text:
What makes a good golf instructor?
A good golf instructor is someone who has the playing skill you'd like to achieve, is qualified to teach golf, and is someone you can get along with. Some experts recommend you only take golf lessons from coaches with active accreditation from reputable associations such as the PGA, LPGA, or similar organizations that focus on continuing education. You'll be spending hours out on the green with the pro during lessons, so a good rapport, strong communication and the right personality fit are key. A proven track record is also important. Read reviews from their current and former students to make sure they have helped people achieve their golfing goals, and always ask about the instructor's experience before signing on for lessons. Years of providing lessons can contribute to a deeper understanding of how to teach the sport. Just because your friend or partner is great at golf doesn't mean they'll give good golf lessons. Invest in a professional golf instructor who knows how to teach the sport from short game to full swing.
How much are golf lessons?
Golf lessons are a great way to break into the sport or take your golf game to a new level. The national average cost for golf lessons is $50-$60, but prices will vary based on what type of lessons you want. The most expensive golf lessons will be private instruction with top-tier coaches. These are golf instructors who have held high professional ranking and have a good reputation. Regardless of who is teaching, private instruction is always more costly than couples' lessons or small group lessons (usually up to four people). Teachers often offer a lower price per lesson when you buy a package of several lessons at one time. Here are some examples of average golf lesson costs:
- Individual lessons:
- Standard pricing for 60-minute private lesson: $60.
- 60-minute lesson with renowned golf coach: $100.
- Couples' lessons:
- Standard pricing for 90-minute duo lesson: $100.
- 60-minute lesson with renowned golf coach: $125.
- Golf lesson package pricing:
- Purchase six individual lessons at one time and save $10.
- Purchase 10 individual lessons at one time and save $40.
- Purchase six couples' lessons at one time and save $40.
- Purchase 10 couples' lessons at one time and save $200.
What age should you start golf lessons?
Golf lessons for kids can start as early as age four or five. They're too young for formal training, but you can keep them interested and engaged and give them a feel for the game. U.S. Kids Golf recommends starting formal training for junior golfers at six years old. It's important for young golfers to swing clubs that are the right length and weight for their body; U.S. Kids Golf provides a fitting guide.
Golf lessons for kids, especially young kids, should be about encouraging success rather than correcting mistakes, according to U.S. Kids Golf. If you want your child to love golf for life, you want their early experiences to be positive. Golf lessons for kids are less expensive than golf lessons for adults. A monthly rate (including four lessons) for group golf lessons for kids may average $100. Semi-private golf lessons for kids may range from $150 to $200 per month. Location and instructor reputation can also affect cost. Often, discounts are provided when multiple months are purchased at one time.


text:
Measuring the suicidal mind
- Date:
- April 12, 2010
- Source:
- Association for Psychological Science
- Summary:
- An implicit association between death/suicide and self may be a behavioral marker for suicide attempt. Participants presenting to the emergency room after a suicide attempt had a stronger implicit association between death/suicide and self than did participants presenting with other psychiatric emergencies. Participants with strong associations between death/suicide and self were more likely to make a suicide attempt within the next six months than were those who had stronger associations between life and self.
- Share:
Following the suicide of a relative or close friend, surviving family members and friends are left with a number of painful questions: "What made them do it?," "Why didn't they get help?" The most troublesome question is often, "Is there anything I could have done to prevent this?" People who are contemplating suicide tend to conceal their behavior, or deny they are having suicidal thoughts, so it can be difficult to identify warning signs. Even experienced clinicians sometimes do not catch any warning signs and suicide experts have been searching for a clear behavioral marker of suicide risk.
Psychological scientist Matthew Nock of Harvard University, along with colleagues from Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, adapted the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure associations between life and death/suicide and examined if it could be effective in predicting suicide risk. The IAT is a widely used test that measures automatic associations people hold about various topics -- participants are shown pairs of words and how quickly they respond indicates if they unconsciously associate those words together. In the IAT version used in this study, participants classified words related to "life" (e.g., breathing) and "death" (e.g., dead) and "me" (e.g., mine) and "not me" (e.g., them). Faster responses to "death"/"me" stimuli than "life"/"me" stimuli would suggest a stronger association between death and self.
People seeking treatment at a psychiatric emergency room participated in this study. They completed the IAT and various mental health assessments. In addition, their medical records were examined six months later to see if they had attempted suicide within that time.
The results, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, revealed that participants presenting to the emergency room after a suicide attempt had a stronger implicit association between death/ suicide and self than did participants presenting with other psychiatric emergencies. In addition, participants with strong associations between death/ suicide and self were significantly more likely to make a suicide attempt within the next six months than were those who had stronger associations between life and self. These results suggest that an implicit association between death/ suicide and self may be a behavioral marker for suicide attempt. These findings also indicate that measures of implicit cognition may be useful for identifying and predicting clinical behaviors that tend not be reported.
As Nock explains, "these results are really exciting because they address a long-standing scientific and clinical dilemma by identifying a method of measuring how people are thinking about death and suicide that does not rely on their self-report." He adds, "we are hopeful that this line of research ultimately will provide scientists and clinicians with new tools for measuring how people think about sensitive clinical behaviors that they may be unwilling or unable to report on verbally."
Mahzarin Banaji, also of Harvard University and a co-author of this study, adds that this work presents a strong argument for the importance of funding basic behavioral research. "These results are an example of basic research helping to solving a troubling and devastating problem in every society. The method we used was designed to understand the mind, but it turned into a technique that can predict disorders of a variety of sorts. One wonders why funding agencies that should know better about the value of basic research seem so naïve when it comes to decisions about what is in the public's interest," Banaji explains.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Association for Psychological Science. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
- Matthew K. Nock, Jennifer M. Park, Christine T. Finn, Tara L. Deliberto, Halina J. Dour, Mahzarin R. Banaji. Measuring the Suicidal Mind: Implicit Cognition Predicts Suicidal Behavior. Psychological Science, 2010; 21: 511-517 DOI: 10.1177/0956797610364762
Cite This Page:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sproščeni in varni klepeti brez tabujev
(in morda še več...)
Our priority is to offer you a quality service that helps you spice up your life and have great encounters. We are proud to help our members connect and to contribute to thousands of exchanges and meetings every day. We've designed simple and fun browsing tools for a unique experience you won't soon forget.
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There's a lot to love about biking to work: the exercise, the fresh air, the cost savings and the benefits for the environment.
But does it make you healthier?
That's a question that's not as easy to answer as you might think. But since today is Bike to Work Day, we'll give it a try.
A large study of 30,000 people in Copenhagen over 14 years found that those who biked to work lowered their risk of death by 40 percent compared to sedentary people. And in the short term, another study of 100 people in Perth, Australia, who replaced some car commutes with bike trips over the course of a year, found the bicycling improved aerobic fitness, cholesterol numbers, and lowered the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
That seems pretty straightforward. But what about the risk of getting crushed by a trash truck? Anyone who's bicycled even a little bit knows all too well the fear of an encounter with a motor vehicle. Just yesterday the Washington Post reported on 20-year-old bicyclist who was critically injured after being hit by a car in downtown Washington.
In 2011, 677 bicyclists died in collisions with motor vehicles. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, bicycle travel accounts for 2 percent of traffic deaths and just 1 percent of trips.
But that stat doesn't account for the miles traveled by bicyclists, and how long it takes them to travel those miles, as well as the type of road they're on, and time of day. (Bicycling later in the day is riskier, and alcohol use may be a factor in that, on the part of both motorists and bicyclists.)
Data on bike accidents is even sketchier, since bicyclists don't typically report crashes to insurers the way drivers do.
A very unscientific survey on the NPR science desk found that almost all of the bike commuters have been injured at least once, with most of the injuries involving broken ribs and collarbones.
Many of them involved collisions with other bicyclists or pedestrians. Some involved another bicyclist violating traffic laws, and some were just bad luck. That includes the time Joe Palca hit a pothole, crashed, and wiped out Richard Harris, who was riding beside him. Both suffered broken bones. Harris says that's the only accident he's had in 21 years of bike commuting to NPR.
"For me, biking to work is the only reason that I've kept in even marginal shape throughout my 20s and 30s," says global health reporter Michaeleen Doucleff. At age 20 she mangled the cartilage in one knee when she hit a pedestrian; he broke a wrist. "Otherwise, I've been pretty lucky. Sixteen years of commuting and just one major accident. Knock on wood."
Several studies have tried to weigh the risk of injury and death in weighing the health aspects of bike commuting. A 2011 study of a bikeshare program in Barcelona found that the increased life expectancy due to better health substantially outweighed the accident risk. Biking's health benefits also outweighed harms caused by exposure to pollution. The further the bicyclists traveled and the more days they biked, the greater the health benefits.
A 2010 study that compared bike commuting to car commuting in the Netherlands estimated that the health benefits of biking adds 3-14 months of life, compared to 5-9 days lost due to accidents, and 0.8 to 40 days lost due to air pollution exposure.
And a 2009 study in The Lancet estimated that switching to biking would do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve health than using low-emissions vehicles.
But these studies were done using computer models, not by actually measuring the health of bicyclists and drivers over time. And they were done using data from European cities, where longstanding acceptance of bicycle travel should make for safer commutes.
Indeed, one of the more fascinating threads to emerge from the skimpy science of bike commuting in America is that the more people bike, the safer it may become. In cities like Seattle, Portland, and Minneapolis, bike travel has soared in the past few years, but accident rates have stayed stable. That may be because of new bikeways that separate cars and bikes, or the fact that drivers are getting used to sharing the road with cyclists.
What next for bike commuters? Expect plenty of argument over whether adults should be required to wear bike helmets.
"Helmets prevent 85 percent of brain injuries," says Frederick Rivara, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington who has studied helmets and injury. "One of the concerns now is that with the bikeshare programs like the one that's going to start in New York and the one you have in DC, they have not dealt with the whole helmet issue."
Some proponents of increased urban biking say that helmets shouldn't be required because it discourages bicycle use for short commutes, errands, and impromptu rides. They point to enviable safety data from European cities where most bike commuters don't wear helmets. A 2012 studyof bicycle riders in DC and Boston found that 20 percent of bikeshare riders used helmets, compared to 50 percent of adults using their own bicycles.
But the doctors aren't buying it. "Concussion is what we're trying to prevent," says Dr. David Milzman, a professor of emergency medicine at Georgetown University and co-author of the study. "There's all this crazy literature that the helmet makes you actually more likely to get injured, because people think they're safer with a helmet. That stuff is crap."
Get a concussion, Milzman says, and you'll be lucky if you miss just a few weeks of work.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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The first 2 digits of the Federal Supply Classification Group (FSCG) is called the Federal Supply Group (FSG).
The last 2 digits of the Federal Supply Classification Group (FSCG) is called the Federal Supply Class (FSC).An FSC Search is conducted with the full 4-digit FSCG number.
A Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code is a five-digit alpha numeric identifier which is assigned to suppliers of various Governmental agencies.
The Preventive Maintenance Monthly is series of United States Army technical bulletins published since June 1951 as a monthly magazine with comic book-style art to illustrate proper preventive maintenance methods.
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text:
What really happened in Jerusalem
"I honestly believe that if any Israeli parent sat down with those (Palestinian) kids, they'd say I want these kids to succeed." — Barack Obama, in Jerusalem, March 21
Very true. But how does the other side feel about Israeli kids?
Consider that the most revered parent in Palestinian society is Mariam Farhat of Gaza. Her distinction? Three of her sons died in various stages of trying to kill Israelis — one in a suicide attack, shooting up and hurling grenades in a room full of Jewish students.
She gloried in her "martyr" sons, wishing only that she had 100 boys like her schoolroom suicide attacker to "sacrifice ... for the sake of God." And for that she was venerated as "mother of the struggle," elected to parliament and widely mourned upon her recent passing.
So much for reciprocity. In the Palestinian territories, streets, public squares, summer camps, high schools, even a kindergarten are named after suicide bombers and other mass murderers. So much for the notion that if only Israelis would care about Arab kids, peace would be possible.
Israelis have forever wanted nothing more than peace and security for all the children. That's why they accepted the 1947 U.N. partition of British Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. Unfortunately — another asymmetry — the Arabs said no. To this day, the Palestinians have rejected every peace offer that leaves a Jewish state standing.
This is not ancient history. Yasser Arafat said no at Camp David in 2000 and at Taba in 2001. And in 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered a Palestinian state on all of the West Bank (with territorial swaps) with its capital in a shared Jerusalem. Mahmoud Abbas walked away.
In that same speech, Obama blithely called these "missed historic opportunities" that should not prevent peace-seeking now. But these "missed historic opportunities" are not random events. They present an unbroken, unrelenting pattern over seven decades of rejecting any final peace with Israel.
So what was the point of Obama's Jerusalem speech encouraging young Israelis to make peace, a speech the media drooled over? It was mere rhetoric, a sideshow meant to soften the impact on the Arab side of the really important event of Obama's trip: the major recalibration of his position on the peace process.
Obama knows that peace talks are going nowhere. First, because there is no way that Israel can sanely make concessions while its neighborhood is roiling and unstable — the Muslim Brotherhood taking over Egypt, rockets being fired from Gaza, Hezbollah brandishing 50,000 missiles aimed at Israel, civil war raging in Syria with its chemical weapons and rising jihadists, and Iran threatening openly to raze Tel Aviv and Haifa.
Second, peace is going nowhere because Abbas has shown Obama over the last four years that he has no interest in negotiating. Obama's message to Abbas was blunt: Come to the table without preconditions, i.e., without the excuse of demanding a settlement freeze first.
Obama himself had contributed to this impasse when he imposed that precondition — for the first time ever in the history of Arab-Israeli negotiations — four years ago. And when Israel responded with an equally unprecedented 10-month settlement freeze, Abbas didn't show up to talk until more than nine months in — then walked out, never to return.
In Ramallah, Obama didn't just address this perennial Palestinian dodge. He demolished the very claim that settlements are the obstacle to peace. Palestinian sovereignty and Israeli security are "the core issue," he told Abbas. "If we solve those two problems, the settlement problem will be solved."
Finally. Presidential validation of the screamingly obvious truism: Any peace agreement will produce a Palestinian state with not a single Israeli settlement remaining on its territory. Any settlement on the Palestinian side of whatever border is agreed upon will be demolished. Thus, any peace that reconciles Palestinian statehood with Israeli security automatically resolves the settlement issue. It disappears.
Yes, Obama offered the ritual incantations about settlements being unhelpful. Nothing new here. He could have called them illegal or illegitimate. It wouldn't have mattered — because Obama officially declared them irrelevant.
Exposing settlements as a mere excuse for the Palestinian refusal to negotiate — that was the news, widely overlooked, coming out of Obama's trip. It was a breakthrough.
Will it endure? Who knows. But when an American president so sympathetic to the Palestinian cause tells Abbas to stop obstructing peace with that phony settlement excuse, something important has happened. Abbas, unmasked and unhappy, knows this better than anyone.
Charles Krauthammer's email address is firstname.lastname@example.com.
© 2013, The Washington Post Writers Group


text:
Previous Lesson
Complete and Continue
301 Handwriting Analysis Certification Course
Preparation & Downloads
Introduction to this Course (4:45)
Introduction To The Certification Textbook and Getting Certified (3:00)
Course Checklist & Quick Start Guide -PDF (1:31)
The Certification Textbook PDF file here. Download Entire Book in 1 PDF file here. (3:00)
The Grapho-Deck Cards [Download and Video] (2:02)
All Reference Handouts for Video Lectures.. Download and Refer to during Audio and Video Lectures (One Big File) (1:47)
The Primary Trait Dictionary [Download, Print, and Video Introduction] (15:04)
Section 1 : The Basics and Fundamentals Of Personality Mapping Through Handwriting
Introduction of How You Learn This Science [Video] (8:21)
Certification Textbook Table of Contents and Foreward
Common Questions and FAQ from beginners (4:25)
The Certification Textbook Chapter 1
The Certification Course Written Test #1 (1:19)
The Fundamentals of Doing a Handwriting Analysis with Curt and Bart Baggett [Video Interview] (40:45)
Fundamentals continued. Meet Gary Kaufman. (15:59)
Section 2: Slant, Size, and The Emotional Gauge
Section 2 Overview Video (2:36)
Slant, Size and Emotions [Video] (34:24)
Print Emotional Gauge and Make Your Own
Introduction by Bart Baggett to the Emotional Gauge (4 minute video) (3:27)
How to Measure Slant. Using the Emotional Gauge and Measuring Specific letters. (9:02)
The Certification Textbook Chapter 2 - Emotional Response (Slant)
The Certification Course Written Test #2 (Chapter 2) (0:57)
The Certification Textbook Chapter 3 - Pressure & Depth of Emotion
The Certification Course Written Test #3
The Certification Textbook Chapter 4 - Stroke Foundation & Classification
The Certification Course Written Test #4
The Certification Textbook Chapter 5 - Letter Size & Middle Zones
The Certification Course Written Test #5
Bonus Audio: Slant, Size, Pressure & the Emotional Gauge (Curt and Bart Baggett)
Section 3: Section Three: Love, Sex and Relationship Compatibility
Video Introduction to the Love, Sex, and Compatibility Section 2017 studio video (3:26)
Love Sex & Relationships Training by Derrick Watkins [Video] (37:51)
Sex, Love, Relationships and the lower zones [Video] (5:55)
The Certification Course Written Test #12
The Certification Textbook Chapter 13 - Lower Zone Descenders
Dating Through Handwriting Analysis (5 Hell Traits in Men and More) [Video] (37:34)
The Certification Textbook Chapter 14 - More Lower Zone Descenders
Audio: Love, Sex & Relationship Compatibility
The Stinger: Article & Introductory Video: A Bad Case of the Stingers (2:29)
A short video introduction to the stinger trait. (2:23)
A Deep Dive Into the Stinger. Filmed on stage in Pune, India. (22:41)
Section 4: Fears and Defenses
Fears and Defenses Overview overview (4:31)
Video Lecture Fears and Defenses by Bart Baggett [Video] (35:14)
The Certification Textbook Chapter 12 - Looped Stems
The Certification Course Written Test #12
Bonus Audio Fears and Defenses Lecture from Curt Baggett and Bart Baggett
The Certification Course Written Test #14
The Certification Textbook Chapter 17 - Fears & Motivations
The Certification Course Written Test #17
The Certification Course Written Test #15
Big Fears, Trait Stacking, and Grapho-Therapy. [ Video ] (15:51)
Section 5: Criminal Minds. Inside the Mind of Criminals and Devious People
Introduction to Criminal Minds Section [Video] (3:42)
Criminal Minds (Video Lecture) (25:31)
The Certification Textbook Chapter 21 - Intuition & Criminal Tendencies
Bonus Seminar: Criminal Minds and Famous Murderers Hosted by Ally Bradley and Bart Baggett (52:10)
Section 6: The letter T and more.
The Letter T - Introduction [Video] (5:09)
Audio Lecture of the T-Party
The Certification Textbook Chapter 9 - Letter T: Energy
The Certification Textbook Chapter 10 - Letter T: Defense Mechanisms
The Certification Course Written Test #10
The Certification Textbook Chapter 11 - Attitude and "I" Dots
The Certification Course Written Test #9
The Certification Textbook Chapter 16 - D- & T-Stems
The Certification Course Written Test #8
The Certification Course Written Test #11
The Certification Course Written Test #14
Bonus:: Speed Learning Video. Memorize Key Traits in 4 Minutes [Video] (4:26)
Section 7: Thinking Patterns and Intelligence.
Intelligence Section Overview Video (1:55)
Part 1 Thinking Patterns and Intelligence. Bart Baggett Lecture [Video] (28:49)
Intelligence - Reference Manual and Handouts.
The Certification Textbook Chapter 6: Thinking Patterns & Intelligence
The Certification Course Written Test #6
Part 2 Intelligence & Thinking Patterns in Handwriting by Doc Grayson (35:39)
Part 3 Video: IQ and higher Intelligence Handwriting by Doc Grayson (51:27)
The Certification Textbook Chapter 7 - More Types of Thinking Patterns
The Certification Course Written Test #7
Audio: Creativity, Geniuses, and Intelligence by Bart Baggett
Section 8: Other Key Traits and Putting it all together.
Introduction to Section - Other Traits [Video] (2:35)
Section 8: Trait and Exceptions Core Lesson Video (28:35)
The Certification Textbook Chapter 15 - Upper Zone Loops
The Certification Course Written Test #13
The Certification Course Written Test # 15
[Video] All about the letter o and lying loops. (11:24)
The Certification Textbook Chapter 18 - Communication, Middle Zone Letters, Defense Mechanisms
The Certification Course Written Test #16
The Certification Course Written Test #18
The Certification Textbook Chapter 19 - Ending Strokes & Letter K
The Certification Textbook Chapter 20 - Communication & More
The Certification Course Written Test #19
The Certification Textbook Chapter 22 - Signatures, Suicide & Therapy
The Certification Course Written Test #20
Block Printing Like A Pro. [Video] (27:33)
Bonus Lecture: Health, Predicting Gender of a Baby, and Pain Dots [Video] (6:42)
The D-Claw by Pradeep Kirpalani (10:13)
Section 9: Hot Seat, Questions & Live Demonstration
Introduction to Hot Seats Section [Video] (4:48)
Hot Seat Live Student Analysis. Morton Downey Jr. (5:26)
Audio: Hot Seats - Secret Celebrity and A. Sueud, and Merv Griffin (Recorded live in Dallas, Tx)
Hot Seat: Jennifer. Mather Handwriting and Analysis
Hot Seat: Jennifer Mather Interview [Video] (12:52)
Hot Seat: Rigg Kennedy. Handwriting and Questions.
Hot Seat:: Rigg Kennedy Interview [Video] (11:08)
Hot Seat: Suzanne Whang - Handwriting and Questions
Hot Seat: Suzanne Whang Interview [Video] (23:49)
Bonus: Analyze These Writings With the Silver Class Members [Video Teleclass] (67:55)
Section 10: Graphotherapy & Roadblocks to Success
Introduction to Grapho-Therapy [Video] (3:14)
Grapho-Therapy Explained. Filmed live in Mumbai, India. (19:02)
Change Your Brain Through Grapho-Therapy 2023 Class by Pooja Saran (58:49)
Grapho-Therapy & Using The 30 Day Change Your Life Workbook (27:42)
The Neuro-Pathway to Happiness TEDx Lecture [18 minutes]
Can Handwriting Help People With Brain Injuries Regain their Speech and Movement? Meet Sam Botta [Video] (10:03)
Grapho-Therapy & The Brain [Bonus Video] (9:19)
Grapho Therapy Reference Manual - Handouts
Grapho-therapy Teleclass: Audio MP 3 Class
Bonus: Audio Lecture of about how the brain anchors and stores emotional experiences.
Grapho Therapy Handouts. [Download]
The Certification Course Written Test #21
Section 11: Success Traits of Self-made Millionaires and Famous People.
Success Traits Introduction [Video] (2:01)
Audio Lecture of Success Traits in Handwriting
Section 11: Handout and Images
Section 12: Holistic: Margins, Baseline & Shapes
Gestalt and Holistic Overview Introduction [Video] (3:12)
Gestalt Handwriting Analysis and Getting the Big Picture In a Glance (25:37)
Section 12 Handout and Images
Section 13: Document Examination & Forgeries
Introduction to Forensic Document Examination [Video] (3:35)
Document Examining As a Career - Handout
The Professional Forensic Document Examiner & Highly Paid Forensic Handwriting Expert [Video Overview] (9:31)
The Ups and Downs of the Forensic Document Examiner Career by Bob Baier (Audio)
Section 14: The Business of Handwriting Analysis & Earning Money with this skill
The Business of Handwriting Analysis Introduction [Video] (1:50)
Authorized Mentor Program for Graduates of Handwriting University (2:52)
10 Ways to Make Money by Bob Baier [Audio Lecture]
Section 15: Multiple Choice Tests and Your Final Exam Preparation
Certification - Who to contact - More Training (3:03)
How to Pass Your Test The First Time And Get 100% on Your Written Test Part One (44:46)
How to Pass Your Test & Secret Celebrity Printer Part Two (44:54)
Video 1 of 2. How to Prepare for Final Exam (39:53)
Video 2 of 2. How to Prepare for Final Exams (37:22)
Video: Test Review- Your Final Exam Hiring An Employee Role Play (16:56)
Online Multiple Choice Tests (Part 1 of 12)
Online Multiple Choice Tests (Part 2 of 12)
Online Multiple Choice Tests (Part 3 of 12)
Online Multiple Choice Test (Part 4 of 12)
Online Multiple Choice Tests (Part 5 of 12)
Online Multiple Choice Tests (Part 6 of 12)
Online Multiple Choice Tests (Part 7 of 12)
Online Multiple Choice Tests (Part 8 of 12)
Online Multiple Choice Tests (Part 9 of 12)
Multiple Choice Tests (Part 10 of 12)
Multiple Choice Tests (Part 11 of 11)
Multiple Choice Test (Part 12 of 12)
Bonus Class. Top 10 Questions Students Miss on the Final Exam Part 1 of 2 (78:09)
Section 16: Trait Stacking & Evaluated Traits
Advanced Trait Stacking and Evaluated Traits [Video] (28:53)
ADVANCED TRAIT STACKING Handouts to Print
Introductory Overview About Trait Stacking [video] (1:34)
The Art of the Verbal Analysis: Metaphors and Trait Stacking [Video] (24:37)
Section 17: The Classic Audio Lectures from 1995 and 2003.
Introduction to Classic Lecture Audio Downloads [video] (3:37)
Millenium Edition mp3 audio lectures.
Classic Audio MP3 Downloads from 1995
Classic Class Handouts from 1995. This is reference material for classic audio mp3 files.
The End [Video] (2:03)
Section 18: International Trainer's Day Bonus Lectures
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(Update: John Batchelor show radio interview on this blog post)
The whole tax debate is supremely frustrating to anyone who survived econ 1.
The ill effects of taxation -- the "distortions" -- depend on the total, marginal rate including transfers. If I earn an extra dollar, how much more stuff do I get, or how much more of someone else's services can I receive? That calculation has to include all taxes, federal, payroll, state, local, sales, excise, etc. and phaseouts.
And, if you receive a benefit from the government that phases out with income, so every dollar of income above (say) $30,000 reduces your benefit by 50 cents, then you face a 50 percent marginal tax rate even if you pay no "taxes" at all. Taxes and benefits -- both in level and on the margin -- need to be considered together.
I've been looking for good calculations of marginal rates. The CBO has just issued a nice report titled "Effective Marginal Tax Rates for Low- and Moderate-Income Workers" that begins (begins!) to shed some light on the right question. Here's one important graph, titled "Marginal Tax Rates for a Hypothetical Single Parent with One Child, by Earnings, in 2012";
The CBO's headline (first page) says these low-income workers
face a marginal tax rate of 30 percent, on average, under the provisions of law in effect in 2012. ... Over the next two years, CBO estimates, various provisions of current law will cause marginal tax rates among this population to rise, on average, to 32 percent in 2013 and to 35 percent in 2014.30% and rising to 35% is already news. (A lot of the rise reflects means-tested insurance subsidies under the ACA). But digging a bit deeper I see a more chilling story in the CBO report
...CBO also finds that under provisions of law in effect between 2012 and 2014, marginal tax rates vary greatly across earnings ranges and among individuals within the same earnings range.Consider again the graph on the top. The marginal tax rate is not an even 30%. There are slices of income where the marginal rate approaches 100%. And, the graph is really misleading because it doesn't graph the "cliffs." The figure caption says
The dotted lines indicate income limits for Medicaid and CHIP where taxpayers face "cliffs." Similar spikes in marginal tax rates when the taxpayer loses eligibility for TANF and SNAP are not illustrated.The CBO's artists apprently did not want to graph the vertical spikes in an honest solid line. (The CBO's "average" is, as far as I can tell, an average across taxpayers. No taxpayer reported income at exactly the cliff income, not one dollar more or less, otherwise the "average" would have been infinite. The CBO is not taking an "average" across income, which would include the cliffs.)
Another figure gets at the situation better, I think, though it takes more sophistication to digest
Now the "cliffs" show up. Overall, disposable income is very flat from $0 to $30,000 of income, and there are swaths where a discrete jump in income produces no increase in overall income.
Cliffs are particularly pernicious incentives. Even if people overlook marginal incentives for a while, "if you take this job you'll lose your health insurance" really focuses the mind.
And, this is only the start. Single parents with one child who are going to work need childcare, transportation, clothes, and so on. The calculation leaves out sales taxes and a range of additional means-tested programs and social services. It only represents marginal tax rates by people who actually do work and file taxes. The jump from out of the labor force, illegal work, or disability to employment is higher. (Box 3 p. 17 cites a 36% marginal tax rate for the jump to employment and 47 percent from part time to full time.)
Even within the same income group, there is a tremendous variation in marginal tax rates.
The CBO' introductory graph makes somewhat the same point. The huge spread in effective tax rates is as interesting as the average value
These estimates are also understatements, as they only scratch the surface. The actual marginal tax + loss of benefit rates people face is very complex. A quick poll of faculty at the Booth lunch table showed the usual range of opinion but no serious calculations. Maybe it's deliberately complex so people will not make the obvious responses to big marginal tax rates!
And, in the name of simplicity, the CBO left out dozens if not hundreds of additional means-tested programs. As the CBO says (p. v) "Including additional programs would generally increase estimates of marginal tax rates." Yes, it would.
Why is there so much variation in tax rate across people of the same income? (p.v) The CBO here is looking at actual taxpayers, and
Survey data show that the majority of lower-income families do not receive means-tested transfers, either because they do not meet additional, nonfinancial eligibility requirements or because they are eligible but do not apply for benefits. Of those who receive transfers, the majority participate in only one program.This is both heartening and chilling. Written into law is a much larger welfare state than we actually have. Americans don't fully play the game. Yet. Witness the recent ad campaign to get more people to use food stamps. Once more people take more full advantage of the programs available to them, first the budget explodes. And second, they start to feel larger and larger marginal tax rates against growing out of the programs.
All of this is official confirmation of the point Casey Mulligan has been making in his new book: Our system imposes huge disincentives for low-income people to move up.
Greg Mankiw (H/T this is where I learned about the report) suggests
What struck me is how close these marginal tax rates are to the marginal tax rates at the top of the income distribution. This means that we could repeal all these taxes and transfer programs, replace them with a flat tax along with a universal lump-sum grant, and achieve approximately the same overall degree of progressivity.The spread in tax rates means Greg is much more right than he knows. A $20,000 "universal lump sum grant" and 30% flat tax rate would indeed be a better system -- not because it would approximate the current system more simply, as Greg implies, but because it would dramatically lower marginal tax rates for so many low-income families.
The idea is worth pursuing. A "lump sum grant" means $20,000 voucher for food, housing, health insurance, and eliminating all the programs and their administering bureacracies. I didn't know Greg was such a radical! However, $20,000 x 100 million households = $2 trillion, on top of the military and all other federal spending. It's not clear a flat 30% even with no deductions at all is going to pay for it.
Perhaps we keep the $20,000 as provided benefits, as they now are, just lousy enough that rich people abandon them voluntarily as they bail out of public schools. That limits the budget impact a bit, though it will be pretty hard to explain to a $50,000 wage earner now paying next to nothing in Federal income taxes that they'll be writing a check for $15,000 next year, but don't feel bad because now they get to use food stamps and be on medicare.
We're going decidedly and inevitably in the other direction, which is the CBO's point in its gentle and understated admonition that the "average" marginal rate is going to rise to 35%.
The response to our budget woes is more means-testing: Leaving deductions in place but capping them, adding to the phaseouts in the tax system, more means-testing for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, all of the low-income subsidies for the ACA which phase out with income of hours on the job.
It all sounds great if you don't understand margins. Why should the government help rich people? But every time we do cap something or means-test it, we introduce another marginal tax. And some of the biggest marginal taxes hit the poor.
This is a deeply important point so let me reiterate it. If you means-test any benefit, you introduce a steep marginal tax rate at means-testing point. If you don't means-test a benefit, you blow out the budget. It's a hard nut, that you can't get around.
This is not a little problem. We worry about the distribution of income in the US, and how low-income people seem stuck. Well, faced with these barriers of course they're stuck. And the barriers are going to get worse.
What to do? To some extent this is why economics is called the dismal science. Draw the line any way you want, subject to the budget constraint that all redistributed money has to come from somewhere. If you make it high at the left end it has to have a low slope. Compassion breeds "dependency," a pejorative word for the simple fact that poor people are smart and respond to incentives.
But we can do a lot better! At least we can measure and talk about total marginal tax rates including phaseouts and benefits -- and the CBO study is only a beginning -- rather than the silly Warren Buffet vs. his Secretary stories about average personal Federal income taxes in isolation.
And, we can avoid the big variation and the cliffs. We can avoid some people facing 100% or more margins and others facing no margin. We can bring everyone closer to the "average" 30% rate. The costs of a high rate are larger than the benefits of a low rate (and varying rates cause people to clump up on the high rates.)
Finally, perhaps more time limit as well as income limit will work as a sensible compromise. Unemployment benefits are limited in time, which is what has kept the US from developing the permanent underclass on the dole of some European countries.
Half-joke: the Republican response to the Democrat's desire to raise the high bracket of Federal income taxes to 39.5%, and raise the taxes on dividends and capital gains should be: Fine. You can have the Warren buffet lower limit. In return, we get the Greg Mankiw upper limit: (named after Greg's 90% marginal tax rate) If any taxpayer can show that his total marginal tax rate, including payroll, Federal, phaseout, state, local, excise, share of corporate, sales, property, and removal of benefits exceeds 75%, then his Federal income tax rate shall be reduced to that level. Well, maybe we should take this seriously on the low end of the income distribution.
Personal story: This is how I became an economist. Taking econ 1 as my humanities distribution requirement at MIT (pause for laugh), the professor showed the budget constraint for people on welfare, which at the time reduced benefits one for one with income, and kicked people out of public housing. For years I had felt at sea in the moral and cultural arguments about welfare dependency. In a flash, I saw it, there but for the grace of good fortune go I.
Next topic. In week 2 of econ 1 you learn that the distributional effects of taxation also are not read off the headline rates of the Federal income tax, but also depend on all taxation, all spending, and the burden of taxation through higher prices and wages, not who actually pays the taxes. That political argument is even sillier.
An excellent comment arrived by email:
Dear John... Regarding your post on marginal tax rates, the best paper I've seen on the subject is by Larry Kotlikoff and David Rapson, "Does it Pay, at the Margin, to Work and Save? Measuring Effective Marginal Taxes on Americans' Labor and Saving." This includes state programs (in Massachusetts, if I recall correctly), which add even more phaseouts. (Link to the NBER version). The chart on page 45 of the file is particularly striking. [reproduced below]
[Kotlikoff's abstract is great:
The paper offers four main takeaways. First, thanks to the incredible complexity of the U.S. fiscal system, it's impossible for anyone to understand her incentive to work, save, or contribute to retirement accounts absent highly advanced computer technology and software. Second, the U.S. fiscal system provides most households with very strong reasons to limit their labor supply and saving. Third, the system offers very high-income young and middle aged households as well as most older households tremendous opportunities to arbitrage the tax system by contributing to retirement accounts. Fourth, the patterns by age and income of marginal net tax rates on earnings, marginal net tax rates on saving, and tax-arbitrage opportunities can be summarized with one word -- bizarre.]This anecdote from Jeff Liebman also illustrates the issue in a way that Kotlikoff's charts might not:
Despite the EITC and child credit, the poverty trap is still very much a reality in the U.S. A woman called me out of the blue last week and told me her self-sufficiency counselor had suggested she get in touch with me. She had moved from a $25,000 a year job to a $35,000 a year job, and suddenly she couldn't make ends meet any more. I told her I didn't know what I could do for her, but agreed to meet with her. She showed me all her pay stubs etc. She really did come out behind by several hundred dollars a month. She lost free health insurance and instead had to pay $230 a month for her employer-provided health insurance. Her rent associated with her section 8 voucher went up by 30% of the income gain (which is the rule). She lost the ($280 a month) subsidized child care voucher she had for after-school care for her child. She lost around $1600 a year of the EITC. She paid payroll tax on the additional income. Finally, the new job was in Boston, and she lived in a suburb. So now she has $300 a month of additional gas and parking charges. She asked me if she should go back to earning $25,000.....[Thanks! I also am not a specialist in this literature and am glad for pointers to good work.]
Update 2: Another graph, thanks to MG.
Source, a great presentation by Gary D. Alexander Secretary of Public Welfare Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at the AEI


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Some other news. Two words - pink slime - have been powerful enough to cost the jobs of 650 meat-processing workers.
Iowa Public Radio's Pat Blank reports on the backlash against a ground-beef filler.
PAT BLANK, BYLINE: Officials with Beef Products Incorporated, or BPI, will permanently close three production plants in Waterloo, Iowa; Amarillo, Texas; and Garden City, Kansas; by the end of the month.
BPI is the maker of what the industry calls lean, finely textured beef, a product that critics refer to as pink slime. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad calls the words inaccurate and inappropriate.
GOV. TERRY BRANSTAD: I take this very personally because I have a brother and nephews that are raising cattle, and I look at this as an attack at the food industry in our state.
BLANK: One of the company's founders, Regina Roth, says the words "pink slime" hurt demand.
REGINA ROTH: Our commitment has always been to produce a safe, wholesome product, so it has been so disheartening for our family, and our employees, to see these negative and misleading stories lead to consumer concerns.
BLANK: Lean, finely textured beef is made from leftover trimmings from steaks and roasts, and is treated with ammonia. Critics say anything that needs to be treated with ammonia should not be on our plate, but the FDA says it's safe. And most large supermarkets continue to stock it on their shelves.
For NPR News, I'm Pat Blank in Waterloo, Iowa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.


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Your smile is the first impression that others have of you, so it makes sense that you would want it to be bright, white and healthy. According to the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, more than 99 percent of all American adults believe that a smile is an important asset for social situations. Perhaps that is why so many patients are electing cosmetic dental procedures to improve their smiles and boost self-confidence.
Did you know…
that cosmetic dentistry is more than just teeth whitening? Your cosmetic dentist is also capable of transforming your smile's shape, color, alignment, as well as filling in gaps and discreetly restoring decayed or damaged teeth with tooth-colored fillings. In fact, modern advancements in cosmetic dentistry have made it possible for patients to achieve nearly perfect teeth with cosmetic enhancements and restorations that are virtually undetectable to friends, family and peers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Am I a candidate for cosmetic dentistry?
You may be a candidate for cosmetic dentistry if your healthy teeth have imperfections that you would prefer to be changed to enhance the appearance of your smile. It is important to recognize that esthetic dental treatments are not meant to alter your overall appearance, but rather to provide a positive change that compliments the health and natural appearance of your teeth. If you think cosmetic dentistry is right for you, contact your cosmetic dentist today to schedule a consultation.
What should I expect from my cosmetic dental visit?
Due to great strides in dentistry, cosmetic, restorative and general dentistry can overlap in a single visit. You can expect your cosmetic dentist to discuss health implications, as well as esthetics at your appointment.
What types of cosmetic treatments are available to me?
There are many types of cosmetic treatments available, from in-office teeth whitening to total smile make-overs. The types of treatments available to you will depend on your overall goals, but may include professional whitening, tooth-colored fillings, bonding, crowns, veneers, or dental implants.
What should I expect after receiving a cosmetic treatment?
You will receive special care instructions following your treatment. For example, if you have your teeth whitened you should avoid highly pigmented beverages and foods for several days to prevent staining. On the other hand, a dental implant make-over may require a significant amount of down time, as well as a temporary, but limited diet.


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Topic: Diary - Schramm
Diaries of AIF Servicemen
Bert Schramm
8 November 1918
Bert Schramm
2823 Private Herbert Leslie SCHRAMM, a 22 year old Farmer from Whites River, South Australia. He enlisted on 17 February 1916; and at the conclusion of the war Returned to Australia, 10 July 1919.
During part of the course of his military service with the AIF, Bert Schramm kept a diary of his life. Bert was not a man of letters so this diary was produced with great effort on his behalf. Bert made a promise to his sweetheart, Lucy Solley, that he would do so after he received the blank pocket notebook wherein these entries are found. As a Brigade Scout since September 1918, he took a lead part in the September Offensive by the Allied forces in Palestine. Bert's diary entries are placed alongside those of the 9th Light Horse Regiment to which he belonged and to the 3rd Light Horse Brigade to which the 9th LHR was attached. On this basis we can follow Bert in the context of his formation.
The Diaries
The complete diary is now available on the Australian Light Horse Studies Centre Site at:
Finding more about a service person. See:
Navigating the National Archives Service File
Bert Schramm's Handwritten Diary, 5 - 9 November 1918
[Click on page for a larger print version.]
Bert Schramm
Friday, November 8, 1918
Bert Schramm's Location - Tel el Kale, Syria
Bert Schramm's Diary - Moved on again this morning and travelled about eighteen miles through much better country and camped near the beach north of Tripoli. There are the beautiful flats along the coast and the country is intensely cultivated.
9th Light Horse Regiment War Diary
9th Light Horse Regiment Location - Tel el Kale, Syria
9th Light Horse Regiment War Diary - 0630 Marched to Jisr Ayash where an hour's halt was made to feed and water horses.
1130 The march was resumed to Nahr Aarka arriving there at 1545 and bivouacked for night.
9th LHR AIF War Diary, 8 November
Darley, TH, With the Ninth Light Horse in the Great War, Adelaide, Hassell Press, 1924.
No Entry
Previous: Bert Schramm's Diary, 7 November 1918
Next: Bert Schramm's Diary, 9 November 1918
Sources Used:
Bert Schramm's DiaryNational Archives Service File.
Embarkation Roll, AWM8.
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour
Nominal Roll, AWM133, Nominal Roll of Australian Imperial Force who left Australia for service abroad, 1914-1918 War.
War Diaries and Letters
All War Diaries and letters cited on this site should be read in conjunction with the Australian Light Horse Studies Centre, War Diaries and Letters, Site Transcription Policy which may be accessed at:
Australian Light Horse Studies Centre, War Diaries and Letters, Site Transcription Policy
Further Reading:
9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, AIF
9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, War Diary, Day by Day Account
Battles where Australians fought, 1899-1920
Citation: Diaries of AIF Servicemen, Bert Schramm, 8 November 1918


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March 13, 2013
No More Google Reader
Everything started with a feed parser built by Chris Wetherell that turned into a feed reader, helped by Ben Darnell, Laurence Gonsalves, and Mihai Parparita. The product was launched in 2005 as a Google Labs project and it was significantly improved one year later, when the Google Reader team launched a completely new version. Over the years, Google Reader integrated with iGoogle, added social features and handled feed serving for all Google products. Back in 2007, Google Reader crawled 8 million feeds and 70% of the traffic was from Firefox users.
In 2011, Google removed Reader's social features and replaced them with a Google +1 button. It was the beginning of the end for Reader, who lost all the engineers from the original team. Google Reader is in maintenance mode ever since then.
While feeds are no longer important for many users and browsers start to drop support for reading feeds, social networks make newsfeeds popular and mobile apps like Flipboard simplify reading the news. Feeds are now a behind-the-scenes technology and full-fledged feed readers seem outdated.
"We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We're sad too. There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we're pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience," says Google's Alan Green.
It's hard to find a replacement for Google Reader, since Google Reader was the most popular feed reader and the competition couldn't keep up with it. You can still find some web-based feed readers, but none of them is as good as Google Reader. Congratulations to everyone who worked on the Reader team and thanks to all the people who subscribed to this blog in Google Reader.
Here's Google Reader's team from 2007:
138 comments:
- AnonymousMarch 13, 2013 at 6:23 PM
It must suck for this blog to have to take Google's side on topics like this. Must make you wonder if it's even worth it.
"Feeds are now a behind-the-scenes technology and full-fledged feed readers seem outdated" I mean yikes not everyone likes seeing 1% of their news as it scrolls by.RepliesI have to agree. I think Feed Readers are the tool of the power user who are the minority. The majority of people are satisfied with Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and other aggregates but where do the people that post to those places get their news. RSS feeds are efficient.
I moved to Newsblur, the end of Google Reader does not mean the end of RSS feeds. I got this article by being subscribed to its RSS feed.
Sign the petition. Maybe they'll listen... http://www.change.org/petitions/google-keep-google-reader-running
ReplyDelete- Replies
- AnonymousMarch 13, 2013 at 6:59 PM
Then this article will be handy for you - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-quit-using-google/
Delete After all these years it's really hard to leave, for example, Gmail. But it's not hard at all not to commit to any of their services as long they don't guarantee their continuity. Next Google Wave? It doesn't matter what it looks like, just don't use it until you have absolute certainty that they're not going to close it.
I am an IT consultant with 20 years of experience. How can I recommend my customers to start using Google Docs? To invest time and resources in migrating to Google Apps? To develop in Google Apps Engine? To use Google+? What kind of guarantee do I have for those investments? Absolutely none.
You may say what you want about Microsoft, and it will almost certainly be true, but they don't treat their customers this way. Maybe it's just Microsoft doesn't do things in this new "cloud way", so it's easier for them to manage this kind of situations, but truth is Microsoft would never leave you hanging like this. They discontinue products, of course, but they don't leave you out of alternatives like this.
Given this news, who in their right mind would now even consider embracing Google+? Is there anyone who is absolutely sure that Google+ will remain active in, say, 5 years time? Of course not.
Stop experimenting with us, Google, make up your mind about what you want to do, how much you want us to pay for it AND STICK WITH IT. No more Google Waves.Absolutely right, from now one nobody should recommend google services to their customers anymore. It gets too risky.
Btw, from above: "..Google +1 button. It was the beginning of the end..."Well, the nice thing about Google is they don't lock your data into their services. So even if one of those apps you mentioned does get the axe, I know I'll still be able to export my data to another service. As for Reader, it took me all of 1 minute to transition to feedly. I'm sad to see Reader go, but at least Google lets me take my data with me.
Great product. Loyal users (who wouldn't care that much if they put some more ads in there. No dev costs. Minimal maintenance costs.
WTF Google... Sell it if you don't want it. Don't make every user try to work out how to deal with a shutdown in three months without any easy options out.
[yes, what really annoys me is the three trillion 'starred' items I didn't get to yet...]Replies- AnonymousMarch 13, 2013 at 7:02 PM
I think exporting your Reader subscriptions will export those starred items too. But I'm not sure.
Delete Or start charging for the service, I would gladly pay right now for it.
Delete- AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 10:30 AM
Now I'm sure. It WILL export them but you can't use them in other feed readers as they only accept subscriptions and not your starred items. And starred items are in different file and not with subscriptions xml file.
- AnonymousMarch 13, 2013 at 6:43 PM
This is sad news :/ but it also opens ways for me to look for others. As because of Google Reader I was not thinking of any other. Though I have used Feed Demon, Snarfer and some web based feed readers but I kept coming back to Google Reader as it was in some ways better than them. One of the most important advantage of Google Reader is that you have your feeds whenever you want and neatly arranged. It archives feeds so that even if source content is deleted you can still access them. I will be happy and sad at the same time.
ReplyDelete - AnonymousMarch 13, 2013 at 7:10 PM
When Google announced they were shutting down iGoogle I searched for an alternative and settled on NetVibes.
The amazing thing I discovered though was that NetVibes in Reader mode was way better than Google Reader!!! I came for the widgets, and stayed for the feed reader!!!
So now I have two Dashboards in NetVibes: a "Homepage" for my widgets (weather, news, calendar, etc.); and a "Reader" for my feeds. feedly - the reader app that connected to google reader works on a solution to make a seamless transition to their own system. So if you already use feedly you might keep all your stuff. And that would be great.
btw did someone ever use Google Wave or this other social network/twitter thing? :)
While the giants buy innovations, why don't they give it back if they are not interested in it anymore?!
It's ridiculous to let it die.what? are u crazy Google? plz No!!! don't do it! it's the third best service that u have (search, gmail are the others)
kill docs or calendar instead
:(((((((((((((((((((RepliesYou know how many schools would be hurting if they killed docs?!
Delete- AnonymousMarch 15, 2013 at 12:18 PM
What is wrong with you? There is no chance they will kill docs or drive or gmail.
Google is making it damn hard to be a Google fanboy. First you fuck up Google Shopping by prostituting it, then iGoogle, not as bad a death, but still. Now Reader? You MFs, WTF?
Now I'm really concerned. I'm in KCMO, will be getting Google Fiber in 6 months. What happens in a few years when Google decides it's tired of Fiber and screws us? Shit. Google, you and Microsoft and f'ing Apple are all the evil f'ing triumvirate of tech!- AnonymousMarch 13, 2013 at 10:34 PM
I am disappointed. I wasn't thrilled about loosing iGoogle but that was just my personal preference but I use Google Reader as part of my job. Its a great way to keep track of the blogs, topics and people I follow. This really sucks and now I need to spend energy finding a replacement instead of just working.
Tim Lorang Flipping through the headlines only and drilling into only to stories you realy care. That's the strong and wide habit for many.
Many people don't use social networks or staff like flipboard for following blogs and news just because that - they can't flip through the headlines only. Like many news websites Google reader doing this. Its very important for me too. For many people.
How will we do it now?A major mistake. Reader is excellent for quickly scanning lots of feed headlines and zooming in on a few of interest. It's a major part of my day and I'm a heavy web user.
I hate social and twitter isn't nearly as good because you have to read through every message...much more time-consuming.For an alternative to Google Reader, try out Feed Fiend, available at http://feedfiend.com. It has a simple interface and a one-click subscribe tool that makes it easy to keep up with feeds. It also has a filtering tool to find keywords in your feed. It is totally free, so go give it a try.
Aaron Wright, FeedFiend.comHow funny is that. Yesterday I was searching for a way to remove duplicates RSS entries from Google Reader - all of you might know this pain - today, they announce to shut down the service.
No way, that the reason having too few users is true. I guess there is something else behind it. However, why don't they over an alternative?
WISHED they make Google Reader open source for everyone so we can use it on our own servers!WHAT? NO MORE GOOGLE READER?
Google: ARE YOU CRAZY?
How I'm supposed to keep up with the news?
Google reader changed the way I search for news!
Google reader changed the way I surf the web.
With Google reader I can look efficiently at an enormous amount of news, all in one place.
Hey Google, do you really mean that I need to back to the old habit of opening a website, looks for news, open another website, looks for news.... but, hey, I have more than 500 RSS feed in my Google reader, How Can I open 500 website? I can't...
So, not having Google Reader will slow down by a a factor of no less than 10 my ability to surf the news, to surf the net, to keep up with interesting things...
Google reader is 100% news, 100% interesting things, 100% efficiency!
And Google is trowing that out of the window... :-(
This is so sad.
Once upon a time I was using an offline feed reader, it was not bad... but then I discovered Google reader, so much faster, so much better!
Do I really need to find another offline RSS feed reader? does they still exist?
Why are you doing that Google? WHY?!?
Please, please, please, keep Google Reader running!WTF ?!
That's too much for me.
I'm tired of migrating my data when Google decide to close a service without any valid reason.
Google Reader is, after GMail, the Google Product I use more and I'm not alone: my collegues too.
No more Google services anymore for me: too risky!
Google, you disappointed me once again.
This one is tha last: Good Bye !
So sad, Google Reader was a good product.- AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 5:20 AM
I don't understand why Google who wants me to do everything in their ecosystem would make a choice to start trying to kick me out. First iGoogle and now worse Google Reader gone. Why can't they just let it sit there? I've never had any issues with it and we're not asking for new features. Just let it continue as is. How hard would that be?
ReplyDelete Very bad news. Reader was my main tool for viewing and receiving news. I previously had an offline reader but loved Google Reader as it kept my multiple systems in sync.
"...It's hard to find a replacement for Google Reader, since Google Reader was the most popular feed reader and the competition couldn't keep up with it...."
I have looked at the "new" feeders like flipboard but for me they fail how is it possible to scan hundreds of articles efficiently? Today I only look at the title and click if interested, I use reader as index or table of contents.
The newer RSS ideas try to deliver a newspaper and instead of say thirty single line articles on a page they get maybe five. So I need to spend longer trying to find those dozen articles in a feed of hundreds that I want to spend time reading.
The reason why lots of people use reader is it works for how we, the users, want it to. No bells and whistles, just efficient information delivery. I certainly cannot see myself using any of the social media platforms to replace Reader as I will never find the news I want.Gutted and slightly edging towards angry that Google is just going to nuke its Reader product despite a large following that use it every single day, especially without even providing some sort of alternative suggestion. They really need to reconsider this until an actual better solution comes along. Social is too messy (plus it's not possible to move my feeds to any social accounts).
ReplyDelete- AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 6:10 AM
I actually support Google doing this. RSS feeds are getting somehow old and it was obvious that something is not quite right here. It was to be expected (in a weird way).
I was mainly subscribed to google's blogs on GReader(ironic). If closing of reader means I will not get to read news about Google, so be it. I will or will not find another way.
New ways of 'getting' stuff from internet are coming/have already come.
I thing that reading RSS feeds is basically concentrating on the parts, rather than on the wholeness of the websites. It's like a third party service that doesn't have(provide) the real qualiy of websites/blogs themselves. And I think that we should concentrate on the wholeness/quality, no matter what. I think that websites should provide a way for us 'following' their content, in an (kind of) RSS way, but not RSS. At this moment, on twitter there is follow, on google+ there is circle/follow. But if websites want us to 'follow' them, they should provide BETTER content that they do today, because I think that the content they provide today is mostly not suitable for everyone. Maybe some people just don't want to be so (damn) SOCIAL. Like me-I am all about REAL privacy, and on today's internet, there is like, no privacy at all, at least when it comes to facebook. I also want to mention that I am not comfortable with google's +1 feature, because it's all PUBLIC at it's just not acceptable. Google expects us to provide our real names, and to feel safe on internet and all, but it's just too soon for that. Because at this moment, the web is a BITCH. The crimes happening in today's world are just too damn awful. Because of this, I actually want to give google the authority to prevent those crimes from happening. But this is just way too much off-topic for now.
Maybe the "follow-allowing" websites don't provide enough content. Maybe the content it's too social for everyone. Maybe some new companies should emerge from this, some new ways of getting to read stuff that you care about. I don't know. But I know, I can live without GReader, or RSS, for now. RSS's future doesn't look good to me.
The future is is not known, just as we didn't know they will shut reader down.
But I am glad, because if they think the service they're providing is low quality, then I don't want to USE their low quality service either.
Believe me, if they think they could do something out of Google reader, they would. It wouldn't matter at all if not many people are using service. I somehow feel that it's right to shut it down.
I also think that no one should have, like 500 feeds in their subscriptions.. that is way too much and "unnatural".
Someone said they have 3000 starred items. When exactly were you planning on reading those items?
Let's see where web will take us in the future..or at least, let's see what google had in mind when we come to this question. cause I don't know.
With RSS(Google reader), it was kind of incomplete/unwhole way to 'follow'.
And without RSS, something needs to improve/change. Because I am not all that happy with ways to follow without RSS, today. The future will tell us.
Today, I will quit GReader, and I will start using some other online-based feed reader, but later on, who knows?Replies- AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 7:12 AM
Dude,you must be some little IT-scholar who always annoyed by the fact that little fishes can't compete to big fishes.
Most of us are NOT happy that 1 of the main softwares of G will be killed.So,try to be not happy either.
For many of us it's not unnatural to have dozens of subscriptions.Also not natural to have many thousand starred items.Imagine....if those were starred,then they have already read :D.Millions of people are reading thru GR for YEARS.And this would continued - at most of us - till the rest of our lives.But G got mad as always and just simply kills it.
Yes,i do believe the blog part will share the same fate in the near future.Many blogs are inactive.Memoirs of past thoughts,feelings,pictures etc.But they all important.Still.And great to find them on the net.You think everything should be erased in the name of everything must change ??? I hope not and i hope you agree with me.
Don't go to china shop with axes in your hands,please. - AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 7:28 AM
I think dozens of subscriptions are a normal number. And if you've read all those starred things, that just fine and ok. Now you have an option to choose a new reader. That shouldn't be too painful. I think that you can export everything, even starred items and import them somewhere else. Sure there are no "real" reasons for discontinuing reader, and surely that this change(transition) will be hard for many.
I don't think that anything should be deleted in the name of that things should change(improve).
We have right to hate google for this. I'm just saying, the transition won't be hard, for me - AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 7:35 AM
Dudey,where to ? Where to transport all our starred,shared,noted etc items ? We can save them in json files.You want us to import these to FFox ? I try to keep FFox bookmarked items and feeds as low as possible.My browser needs speed to use it.What are the choices ?
Delete - AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 7:51 AM
I am sorry but I have no idea.... There should be some normal alternative out there.. if there isn't, you are screwed.
This is the weirdest service by far that they decided to discontinue. Who knows, maybe they will change their mind.
- AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 6:25 AM
Maybe the blogs are dying too.. I mean, look at all those google's blogs. Something is weird about it all. And it need's to unite, in a way unknown to me. Maybe the future will integrate blogs into social networks (not just with them), url style, so there isn't something like:
..but it will be something like this:
I actually believe this is going to happen, in a few years future.
Maybe the twitter will die, maybe google+ will die, but google won't, facebook will die hopefully, lol. - AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 6:39 AM
Or at least Chrome will start hiding url's somehow because they are ugly. I don't know. Too much thinking. Goodbye. I will add your blog to Netvibes, NewsBlur or Feedly.
ReplyDelete - AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 6:54 AM
God damn you Google! You want to screw with all of us.You just wanna flush millions of users down ? I need a correct explanation!!! Facebook will continue the project or what ? I hope you don't want to induce heartattacks in us.
Tell the truth!!! - AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 7:17 AM
Actually, I will go without a feed reader at all and see how it's supposed to be done. I saw that you post a link to every blog post on google+; that is a nice way to follow. Either that, or email subscription option for every new post (that is also a good alternative). You should incorporate that into your blog somehow, so that you get a sidebar like this blog has: http://buzz.blogger.com/ (There is an email subscription option on the right side, and I think every blog should have that option.)
But in the future (on G+) I think you will have social content in "Posts" tab and blog posts in "Blog" tab. And I think you should have an option to not even display Posts(social) tab, or any tab for that matter, if you don't want to.
I mean, you know of the new YouTube tab in google+?
The whole thing(transformation) already began, and we are in the middle of it, or maybe more like beginning. what's wrong with you people? i really love and respect google, but canceling google reader is the worst decision ever made so far. whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, there's not even a good alternative for google reader, what's wrong with those people? besides, i really like starring items and reading them later on an online account that i can access them anytime any where without software. seriously, what's wrong with you people?
ReplyDeleteI am really sad about this. Gmail and Reader are a team for me. I work a lot of hours a day and this is my only way to be informed with everything from tech news, home recipes, fashion blogs and friends blogs. Seriously I really think there is a way to save this amazing feature. One of the things that I love the most is that no one ever block google reader in offices, like they do with other social media places, like facebook and twitter.
The thing is that you people now what errors were made and how to fix them. Is really a bad decission. I hope you reconsider this.This was a big letdown for me, i woudn't mind if they never updated this again, just keep it working.
But what I would like was for google to donate the google reader to the opensource comunity,if they did it with some of their other products why not with Reader as well. That could ease the "pain" caused to their loyal users.Seriously, Google. What is wrong with you? What other company tosses aside like garbage a successful product used by millions of loyal fans?
Sad? I'm not sad. As a reader and producer of feeds, I am pissed!
How does Google Reader get the axe and Google+ limps on? If I cannot trust you to maintain your products, I will find trustworthy replacements for all of them. No Google Calendar, no Google Apps or Docs; maybe it's time to look for a new email service. I hear Microsoft has one.Honestly, I am less and less satisfied with Google. Reader discontinued, they throw out the add block apps from Android store, the Wave debacle (yes, I loved Wave), the new Gmail features are mostly bloatware for me, etc.
Yes, Google IS nice, but not THAT nice. Google should tread more carefully...Worst, move, ever. GReader is by far, the product I use the most. Google is going to show me many less ads by killing the Reader. And NO Google, in about 10 damn months, I have never, ever clicked on the stupid google+ link. Or the fuc*** privacy raper facebook.
I don´t want to be "social" I just want to keep my way of reading Internet and getting information as simple, quick and easy as possible.
What an stupid decission Google.And, by the way, at my job, all social networks are forbidden through optinet. You have very clever engineers, try solving that problem, geniuses.
Really pissed off. Nevermind, luckily this will be a huge oportunity for small sites like theoldreader or newsburn.
And no, I don´t believe there are more users using stupid social networks as feeds aggregator than GReader users.WHAT??? You tell me the following and switch off the G-Reader???
"It's hard to find a replacement for Google Reader, since Google Reader was the most popular feed reader and the competition couldn't keep up with it."
Are you serious? This is fucking ridiculous. Next you switch off Google Mail or what?
Time to say goodbye to Google. You are not longer trustworthy.My argument is that those that "moved away" from Google Reader to use things like Feedly, twitter or Flipboard, is that they weren't real users of Google Reader in the first place. It's like my hotmail account, sure, I "use it", in the sense that I check it once a month when/if I remember.
ReplyDelete- AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 1:43 PM
Bottom line is that online RSS aggregators don't generate enough revenue. If Google can't make money on it, no one else can (see the demise of Bloglines). So my takeaway from this is that I will have to use a desktop RSS aggregator.
ReplyDelete Replying to real-dsb: Even though google might not make money from RSS aggregators, it's part of the ecosystem that they do make money from. I use reader every day!
It would be nice if google could commit to dates it will support products for!- AnonymousMarch 15, 2013 at 1:07 PM
I can't believe my comment on this post is the only positive comment.
ReplyDelete - AnonymousMarch 15, 2013 at 1:30 PM
Hiya again ,Johndoe :o) !
Of course yours is the only positive here.I tried Feedly in my FFox and the lol thing is when i subscribe something to Feedly,it will appear in my GR :DDD.So,they ARE connected.Don't know what will happen when GR dies.Also,Feedly can't do anything with starred items.They just left out.I always marked(starred) those articles which were important.Hardly used it for later reading.
So,i'm coming back here in the hope that people suggest really gr8 alternatives.
Thanks for all of them in advanced!!! Maybe an article needed about comparing the existing ones.Replies- AnonymousMarch 15, 2013 at 1:50 PM
I didn't export starred items because I don't really plan to use another feed/news reader.
So I exported them by hand(opened links and bookmarked them). I had less than 100 of them, but it took me at least 15 minutes. I don't know if there is any reader at all that can import starred items, or notes. I think for notes, it's very unlikely.
There are already many articles on the net offering alternatives like these:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3007030/tech-forecast/digg-building-its-own-top-priority-news-reader just login with your Google account to "Feedly" and it's done.
Maybe one of the best alternative.Feedly will continue work after GReader dead. For the moment they sync with GReader but after it will be standalone solution, that only use your Google account to identify you.
You can find your stared (GReader) items in the Saved part of Feedly.
OK; at this moment I can realistically imagine that Google will one day sunset also its search engine. After all, Facebook search is already there, right?
Killing Google Reader is a monumentally sad news. I never received the Google Operating System blog news in other way than via RSS. And many others. It was efficient. It was popular. I cannot believe this is happening.GReader is perfect with my N7. I have 2 dozen shortcuts on my home screen. I'd be ok with switching to something else, if something else comparable was available. Unfortunately for us grownups on mobile devices, it seems like all the alternatives think we have to have big pretty pictures plastered all over our screens or we'll get bored. I want to read, hence Google READER, not Currents or Pulse or whatever trying to guess what I want to read instead of just giving me text. I suppose this is how it feels to no longer be a member of the target market. Ooooh look…pretty pictures!
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, you cannot keep up with Google, they can remove any service at any moment. At think that's the worst news that shows at our face.
So, now Google release a new service, called Keep, does it worth even to try knowing that they are already many services doing the same for longer? Maybe you start to use it and they decide is not worth to continue with it.
I think we got the message.
Don't do Evil, bullshit. Make Money!I always read Google reader and its like my daily routine. I always get update form this about Google updates. I think instead of discontinue Google reader change it into community.
ReplyDeleteIt's really a bad decision, supposedly because the service was in decreasing usage phase. The reality is more that it is not a cost efficient product and not that is a not used service. They want to move user to other services like G+ but they should have provided a real alternative before announcing GReader end of life.
G+ is not a good solution to follow lots of information sources. And the real weakness of G+ facing to blogging world and other new social services (like Pinterest, Tumblr...) is that G+ have no API for integration.
BTW GReader users won't switch to other Google services, they switch to other solution. Simply bad strategic decision from Google, disappointing so much users. :(


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Monday's developments on the Korean Peninsula, where tensions have been running even higher than usual in recent weeks:
-- North Korea says it is recalling workers from the Kaesong Industrial Complex, inside its territory, where tens of thousands of North Koreans produce products for South Korean companies. It plans to at least temporarily shut the operations there.NPR's Louisa Lim, who is monitoring developments from Beijing, says more than 50,000 North Koreans will be pulled out of the zone if Pyongyang follows through on that decision. Louisa tells our Newscast Desk that "a senior North Korean official says the zone had been reduced to a theater of confrontation, quite contrary to its original nature."She adds that it's not clear what will happen to more than 400 South Koreans still in the zone.-- A South Korean official is warning the North may be setting the stage for another missile test. But, Louisa reports, Seoul is backing away from earlier statements that another nuclear test by the North may be imminent.
As The Associated Press writes, these reports come "amid weeks of North Korean war threats and other efforts to punish South Korea and the U.S. for ongoing joint military drills. North Korea is also angry over the U.S.-led push for U.N. sanctions over its Feb. 12 nuclear test."
But, as Louisa also reported Monday on Morning Edition, some who have visited North Korea in recent weeks say there are few if any signs in Pyongyang that the North is on a war footing. Watch for more from her on that part of the story later today.
Update at 11:30 a.m. ET. More From Louisa On What It's Like In Pyongyang:
Inside North Korea, No Obvious Signs Of CrisisCopyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.


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Fri 2 Aug Every Woman Cafe | Studios18:00 - 19:30Doors Open 18:00
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Welcome to Birnam Arts, a boutique multi-purpose arts, conferencing and entertainment venue.
Pop in to the Foyer Cafe for breakfast, grab a delicious coffee with a selection of our homemade baking or enjoy a light lunch whilst browsing on the free WiFi. Wander upstairs to view the latest of our monthly art exhibitions before visiting the world of Beatrix Potter, or the Gift Shop to purchase a special gift for your loved ones or yourself!
One of the most wonderful weekends of my life. Thanks to all at the Birnam Book Festival, Guest of Honour, author and musician.
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Located in the heart of Birnam Arts, our café is the meeting place and gathering space for everyone, from local friendly faces to new visitors from far and wide.
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The food scene in Dunkeld and Birnam is becoming a go-to for food lovers and we're proud to be part of the that story.
We had not planned to present a hybrid festival, however that changed when one of our main authors tested positive for Covid. I greatly appreciated how the team worked with us to pivot and present remotely in part, making full use of your enhanced video conferencing equipment. As a result, we were able to deliver quite complex events with several elements all showing on screen simultaneously. The audio-visual quality was excellent, and our audiences were delighted that these events could still go ahead, in spite of Covid. The author in question was really pleased that he could join us on screen and remarked that he had not been so well supported in this way at any other festival.
Fiona Ritchie | Birnam Book Festival 2022
Our Shop has a unique selection of gifts sourced both locally and from throughout Scotland. With a range of design, jewellery and craft items there's a little something for everyone. We also stock the largest range of Beatrix Potter merchandise in the country.
Daily | 10:30 - 15:30
We pride ourselves in supporting emerging and established makers alongside contemporary brands such as Harris Tweed, and offer a range of books on Perthshire, as well as V&A Stationery and gifts for the wee ones.
Birnam Arts = Community Heart
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Birnam Arts delivers a programme of monthly exhibitions showing work by artists at varying stages of their careers within both solo and group exhibitions.
We continually develop new opportunities to support the practice and development of Scottish based artists, whilst also bringing work that is inspiring, creative and different to the contemporary art scene in rural Perthshire.
Located upstairs of the original Victorian part of Birnam Arts, our Visual Arts and Performing Arts studios are where much of the creative magic at Birnam Arts takes place.
What a warm and lovely welcome for this Yorkshire author. Thank you. Birnam Book Festival, author
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At the heart of Birnam Arts is a highly versatile space, otherwise known as the John Kinnaird Hall, our home for live music, film, theatre, public meetings, conferences and private events.
Spacious Hall, New Tech
Birnam Arts has made such a difference to Birnam since its redevelopment 20 years ago, and attracts an incredible variety of high-quality arts performers. It's also a great Community space. We're very happy to make a contribution to such an asset.
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Within this dedicated space celebrating Beatrix Potter, her much loved characters and historical ties to the area, there is something for both kids and adults alike.
Birnam Arts has been host to great memories and moments, from dancing my heart out at weddings to speaking at conferences to enjoying wonderful music ... this place does it all and is an important hub. We look forward to the time we can enjoy BA to its full once again.
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Chronic knee pain is notoriously difficult to treat successfully. Persons with these problems often become discouraged as they shuttle from specialist to specialist, from rheumatologist to orthopedic surgeon to physical therapist to acupuncturist and back again. Lack of progress and improvement becomes understandable when one considers that typical evaluation and treatment are directed at the symptoms. But with chronic knee pain, and many other pain syndromes, actual benefits may be obtained by addressing underlying biomechanical problems.
Faulty biomechanics are at the root of many ongoing knee problems. Of course, various other diseases and orthopedic conditions may cause the same type of chronic pain. The most likely of these possibilities need to be considered and ruled out before a diagnosis of biomechanical knee pain is established. Osteochondritis dissecans, a torn meniscus, and synovial effusion are all frequently encountered in persons over age 40 with chronic knee pain. Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and ankylosing spondylitis are a few rheumatologic conditions which may result in sporadic or chronic knee pain.1
When these medical entities have been eliminated as possibilities, a biomechanical causation becomes probable. How does a person develop "faulty biomechanics"? In fact, most of us have never received effective instruction in how to use our bodies. We stand and sit in all kinds of unsound postures, slouching and slumping and generally giving in to every available force of gravity. We stand with all our body weight on one leg, neck and shoulder muscles gripped tightly and abdominal muscles sagging and protruding. When we sit we slump down, stressing the lower back with poorly tolerated mechanical forces, or sit for hours with legs crossed, stressing the lower back, hips, and knees.
Over the course of a lifetime, our bodies have continually tried to adapt to a range of inefficient and stressful postures and habits. But eventually no more adaptation is possible.2 As a result joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons break down and fail. We experience this failure as pain. And once this type of pain has started, it is not going to go away unless the underlying causes are corrected. Specifically, the person's biomechanics need to be restored closer to normal.
Correction of posture takes time and can only be accomplished gradually. The key is to learn what to do, learn how to do it, and to be working on posture every day.3 The most important thing is to begin. Three basic biomechanical corrections are as follows: (1) When standing, be sure to have your weight over the balls of your feet and to have your weight evenly distributed on both legs. (2) Activate your deep abdominal muscles by visualizing an "inner lift". (3) Have straight lines of force running down your legs (rather than lines of force crossing at your knee, creating torsion and tension). Visualize "straight energy" flowing from your hip sockets, straight down through the center of your knees, straight down to your feet, between your first and second toes.
Visualizing and implementing these three biomechanical corrections on a daily basis represents the first series of steps toward improving knee mechanics and reducing chronic knee pain.
1Yusuf E, et al: Do knee abnormalities visualised on MRI explain knee pain in knee osteoarthritis? A systematic review. Ann Rheum Dis 70(1):60-67, 2011
2Suri P, et al: Low back pain and other musculoskeletal pain comorbidities in individuals with symptomatic osteoarthritis of the knee: data from the osteoarthritis initiative. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 62(12):1715-1723, 2010
3Bennell KL, Hinman RS: A review of the clinical evidence for exercise in osteoarthritis of the hip and knee. J Sci Med Sport 14(1):4-9, 2011


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Well, from a classic American company to a classic industry. It turns out automobiles are improving, so much so in fact, that the U.S. seems to be entering a golden age of vehicle quality and reliability.
Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton has this story about the demise of the lemon.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Please step into the door.
TRACY SAMILTON, BYLINE: But before you step into the door, you slip blue booties over your shoes. This lab inside the Jefferson North Assembly Plant has to be kept pristine. Inside, everything is perfect. Literally perfect.
LINDA CASTANEDA: This is a perfect body.
SAMILTON: Meaning the basic metal frame of a Dodge Durango.
Linda Castaneda, who oversees quality at the plant, says engineers use this perfect body to achieve...
CASTANEDA: Zero defects.
SAMILTON: Each part has to fit the frame like a precisely measured puzzle piece. And each car has to look flawless. You might not take your car back to the dealership for that.
CASTANEDA: But it shows if your door is straight or if the panels are lined up correctly.
SAMILTON: The pursuit of perfection extends to the assembly line. Union member and team leader Jerry Windham shows me a thin plastic tube that snakes under the rear seats on the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
JERRY WINDHAM: On second shift they were routing them backwards, so when we go to put the seats in, we were pinching the lines.
SAMILTON: Windham says that pinching caused some of the trucks' air compression units to fail.
WINDHAM: So by standardizing them and making sure that both shifts doing it one way, we eliminated the defect.
SAMILTON: Tom Shields has worked here 18 years. He's says he's always careful to tell colleagues why something should be done a certain way.
TOM SHIELDS: They understand that if this isn't locked, that car will fail that test, it won't be shipped, it'll have to be repaired, it can come back in a warranty claim.
SAMILTON: The trucks built in this Detroit factory are getting high marks from outside rating groups. But a similar turnaround is happening pretty much everywhere, with just about every car company. Quality, once largely the domain of Toyota and Honda, is now simply the price of entry.
Jesse Toprak is an analyst with TrueCar.com.
JESSE TOPRAK: So you go to any dealership today, buy any new car in the U.S. dealerships, you're not going to get a clunker that's going to fall apart on you.
SAMILTON: Toprak says quality has been rising for at least 20 years, and the gap between the best and worst is shrinking.
That's true for newer cars, according to David Champion of Consumer Reports. But he says you can find lots of problems in some older cars. The best model might have 20 problems per 100 cars at age five; the worst, 113 per 100.
DAVID CHAMPION: So that basically means, every car had at least one problem.
SAMILTON: And that's going to make every single person not so happy about their car.
CHAMPION: Correct.
CHAMPION: Because they're actually going to be paying for the repair at that point in time.
SAMILTON: The long-term reliability gap between top and bottom isn't shrinking as fast as the one for initial quality, but Ron Harbour thinks it will in the next few years. He's a factory efficiency expert at the consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
RON HARBOUR: You know, it used to be that you could walk into an assembly plant and at the end of the line you'd see hundreds - even in some cases - thousands of cars in repair that had to be fixed before they could be sent to dealerships.
SAMILTON: Now, you might see 10 or 20.
So these days, when an anxious customer asks Jesse Toprak what to buy, he gives them this advice.
TOPRAK: You know what? You probably cannot screw this one up that badly.
SAMILTON: That means, customers can focus more on finding what they like and less on worrying about quality and reliability.
For NPR News, I'm Tracy Samilton in Ann Arbor. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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