite steady growth in the population of working-age people is the sharp drop in the labor force participation rate, which measures the share of the working-age population that is employed or unemployed.
In June 2013, the state's seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate equaled 62.2 percent, a rate that is both lower than then the 62.9 percent figure posted a year earlier and close to the 37-year low of 62.2 percent set earlier in the downturn. The depressed labor force participation rate indicates that many people of working age are not participating in the labor market, either by choice (e.g., retirees and homemakers) or due to discouragement. This suggests that joblessness is more widespread than reflected in the official unemployment rate.
To put the depressed labor force participation rate in context, consider how the rate equaled 67.5 percent in June 2000. If the rate had held constant, all else being equal, the number of employed and unemployed persons residing in North Carolina in June 2013 would have totaled 5,107,795 — a number 8.5 percent greater than the actual figure of 4,709,264. While the labor force participation rate likely should have dropped to some degree over the past 13 years due to demographic changes, the magnitude of the drop suggests that cyclical factors are at play.
Two additional measures help to illustrate the extent to which labor currently is sitting idle in North Carolina. The first measure is the employment-to-population ratio, which reflects the share of the working-age population that is employed. In June 2013, the employment-to-population ratio in North Carolina was 56.7 percent, down from the 57.4 percent rate recorded in December 2012 and and the 56.9 percent figure posted a year earlier.
While the employment-to-population ratio has increased somewhat from the extraordinary low level of 56.3 percent experienced in the third quarter of 2011, the ratio remains near that 37-year low (fig. 7). If the rate in June 2013 had equaled the June 2000 figure of 65 percent, holding all else equal, the number of employed persons residing in North Carolina would have totaled 4,918,600 — a figure 4.4 percent greater than the actual one of 4,709,264.
The second important measure is the underemployment rate, which is a broader gauge of labor under-utilization prepared quarterly by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This statistic captures the share of the state's adjusted labor force that was unemployed, working part-time despite wanting full-time work, or marginally attached to the workforce (due to discouragement or other reasons). During the second quarter of 2013, North Carolina's underemployment rate equaled 15.6 percent, down slightly from the 16.2 percent rate posted in the first quarter of the year.
Regardless of the exact measure used, a sizable amount of labor in North Carolina was sitting idle in June. Almost nine of every 100 members of the state's labor force were unemployed (seasonally adjusted), while almost 16 of every 100 persons in the adjusted labor force were underemployed. Compared to 13 years ago, more North Carolinians were unemployed in both absolute and relative terms in June, and smaller shares of the working-age population were employed or were even participating in the labor force.
The fundamental reason why so many potential workers are sitting on the labor market's sidelines is a lack of jobs. According to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the ratio of unemployed adults to available job openings in June 2013 in the South was 2.6-to-1 (state-level data are unavailable). In short, there simply were no jobs for almost two of every three unemployed Southerners in June.
Geographic Patterns of Unemployment
During the first half of 2013, labor market conditions remained weak across North Carolina. In June 2013, 44 counties had unemployment rates of at least 10 percent. Compared to a year earlier, unemployment rates were lower in 85 counties, higher in 12 counties, and unchanged in three counties. (All local figures are seasonally unadjusted.)
Labor markets in non-metropolitan communities remained particularly weak during the first part of 2013. In June 2012, the unemployment rate in non-metropolitan North Carolina was 10.3 percent, down from the 10.7 percent rate recorded one year earlier. The metropolitan unemployment rate also fell over the course of the year, dropping to 8.9 percent from 9.4 percent. Meanwhile, 8.6 percent of the combined labor force residing in the "Big Three" metro areas of Charlotte, the Research Triangle, and the Piedmont Triad was unemployed.
From the onset of the recession until June 2013, the size of North Carolina's non-metro labor force rose by 1,364 individuals (+0.1 percent), while the metropolitan labor force gained 236,697 members (+7.5 percent). Within metro North Carolina, growth in the "Big Three" metros accounted for 71.5 percent of the total gain.
As fig. 8 shows, the labor market performances of North Carolina's metro areas varied over the year. Nine of the state's 14 areas recorded decreases in their labor forces, with the greatest declines occurring in the Rocky Mount (-2.1 percent) and Hickory-Morganton-Lenoir (-1.6 percent) metros. In contrast, Asheville's labor force grew by 1.4 percent, followed by the Greenville metro (+1.1 percent). Since the start of the recession, the greatest rates of labor force growth have occurred in Jacksonville (+12.6 percent) and Greenville (+12.3 percent), followed by Fayetteville (+11 percent) and Raleigh-Cary (+10.4 percent).
At 7.1 percent, Asheville had the lowest metro unemployment rate in June 2013. Next came Durham-Chapel Hill (7.3 percent), Raleigh-Cary (7.5 percent), Winston-Salem (8.7 percent), Goldsboro (9.2 percent), and Charlotte (9.3 percent). The highest rates were in Rocky Mount (13.3 percent), Hickory (10.5 percent), and Fayetteville (10.4 percent).
When looking at local unemployment numbers, it is important to place them in perspective. The 7.1 percent unemployment rate found in the Asheville metro in June, for instance, was low relative to the performance of other North Carolina metros, yet it is was high by any objective standard. Consider how in June 2008 just 4.9 percent of Asheville's labor force was unemployed. Five years later, the area's unemployment rate was 2.2 percentage points higher, while the number of unemployed residents was 51.4 percent larger. Despite faring better than other metros in the state, Asheville's labor market hardly can be called robust.
Cloudy Prospects
The first half of 2013 proved highly disappointing for North Carolina's labor market. While the year began on a positive note thanks to hiring in the private sector during the year's first quarter, growth ground to a halt in the second quarter. The resulting net gain of 16,100 payroll jobs was the worst first-half gain in both absolute and relative terms recorded since the onset of the recovery. If the trends continue during the second half of the year, 2013 will be the worst year for job growth in North Carolina since the advent of the recovery.
While the statewide unemployment rate did fall during the first half of the year and now is the lowest rate posted since late 2008, the decline was intertwined with a movement of people out of the labor force. Compared to December 2012, some 30,300 fewer North Carolinians were unemployed (-6.8 percent), but the number of employed persons also fell over the same period. Compared to the start of the year, 27,700 fewer North Carolinians now have jobs (-0.6 percent). The decline in the unemployment rate therefore is attributable to a contraction in the size of the labor force rather than improved employment prospects for North Carolinians.
In sum, the current rate of job growth in North Carolina is insufficient to close the state's sizable job gap anytime soon. The problem of mass joblessness consequently should endure, even if the extent of the problem is being masked to some degree by a decline in the unemployment rate. Some 5.5 years after the onset of the Great Recession, a full recovery for North Carolina's labor market remains a distant goal.
Individuals with a printed copy of this analysis may access it online at http://www.sbnstrategies.com/?p=13278 or by scanning the QR code below.
All materials within this analysis Copyright © 2013 by South by North Strategies, Ltd.


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In late July, I opened an account with Loyal3, which is an online source for purchasing stock. The platform is pretty cool because you're able to become a partial owner in some really profitable companies like Apple, Coca-Cola, Nike, and McDonald's without paying any fees. I've also recently opened another brokerage account with another outfit because Loyal3 only has around 60-65 companies from which you can purchase stock. If you want to branch out into a sector or company that's not included, you have to do it with another broker. Regardless, one of my purchases from early in August paid a dividend after I bought in, so without further ado, here is my dividend income from the month of August:
Apple, Inc (AAPL) $0.64
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How many dividends did you get for not working in August?
Disclaimer: I am not a professional financial advisor. This site is for informational/educational/motivational purposes. Be sure to contact a certified financial advisor or accountant before making investment decisions.


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Builder design pattern in Java is a creational pattern i.e. used to create objects, similar to factory method design pattern which is also creational design pattern. Before learning any design pattern I suggest find out the problem a particular design pattern solves. Its been well said necessity is mother on invention. learning design pattern without facing problem is not that effective, Instead if you have already faced issues than its much easier to understand design pattern and learn how its solve the issue. In this Java design pattern tutorial we will first see what problem Builder design pattern solves which will give some insight on when to use builder design pattern in Java, which is also a popular design pattern interview question and then we will see example of Builder design pattern and pros and cons of using Builder pattern in Java.
Builder Design pattern in Java - Example Tutorial
Posted by Javin Paul 25 comments
Labels: core java , design patterns
10 xargs command example in Linux - Unix tutorial
xargs command in unix or Linux is a powerful command used in conjunction with find and grep command in UNIX to divide a big list of arguments into small list received from standard input. find and grep command produce long list of file names and we often want to either remove them or do some operation on them but many unix operating system doesn't accept such a long list of argument. UNIX xargs command divide that list into sub-list with acceptable length and made it work. This Unix tutorial is in continuation of my earlier post on Unix like 10 examples of chmod command in Unix and How to update soft link in Linux. If you haven't read those unit tutorial than check them out. By the way In this tutorial we will see different example of unix xargs command to learn how to use xargs command with find and grep and other unix command and make most of it. Though what you can do with xargs in unix can also be done by using options provided in find but believe xargs is much easy and powerful.
Posted by Javin Paul 0 comments
What is -XX:+UseCompressedOops in 64 bit JVM
-XX:+UseCompressedOops JVM command line option is one of the most talked options of 64 bit JVM. Though 64 bit JVM allows you to specify larger Java heap sizes it comes with a performance penalty by using 64 bit OOPS. Ordinary object pointers also known as OOPS which is used to represent Java objects in Virtual Machine has an increased width of 64 bit than smaller 32 bit from earlier 32 bit JVM. because of increased size of OOPS, fewer OOPS can be stored in CPU cache registers which effectively reduced CPU cache efficiency. -XX:+UseCompressedOops enables the use of compressed 32 bit OOPS in 64 bit JVM which effectively compensate performance penalty imposed by 64 bit JVM without scarifying heap size advantage offered by them. You should use -XX:+UseCompressedOops if maximum heap size specified by -Xmx is less than 32G. This is my 3rd article on JVM after 10 JVM option Java programmer should know and how to find 32 bit JVM or 64 bit JVM, I suggest reading those if you want to learn more about JVM.
Posted by Javin Paul 6 comments
Labels: core java , core java interview question , JVM Internals
HashSet in Java – 10 Examples Programs Tutorial
HashSet in Java is a collection which implements Set interface and backed by an HashMap. Since HashSet uses HashMap internally it provides constant time performance for operations like add, remove, contains and size give HashMap has distributed elements properly among the buckets. Java HashSet does not guarantee any insertion orders of the set but it allows null elements. HashSet can be used in place of ArrayList to store the object if you require no duplicate and don't care about insertion order. Iterator of HashSet is fail-fast and throws ConcurrentModificationException if HashSet instance is modified concurrently during iteration by using any method other than remove() method of iterator class.If you want to keep insertion order by using HashSet than consider using LinkedHashSet. It is also a very important part of any Java collection interview, In short correct understanding of HashSet is must for any Java developer.
Labels: core java , java collection tutorial
JUnit4 Annotations : Test Examples and Tutorial
JUnit4 Annotations are single big change from JUnit 3 to JUnit 4 which is introduced in Java 5. With annotations creating and running a JUnit test becomes more easy and more readable, but you can only take full advantage of JUnit4 if you know the correct meaning of annotations used on this version and how to use them while writing tests. In this
Junit tutorial we will not only understand meaning of those annotations but also we will see examples of JUnit4 annotations. By the way this is my first post in unit testing but if you are new here than you may like post 10 tips to write better code comments and 10 Object oriented design principles for Programmer as well.
How to close Java program or Swing Application with Example
In order to close Java program we need to consider which kind of Java application it is?, because termination of Java application varies between normal core java program to swing GUI application. In general all Java program terminates automatically once all user threads created by program finishes its execution, including main thread. JVM doesn't wait for daemon thread so as soon as last user thread finished, Java program will terminate. If you want to close or terminate your java application before this your only option is to use System.exit(int status) or Runtime.getRuntime().exit(). This cause JVM to abandon all threads and exit immediately. Shutdown hooks are get called to allow some last minute clearing before JVM actually terminates. System.exit() also accept an int status parameter where a non zero value denote abnormal execute and its the result returned by java command to caller. In this java tutorial we will see example of closing both Java program and Java Swing application. This is also a good swing interview questions which you can ask to any GUI developer and my second article in swing after writing invokeAndWait vs invokeLater
Posted by Javin Paul 1 comments
JDBC Database connection pool in Spring Framework – How to Setup Example
Setting up JDBC Database Connection Pool in Spring framework is easy for any Java application, just matter of changing few configuration in spring configuration file.If you are writing core java application and not running on any web or application server like Tomcat or Weblogic, Managing Database connection pool using Apache Commons DBCP and Commons Pool along-with Spring framework is nice choice but if you have luxury of having web server and managed J2EE Container, consider using Connection pool managed by J2EE server those are better option in terms of maintenance, flexibility and also help to prevent java.lang.OutofMemroyError:PermGen Space in tomcat by avoiding loading of JDBC driver in web-app class-loader, Also keeping JDBC connection pool information in Server makes it easy to change or include settings for JDBC over SSL. In this article we will see how to setup Database connection pool in spring framework using Apache commons DBCP and commons pool.jar
This article is in continuation of my tutorials on spring framework and database like LDAP Authentication in J2EE with Spring Security and manage session using Spring security If you haven't read those article than you may find them useful.
Posted by Javin Paul 7 comments
Video Example of depth first search (DFS) and breadth first search (BFS) graph algorithm
Breadth first Search (BFS) and Depth first search (DFS) algorithm are two most important graph and tree algorithm used for traversal. you can traverse all nodes of tree or graph by using BFS or DFS. Even though most of us learn about Breadth first search and depth first search in college its not easy to understand and it takes time to grasp the concept and I believe that once you understand how BFS or DFS works its easy to implement logic in Java or C++ but trying to implement or copy code without first understanding the algorithm is not going to work. I have read about BFS and DFS in text books, Wikipedia and several other places but never find an explanation as shown in this video. My friend got this video on YouTube few years back while revising concept of BFS and DFS while preparing for programming interview and data structure and shared with me that this is very simple, clear and concise. So I thought to share this BFS and DFS search video with you guys. This video explains How depth first search algorithm works with detailed example and stack data structure along with How breadth first search algorithm works with queue in simple words and live example of Breadth first search. if you are looking for code example than check out our last post Breadth first search in java code example
Posted by Javin Paul 0 comments
Labels: core java , programming
10 Interview Questions on Java Generics for Programmer and Developers
Generic interview questions in Java interviews are getting more and more common with Java 5 around there for considerable time and many application either moving to Java 5 and almost all new Java development happening on Tiger(code name of Java 5). Importance of Generics and Java 5 features like Enum, Autoboxing, varargs and Collection utilities like CountDownLatch, CyclicBarrier and BlockingQueue are getting more and more popular on Java interviews. Generic interview question can get real tricky if you are not familiar with bounded and unbounded generic wildcards, How generics works internally, type erasure and familiarity with writing parametrized generics classes and methods in Java. Best way to prepare for Generics interview is to try simple program best on various features of generics. Anyway In this Java interview article we will see some popular Java Generics interview questions and there answer. By the way there are lot of material available in Javarevisited to better preparing for Java and J2EE interviews, you can prepare multi-threading and Collections using 15 thread interview question and Top 10 Java collection interview question along with several other questions answers articles on Spring, Struts, JSP and Servlet. If you are GUI developers and working in Java Swing technology than you can also check interview questions on Java Swing mostly asked in Investment banks
java.lang.NullPointerException - Common cause of NullPointerException in Java Example
java.lang.NullPointerException or NullPointerException in Java is probably the first Exception you will face in Java. It is true nightmare for beginners in Java but pretty easy to solve once you get familiar with Exception handling in Java. What makes NullPointerException little tricky is its name which has pointer in itself and Java does not support pointers like multiple inheritance in Java . In this article we will see What is NullPointerException in Java, How to solve Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException, finding possible cause of Java NullPointerException and how to troubleshoot NPE in Java. Based on my experience once you know little bit about NullPointerException its pretty easy to solve. By the way, as said, "prevention is better than cure", you can avoid != null check and NullPointerException by following some best practices.
Posted by Javin Paul 25 comments
Labels: core java , error and exception
Location: Yukon, YT, Canada
10 examples of Date command in Unix
Date command in unix or Linux is one of important command to learn and master because we always need date information. no matter you want to know current date in unix or your bash script needs current date in unix for archiving purpose you need to use date command. In its simplest format date command shows the current date and time in unix while with sophisticated option we can extract many useful information from unix date command. In this Unix command tutorial we will see some useful tips on using date command in unix and learn more around date in unix and Linux. One important thing to note is that different implementation of unix date command may not be exactly same e.g. AIX version of date command doesn't support option "-d" or "date". Anyway let's see some example of unix date command:
By the way this is fifth article in my series of covering examples of important and frequently used commands e.g. find examples, grep examples, chmod example and sort command example.
Posted by Javin Paul 4 comments
20 Design pattern and Software design interview questions for Programmers
Design patterns and software design questions are essential part of any programming interview, no matter whether you are going for Java interview or C# interview. In face programming and design skill complement each other quite well, people who are good programmer are often a good designer as well as they know how to break a problem in to piece of code or software design but these skill just doesn't come. You need to keep designing, programming both small scale and large scale systems and keep learning from mistakes.Learning about Object oriented design principles is a good starting point. Anyway this article is about some design questions which has been repeatedly asked in various interviews. I have divided them on two category for beginners and intermediate for the sake of clarity and difficulty level. It contains questions based upon object oriented design patterns as well as on software design e.g. how to code a vending machine in Java. In order to do well, you need to have good knowledge of object oriented analysis and design.
Posted by Javin Paul 26 comments
Labels: core java , design patterns , interview questions
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