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Problem solved?
Suppose Grant is right, and the Obama administration's revision to the HHS mandate, whereby religious employers are exempted from having to contribute their own dollars directly to pay for insurance policies that cover contraception, is sufficient to address concerns about religious freedom. It still might be that the policy is practically difficult to implement, as Sarah Kliff explains at the Washington Post:
The administration thinks this is a good deal for insurance companies since the economics tend to work in their favor. Numerous studies have shown that covering contraceptives is revenue-neutral, as such preventive measures can lower the rate of pregnancies down the line. Pregnancy and childbirth coverage is, of course, much more expensive.
Contraceptives save a lot of money, a senior administration official argued.
The catch here is that theres a difference between revenue neutral and free. By one reports measure, it costs about $21.40 to add birth control, IUDs and other contraceptives to an insurance plan. Those costs may be offset by a reduction in pregnancies. But unless drug manufacturers decide to start handing out free contraceptives, the money to buy them will have to come from somewhere.
Where will it come from, since neither employers nor employees will be paying for these contraceptives? That leaves the insurers, whose revenues come from the premiums that subscribers pay them. Its difficult to see how insurance companies would avoid using premiums to cover the costs of contraceptives. They could, perhaps, use premiums from non-religious employers. Those businesses wouldnt likely object on faith-based grounds, but they probably wouldnt be keen on footing the bill for people who arent on their payrolls.
This sounds like a genuine worry to me. Do we need to start preparing for a new round of private organizations asserting their rights not to be forced to do things they don't want to do, or does the fact that these organizations aren't religious ones mean that their consciences don't count?P.S. A different worry, now from Kate Pickert at Time:
One aspect of the new policy as yet unaddressed by the Administration is what would happen in the case of a large religious organization that is self-insured as many Fortune 500 companies are. For an institutions like this, insurance companies like Cigna or UnitedHealthcare are merely claims processing paperwork pushers, with the institution actually holding premium dollars and paying for health services. Would these organizations via their claims processor have to reach out to female employees and offer birth control pills?
I honestly have no idea how many, if any, religious organizations fit this characterization, but again it strikes me as a serious concern.Update: If the Becket Fund is to be believed, the number of religious organizations that self-insure is "hundreds if not thousands".
About the Author
John Schwenkler is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at Florida State University.
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The self-insurance question is an interesting one, and I imagine the administration and stakeholders will be working that out over the next several months. But, as for the question of where the money will come from: insurance is a risk-sharing scheme whose pricing structure is dictated by actuarial tables. It's not like a term-life policy, whereby you pay into a pool that accrues equity over time. People who pay insurance premiums are always subsidizing services other people receive, and services many (in some cases, most) enrollees will never avail themselves of -- such as chemotherapy.
FWIW, America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry group, put out a statement this afternoon saying "contraceptive coverage" has long been accepted, and they are "concerned" about the "precedent" Mr. Obama may be setting. In other words, they gave the Obama announcement a big,fat HUH? So they aren't on board, Archbishop Dolan isn't on board. The fat lady hasn't sung.
Maybe we need an encylical defining, insurance, risk, subsidy, moving goal posts. (-:
How about entitling it "Sturm und Drang: Religious Institutions and Healthcare in that Land Called Amerika where They Can't Get Universal Health Care."
I don't see the problem here except for an overzealous splitting of hairs. As noted by Grant above, insurance is about pooling risk. Yes, we pay for other people's contraceptives as well as our own. We also pay for other people's diabetes treatment caused by obesity even though we ourselves may not be obese. And lung cancer surgery for 3 pack a day smokers though we may abstain, treatment of alcohol and drug addictions, and on and on. We will see how this shakes out in the end. My hunch from the beginning of this " controversy" is that the bishops are eager for a fight with the administration and they may not want this resolved speedily. Archbishop Dolan seems to enjoy the spotlight.
Grant,Okay, but there is still the question whether insurance companies will want to offer for free something that they (evidently) now charge something for, right? And if they don't offer it for free, but instead increase premiums on the plans paid for by religious organizations, then the problem seems to remain.
The solution proposed by the administration is that we just lie to one another and move on. Wow - How lame can Democrats get and how stupid do they think the rest of us are? The federal government is not paying the premiums for the health insurance at your local Catholic hospital or school and it is simply not the business of the federal governmtn to dictate the particulars of employers' policies. If as a people, after due consideration and debate of course, if we decide that all women in America need access to free BC pills and the like, then the federal government should offer that; not force churches to. Geez! Here you have the Catholic Church, for many decades quietly, professionally running Catholic social services, providing healthcare to their employees (that alone is more than many businesses do) and important charity and social services to millions, and now the federal government via ACA comes romping in like some big German circus horse, trampling on religious freedoms and generally wanting to push everyone around from here on out ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Small wonder people are beginning (we are only just beginning) to be upset; nobody will or should tolerate this sort of heavy handed government.And this is not to even mention the sort of opportunities for (eventuality of) all sorts of corruption that ACA establishes, for sweet and dirty, deals between Big Pharma, Big Insurance and Big Government that will no doubt reek to high heaven.
John,Here's the short version of a comment I just left on my own thread: In the long term, providing contraceptive services will save insurers money. In the short term, they can eat the up-front cost as a concession to a government that is handing them millions more customers as a result of the health-care law.
Ken: Please do feel free to move on. You don't know what you're talking about.
In the long term, providing contraceptive services will save insurers money. In the short term, they can eat the up-front cost as a concession to a government that is handing them millions more customers as a result of the health-care law.Perhaps this is right, and the insurers will buy it. I am just observing that there is no guarantee that they will agree without a fight.
Grant, I think your term life insurance analogy is incorrect. Term life is a risk sharing scheme and has no equity. Perhaps you were thinking of Whole Life or Universal Life which have some investment characteristics. But death benefits are a risk-sharing.My life experiences have taught me that when something appears to-good-to-be-true it usually fails. 'Free' contraception coverage seems to fall in that category.
President Obama again is playing politics with an important Constitutional issue in hopes of diffusing the controversy, as he rightly saw it could be an obstacle to his re-election. At first I hoped that he would offer a real compromise. Instead, he offers obfuscation and, word manipulation, and once more we see his annoying habit of thinking the American public can so easily be fooled. All this "new policy" does is add another layer of paperwork and bureaucracy ;it changes nothing substantial, as the Catholic institutions mandated to offer health coverage will still be paying for contraceptives, sterilization and pharmaceutical abortions.
Anyone familiar with the insurance industy knows that this tactic is absurd.Most large employers self-fund their group health insurance plans. This means employers pay for their claims plus the insurance company's retention or administrative expense. If insurance companies are mandated to provide contraceptive coverage free of charge to employees of Catholic Institutions, they will pass on the cost to those employers.To argue that contraceptive coverage is cost-neutral because the cost will be offset by less pregancies, abortions and medical care is true, but this is not how group insurance works. Many covered services reduce healthcare cost but are not offered free of charge. Why single out contraceptive services. The cost of many prescription drugs are offset by lower healthcare cost. You don't see insurance companies offering free drugs benefits. If Catholic Institutions are offered contraceptive coverage for free by insurance companies because such coverage is so-called "cost-neutral", large employers will DEMAND the same. It will be interesting to see how such a "compromise" will work.
What I predict next is a backlash against the Bishops. The editorial below nicely summarizes what I predict will be the way that this is ultimately interpreted. The Bishops at first launched a blitzkrieg angry sermons from the pulpit. Two days after the HHS announcement, I went to mass at my local parish church and the Homily began as follows:This President has declared war on the Catholic Church. Its the same thing that Adolph Hitler did. I quietly got up, walked out, went to the Churchs website, and sent in a mild note of protest, on the comments/questions page. A couple of days later, I received a very nice reply from the pastor, saying that he agreed the wording (homily given by a senior priest, not the pastor) was inappropriate.Then I read news stories about how priests at every Catholic Church in Florida (etc.) were giving similar homilies (hopefully without the unfortunate comparison of Barack Obama to Hitler).The reality, when all the dust settles, was quite something else.http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/os-ed-bill-press-02091... see how this plays out and how it is ultimately viewed. What I think is that it was the Bishops (and Mitt Romney, et al) who shot themselves in the foot, and not the Obama administration.- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
In this view, the analysis shifts point of view to WHO owns the insurance, not who pays for it. I know the compromise has been announced, but the perspective is one to keep in mind as controversies of this sort are likely to recur. http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/100521/contraception-obamacare-cat...
" I quietly got up, walked out --- "And why quietly? Such disgusting nonsense should be called out as soon as it happens.
Jimmy Mac, thanks for the link to Jonathan Cohn's essay. I must say that it pleases me that he backs up the argument I made on two previous threads. The Church, even if it were an employer at those institutions, is not the source of the premiums. The employees, in accepting coverage, receive it as part of a compensation package. They pay for it with their labor! The Bishops could rest easy that they are not even remotely cooperating with "evil ". The MoJo article is a zinger. It's been the law all along! (Just not free.)
You're right, Bruce--my mistake.
"Maybe we need an encylical defining, insurance, risk, subsidy, moving goal posts. (-: "Ed --We also need a metaphysical description of what happens to small amounts of money when they are pooled into a larger whole. For example, what happens to your insurance premiums when they are pooled with the other guy's insurance premiums? Does your premium retain some sort of identity? What is certain is that you don't really own it anymore -- you gave it to the company in exchange for a promise made by the company to pay you certain other quantities of money if you get sick and have some bills. So it doesn't really make sense to talk about "your money" or "my money" paying for the contraceptives of other people. The insurance company pays for them with the money that is now its own.I just don't see the problem of who is *really* paying for the contraceptives, etc. It's the insurance company deciding what to buy and then paying with their own money.
"Yes, we pay for other peoples contraceptives as well as our own. We also pay for other peoples diabetes treatment caused by obesity even though we ourselves may not be obese."Holloway --No, we don't pay for other people's stuff. We don't pay their bills -- the ins. co. does wth what is now its money. All we pay for is the insurance company's *promise*. (Or duty? The lawyers must have a word for it.) The money is no longer ours. What we do with it is not even a like a loan -- if it were a loan, we could call it back eventually. But we can't call premiums back because now the premiums are *theirs*. In fact, if we were never sick or had no preventive coverage, we would never get *any* money back from the ins. co., and that would be fair. When your insurance company pays your hospital bills, it pays with its own money, the money that *used to* belong to you and to the other premium payers, who *also* bought promises in return for possible future payment of bills.
Jimmy and Larry said I quietly got up, walked out And why quietly? Such disgusting nonsense should be called out as soon as it happens.Perhaps you will consider who is speaking Truth and who is speaking power. My vote is with the Bishops not the popular political opinion...
What a mess. This, evidently, is what happens when the government gets into the religion business. Welcome to the uneasy future.Who'd have thought that it would be something like this that would trip Obama up? Poor schmuck, he just didn't see it coming.
Here's the short version of a comment I just left on my own thread: In the long term, providing contraceptive services will save insurers money.Do you have any evidence for this discovery of yours? It's not a matter that can be settled just by convenient intuition.
"Okay, but there is still the question whether insurance companies will want to offer for free something that they (evidently) now charge something for, right?"John Schwenkler --What does "free" mean here"? We certainly not talking about gifts, are we? Aren't "free" services and products from companies really just a linguistic ploy to make people feel like they're getting a gift but there really isn't a gift involved? What makes a product/service "free"? A change in price, actually. The company *does* pay for the product, it just chooses to take a smaller profit (for what ever reasons it chooses) in order to make us want to buy the product/service.If I buy a new car, say, and the salesman throws in all sorts of little extras, he's not giving me anything free -- he's selling the car with add ons at a lower price than I expected to pay.
John Schwenkler 02/10/2012 - 4:45 pm contributorGrant,Okay, but there is still the question whether insurance companies will want to offer for free something that they (evidently) now charge something for, right?
Can you say "unfunded mandate"?
Michael J. Barberi 02/10/2012 - 8:22 pm subscriberAnyone familiar with the insurance industy knows that this tactic is absurd.Most large employers self-fund their group health insurance plans. This means employers pay for their claims plus the insurance companys retention or administrative expense. If insurance companies are mandated to provide contraceptive coverage free of charge to employees of Catholic Institutions, they will pass on the cost to those employers.To argue that contraceptive coverage is cost-neutral because the cost will be offset by less pregancies, abortions and medical care is true, but this is not how group insurance works. Many covered services reduce healthcare cost but are not offered free of charge. Why single out contraceptive services. The cost of many prescription drugs are offset by lower healthcare cost. You dont see insurance companies offering free drugs benefits.If Catholic Institutions are offered contraceptive coverage for free by insurance companies because such coverage is so-called cost-neutral, large employers will DEMAND the same.It will be interesting to see how such a compromise will work.Apologies for quoting the whole thing, but it's worth reading twice.Thanks, Michael.
Larry Weisenthal 02/10/2012 - 8:29 pm subscriberWhat I predict next is a backlash against the Bishops.
I don't see how. They had nothing to do with this mess, which was created in Washington out of whole cloth. Do you blame pedestrians who get struck by cars in crosswalks?
I just watched Cardinal Wuerl on Morning Joe -- and what did I see?A man who is very chuffed and gratified at his political victory, and who eloquently speaks out of the coils of his self-persuaded and fanatical mind. Four young people who are appalled at the weird old gent but are being very nice to him. An inability to answer totally foreseeable questions, such as the 14% of employees who will need contraceptives for non-contraceptive purposes -- his answer: well, they are not as expensive as is sometimes said! A typical piece of clerical dishonesty. And then the repeated patronizing references to his witless analogy with the government telling broadcasters what to broadcast. He's as pleased as punch with that.Now what is really chilling for the future is this: he and the bishops are convinced that many, many Catholics are basically guilty about contraception and will rally to the Church knowing that the Church is right. The Cardinal points out that many Catholics go to jail for doing other evil things; and I think he would not be unhappy if using contraceptives was a jailable offense too (Paul VI scolded the Irish prime minister for allowing the sale of contraceptives to be legalized in Ireland). The bishops have found a marvelous method of moral blackmail -- its efficiency is seen even in the support they've found in Commonweal.But as one of the interviewers cannily remarks -- "I think we're going to see more movement on this story and I hope you'll be willing to come back."Yes, would the Cardinal be ready to face (the rage of) those who have not yet spoken: CATHOLIC WOMEN?
"No, we dont pay for other peoples stuff. We dont pay their bills the ins. co. does wth what is now its money. All we pay for is the insurance companys *promise*. (Or duty? The lawyers must have a word for it.) "I see your point Ann and you are right. My argument was not as precise as yours, but I believe the underlying reasoning is the same. Yes, it's the insurance co. money when it's handed over but it originates with the employee and goes into the pool. We are in it together with everyone's preventive health needs as well as health problems. To follow the bishop's reasoning would undermine the concept of insurance itself. As has been noted by many, how far can we go with conscience exemptions for the Catholic church and not expect other churches to opt out of coverage for their own peculiar obsessions - blood transfusions, mental health services, etc.
Grant -- your link does not constitute evidence at all. It's stupid to compare the yearly cost of contraception vs. the cost of a birth, for example. To even begin to think about this issue, you have to realize that even among women who are of childbearing age and who do not have contraception coverage, there are many different categories: 1. Those who want to become pregnant in a given year. Shockingly, such women are still known to exist. 2. Women who do not want to become pregnant, but who are already using contraception of any of the many varieties that are cheap and readily available everywhere you turn. 3. Women who do not want to become pregnant, and who are having sex regularly, and who not using any kind of contraception, but who don't care enough or prefer to take artificial contraception anyway, and so who wouldn't change their behavior if offered contraception coverage. 4. Women who do not want to become pregnant, and who are having sex regularly, and who are not using any kind of contraception, and who WOULD start taking artificial contraception if it were covered by insurance, but who would NOT have become pregnant in a given year anyway. 5. All of 4, but who WOULD have become pregnant in a given year without contraception coverage. Now the thing to realize is that you can't just compare the cost of contraceptive coverage with the cost of a birth. That's stupid. What you would have to compare is (A) the percentage of women who would fall in category 5 (this is the only category wherein any actual birth and the cost thereof is prevented by contraceptive coverage) vs. (B) the percentage of women who fall in category 2 (who are already using contraception but who would start taking advantage of insurance coverage for it). Let's assume that out of 1,000 women of childbearing age at a Catholic employer that doesn't offer contraceptive coverage, there are 900 who fall in category 2 (we're always being told that nearly every woman uses contraception). Suppose that it would cost $300 a year per person if they take advantage of contraceptive coverage. (Your article's claim of $40 a year is obviously calculated on a per-employee basis company-wide, not a per-user basis.)But what if there were only 5 woman who fell in category 5 -- women who weren't using contraception before, and who are now using contraception only because of the coverage, and who WOULD have gotten pregnant in a given year without the coverage? In that case, the company is spending $270,000 to provide the contraceptive coverage to those 1,000 women but saving $60,000 on prevented births. Well, these are just made-up figures, but the point is that the issue of actuarial cost savings is a lot more complicated than some people would blithely suggest. You'd have to take into account the predicted percentage of women who would actually start using the plan (and what the cost per user would be), and out of that group, what percentage of women would never have been using contraception otherwise and who WOULD have gotten pregnant otherwise. Again, if you think you've found a way that insurance companies could be saving themselves money, that they haven't thought of themselves, you ought to take a step back and wonder why someone who is completely ignorant of that industry and who has no monetary incentive at stake would so easily be able to out-think people who do have the benefit of knowledge and a strong incentive to offer a cheaper product.
Stuart: Clearly you missed your calling. Why don't you become an actuary? Sure, you won't be able to control troublesome arguments by narrowing them to a point over which you obsess and drive into the ground and use to tell other people that unless they agree with you they are stupid, but think of the insight you could bring to that self-deluded profession? Do it for the children, Stuart. The children.
Grant -- I thought you were going to start, at long last, to provide an example of using a more elevated and respectful tone around here. But that's hard, I suppose, when you're blowing smoke and get called on it.
Truth Cop Buck: Your arrogance has never been welcome here. You don't want to believe the actuaries who have worked this out. I don't feel obliged to change your mind.
I see no evidence that you are aware of any genuine actuarial information here. Point to some actuaries, and I'll be happy to read them. If there really are actuaries who have come to that conclusion legitimately, why bother with a mandate? Educate, don't mandate. That is, just educate the insurance industry about this cost-saving opportunity that they have somehow missed, and they'll all compete to offer cheaper plans that will save employers money, and employers will respond -- except for those who have moral objections, and you agree that they should be exempt anyway, right?
I see no evidence that you are aware of any genuine actuarial information here. Point to some actuaries, and Ill be happy to read them.Studebaker,You may find this interesting , from a commenter on Vox Nova:
The good news is both sides should get to feel vindicated.When a Catholic groups premiums come in higher than average, group A will be able to claim that they are sneaking contraception benefits into the cost. Group B will be able to claim that the added expenses of unplanned pregnancies are the cause of higher premiums. I call that a win-win, lol.Being one of the few here who has looked on the actuarial side, I can say that neither is reflective of insurance pricing. Pricing of group insurance is based on previous claims experience. The things that push the needle so to speak on that are claims experiences of participants over $25,000 in a year. Having a large group of contraception claims isnt going to push the needle. Whether it does so with pregnancies is already reflected in the claims experience. Where you see numbers for adding a contraception benefit have to do with the reinsurance market. Not all claims experience is contractually eligible for reinsurance. The is sometimes requested by the insurer and sometimes by the beneficiary. In the end, you arent going to get a satisfactory answer over whose dollar paid for what. It would be like going to Pepsi and asking them not to serve you Pepsi derived from Farmer Xs corn.
Studebaker,By the way, I don't think you are on the same page as the USCCB. Suppose the mandate were exactly the same, but it was certain there would be additional costs associated with employees who opted for contraception coverage. However, HHS made a deal that those costs would be paid for by a fund established by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. It seems clear to me the USCCB would still object. Your argument, as I understand it, is that you don't believe costs won't go up. But if the Vox Nova commenter is correct, they won't. If somehow you become convinced that costs won't go up, I have no doubt whatsoever that you will not drop your opposition, but will instead just make a different argument against the mandate.
And I have no doubt that if you saw a study showing that contraception killed 5% of the women who took it, you'd find a way to ignore the evidence or argue that it's worth it.
If somehow you become convinced that costs wont go up, I have no doubt whatsoever that you will not drop your opposition, but will instead just make a different argument against the mandate.It's as hard for me to believe that costs won't go up as it would be to believe that there are currently $100 bills lying on the sidewalk on every block in New York City and that a federal law is needed to require people to pick up the free money lying in front of them. But yes, if it really were true somehow that costs wouldn't go up by offering contraceptive coverage, I would argue that the mandate is pointless: just educate people on the point. If they still don't want to take advantage of it, they must have some serious moral or religious reason, and why be so antagonistic towards that? It's not as if contraceptive access is a serious problem in the first place. Administration shills are fond of telling us that 98% of women (even Catholic women) use contraception at some point, and if that's true, it's hardly as if usage could get any higher. 98% is about the number of Americans who have indoor plumbing.
Bruce. So this is "Truth?" - This President has declared war on the Catholic Church. Its the same thing that Adolph Hitler did.If this is your version of Catholic truth, all the more reason to leave it behind, as so many of us have done and/or are doing.
The major issue is whether the government can mandate insurance companies to offer contraceptive coverage "free" to Catholic Institutions. If insurance companies go along with this mandate, then all large employers who self-insure their health plans will demand that contraceptive coverage be free to them as well. It is NOT about the coverage mandate, but about the issue of "free" coverage. There has been no state or federal law to date that has mandated "free" coverage. This issue has significant consequences and implications about health insurance policy. If the justification for "free" coverage is that contraceptive services reduces the cost of total health care, then what about other services that do the same? If the issue is about religious liberty and conscience, then why should Catholic Institutions get "free" contraceptive coverage, while non-Catholic emplyoers have to pay for the same coveage? What will stop the government to mandate other medical services to be offered "free" of charge because they reduce total healthcare cost? This is an unsustainable policy and one that will get played out in the near future. There is never a "free lunch". Someone will be paying for it, and it will not be the insurance companies. It is a decieving shell game. I wonder ifl the insurance industry will fight this and how they plan of funding "free contraceptive coverage".
I don't understand why Grant Gallicho posts so many rude and arrogant messages. It is ironic that these come from the moderator on what is generally a fairly courteous site. I think he must be suffering from stress.


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As some of us maybe aware, USA mains connection is 110 V while those in Asian countries are 220 V. How is it still possible for the Adapter to provide the necessary power to the device, say a laptop, despite having a lower voltage of 110 V at some places.
I understand that the Adapter is built to handle different input AC voltage, but is a 110 V source sufficient to provide the necessary power which a 220 V can.
Perhaps, it doesn't matter for light power consumers such as laptop, but won't High Power demanding home appliances such as Iron, may lack necessary input voltage to operate at maximum level.

subset: commoncrawl


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Spending cuts may be here to stay
March 4, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — The spending cuts are here to stay if you believe the public posturing Sunday. The Senate's Republican leader Mitch McConnell called them modest....
It is what it is. The feds can tighten their belts with the rest of us.
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On Feb. 28th the Senate proposed a bill to avoid the sequester. It included: Elimination for tax subsidies for big oil, closing loopholes for companies who ship jobs overseas and lowering itemized deductions for incomes over $4 million. Every single Republican voted against it.
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And rightfully so. Someone's gotta act the parent in this situation.
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The rating agencies again are threatening to lower the US debt ratings. wonder why? too much debt and no solid plan in place to control spending. this could increase costs to the government, make it more difficult to borrow, and impact us substantially. that is why we must address these issues NOW !!!!!!!!!! this is. Lt a political statement but a practical and obvious issue being brought forward by organizations who do not care about politics but the real world of debt, obligations, and risk!!!!! Wake up......
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On March 1, Senate Republicans offered a plan which was rejects by the Democrats. Over the past 5 months House Republicans offered two plans and Senate Democrats thumbed theirs noses. Let us not hold up Democrats as great saviors.
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When I tried to practice tuning my wheels, I found my spokes turn with the nipples. I tried to drop some lubricant on on the nipples, but I had the bike for two years now and there are a lot of dust clog in it. So the lubricant doesn't help too much. What can I do in this situation?
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When I build/maintain wheels, I specifically make an extra quarter-turn to the nipple and then quarter-turn backward to release the rotational tension. This was recommended by Sheldon Brown
Lubing the spoke can help, but if your spokes are rusted, you might as well replace them with the new ones.
A lot of this has to do with how the spokes were prepped when the wheel was built, as well as the material that the nipples are made out of. There are two primary materials that spoke nipples are made out of- brass and aluminum.
Have you removed the tire,tube and rim tape then applied the the penetrating lube to the open end of the nipple?
The best to do is to disassemble everything, specially remove the nipples from the spokes and rim, and maybe remove the spokes from the hub for best cleaning.
If you are exercising wheel maintenance, then this would be a good exercise, and lubing the spoke threads is what you need so that spokes stop turning along.
Now if your nipples are so rusted that you just can't turn the nipples in anyway, then you should CUT the spokes out with a wire-cutter and replace them for new ones, before you need to true the wheel and discover you can't.
Once more, the "secret" is to lube the threads, not the nipple body (where it touches the rim). I guess any lube would do, but only a very small amount is needed.
Hope this helps!
Give it all a good clean then try some of this this


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WATCH: Gay Heavy Metal, Trans Films, Queer Comics, and Butch Voices
MAJOR! The Story of a One-time Attica Prisoner Turned Legendary Activist
A new documentary film by queer filmmaker Annalise Ophelian (Diagnosing Difference) and trans musician StormMiguel Florez, MAJOR! focuses on Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a black transgender woman, former prison inmate, a former sex worker, an elder, a community leader, and an internationally-recognized human rights activist. From the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion to her current work as Executive Director of the Transgender GenderVariant Intersex Justice Project, she's worked tirelessly for transgender rights for over 40 years. Known best as "Miss Major," the activist is in her 70s and isn't slowing down. She's also been a big voice in getting folks to understand the disproportionate rates of incarceration, unemployment, homelessness, violence, and HIV that impact transgender communities, something the film will go into as well..
Biopic on Michael Alago, the Gay Guy Behind Metallica
Michael Alago is the gay music executive responsible for signing Metallica, White Zombie, and others. Filmmaker Drew Stone's biopic tells the uniquely American story of Alago's journey from humble roots in Brooklyn, into the netherworld of downtown New York's music and arts scene in the 1970s and 1980s.
Alago rose from running the Dead Boy's fan club to becoming a live booker at the legendary Ritz nightclub and then onto a storied A&R career at Elektra Records, Geffen Records and Palm Pictures, where he signed and executive produced acts as diverse as Metallica, White Zombie, Flotsam and Jetsam, PiL, Cyndi Lauper, and Nina Simone.
The film is worth a gander especially for the amazing photos of Alago (who looks like he's 12 years old in his early shots of him with rockers like U2's Bono) and to hear how Alago succeeded professionally as a gay man in a metal music sub-culture known for its perceived homophobia.
QU33R, a New Queer Comics Anthology
Last year, Justin Hall edited the amazing compilation, No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, that took readers on a journey from the beginnings of LGBT comics history to the present day.QU33R, from Ignatz-Award-nominated editor Rob Kirby, is an all-new project featuring queer comics legends as well as new talents that picks up where No Straight Lines left off. It features 241 pages of new comics from 33 different contributors — legends and new faces alike. Organizer Zan Christensen says, "Where No Straight Lines set down our history, QU33R shines a light on our future!"
BUTCH Voices Gets Butches Baking?
At the 2013 National Biennial BUTCH Voices Conference, Oakland offered up a city proclamation from Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland City Councilmember At-Large; butch fashion designer Saint Harridan celebrated the diversity of masculine-of-center and trans bodies and fashion; butch-owned Café Gabriela catered; women watched the international award-winning film Stud Life by CampbellX; and keynote speakers CherrÍe Moraga and Jay Toole wowed. BUTCH Voices has been building a masculine-of-center community since 2008.
Since the conference is produced solely through the efforts of an all-volunteer board and a minimal budget, BUTCH Voices is asking fans and supporters to chip in to help cover all of 2013's costs so that the conference continues in the future.
Organizers say: "At the core we are about improving the recognition and respect for masculine-of-center people and their families. This year's conference proved our commitment by enforcing deeper accessibility; providing safer space to address prevailing issues of racism, transphobia and misogyny within butch circles; and fully utilizing social media to promote daily positive representation of butches, studs, machas, and other masculine-of-center folks. We love the cultural work we do but, despite its extraordinary gains- we currently need your financial support."
Watch these two videos, including highlights and Baking With Butches, to get inspired.
Get Trans Bodies, Trans Selves in to Schools and Libraries
Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is a book and outreach project intended to improve the lives of trans and gender nonconforming people. According to the editors, "the book itself is a resource guide that brings together writing by prominent authors on the broad, multidimensional spectrum of trans and gender nonconforming identity, as well as on health, legal, cultural and social questions, history, theory, and more… all for the support of transgender, gender nonconforming, and gender-questioning people, their partners and families, students, professors, guidance counselors, providers, and others."
It is being published by Oxford University Press in Spring, 2014, but organizers are trying to gather enough money themselves to support a national outreach project that would expand on the publication of the book giving the book at reduced or no cost to individuals unable to pay, to schools, libraries, community centers, and other support services.
Help The San Francisco Transgender Film Fest Return to the Roxy
The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival made history as North America's first transgender film festival in 1997 – and has built community, launched careers, and mentored emerging transgender filmmakers and festivals around the world while screening films that promote the visibility of transgender and gender variant people and challenge mainstream media stereotypes of our communities.
They need help this year, to pay for the theater rental and tech crew to the tune of $7,500 by Nov. 2. The 12th San Francisco Transgender Film Festival will take place November 8-10.
After selling out each year, the fest is moving back to the famed Roxie Theater, a move that organizers say is "especially important this year – as our community was heartbroken by the December 2012 death of SFTFF co-founder Christopher Lee. Christopher was a pioneering FTM transgender filmmaker, activist and community leader. Christopher made the world's first feature film starring FTM people of color and the first-ever FTM trans adult films."
Donations to the fest are tax-deductible as well.


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Murray Korc: Putting Principles into Practice
"There is a principle," he says. "You have a basic science discovery, and you then test it out in a number of model systems, including cell models and mouse models." The most promising drugs make their way into clinical trials in humans. If all goes well, what begins as a research project can end up improving patients' lives.
Korc has put this principle to work throughout his career. He studies pancreatic cancer, a particularly difficult disease to treat. If the cancer is spotted soon enough, surgical removal of the tumor can result in long-term survival. But because the cancer begins to spread to other parts of the body so early in its development, only 20 percent of patients are good candidates for surgery. As a result, most patients survive six months or less, and only five percent live longer than five years.
Despite these statistics, Korc's faith in biomedical research and his general outlook on life—"I'm naturally optimistic," he says—have helped him remain positive. That optimism is beginning to pay off. After more than 20 years as a leader in pancreatic cancer research, Korc's efforts have recently resulted in a number of clinical trials.
Laying the Groundwork
For Korc, the process of going from basic science to medical advances began in 1977 in a lab at the University of California at San Francisco. Having already earned his medical degree, Korc was at UCSF on a fellowship to train as an endocrinologist, but he found himself fascinated by research. His colleagues advised him to focus on clinical care or on research, but Korc was reluctant to give up either. After completing his fellowship, Korc moved to the University of Arizona, where he saw patients and ran a lab that investigated type 2 diabetes and the effects of insulin.
In 1984, Korc came across some old articles linking type 2 diabetes and pancreatic cancer, and was inspired to find out what was known about pancreatic cancer. When he realized that no one was investigating the factors involved in the growth of pancreatic cancer, Korc decided to look into it himself.
Before long, Korc figured out part of the connection between pancreatic cancer and diabetes. He discovered that insulin, which is produced by the pancreas, can stimulate pancreatic tumor growth. He also found that a molecule called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is located on the surface of some cells, binds with a protein called epidermal growth factor (EGF), leading to cell division. Korc showed that an overabundance of EGFR caused cells to divide rapidly and to be invasive, meaning that high levels of EGFR might be another factor in the uncontrolled cell division that leads to a tumor and its ability to metastasize.
The next step came when Korc examined EGFR in tumor samples surgically removed from patients with pancreatic cancer. In patient samples that contained a lot of EGFR and a protein called TGF-alpha (transforming growth factor alpha), the cancer was likely to return quickly, even when the surgery had gone well. Patients with less EGFR in their samples were more likely to survive longer, for at least three years. These results confirmed the importance of EGFR-and raised the hope that blocking this molecule might make it possible to slow the cancer's progress.
Research on Trial
In 2005, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a drug, erlotinib, that works by disabling EGFR, following the path laid out by Korc's work on EGFR. Erlotinib is now regularly administered to patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, combined with a standard chemotherapy treatment called gemcitabine. The combination has been shown to prolong life slightly.
Hoping for further improvements, J. Marc Pipas, MD, medical director of the Cancer Center's Gastrointestinal Oncology Program, is starting a Phase I clinical trial that will test the effectiveness of erlotinib and gemcitabine in combination with the drug FG-3019, which targets another pancreatic cancer growth factor. As with erlotinib, Pipas says, FG-3019 was developed in part thanks to work done by Korc. Dartmouth is one of only two sites nationally using this combination, and Pipas says the trial promises to be "very exciting." Korc, who serves as chair of the Department of Medicine as well as scientific director of the Pancreas Cancer Program, says that one of Dartmouth's strengths is the ability of its faculty to collaborate in all stages of the development of new treatments. Pipas recently completed a related Phase II clinical trial that grew out of Korc's research on EGFR. Patients were given radiation therapy, gemcitabine, and the drug cetuximab, another EGFR inhibitor, before undergoing surgery to remove the tumor. Final results are not yet available, but Pipas says that the early signs are very promising, including cases where no tumor remained by the time surgery was performed. He hopes to continue with a Phase III trial.
A Pioneer's Progress
A third clinical trial currently underway is the product of Korc's research into another aspect of cancer progression-angiogenesis. In order for tumors to grow beyond a certain size, they require oxygen and nutrients, just as normal cells do. To get those essentials, cancer cells recruit nearby tissues to create new blood vessels-a process called angiogenesis.
Putting Principles into Practice
One important molecule involved in angiogenesis is vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Cancer cells secrete VEGF into surrounding tissues, where it tells other cells to start building new blood vessels. In one study, Korc examined whether blocking this process would decrease tumor growth. Mice were injected with cancer cells. Then, two days later, some of the mice were given a drug, called VEGF Trap, which soaks up VEGF, preventing it from interacting with other cells.
After two weeks of treatment, there was a noticeable difference between the two groups. In the mice given VEGF Trap, the drug had blocked at least 89% of the tumor growth compared with the cancer's progression in mice that did not receive the treatment.
It's still too early to tell how effective this method might be in humans, but Dr. Pipas is working on a Phase I trial to find out. It's another example, he says, of the importance of Korc's research. "He's really a leader in pancreatic cancer," says Pipas.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) seems to agree. Just this fall, the NCI provided Korc with a MERIT Award, a prestigious funding opportunity that is both a recognition of all that Korc has accomplished and a sign that further breakthroughs are yet to come. It's also proof that he was wise not to heed the advice he was given decades ago to limit his interests to clinical care or research.
And, as always, Korc remains optimistic, despite the many obstacles involved in studying pancreatic cancer. "We need to do better," he says, "but we've made a lot of progress."
January 10, 2009
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One webapp responsible for creating other webapps using SQL Server 2008 R2 Stored Procedures. One of the steps in creating another webapp is creating a new database, a login/user, assigning database roles, etc.
Now that we are implementing another feature, we would like to assign each new user the pre-defined server role
bulkadmin. For this, there exists a wonderful SP
When executing this, though, we get the error
The procedure 'sys.sp_addsrvrolemember' cannot be executed within a transaction.
The webapp that creates the other webapps uses transactions for each SQL query it executes and it would involve a lot of customizations and exceptions to handle this.
Is it in another way (or in this way, with some modifications) possible to achieve this, i.e. granting a user the bulkadmin right?
sp_addsrvrolemember has hard-coded that
@@trancount should be 0, so that's not going to give me a solution. Google and SO have not been really helpful either, or I haven't been able to find it. Usually the answer is "don't use transactions", which is not an option in our case.


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Maintain good posture
- When standing, keep your weight balanced on your feet, with your ears, shoulders and hips in a straight line, and your stomach pulled in. If you stand for long periods, try to elevate one foot or shift your weight often. Women should avoid wearing high heels; instead, they should wear low-heeled shoes with good cushioning and arch support.
- Sit in a chair with a straight back and good lumbar support. Keep your shoulders back and your knees slightly higher than your hips. To do this, you may need to adjust your chair height or use a footstool.
- Don't slouch over your desk or lean your head forward. Slouching requires greater muscular effort and creates more tension in your back.
- To do close work, move your chair in. Get up every hour or so and stretch. Also, to keep moving, fidget when you are sitting.
- Move the car seat forward enough so your knees and hips are at the same level and you don't have to stretch your legs to reach the pedals. Sit in an upright position; don't recline the back of your seat. On long drives, take frequent rest stops so you can get out and stretch.
Eat a nutritious diet
A nutritious diet can help you lose extra pounds, especially weight around the waist. Your body mass index should be between 18.5 and 24.9. Make sure you get enough calcium, phosphorus and vitamin D each day to promote new bone growth. For more information on a healthy diet, go to http://mypyramid.gov/.
Learn how to lift
Learn and practice proper lifting techniques. Do not lift things that are too heavy for you. Don't lift by bending over; instead, bend your knees and squat to pick up the object. Before you lift, tighten your stomach muscles by pulling them in; keep your back straight so the weight is pushed onto your knees, keep your head down and in line with your straight back. Keep the object close to your body. Do not twist when lifting. To move heavy objects, push rather than pull.
Sleep on a firm mattress
Sleep on your side with a pillow between your knees, if needed to relieve back aches.
Source: http://resources.purematters.com/healthy-body/getting-the-better-of-back-pain


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Why is it not possible to store windfarm energy in battery banks? A lot of energy isn't being used when wind farms are at peak and we have no way of storing it. This is wasteful. So why don't we use battery banks?
closed as off topic by Sklivvz♦, Waffle's Crazy Peanut, Manishearth♦ Dec 28 '12 at 16:28
Questions on Physics Stack Exchange are expected to relate to physics within the scope defined by the community. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about reopening questions here.If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
We can. But they don't scale well: to get grid-level storage, you need to be able to scale to gigawatts of power, and gigawatt-hours of energy. And to be able to cycle hundreds, or thousands, of times.
To date, we have one technology which will do that, which is pumped storage hydro, which typically has a round-trip efficiency of 75%. So even though that's worse than a decent battery's round-trip efficiency, its scalability means that it dominates grid storage.
But that's just one small part of the picture. Behind the question of storage, is the physics question of how do you balance an electricity grid. The grid typically has very low capacitance, so electricity in and electricity out must balance at every second. To manage that balance, you can either adjust the amount going in, or the amount going out, or both.
There are lots of ways to integrate high wind penetrations into the grid: this is a solved problem technically. See, for example, the work in Energy Policy by Delucchi & Jacobson; or the book by Gregor Czisch on renewable scenarios.
There are more ways to do virtual storage than direct storage. For example, delaying consumption of 1GWh of electrical energy at 1GW power, for one hour, is equivalent to storing it at 100% efficiency for one hour.
In the UK, a lot of energy is used for domestic hot water use. So thermal storage and delayed heating of that thermal storage, can act as a virtual storage for electrical heating of water. To put some numbers on that, UK domestic hot water storage is currently about equivalent to 60GWh @ 30GW for 24 hours.
Similarly, with 20 million cars, if they were all electrified, you might have 20 million 50kWh batteries, which is 1TWh of electrical storage. V2G (vehicle to grid) studies often refer to a round-trip efficiency of about 75%, which comes from 10% loss on charge, 10% loss on discharge, and a few percent on transmission.
To find out more, there's a wealth of literature on integrating renewables into the grid.
The paper "Energy-storage technologies and electricity generation", Hall & Bain, Energy Policy 2008 available as a pdf here, sets out some of the issues of batteries and the grid.


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Speak with a lighting specialist
Weekdays 8am-7pm EST
Light Bulbs
Fluorescent Ballasts
Lighting Fixtures
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Our easy-to-use BulbFinder will let you find the correct bulb, step by step.
Select a bulb category to get started
SKU: GE30899 | Ordering Code: 50MR16/Q/40/TL (GU7 Base)
My BulbTrack
Finding the lighting solutions you need might be simple at Bulbs.com, but buying them is even easier.
Thanks to our exclusive BulbTrack feature, you can quickly and easily order the products you
have purchased in the past or plan to order in the future by simply adding them to your My BulbTrack
page. Products are added to your My BulbTrack page when you check out from your shopping cart or add
them from the product description pages.
Once a product has been added to My BulbTrack, ordering it is as easy as entering the quantity
or clicking on the product image. You can even add notes to each product to record where it is used
in your business or home. Make buying your replacement lighting as simple as it should be.
Create your BulbTrack today!
Add 6 to your cart to get free ground shipping
GE brand MR16 halogen flood. 50 Watts and 120 volts for more power and light.
Halogen lights provide brighter, whiter light than incandescents, while maintaining outstanding color rendering
Flood means 40º bean spread and a more wider beam of light. Lamp can be closer and still light the area effectively
Perfect for art galleries and retail applications where light quality is important
Glass lens - enclosed fixture not necessary
Note - double check your socket. This lamp has a GU7 twist-and-lock base, which is less common than a GU10.
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50 Watt, 12 Volt MR16 Halogen Flood EXN
By Dennis
From Vernon Hills, IL
About Me Quality Oriented, Value Oriented
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Comments about 50 Watt, 12 Volt MR16 Halogen Flood EXN Bulb:
used for outdoor landscape lightslong lasting with few replacementscost of buld is expensive, but usage is long.
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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Friday Night Mayhem to be
held at Millsop Center Friday
WEIRTON - The Weirton Baseball Association will hold Friday Night Mayhem from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Friday for children in grades fifth through eighth and 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Feb. 15 for grades kindergarten through fourth grade at the Millsop community center.
Activities include games, swimming, dancing and movies. Admission is $10 and includes a hot dog and a drink. Concessions will be available.
Visit the website at www.weirtonbaseball.com.
Country Friends to host Eldurays
COLLIERS - Country Friends will host The Eldurays Saturday at the Memorial Hall located at 402 Old Police Lodge Road.
Doors open at 6 p.m., and the dance starts at 7 p.m.
Country Friends hold covered-dish dinners and open mic nights every Monday and Friday. The doors open at 4 p.m., the meal begins at 5 p.m. and open mic begins at 6 p.m.
Country Friends Foundation Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Christian friendship and brotherly love through music. All proceeds go to charity.
For information, call (304) 527-4253 or (304) 479-1270 or visit the website at www.countryfriendsfoundation.com.
Bethany to host blood drive
BETHANY - Due to diminished blood collection over the winter season, Bethany College's Pre-Health Professions Club will team with the American Red Cross River Valley Chapter to host a Cycle of Love blood drive from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the college's Benedum Commons.
Recent weather conditions, cold temperatures and widespread flu nationwide have forced the cancellation of many blood drives within the community and across the country, said Red Cross officials.
Area residents can celebrate Valentine's Day early by coming out to donate and help save the lives of others. All donors will be entered to win a Sheetz gift card.
For information or to pre-register to donate, visit www.redcross.org or email Site Coordinator Tanner Coles at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Library to show comedy
WELLSBURG - The Brooke County Public Library will be showing the film "Here Comes the Boom," rated PG, at 1 p.m. Feb. 15.
The film stars Kevin James as high school biology teacher Scott Voss, who is desperate to save the music program at his cash-strapped school and decides to enter a wrestling competition to raise money.
Call (304) 737-1551 to reserve a seat and popcorn.
Church to hold pasta dinner
COLLIERS - Olde St. John's Episcopal Church, at Eldersville and St. John's roads, will hold a Valentine-themed spaghetti dinner from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 16.
The cost is $7.50 per person for the meal, and take-out will be available.
There also will be a variety of sweet treats for sale and chances sold for gift basket and 50-50 drawings.
Knights to hold pasta dinner
WEIRTON - The Weirton Knights of Columbus will hold a spaghetti dinner from noon to 5 p.m. Feb. 17 in the knight's hall gallery lounge.
The meal will include spaghetti, meatballs, salad, bread and coffee. The cost is $7 for adults, $4 for children 12 and under and free for under 3.
Take out is available to those who bring their own containers.
Public comments invited
NEW CUMBERLAND - The Hancock County Board of Health held a meeting Feb. 4, and board members reviewed and approved the fiscal year 2013-2014 Environmental Fees for Permits.
The fee schedule is available for public review during normal business hours at the health department; the Mary H. Weir Public Library in Weirton; the Swaney Memorial Library in New Cumberland; and the Lynn Murray Memorial Library in Chester.
The 30-day comment period begins Feb. 18. All comments must include name, address and telephone number and be mailed to Administrator Jackie Huff in care of the Hancock County Health Department, P.O. Box 578, New Cumberland, WV 26047.


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GoingOutGuide Movies
Subscribe: Home Delivery | Digital
Boys, toys and colorful violence
By Ann Hornaday
Friday, January 11, 2013
Slick, sick, self-consciously stylish and defiantly shallow, "Gangster Squad" is one of those movies you can't talk about without invoking other (often better) movies. A lot of movies.
"L.A. Confidential." "The Untouchables." "Chinatown." "Bugsy." "Dick Tracy." "The Magnificent Seven." "Rampart" (with an asterisk). Those are just a few of the films liberally quoted in Ruben Fleischer's attractive but tediously derivative post-war crime drama. Even Michael Mann's cheesy-looking "Public Enemies" gets its due in the digitally filmed "Gangster Squad," which is so poorly lit during its climactic sequences that it resembles bad daytime television.
The action opens in 1949, when a pathological crime boss named Mickey Cohen -- played by a prosthetic-schnozzed Sean Penn serving an over-salted slab of pure ham -- is running Los Angeles's brothels, drug trade and police department with sadistic fury. (We meet Cohen just as he's halving an opponent for dinner, and no, that's not a typo, the dinner is for a couple of coyotes.)
One of the few cops Cohen hasn't bought is John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), a straight shooter and World War II hero with a pregnant wife at home and a yen for fighting the good fight. When O'Mara is enlisted by police chief William Parker (Nick Nolte) to go off the books to wipe Cohen out, the square-jawed vet enlists a ragtag team of misfits (played by Anthony Mackie, Michael Pena, Giovanni Ribisi and Robert Patrick) that could have stepped out of any war picture "Gangster Squad" continually references.
The most interesting of the vigilantes is Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who, early in the film, becomes entangled with Cohen's main squeeze, a creamy, Jessica Rabbit-esque bombshell named Grace. Lucky for viewers that Grace is played by the sensational Emma Stone, giving them a chance once again to luxuriate in the chemistry she and Gosling can generate in just one smoldering glance. Lucky, too, that Fleischer has cast "The Killing's" Mireille Enos as O'Mara's spirited wife, Connie, who, as channeled through Enos's naturalism and warmth, cuts right through her husband's macho posturing.
But, really, "Gangster Squad" is all about macho posturing -- or, more accurately, boys and their toys, which in this case include guns, cars, fedoras, more guns, cigarettes, studied nonchalance and women cosmeticized, coiffed and costumed to look like hard-edged china dolls. As an exercise in fetish worship, "Gangster Squad" trafficks in the same glib violence and excess as Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained." But unlike "Django" -- which uses spaghetti western clich
This is doubly disappointing, because Fleischer made such a fiendishly clever directorial debut with the genre send-up "Zombieland," and because the real-life origins of "Gangster Squad" provide him and screenwriter Will Beall with such a potentially fruitful subtext. In a blink-and-you'll-miss it moment, Parker introduces his driver, Daryl Gates, who alert viewers know will go on to become L.A.'s police captain during some of its most contentious years.
But rather than explore the roots of the LAPD's later corruption in "Gangster Squad," the filmmakers structure the movie as a conventional -- if often cartoonishly ludicrous -- hero's tale, the eye-for-a-blackened-eye brutality portrayed as the good guys winning by any means necessary. It's fascinating that "Gangster Squad" is opening the same day as "Zero Dark Thirty," a film that has been speciously accused of endorsing torture in the search for Osama bin Laden. With its high-gloss sheen, hardboiled timbre and love of slow-motion shootouts, it's actually "Gangster Squad" that -- in the words of one of its characters -- blithely celebrates the bright boys who shoot their way to the top of their class. "Gangster Squad" may earn a gentleman's C for style, but the moral of the story gets a failing grade.
Contains strong violence and profanity.


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Football Gear for everyone. Even kickers.
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Summer Sock Sale: 10% off sock orders! No minimum purchase necessary. (code: HOT10). Excludes brands with other current promotions.
Darn Tough Sale: Buy three pairs of Darn Tough socks and receive 10% off (code: DARN3).


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Practical Applications of Photoshop Elements
Location:Hilton Head Branch
Date & Time:Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - 10:30am – 12:30pm
Jerry Griffin will help you correct and enhance your photo using Photoshop Elements. He will also guide you as you learn how to make your own cards. Please bring a CD or flashdrive with a photo you would like to work on.
Course is free but space is limited. Please call 843.255.6525 to sign up.


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Yesterday I bought AI War: Fleet Command and all its DLC. But when I start game I don't find the way to play in single player. The only button I could see is the host a multiplayer, and then disconnect all participants and play against the only two computer player.
It is possible to play in single player?


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I made the tragic error of not marking something as community wiki that should have been. The question is now mired in comments about how I'm a rep whore, despite having no such intentions. While the question has been re-opened as a community wiki, users still vote up the no-longer relevant comments. Putting aside issues of my own embarrassment, I think the question's negative history has sterilized the question's ability to get the number and quality of answers it had the potential to receive, limiting its usefulness. Personally, I would prefer the question just be deleted, in all its fruitlessness, but it has, however, received too many answers to vote for deletion. What's the appropriate action?
On a broader level, is there any solution to large amounts of non or no-longer relevant commentary, flaming in particular?


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European Telcos Begin To Put More Pressure On Satellite
Satellite pay-TV operators throughout Europe are facing more competition in the digital TV space.
As well as competing against revitalized cable operators who are beginning to offer services such as video on demand, the competition from Internet Protocol (IP) TV also is increasing. While the cable threat has existed for years, the emergence of telcos into the television market could pose a much more serious threat. Like cable operators, the telcos have the ability to offer a triple play of services and with strong balance sheets they are likely to be aggressive in their pursuit of video customers.
Short-Term Help?
But how much of a threat will telcos offer to the satellite competition?
Bob Larribeau, a media analyst at MRG told Satellite News that the emergence of telcos could actually aid the satellite players. "My initial reaction is that IPTV will not be a huge threat to satellite, at least in the short run," he said. "In fact, the marketing that the incumbents will put into IPTV will probably help the satellites by creating more interest in pay TV services. This may actually increase interest in satellite services."
Paul Erickson, a media analyst at IMS Research added, "I see them being a fairly valid threat in those countries where there is advanced enough infrastructure to offer viable throughput for triple play — if it is going to take two years to build out an infrastructure that will support 5-megabits-per-second ADSL — then this is less of a threat for the incumbent satellite operator," he said. "In those countries where you have strong xDSL penetration and faster flavors of DSL already implemented, then the opportunity is there for a healthy offering to be launched that will cause problems for pay-satellite operators. The problem for satellite operators is not necessarily programming. It is broadband. Unless they partner or acquire, it's not something they can easily solve."
Certainly, satellite pay-TV operators are not standing still in the face of this growing competition. BSkyB, one of the most progressive pay-TV operators in the world, has acquired Easynet, a telecoms company, and will launch IPTV services later in 2007 as it bids to supplement its direct-to-home (DTH) subscriber base of more than 8 million.
"The satellite provider without exclusive content or partnerships will be more vulnerable," said Michelle Abraham, a media analyst at In-Stat. However, unlike the U.S. where DirecTV and Dish do very little of their own programming, more European satellite providers have developed their own channels."
Other satellite pay-TV operators have gone down the partnership route and teamed up with telcos to offer IPTV services. A classic example is Canalsat and France Telecom. Canalsat is in the midst of merging with France's other DTH platform, TPS, but will this trend continue or are these partnerships of convenience while telcos build their strategies here?
"There are two things working here," Larribeau said. "The first is that IPTV service providers need content, and the satellite companies have already put together attractive packages. The second thing is that satellite antennas are not permitted in many cities in Europe. I have heard that there are satellite police in Paris that seek out illegal satellite antennas and confiscate them when they find them. I know this is an issue in France and Italy and I think it is an issue in other countries as well. The IPTV companies see the IPTV providers as a distribution arm that brings them into significant new markets."
Erickson said, "I expect it to continue out of necessity, especially when time-to-market is critical. Most satellite operators are not a Sky, DirecTV, or Echostar, and cannot afford to independently acquire or build a broadband business. To acquire the broadband capability they need to stay competitive in an age of triple play, they will likely need to partner. For the telcos, similarly many are not financially able to build out an entire video delivery and content business and it is easier and faster to partner with satellite."
State of the European Markets
In the United Kingdom, the IPTV market, somewhat surprisingly, is not as developed as some other markets in Europe. BT, the country's main telco, plans to launch services later this year and has been busy doing deals with content partners ahead of commercial launch. The service. BT Vision, aims to offer all the terrestrial Freeview channels as well as enhanced video-on-demand services. The service will require no mandatory subscription, so in some ways is not directly competing against BSkyB, particularly in terms of its premium DTH offers. BT has adopted a somewhat conservative strategy in the TV market, as its offer is more akin to Freeview rather than looking for highly monthly subscription charges.
BSkyB also is active in the IPTV space, planning to to launch Voice over IP and IPTV services in 2007. The operator also revealed plans to launch broadband and push video on demand as it steps up its drive to become an integral part of the digital home.
Bulldog Communications, which has around 100,000 broadband subscribers, could also look to make a move in this area. The operator is led by CEO Emanuele Angelidis, formerly CEO of Italian telco Fastweb, said if the operator were to launch an IPTV service, it would do so in the next 12 months. "There is no specific area blocking our decision not to progress," Angelidis recently told Satellite News sister publication Inside Digital TV. I can't tell you when we are going to do it, but the window of opportunity is one year at the most."
IPTV in France is ahead of most major markets in Europe. Three telcos — France Telecom, Neuf Cegetel and Free — are offering services. France Telecom saw strong growth for its MaligneTV, ending 2005 with 200,000 subscribers. In 2004, the company ended with just under 70,000 subscribers.
One of the most innovative operators, Free, ended 2005 with nearly 200,000 television subscribers. "The IPTV operator who stands out in terms of being aggressive and innovative in the European arena would arguably be Free, which has built their growth on the back of an affordable triple-play entry price point," Erickson said. "The caveat is content offerings, however, and I think this is the next step for IPTV operators to take in regards to churning people away from their cable and satellite alternatives."
Erickson also believes France Telecom will be more aggressive here as it pushes MaLigneTV more strongly. "FT has committed strongly to building its content offerings and conceivably the long term goal will be to own the content subscription revenue that gets paid out to Canal+ right now by MaLigneTV subscribers," he said. "Canal+ and other aggregate content providers will only have the capability to secure subscriptions via IPTV when the telco does not have any content aspirations of their own and needs content to offer their video customers. Your strongest, most dangerous telcos will unerringly seek to own as much of the revenue equation as possible in the long term, including the content side."
Spain remains one of the most interesting markets for IPTV. The main pay-TV operator is Digital+, which has around 2 million subscribers on satellite. However, the IPTV threat to the operator is increasing. Telefonica is rapidly rolling its Imagenio service across Spain. The operator already has around 250,000 IPTV subscribers, which puts it ahead of most telcos in Europe. Imagenio, which already offers 50 channels, costs around 12 euros ($14.90) more for Telefonica's broadband customers. The operator also is hoping to make a number of enhancements to the service throughout the next 12 months, with a trial of high-definition TV and personal video recorders planned.
Imagenio is not the only IPTV threat for Digital+ owner Sogecable. Jazztel, another Spanish telco, has launched a service dubbed Jazztelia. Conchi Ferreras, head of content for Jazztel, believes the option will prove attractive to an audience who may not want to pay premium prices for satellite offers. "We think one of the reasons why the pay-TV market has not been successful yet is because of the price, she said. Pay-TV is very expensive in Spain and it is not attainable for many people. So we are trying to fill the gap and democratize pay television.
Jazztel and Telefonica will put pressure on Digital+, which added only 25,000 subscribers in its most recent quarter. Spain has a low rate of digital TV penetration, presenting an exciting market for IPTV to attack, and Sogecable has not yet indicated what kind, if any, IPTV strategy it may deploy.
In Germany, where satellite operator Premiere already is under pressure from losing the Bundesliga football rights to cable threat, the IPTV threat also is likely to grow stronger. Deutsche Telekom (DT) announced that it will partner with Microsoft to launch IPTV services, through DT's VDSL network, which is being extended by T-Com. This network is expected to permit bandwidth of up to 50 megabits per second and is planned for launch by mid year in 10 major German cities.
There will also be other IPTV alternatives in Germany. Hansenet, a subsidiary of Telecom Italia (TI), plans to launch service this summer. The operator will offer a broadband pay-TV bouquet and video-on-demand offering under the Alice brand that TI is launching in Italy. The broadband operator originally operated in the Hamburg area but is extending its reach to other cities in Germany and being more of a vigorous competitor to DT.
In Italy, TI announced late last year that it was launching IPTV services called Alice Home TV, and the opportunity for IPTV could be particularly strong with virtually no cable competition in the country. Fastweb also offers IPTV services in Italy and has been one of the pioneers in terms of launching these services in Europe. Tiscali also could also look to enter this market very soon. However, Sky Italia has seen strong subscriber growth in Italy and it will be interesting to see whether it slows down as a result of TI entering the market. The other interesting thing is whether Sky Italia, a News Corp. company, will replicate BSkyB's strategy and attack the IPTV market in such a way and potentially acquire telecoms infrastructure.
–Mark Holmes Contact, Michelle Abraham, In-Stat, e-mail, email@example.com Paul Erickson, IMS Research, e-mail, email@example.com Jesus Carrillo, Jazztel, e-mail, firstname.lastname@example.com Gladys Elia, Bulldog Communications, e-mail, firstname.lastname@example.com Bob Larribeau, MRG, email, email@example.com


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16 Apr 2012 5:09 AM #1
"Right to Left" Design in Ext Designer...
Hi all,
I 'm very new to Ext JS...
I'd like to know if the Ext Designer or primarily Ext JS supports the RTL design-layout - for bi-directional languages, such as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian - or not and if the answer is YES, I'd be grateful if any one leaves useful resources on this issue.
16 Apr 2012 10:12 AM #2
Unfortunately Ext JS does not support RTL. We have plans to support it sometime in the future but have not implemented it yet.
There are some community members who have implemented overrides for it to work in RTL mode which you can find here on the forums.Aaron Conran
16 Apr 2012 11:52 PM #3
Thanks for ur great work, and I hope RTL support would come true sooooooooon...


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You are visiting our UK site. Click here to view our US site
ES-130 Palm size, 3 Channel Electroacupuncture
The 3 channels are independently controlled with the same adjustable output frequency 0-500Hz, the user can also select between two output voltages, low or high depending on the treatment, (Low setting: Max 9.0mA +/- 10% High setting: Max 15mA +/- 10%).
The unit is powered by a 9V battery and is supplied with 3 wires, user manual and protective case.
Weight (including packaging): 450g
Tax is not applicable to those living outside the European Economic Community. For more info click here.
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Our goal is to bring the best news, music and programming to Guyanese at home and abroad 24/7. We currently broadcast all our programs on the internet to all our listeners around the world. Our objective is to provide a 24HR station for Guyanese around the world. We'd also like to expose Guyanese at home to what's going on in Guyanese communities around the world and expand their radio choices.
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E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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6 Nov 2011 8:33 PM #1
Unanswered: disable/catch swipe event for a panel
Another question for you all- I've got a div being loaded in through contentEl with a slideshow in it that uses swipe motions to change images. The panel it's being loaded into however, is part of a carousel and the swipes begin to get confused on tablet devices and both try to scroll at once, which naturally makes things stop working or look bad.
Is there a way to catch the swipe/drag event for a panel and stop it while the slideshow is the component being touched? Possibly through "onMouseDown" then "onMouseUp" events through the slideshow or something?
Much appreciated everyone!
17 Nov 2011 11:18 AM #2
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There will always be conflicting events being fired and it will be a struggle for the components to figure out who is suppose to get the event.Mitchell Simoens @LikelyMitch
Sencha Inc, Senior Software Engineer
Check out my GitHub, lots of nice things for Ext JS 4 and Sencha Touch 2
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Need more help with your app? Hire Sencha Services firstname.lastname@example.com
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When posting code, please use BBCode's CODE tags.
17 Nov 2011 11:43 PM #3
You can here disable the swipe feature by
panel.alllisteners to false


text:
Sean Connery 007 Collection DVD Volume 2 (3 movies) for $16.49
Eligible for Free Super Saver Shipping
Sean Connery, the original and IMO best James Bond 007. If you purchase both Vol 1 & 2, you will definitely get free shipping!
Contains 3 movies on 6 discs:
You Only Live Twice
Diamonds are Forever.
Actors: Sean Connery, Adolfo Celi, Rik Van Nutter
Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number of discs: 6
Rated: Unrated
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Release Date: June 7, 2011
Run Time: 462 minutes
2 Comments add a comment
Volume 1 is listed here.
I found both volumes at Wal-mart the other day for only $10 each!


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About Just Between Us Magazine
Twenty-five years ago God took international speaker and author Jill Briscoe's dream for a tool for women with a heart for ministry and made it a reality. His stamp of faithfulness is evident in every issue as we have sought to be a friend to you who so faithfully and tirelessly empty yourselves on behalf of others every day.
I still remember sitting at my kitchen table working frantically to put the finishing touches on our premier issue, published in the summer of 1990. Then, just as now, we set out to address the joys and challenges of women with heart for ministry in a practical and honest way – and to come into your lives as your trusted friend.
Being almost a completely reader-written publication, I recall thinking, "Will we have enough articles to choose from, and how will we ever fill all of the pages?" Amazingly, in my 25 years as editor, we have never experienced a shortage of articles. We have covered topics on:
- Friendship in Ministry
- Marriage
- Raising Kids Who Love the Lord
- Deepening Your Relationship with Christ
- Dealing with Difficult People
- Handling the Stresses of Ministry
- How to Handle Leaving a Church
- And many more.
JBU is about women who share the same joys and struggles ministering to one another through the written word. And the importance of that kind of sharing is immeasureable because surveys continue to show that 44 percent of women with a heart for ministry have no trusted friend, and 30 percent have no person they can go to for support. The friendship need has not changed and continues to make the top of our "needs" list every time we survey our readers. JBU has attempted to make a difference by letting women know on a regular basis that they have some friends who are pulling and praying for them, and who understand because they have been there.
From Vision to Reality
In the early days it would have been easy to look at what we were taking on and conclude that there was no human way we could produce a magazine. And there wasn't! As our general manager, Mary Perso, remembers, "Jill received a lot of advice in the beginning not to do this because publishing is so difficult. But Jill was tenacious in her vision!" And she had a dream to provide a tool written by ordinary women, serving an extraordinary God, for the purpose of encouragement and support. From the beginning, the deep love and concern for women with a heart for ministry is what has driven the dream.
Magazine Miracle
There's no doubt in any of our minds that every issue of the magazine is a miracle; that it is something that God does. He is the One who has directed this ministry from its very inception, and He is the One who has carried us through every issue with His fingerprints on the content and His Spirit bringing life, literally, from its pages.
Where It All Began
The magazine had a very interesting beginning. Christianity Today, Inc. started it by launching the publication Partnership (known as Marriage Partnership recently). Eventually that publication was broadened to a general audience of Christian women, so they created Sunday to Sunday, with the vision of ministering to the ministry wife. Jill Briscoe became a regular columnist. The publication not only reached women in the U.S., but was reaching women in other countries as well. (Today, JBU continues to make its way around the world with subscribers in over 70 countries and all 50 states. We also partner with ministries in South Africa, South Korea, and Japan.)
In 1990, the magazine was bought by another publisher located in Florida, and the magazine took on a newsletter format with Jill Briscoe as the editor. By the summer of that year, Just Between Us took on two new editors, a new format and a new name, Just Between Us.
For the next four years the newsletter was developed long-distance with Jill and me working out of Milwaukee on all of the editorial responsibilities. The summer of 1992 brought us full circle as the publication again underwent a major facelift, returning to its magazine format. We expanded it into a 32-page quarterly publication with the intent of providing more ideas, resources, and encouragement. And for the next two years a tiny team of volunteers continued to place this tool and vital source of encouragement into the hands of women with a heart for ministry all over the world.
Ministry, Readership Expands
Early in 1994, the publisher informed us that yet a new publisher would need to be found for the magazine. After looking at several possibilities, Jill and Stuart Briscoe decided to bring JBU to Milwaukee, Wis., where it has been published ever since.
Quickly, a team of volunteers were assembled to tackle the immense and added responsibilities of production and circulation. We prayed and prayed and prayed. Incredibly, one-by-one, God raised up people who shared the vision and the excitement – most of them not ministry wives themselves – making it possible to publish our first Milwaukee-based issue in the fall of 1994.
We've Come a Long Way
Perhaps the biggest change over the years has come in the area of technology. It's hard to believe that in the early days, our first mailing was actually done manually. "We took the list of new people and orders and ended up writing them all out by hand," recalls Mary Perso. "At the time we didn't even have a typewriter!" On the editorial side, endless hours were spent retyping every single manuscript we received. Now, we have state of the art software and the web which has made a phenomenal difference in every aspect of the magazine.
Since publishing our first issue, we've changed virtually everything in JBU. But, throughout the years and changes, one thing remains unchanged: We're committed to encouraging and equipping women for a life of faith – and being that friend who will come alongside women to cheer them on in their faith and service!
View a SAMPLE ISSUE of Just Between Us Magazine


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Hello Forum,
There are several ways to publish and view 3D panoramas, for ColorCode 3D system (amber/blue viewer), Anaglyph system (red/cyan viewer) and since recent also for 3D TV (shutter glass and polarized viewers).
I already had some examples for ColorCode and Anaglyph systems and now I also have some examples for 3D TV on my website.
When comparing the different 3D systems imo the winner is the 3D TV, better colors, no cross talk (color ghosting) and the tolerance for wrong colors of the screen makes the 3D TV the best choice for publishing and viewing 3D panoramas.
I have tested several 3D panoramas on my mid level 2013 LG 3D TV with Cinema system (interlaced with polarized viewers) and a mid level 2013 Samsung 3D TV with shutter glass system.
Unfortunately the webbrowsers of both 3D TV's I tested did not support 3D display for the 3D panoramas.
It seems that only streaming content like movies and images with a native 3D format, like .MPO, can be displayed in 3D by the webbrowsers, perhaps this is an issue that effects all present models of 3D TV's.
The workaround for this limitation is to deliver 3D panoramas as a 1080p stream from another device.
For testing I used an iPad Air, iPad 3, iPhone 5, MacBook Pro Retina 15" and iMac connected with ApplePlay and AppleTV 3 streaming to the 3D TV.
The webbrowsers I used on OSX are Google Chrome and iCab (both free), these webbrowsers can display fullscreen without any bar.
Having the option to go fullscreen by the webbrowser is a must, the full screen button of the controller can't be used for 3D panoramas.
On iPad I used webbrowsers iCab Mobile (payed app) and Browser (free app).
Browser is not as good as iCab Mobile, when set in full screen mode the elements of the iOS info bar are still visible in iOS7 but for occasional full screen use or trying out it is a fine webbrowser.
On iPhone I used the default Safari browser, in landscape position it is fullscreen.
My findings,
Due to the 4:3 ratio of the iPad screen I get black bars on the TV at the left and right side of the panorama, instead of 1920 px wide the image is only 1440 px wide.
When the TV is set to zoom-in, then the black bars are gone, this is a good workaround for the black bars issue (see image below).
A small issue I have with iPads is that the webbrowser sometimes crashes, hopefully a new release of iOS7 can resolve this issue.
Despite the native 16:9 screen ratio of the iPhone 5 the image quality is last in the row, reason is the less then optimal screen resolution (not full HD) for a 1080p stream.
With MacBook Pro Retina and iMac (both HD and 16:9 ratio) the results are best.
If you have a 3D TV and like to give the 3D panorama examples a try then I really like to hear about your findings.
Edit: an alternative for Apple devices could be the use of Miracast if your 3D TV and Android or Windows device supports this system:
In case there is some interest by forum members who have a 3D TV and like to know how to display their 3D panoramas on 3D TV then I am willing to make a short tutorial.
Happy 3D viewing,


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Got a digital distribution online store. What now?
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Junior Member
Got a digital distribution online store. What now?
The back story
So I recently broke into the Game Industry. Finally! Started working for a game developer that also has their online digital distribution store (pretty much like Valve with their Steam, but of course on a much smaller scale). In fact, there are 2 of them: one for a specific region, and one is worldwide. Incidentally, the first one is the one bringing in most income (the 2nd site has a much more limited games choice). Within the company I've been working mostly on their websites and also in tech support.
The outset
So yesterday I was offered a great opportunity - to take over the online digital distribution store that is focused on worldwide audience. Needless to say, I could not pass on that opportunity and took the job. However...
The problem
I have never run anything of such scale before. I always wanted to, but never got the chance. So now here is my chance, opportunities are potentially endless, but I have no idea what to do. I have done some online marketing and promotions before, but nothing like that. For example, I have never singed a contract with a publisher or developer to sell their games in my store. So here goes...
The question
I need to come up with a structured plan for myself on how I am going to develop this project. There seems to be overwhelmingly many things to do, and I have no idea what to start with, and from what side to approach it, so to speak. What research do I need to do first?
So my main questions is: if someone has experience in running an online store, what steps do I need to take first? Second? Third? What sources can I read about running a digital distribution website?
The conclusion
I understand that this is a great challenge for me, but also a great opportunity. And I am more than willing to make it work and eventually be a big part of the gaming industry. I hope you can give me some advice and show me the direction I need to go from this point on.
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STEUBENVILLE - An Internet blogger who allowed anonymous comments regarding a rape investigation that led to the arrest of two Steubenville High School students to be posted on her blog site still has not been served with legal papers stemming from a slander lawsuit.
And after hearing arguments from Shawn Blake representing Cody Saltsman and his parents, as well as Thomas Haren who represents Alexandria Goddard of the blog site prinniefied.com, Jefferson County Common Pleas Court Judge David Henderson delayed a decision until he reviews court cases cited during the 25-minute hearing Monday.
Blake asked the judge to rule Goddard had been served with notice of the lawsuit, "and that she has waived service by actively litigating the case."
Blake also asked the judge to agree to a publication of the lawsuit in the Herald-Star to serve as legal notice to Goddard.
But Haren said the plaintiffs suing Goddard, "want to put my client into a Catch-22 position."
"She has not been served and has not waived that service. The plaintiffs are trying to bait my client. Their private investigators sat outside of a building for hours where my client once lived. Being aware of what is going on is not equal to service on my client. To say we are engaged in deception is hog wash," said Haren.
"My client's whereabouts is known to us through our attorney-client privilege. And I am not going to violate an attorney client confidentiality. She has asked us to keep her address confidential. And we are under no obligation to provide our client's whereabouts in order to accept service," said Haren.
Blake said Goddard has left Columbus and was living in Bridgeport.
"We are asking for the court to rule service has been met and the defendant should answer the complaint. We are not asking for the defendant's address. We want to serve notice on her. My clients have spent $6,100 on private investigators who have tried to serve the defendant," added Blake.
He accused Goddard of transferring the blog site to a company in Hong Kong.
"And she has blogged that she is destroying evidence and is making attempts to stop the Saltsmans from obtaining justice. This is all about delaying justice, destruction of data and evading service," argued Blake.
"You have to follow the rules. And there is still time to follow those rules," noted Haren.
"I will take this under advisement to review the court cases cited today. It is a bit odd when a client doesn't appear in court or answer the service. But I will rule after reviewing the court cases," announced Henderson.
Blake said the next hearing on the priniefied.com case will be held Monday regarding individuals who left comments on the blog site.
The Saltsmans are seeking an injunction to have alleged false and defamatory statements removed from the blog site and also are seeking monetary damages and a public apology along with monetary damages in excess of $25,000.
The lawsuit claims Goddard created several blogs on her Internet site regarding the alleged sexual assault.
The lawsuit also names 15 people as defendants by the fictitious names they created and registered on the blog.


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Yesterday I was quoted in an article on CBR Online by Steve Evans titled, BI visualisation is just "eye candy": Pentaho. This hook of "eye candy" has stirred up a lot of comments and I'm pleased that Pentaho is at the center of an interesting debate!
Why pleased? It means that we are having a dialogue and I can see from your Tweets and blog post (see below) that many of you value Pentaho's end-to-end business analytics model that enables customers to make great business decisions fast and cost-effectively.
Tom Barber made some great points on his blog, Playing to your strengths is good for business — that we should sell to our strengths, highlighting that "Pentaho is a great at data manipulation."
Then Pedro Alves from Webdetails says on his blog Substance AND Style that you need both – and we agree.
Let me put a bit more context around the great conversation I had with Steve last week at the Business Cloud Summit in London. We discussed areas that can limit a company's ability to take action on the information that impacts their company's success.
At Pentaho, we are taking out pain by automating difficult processes for both the end users AND the IT team. A modern analytics platform must offer data governance, ETL services, the full spectrum of reports, dashboards, ad-hoc analysis and data mining/predictive analytics, as well as embrace big and diverse data.
Before meeting with Steve at CBR, I had an interesting discussion in London with Alys Woodward of IDC about data governance, a process that IT people care about and is getting more complex because of all the new technologies and different data models. We care about this too, even if it does fall into the 'hard to do' category. Pentaho has a simple and intuitive graphical user interface to more easily move data in and out of Hadoop.
These IT services have certainly not come at the expense of visual presentation for the end user. While in London, I met with a UK enterprise CRM software provider called HTK, which is embedding our reports and analytics into his company's software to deliver SaaS Cloud version aimed at marketing professionals, who have some of the highest standards for ease-of-use visual presentation and reporting flexibility. One of the reason's his firm chose Pentaho was for our visually appealing data discovery, analysis and visualization tools that will enable his new SME customer to get up and running without special training or support services.
In the end the hook of 'eye candy' may have grabbed your attention, however, at Pentaho, we believe that both substance and style are required to drive the future of analytics. Let's keep this dialogue and debate going in 2012.