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Distances are calculated in a straight line and may not reflect actual travel distance.
It is important to note that this mortgage calculator is for guidance purposes only. Mortgage lenders have their own affordability criteria therefore it is important you speak to one of our Mortgage Advisers for further information and a more accurate indication of what products may be available to you and what your monthly mortgage payments are likely to be.
A delightful two bedroom retirement apartment for the over 65's on the first floor of this much sought after development
The property is situated in the heart of Byfleet village,
Offering spacious private and secure living accommodation, this residence offers complete independence together with exceptional and elegantly decorated communal facilities such as a residents lounge, restaurant, library and guest suite as well as a laundry room, mobility scooter store and lift access to all floors.
There is the added security of a Duty Manager on site 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and emergency pull cords in every room of the apartment including all communal areas. All apartments and communal areas are designed to enable wheelchair users and residents with limited mobility to move freely and confidently with hand-rails along all communal corridor walls.
No Onward Chain.
Lifestyle Features :-
A guest suite that can be hired for visitors.
24 HR manager for any problems day or night ( you have mentioned pull chords ).
Burglar alarm in each flat.
1 hour free domestic help each week.
Organised social committee, / events ie, yoga, BBQ, Xmas party,
Clothing outlet visit, book club, Bridge , free internet and computer .
Function room for private hire/ use/ gatherings ( catering available) .
Free tea, coffee , cake all day in communal lounge
Local co op delivers shopping to residents , local shops and bus stop opposite .
Contact branch for relevant Energy Performance Certificate
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by Galen Dalrymple I once was an Iowa farm boy, but I've not lived there for decades. But once an Iowan farm boy, always an Iowa farm boy, I guess. There is still something wondrous about returning to the land of my roots. My father lies buried in the rich Iowa soil, as do my [Read More…]
An Iowa Farm Boy Remembers Halloween
October 30, 2013 by

subset: commoncrawl


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About the Book
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lindaoliver We were lucky enough to be given a copy of this book only one evening ago. So far we have shared it with a number of people. Like everyone who has seen it , one 84 year old guy who was born in Norton St Philip and who has never really ventured out of the village, thought it was amazing. He went through every drawing taking in all the detail and like us was truly thrilled. We now need to get him his very own copy. Well done Alan the book is fantastic.
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Get an overview of this hotelHotel in Amagasaki
Popular property highlights
Located in the heart of Amagasaki, this hotel is within 6 mi (10 km) of Hanshin Koshien Stadium, Osaka Science Museum, and Umeda Sky Building. Universal Studios Japan® and Osaka Symphony Hall are also within 6 mi (10 km).
Hotel Features
This hotel features self parking, laundry facilities, and free WiFi in public areas.
Room Amenities
All 48 rooms provide conveniences like refrigerators and microwaves, plus free WiFi and flat-screen TVs with digital channels. Desks and free toiletries are also available to guests.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!Opens in a new window
HOTEL LiVEMAX Amagasaki
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
HOTEL LiVEMAX Amagasaki features laundry facilities and an elevator (lift). Public areas are equipped with complimentary wireless Internet access. Limited onsite parking is available on a first-come, first-served basis (surcharge).
- Free WiFi
- Total number of rooms - 48
- Number of floors - 9
- Parking (limited spaces)
- Luggage storage
- Self parking (surcharge)
- Elevator/lift
- Laundry facilities
- Year Built 1993
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
Family Friendly Amenities
- Free Wi-Fi
- Laundry facilities
- Refrigerator
- Microwave
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Self parking (surcharge), Parking (limited spaces)
Room Amenities
- Pay movies
- Air conditioning
- Free toiletries
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Refrigerator
- Microwave
- Free WiFi
- Daily housekeeping
- Private bathroom
- Slippers
- Shower/tub combination
- Desk
- Digital TV service
- Flat-panel TV
- Blackout drapes/curtains
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Check-in time ends at 11 PM
Check-out time is 10 AM
Payment types
Children and extra beds
- Children are welcome.
- Cribs (infant beds) are not available.
- Pets not allowed
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on property policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
No cribs (infant beds) available
Noise-free rooms not guaranteed
Parking height restrictions apply
This property will accept and store luggage in advance for guests only from the day before check-in until check-in. Guests need to notify the property in advance if they will be sending luggage prior to check-in. Luggage sent in advance without prior notification may not be accepted. By law, the property cannot accept and store valuables, perishables, or living things. For more details, please contact the office using the information on the reservation confirmation received after booking.
Guests with service animals should contact this property in advance. Please contact the office using the information on the reservation confirmation received after booking.
Optional extras
- Self parking fee: JPY 1500 per night
- Early check-in fee: JPY 1000
- Late check-out fee: JPY 1000
Hotel Name
- HOTEL Amagasaki
- HOTEL LiVEMAX Amagasaki
- LiVEMAX Amagasaki
We should mention
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare requires all international visitors to submit their passport number and nationality when registering at any lodging facility (inns, hotels, motels, etc. ). Additionally, lodging proprietors are required to photocopy passports for all registering guests and keep the photocopy on file.


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|Eleeza Cox
| Height
| 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
ECAC Team
| Ridley College
Toronto Jr. Aeros
|Pro Career
|2011 – present
Eleeza Cox is a women's ice hockey player from Ontario. In the NCAA, she competed for the RPI Engineers.
Playing careerEdit
At Ridley College, Cox was the youngest assistant captain in school history. She helped Ridley College claim the 2011 NAPHA Division Title. Cox participated with the Toronto Jr. Aeros of the PWHL in the 2010-11 campaign.
During the weekend series versus the Union Dutchwomen (contested on January 27 and 28, 2012), Cox notched three of the team's six goals. She scored the first goal in Friday's victory, and proceeded to add two more scores the following day.[1] The three goals increased her season total to 12, which led the team. In addition, it stretched her point streak to six games.
Awards and honorsEdit
- 2008 Ridley College Rookie of the Year
- ECAC Rookie of the Week (Week of January 31, 2011) [2]
- Nominee, 2012 ECAC Rookie of the Year[3]
- 2010 Ridley College MVP
- 2011 Ridley College MVP
- ECAC Rookie of the Month (Janurary 2012)
- RPI Rookie of The Year 2012
- ECAC All Rookie Team 2012


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Age: 21 - 25
Nationality: Thai
Hi Gents, my name is Maya, new in town
Mention UK Adult Zone when you call to get the best price.
Account ID: 53250
Last Login: 29-08-2016 09:25:46
Last Update: 15-06-2015
I am a sexy Thai Lady 5'3" in height with long hair, seductive hazel eyes and soft smooth olive skin. I am a size 8 with a 34D bust and a sexy, peachy bum. I can be your naughty/nasty girl or the cute innocent girl next door. I will always dress with the intention of taking your breath away.... if there's anything in particular you wish me to wear, all you have to do is ask you call, I will always attempt to accommodate. I am available for incalls daily 10am - 11pm I am based a a quite, discreet part of Peterborough with plenty of free parking, not far from the major supermarket, as well as being close to the A1 for all you weary drivers, in need of some relaxation. Please call to make a booking as do not always have access to the internet, also please remember to unblock your telephone as I do not answer withheld no's or private no's. Maya xxx
Ethnicity: Asian
Eye colour: Brown
Hair colour: Brown
Hair length: Long
Height: 5' 3"
Dress size: 8
Bust size: 34
Bra cup size: D
Waist size: -
Hips size: -
Breasts: Enhanced
Pubic hair: Shaved Completely
Smoker: No
Tattoos/piercings: Both (Very Discrete)
Main location: Peterborough
Covered locations: Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire
Great companion escort
Sexy Thai Lady
MATURE PLAYMATE QUALITY PIECE OF BRITISH TUSH, "EXPERIENCE SEXUAL EXCELLENCE"...For Gentlemen that prefer a more engaging no clock watching Hedonism - Same day Appointments - ☎ My number in profile
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Get to know a little more about Exotic Honey


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Bayushi Keian was the hohei of Bayushi Seijuro and they moved to the Shadowlands alongside a Bayushi Legion to find the daisho of the fallen Mirumoto Gempin. They found his corpse near the Seigo no Kamae river, and retrieved the blade in a troll nest. Before they returned the group was attacked by two Maho Bujin, one by the name of Hiruma Masatsugu, slaughtering many of the Scorpion warriors, including Keian. [1]
- ↑ Bearers of Jade, pp. 111-113
|This Scorpion Clan related article is a stub. That means that it has been started, but is incomplete. You can help by adding to the information here.


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I'm in the middle of editing my blog posts from when I went to Hokkaido in the fall of 2016. As such, I found a photo capturing the essence of 'solitude'. During Day 2 of our trip, we visited Hokkaidō Shrine. For those of you who know, whenever you enter a Japanese shrine, there is a tradition and custom for all visitors to cleanse themselves at the chōzuya (or temizuya) with the provided ladle and holy water in a specific routine. After we had done this cleansing routine and entered the shrine to take photos and walk around, I found myself waiting for my relatives and for our scheduled time to get back on to the tour bus for the next stop of our trip. While waiting, I ventured back out to the entrance of the shrine and found the chōzuya completely empty and devoid of people. I think this photo shows solitude as I was the only one in this area — an area meant for many people to gather together to wash up. This is shown by the many ladles placed face down and ready for visitors. There's a certain peace and quiet about this photo. Many times, it's good when travelling in a group to venture out by yourself to search out for some inner peace and quiet in your own soul.
Feb 3 2017
Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitude


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Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Oligonol - Antioxidant, Anti-aging Supplement Review and Giveaway - Ends 09-07-12
Do you take supplements? Have you heard of Oligonol? This is a fabulous supplement that everybody needs to add to their health regimen! I have been taking the Oligonol for about 3½ week and I am very impressed with this supplement! My skin looks great, I seem to have more energy and the Oligonol is full of of some very healthy ingredients! I figure if a supplement will help keep me healthier, that I am all for them. An ounce of precaution could very well help keep you from getting very sick. The clinical research shows how great it is in the body and how it could help you. I would highly recommend the Oligonol!
About OligonolOligonol is a particularly innovative antioxidant and anti-aging nutritional supplement. It contains oligomerised polyphenols - the first supplement in which polyphenol polymers have been successfully converted into oligomers, molecules with superior bioavailability and much greater biological activity.
- is much more quickly absorbed (as measured by levels of polyphenols in the blood);
- has greater antioxidant capacity;
- has superior bioavailability;
- is rapidly absorbed in humans. Polyphenol blood concentrations increase in a dose-dependent manner during periods of supplementation.
Oligonol is derived from lychee fruit. Lychee has been a valued fruit renowned for thousands of years for promoting healthy aging. In ancient China, the Emperor's concubine, Yang Gui Fei, reportedly maintained her breathtaking beauty for all the many years of her life because of lychee which the Emperor horded from all over China for her use only.
The lychee, from which Oligonol is made, is native to low elevations of the provinces of Southern China but its cultivation has spread over the years through neighboring areas of southeastern Asia. Lychee has a high content of polyphenol polymers and through a patented process, these unique molecules can be made to be more absorbable by the body.
A proprietary extract of lychee fruit manufactured using a patented technology that boosts polyphenol bioavailability of the product and thereby enhances the product's anti-oxidant capacity.
Polyphenols are abundantly present in plants and are known for their ant-oxidant and anti-aging properties. Oligonol is produced through a proprietary process that shortens polyphenol polymers into monomers and oligomers to form a unique oligomerized polyphenol, producing greater bio-availability to the body than conventional polyphenols, such as: pine bark, grape seed, apple and green tea.
- Oligonol is shown to be 5 times more bio-available resulting in speedier absorption than conventional polyphenols.
- Oligonol decreased more than 10% of the lipid peroxide level in blood and improved lucidity and sleep pattern in a human study.
- Oligonol was more effective in many parameters in a study on cognitive function than conventional polyphenols.
- Extensive in vivo toxicity studies show Oligonol to be safe with no adverse effects or negative interactions. Laboratory testing also reveals that Oligonol is a stable substance.
|Label on Bottle
Scientific research reveals that Oligonol is a safe, powerful anti-oxidant that can slow the aging process. Clinical studies supporting Oligonol as an efficacious healthy aging dietary supplement were conducted in the following areas:
- Skin improvement (to prevent and reduce wrinkles and freckles)
- Blood circulation improvement
- Reduction of and fast recovery from fatigue
- Metabolic support
- Natural, safe, no negative interactions
A product sample was received for review. I was not paid in any form of cash for this posting. The opinions expressed are my own and were NOT influenced in any way.
One person per household may enter.
You must be 18 or older.
18 Awesome Comments! Thanks for visiting!:
- Space Monkey said...
I think I would love to try the Cogni-Q supplement!
- 11:45 AM, August 23, 2012
- Tania B said...
I would love to try the Cogni-Q supplement for my poor brain!
- 9:21 AM, August 24, 2012
- ehhogan said...
I would like to try pure balance seratonin
- 2:48 PM, August 24, 2012
- flairshare said...
I would like to try the Neptune krill oil or the Cogni-Q.
- 10:22 AM, August 27, 2012
- rj7777 said...
Cardiochol sounds interesting. There are many more for sure. Rita Spratlen email@example.com
- 8:47 PM, September 01, 2012
- Brenda Penton said...
I think Pure Balance Serotonin would be my favourite.
- 2:17 PM, September 02, 2012
- Heather! said...
I would love to try the CognI-Q!
h4schaffer at gmail dot com
- 8:23 AM, September 05, 2012
- Karen said...
I'd like to try thrkrill oil.
- 12:31 PM, September 05, 2012
- Jen H said...
I could use the Pure Balance Serotonin!
- 5:40 PM, September 05, 2012
- Kellye and Jamie said...
- 9:24 PM, September 05, 2012
- mail4rosey said...
CardioChol would be my favorite.
- 9:56 AM, September 06, 2012
- mail4rosey said...
I learned they sell a product called Deodorex that helps eliminate body odors.
- 9:57 AM, September 06, 2012
- Jenny18286 said...
I like the Neptune Krill Oil for Women's Health. jenniferpeaslee at gmail dot com
- 11:46 AM, September 06, 2012
- cassandra said...
I would like to try the Pure balance serotonin!
fb: rab pom
- 3:38 PM, September 06, 2012
- Robert Pyszk said...
- 6:17 PM, September 06, 2012
- Caitlin McClure said...
I'd love Pure Balance Serotonin
- 6:28 PM, September 06, 2012
- /\Heather/\ said...
Pure Balance Serotonin, for sure. Happy and not hungry? Perfection...
- 8:47 PM, September 06, 2012
- Andrea Peterson said...
I just started using astaxanthin as my supplement. http://products.mercola.com/astaxanthin/ I am hoping for a good result. there are so many antioxidant supplements to choose from but I really got interested with this one.
- 6:34 PM, September 30, 2012


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I am a music addict. And maybe a snob. I make no apologies, but do try to be open minded (successfully, sometimes).
I love dogs. For a year and a half I worked with them as a dog handler. I know way too much and may scare you. But I promise that I've never embroidered anything with a dog face, or anything like that. My dog, Prudence, is a sweet little Rottweiler. Bonus points for the name reference.
And I suppose I love traveling too, whenever I can manage to. I love road trips, especially when it involves bands and concerts.
I love to joke around and laugh whenever possible. Especially at myself.
I've always been a bit of a tomboy. I enjoy playing and watching most sports. My favorite sport to play is soccer, but to watch is baseball. I live in Cubs-land but am a born and raised White Sox fan (blame my dad).
Also always been a bit of an environmentalist. Don't use styrofoam around me. I'll definitely be annoyed and most likely say something...
I like proper grammar. I don't like when people use "words" like "u" and "ur," and don't know the difference between "their" and "there."
I make it a point to be upfront, open, and honest. And cynical. And sarcastic.
Oh, and I'm an avid people watcher. People make me laugh.
I am cynical, eclectic, and grounded
Movies...NOT romantic comedies. I love finding new independent films. I like a variety of kinds of movies, but find myself usually not liking blockbuster films. Some of my favorites are Spinal Tap, Donnie Darko, Almost Famous, Pride and Prejudice (A&E version), High Fidelity, 13 Conversations About One Thing, Amelie, Once, Across the Universe, The United States of Leland, Juno, Lost in Translation, The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson in general), A Very Long Engagement, V for Vendetta, and Vanilla Sky.
I listen to all different genres of music, but am very picky about what bands I like. I listen to a lot of alternative 80s music (XTC, The Smiths, R.E.M., Morrissey, Robyn Hitchcock, Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, The Cure, The Clash, Aztec Camera, etc), more mainstream alt rock (Muse, Radiohead, Wilco, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Live, Green Day, U2, etc), more recent indie type bands (Grandaddy, Camera Obscura, Field Music, Tokyo Police Club, Modest Mouse, Matthew Ryan, Sigur Ros, The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, Bright Eyes, MGMT, Múm, etc), and of course, the best of the original pop rock (The Beatles, The Zombies, etc). I'm even occasionally up for a bit of world music or classical.
TV...I love anything involving Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (The Office BBC, Extras). Also love Flight of the Conchords, House, Coupling, 30 Rock, Battlestar Gallactica, Firefly, and Family Guy. And, of course, Doctor Who. The old ones for laughs, but David Tennant is my hero.
I love food from around the world. Thai, Indian, Sushi, Mexican, Mediterranean, Italian. I'm generally up for trying something new, but I don't eat much of any meat (occasionally chicken or turkey. That's it).
...you want to discuss the brilliance of R.E.M.'s "Life's Rich Pageant," or the incredible bass sounds on the latest Muse record, or how XTC are so clever with their bass and guitar interplay, or how Sigur Ros can truly take your emotional state and transform it without saying a word, or how the radio and Clear Channel killed the progress of music, or...you get the point.
...you're bored.


text:
Question about Sharp AR-168D Copier
Posted by glorietta on
SOURCE: I have freestanding Series 8 dishwasher. Lately during the filling cycle water hammer is occurring. How can this be resolved
a 6ya expert can help you resolve that issue over the phone in a minute or two.
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Posted on Jan 02, 2017
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Jan 18, 2013 | Sharp Cartridge Copier Toner/Developer...
Jun 08, 2012 | Sharp AR-168D Black and White Copier
Jun 30, 2010 | Epson LQ-1050 Matrix Printer
Apr 06, 2010 | Sharp AR-5316 Advanced Digital Imager...
Oct 19, 2009 | Sharp Office Equipment & Supplies
Jul 09, 2009 | Canon PIXMA MP620 All-In-One InkJet...
Apr 02, 2009 | Sharp AL-1642CS Copier
Feb 01, 2009 | Sharp AR-275 Copier
Nov 22, 2008 | Sharp AR-M205 Copier
Aug 22, 2008 | Sharp AR-M207 All-In-One Laser Printer
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text:
"Surender Singh was arrested Saturday night for raping the girl who lives in his neighbourhood in Rajouri Garden area in west Delhi," said police officer.
The 11-year-old girl told police that Singh had been raping her for the past few months and threatened her not to reveal it to anyone, police said.
The victim's parents lodged a police complaint Saturday and a medical examination confirmed rape, said an officer.


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Thursday, July 15, 2010
A Guest Post
Good afternoon—I hope you are having a fantastic week! I'm afraid I'm feeling terribly under the weather today, and so, posting has been a little delayed today. I did want to stop by and mention that today, along with a few other bloggers, I am a guest on Caitlin's lovely blog, Sacramento Street—sharing some of my must–have Summer reads. I love a good, light book in Summer, as opposed to a deep, long and often dramatic or intense book, which I typically select for Fall and Winter months. I hope you have a chance to stop by, and find something new to pick up this week perhaps!
( images via Pandora // by: Pauline Darley )
7 comments:
oh sorry to hear that Sarah! loved your books picks! take care cherie xoxoReplyDelete
Hi there, best wishes for a speedy recovery sweetie.ReplyDelete
Beautiful pictures of the gorgeous Louise, her hair is glorious.
I will check out your book choice.
xoxo DJ
Love this look!ReplyDelete
Oh no! Shall I send some warm blueberry soup?ReplyDelete
I hope you are feeling better soon.
I am awfully blog lazy right now. Just want to play with the kids on the beach...
Love always,
Mon -- I have never, ever had blueberry soup before! It sounds delicious, though :)ReplyDelete
... and enjoy the beach + your children -- this time with them is so precious, as is the amount of Summer we get each year, wink*
Thank you Sarah for being part of the Summer Reading post. I've added the books to my reading list - it got super long with all the fabulous suggestions from everyone. Thanks again! xoReplyDelete
Gosh you have such beautiful hair!ReplyDelete


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BLACKHAWK!® Phoenix Patrol Pack
Item # WX2-188256
BLACKHAWK!® Phoenix Patrol Pack
Item # WX2-188256
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British Royal Mail Surplus Shoulder Bag, UsedBuyer's Club $13.49 Non-Member $14.99
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- Details & Specs
BLACKHAWK!® Phoenix Patrol Pack. A uniquely designed frameless pack with a padded back and body.
The contoured "S" shoulder straps have a detachable sternum strap and torso lumbar support for hours of comfortable carry.
Inside, you'll find a back pouch to fit an optional 100 oz. BLACKHAWK!® Hydration System pack and a main compartment with two internal securing straps and a pair of utility gear attachment straps.More:
- Made with heavy-duty 1,000-denier nylon
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- Weapon lock system lined with HawkTexTM
- External side compression straps
- Heavy-duty carry / drag handle
- Fully adjustable pack height and sway stabilizer system
- Two sets of securing straps (ground mat, sleeping bag, etc.)
- D-rings for equipment attachment on the "S" shoulder straps
- 8 x 12 x 23" plus pockets 2,800 cu. in.
State Color, as available in the Shopping Cart. Order ONLINE Today!
- Reviews
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QuikClot Advanced Clotting Gauze, 2 PackBuyer's Club $20.69 Non-Member $22.99
Wetfire Fire Starter Tinder, 8 PackBuyer's Club $5.39 Non-Member $5.99


text:
MapReduce Tutorial
Recommended by 0 users
MapReduce Tutorial
Mapreduce Indepth:
We are living in the era of big data, where exponential growth of phenomena such as web, social networking, smartphones, and so on are producing petabytes of data on a daily basis. Gaining insights from analyzing these very large amounts of data has become a must-have competitive advantage for many industries. However, the size and the possibly unstructured nature of these data sources make it impossible to use traditional solutions such as relational databases to store and analyze these datasets.
Storage, processing, and analyzing petabytes of data in a meaningful and timely manner require many compute nodes with thousands of disks and thousands of processors together with the ability to efficiently communicate massive amounts of data among them. Such a scale makes failures such as disk failures, compute node failures, network failures, and so on a common occurrence making fault tolerance a very important aspect of such systems. Other common challenges that arise include the significant cost of resources, handling communication latencies, handling heterogeneous compute resources, synchronization across nodes, and load balancing. As you can infer, developing and maintaining distributed parallel applications to process massive amounts of data while handling all these issues is not an easy task. This is where Apache Hadoop comes to our rescue.
Google is one of the first organizations to face the problem of processing massive amounts of data. Google built a framework for large-scale data processing borrowing the map and reduce paradigms from the functional programming world and named it as MapReduce. At the foundation of Google, MapReduce was the Google File System, which is a high throughput parallel filesystem that enables the reliable storage of massive amounts of data using commodity computers. Seminal research publications that introduced Google MapReduce and Google File System concepts can be found at http://research.google.com/archive/mapreduce.html and http://research.google.com/archive/gfs.html.
Apache Hadoop MapReduce is the most widely known and widely used open source implementation of the Google MapReduce paradigm. Apache Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) provides an open source implementation of the Google File Systems concept.
Apache Hadoop MapReduce, HDFS, and YARN provide a scalable, fault-tolerant, distributed platform for storage and processing of very large datasets across clusters of commodity computers. Unlike in traditional High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters, Hadoop uses the same set of compute nodes for data storage as well as to perform the computations, allowing Hadoop to improve the performance of large scale computations by collocating computations with the storage. Also, the hardware cost of a Hadoop cluster is orders of magnitude cheaper than HPC clusters and database appliances due to the usage of commodity hardware and commodity interconnects. Together Hadoop-based frameworks have become the de-facto standard for storing and processing big data.
Hadoop Distributed File System – HDFS
HDFS is a block structured distributed filesystem that is designed to store petabytes of data reliably on compute clusters made out of commodity hardware. HDFS overlays on top of the existing filesystem of the compute nodes and stores files by breaking them into coarser grained blocks (for example, 128 MB). HDFS performs better with large files. HDFS distributes the data blocks of large files across to all the nodes of the cluster to facilitate the very high parallel aggregate read bandwidth when processing the data. HDFS also stores redundant copies of these data blocks in multiple nodes to ensure reliability and fault tolerance. Data processing frameworks such as MapReduce exploit these distributed sets of data blocks and the redundancy to maximize the data local processing of large datasets, where most of the data blocks would get processed locally in the same physical node as they are stored.
HDFS consists of NameNode and DataNode services providing the basis for the distributed filesystem. NameNode stores, manages, and serves the metadata of the filesystem. NameNode does not store any real data blocks. DataNode is a per node service that manages the actual data block storage in the DataNodes. When retrieving data, client applications first contact the NameNode to get the list of locations the requested data resides in and then contact the DataNodes directly to retrieve the actual data. The following diagram depicts a high-level overview of the structure of HDFS:
Hadoop v2 brings in several performance, scalability, and reliability improvements to HDFS. One of the most important among those is the High Availability (HA) support for the HDFS NameNode, which provides manual and automatic failover capabilities for the HDFS NameNode service. This solves the widely known NameNode single point of failure weakness of HDFS. Automatic NameNode high availability of Hadoop v2 uses Apache ZooKeeper for failure detection and for active NameNode election. Another important new feature is the support for HDFS federation. HDFS federation enables the usage of multiple independent HDFS namespaces in a single HDFS cluster. These namespaces would be managed by independent NameNodes, but share the DataNodes of the cluster to store the data. The HDFS federation feature improves the horizontal scalability of HDFS by allowing us to distribute the workload of NameNodes. Other important improvements of HDFS in Hadoop v2 include the support for HDFS snapshots, heterogeneous storage hierarchy support (Hadoop 2.3 or higher), in-memory data caching support (Hadoop 2.3 or higher), and many performance improvements.
Almost all the Hadoop ecosystem data processing technologies utilize HDFS as the primary data storage. HDFS can be considered as the most important component of the Hadoop ecosystem due to its central nature in the Hadoop architecture.
Hadoop YARN
YARN (Yet Another Resource Negotiator) is the major new improvement introduced in Hadoop v2. YARN is a resource management system that allows multiple distributed processing frameworks to effectively share the compute resources of a Hadoop cluster and to utilize the data stored in HDFS. YARN is a central component in the Hadoop v2 ecosystem and provides a common platform for many different types of distributed applications.
The batch processing based MapReduce framework was the only natively supported data processing framework in Hadoop v1. While MapReduce works well for analyzing large amounts of data, MapReduce by itself is not sufficient enough to support the growing number of other distributed processing use cases such as real-time data computations, graph computations, iterative computations, and real-time data queries. The goal of YARN is to allow users to utilize multiple distributed application frameworks that provide such capabilities side by side sharing a single cluster and the HDFS filesystem. Some examples of the current YARN applications include the MapReduce framework, Tez high performance processing framework, Spark processing engine, and the Storm real-time stream processing framework. The following diagram depicts the high-level architecture of the YARN ecosystem:
The YARN ResourceManager process is the central resource scheduler that manages and allocates resources to the different applications (also known as jobs) submitted to the cluster. YARN NodeManager is a per node process that manages the resources of a single compute node. Scheduler component of the ResourceManager allocates resources in response to the resource requests made by the applications, taking into consideration the cluster capacity and the other scheduling policies that can be specified through the YARN policy plugin framework.
YARN has a concept called containers, which is the unit of resource allocation. Each allocated container has the rights to a certain amount of CPU and memory in a particular compute node. Applications can request resources from YARN by specifying the required number of containers and the CPU and memory required by each container.
ApplicationMaster is a per-application process that coordinates the computations for a single application. The first step of executing a YARN application is to deploy the ApplicationMaster. After an application is submitted by a YARN client, the ResourceManager allocates a container and deploys the ApplicationMaster for that application. Once deployed, the ApplicationMaster is responsible for requesting and negotiating the necessary resource containers from the ResourceManager. Once the resources are allocated by the ResourceManager, ApplicationMaster coordinates with the NodeManagers to launch and monitor the application containers in the allocated resources. The shifting of application coordination responsibilities to the ApplicationMaster reduces the burden on the ResourceManager and allows it to focus solely on managing the cluster resources. Also having separate ApplicationMasters for each submitted application improves the scalability of the cluster as opposed to having a single process bottleneck to coordinate all the application instances. The following diagram depicts the interactions between various YARN components, when a MapReduce application is submitted to the cluster:
While YARN supports many different distributed application execution frameworks, our focus in this book is mostly on traditional MapReduce and related technologies.
Hadoop MapReduce
Hadoop MapReduce is a data processing framework that can be utilized to process massive amounts of data stored in HDFS. As we mentioned earlier, distributed processing of a massive amount of data in a reliable and efficient manner is not an easy task. Hadoop MapReduce aims to make it easy for users by providing a clean abstraction for programmers by providing automatic parallelization of the programs and by providing framework managed fault tolerance support.
MapReduce programming model consists of Map and Reduce functions. The Map function receives each record of the input data (lines of a file, rows of a database, and so on) as key-value pairs and outputs key-value pairs as the result. By design, each Map function invocation is independent of each other allowing the framework to use divide and conquer to execute the computation in parallel. This also allows duplicate executions or re-executions of the Map tasks in case of failures or load imbalances without affecting the results of the computation. Typically, Hadoop creates a single Map task instance for each HDFS data block of the input data. The number of Map function invocations inside a Map task instance is equal to the number of data records in the input data block of the particular Map task instance.
Hadoop MapReduce groups the output key-value records of all the Map tasks of a computation by the key and distributes them to the Reduce tasks. This distribution and transmission of data to the Reduce tasks is called the Shuffle phase of the MapReduce computation. Input data to each Reduce task would also be sorted and grouped by the key. The Reduce function gets invoked for each key and the group of values of that key (reduce <key, list_of_values>) in the sorted order of the keys. In a typical MapReduce program, users only have to implement the Map and Reduce functions and Hadoop takes care of scheduling and executing them in parallel. Hadoop will rerun any failed tasks and also provide measures to mitigate any unbalanced computations. Have a look at the following diagram for a better understanding of the MapReduce data and computational flows:
In Hadoop 1.x, the MapReduce (MR1) components consisted of the JobTracker process, which ran on a master node managing the cluster and coordinating the jobs, and TaskTrackers, which ran on each compute node launching and coordinating the tasks executing in that node. Neither of these processes exist in Hadoop 2.x MapReduce (MR2). In MR2, the job coordinating responsibility of JobTracker is handled by an ApplicationMaster that will get deployed on-demand through YARN. The cluster management and job scheduling responsibilities of JobTracker are handled in MR2 by the YARN ResourceManager. JobHistoryServer has taken over the responsibility of providing information about the completed MR2 jobs. YARN NodeManagers provide the functionality that is somewhat similar to MR1 TaskTrackers by managing resources and launching containers (which in the case of MapReduce 2 houses Map or Reduce tasks) in the compute nodes.
Hadoop installation modes
Hadoop v2 provides three installation choices:
- Local mode: The local mode allows us to run MapReduce computation using just the unzipped Hadoop distribution. This nondistributed mode executes all parts of Hadoop MapReduce within a single Java process and uses the local filesystem as the storage. The local mode is very useful for testing/debugging the MapReduce applications locally.
- Pseudo distributed mode: Using this mode, we can run Hadoop on a single machine emulating a distributed cluster. This mode runs the different services of Hadoop as different Java processes, but within a single machine. This mode is good to let you play and experiment with Hadoop.
- Distributed mode: This is the real distributed mode that supports clusters that span from a few nodes to thousands of nodes. For production clusters, we recommend using one of the many packaged Hadoop distributions as opposed to installing Hadoop from scratch using the Hadoop release binaries, unless you have a specific use case that requires a vanilla Hadoop installation. Refer to the Setting up Hadoop ecosystem in a distributed cluster environment using a Hadoop distribution recipe for more information on Hadoop distributions.
Project files for the IntelliJ IDEA IDE can be generated by running the gradle idea command in the main folder of the code repository.
Setting up Hadoop v2 on your local machine
This recipe describes how to set up Hadoop v2 on your local machine using the local mode. Local mode is a non-distributed mode that can be used for testing and debugging your Hadoop applications. When running a Hadoop application in local mode, all the required Hadoop components and your applications execute inside a single Java Virtual Machine (JVM) process.
Getting ready
Download and install JDK 1.6 or a higher version, preferably the Oracle JDK 1.7. Oracle JDK can be downloaded from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html.
How to do it…
Now let's start the Hadoop v2 installation:
- Download the most recent Hadoop v2 branch distribution (Hadoop 2.2.0 or later) from http://hadoop.apache.org/releases.html.
- Unzip the Hadoop distribution using the following command. You will have to change the x. in the filename to the actual release you have downloaded. From this point onward, we will call the unpacked Hadoop directory {HADOOP_HOME}:
$ tar -zxvf hadoop-2.x.x.tar.gz
- Now, you can run Hadoop jobs through the {HADOOP_HOME}/bin/hadoop command, and we will elaborate on that further in the next recipe.
How it works…
Hadoop local mode does not start any servers but does all the work within a single JVM. When you submit a job to Hadoop in local mode, Hadoop starts a JVM to execute the job. The output and the behavior of the job is the same as a distributed Hadoop job, except for the fact that the job only uses the current node to run the tasks and the local filesystem is used for the data storage. In the next recipe, we will discover how to run a MapReduce program using the Hadoop local mode.
Writing a WordCount MapReduce application, bundling it, and running it using the Hadoop local mode
This recipe explains how to implement a simple MapReduce program to count the number of occurrences of words in a dataset. WordCount is famous as the HelloWorld equivalent for Hadoop MapReduce.
To run a MapReduce job, users should supply a map function, a reduce function, input data, and a location to store the output data. When executed, Hadoop carries out the following steps:
- Hadoop uses the supplied InputFormat to break the input data into key-value pairs and invokes the map function for each key-value pair, providing the key-value pair as the input. When executed, the map function can output zero or more key-value pairs.
- Hadoop transmits the key-value pairs emitted from the Mappers to the Reducers (this step is called Shuffle). Hadoop then sorts these key-value pairs by the key and groups together the values belonging to the same key.
- For each distinct key, Hadoop invokes the reduce function once while passing that particular key and list of values for that key as the input.
- The reduce function may output zero or more key-value pairs, and Hadoop writes them to the output data location as the final result.
Getting ready
Select the source code for the first chapter from the source code repository for this book. Export the $HADOOP_HOME environment variable pointing to the root of the extracted Hadoop distribution.
How to do it…
Now let's write our first Hadoop MapReduce program:
- The WordCount sample uses MapReduce to count the number of word occurrences within a set of input documents. The sample code is available in the chapter1/Wordcount.java file of the source folder of this chapter. The code has three parts—Mapper, Reducer, and the main program.
- The Mapper extends from the apache.hadoop.mapreduce.Mapper interface. Hadoop InputFormat provides each line in the input files as an input key-value pair to the map function. The map function breaks each line into substrings using whitespace characters such as the separator, and for each token (word) emits (word,1) as the output.
public void map(Object key, Text value, Context context) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
// Split the input text value to words
StringTokenizer itr = new StringTokenizer(value.toString());
// Iterate all the words in the input text value
while (itr.hasMoreTokens()) {
context.write(word, new IntWritable(1));
- Each reduce function invocation receives a key and all the values of that key as the input. The reduce function outputs the key and the number of occurrences of the key as the output.
public void reduce(Text key, Iterable<IntWritable>values, Context context) throws IOException, InterruptedException
int sum = 0;
// Sum all the occurrences of the word (key)
for (IntWritableval : values) {
sum += val.get();
context.write(key, result);
- The main driver program configures the MapReduce job and submits it to the Hadoop YARN cluster:
Configuration conf = new Configuration();
// Create a new job
Job job = Job.getInstance(conf, "word count");
// Use the WordCount.class file to point to the job jar
// Setting the input and output locations
FileInputFormat.addInputPath(job, new Path(otherArgs[0]));
FileOutputFormat.setOutputPath(job, newPath(otherArgs[1]));
// Submit the job and wait for it's completion
System.exit(job.waitForCompletion(true) ? 0 : 1);
- Compile the sample using the Gradle build as mentioned in the introduction of this chapter by issuing the gradle build command from the chapter1 folder of the sample code repository. Alternatively, you can also use the provided Apache Ant build file by issuing the ant compile
- Run the WordCount sample using the following command. In this command, WordCount is the name of the main class. wc-input is the input data directory and wc-output is the output path. The wc-input directory of the source repository contains a sample text file. Alternatively, you can copy any text file to the wc-input directory.
$ $HADOOP_HOME/bin/hadoop jar \
hcb-c1-samples.jar \
chapter1.WordCount wc-input wc-output
- The output directory (wc-output) will have a file named part-r-XXXXX, which will have the count of each word in the document. Congratulations! You have successfully run your first MapReduce program.
$ cat wc-output/part*


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it's that time of the year again, i am getting ready and getting exited to visit ars electronica in a few weeks. goodbye privacy, the theme of this years festival, seems relevant and interests me very much – this could be a good year:
Mobile and ubiquitous—no longer just here and now, but being present wherever you want to be, whenever you want to be. These long-nurtured yearnings that have been projected so euphorically onto new technologies have now materialized into the reality of our time. A reality that is woven from a network in which every user is a node, every exit simultaneously an entrance, every receiver a transmitter too.
the ars electronica will take place in linz from 5.-11.9.2007.
exactly one month later, 5.-7.10., the arse elektronika will take place in san francisco, the tagline reads "pr0nnovation? pornography and technological innovation":
A conference about pr0nnovation?
According to a study by Simon Smith, more than 800 items were registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office as sex toys between 1840 and 1997. Among them was a condom with a built-in computer chip that can play music. Progress?
From the depiction of a vulva in a cave painting to the newest internet porno, technology and sexuality have always been closely linked. No one can predict what the future will bring, but history indicates that sex will continue to play an essential role in technological development.
this made me lol, of course. funny.


text:
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text:
Meet Charles Ramsey, The Guy Who Discovered 3 Missing Women At Neighbor's House
You guys, meet my new hero in life, Charles Ramsey of Cleveland, Ohio. Charles was just minding his own business, eating some McDonald's, when he heard a woman screaming for help from his neighbor's house. He called the police — who he said didn't take him seriously initially — and then decided to kick in the door to the house, eventually freeing two women, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus. The two women had been missing for nearly a decade each, as was a third woman, Michele Knight, who was was found nearby with the alleged kidnapper, Ramsey's neighbor Ariel Castro.
Ramsey is now being heralded as a hero for taking matters into his own hands and responding to Berry's cries for help. In addition to bravely saving lives (all three women seem to be in good health), Ramsey also gives an amaaaaaazing interview, and he has some harsh words for Castro. "You got some big testicles to pull this off, bro," he told a local news reporter in the clip avod. "I barbecue with this dude! We eat ribs and whatnot!" Seriously, you think you know a person…
And as for how he knew to take Berry seriously? "I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man's arms," Ramsey said. "Dead giveaway! Dead. Giveaway." [HyperVocal; Cleveland.com]
And here's another interview with Charles Ramsey, who is clearly a fucking star.


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text:
Au Bon Pain
October 15, 2010 by staff
Au Bon Pain, The EMT, who is accused of ignoring a dying pregnant in an Au Bon Pain in December 2009, was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court yesterday. Melisa Jackson is accused of a crime unique account of professional misconduct for not treating the victim Eutisha Rennix, who died after a chronic asthma attack. Prosecutors allege to know the real reason that Jackson called 911 instead of staying to help the woman: "The reason why she could not keep Ms. Jackson got out of work where it was supposed to be on guard for an item terminal, "said Kevin Richardson ADA to the indictment.
Prosecutors say Jackson snuck across the duty to respond to her boyfriend EMT, Jason Green, who was on an authorized break (he was killed in a shooting self in SoHo in July). She was afraid of getting caught, so she fled and was abandoned by its obligation to provide medical care. Jackson's lawyer argued that his client was the only person in the store that did nothing to help Rennix. He also argues that Rennix refused to go to the hospital earlier because she needed to work on time. Family Rennix refuted these claims: "To try to blame the victim for the failure of an emergency medical technician trained to do their duty is a scandal."
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text:
My First Thoughts of UTA .....
Chandler Askie
My first thoughts when we got there was this is going to be confusing where to go and it will be a big headach tring to find everyone in this big place.
I would consider appling to UTA because its a good school and they have alot of majors so they have something for almost everybody. I liked the magic show the best because I learnd something new and it was very fun wathing them set stuff on fire and making things bubble up so you think that it would blow up. The part I liked the least was not going on the tour because it was rainingand I really wanted to go on the tour but it was ok staying in the College Park Center.
Next year I would suggest that they should go to the doorms and see how they look and get an ideaof what there college doorm will look like.


text:
Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG)
Q3 2008 Earnings Call
November 7, 2008 1:30 pm ET
Vicki Erickson – Vice President, Investor Relations
Douglas D. Dirks – Chief Executive Officer
William E. Yocke – Chief Financial Officer
Martin J. Welch – Chief Operating Officer
Mark Hughes – SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
[Michael Manezzi] – Oppenheimer
Matt Carletti – Fox-Pitt Kelton
Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Employers Holdings, Incorporated third quarter 2008 earnings conference call. My name is [Michelle] and I will be your coordinator for today. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's conference, Miss Vicki Erickson, Vice President of Investor Relations.
Vicki Erickson
Thank you Michelle and welcome everyone to the third quarter 2008 earnings call for Employers Holdings, Inc. Yesterday we announced our third quarter 2008 earnings results and today we will file our Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These materials may be accessed on the company's website at Employers.com and are accessible through the Investors link. Today's call is being recorded and webcast from the Investor Relations section of our website where a replay will be available following the call.
Representing the company on the call today are Doug Dirks, our Chief Executive Officer; Rick Yocke, our Chief Financial Officer and Marty Welch, the President and Chief Operating Officer of our Insurance subsidiaries.
Before I turn the call over to Doug, I would like to remind everyone that statements made during this conference call that are not based on historical fact are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are made in reliance on the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although we believe the expectations expressed in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to be materially different from our expectations, including the risks set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
All remarks made during this call are current at the time of the call and will not be updated to reflect subsequent material developments. I'd again like to remind you that we use the non-GAAP metrics that excludes the impact of the 1999 Loss Portfolio Transfer or LPT. This metric is defined in our earnings press release available on our website. Now I will turn the call over to Doug.
Douglas D. Dirks
Thank you Vicki. Hello everyone and thank you for joining us today. We are very pleased to report that our acquisition of AmCOMP Incorporated announced in January was completed last week. The close of the transaction was five months later than originally planned due to issues between AmCOMP and the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation that has since been resolved and resulted in a reduction in the purchase price.
Despite epic dislocations in the credit, capital and insurance markets since the deal was originally announced, we continue to believe that this is a compelling transaction because of its excellent strategic fit; acceleration of our growth and expansion strategy; complimentary geographic fit; increase in scale; and meaningful synergy opportunities.
We are implementing our integration plan and are aggressively working to insure the efficient integration of systems, operations and financial reporting. Due to the timing of the close of the transaction we have just received an audited third quarter stand alone financial results for AmCOMP. We will not be filing a third quarter 10-Q for AmCOMP. We will file pro forma financial statements for the consolidated entity with estimated impact of purchase accounting for the nine months ended September 30, 2008. This filing will be made before year end.
In addition to our discussion today of Employers third quarter nine month results, Rick will also provide a high level overview of AmCOMP's third quarter top line and Marty will discuss integration activities. We are somewhat limited in our ability to respond completely to questions concerning AmCOMP's third quarter given that the acquisition only closed on Friday. But we will do our best to answer those questions we can.
So with that let's turn to Employers third quarter and nine month results. Let me begin by restating the obvious. Over the past several months we have seen unprecedented volatility and turmoil in the credit, capital and insurance markets. Although we have been impacted by disorder in each of these areas, we are pleased with our performance for the quarter and through the year, particularly given the number of challenges facing the financial services industry.
In terms of the credit markets we have previously announced that we have drawn under a credit facility provided by Wells Fargo to complete the acquisition of AmCOMP. Although this was not originally our intended method of financing the transaction, we were able to obtain the necessary financing on terms that we believe are attractive. In terms of capital markets our portfolio, conservative and diversified by design, has performed as expected given market conditions.
We remain committed to our investment philosophy which is geared toward providing maximum returns over time within the constraints of a prudent portfolio risk. Because only 6% of our portfolio at cost was allocated to equities, the impact on our total portfolio from the decline in equity values has been somewhat muted. Our portfolio including equities and fixed maturities has minimal exposure to recently troubled sectors and our realized losses in the portfolio have been minimal.
In terms of the insurance market, we have not to date observed any impacts from financial difficulties being experienced by some of our competitors. However, we continue to monitor our markets for potential negative impact and favorable opportunities that might arise. The third quarter was marked by continuing favorable prior accident year reserve development. Also having a significant impact on the quarter was a decrease in income taxes, resulting from the final reversal of liabilities for previously unrecognized tax benefits.
Our third quarter results reflect reduced premium revenues, stable book value and an improved calendar year for combined ratio. With a nine month net income of $72 million and a book value of $16.50 per share at September 30, 2008 we continue to be a strong, resilient and well capitalized company. At the end of the third quarter California represented 74% of our total stand alone book of business.
While this percentage will drop with our acquisition, going forward California will still represent a meaningful portion of our business. The California Worker's Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau recommended a 16% rate increase effective for new and renewal policies as of
January 1, 2009. The WCIRB recommendation is largely tied to medical inflation and to a lesser extent increasing loss adjustment expenses.
California Commissioner Poizner issued an advisory ruling providing for an overall increase of 5% to be effective the first of the year. Separately, changes to the Permanent Disability Rating Schedule may be adopted in California and would likely impact the benefit levels and loss costs for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2009. Based on our analyses of rate adequacy, last week we filed for an average rate increase of 10% in California for new and renewal policies to be effective February 1, 2009.
If the proposed Permanent Disability Rating Schedule changes are adopted, we may file for an additional increase. While our net premiums in California have continued to decline, our total policy count has increased over 9% since September 30 of last year. Terms of capital management yesterday our board of directors declared a dividend of $0.06 per share with a record date of November 20 and payable on December 4.
In the third quarter we repurchased approximately $7 million of our common stock and as of September 30, 2008 we have repurchased nearly 790,000 shares at a cost of $14.2 million. We closely monitor the capital and credit markets and are being appropriately prudent in evaluating all sources and uses of capital. As such we suspended our share repurchase program in September. While repurchasing common shares below book value is normally attractive, we will likely continue to conserve cash through the remainder of this year and into next year.
And now I'll turn the call over to Rick for a discussion of our financial results. Rick.
William E. Yocke
Thank you Doug and good day to everyone on the call. Despite volatile and uncertain markets we continue to be pleased with the performance of our $1.7 billion portfolio. At the end of the third quarter over 86% of the carrying value of our investment portfolio was rated double A or better. We experienced minimal other than temporary impairments or OTTI of $5.5 million for the first nine months of the year.
Our commercial backed mortgages holdings represented 2.4% of the total portfolio and were all triple A rated issues. Subprime was less than 0.02 of 1% of the total portfolio. Our exposure to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac totaled $234.1 million including $98.4 million of senior debentures, $135.7 million of mortgage backed securities and CMO's and just $11,600 in Fannie Mae equity. We hold no subordinated debt or preferred stock in Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
The duration on the portfolio was 5.44 indicating a higher level of short term investments.
In the third quarter of this year our combined ratio was 78.8% on a GAAP basis and 85% before the LPT. Year-to-date our combined ratio was 79.6% on a GAAP basis and 85.9% before the LPT. Our combined ratios improved in the third quarter of this year and the nine months year-to-date relative to comparable periods last year, largely because development related to prior accident years was more favorable than last year. Losses in LAE ratios before LPT improved in the third quarter and the first nine months of this year.
Reductions in losses in LAE were partially offset by an increase in the current accident year loss estimate from 61.7% for the first six months ended June 30, 2008 to 66.2% for the nine months ended September 30, 2008. Adjustments to loss estimates were driven by the same observations about premium adequacy which drove our rate filing that Doug mentioned earlier.
Our commission expense ratio was nearly flat for the quarter and the first nine months of the year. Our third quarter underwriting and other operating expense ratio was driven higher in the quarter and the first nine months of 2008 by lower net earned premiums. Underlying expenses were generally flat in the quarter and in the first nine months were 1.7% lower than in the first nine months of the last year, evidencing our efforts to contain costs while writing more policies.
Our shift to cash and short term investments impacted net investment income and average pretax book yield. Net investment income decreased $700,000 in the third quarter of 2008 and
$3.5 million in the first nine months of this year. And our nine month pretax book yield dropped 10 basis points to 4.04% from 4.14% at September 30, 2007. Recall that last year we had
$1.8 million in extraordinary interest income from invested proceeds related to our conversion from a mutual holding company to a public stock company.
Income taxes in the third quarter and the first nine months of 2008 decreased compared to the corresponding periods in 2007, primarily due to a change of $4.8 million in the final reversal of the liability for previously unrecognized tax benefits including interest. The effective tax rate for the first nine months of 2008 was 13.4% compared with 19.3% for the same period in 2007. The decrease in the effective tax rate was primarily due to the reversal of the liability I just mentioned.
At September 30, 2008 we had cash, short term investments and maturing fixed securities of
$615.9 million. In September we drew down on the Wells Fargo $150 million amended secured credit facility. The facility, which expires on March 27, 2011 had an effective interest rate of 5.25% at September 30, 2008. The first $50 million principal payment is due on
December 31, 2009. $100 million of the amount was hedged with an interest rate swap agreement providing that the amount will bear interest at a fixed interest rate of 4.84% through September 30, 2010, with the remaining $50 million bearing interest at LIBOR plus 125 basis points.
We paid $188.4 million in cash and proceeds from the credit facility for the acquisition of AmCOMP. We will be allocating the total purchase price to tangible and identifiable intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values. Any excess of purchase price over the aggregate fair values will be recorded as goodwill.
AmCOMP results for October 31 through December 31, 2008 will be included in our annual report on Form 10-K along with the allocation of the purchase price. And as Doug mentioned, by the end of December we will file pro forma financial statements for our combined companies through September 30, 2008.
Now I'd like to provide you with some key third quarter financial data for AmCOMP. This information provided to us by AmCOMP is unaudited and subject to change. Carrying value of AmCOMP's portfolio including cash and cash equivalents was approximately $442 million at
September 30, 2008 compared with $450 million at June 30, 2008. Realized losses were approximately $200,000 for the third quarter ended September 30, 2008.
AmCOMP reported to us third quarter 2008 net earned premiums of approximately
$48 million compared with $48 million for the second quarter and $52 million for the first quarter of 2008. With that, I'm going to turn the discussion over to Marty.
Martin J. Welch
Thank you Rick. Employers' net premiums written for the third quarter were $72.3 million compared with $70.4 million in the second quarter and $79.1 million in the first quarter. Top line premium continues to be a challenge due to competitive rate pressures and a now struggling economy.
The states of Nevada and among our new markets, Florida, are hardest hit economically. We have not seen significant payroll reductions yet in California. Our average policy size is approximately
$8,000 down from about $10,300 at September 30 of last year. And unit count is strong as we achieved a 9.3% increase in total policy count since September 30, 2007. New business activity remains strong. Through September submissions, quotes and written policies are up year-over-year.
Policy retention is down slightly but remains in the mid-80% with our strategic markets business seeing consistently higher retention rates than overall. New reported claim counts are down, both for medical only and for indemnity claims. We are very pleased with the completion of our acquisition last week. Although we did substantial planning early on, the real integration started with the close of the acquisition.
We have employee teams in place targeting processes, resources and savings for the combined companies in every functional area. We expect to realize a minimum of $10 million in annual pretax savings by 2010. This figure only contemplates the elimination of certain public company expenses, some overlap in IT systems and infrastructure, and reductions in the cost of reinsurance for the combined companies.
While this is only the first week of the new organization, we are working to solidify and strengthen agent and producer relationships in all territories. I have just returned from meetings with key agents in each of our acquired operating regions. We are focused on introducing them to the Employers brand and on generating new business and renewal success, specifically targeting January business.
There is excitement within our new regional operations and among their agents about what we can do together to build business success, particularly given A.M. Best's recent affirmation of our A- rating post acquisition. We are awaiting regulatory approval of our pooling agreement and once that approval is received, the introduction of A- rated paper should help us reach more customers in our new states.
I will now turn the call back over to Doug.
Douglas D. Dirks
Thanks Marty. That concludes our prepared remarks. Thank you for joining us this morning and Michelle I will now open up the call for questions.
Question-and-Answer Session
Your first question comes from Mark Hughes – SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Mark Hughes – SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
Do you have the gross premiums written for AmCOMP for the third quarter?
Douglas D. Dirks
At this point since we've only received the information very recently, we're only providing the earned premiums today. And we will be able to provide more information as we file that pro forma financial statement prior to the end of the year.
Mark Hughes – SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
The increase in current year accident ratio in the quarter between Q2 and Q3, what were the key drivers in that?
William E. Yocke
As we've noted numerous times as we've spoken to you, our process of monitoring our loss experience and our premium adequacy is ongoing. We have been looking at some information that was indicating that during the first nine months of '08 we had seen some erosion of premium adequacy in California. And we're reacting to that. So the adjustment that you see - and this is what you should expect from us, this is the process that we believe is important for us - any insurers to be looking at the information currently and reacting to do two things.
One, to adjust the reserves appropriately and also to react by looking at rates and adjusting those appropriately and we've done both of those, based on the information that we're seeing. So what you're seeing in the third quarter is a cumulative adjustment for the first nine months of the year. Does that answer your question?
Mark Hughes – SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
It does. Is that to say the fourth quarter that the rate might – or the ratio might come down a little bit as you're not catching up for the first nine months?
William E. Yocke
Well certainly we would not have a catch up if you will since we believe that we have appropriately adjusted as of September 30, '08. Again every period we're looking at the entire matter again and I guess it would be inappropriate to say that I think reserves will go up or down. But given – if everything were to remain constant, the provision rate that we expect in the fourth quarter would be similar to the nine month provision we experienced so far.
Mark Hughes – SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
You talked about the potential for the changes in the Permanent Disability Rating Schedule. Had you made an early judgment as to what that might mean in terms of your filed rates that you're up 10% without that? How much might it be with it?
William E. Yocke
You know, I've seen some of this information coming out of the Bureau. I don't think the number would, if adopted, it supposed to be as large as you describe. We would have to do the analysis to our own book of business.
Mark Hughes – SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
So off of that 10% base that you've already filed for, would it be a couple points? More than that?
Douglas D. Dirks
What we're looking at – you're referring to the rate increase which we've announced which – or referred to which was 10%? And so your question is would you expect that this additional adjustment might exceed that? And there's no indication that it would be anything other than single digits as we see it at this point.
Mark Hughes – SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
And then one question on the tax rate going forward on a normalized basis say for Q4 for next year?
William E. Yocke
It would be more normalized, more in the 20% range.
Your next question comes from [Michael Manezzi] – Oppenheimer.
Michael Manezzi – Oppenheimer
Just a couple questions, one on the AmCOMP transaction if you look into the synergies that might develop from extending the ADP platform into that business?
Douglas D. Dirks
We are aware that ADP does business in many of the states that AmCOMP does business in and part of our state expansion going back again a couple of years ago was trying to expand into states that ADP was doing business in. And Florida, Texas and Illinois were three examples of those and that was a large part of the reason why we chose those three states when we did our expansion. So I think the answer to your question is yes that we do think there will be opportunity within that ADP strategic partnership across the additional states that are now part of our company.
Michael Manezzi – Oppenheimer
Just a question on expenses, you mentioned cost containment, Rick, before. Can you talk about where you're kind of seeing that cost containment? Is it on the underwriting side? Is it just in general type of operational expenses or where specifically are you seeing that?
William E. Yocke
The cost containment is throughout the organization. Certainly like many organizations our largest expense is payroll. We have maintained a virtually flat staffing for over a year now and we're focused on, as we go into the integration, how we can maintain that efficiency. So most of it has been in – focused on human resource, if you will, and it's been across the organization. It hasn't been focused on any one area to date.
Your next question comes from Matt Carletti – Fox-Pitt Kelton.
Matt Carletti – Fox-Pitt Kelton
Just a couple questions, the first one is, Doug, maybe you can elaborate on your comments regarding suspending the share repurchase. Just curious on your thoughts on capital here. Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way but it seems that that's still pretty low premium surplus leverage even including AmCOMP. And given the stock price could you just elaborate a little on your thought process?
Douglas D. Dirks
Sure, I'd be happy to. If you look across our capital management strategy it's involved the three aspects that we've discussed all along which is being able to grow the business, being in a position to take advantage of opportunistic acquisitions and then finally managing the capital through dividends and share repurchases.
And as I indicated in my prepared remarks, although it is attractive to repurchase shares at something below book value, given the volatility of the capital markets as we see them right now, we are being certain that we will be able to honor the commitments we've made without having to go attempt to find capital in a market that might not be able to provide it. And I think that's just a testament to the degree of caution that we exercise as we run this business.
Matt Carletti – Fox-Pitt Kelton
Am I reading into that correctly that you're referencing maybe the line of credit and if you do get the chance to make a longer term financing solution that then your views might change?
Douglas D. Dirks
That would be one instance under which our view could change.
Matt Carletti – Fox-Pitt Kelton
And then maybe just a follow up question, maybe this is best for Marty given that you've spent some time visiting with AmCOMP agents. Have you gotten any sense for what sort of impact you think bringing the A- rating to AmCOMP might have if that's going to be a big deal or is it just too early to assess that?
Martin J. Welch
I think it's probably a little early to assess that, Matt. It was clear that with all of them, regardless of what territory I was in, that it was important that they have A paper for their clients rather than non-rated paper. And I think it's been clear, too, that as they've gone through the year with the economy the way it is, particularly with some of the pressures on construction that that lack of a rating has been more significant as the year has gone on than maybe it was at the beginning of the year or in past years.
So I still expect that we will get some kind of lift from the activity level out of those agents when they have access to A paper. I don't have any way of saying to what degree that would be. But it does give me confidence for our ability to continue to grow profitably in those new territories.
You appear to have no further questions at this time.
Douglas D. Dirks
Very good. Thank you operator. Thank you everyone for joining us today and we look forward to speaking with you again following the completion of our year. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.
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text:
Seven things meme: Money-styleKacie
I was tagged for a "seven random things about yourself" meme by Vanessa.
I thought I'd put this meme on my frugal blog, instead of my other blog where I write more about myself. To keep it in line with my imposed theme, I'm going to tell you seven things about my money life.
I'm not proud of all of these things, but for the sake of being accountable, I'll tell you:
1. I got my first real job as a high school senior. I worked at Osco Drug and was a cashier and photo developer person. It was pretty fun. Osco didn't have awesome rebate programs or anything, though.
2. Working there was a good idea. I saved a lot of money for college, and I was awarded a $1,000 scholarship from Osco corporate headquarters. I got a few other scholarships for school, but this was the biggest.
3. I have a pride problem when it comes to money. I don't like to accept money from people. I don't like going out to lunch with someone and having them pay the bill. I'd rather split it. Things like that. I need to be more gracious when people want to buy me things.
4. I got my first credit card when I was 19 or 20. I was responsible with it, for the most part…
5. …until I got engaged. It was my last semester of college, and I wasn't making much money (and neither was my now-husband). I put various wedding things on my credit card, because it seemed I should do that or postpone the wedding. Since my husband had a job offer 400 miles away, we did not want to postpone it.
6. So I applied for another credit card with a large limit, got it, and charged our honeymoon to it. Oh my gosh. Dave Ramsey would be screaming at me if he found that out, and my parents (Hi, mom!) would probably say "Not a good idea." The card had a 0% interest introductory rate. We had a limited window of honeymoon opportunity. We went on a cruise to Alaska on borrowed money. Eep. We had the time of our lives, and while I am not proud of taking out credit for it, I don't regret it. I'll never travel on borrowed money again, though.
7. It's now December–seven months after graduation and our wedding. Since then, we have paid off all of our credit cards (several thousands of dollars). We have a small emergency fund started, and no longer use credit cards except for secured Internet purchases (which we pay off before the bill even comes).
There ya have it! Things are looking up in the Kacie household.
I don't know who to tag, so if you want to participate, just post your trackback link in the comments below.
3 Responses
to "Seven things meme: Money-style"
By Mrs. Micah on Dec 11, 2007 | Reply
Things are looking up indeed. Dave wouldn't be pleased, but he doesn't have to know. You paid it back, afterall. :)
By Hilda on Dec 11, 2007 | Reply
Good job on paying the credit card off very quickly. Dave will be happy. :)
1 Trackback(s)
- Dec 31, 2007: The Better Budget 2008 Challenge! | Sense to Save
Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.


text:
|1,200 sq. ft.
|Property type
|Minimum Stay
|2 nights
This 2BR/2BA chalet in Hayesville, NC is located just minutes from Lake Chatuge, Fires Creek Recreation Area, Hiwassee River, Mountain Harbour golf course and the exquisite Ridges Resort. In addition this property is convenient to John C. Campbell Folk School, historic downtown Hayesville (NC), historic Murphy (NC) and Hiawassee (GA), Young Harris (GA) and Brasstown Valley Resort. Recently a local addition to the area is the Harrah's Cherokee Valley River Casino & Hotel, a modern casino/hotel offering traditional rooms in a 7 story 300 room location with 5 food outlets inside, which is less than a 20 minute drive from the property . Other features of the cabin include: covered front porch, very large terrace deck for grilling and enjoying the beautiful hardwoods, towels, linens, satellite TV, stereo/CD player, washer/dryer and modern kitchen. You can enjoy the brand new mountain biking/hiking trails of Jackrabbit Campground along with miles of hiking/equestrian trails in the nearby Nantahal National Forest (NC) and Chattahoochee National Forest (GA). The Alpine town of Helen is located about 40 minutes South. Octoberfest draws people from all over the country.
My husband and I stayed for our first anniversary, and loved the beautiful and peaceful retreat. The chalet was equipped with everything we could possibly need, and was comfortable and well kept. The location was nearby to the lake for swimming, Jackrabbit trail for biking/hiking, and the new Hayesville brewery. We would definitely stay here again. Thank you!
Nice little cabin on a hill! We really enjoyed our stay. The cabin was very clean upon arrival. Eveything needed for a nice visit to the mountains. Was a pleasure working with Jason on getting the reservation set-up. The cabin is convenient to a lot of neat things. Minutes away from Lake Chatuge and a short drive to many things in the Smokey Mountains. Would defineitely rent again!
Great place. We were there on a Mountain Bike Trip, and the location of the cabin was perfect related to the different MTB tracks in the area.
Its only 15 min drive to the Jack Rabbit MTB trails, and just one hour and 15 min to the well know Tsali MTB trails.
There is no mountain view from the cabin porch, but the area is very quiet and we had good cell phone/Date reception.
Jason was very respondent to all my inquirers.
The cabin itself both inside and outside, was in great shape and had all the facilities you normally would expect from a modern cabin.
I highly recommend this cabin to anyone who is looking for a memorial trip to the NC mountains.
Great location, easy to reach off Hwy 64, very quiet location with beautiful sunsets through the trees. The chalet was well stocked and very charming. Jason was extremely responsive and helpful.
We had a great time visiting nearby Franklin, Lake Chatuge, and driving down to highlands on 64 to see the waterfalls.. we also drove over to the Blue Ridge parkway for the Scenic overlooks.. Cabin was great, and Jason great to work with!
Very nice place for a small group of people or small family of 4. Everything was clean and as described. Thanks so much for a great stay!
This property is located in Hayesville, NC (between Hayesville and Murphy off of Hwy 64) which is located in Clay County. The city of Hayesville sits at the base of the Tusquittee Mountain Range which reaches heights of over 5000 ft in elevation. Fires Creek & Tusquitte Creek are formed from this enormous drainage basin. Both creeks are Hatchery-Supported Trout Streams and eventually empty into the Hiwassee River. Lake Chatuge is the gem of the TVA lake system. Lake Chatuge has 2 large marinas and a few smaller ones. The Ridges Resort owns the largest marina and has scenic lakeside restaurants and lodging facilities. The Ridges Resort also owns Mountain Harbour golf course which includes a $6 million clubhouse that houses the Pro Shop, Sequoyah Grill (fine dining) and the Cherokee Grill (casual dining). The John Campbell Folk School (10 minutes away) and GA Mtn. Fairgounds (25 minutes away) have festivals, fairs & live entertainment. Recently the HARRAH'S CHEROKEE VALLEY RIVER CASINO & HOTEL has opened, it is only a 20 minute drives from the property. They offer digital games as well as traditional table ones as well, so if your feeling lucky stop in and test the waters.
|Rate Period
|Weekend Night
Standard Rate
Dec 18 2016 - Aug 12 2017
2 night minimum stay
My Standard Rate
2 night minimum stay
|Tax Rate


text:
Hospital gown
|This article is incomplete. (October 2013)
A hospital gown, also called a johnny gown[1] or johnny[2] is "a long loose piece of clothing worn in a hospital by someone doing or having an operation."[3] It can be used as clothing for bedridden patients.[4]
Hospital gowns worn by patients are designed so that hospital staff can easily access the part of the patient's body being treated.[5]
The hospital gown is made of fabric that can withstand repeated laundering in hot water, usually cotton, and is fastened at the back with twill tape ties. Disposable hospital gowns may be made of paper or thin plastic, with paper or plastic ties.
Some gowns have snaps along the top of the shoulder and sleeves, so that the gown can be removed without disrupting intravenous lines in the patient's arms.
Used paper hospital gowns are associated with hospital infections, which could be avoided by proper disposal.[6]
A Canadian study surveying patients at five hospitals determined 57 percent could have worn more clothing below the waist, but only 11 percent wore more than a gown. The physicians conducting the survey said gowns should not be required unless they are necessary. Although they are cheaper and easier to wash, Dr. Todd Lee, of Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, said gowns are not necessary unless the patient is incontinent or has an injury in the lower body. Otherwise, Lee said, pajamas or regular clothes may be acceptable.[7]
When 9-year-old Luke Lange complained about wearing a hospital gown when being treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma, his mother adapted some t-shirts for him to wear, using snap tape on the sides. Other children saw the t-shirt and wanted one too. Two years later, the organization Luke's FastBreaks had raised $1 million for children's cancer and given out over 5000 of the t-shirts. They were long enough to wear like the gowns, but some preferred to wear them like t-shirts. Briton Lynn, executive director of Luke's FastBreaks, said the t-shirts helped children have a more positive attitude.[8]
In November 2006, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation gave a $236,000 grant to a team at North Carolina State University to design a new gown based on "style, cost, durability, comfort, function" and other qualities. Studies had been done on updating the garment first used when most patients had to stay in bed, but not designed for modesty when patients got out of bed.[9] NCSU professor Traci Lamar said, ""Now doctors want patients up and walking quickly."[10] Still, traditional gowns could be washed many times and could be handled a lot.[10] Lamar's team worked to come up with a "more comfortable, less revealing" design. Surveys found that nurses did not like the ties in the back because knots could form, and some patients wore more than one gown at once, with one tied in front and the other in back. Many patients disliked how lightweight gowns were. In April 2009, the NCSU team showed potential new designs at a reception, and they were preparing to ask for more funding as they developed a prototype. Meanwhile, some hospitals were offering alternatives, including gowns that opened in the front or on the side, and drawstring pants, cotton tops and boxers. These cost more than traditional gowns.[9]
In 2009, Fatima Ba-Alawi was honored for her DCS (dignity, comfort, safety) gown at a RCN conference on London. Four years after she started using her skills making dresses to redesign hospital gowns, NHS trusts were using the design. The reversible gowns have plastic poppers which make it easier to change without moving the patient and save staff time, and side pockets for drips or catheters, along with a pouch for cardio equipment. One version called the Faith Gown has a detachable head scarf and long sleeves.[11]
Another redesign in England came from Ben de Lisi, one of six receiving grants. The Design Council was scheduled to show his design, which did not open in the back but did allow access, in March 2010.[12]
The Cleveland Clinic changed its gowns in 2010 because the CEO had heard many complaints.[13]
Many patients feel that hospital gowns are unfashionable, Diane von Furstenberg was commissioned to design stylish hospital gowns based on her fashionable wrap dress by the Cleveland Clinic.[14] The new design was reversible with a V-neck in both the front and the back, with softer fabric.[10]
Joel Sherman in his blog "Adolescent Boys and Genital Exams Reducing Embarrassment" says it is quite common for many teenage boys to be upset when changing into a hospital gown, especially if the wearer associates the look of the gown to women's clothing, women's nightgowns, or lingerie.[15]
Lamar's additional funding came from RocketHub. At NCSU Fashion Week in 2013, Lamar's design was mentioned as "functional and dignified," but not shown "to prevent any patent infringements". A prototype, made of DermaFabric and made at Precision Fabrics in Greensboro, North Carolina, was to be tested at WakeMed.[10]
Birmingham Children's Hospital in England introduced the polyester/cotton Dignity Giving Suit in March 2013, after 18 months of work. Patients and health care professionals liked the suits with Velcro fasteners on the seams. Other area hospitals were interested. Adults wanted the gowns to be made for them as well as children.[16]
A design patented in 2014 by Janice Fredrickson had a side opening and sleeve openings, and could be put on without the patient sitting up. One version had pockets for telemetry wires and for drainage bags. It was suggested that different colors be used for different patients, such as those at risk of falling.[17]
In 2015, Henry Ford Health System of Detroit was working on its own design, similar to a bathrobe with cotton blend. In tests, patients liked the new design. But any update was likely to cost more, as well as harder to take care of.[10] The Model G design, to be made by Carhartt of Michigan, used snaps on the front and shoulders.[18]
According to the BBC, in England hospital gowns are made much more modestly, taking patient dignity into consideration.[19][dubious ]
Notes and references[edit]
- ^ Kobayashi, Erin (May 11, 2007). "If the hospital gown fits ...". Toronto Star. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
- ^ Frey, Rita (1995-12). Introduction to Nursing Assisting: Building Language Skills. Cengage Learning. p. 264. ISBN 9780827362338. Check date values in:
- ^ "gown: noun". Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Pearson ELT. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
3 a long loose piece of clothing worn in a hospital by someone doing or having an operation
- ^ Carter, Pamela J. (2007-06-01). Lippincott's Textbook for Nursing Assistants: A Humanistic Approach to Caregiving. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p. 378. ISBN 9780781766852.
- ^ Rosdahl, Caroline Bunker; Kowalski, Mary T. (2008). Textbook of Basic Nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p. 499. ISBN 9780781765213.
- ^ "Simple techniques slash hospital infections: meeting". Reuters. 2009-03-21.
- ^ Blackwell, Tom (2014-10-02). "Canadian study dresses down hospital gowns". National Post.
- ^ "Special T-shirts come to children's hospital". Independent Tribune. 2016-08-11. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
- ^ a b Ruffin, Jane (19 April 2009). "Hospital Gown Getting Redesign". News & Observer. p. A1.
- ^ a b c d e Elder, Renee (25 April 2013). "Hospital gowns receive a modesty makeover". News & Observer. p. 1A.
- ^ Blakemore, Sophie (1 July 2009). "Praise for revolutionary hospital gown made in HCA's back room". Nursing Standard.
- ^ Rose, David; de Bruxelles, Simon (9 February 2010). "It's a wrap: the backless hospital gown is redesigned to preserve patients' dignity". The Times.
- ^ Luthra, Shefali (4 April 2015). "Hospital Gowns Get a Makeover". The Atlantic. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
- ^ Jio, Sarah. "Crazy or Cool: Diane von Furstenberg's New High Fashion Hospital Gowns". http://www.glamour.com. Retrieved 13 August 2013. External link in
- ^ Sherman, Joel. "Patient Modesty & Privacy Concerns". http://patientprivacyreview.blogspot.com. Retrieved 13 August 2013. External link in
- ^ "New velcro suits for hospital patients could spell the beginning of the end of the traditional backless gown, according to its designers". Nursing Times. 28 MARCH, 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2017. Check date values in:
- ^ "Patents; Patent Application Titled 'Hospital Day Gown'". Politics & Government Week. 31 July 2014.
- ^ "From Henry Ford Hospital, a Better Hospital Gown". The New York Times. Associated Press. 20 November 2014. p. B2.
- ^ Roberts, Michelle (9 February 2010). "Hospital gown redesigned to save patients' modesty". BBC. Retrieved 15 September 2013.