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3 Key Practices For Using Big Data Effectively for Enhanced Customer Experience
By Irem Radzik-Oracle on May 02, 2014
As organizations focus on differentiating their offering via superior customer experience, they are looking into ways to leverage big data in this effort. Couple of weeks ago my colleague Pete Schutt and I hosted a webcast on this very topic: Turning Big Data into Real-Time Action for a Greater Customer Experience.
In this webcast we talked about 3 key practices to make the most out of big data for improving customer experience, which are:
- Know your customer leveraging big data: Leverage all relevant data (internal and external; structured, semi-structured, and unstructured) to understand and predict customers needs & preferences accurately.
- Capture, analyze, act on data fast to create value: Achieve accurate insight and take the right action fast so your action can be still relevant to the customer's situation.
- Empower
employees & systems with insight & smarter decisions: In this step you ensure that the capability to act
right and fast is not limited to a few in the organization, but everyone
and every system that interacts and influences customers' experience.
After explaining why these practices are critical to improving customer experience, we discussed Oracle's complete big data analytics and management platform, as well as the specific products and architectural approaches to execute on these 3 key areas. We focused particularly on data integration for fast and timely data acquisition and business analytics for real-time insight and action, and how they fit together in a real-time analytics architecture.
You can watch this webcast now on demand via the link below:
Turning Big Data into Real-Time Action for a Greater Customer Experience
In this webcast we received many great questions and I have provided below a few of them along with the answers.Is real-time action related to the Internet of Things?
Yes, more physical things will be connected to the internet, often wirelessly with RFID tags or other sensors and Java to record where they are and what they are doing (or not doing). The IoT will be more practical by automating the information process from capture to analysis to appropriate and immediate action.
What does Oracle have for real-time mobile analytics?
Oracle BI Mobile App Designer empowers business users to easily create interactive analytical applications on any device without writing a single line of code and to also take action and respond to events in the context of their day-today business activitiesCan these real-time systems be managed by business users?
Yes, you need the agility for business owners to be able to respond, experiment, and adapt, in real-time as the environment or consumer behavior changes. The systems have to be intuitive enough for users with the business content and context who can easily visualize, understand, and change the patterns they're looking and the rules that are being enforced.Can the real-time systems use other statistical models or algorithms?
Yes. Oracle Advanced Analytics offer an enterprise version of R and Oracle RTD can source and publish scores from other advanced analytical models such as R, SAS, or SPSS or others.
Where do we get more information about ODI for big data?
You can start with Oracle Data Integrator Application Adapter for Hadoop. And also take a look at the Oracle BigDataLite Virtual Machine, a pre-built environment to get you started on an environment reflecting the core software of Oracle's Big Data Appliance 2.4. BigDataLite is a VirtualBox VM that contains a fully configured Cloudera Hadoop distribution CDH 4.5, an Oracle DB 12c, Oracle's Big Data Connectors, Oracle Data Integrator 12.1.2, and other software. You can use this environment to see ODI 12c in action integrating big data with Oracle DB using ODI's declarative graphical design, efficient EL-T loads, and Knowledge Modules designed to optimize big data integration.For GoldenGate, can a target be something other than a database, e.g. queue?
Yes, GoldenGate can deliver database changes into JMS message queues and topics, as well as in flat file format. Oracle GoldenGate Application Adapters would need to be used for those use cases. For low-impact real-time data integration into Hadoop systems customers will need to use the Java Adapter within this GoldenGate Application Adapters license as well.
What other data warehouses can does Oracle support for real-time data integration?
Oracle's data integration offering is heterogeneous for both sources and targets. Both Oracle Data Integrator and Oracle GoldenGate work with non-Oracle data warehouses including Teradata, DB2, Netezza, Greenplum.
I invite you to watch this webcast on demand to hear the details of our solution discussion and the Q&A with the audience. For more information big data integration and analytics you can review Bridging Two Worlds. Big Data and Enterprise Data and Big Data @ Work Turning Customer Interactions into Opportunities.


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Tuesday, January 29, 2008
What Makes an Expert? Three Surprising Research Conclusions
So what makes an expert? How can traders guide their own development and become expert traders?
A research summary from K. Anders Ericsson, a leading researcher in the field, offers three surprising conclusions:
1) "Measures of general basic capacities do not predict success in a domain" - Experts cannot be distinguished by their superior intellects or other cognitive talents. This suggests that, while certain inborn traits and lack of capacities might prevent the development of trading expertise, the presence of particular native talents cannot ensure success.
2) "The superior performance of experts is often very domain specific and transfer outside their narrow area of expertise is surprisingly limited" - Being an expert in one domain does not predict expertise in others; a person can be a highly accomplished trader, but not expert in other areas. Moreover, a person can be an expert scalper or portfolio manager and yet fail at other forms of trading. This is the notion of "niche" that I describe in my book: the successful trader has found a particular sphere of success that expresses his or her skills and interests.
3) "Systematic differences between experts and less proficient individuals nearly always reflect attributes acquired by the experts during their lengthy training"- A saying among expertise researchers is that practice does not make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. The expert is one who has undergone a structured, deliberate process of training that builds competencies, offers extensive feedback, and draws upon intensive effort over time to internalize knowledge and skills.
What does this mean for traders? Here are three conclusions of my own:
1) The majority of traders are looking for expertise in all the wrong places. They look for *the* right trading charts, indicators, setups, or systems. They are like beginning golfers who think they'll succeed if they only get the right set of clubs. Because they hope to get "the answer", they expect success in a year or two. The research is unequivocal: expertise develops over a period of many years. If those years are not structured properly, traders will repeat a single year's experience ten times; they won't acquire ten years of experience.
2) The vast majority of offerings in trader education are not structured for expertise development. Seminars, books, Web articles and blogs, weekend courses--all can be useful in imparting information. But expertise development is not simply about the accumulation of information; it is about skill development under realistic, challenging conditions. No doctor, athlete, or musician could acquire expertise by attending seminars or reading books alone. The same is true for traders.
3) The reason most traders fail is that they never enter a path of expertise development. It is rare to find training programs of any quality and substance at proprietary trading firms; one finds mentorship at investment banks and some hedge funds, but this is very hit or miss depending upon the commitment of the mentor and his/her skill in imparting skills and structuring a learning process. The independent trader has even fewer resources to generate and sustain an accelerated learning curve. There is much more to acquiring expertise than keeping a journal and trying to follow a simple plan.
So what does a trader need to progress from being a novice toward becoming competent toward exhibiting expertise? A curriculum: a structured process, like physicians undergo, that begins with information and understanding and then progresses steadily through skill development. In my next post on this topic, I'll explore what such a curriculum might look like.
Visit With a World-Class Trader
13 comments:
- popeeka said...
I am a beginner trader and I would love to see how such a curriculum could look like. Tnks!
- Lavonne said...
Thanks for these posts. I finished reading your book Enhancing Trader Performance a few weeks ago, and am now going through it more slowly a second time...it's joined a few often flipped through, much underlined trading favorites on my desk.
- Sandor Tucakov Caetano said...
Hi Dr. Brett,
When I read your book I got many questions about how a intermediate term swing trader curriculum should look like...
- Evolved Trader said...
Another great post. Trading experts are what I call unconsciously competent.
We gather knowledge in our Explicit memory system, however it does not become an intrinsic part of who we are until it's placed in the Implicit memory system and the autonomic nervous system. Thats why just reading Trading books is not enough to become and expert. You have to apply the information flawlessly through repetition.
Thanks for the insights Brett,
- Adam said...
Brett ~
Fantastic post! Brilliant! I look forward to the next episodes.
My own experience with hired "experts" is that their refined knowledge gives them the ability to be wrong with great precision, sometimes with spectacular results.
Witness the many thousand economists predicting future GDP performance. Their oracular musings are wrong more often than random guessing would return.
Around the globe, expert biochemists are conducting experiments hoping to develop cancer vaccines. With many billions spent, not one post-diagnosis drug has yet been brought to market.
Expert market prognosticators expound at length on millions of televisions. One can say with confidence that following their guidance would lead to blow-up.
We look to experts for specific knowledge, yet expertise seems to lead to the absence of robustness. Robustness would be a methodology leading to partial success in a wide spectrum of situations.
The most robust batter in history, Ted Williams, divided the strike zone into 77 areas the size of a baseball, seven wide by 11 high. Knowing where his sweet spots were, and not swinging at others, gave him greater than random predictive ability and outstanding results.
Experience has taught that while life might be like high school, there is no high school for traders. Booting up our screens, we're instantly in the jungle with predators who offer no quarter. Only the robust survive.
I'm convinced that nothing can replace the strict discipline of extensive research and testing that leads to our dividing market situations into Williams' strike zone and swinging only at the sweet spots.
Perhaps the greatest expertise of all would be having the patience to pay our tuition to the market while learning who we are there, then slowly expanding our competence in order to be selectively responsive in the ever-evolving landscape.
The day I peer into a mirror and see a market expert looking back at me, I hope I'll have the wisdom to go to cash and take up stamp collecting.
- John Forman said...
Hi Brett,
Your conclusion points are exactly why I structured my book the way I did, with lots of encouragement to practice and exercises for doing so. Of course in my case I wasn't trying to teach a specific trading system or anything like that, but rather aiming at getting the reader to develop and expertise of sorts in the basic foundational elements of trading so they could then move on to the more specific skills. Unfortunately, while I can (and have) constantly expound on the value of practice, I can't control whether a reader does it.
That's said, I'm very eager to see what your curriculum looks like to see how it compares with what I've seen in my athletic coaching experience. As you noted in Enhancing Trader Performance, there are a great many overlaps between athlete and trader development.
Author - The Essentials of Trading
- Tim Knight said...
Wonderful article; thank you, Brett!
- MikeH said...
Thanks, you just gave me ideas for structuring my simulation sessions, including four specific scenarios to practice.
- Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D. said...
Thanks, Lavonne; I wrote the book because I saw so little published on the topic of *how* traders can develop expertise--
- Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D. said...
Great point, Ryan; repetition is indeed the key to internalizing skills and making them automatic--
- Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D. said...
Hi Adam,
The Ted Williams analogy is *perfect*. I can't think of a better success formula for trading than knowing the sweet spots in your strike zone and laying off the not so sweet areas. Thanks much--
- Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D. said...
Hi John,
Very good point: a trading curriculum should bear similarities to training programs in sports and other performance fields. Your book is definitely a resource in that vein--
- Johan said...
Really looking forward to this post Doc!
And thanks for all the other findings you are sharing.
Regards from Sweden

subset: commoncrawl


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Nuclear Jellyfish (Paperback)
Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Just when you thought it was safe to go online, Serge A. Storms has returned! The lovable collector of trivia, souvenirs, and murder methods is upset that his beloved state isn't getting its proper recognition, so he signs on with the big Internet travel services. Soon Serge sets up his own wildcat of Florida site, hyper-blogging his way down the coast with his perpetually hammered sidekick, Coleman.
Unfortunately, Serge's Web presence catches the attention of his neme-sis, Agent Mahoney, and the chase is on. When professional robbery crews begin targeting trade show exhibitors, bodies begin piling up. Serge has had enough! He's forced into the only logical course of action—go shopping at Home Depot.
About the Author
Tim Dorsey was a reporter and editor for the Tampa Tribune from 1987 to 1999, and is the author of eighteen other novels. He lives in Tampa, Florida.


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The 5 Creepiest Foreign Versions of Disney Fairy Tales
#2. Egyptian "Rapunzel" Features Adult Ogre Breast-Feeding (and More)
The Version You've Heard
Rapunzel is a young girl who gets locked in a tower by an evil witch, and the only way anyone can get in or out is by Rapunzel letting down her insanely long hair for them to use as a rope, because ladders evidently do not exist in this land. A handsome prince comes along and climbs up her hair, and eventually the two of them overcome the evil witch and get married.
Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images
We're pretty sure this story was written to boost conditioner sales.
But in the Egyptian Version
Yousif, a young prince, hears a story about Louliyya, a beautiful woman hidden away somewhere in the desert whom no one has ever set out to find without dying in the process. He decides that the absolute nothing he knows about this girl is worth the considerable effort and risk and plunges into the punishing sands to find her. So, pretty similar to the version you know up to this point. Nothing to see here. Move along.
But then Yousif happens upon a giant female ogre, with "her breasts swung over her shoulders." Realizing there is not a moment to lose, Yousif springs into action and sucks on each of her pendulous boobs. The ogre is thrilled with this and pronounces Yousif her "Milk-son." And that really is all the explanation we get -- the story just treats this as a legitimate strategy for getting past an ogre.
Lorentz Schultes
"You don't even want to know what you have to do to stop a male ogre."
Yousif finally comes to a large palace, where he discovers Louliyya letting down her hair for her father (also inexplicably an ogre) to climb up. Yousif sneaks in and convinces Louliyya to escape with him, presumably leaving the episode with the ogre boobs out of his explanation. A magic tambourine tips off her father (as they do), and he hauls ass after them.
Louliyya creates a field of thorns, some bamboo forests, and a giant lake to impede her father's pursuit, because she is apparently magic as hell and just never bothered to do anything cool with it before. The ogre tries to drink the lake out of his way, but it fills him too much and he explodes in the process. As he detonates, he curses Louliyya and Yousif into a dog and a bird, respectively, but they eventually turn back into humans and get married.
We apologize if the stupidity of that sentence gives you an aneurysm.
The Moral
True love can overcome the wrath of overbearing parents, as long as you murder them. And you may have to do some sexual favors for strangers along the way.
#1. The Scottish "Snow White" Involves Attempted Cannibalism and Ends in a Three-Way
3LH-Fine Art
The Version You've Heard
An evil queen desires to be the most beautiful woman in the land, but is thrown into a murderous frenzy when she learns that her stepdaughter, Snow White, is way more attractive. So she poisons Snow White with an apple, but Snow White is revived by the kiss of a handsome prince. Then the queen gets herself ghosted, and everyone lives happily ever after. Also, there are dwarfs.
But in the Scottish Version
A shamelessly vain queen named Silver-Tree learns from a trout in a well that her stepdaughter, Gold-Tree, ranks several notches higher on the beauty scale. Putting way more stock in a fish's opinion than any grown person should, the evil queen pretends to be deathly ill and tells her husband, the king, that the only thing that can cure her is eating the heart and liver of their daughter.
"Trust me on this; it's science."
The king, understandably living in perpetual fear of his wife's irrationally blazing craziness, instead sends the daughter off to be married to a prince (because it's just that easy) and feeds evil Queen Silver-Tree the vital organs of a goat.
But the evil queen calls on the fish again and finds out that the girl is alive, because fish can't keep their goddamn mouths shut. So she leaves to finish the job, tracking down the stepdaughter and jabbing her with a poisoned needle. When he finds her lifeless body, the grief-stricken prince seals her up in her room (instead of, you know, calling a doctor), never to be opened again. But the prince soon remarries, and his second wife goes into Gold-Tree's room and discovers her dusty old corpse. She plucks the poison needle out of the body, and Gold-Tree immediately springs back to life (something that, in retrospect, the prince probably should have tried).
And here's our favorite part: The prince, now with two fully functioning wives, boldly exclaims, "I shall have both of you!" -- and the two women are totally OK with it. Yes, kids, this story's "happily ever after" involves a threesome.
He got his happy ending.
The Moral
Don't be selfish, ladies. There's plenty o' prince to go around.
For more things way, way different in foreign places, check out 9 Foreign Rip-Offs Cooler Than The Hollywood Originals and The 6 Most Baffling Superheroes from Around the World.


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Career fair draws hundreds of students, alumni
Nearly 200 employers and more than 1,300 students and alumni attended the Fall Career Fair October 15 in Grand Rapids.
The fair, free and open to college students and alumni, was sponsored by Grand Valley and supported by eight schools in West Michigan.
The next career fair will take place February 11 at DeVos Place.
For more information, visit www.gvsu.edu/careerfairs.


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What are the effects of underpitching your beer?
We have an answer for over pitching, I think we need the complete set.
What are the effects of underpitching your beer?
We have an answer for over pitching, I think we need the complete set.
Yeast produce different flavors during the various stages of their lifecycle. Underpitching lengthens their "growth" phase (maybe a better name is "division" or "budding"). The bulk of a beer's esters are produced during this initial stage, so extending this part of the lifecycle increases this sometimes undesirable quality.
Yeast need oxygen to bud. A homebrewer can usually dissolve enough oxygen into wort to facilitate four buddings. Once out of oxygen yeast begin consuming sugars. In this phase the yeast stores energy to sustain it during hibernation. Yeast will begin consuming the simple sugars moving to the more complex molecules as the easy to digest food diminishes. Once it is full of stored energy the cell shuts down and flocculates.
Underpitching can introduce an insufficient amount of yeast to entirely consume the entirety of the beer's fermentables. Your fermentation may not finish, or there could be enough food for an infection to take hold.
Use Jamil's pitching rate calculator to avoid the problem.
Interview with Dave Logsdon (of WYeast) on April 5, 2007 BBR
I found out that I've been drastically underpitching my first few batches. I'm fairly ready to blame my under-attenuated beers on this. Here's why:
More ester formation. This could be good in a Belgian beer where you want to accentuate the yeast-derived flavors, or bad such as in the case of lagers. Generally it's best to pitch the right amount of yeast and control ester production with fermentation temperature.


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Corporate Child Care
The lack of trustworthy, last minute corporate child care is a huge problem many NYC companies face. Many working parents choose to stay home when their children are sick and their go-to babysitter is unavailable. This leads to losses in productivity and profit at corporations.
Families in need of backup care should never sacrifice quality when they need it most. Our nanny agency provides reliable and trustworthy corporate child care and backup child care solutions, including for last minute needs and emergencies. Our babysitter and nanny background checks, reference checks, personal interviews and high standards serve as the perfect solution for hardworking New York City parents.
SmartSitting directors can be reached 7 days a week to personally coordinate all backup care requests via e-mail or by phone.
Contact us for further information on adding SmartSitting to your company's employer sponsored corporate child care and backup child care program.


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I am thinking of starting again with taking panorama shots. In the past I used a DIY solution with my Sony F717 and a wide angle converter. It was even capable of taking multirow shots but never reached my demand of accuracy. Today I own a Nikon D300 and planning to buy the new wide agle lens Tokina 11-16mm. Maybe a fisheye delivers better results than a regular wide angle lens but I like to use it in more situations than just for panorama shots.
My question is: do you think the older NN3 oder MKII is capable of holding the D300 body + Tokina 11-16mm?


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All things Mother Earth Living
by Jessica Kellner, Editor
desert garden, rainwater harvesting, desert food garden, Arizona, Sonoran Desert, solar oven, Jessica Kellner
We recently did the post-issue survey for our November/December issue. The post-issue surveys are extremely important to us: They give us a chance to ask our Editorial Advisory Group (a group of more than 6,000 of our readers, both subscribers and nonsubscribers—join here) how they liked the previous issue, giving us guidance as we shape our editorial content. The November/December issue got great reviews overall, but a few people commented on our garden articles, which focused on preparing the garden for winter, saying they live in a hot climate where they can garden year-round. Lucky them! It inspired me to take a look at some of our past desert gardening features, and it also made me realize we need to feature more desert gardens! They're so beautiful, and we can all take a lesson from their water-saving techniques. Fortunately, we have a gorgeous desert garden on the schedule for next year. In the meantime, I thought I'd share one of my past favorites!
This "Water-Wise Oasis" was one of our Editors' Picks for Gardens of the Decade in our 10th anniversary issue. It's at the home of permaculture teacher Brad Lancaster, who, along with his brother Rodd, uses low-tech, inexpensive strategies to transform his barren yard into an award-winning showcase for sustainable horticulture. Amazingly, Brad harvests more than 100,000 gallons of rainwater every year on his 1/8-acre urban lot in arid Tucson. If you want to learn more about how Brad did it, pick up his book, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands.
The winter garden features sunken, mulched, water-harvesting basins. Brad grows more than a dozen varieties of edible cacti, which provide food throughout the year.
A public right-of-way joins Brad's home with his neighbor Christine's (pictured). The area used to be devoid of vegetation, and it washed rainwater and topsoil into the street. Now abundant native vegetation makes it a songbird habitat. Brad also harvests the sun: Eight solar panels provide his home's electricity, two batch-style hot water heaters provide hot water, and a solar oven keeps cooking heat outdoors in summer.
Brad keeps bees to help pollinate the garden, and he harvests their organic honey and wax.
Brad grows 15 to 20 percent of his food on his rainwater-fed garden. He also participates in community events celebrating the native foods of the Sonoran Desert.
Subscribe to
Mother Earth Living
Welcome to Mother Earth Living, the authority on green lifestyle and design. Each issue of Mother Earth Living features advice to create naturally healthy and nontoxic homes for yourself and your loved ones. With Mother Earth Living by your side, you'll discover all the best and latest information you want on choosing natural remedies and practicing preventive medicine; cooking with a nutritious and whole-food focus; creating a nontoxic home; and gardening for food, wellness and enjoyment. Subscribe to Mother Earth Living today to get inspired on the art of living wisely and living well.
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Special Interest Websites : Community Chickens • Good Things to Eat • Keeping Backyard Bees


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Overcoming Back-to-Work Anxieties for New Moms
In This Article:
Overcoming separation anxietyHelping Your Baby and Yourself with Separation Anxiety
Before the age of five months, babies usually don't show signs of distress when they re separated from their parents. From that time until about five years of age, however, if you notice any of the following signs, it indicates that your baby may be feeling separation anxiety:
- Increasing wariness and fear of strangers
- Increasing distress when you leave
- Clinging to you
- Crying inconsolably with a sitter
There are several ways to approach your baby's separation anxiety to make it easier on everyone:
- Do choose a time when your baby is usually alert and happy to introduce a new caregiver. Never begin a potentially stressful encounter when your baby is sick or cranky.
- Do reassure your child by using a positive tone of voice to explain what's going to occur. Even a baby understands a calm voice. Treat any stranger entering your home in a welcoming way to show that you have no anxiety. You show that you're to be trusted and relied upon more by your actions than by words. Always be truthful about where you re going and when you're returning. Confidence will build when it's clear you're trustworthy.
- Do arrange some time for a new caregiver and your baby to become acquainted. Insist that the same routine and pattern of child rearing be maintained. Keep photos of yourself around so your caregiver can point at the pictures and talk about how Mommy will be back soon.
- Do play quiet games before the encounter to keep your child peacefulno running around. A quieter child will find it easier to say good-bye. You can help your baby understand this process of separation by playing peek-a-boo. This game demonstrates that while Mommy may disappear for a while, she'll reappear.
- Do give your baby a "lovey" to hold: a favorite plush animal or a security blanket. These help your baby to cope with his fears and frustrations.
- Do give your baby time to readjust to you when you return. Talk affectionately, but keep your distance until your baby is ready to come to you. Your baby needs to learn that even when she has these feelings, you're ready to help overcome the sense of discomfort.
- Don't rush when your baby is crying and pulling at you. Keep talking and holding your baby lovingly.
- Don't worry if your baby is upset. All babies go through this period. It actually represents a developmental step forward because it shows recognition that you two are separate people.
- Don't be scornful of your child's feelings. Always be sympathetic and supportive, but do your best not to be overprotective. That would curb an adventurous spirit and weaken self-confidence.
- Don't ever force your child to go to a stranger.
- You grieve when you leave homeThese feelings are perfectly normal. Accept some self-doubt and sadnessit's part of the trade-off. You'll learn to gradually accept the distance between you and your child and to cherish your time together at the end of the day.
- Express your feelingsTell your child about the sense of loss and loneliness you feel. You'll probably be putting into words the same emotions your child feels.
- Talk to othersOther mothers will understand how you feel, and perhaps have some tips to help you get through the day.
- Locate a child-care center closer to your workWith child care close to your office, you can stroll over and observe that your child is doing well. You can even go to lunch together occasionally, if you think it won't upset your child to go through yet another parting.
- Take time offTake an occasional afternoon off to be with your baby. Both of you will look forward to these days.
More on: Work
excerpted from:
© 2005 by Marla Schram Schwartz. Excerpted from The Working Woman's Baby Planner with permission of its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.
To order this book visit Amazon.com.


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Suppose $x = \sqrt[3]{3} + \frac{1}{\sqrt[3]{3}}$. Then what is $3x^3 - 9x$?
I tried factorizing $3x^3 - 9x = 3x(x^2 - 3)$ then substituting the values which gives me something very lengthy. I eventually got to the answer — $10$ — after working a bit. Are there some good shortcuts?
This is not homework; I'm preparing for an examination.


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Women describe events that led to abortion
|This Sept. 20, 2012 photo shows the shadows of a young woman from Rockford, Ill., left, with her husband. When her doctor said a medical condition made her unplanned pregnancy too risky, she decided to go ahead with an abortion in 2011. Abortion protesters were picketing outside when the young couple arrived in the parking lot for the procedure. One protester was particularly persistent. "She was just blatantly yelling at my fiance and I. I turned around and said, 'Listen, lady, you don't know what everyone is going through.' She was just saying that I was already a mom and I have all these options - the opposite of what my doctor was telling me. "I looked at her and told her, 'I'm doing this to save my life.'" (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
One woman would have had the baby but the man she was in a relationship with didn't want her to. Another was having an affair with a married man and viewed a pregnancy as unthinkable. A third woman's health would be at risk if she continued her pregnancy.
Nearly 1 million women have abortions in the U.S. each year. What leads them to that choice?
"There's this false idea that certain types of women have abortions and different types of women have babies," says bioethicist and gynecologist Dr. Lisa Harris. "They're really the same types of women at different points in their lives."
It's hard to find women willing to talk about it. The Associated Press contacted eight abortion providers and three groups that work with abortion patients. No women were willing to talk.
Ultimately, the AP found women through a nonpolitical online support group, www.afterabortion.com, for those who struggle emotionally after their abortions. They may not be typical of the majority who have abortions.
The women spoke by phone and e-mail on condition of anonymity for privacy reasons, and because of shame, concern over hurting loved ones, or fear of harassment from abortion foes. AP verified their names, ages, locations, and abortion circumstances as much as possible through a public records database, phone calls and other sources.
These are their stories:
A 24-year-old woman in Chicago, working as a bookkeeper, discovered she was pregnant earlier this year.
She'd been using a contraceptive patch that she thought was almost 100 percent effective. A missed period was the first clue it had failed.
"I was kind of in shock. I took like five home tests, five days in a row. Everyday was positive," she said.
She went to her gynecologist to confirm the pregnancy and talk about options.
"The moment I said that I was thinking about not keeping it, she stood up out of her chair and said, `This is a Catholic hospital. I could get in so much trouble for talking to you."'
Illinois has lenient laws, no required waiting period, and there are several abortion clinics in the Chicago area. The woman found that while "abortions are easy to get in Chicago, advice about them is not."
She scoured online sites seeking objective information and made an appointment at a center that advertised confidential counseling and free ultrasounds. It turned out to be a religious anti-abortion group.
"The first thing they did was hand me a Bible. They started showing me these pictures and videos" of aborted fetuses, she said.
She said she wanted to leave. But she also wanted that free ultrasound, hoping against hope that it would show she had miscarried. Watching the video was part of the center's requirement.
After the ultrasound, the counselor said she was 9 weeks pregnant and gave her a tiny doll supposedly the same size.
The young woman said she would have considered continuing the pregnancy and putting the baby up for adoption, but that the man she was in a relationship with pressured her into going through with an abortion.
On June 23, she went to a private clinic where there were about 20 women in the small, strangely silent waiting room. "Every once in a while you'd see a woman start to cry," she said.
It turned out she was 14 weeks pregnant, farther along than the anti-abortion counselor had told her. She paid $1,250 for the abortion. Her insurance wouldn't cover it.
She said she developed an infection that kept her out of work for several weeks. That's unusual. Fewer than 2 percent of women get obstetric infections after an abortion and the risk is much higher after childbirth, according to an analysis of national data published earlier this year. The woman said because of the long absence, she lost her job but has since found another one.
A 21-year-old retail worker in Rockford, Ill., was engaged to be married when she had an abortion on Feb. 23, 2011. Her doctor had told her a pregnancy could kill her.
She said she had a rare but benign brain tumor, and surgery had failed to remove all of it. There is evidence that hormonal changes in pregnancy can fuel growth of these tumors.
Now married, she said she probably would have continued the pregnancy if it hadn't put her life in danger. She was raised in a religious family and worries how her parents will react if they find out about the abortion.
She said she and her fiance used condoms and she was on the pill when she discovered she was pregnant. Her first reaction after taking a home pregnancy test was, "This has to be wrong!" She took a second test and got the same results.
Two weeks later, when she was about five weeks along, she used $550 in savings for a surgical abortion at Rockford's only abortion clinic. It later closed.
So early in pregnancy, she could have used the abortion pill instead of having a medical procedure. But that would have required a return visit to the clinic, something she said she wanted to avoid.
Abortion protesters were picketing outside when the young couple arrived in the parking lot that morning. One protester was particularly persistent.
"She was just blatantly yelling at my fiance and I. I turned around and said, `Listen, lady, you don't know what everyone is going through.' She was just saying that I was already a mom and I have all these options — the opposite of what my doctor was telling me.
"I looked at her and told her, 'I'm doing this to save my life."'
An unplanned pregnancy during an affair with a married man is what led a 36-year-old Minneapolis area teacher to have an abortion, on Aug. 3.
They had been using spermicide for birth control, a method described as about 75 percent effective with typical use.
A missed period and pregnancy test confirmed her fears.
"I cried for like 36 hours," she said. Estranged from her husband, and with a young daughter, she said continuing the pregnancy was unthinkable.
Though she and the man she was having a relationship with were raised Catholic, she considers herself "pro-choice — I just never thought I'd have to make that choice myself."
Minnesota requires a 24-hour waiting period, so she called an area clinic to schedule the abortion, spoke to a doctor and went in for the procedure the next day.
She had friends and her partner had relatives who had protested at the same clinic. But on this day she didn't recognize any of the activists there.
The protesters tried to hand her pamphlets as she drove into the parking lot, but she closed her car windows.
She was only five weeks pregnant, so chose to have a medical abortion, meaning she could use the "abortion pill." That involved taking one pill at the clinic, and four others within the next 72 hours to finish the process. Her private insurance covered it, costing her only a $25 out-of-pocket co-payment.
Before the abortion, a clinic worker took an ultrasound and asked if she wanted to see the image. "I did want to see it," she said. "Just because I didn't get to keep this one doesn't make it any less my child."
"A pregnancy under any other circumstances would have been welcomed and rejoiced in my life," she said.
A 31-year-old mother in South Dakota learned how difficult it is to get an abortion there when a doomed pregnancy led her to consider it.
In two previous pregnancies, the fetus was afflicted with a rare, inherited and ultimately fatal condition called achondrogenesis, her doctor said. It causes deadly deformities. One of the babies died an hour after birth; the other was stillborn.
The Rapid City woman gave birth to two healthy children after that and decided to have another child.
But early in the pregnancy this year she learned this fetus was afflicted, too. The woman said she was worried she would develop breathing problems that had plagued her during one of her earlier pregnancies. But the condition wasn't life-threatening, her doctor said.
The woman's husband has a chronic illness, and with two children to raise, she said she was worried about endangering her health.
"That was my main reason for considering abortion this time. I needed to be here for my kids," she said.
Her baby was delivered stillborn Oct. 14 during an emergency cesarean section. Complications developed and she lost a lot of blood but is recovering, her husband said.
Few South Dakota doctors perform abortions and the state's only abortion clinic is a nearly six-hour drive to the east, in Sioux Falls. Her obstetrician, Dr. Marvin Buehner, treats high-risk pregnancies and does a few abortions each year when pregnancy endangers the mother's life or health. But his hospital prohibits abortions otherwise.
Also, Medicaid pays for abortions in South Dakota only when the mother's life is at risk, or in cases of rape or incest. An abortion would require traveling across the state, paying for lodging during the required two-day waiting period, plus hundreds of dollars for the procedure.
"In South Dakota, you have to be almost close to death" to get an abortion, she said. "That kind of worries me."
Her religion helps her cope and she is philosophical. She believes she will be reunited with her lost babies in heaven.
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- Wearable robot can help patients walk again
- 'Loser' champ draws on his success to motivate others
- An on-the-ball workout
- Doctors tailor breast cancer testing based on risk factors
- iPad classes for blind help broaden abilities
- Are annual physicals passe?
- Women describe events that led to abortion
- Dozens of states make it harder to get abortions
- Technology helps with fitness goals
- Eating in storm's wake


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The Nebraska City women behind the Two Girls and Cause say they are preparing for the Rock & Roll San Diego Marathon and Half Marathon with fresh inspiration from their April 5 fundraising event and Lacey Glasford's story.
Glasford, an English teacher at Nebraska City High School, told the event audience how cancer research is giving her a chance at a normal life while she battles chronic myeloid leukemia.
The event, organized by Gina Simrell and Christi Smallfoot, raised $8,992 through donations, silent auction, raffles and even a push-up challenge.
Prior to attempting 50 pushups, Simrell said the event is for all the victims and those fighting cancer and asked people to join the effort to find a cure.
"There are people fighting a battle bigger than you've ever faced," she said.
In addition to Glasford, the event was in honor of Eileen Parisi and Dennis Record and in memory of Mary Lu Cullin.
Dinner was provided by Lady Bug BBQ, music by Brian Booth and caricatures by Bill Dunn.
Location, ST | website.com


text:
I'm playing a rogue and have two daggers I'd like to be able to equip via hotkeys. If I put a dagger each in hotkey 4 and 5 and I hit '4' then '5' it equips each into my main hand. How do I get one into my main and one into my off-hand?
You need a macro to equip the weapons to a specific slot. You didn't provide the names of your daggers, so this is the best I can offer:
Source: WoWpedia.org
You don't actually need to use both lines in a single macro -- you could have one macro to switch off-hand daggers, and another one to switch main-hand daggers, but switching them at the same times has the benefit of not resetting your swing timer twice (which swapping weapons does. No problems if you're swapping while not in combat)
You want to use an equip-manager especially one that is going you if you become weaponless due to wanting to swap an item not in your bags or leave you wish a fishing pole and so forth.
Remember that swapping weapons / off hands leaves you with timer resets, basically weaponless for a brief period of time.


text:
I'm writing the Bachelor thesis but I need some information. I need to find some practical examples and applications of the Compound Poisson Process in insurance. Does anyone have any good examples?
An insurer might model the filing of claims as a Poisson process, but the cumulative amount of the claims as a compound Poisson process.
As an example, suppose a company has issued a large large number of auto liability policies that are geographically dispersed and have identical limits and driver risk profiles. The incidence of claims being made by policy holders would approximate a Poisson process, but each claim would be for a varying dollar amounts (following some other distribution taking on values between zero and the policy limit).
The car insurance example fits the Poisson model because a single claim (or the lack of a claim) in a particular period doesn't indicate that another claim is more or less likely in the near future. A bad example would be flood insurance policies in a concentrated coastal area. That's because the claims are likely to come in waves, so a single claim is likely to be followed by others.
Even if this is maybe a bit off-topic as you ask for an example in the context of insurance I want to give you two different examples:


text:
TROY, Ala. – Trojan players boarded the team buses to Birmingham last Friday for their season opener at UAB with a common message across their shirts – UNFINISHED BUSINESS. The Trojans left historic Legion Field with a convincing 39-29 victory in their back pocket and a small piece of unfinished business tucked away.
The Trojans next piece of business comes on Saturday in the form of Louisiana-Lafayette in both the home opener and Sun Belt opener for the Men of Troy. Kickoff is slated for 6:04 p.m. in a game that will be broadcast by ESPN3.
There are plenty of storylines to keep people interested going into Saturday's marquee Sun Belt game – the Trojans are 21-0 in home openers under head coach Larry Blakeney, Troy is 92-14-1 at home under Blakeney and the team has revenge on its mind following a 14-point loss to the Cajuns last season.
"They got us down there last year and we helped them a little bit, but they got us," Blakeney said at his weekly press luncheon. "I hope our people are engaged about this thing. Let me tell you, this game this week is bigger than anything we've had in a few years as far of having good support at the game."
Fans can purchase tickets for the game by contacting the Troy ticket office at 1-877-878-WINS or online at TroyTrojans.com.
Troy stormed out to a 17-0 lead last week at UAB and led again by 17 late in the fourth quarter before a UAB touchdown in the waning minutes of the game produced the final 10-point margin.
Senior running back Shawn Southward had a field day against the Blazers as he rushed for 204 yards and three touchdowns. His tally was the fifth most in the NCAA last week, sixth most in school history and best by a Trojan since 2008.
Corey Robinson completed 11-of-20 passes for 164 yards with a pair of touchdowns and no interceptions to lead the Trojan passing attack. His favorite target was Chip Reeves who caught six passes for 125 yards and a score, while B.J. Chitty iced the game with a late 25-yard touchdown reception.
Defensively it was a surprise hero that led the way. Senior walk-on De'Von Terry recovered a fumble on the Troy 2-yard line, intercepted a pass that immediately led to a Troy touchdown and recorded five tackles as he played in his first football game since 2007.
Brannon Bryan and Brynden Trawick each had 11 tackles to lead Troy on the afternoon, while newcomers to the Trojan defense Tyler Roberts and Marty Stadom each had a key sack. The Trojans forced four UAB turnovers on the afternoon and came up with a key fourth-down stop on the game's opening possession.
Southward and Terry were rewarded for their work when the Sun Belt Conference named them their offensive and defensive players of the week, respectively, on Monday.
Troy has had the upper hand in the series over Louisiana-Lafayette under Blakeney's watch as the Men of Troy have won seven of the nine games during the hall of famer's tenure. Thanks to six straight victories to open the series in the 1940s and 50s the Cajuns own the overall series advantage by a slim 8-7 margin.
The Cajuns were not tested in their season opener as they jumped out to a 40-0 halftime lead over FCS opponent Lamar. Quarterback Blaine Gautier completed 7-of-18 pass attempts for 142 yards and a pair of scores, while Effrem Reed led the ground attack with 55 yards and a score on seven carries in the 40-0 victory.
Louisiana-Lafayette kicker Brett Baer shouldered much of the scoring responsibility as he booted four field goals to run his streak of consecutive makes to 15. The ULL defense forced four turnovers which created a short field for the Cajuns to work with as six of ULL's scoring drives were 31 yards or less.


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Nodal Ninja 5 series pano head have been discontinued - once existing stock is depleted they will be unavailable.
More news to follow soon.
Nodal Ninja 5 series pano head have been discontinued - once existing stock is depleted they will be unavailable.
More news to follow soon.
an estimated timeframe of end of stock ?
French Nodal Ninja Distributor
Blog: http://www.skivr.com
Online shop: http://magasin.skivr.com
Photo gallery: http://flickr.com/skivr
Support website: http://support.skivr.com
This is difficult question to answer especially to resellers that are trying to plan stock supplies. Also posting public estimates of when we "think" we might run out is not a good idea. Many people plan purchases ahead of time and if we said we will have stock x amount of weeks only to sell out sooner it could disappoint some. And in all fairness we will have to place limits so one reseller doesn't buy up all the inventory further forcing customers to buy from them.
Nick will use and build from existing stock so as to spread the life span of NN5 w/RD16. So this means the first to go will be everything head in the NN5 series with the exception of NN5 w/RD16. And with the exception of NN5 w/RD16 these items are unfortunately no longer available to resellers. What "will" be available (also in limited supply) are what we call "Factory Irregulars". The lower rails may have a bit more dust in paint, a few tiny pores in casting, and small scratches in paint. They are still fully functional and covered by same 2 yr warranty. The factory irregulars for NN5/5L (starter/ rotator packages) will be $30 to $50 lesser expensive.
And just because the Nodal Ninja 5 series has been discontinued doesn't mean we won't have alternate solutions coming out soon like the Modular system (again no specific dates).
Why discontinued?
The mold as reached the end of its usable life and can no longer meet the high quality standards Nick strives for and the customers have come to expect. So rather than spending the money to create a new mold Nick is working harder to bring the newer production models online.
Nodal Ninja 5 has been on the market for nearly 3 years and this is like losing a good friend. There are many NN5 users out there and Nick's dedication to fine workmanship as proven itself with less than a .01% return rate from warranty issues. Like NN3 series and the new Ultimate line R1/R10's these heads are built to last for many years. And not worry NN5 users we'll also have replacement parts for just as long should you lose or accidentally break a piece.
Decisions like this don't come easily but as most of you know the Fanotec slogan says it all;
"We listen. We try harder."
Wait until you see what's next
Nick has never disappointed before, I really like my 5 but I'm sure the new one will be interesting. Same timing as the poles? any hints??
NN5 is discontinued -- so maybe an updated design would be opportune? How about this -- the bottom rail is a vertical I beam instead of a horizontal I beam. The pivot point (rotator) is smaller and on the front (toward the subject) side of the I beam. The vertical rail is also rotated 90 degrees to show the narrow side instead of the wide side. It is also a bit taller to move the camera farther away from the pivot so the head is smaller in the picture. Similar arraingment with the tilt pivot which is also smaller. The tilt arm is narrower and thicker for strength and the camera support "elevates" the camera sideways away from the tilt arm.
All this so the head is visually smaller in all the images where the head partially shows in the image.
It is kind of sad. Some unexpected production issues force us to discontinue NN5 series at this early stage. We have plenty of irregulars available. They are very good for money. In fact we could have loosened our quality standard a bit and sold them as regulars. But I don't want to be unfair to new customers. I want them to get the same quality as that mentioned by reviews and early customers.
We are working hard on the Ultimate modular series. But we have even higher quality standard for the Ultimate modular series. It will take a while to get them ready.
We listen. We try harder.
To bad that the NN5 is discontineud, I am very happy with my NN5 and hope it will last for years.
Nico from the netherlands
sorry to hear about the nn5 being discontinued. i'm a nn3mkii user but intends to upgrade to nn5 as i plan to upgrade my body to 5dmkii. with this news, i can't wait to see what's coming next to nn5.
I feel a little sad about this ending.
The new "RRS/Arca-style" design will be much, much more expensive and heavier
unless Nick has another clever idea :-)
I'm a new customer, and am concerned by this development because I thought the NN5 was one of your leading products, and expected NN5 to be supported by warranty and replacement parts. I just purchased it two weeks ago, so I'm shocked to see it be discontinued. Is a new comparable model in the works?
I see Nodal Ninjas have a great reputation, one of the reasons for purchasing. I have the RD16 head. I returned to the site only because my Manfrotto RC2 plate released my Nodal Ninja onto the pavement, and I need to order replacement parts.
Specifically, I need the big rubber knob on the NN5 (not NN5L) articulation, which changes the incline of the camera angle. I cannot find the parts store like I found last week for the NN5.
Last edited by photo enthusiast; 09-11-2010 at 04:59 PM.
For those who worry about the future of affordable line of Nodal Ninja, we will release a new product in 2011. It is a slightly downgraded "NN5" with fixed 15 deg lock in upper rotator. It works for focal length slightly less than 100mm eq. Those who want to use longer focal length need to grab an NN5 series while still available or buy the new multi-row Ultimate pano heads. As a matter of fact, NN5/5L does not work very well for big tele lenses. These lenses are best served by the Ultimate.
We listen. We try harder.


text:
Hi naimish!
I think you are wrong! Have you ever used norton in a P4 pc which has not a good configuration!
If not then check it that after installing norton are u able to do some work in that pc!
I think NORTON is most bad, I can tell u some viruses which are not detected by norton "lax.exe","avg,vbs" etc.
And kaspersky is so difficult to use and for me it has never crashed a pc even it is a P3!
nortan is bad i agree, kaspersky is confusing, but its good. I have been using it... It blocked things even from the sites on its own...
See, this all is depends on someone personal choice and you can't force them. You like Kaspersky, which is as said....confusing. I have used Norton in P4 too, and all I can say is, it's working fine till now. and Yes, I am still able to do my work, even I can run VS.NET in my system.
The disadvantage is only that it's decreases the speed of start-up, and if it have slow down your PC then change the configuration.
The viruses not detected by norton like "lax.exe","avg,vbs" etc. then I can say No One Is Perfect. May you could have report this to Norton.
In Kaspersky, I found much difficulties, if I tell you, after installing it, it got crash my pc, I had to format my PC, that's why I don't like Kaspersky.
Depends on person to person.


text:
TOPEKA, Kan. -- Wednesday, the Second Chance on Shoot First Campaign sent letters to all 165 members of the Kansas State Legislature urging them to reform or repeal their Shoot First Law. Letters were also sent to 4,000 lawmakers in 25 other states that have these laws on their books.
In the letter, Ginny Simmons, Director of Second Chance on Shoot First, asks legislators to reconsider Florida-style Shoot First laws that have sparked an increase in vigilantism across the nation:
"Trayvon Martin's killing in Florida has focused public attention on the consequences of these reckless laws. Twenty-six states have enacted 'Shoot First' laws since 2005, over the strong opposition of law enforcement. And experience has now shown that these laws encourage vigilantism, sow confusion among police, and stymie prosecutors.
"People carrying guns now feel emboldened to resolve conflicts with firearms even if they could safely walk away, and police and prosecutors are uncertain about which shootings may be instances of legitimate self-defense and which are murders. These laws have deadly consequences: according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, so-called 'justifiable homicides' by citizens have tripled in Florida since it enacted 'Shoot First.'"
Second Chance on Shoot First also invited legislators to join the 250,000 Americans who have joined the campaign to prompt states to rethink these laws.
The 26 states with Shoot First legislation are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
Since the campaign launched, legislators in several states have already announced efforts to reform or repeal Shoot First laws. Despite the national backlash against the NRA's stealth promotion of reckless gun laws, the gun lobby is aggressively pushing new Shoot First laws in at least ten states. Legislators have blocked these laws in several states.
For more information: SecondChanceCampaign.org.


text:
NEW AGENTS: Howard Hanna Mortimer Realty in Weirton has added two sales associates to the team.
Barbara Ivaun is a lifelong resident of Weirton. She graduated from Madonna High School in 1977 and attended Wheeling Barber College and practiced as a hair stylist for more than 20 years, 12 of those as sole proprietor of her own salon, Trend Setters. She continued her education at the Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh, acquiring certification in court reporting in 2001 and is working for Judge Martin J. Gaughan in the 1st Circuit Court.
Kristin Chmielorski-Moffat grew up in Follansbee and is a graduate of Brooke High School, West Liberty University and the Spruce School of Real Estate.
Prior to becoming a Realtor, she was a teacher for seven years at the middle and high school levels. She resides in Colliers.
Both women completed their real estate training and passed the licensing exam in Charleston. They are members of the Weirton Area Board of Realtors, the West Virginia Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.
Robin Viola is broker of Howard Hanna Mortimer Realty.
OPENS PRACTICE: Dr. Ayman Fakeh has opened his family medical practice at 146 W. Fifth St., East Liverpool.
He attended medical school at the University of Alexandria in Egypt and served his family practice residency at UPMC McKeesport, Pa.
He also received training and residencies at Mercy Hospital and Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh and Weirton Medical Center.
LUNCHEON SET: The Steubenville Area Board of Realtors annual trade fair and Affiliate Appreciation Luncheon will be Tuesday at St. Florian Hall, 286 Luray Drive, Wintersville.
The trade fair opens at 11 a.m., with lunch at noon.
The event also features annual awards and election of officers for 2013.
For information or reservations, contact JoAnn McClain by Monday at (740) 264-0001.
CRUISE-IN: The Pit Stop located at the corner of state Route 646 and county Road 39 in Annapolis has designated its last Cruise-In of the season on Tuesday as a fundraiser for local fire departments and EMTs.
The Pit Stop's Tina Sweat said firefighters and EMTs from Unionport, East Springfield, Richmond and Hopedale fire departments will benefit from Tuesday's fundraiser, which will feature music, special drawings and a silent auction. Prints by Dave Barnhouse and Don Fusco will be sold.
Patrons will have a chance to win a muzzle loader as well.
"All our local retailers are giving us gift certificates and we're going to have a Chinese auction," she added. "Our local retailers have been very supportive. We've got rounds of golf, gift certificates for oil changes or just to (use at) local convenience stores. A lot of retailers are participating."
There also will be food and beverages available.
"Everything is for donations," she said, adding all proceeds will be divided among the four departments.
Dave Petras, the singing DJ, will supply music for the event.
The Cruise-In will be from 4-8 p.m. In the event of rain, it will be held Wednesday.
SYMPOSIUM SET: Bethany College will hold its fifth-annual Fall Symposium, for professionals in social work, nursing and related fields, Nov. 1-2 at the Mountainside Conference Center.
This year's theme is "Life Stages: the Circle of Life," and will feature a keynote speaker for each day as well as a number of workshops.
Co-hosts for the event include West Virginia Northern Community College, the West Virginia University Masters of Social Work Program, Wheeling branch, and the Brooke County Health Department.
More than 100 professionals, including social workers, nurses, counselors, addictions specialists and domestic violence prevention specialists are expected to attend.
The keynote presentation Nov. 1 will feature Dreams of Hope, an arts-focused, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied youth organization in Pittsburgh.
Friday will feature Aila Accad, author of "Your Stress-Busters Expert." Accad is an award-winning speaker and best-selling author who specializes in quick ways to release stress and reclaim energy.
This year's symposium will provide 12 continuing education units (1.5 CEUs per session) for social workers and licensed counselors and 14.4 CEUs (1.8 CEUs per session) for nurses.
For information, contact Katherine Shelek-Furbee, chair and program director of social work at Bethany College, at (304) 829-7189 or email@example.com.
CONTRACTED: Harrison Community Hospital is now contracted with Computer Programs and Systems Inc. located in Mobile, Ala., to perform patient billings.
Billing statements have been issued by CPSI since Oct. 1.
"CPSI currently provides the hospital's main computer operating system for our electronic medical records system," said Terry M. Carson, chief executive officer at the hospital. "We have worked with CPSI since 1998, and we foresee this new relation and transition to be as smooth as possible for our patients."
Individuals may continue to pay in person at the hospital. Phone inquiries regarding billing statements may be directed to Harrison Community Hospital at (740) 942-4631 or (740) 942-6262, or patients may contact CPSI toll-free at (877) 424-0064.
"This change is being done in an effort to enhance the billing process as we continue to seek ways to provide high quality, affordable health care to the community," Carson said.


text:
I write many telegraphic reviews of monographs and textbooks.
Occasionally I see certain books do something I think should become
an industry standard, namely tagging nearly every theorem, lemma, definition,
example, exercise, etc. with some short mnemonic nickname, so readers need
not depend solely on a numbering scheme for cross-references, etc.
Examples of books that employ this laudable practice (and just happen to come to mind) include Epstein's Word Processing in Groups and Thurston's Three-Dimensional Geometry and Topology.
My question: what author and/or publisher initiated this practice?
(I'd like to cite the original source as a comparison when I feel the visual design of a book makes it difficult for browsing.)


text:
1996. Damn, even in the mug shot Lil' Kim is pretty. Brown, smooth skin, nice eyes, cute nose. We all checked pictures of the petite rapper and concluded God gave her genes-with-benefits.
No longer. The most recent pics of Lil' Kim remind me of arguments surrounding the merits of plastic surgery and the freedom and right of some to choose to re-arrange their image. Those arguments do indeed exist, but for Generation X and Y in particular, it's hard to look at the Queen Bee now and make them. We remember when.
Of course, Kim is a grown ass woman making choices, but Black beauty is more than facial features; it is a complicated, precious, powerful living history that includes intimate connections with violence—and is tangled with stories of rejection, privilege, love and lack, favor and hatred. Black beauty's mirror has never just been our individual reflection staring back at us, it has been a history of a relationship with nations all over the world, their lens on our features and bodies, their opinion, their version of our beauty, how that version has changed and stayed the same over time–the mirror is our intimate revolution.
Lil Kim's transformation isn't new, nor is it news, but I ran across some recent pictures of her and was stopped in my tracks. Not because of any individual feature. But rather because I was looking at a face that was almost other-worldly, alien, unknown, unfamiliar, bearing no resemblance to a self of several years ago. No-one looks like this. Her bone structure—now unrecognizable, carved with seeming self-hate and accentuated with blush—a nose that could stab rather than sniff and eyes permanently on stare. This is hard. That's why 'emotional justice' matters. It's the term I created to deal with our legacy of untreated trauma that has tumbled down from generation to generation and manifests in all different forms. Black beauty is one of those forms.
Our reflection in the mirror reveals not just one single story, but so many. Our beauty is not a landscape, it's been—and continues to be—a battleground. It's where little girls come to wound and be wounded; it's where boys come to inflict the keenest hurt and run away laughing, or rather suffer stings and stabs themselves.
And then there are the Pain Olympics. My pain hurts more than yours. Dark brown girls claiming invisibility often robs our lighter skinned sisters of any pain narrative because their complexion is often Hollywood chosen, leading lady luscious, and cover girl glorious. They walk with privilege so they couldn't possibly have pain too, brown girls claimed that space, right? Of course, many cultures have dysfunctional relationships with their brownness. Check out India and the contemporary TV ads for 'Clean and Dry', an intimate wash that is actually a vaginal bleaching cream. Who bleaches their va-jay-jay? I'm an African Diaspora chick, born in London, with family in Ghana and now a New York dweller. Ghana kicked off the fight for political independence back in 1957, we rocked the Black power natural with pride, and yet we're also part of a cluster of nations that lead the stats in bleaching creams whose ingredients could desecrate metal, cause skin cancer, leave knuckles black and skin pock marked. Issues, anyone?
LIl' Kim: An Evolution of Self
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Connect to Black America.
We are not "old Black" nor "new Black" we are ALL Black.
We're not supposed to talk about the reasons why we bleach our skin and change our features. We're not supposed to articulate jealousy, envy, or hurt due to what we believe we have or don't have in the looks department. We're not supposed to own those feelings, so we hide sometimes under the guise of self love, in narratives that glorify our African features, while quietly envying the chick who has the 'other' ones. Not all of us at all, but some. Yes, some of us have. We point out what's wrong with sister girl with the perm, we remind her how much we love our hair, eyes, skin, nose, and we go to great lengths to remind a sister who doesn't look like us that we're natural. We as Black women of every hue and grade of hair go a long way to talk some ish.
We could do something else.
We could speak our whole truth. It may not be where we live now, but maybe it was at some point. Maybe we were the one bullied for our unique beauty or maybe we were the beauty bully. Maybe we went after the girl who we most wanted to be like and hit her the hardest with words and fists. Black women of all complexions talk a great self-love game, but actually we live more comfortably in a reflection of struggle; maybe we are a bit of all of this or none of it. Maybe we chose pain as our power, but not anymore. Stop a Black woman on the street, ask her


text:
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Texas A&M women's golf seniors Mary Michael Maggio and Sarah Beth Davis shot one and two-under par, respectively, Friday during the first round of the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship to help the Aggies sit in a tie for first place.
The tournament, hosted by the University of Tennessee at the Holston Hills Country Club, has A&M tied atop the field alongside Penn State with a score of 291 (+3) after the first round. Tennessee and UTSA are tied for third place with a score of 292 (+4) and Purdue (+5), Florida State (+6), Northwestern (+6), Mississippi State (+9), Iowa State (+10), Furman (+12), East Carolina (+14), Miami (+20), Chattanooga (+23), Memphis (+25), James Madison (+26) and Kentucky (+35) fall behind successively.
Davis is currently tied for second place individually with two other golfers after opening the tournament with a round of 70 (-2). Maggio is close behind with a score of 71 (-1) placing her in a fifth-place tie. Maggio's performance included six birdies with four on the front nine. Davis played with a steady hand during much of the opening round as she carded four birdies.
Junior Natalie Reeves and sophomore Patricia Garcia each ended the day with a score of 75 (+3), while junior Chelsea Mocio rounded out the A&M contingency with a score of 79 (+7).
The second round of the tournament begins Saturday at 8 a.m. (CST). The Aggies are paired with Penn State and Tennessee and will tee off from the first hole beginning at 9:40 (CST). Live scoring for the event is available at GolfStat.com.


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What parts of the body should be trained? How to be ready for a hard push?
Assuming that you're talking about being pushed in the manner of posturing males ("OH YEAH, BRING IT?!?!", etc), then you have a couple options:
Now, with all that said: I understand that you, or anyone else, may disagree with some of these statements. I'd be happy to hash them out (probably in the chat) with anyone who has questions.
Alternatively, find a patient friend (or a patient enemy, I suppose) and have them push you, over and over and over, until you've figured out for yourself what your response should be. How do you think martial arts started in the first place? :D
It's kind of hard to tell what you're asking for here. Are you asking for advice on what ways you can deal with a push after you've been pushed and you're just sort of ejected away from someone while trying to regain your balance and stop? Or are you asking for advice on what to do at the moment someone begins to push? Or are you asking for advice on what to do once you realize a push is or might be coming?
All of those are legitimate questions. Pushing is one of the most common things you'll encounter if you're in a bad situation. It's often the prelude to more violent actions. How you respond during this phase of the fight is critical.
Prior to being pushed, you should realize the situation is getting tense, and your body language and words should communicate that you don't want to fight. That can stop the fight from happening right there. As you're doing this, you're keeping some distance between you and whoever is threatening you. So back away. Keep your hands up with your palms open towards the guy, just like you see in cop shows where the cops ask people to raise their arms. This is calming and is also the universal sign that you don't want to fight. But it's also great for you, because if the guy comes at you, you've got your arms in a good position to quickly defend. Also, turn your body sideways slightly, so you're not facing the guy squarely. This is so that if he lunges directly into you, you can pivot quickly and take yourself out of his path. It also presents less targets for him to hit or grab onto.
So there's plenty of things you can do before even knowing what's going to happen.
Next, if the guy attacks you with a sudden rush forward, you have some time to get off the line and dodge like I said above. Your arms should quickly move downwards to protect your body and meet his force while not over-extending. At the same time, you're hunching your body forward, getting the legs spread out into a forward wrestling stance, and preparing to sprawl and/or shoot in for a take-down.
If he manages to get both hands on your chest and begins to push while you're not prepared for it (just standing up straight), you are in trouble. In this stance, you are very easy to push. You'll go flying backwards. Recovery is critical, because you're either going to trip and fall on your back, or you're going to spend a lot of time flailing around trying to get your balance. Either way, this means you're vulnerable to anything your attacker wants to do to you for a short period of time while you're trying to recover. So this situation is very hard to turn around to your advantage. Your strategy here should be to recover as soon as possible and get back to a strong position.
Some martial arts I've found fairly good at helping people deal with pushing are: Tai Chi, Brazilian Jiujitsu, Judo, and Wrestling. I would think Sambo and other grappling styles would also be very good, but I have no direct experience with them. Of those, I'm giving the edge to Brazilian Jiujitsu, because it has a full game plan from the very beginning. But Tai Chi also has some good material for dealing with pushes and could very easily complement any other of the styles I mentioned. I wouldn't take Tai Chi alone, however, because I just don't see it as having a complete overall strategy, especially if things go wrong.
As Dave suggests, get stronger by doing whole body weight lifting. Strength training will be helpful. Especially look into the "weight sled" apparatus. And maybe bungee cord harnesses. Those train your forward "push" strength, especially in the legs, but also in the back, abdomen, and trapezius. You'll also need to work on your "pull" exercise to balance yourself out so you avoid muscle imbalances later on.
Good luck!
Momentum and collisions are what you are looking at. Collisions can be either elastic or inelastic. The former is when you recoil if pushes, the latter is when your body absorbs most the energy of the push.
Now, what you are asking is how to effectively absorb the energy. Well, momentum is conserved in a collision, so you have to provide equal momentum in the opposite direction to the push. Alternatively, you can absorb the energy which will likely translate as damage to your body. You can do that by standing your ground. Clearly, the former should be preferred.
How do you achieve equal momentum in the opposite direction to the push? Well, you have mass and you have velocity. The latter is the one you want to improve on due to kinetic energy. Which means you have to move towards the push. By doing so you are increasing the total energy of the system. This is bad because some of that energy will translate into damage to both bodies: bruises, bones fractures, concussion, etcetera. After all, our bodies are not rigid ones. Note that damage can be due to the initial collision or the collision with whatever you collide with behind you: wall, floor, etcetera.
So, neither options is really avoiding damage to yourself. Maybe either avoiding or blending with the push are better ways to deal with a push than trying to resist it.
In addition, offensive means imparting energy (kick, punch, throw, ...) into the target and defensive means minimising the energy (absorb, block, deflect, avoidance, ...) you receive as part of the attack. It is all about physics.
If you're asking about strength work then the answer is, as always, get strong first. Don't try to tailor your strength training to a specific task if you're weak, because that approach will keep you weak. Do whole-body general strength training, like pull-ups and heavy deadlifts.
The rest of resisting or avoiding a bad response to a push is technique training, or more generally getting used to someone disrupting your balance. For that, you should be sparring hard in some sort of grappling ruleset where people are going to push you. Wrestling, judo, san da, sumo, and SAMBO stand out as excellent options, as they involve hard sparring with throws and shoves. BJJ would be an OK but lesser option due to its lack of focus on the stand-up portion of the fight. If you're really keen on training specifically for being pushed in a self-defense scenario (which is a bit silly, as it's overspecialization), then judo or sumo might be best since the posture used in those arts are the most upright and therefore the most similar to how one would be standing when pushed during an ape dominance interaction.
People who spar hard in grappling arts don't usually need to ask these kinds of questions, because dealing with being pushed is second nature after weekly rough-and-tumble stand-up grappling. (This occurs also with techniques for dealing with wrist grabs. Wrestlers just deal with it.)
Why resist?
Why do you want to avoid recoiling? Very frequently someone pushing on you is a little gift, and you can yield and redirect the push to your advantage. Many opponents will unbalance themselves when pushing on you, which is your opening to attack with a throw or lead the opponent into a position to hit them.
If you decide to resist
OK, but suppose you merely want to avoid recoiling and do not want to attack back. The simplest thing to do is to set your feet. You are most vulnerable to pushes that come in perpendicular to the line between your feet. So align your feet with the push that comes in. This dramatically improves your resistance even with minimal training.
You can verify this yourself by having a partner stand in any stance and pushing on their center from different angles. You will find it is easiest to push them perpendicular to the line between the feet.
Other points:
I don't think it is terribly productive to train in anything but a holistic manner. Whether you are rooting, evading, or redirecting you will need to train your whole body to react in the desired manner.
Readiness is a product of situational awareness and training. With enough experience you will be able to read your opponents balance, technique, and intent. With the proper training you can read the situation without active consideration and react with muscle-memory guided swiftness. There is no universally correct action to take when being pushed. A great deal depends on the opponent and the circumstance. So, it is best to learn multiple skills for dealing with this kind of aggression. There are times when it is advantageous to stand-fast, yield, redirect, or even evade. The trick is knowing when to do what, and that comes from experience.
Most arts/systems teach a variety of techniques which specifically address the situation of being pushed/shoved (especially grappling-focused ones). In my personal experience, being shoved only happens with unskilled opponents. Trained fighters almost never use a generic two-arm, momentum-carrying push (especially considering that it is just behind the infamous wrist-grab in techniques every martial art trains to counter).
It's all about your core strength.use your core,then decide whether it's better to deflect with a twist of the torso or absorb ,with one step back. But the point is, no strategy will be effective without core strength. There is a huge amount of information on the inter web on core training. You just have to do it …On a daily basis.
So, there's a few answers, the correct part depends on what you're really asking.
I don't want to be knocked back
Well, there's a few arts that end up practicing "rooting" and folks can bounce you off if you try to push them. That's going to be about 10-15 years of training your legs, spine and mostly how to efficiently use it against someone else's center of balance on near instant contact. This is going to be stuff like a really good Tai Chi or Bagua person.
It's a neat skill, though I'm not sure it's be something worth the time/effort for what you're asking.
You can of course, try doing stuff like Sumo, or American Football training which focuses a lot on forward push/resist stuff, but in both of those cases the pushing is much more formalized and clear when/where it will happen, which isn't like how it happens in a fight.
I don't want to be knocked down
The best way to not be knocked down is to avoid the push, or, if it makes contact, do a small hop backwards to keep your feet under you while you're being pushed. Naturally, this means you "recoil" or are pushed back. You can also rotate and take off the force if it's not direct to your center.
I don't want to be hurt when pushed
All the stuff for not being knocked down, as above, plus falling training. Best thing for me was Judo training. I spent about 2 weeks learning nothing but falling techniques, and every class began with falling training for everyone as a warm up. I haven't taken Systema, but they look like they also have some pretty good falling skills as well.
Being pushed is typically a kind of posturing - an assertion of strength and dominance, rather than an actual attack. So, learning to deal with it well can be useful at preventing further escalation in a bullying situation - undermining the dominance the other person expects to feel - but isn't very useful in an actual fight.
Whatever you want to do, you need to practice at least a few dozen times with a friend.
I assume you're thinking of a double handed chest to the chest, or a single handed push to the shoulder, chest or even face. A push is a directional delivery of power over time, with a range of 30-50cm or so, and the aggressor needing to be reasonably close to begin the movement.
There are two aspects to this, assuming that by "avoiding recoil" you mean you don't want to move backwards.
To reducing their effectiveness, you need to rotate away from the place they apply force without a stiffness in your posture that communicates their force back to your centre of mass. So, if they go to push you on one shoulder and you stiffen up and seek to stay front facing, you'll tend to be pushed back. If you relax the shoulder they shove and let the other shoulder swing forwards, then they'll have little 'net effect on your centre of mass. If they target your centre better, then you should look to turn either shoulder forwards, letting their hand(s) slip across your chest rather than through it. If they're shoving with their right hand, you want your left shoulder coming forwards / right shoulder backwards. You can use your hands on the outsides of their forearms to help divert their push past you.
You can also effectively reduce the range over which they can develop power by leaning in slightly while keeping your hips back... that way they have to push your upper body back further before it becomes difficult to keep your hips/centre of mass stationary. So, it may look like the shove moves you back effectively, but you are less likely to lose your balance afterwards or keep stumbling backwards. Be careful of being pulled forwards though, or put into a headlock.
Further, if you stay in close to your opponent, they'll have trouble generating as hard an initial impact... they may manage a strong push, but will have a little more trouble having as much of a bruising "hit" aspect to it. They'll have to make contact earlier - before they've generated as much forward momentum - and you have a chance to be "sensitive" to their direction and timing of force, making it easier to twist away from the thrust, or even suddenly jerk back into them at an unexpectedly close distance before they've got their push focused.
Another option is to rest your arms atop of their elbows, so it's harder for them to extend through the push. That's most practical if they keep their elbows low, while a defection works well even with elbows high. You can do either of these things without seeming overly aggressive or necessarily escalating the violence... they show a degree of control which psychologically may persuade the attacker that escalation might be riskier than they thought.
In terms of actively meeting force with resistance, you want to either start of come to rest with one foot forward of the other - preferably so their stronger/dominant hand will slide across your chest rather than push through it. Keep the front foot facing forwards, and the back leg's knee turned more forwards too, and bent. Imagine you were about to push a truck with a flat battery along the road... you'd probably use a similar stance. It's nice not to necessary start with too strong a stance though... you want to avoid some of the force, allow other force to rotate your body so one shoulder goes back and the other forward, and only directly oppose whatever's left or find a strong stance to settle back in to to stop any momentum they've impacted - ideally when you're already at the edge of or out of their range of movement for the push.
If things do get - or are obviously about to get - seriously nasty, just abandon all this... it's just delaying the inevitable. If they're about to shove you hard, step back and pull them forwards, use a joint lock if you know how, jab them in the throat before they shove, palm to nose, elbow up under the chin, knee or front kick to the groin, kick hard to the kneecap etc..
So ultimately, there's a lot you can do with timing and technique - I'd worry less about building specific muscles for this than just getting used to moving well in the situation, again practicing with a partner.
Actually, one think that I do is that, when I see somebody is about to push me, I use my body to put my force to that push. Therefore, the push wouldn't stagger me and make me look bad. For regular pushes, you need to have a quick sense and use your body to counter that push.


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Shenandoah Fire and Rescue helped a 77-year-old woman escape from a vehicle that had slid into a pond and partically submerged on Jan. 30.
The Fremont County Sheriff's Office reports that Louise Ellis of Lytton, Iowa, was driving near the intersection of Highway 59 and 320th Street when the car hit a patch of ice and spun out of control.
The car slid down an embankment about 50 feet into the pond area and broke through the ice.
The front end of the 2006 Buick Lucerne submerged up to the rear doors, but the back of the car rested on a frozen marsh.
Ellis was able to crawl into the back seat area while the front of the cab filled with water.
Ellis's clothing did get, but she was uninjured.
She was transported to the Shenandoah Memorial Hospital to be checked out.
Location, ST | website.com


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5 Things You Use Every Day That Are Getting Awesome Upgrades
Show a time traveler from 1950 your iPhone and he'll probably crap his pants. That little device would seem to be beyond magic. Show that same guy your bathroom and he'll be right at home. Bathrooms have barely changed.
Same with T-shirts and countless other everyday items that have stopped innovating even though they're far from perfect. In every case, the Next Big Thing in these stale technologies is out there, somewhere. They're all either experimental or still too expensive, but they give us a glimpse of how some of the little things in life could be a hell of a lot better in the near future.
#5. Showers That Know What You Like
Seriously, bathing technology has barely advanced since indoor plumbing was invented. A knob for hot, a knob for cold. Or maybe you have a shower with one lever that, if pushed three degrees too far to the left, immediately goes from "ice cold" to "the devil's piss."
If it can't scald the flesh from your bones, it isn't really a shower.
This makes no sense; they make chairs that can massage your lower back and beds that know the curvature of your spine, but we're still showering with 1920s technology? Why don't our showers save our settings from the last time we bathed and give us the perfect temperature with the touch of a button? Why don't they start pumping in soothing music as soon as we step in?
Don't worry. They will.
Wait, they can make it do that?
A company called Hansgrohe makes your dream shower.
Oh, hell yes
It comes complete with a digital panel that pulls up your ideal water temperature and preferred MP3 playlist while you're still stumbling around half-asleep. It has three sets of showerheads that then pummel you with water from all sides, and it can even be programmed to slowly cycle through water temperatures to give you a hot and cold liquid massage while you wash the morning's shame off of your nether bits.
Hey, that reminds us -- there are also showers with built-in crotch-level jets, targeting the water where you clearly need it most.
There is also a system that (finally) mixes the soap with the water -- you know, the technology we've had in our freaking car washes for decades -- so you're not dropping a hair-encrusted bar of soap on the floor every five minutes.
And couldn't this be handled by some sort of laser array?
Who has it now?
These mostly exist only for rich people at the moment (one benefit of being rich is that you live slightly in the future), because for instance, the Hansgrohe system is $4,500 alone. Well, fine -- PCs used to cost that much, too. So how long until we can get this shit in our trailer? Shouldn't a computerized shower eventually drop in price along with everything else in the computer world?
And while we're in the bathroom ...
#4. Smart Toilets That Wash and Dry Your Ass
Again, when we watch a movie set in the 1930s, we get the sneaking suspicion that they had the exact same toilet as us. Prone to clogging, cold as hell when you sit on it in the winter, germ-covered flushing handle, a seat that still leads to endless sitcom arguments over whether it should be left down for the lady in the house.
It's long past time for a toilet that warms itself, cleans itself, flushes every time and caresses our asshole with a gentle breeze of luxurious warm air.
Also, it should be mobile and living-room ready.
Wait, they can make it do that?
Cutting-edge toilet maker Toto has ultra high-end models like this one...
aka ShitBot 5000
...which comes with sensors that automatically lift the lid when they detect a person approaching, a seat-warmer, an anus-washing spout with three settings, a built-in air purifying system, a programmable night light, hands-free flushing and a flushing system so powerful, man, you don't even know. It's entirely coated in an antimicrobial agent to kill off the germs and, oh yeah, it has a warm air dryer for your ass.
You cannot get off of this toilet and still be in a bad mood.
The same company has another model that can analyze your urine for signs of diabetes, features a scale to measure your BMI and has a blood pressure monitor to diagnose any health issues. All of that seems superfluous once you have the ass dryer, but whatever.
Who has it now?
As with the showers, these miracle toilets are available to anyone ... but are five grand each. So again, they're really only for the kind of people who'll be filling them with yesterday's Cristal. Still, it's not like the thing is made of gold, and there's no reason a little dryer for your ass should cost more than you paid for your motorcycle. If a working man can't afford such a luxury by, say, 2015, then we're not sure why we're working at all.
Getting puke-drunk would be a lot easier to handle if toilets dispensed sprays of Binaca and clean T-shirts.
#3. Refrigerators That Do Your Shopping
It's the night before Super Bowl Sunday. You get a knock at the door. It's a delivery guy, and in his arms is a box of hot wings, a bucket of cheese sauce and a shitload of tortilla chips. You never called him.
"Here. You're going to need these."
So how did he know? Your refrigerator told him.
*Our records indicate that you are both low on food, and gigantic wusses.*
Wait, they can make it do that?
This fancy-as-hell refrigerator prototype...
...has an "electrochromic panel" door (which is fancy tech jargon for "glass door that turns into a display panel") that's basically one big touch screen.
You tell it what food you're putting in, and it keeps track. Then it not only can remind you when you're out of something, but it even recommends freaking recipes based on what it knows you have left in the fridge at any given moment.
At these early stages, it still has an annoying limitation in that you have to laboriously tell it what you bought and what you used, so it would be the next generation that would, say, use bar codes or RFID chips to automatically know what you've stuck on the shelf without you having to put out any extra effort. One company made a prototype with internal cameras that can "see" your inventory.
Then you have this Wi-Fi capable fridge from Samsung, which already lets you stand there and order from a place like Fresh Direct without even putting down the orange juice jug you're guzzling. So our dream fridge is just a matter of bringing all of the technologies together. So, one day you sign up for a subscription that makes a turkey appear at your door the day before Thanksgiving, and perhaps a bottle of bourbon every Friday night.
*Menstruation Detected: Dispensing Cake.*
Who has it now?
They actually tried to bring Internet-capable fridges onto the market 10 years ago, but they were laughed out of stores because the fridges cost up to $6,000. (Hint: For that price, it'd better offer services that require a dick-shaped hole in the door.)
In fairness, a kitchen like this will get you more tail than six-pack abs and a fistful of roofies.
That's a good example of why we can't have nice things in the refrigerator world. The reason innovation is so slow is because people don't upgrade their fridges very often, so it's hard for manufacturers to make their money back on a radical new product. (How often do you buy a new fridge?) So we're stuck with a boring old box that keeps things cold and maybe crushes ice for our drinks if we forked over the extra cash.
But come on, guys. It's the freaking future. Let's do it.


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Would milk be considered cholov yisroel if someone was watching via webcam?
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I believe that this Gemara AZ 70., Rambam Ahavah, MA 12,21, and SA, YD 128,3 should be a starting point for anyone who wishes to investigate this she'ailah from original sources.
From these sources you can see that a webcam would at least be enough to create a situation of fear (looking over the shoulder) on the part of the gentile regarding anything that is within view of the camera(s).
Would this be enough that when the Jew is watching via the webcam we would consider the milking to having been witnessed by the Jew is the next step in the sh'eilah.
What is the definition of "re'eeyah" with regard to חלב ישראל is an issue that was taken up by far greater people than us on mi.yodeya!
In Yalkut Yoesf Yoreh Deah 81:9 seems relevant:
My guess is that according to him, a camera wouldn't be sufficient, because it can't check the inside of the milking kelim (and generally because there are other blind spots not covered by cameras).
From an answer to your question earlier:
I strongly suspect it would be up to individual hechsherim at that point. It wouldn't surprise me if those who accept R' Moshe's premise as the base halacha would allow the cameras to satisfy the chumra of having a mashgiach watching. For those who require literal Jewish eyeballs watching as the basic halacha, I'm not sure.
UPDATE: Thanks Isaac! In the shiur linked below, a rabbi from the OU said that some Israeli hechsherim will allow video-cameras for chalav yisrael; none of the American hechsherim do though. My impression is that if the OU will mark something "chalav yisrael", they'll keep the standards of other American chalav yisrael hechshers (e.g. requiring a Jew to pour in the cultures, not just the rennet), so I doubt the OU would mark something video-camera'd as "chalavy yisrael."


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