text:
Asclepias viridiflora
(redirected from:
Acerates viridiflora
(Raf.) Pursh ex Eat.)
Green Comet Milkweed
Acerates bifida
Rusby ex A. Gray,
Acerates viridiflora
(Raf.) Pursh ex Eat.,
Acerates viridiflora var. ivesii
Acerates viridiflora var. lanceolata
A. Gray,
Acerates viridiflora var. linearis
A. Gray,
Asclepias viridiflora var. lanceolata
Asclepias viridiflora var. linearis
(A. Gray) Fern.,
Polyotus heterophyllus
Morton Arboretum
SW Field Guide
Gleason & Cronquist
Indiana Flora
: perennial herb; stems erect or ascending, typically unbranched, 10-50 cm tall; milky sap
: opposite to irregularly alternate, the petioles 2-7 mm long, the blades narrowly lanceolate to linear, 5-14 cm long, 2-17 mm broad, attenuate to an acute apex, acute to obtuse at the base
: UMBELS lateral at 1 to few of the upper nodes, 3-4 cm broad, the peduncles 0.4-1.5 cm long
: small; calyx lobes 3-4 mm long; corolla greenish, the lobes 5-7 mm long; hoods greenish yellow, erect and appressed to the anthers, ellipsoid-oblong, obtuse-rounded at the top, 2.8-3.8 mm long, 1-1.3 mm broad in the middle, ca. 1 mm shorter than the gynostegium, the horns absent; anther wings 2-2.6 mm along their entire length, the upper portion 1.4-1.7 mm long; corpusculum 0.3-0.4 mm long, the pollinia conspicuously long attenuate above, 1.6-2 mm long
: FOLLICLES erect on deflexed pedicels, 7-15 cm long
: Open pine forests; apparently rare; 1600-2150 m (5300-7000 ft); May-Aug
: Sundell, Eric. 1994. Asclepiadaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27, 169-187.
Sundell 1993, Woodson 1954, Martin and Hutchins 1980, Nabhan et al 2015
: Perennial
: Native
: Forb/Herb
: Erect to ascending perennial with stout stems 10-60 cm tall, simple, glabrate to tomentose.
: Opposite to irregularly alternate, on petioles 2-7 mm long, blades lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate or linear, 5-14 cm long, 2-17 mm across, pointed at apex, base obtuse to acute.
: Lateral to axillary umbels ranging from one to many at upper nodes, 3-4 cm across, on peduncles less than 1.5 cm long, the flowers moderately large with reflexed calyx lobes 3-4 mm long, the corolla greenish white, the lobes 5-7 mm long, the hoods 2-4 mm long, yellowish green to purple tinged, narrowly oblong and erect, horns absent.
: Puberulent follicle 5-15 cm long, erect on deflexed pedicel, 1.5-2 cm wide, finely puberulent to glabrate.
: Found in open pine forests, plains and praries, and on hillsides in rocky or sandy soils from 5,000-7,000 ft (1524-2134 m), flowers May-August.
: Ranges across the US from Canada to Mexico, from the east coast to Montana and Arizona and south to Coahuila.
: Some indication that this species might prefer limestone soils. Average 78,110 seeds per pound.
: Poultice of chewed roots applied to swellings, rashes, sore eyes, the roots were chewed for sore throats, and were used to spice soups.
: Asclepias is named for the Greek god of healing Asklepios, while viridiflora means with green flowers.
: Acerates viridiflora, Acerates viridiflora var. ivesii, Acerates viridiflora var. linearis, Asclepias viridiflora var. lanceolata, Asclepias viridiflora var. linearis
: SBuckley 2011, 2014
Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Erect to prostrate, 3-8 dm, thinly hairy; lvs lanceolate to linear or broadly oblong, elliptic, or ovate-oblong, scabrous on the margin, thinly hairy beneath; umbels lateral, densely fld, sessile or on peduncles to 2 cm; cor pale green, its lobes 6-8 mm; hoods narrowly elliptic-oblong, 4-5.5 mm long, appressed to the gynostegium, the base adjacent to the cor, the obtuse or subacute summit reaching well beyond the salient angle of the anther-wings or even to the top of the gynostegium; horns none. Dry upland woods, prairies, and barrens, especially in sandy soil; Conn. and s. N.Y. to Mich. and Man., s. to Ga., Ariz., and n. Mex., commoner westward. July, Aug. (Acerates v.)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam
In sandy soil along roadsides and railroads and in fallow fields. It prefers sandy soil and is apparently a prairie plant but it is sporadic in the southern part of the state. Acerates viridiflora var. lanceolata (Ives) Gray is a variety which has been reported from Indiana but which I am referring to the species, as some authors do, because I am not able to separate the two. I have one specimen with some of the leaves 5 cm wide and one specimen with leaves 8 mm or less in width, and other specimens with leaves that connect these extremes. Since the width of the leaves is the only distinguishing character, it is best to consider the species as one with variable foliage. A very narrowleaf form occurs on the low dunes in west Gary, Lake County.
Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 9
Wetland Indicator Status: n/a
Open Interactive Map
Morton Arboretum
Morton Arboretum
Morton Arboretum
John Hilty
Paul Rothrock
Morton Arboretum
Morton Arboretum
Morton Arboretum
Morton Arboretum
Morton Arboretum
Morton Arboretum
University of Florida Herbarium
Click to Display
100 Initial Images
- - - - -
View All Images
Powered by


text:
top of page
Dear Customer,
We respect your privacy, the purpose of this document ("Data Protection Policy") is to inform you of how Wash Lab Singapore manages Personal Data which is subject to the Singapore Personal Data Protection Act (No. 26 of 2012) ("the Act"). Please take a moment to read this Data Protection Policy so that you know and understand the purposes for which we collect, use and disclose your Personal Data. By interacting with us, submitting information to us, or using any Products and Services offered by us, you agree and consent to Wash Lab Singapore (including its related corporations and business units) (collectively, the "Companies"), as well as their respective representatives and/or agents (collectively referred to herein as "Wash Lab Singapore", "us", "we" or "our") collecting, using, disclosing and sharing amongst themselves your Personal Data, and disclosing such Personal Data to the Companies' authorised service providers and relevant third parties in the manner set forth in this Data Protection Policy.
This Data Protection Policy supplements but does not supersede nor replace any other consents you may have previously provided to Wash Lab Singapore in respect of your Personal Data, and your consents herein are additional to any rights which to any of the Companies may have at law to collect, use or disclose your Personal Data.
Wash Lab Singapore may from time to time update this Data Protection Policy to ensure that this Data Protection Policy is consistent with our future developments, industry trends and/or any changes in legal or regulatory requirements. Subject to your rights at law, you agree to be bound by the prevailing terms of the Data Protection Policy as updated from time to time on our website http://www.washlab.sg.
Please check back regularly for updated information on the handling of your Personal Data.
1. Personal Data
1.1 In this Data Protection Policy, "Personal Data" refers to any data, whether true or not, about an individual who can be identified (a) from that data; or (b) from that data and other information to which we have or are likely to have access, including data in our records as may be updated from time to time.
1.2 Examples of such Personal Data you may provide to us include (depending on the nature of your interaction with us) your name, NRIC, passport or other identification number, telephone number(s), mailing address, email address, network data and any other information relating to any individuals which you have provided us in any forms you may have submitted to us, or via other forms of interaction with you.
2. Collection of Personal Data
2.1 Generally, we collect Personal Data in the following ways:
(a) when you submit an application form or other forms relating to any of our Products and Services (defined below);
(b) when you interact with our customer service officers, for example, via telephone calls, letters, face-to-face meetings and emails;
(c) when you use some of our services, for example, websites and apps including establishing any online accounts with us;
(d) when you request that we contact you, be included in an email or other mailing list;
(e) when you respond to our promotions, initiatives or to any request for additional Personal Data;
(f) when you are contacted by, and respond to, our marketing representatives and customer service officers;
(g) when we receive references from business partners and third parties, for example, where you have been referred by them;
(h) when we seek information from third parties about you in connection with the Products and Services you have applied for; and
(i) when you submit your Personal Data to us for any other reasons.
2.2 When you browse our website, you generally do so anonymously but please see the section below on cookies. We do not at our website automatically collect Personal Data unless you provide such information or login with your account credentials.
2.3 If you provide us with any Personal Data relating to a third party (e.g. information of your spouse, children, parents, and/or employees), by submitting such information to us, you represent to us that you have obtained the consent of the third party to provide us with their Personal Data for the respective purposes.
2.4 You should ensure that all Personal Data submitted to us is complete, accurate, true and correct. Failure on your part to do so may result in our inability to provide you with the Products and Services you have requested.
3. Purposes for the Collection, Use and Disclosure of Your Personal Data
3.1 Generally, Wash Lab Singapore collects, uses and discloses your Personal Data for the following purposes:
(a) responding to your queries and requests;
(b) managing the administrative and business operations of Wash Lab Singapore and complying with internal policies and procedures;
(c) facilitating business asset transactions (which may extend to any mergers, acquisitions or asset sales) involving any of the Companies;
(d) matching any Personal Data held which relates to you for any of the purposes listed herein;
(e) resolving complaints and handling requests and inquiries;
(f) preventing, detecting and investigating crime and analysing and managing commercial risks;
(g) providing media announcements and responses;
(h) monitoring or recording phone calls and customer-facing interactions for quality assurance, employee training and performance evaluation and identity verification purposes;
(i) organizing promotional events;
(j) legal purposes (including but not limited to obtaining legal advice and dispute resolution);
(k) conducting investigations relating to disputes, billing or fraud;
(l) meeting or complying with any applicable rules, laws, regulations, codes of practice or guidelines issued by any legal or regulatory bodies which are binding on Wash Lab Singapore (including but not limited to responding to regulatory complaints, disclosing to regulatory bodies and conducting audit checks, due diligence and investigations); and
(m) purposes that are reasonably related to the aforesaid.
3.2 In addition, Wash Lab Singapore collects, uses and discloses your Personal Data for the following purposes:
(a) If you are a customer or an employee of an organization which is a customer of Wash Lab Singapore (including but not limited to Mobile, Broadband, Television, Voice and International Direct Dialing and/or Cloud Computing products and services ("Products and Services")):
(i) opening or continuation of accounts and establishing or providing you with the Products and Services you subscribe to (including but not limited to service activation, service operations, service delivery and order processing);
(ii) facilitating the continuation or termination of your subscription to our Products and Services(including but not limited to administering subscription arrangements, account maintenance, account closure, processing renewal of contracts and customer relationship management);
(iii) facilitating the daily operation of the Products and Services (including but not limited to billing, customer service, customer verification, technical support, network maintenance and troubleshooting);
(iv) managing and executing our service-level agreements with you;
(v) processing of payment instructions, direct debit facilities and/or credit facilities requested by you;
(vi) enforcement of repayment obligations (including but not limited to debt collection, filing of claims and retrieval of payments from losses made by service partners);
(vii) administering and processing any insurance claims and payments arising under the respective policies;
(viii) credit and internal risk management (including but not limited to performing credit checks and disclosures to law enforcement agencies);
(ix) generating internal reports (including but not limited to annual, operational and management reports);
(x) processing referral payments and commission fees to our external partners;
(xi) administering fee adjustments, refunds and waivers;
(xii) analysing your use of our Products and Services so as to help us improve, review, develop and efficiently manage the Products and Services offered to you; and
(xiii) purposes which are reasonably related to the aforesaid.
3.3 Furthermore, where permitted under the Act:
(a) Wash Lab Singapore may also collect, use and disclose your Personal Data for the following
"Wash Lab Singapore Additional Purposes":
(i) analytics and tracking, including facilitating the sale of analytical data
(ii) conducting market research and surveys to enable us to understand and determine customer location, preferences and demographics to develop special offers and marketing programs in relation to Wash Lab Singapore's Products and Services, and to improve our service delivery and your customer experience at our touchpoints;
(iii) providing additional Products and Services and benefits to you, including promotions, loyalty and reward programs from Wash Lab Singapore
(iv) matching Personal Data with other data collected for other purposes and from other sources (including third parties) in connection with the provision, marketing or offering of Products and Services by Wash Lab Singapore;
(v) leads generation and management for marketing Wash Lab Singapore's Products and Services;
(vi) administering contests, competitions and marketing campaigns, and personalising your experience at Wash Lab Singapore's touchpoints;
(vii) communicating to you advertisements involving details of our Products and Services, special offers and rewards, either to our customers generally, or which we have identified may be of interest to you (including but not limited to upselling, cross-selling and telemarketing);
(viii) organising promotional events and corporate social responsibility projects; and
(ix) purposes that are reasonably related to the aforesaid. In addition, where permitted under the Act and subject to the provisions of any applicable law, your Personal Data may be disclosed, for Wash Lab Singapore Additional Purposes, to the vendors or other third-party service providers in connection with promotions and services offered by Wash Lab Singapore
(b) Wash Lab Singapore may also collect, use and disclose your Personal Data for the following "Preferred Partners Additional Purposes" :
(i) conducting market research and surveys to enable us to understand and determine customer location, preferences and demographics to develop special offers and marketing programs with our preferred partners;
(ii) matching Personal Data with other data collected for other purposes and from other sources (including third parties) in connection with the provision, marketing or offering of products and services (including promotions, loyalty and reward programs) by our preferred partners;
(iii) leads generation and management for marketing the products and services offered by our preferred partners;
(iv) administering contests, competitions and marketing campaigns in connection with the products and services offered by our preferred partners;
(v) sending you informational, recruitment and other notification messages communicated by our preferred partners;
(vi) communicating to you advertisements involving details of the products, services, special offers and rewards offered by our preferred partners, either to our customers generally, or which we or our preferred partners have identified may be of interest to you (including but not limited to upselling, cross-selling and telemarketing); and
(vii) purposes that are reasonably related to the aforesaid. In addition, where permitted under the Act and subject to the provisions of any applicable law, your Personal Data may be disclosed, for Preferred Partners' Additional Purposes, to the vendors or other third-party service providers in connection with promotions and services offered by Wash Lab Singapore's preferred partners. However, please be assured that we do not disclose your Personal Data to our preferred partners for the purposes of the above.
3.4 If you have provided your Singapore telephone number(s) and have indicated that you consent to receive marketing or promotional information via your Singapore telephone number(s), then from time to time, Wash Lab Singapore may contact you using such Singapore telephone number(s) (including via voice calls, text, fax or other means) with information about our Products and Services or those products and services offered by our preferred partners (including discounts and special offers).
3.5 In relation to particular Products and Services or in your interactions with us, we may also have specifically notified you of other purposes for which we collect, use or disclose your Personal Data. If so, we will collect, use and disclose your Personal Data for these additional purposes as well, unless we have specifically notified you otherwise.
3.6 You have a choice to withdraw your consent for receiving marketing or promotional materials/communication. You may contact us using the contact details found below.
3.7 Please be aware that once we receive confirmation that you wish to withdraw your consent for marketing or promotional materials/communication, it may take up to 30 working days for your withdrawal to be reflected in our systems. Therefore, you may still receive marketing or promotional materials/communication during this period of time. Please note that even if you withdraw your consent for the receipt of marketing or promotional materials, we may still contact you for other purposes in relation to the Products and Services that you hold or have subscribed to with Wash Lab Singapore
4. Disclosure of Personal Data
4.1 Wash Lab Singapore will take reasonable steps to protect your Personal Data against unauthorised disclosure. Subject to the provisions of any applicable law, your Personal Data may be disclosed, for the purposes listed above (where applicable), to the following:
(a) Wash Lab Singapore's related corporations and employees to provide content, Products and Services to you, address your questions and requests in relation to your customer accounts, subscription and billing arrangements with us as well as our Products and Services, to activate, deactivate, install, maintain and operate our systems and/or services;
(b) companies providing services relating to insurance and consultancy to Wash Lab Singapore;
(c) agents, contractors or third-party service providers who provide operational services to Wash Lab Singapore, such as courier services, telecommunications, information technology, payment, printing, billing, payroll, processing, technical services, training, market research, call center, security or other services to Wash Lab Singapore;
(d) vendors or third-party service providers in connection with marketing promotions and services offered by Wash Lab Singapore or its preferred partners;
(e) commercial shops and retailers in relation to providing rewards and benefits;
(f) other telecommunications, content or other service providers to facilitate their provision of content or services, or for interconnection, inter-operability, system operation and maintenance and billing between service providers;
(g) any business partner, investor, assignee or transferee (actual or prospective) to facilitate business asset transactions (which may extend to any merger, acquisition or asset sale) involving any of the Companies;
(h) collection and repossession agencies in relation to the enforcement of repayment obligations for debts;
(i) external banks, credit card companies and their respective service providers;
(j) our professional advisers such as auditors and lawyers;
(k) relevant government regulators, statutory boards or authorities or law enforcement agencies to comply with any laws, rules, guidelines and regulations or schemes imposed by any governmental authority; and
(l) any other party to whom you authorise us to disclose your Personal Data to.
5. Use of Cookies
5.1 A cookie is a small piece of information that is placed on your computer when you visit certain websites.
5.2 Wash Lab Singapore uses cookies on its websites for the following purposes: (a) enabling certain features and functions on our websites, for example, remembering your user-id, favourite channel selections, browsing and other service preferences; (b) building up a profile of how you and other users use the website; (c) improving the efficiency of our website; (d) administering services to you and to advertisers; and (e) establishing usage statistics
5.3 Most internet browsers provide you the option of turning off the processing of cookies (please see the "help" section of your browser), but this may result in the loss of functionality, restrict your use of the website and/or delay or affect the way in which it operates.
5.4 Advertisements on the Wash Lab Singapore website may be provided by third-party advertisers and their agencies. These may generate cookies to track how many people have seen a particular advertisement (or use the services of third parties to do this), and to track how many people have seen it more than once. Wash Lab Singapore does not control these third parties and their cookie policies and if you have questions about their cookie policies, please contact Wash Lab Singapore and we will try our best to assist by providing you information about these third party advertising agencies.
5.5 Wash Lab Singapore is not responsible for the Personal Data policies (including Personal Data protection and cookies), content or security of any third party websites linked to the Wash Lab Singapore's website.
6. Contacting Us – Withdrawal of Consent, Access and Correction of your Personal Data
6.1 If you:
(a) have any questions or feedback relating to your Personal Data or our Data Protection Policy;
(b) would like to withdraw your consent to any use of your Personal Data as set out in this Data Protection Policy; or
(c) would like to obtain access and make corrections to your Personal Data records, please contact Wash Lab Singapore as follows:
Email: email@example.com
6.2 Please note that if your Personal Data has been provided to us by a third party (e.g. a referrer), you should contact that organisation or individual to make such queries, complaints, and access and correction requests to Wash Lab Singapore on your behalf.
6.3 If you withdraw your consent to any or all use of your Personal Data, depending on the nature of your request, Wash Lab Singapore may not be in a position to continue to provide its Products and Services to you, administer any contractual relationship in place, which in turn may also result in the termination of any agreements with Wash Lab Singapore, and your being in breach of your contractual obligations or undertakings. Wash Lab Singapore's legal rights and remedies in such event are expressly reserved.
7. Governing Law
7.1 This Data Protection Policy and your use of this website shall be governed in all respects by the laws of Singapore.
bottom of page

subset: commoncrawl


text:
by Andrew Schenkel | Forbes.com
Law students around the country argue to pass California's Prop. 19.
CALIFORNIA — On Tuesday voters in the Golden State will be able to decide if marijuana will remain an illegal drug by voting for or against Prop. 19 on the California ballot. Prop. 19 has gotten the attention of groups all around the country, and those hoping to "legalize it" don't exactly fit the cliché of dreadlocked, jobless, munchie-craving stoners.
Thousands of miles away from California's borders, in one of the squarest, lamest and most uptight cities in the nation (Washington, D.C.), law students at one of America's most prestigious universities are making the "intelligent" argument for legalization. Members of Georgetown University's Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) have devoted some of their time this week to calling voters in California and urging them to vote "yes" on Prop. 19.
"It's not a bunch of hippies sitting around," said one of the members of the group, who asked to remain anonymous to not draw attention to himself. "We all have short hair. Many of us have pretty anti-hippie aspirations after law school. Some of us want to do corporate law, or tax law or even litigation once we get our law degrees," he said. He added that he voted for George W. Bush twice and tends to vote along Libertarian ideologies.
The arguments the members make for legalization all involve economics, law enforcement and legitimizing the legal system. Of course that last point is part of the organization's argument. After all, these people eat, drink and breathe legal issues all day.
The economic arguments the members of SSDP make involve increasing tax revenues and savings in tax expenditures. A recent report on Good Morning America shows how mainstream these arguments have become. The report claims that legalizing marijuana would save the state $1 billion on law enforcement, generate an estimated $350 million in taxable revenue and make marijuana a $14 billion industry, nearly twice the size of California's dairy industry, the state's next biggest agriculture industry.
"But, it's not always about what makes sense economically," said another law student and member of SSDP, who spent time phone-banking this week. "One resident I talked with had a lengthy conversation with me that kept coming back to him saying 'But, it's illegal.' I was like, 'Yeah that's what we are trying to change.' "
Others aren't moved by the economic side of the argument and take a moral approach to Prop. 19. "We get the 'gateway drug thing' a lot, but we talk about how several studies show that that is just bunk. We make a distinction between good drugs and bad drugs. It's not morally right to have a country that lumps pot in with cocaine and heroine, while it's totally cool to use tobacco and drink alcohol. Furthermore, it makes people think harder drugs seem OK because they are treated no differently than pot."
For these reasons, SSDP chapters are using law enforcement professionals to talk to people about drug policy. Former San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara took to the California airwaves recently, encouraging a "yes" vote on Prop. 19. In the 30-second spot McNamara argues, "Today it's easier for a teenager to buy pot than beer." McNamara also argues that legalization "will allow police to focus on violent crimes and put drug cartels out of business."
Law students in favor of Prop. 19 are making the same argument. "Al Capone and murder and mob violence came out of prohibition," said one SSDP member. "As future lawyers, we don't want that. We don't want violence or untaxed organized crime, or unequal drug regulation that makes our legal system appear illegitimate. We just want things to be fair and sensible."
As with any political argument, there are likely legitimate arguments for both passing and rejecting Prop. 19. And, while there is little doubt there are stoners rallying for the passage of Prop. 19, there is also a motivated, intelligent and legitimate organization behind the legalization movement.
In fact, law students and several other organizations similar to SSDP are phone-banking and campaigning right up to Election Day. They are armed with facts, reason and even some legal background, so I'd be careful before I argue with them–let alone attempt an unwarranted search of their pockets.
Andrew Schenkel is the political blogger for the Mother Nature Network.
source: https://www.forbes.com/2010/11/01/proposition-19-california-technology-marijuana.html


text:
Seniors living in long-term care homes across the province, from Aldergrove to Zeballos, are being interviewed for their opinions on the care that their individual facilities provide.
It's an ambitious undertaking of the province's Seniors Advocate, in fact it's an unprecedented undertaking, according to project manager Lillian Parsons.
"This provincial project will visit all 27,000 residents in 303 care homes in B.C.," Parsons said.
"So far we have completed interviews with 10,000 residents, including 30 of the 70 homes in Fraser Health region."
The goal is to find out if care home residents are living meaningful lives, with questions about food served, activities offered, privacy, dignity and the opportunity to make friends.
The individual residents will also be asked for the name of their most frequent visitor, who will receive a mail-in version of the survey to contribute their impressions of the care facilities to the project.
While the individual responses will be kept private, the overall results will be made public by the Seniors Advocate's office.
The Seniors Advocate will also use these results to make recommendations to the Ministry of Health.
The project team has recruited about 500 volunteers to perform the surveys and they are now reaching out for more help.
The volunteers sign up for about 30 hours of work over six to eight weeks in their own communities, and those 30 hours include eight hours of training in administering the surveys.
Parsons is aiming at wrapping up the project by this coming February and welcomes inquiries from prospective volunteers.
Full information is available online at surveybcseniors.org.


text:
Canoe or Kayak your way down the Kennebago River at your leisure, paddling with the current. 5 miles of easy going current suitable for any level of experience. Enjoy the beautiful serene scenery with chance sightings of wildlife along the way. Start your trip at Rivers Edge Sports anytime between 8 am and 2 pm. Trip ends back at your vehicle on Route 16. Trip usually take 2 to 3 hours. Trip includes Canoe or Kayak, life vests for all, paddles, drop off and canoe or kayak pick up.
Add to your Facebook Events Calendar


text:
Browse: Home / Oct. 15
Oct. 15
Blog Action Day Oct. 15- Bloggers Unite For the Environment
By Melissa on August 16, 2007
On Oct. 15 bloggers around the world will all discuss the same thing on their blogs, the enviroment. You can sign up today. It is a great cause and something we should all be concerned about. Melissa- SEOAware.com
Posted in Blog Business | Tagged Blog Action Day, Bloggers Unite, Enviroment, Oct. 15 | Leave a response


text:
Do you know the health benefits of American Persimmon and Cloudberry? Nowadays, everyone has become more and more health conscious. Fruits are in great demand as their nutritional value is way more than the other foods. Learn about American Persimmon and Cloudberry benefits & include them in your regular diet. American Persimmon Benefits are as follows: anti-oxidant properties, beneficial in curing fever, heart care, reduces nervous tension and cancer prevention.
Cloudberry Benefits are as follows: heart care and cancer prevention.
American Persimmon and Cloudberry are also known for their hair and skin benefits. Skin Benefits of American Persimmon are: anti-aging benefits, brightens and lightens complexion and reduces wrinkles while the skin benefits of Cloudberry are: anti-aging benefits, reduces wrinkles and skin rejuvenation. Hair Benefits of American Persimmon are : good conditioner, promotes longer and healthier hair and treatment of dandruff and that of Cloudberry are protects hair. Depending on American Persimmon and Cloudberry benefits, you can decide which fruit would suit your diet! Due to the presence of vital nutrients and appropriate count of calories, the benefits of fruits are numerous.
© 2015-2023. A softUsvista venture!


text:
A Brief History of Modesto
Modesto was founded as one of the San Joaquin Valley's railroad towns. In the late 1860s, Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker (the "Big Four") announced plans to construct a railroad down the San Joaquin Valley to connect the northern and southern portions of the state. They decided to extend the Central Pacific Railroad, but were unable to secure land grants to finance construction, as they had for the recently-completed Transcontinental Railroad. Instead, land was purchased, then subdivided and sold. Modesto's original town layout is still visible today: downtown is an approximately 640-acre tract with numbered streets oriented parallel to what is now the Union Pacific Railroad and lettered streets oriented to the perpendicular (Section 29, Township 3 South, Range 9 East Mount Diablo Meridian). View the full historical document to learn more.
Modesto was founded as a village in October 1870, when the Central Pacific Railroad purchased approximately one square mile of land and began selling lots. Before the Central Pacific Railroad gave shape to the village, Americans had already settled in the area and began farming. Several villages sprang up to provide services to these people, among them cemeteries.View Brochure
In the middle of the 20th Century, Modesto's irrigated agricultural industry was well established and many related businesses had developed to support it. Modesto was prosperous and its citizens engaged in various cultural pursuits. Modesto received national attention during this period for its high–art architecture, which was even featured in books published by the New York Museum of Modern Art.View Brochure
In the late 1860s, Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker (the "Big Four") planned to extend the Central Pacific Railroad down the San Joaquin Valley, connecting northern and southern California. Land was purchased, subdivided and sold to pay for the railroad and establish a new railroad town. Modesto's original town layout is still visible - the 640-acre downtown with numbered streets parallel to today's Union Pacific Railroad. The first Central Pacific train reached Modesto on October 11, 1870, allowing local farmers to transport dry-farmed wheat to the Bay Area and providing passenger service.View Brochure


text:
In a dusty Aussie backwater—one, in fact, that used to be an ocean—men with rocks in their heads dig for opal deposits, for "color," for dreams. Peter Cattaneo's family film Opal Dream, based on Ben Rice's novel Pobby and Dingan, takes a child's-eye view of faith and compassion as they test a father and son. Okay, it's not quite as tough-minded as its neighbor attraction Blood Diamond—also about gathering gems; rather, Opal Dream advances the hard-won but happy notion that burying childish things needn't spell an end to dreaming.
In the mining town of Coober Pedy, relations tend to be strained. Given the often unfulfilled promise of opal digs, families face a hard-scrabble existence, and miners have a no-tolerance policy for "ratting," or invading someone else's claim. The Williamson family has an added strain: nine-year-old Kellyanne (Sapphire Boyce) refuses to part ways with her imaginary friends Pobby and Dingan. Her mother Annie (Jacqueline McKenzie of The 4400) preaches patience, but her husband Rex (Vince Colosimo) and son Ashmol (Christian Byers) bristle at the annoyance and inconvenience of two invisible family members.
One day, Rex "takes" Pobby and Dingan to work and—as far as Kellyanne is concerned—returns home without them. The ensuing drama finds Dad returning by night to his opal claim and innocently straying onto that of his neighbor. Nailed for ratting, Rex finds himself with a livelihood-threatening criminal charge to defend, as well as a literally life-threatening problem: a despondent Kellyanne spirals into psychosomatic illness in the absence of her little friends. Ashmol's boyish petulance for his sister's behavior rehabilitates into a manly desire to set things right by supporting his father's legal effort and conducting a townwide search for Pobby and Dingan.
Opal Dream may not entirely stand up to scrutiny, but it is a rather sweet tale about each family member struggling to accept the others on their own terms. One gently heart-rending scene finds a depressed and wistful Annie discussing with Ash the path not taken with an old boyfriend: Ash's comforting existence and unconditional love for his father prove just the reminders she needs to conclude that her husband deserves a chance to set things right.
Meanwhile, Ash decides that nothing is more important than his family's well-being, even if he must swallow his pride and face ridicule while defending their honor; the processes of healing Kellyanne's psyche and righting the injustice against his father requires him to empathize fully with them, and evermore unconditionally love them. Perhaps the film's faith-in-humanity conclusion is too optimistic, but it provides the sort of heartening, Capraesque movie moment of which we'd all like to believe our lives are capable.


text:
British law enforcement agencies arrested a 23-year-old man suspected of being involved in a hacking attack last year against a satellite communications system operated by the U.S. Department of Defense.
The network intrusion occurred on June 15 and resulted in data being stolen from Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMSS), a system operated by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) that provides U.S. troops and other DoD employees with global communication capabilities, including data transfers and voice calls.
The stolen data included contact information for about 800 people, like names, titles, email addresses and phone numbers, as well as the identifying numbers (IMEIs) for 34,400 devices, the U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) said Friday in a press release.
The suspect, whose name and nationality were not released, was arrested Wednesday in Sutton Coldfield, England, as part of a larger law enforcement campaign that targeted cybercrime and resulted in 56 arrests.
According to the NCA, the hacker responsible for the EMSS intrusion published screen shots of the database control panel and a message on Pastebin that read: "We smite the Lizards, LizardSquad your time is near. Were in your bases, we control your satellites. The missiles shall rein upon thy who claim alliance, watch your heads, ** T-47:59:59 until lift off. We're one, we're many, we lurk in the dark,we're everywhere and anywhere. Live Free Die Hard! DoD, DISA EMSS : Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services is not all, Department of Defense has no Defenses."
However, the agency left out of its press release that the message was signed by a group calling itself the ISIS Freedom Fighters.
Lizard Squad is a different hacking group known primarily for launching distributed denial-of-service attacks against online gaming services and making false bomb threats. It has made statements supporting ISIS in the past so it's unclear why the ISIS Freedom Fighters threatened the group in its message.
In January, the Cyber Caliphate, another group of hackers called that claims ISIS affiliation, hijacked the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. Central Command. The same group later targeted several media organizations.
A recent study from the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank, concluded that ISIS supporters operated at least 46,000 and as many as 70,000 Twitter accounts at the end of last year.


text:
'Butthole Tattoo Girl' Sits Her Tattooed Butthole Down for First Interview
Maria Louise Del Rosario's ass became an overnight sensation after she proudly showed off her anus tattoos at the 17th Annual South Florida Tattoo Expo — a spectacle happily caught on camera by a crew from Florida's New Times Broward-Palm Beach.
The alt-weekly finally tracked down the 22-year-old TMI tat model in Pompano, and sat her sore butt down for the most highly anticipated interview since Frost-Nixon.
First thing's first: Del Rosario, and anal sex aficionado, tells New Times she got the words "Rock" and "Wood" inscribed around her butthole as a birthday present for an ex-lover named Rockwood. "Because anyway," she says, "if we broke up then 'I rock wood in my ass.'"
On Jail:
Jail woke me up though. We were all in one big room, full of bad bitches. I was showing them all my butt hole tattoo. One girl nicknamed me "dick shit." I still don't know what it means. On my birthday they even made me a card that said "Fuck Hallmark, this is jailmark."
On Fame:
I love it. I'm famous overnight. And I'm already all healed up and ready to go. It heals fast because the cheeks are squeezed together. No oxygen gets through. I had ten shots of Jager in me, and they're calling me a crackhead, or a meth-head. I took a drug test that morning for probation. I'm totally against man-made drugs.
On What's Next:
What I wanna do with all the fame is pursue my modelling shit. I wanna show off my ink, butt naked, not clothes and crap like that. When you show off your body, it's what God blessed you with.
Read the entire must-read interview over on the New Times music blog, County Grind.


text:
Have you already gained a few years' professional experience after your school education and vocational training, and are you now looking for a new challenge in an internationally successful company?
At Pikeur we know that the employees are the most important element of a successful company. A healthy mixture of new young people and experienced employees form the foundation for success in future too. In order to expand and reinforce our market position, we need your knowledge, your experience and your commitment.
We have no vacancies at the moment, but you think we should definitely get to know you?
Then please send us your detailed application.
Please send applications to:
PIKEUR Reitmoden
Brinkmann GmbH & Co KG
Esch 19
33824 Werther
Tel: +49 (0) 52 03 / 7 04 - 0
Fax: +49 (0) 52 03 / 7 04 - 55
E-Mail: info(at)pikeur.de


text:
Pat Paulsen Biography
Pat Paulsen(Layton Paulsen)
Born: 7/6/1927
Birthplace: South Bend, Washington
During the 1960s, Paulsen was performing in folk clubs as a comic guitarist when the Smothers Brothers hired him to appear on their TV comedy show. He became famous for his spoofed run for the presidency in 1968—a candidacy he declared again and again, for five elections. He won an Emmy in 1968 for his performance on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967–70). His TV specials include Pat Paulsen for President (1968) and Pat Paulsen's Greatest TV Bits (1993).Died: 4/24/1997
|Jane Pauley
|Luciano Pavarotti
See also:
Here are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.


text:
Photographer: Christian Adam
Women's Technician Approach Shoes
Built to handle technical terrain, from knife-edge ridgelines to 5th class slabs.
Women's Technician Approach Shoes
Item # BD580004
Women's Technician Approach Shoes
Color: Nickel/Minted
- Standard delivery within 4 business days
- Free shipping over 1200 SEK otherwise 150 SEK
Women's Technician Approach Shoes Product Details
Engineered for precision, the Black Diamond Technician is ultralight, super sticky, and durable, making it the clutch scrambling approach shoe. Featuring our signature EnduroKnit breathable upper, the Technician has superior temperature control, while remaining ultra-durable for abuse on the rocks. The lightweight half-bootie tongue allows for easy on and off at the crag, and a TPU midfoot strap and lace lock adds security while the graduated lace system goes all the way to the toe for a lockdown fit. The Technician's tuned EVA midsole consists of a strategic stiffness-to-comfort ratio, allowing for high-performance precision where you need it, and comfort in just the right spots. The last is ideal for technical climbing, as the name implies, and the shoe's BlackLabel-Mountain rubber provides super sticky, ultimate grip on terrain that demands precise edging and smearing you can trust your life to. Finally, the Technician's multiple webbing loops offer various tagging and stowing options for when the approach ends and the hard climbing begins. The Technician has a narrow, flat last and a close-to-foot performance fit when compared with traditional athletic shoes. If you are using the Technician for climbing and technical approaches, buy your measured Brannock size. If you desire a casual fit or have a wide foot, you may want to size up½ size.
Women's Technician Approach Shoes
- EnduroKnit is a one piece breathable, durable knit upper
- BlackLabel-Mountain rubber is high performance sticky rubber
- Rubber toe protection
- Tuned EVA midsole for stiffness and comfort
- Toe shape and upper construction ideal for technical climbing
- Lightweight half-bootie tongue allows easy on/off at the crag
- Graduated fit system for lockdown (all the way to the toe)
- Lightweight, molded TPU midfoot strap and lace lock
- Multiple webbing loops for various tagging options
Tech Specs
- Display Weight EACH: 283 g (9.98 oz) size mens 10/EUR 43


text:
<strike>deleted text</strike> to get
<body> and
</body> tags.
<p /> paragraph tags on empty lines, which causes problems if done between HTML tags that do not allow paragraph tags, like for example between table tags.
<...> - of an HTML tag are on the same line, or the tag will be broken.


text:
And, for those of you who like to work with used shirts,check this out!
I wish I was there!
I love her quilts too!ReplyDelete
I love the eye trickery of the bottom one and use of blue as highlight in the bottom quilt. Good morning to you and thank you for sharing and CELEBRATING this lady's talent. She must be tickled to be featured by you! May today be a THoughtful THursday for you, EmReplyDelete
Stacey's quilts have got my attention for quite some time. Also visit her flickr photos, you will know how talented she is!ReplyDelete
Thank you, Sujata! I love your work as well!ReplyDelete
Her work is amazing! I've admired her on Flickr too. Good stuff!ReplyDelete
Thanks for sharing Stacey's work. It is amazing, Right up there with yours!ReplyDelete
Thanks for the tip! Her quilts are wonderful!ReplyDelete
Love Stacey's work!ReplyDelete
I just found your blog. Now it is one of my favourites. Keep 'em coming.ReplyDelete
Seems like it has been a slow start to this year when it comes to creating new works. I have hardly worked in the studio lately. It has be...


text:
Serviços Personalizados
Links relacionados
- Citado por Google
- Similares em Google
SAMJ: South African Medical Journal
versão On-line ISSN 2078-5135
versão impressa ISSN 0256-9574
SAMJ, S. Afr. med. j. vol.102 no.11 Pretoria Jan. 2012
Will clinical associates be effective for South Africa?
Jane DohertyI; Ian CouperII; Sharon FonnIII
IIndependent researcher and part-time lecturer at the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand
IIHead of the Division of Rural Health, University of the Witwatersrand
IIIProfessor at the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand
South Africa has developed an innovative mid-level medical worker model that can contribute substantively to the development of quality district-level health care. These clinical associates entered the South African job market in 2011 and have reportedly been received favourably. The first cohorts performed well on local and national examinations, with pass rates >95%. They have demonstrated confidence and competence in the common procedures and conditions encountered in district hospitals; reportedly fitted in well at most of the sites where they commenced working; and made a significant contribution to the health team, resulting in a demand for more clinical associates. Universities and provinces involved in producing clinical associates are enthusiastic and committed. However, priorities are to establish sustainable funding sources for training and deployment, provide adequate supervision and support, monitor the initial impact of the new cadre on health services, and manage the sensitivities of the medical and nursing professions around scopes of practice and post levels. Longer-term concerns are national leadership and support, scaling up of training, the development of career pathways, and the improvement of working conditions at district hospitals.
The Green Paper on national health insurance (NHI) laid out the South African government's vision for achieving universal health coverage. International evidence indicates that universal coverage requires well-functioning district-level services that include the most disadvantaged and remote communities.1 Staffing such services with sufficient numbers of appropriately trained health professionals is a major challenge globally and a prerequisite for successful implementation of NHI in South Africa. The Human Resources for Health Strategy2 recognises this and commits the country to developing mid-level health workers as one of several approaches to address human resource shortfalls.
New categories of mid-level health workers have been trained and deployed over the past decade, albeit in very small numbers. Conflicts over their scopes of practice, and the brain drain of new graduates into private practice, have weakened their impact on the public sector. We reflect on whether the latest category, a mid-level medical worker or clinical associate, has the potential to substantially strengthen the district health system.
Walter Sisulu University began training its first cohort of 23 clinical associate students in 2008, followed by Pretoria and Wits universities (55 and 25 students respectively). The Walter Sisulu University students graduated in 2010 and were employed in the public health sector at the beginning of 2011, followed by the Wits and Pretoria cohorts in 2012.
Key features of the clinical associate concept
The clinical associate concept was developed on the basis of international experience of similar cadres (in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Netherlands, Tanzania and the USA) as well as South African experience of other mid-level workers.3,4 Policymakers also took account of the sensitivities of other professional groups through a series of consultations to define the scope of practice and service points in which this new cadre would be deployed. As a result, South Africa has a distinctive version of a mid-level medical worker:
1. The clinical associate is conceptualised as a health professional providing a long-term solution to human resource constraints in district hospitals. Their scope of practise is tailored to the specific context and needs of the district hospital, avoiding overlap with primary healthcare nurses who function at clinic and health centre level. The clinical associate is therefore an integral member of a collaborative district-level clinical team that includes doctors and primary healthcare nurses.
2. Clinical associates may only practise under the supervision of doctors with whom they work closely. They assist doctors in providing emergency care, performing diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and in-patient care, and are also expected to have consultation, physical examination and counselling skills. It is intended that this will ensure adequate supervision and support and, again, reduce conflicts around scopes of practice.
3. Training emphasises generalist skills (because of the heavy generalist workload at the district hospital level) and flexibility in response to local needs. Clinical associates are envisaged to develop some specialised skills under the tutelage of doctors with whom they work, depending on the particular needs of the hospital, interests of the local doctors and the capabilities of the individual clinical associate. Specialised postgraduate courses will be developed over time.
4. Training is standardised through a national curriculum that determines the broad skills and learning outcomes that must be achieved, but allows participating universities some flexibility in their courses. To foster close synergy between clinical associates and doctors and confer status on the new cadre, the three-year degree course is offered by medical schools and they are regulated by the Medical and Dental Board. Students must pass a national examination to ensure equivalent standard training.
5. The course is predominantly service-based with most training happening at designated district hospitals. This is because of international evidence for this approach to medical education,5,6 to ensure that students graduate with extensive practical experience and knowledge of local circumstances, and to demonstrate students' usefulness to other staff by immediately relieving the workload of doctors and nurses.
6. Most students are recruited from districts close to where they train. The Eastern Cape, Gauteng and North West provincial Departments of Health have been instrumental in advertising, selecting students, awarding bursaries, assisting in refurbishing training sites, and creating joint provincial-academic posts which are critical to attract good staff and sustain the quality of training at district hospitals.
Together these features attempt to realise the potential benefits identified in Table 1.
Ongoing challenges
South Africa has developed an innovative clinical associate model with the potential to contribute substantively to the development of quality district-level healthcare. The development of district-level training platforms that encourage multidisciplinary collaboration also opens up the possibility of training other health professionals intended to work at the district level - including nurse clinicians, doctors and family physicians - in close contact with the communities they serve, with an emphasis on team-work and realising the primary healthcare approach.
However, the international literature suggests that mid-level worker programmes fail not so much as a result of the way they have been conceived but rather as a result of weaknesses relating to poor teamwork, competing market forces, [poor] production processes and employment opportunities as well as lack of synergy between individual role players and the processes of regulation, production and employment.'6 Concerns around these issues have been raised in the South African context (Table 1).3,7
Therefore, policy-makers and planners should address the following critical issues to ensure that the potential of clinical associates is realised. Firstly, while vacant posts and existing budgets are currently being used to employ new clinical associates in the public sector, government has a moral imperative to establish and fund new posts to accommodate new graduates, otherwise they will have to seek employment in the private sector. Career paths also must be mapped out to prevent a brain drain once new graduates have worked back their bursaries. Their position and role relative to other clinical staff must be better clarified. Clinical associates will be as affected by poor working conditions as any other cadre, hence the overall strengthening of district health services is an important strategy for retention.
Secondly, clinical associates are dependent on the presence of supervising doctors to function as intended. Past problems with providing adequate supervision for community service doctors highlight the importance of appointing doctors along with clinical associates, especially in disadvantaged communities. Invariably there will be pressures on clinical associates to take on more and more of the duties normally associated with doctors, especially in under-served rural areas, as has been the experience in other countries. Rapid assessments of the early effects and experiences of clinical associates would be useful to inform future planning and to monitor the quality of care provided by them.
Thirdly, clinical associates are unlikely to have a meaningful influence unless they are present in significant numbers.
Production must be scaled up substantially to reach the minimum target of 1 350 clinical associates, a figure based on the target of five clinical associates per district hospital.2 This requires a substantial allocation of funds from central government, and the development of new district hospital training sites and strategies to maintain the quality of training in a period of rapid expansion.
Fourthly, regulatory issues are likely to be an ongoing challenge - as they continue to be more than 40 years after the introduction of physician assistants in the USA. Prescribing rights have already emerged as an issue, while some health professionals are uncomfortable with the competency-based scope of practice and want a more narrowly defined job description. Health professionals who feel threatened by clinical associates are likely to attempt to use regulatory issues to undermine their work or curtail their usefulness.
Participating universities and their partnering provinces are enthusiastic about the concept and reality of clinical associates. Health professionals at training sites have reportedly received the new cadre favourably. The first cohorts of students have performed well on local and national examinations, with pass rates >95%, and have demonstrated confidence and competence in the common procedures and conditions encountered in district hospitals. Anecdotal accounts suggest that qualified clinical associates have fitted in well at most of the district hospital sites where they have commenced working. They have made a significant contribution to the work of the health team, resulting in a demand for more of these health workers. However, formal evaluations are required to verify these early positive impressions; until then, it is too soon to judge whether this new cadre provides a workable solution to human resource shortages at district hospitals.
The sustainability of existing training models is a concern if student numbers are increased dramatically, as is the absorptive capacity of the public sector, given past problems with employing new categories of mid-level worker and providing adequate supervision to community service graduates. While universities and their partnering provincial Departments of Health are responsible for the daily implementation of the clinical associate programme, strong national leadership is required to provide support and co-ordination, ensure regulatory issues are addressed speedily, and make critical decisions about training funding. This includes managing the sensitivities of the nursing, pharmacy and medical professions, especially around scopes of practice and post levels. Above all, attention must be paid to making the public sector an employer of choice. This is pivotal to retaining clinical associates in the public sector and the profession, as well as to the implementation of NHI.
1. Gilson L, Doherty J, Loewenson R, Francis V. Challenging inequity through health systems. Health Systems Knowledge Network, World Health Organisation Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. Johannesburg: Centre for Health Policy, EQUINET, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 2008;48-52. [ Links ]
2. National Department of Health. Human Resources for Health, South Africa. HRH Strategy for the Health Sector: 2012/13-2016/17. Pretoria: National Department of Health, 2011:74, 99. [ Links ]
3. Doherty J, Conco DN. Mid-level medical workers in South Africa: a situation analysis. Johannesburg: School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009:5-6. [ Links ]
4. Wilson NW, Couper ID, De Vries E, Reid S, Fish T, Marais BJ. A critical review of interventions to redress the inequitable distribution of healthcare professionals to rural and remote areas. Rural and Remote Health 2009;9 (online):1060. http://www.rrh.org.au (accessed 5 March 2012). [ Links ]
5. World Health Organization. Increasing Access to Health Workers in Remote and Rural Areas through Improved Retention: Global Policy Recommendations. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2010. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2010/9789241564014_eng.pdf (accessed 5 March 2012). [ Links ]
6. Hugo J, Tshabalala Z, Couper I, et al. Midlevel Medical Worker Programme for South Africa: Curriculum and Training Plan. Report to National Department of Health. Pretoria: Family Medicine Education Consortium, 2005:7. [ Links ]
7. van Niekerk J. Mid-level workers: high-level bungling? S Afr Med J 2006;96(12):1209-1211. [ Links ]
Accepted 16 July 2012.
Corresponding author:
J Doherty


text:
A painting of the Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood, depicting him as a vampire, is being auctioned on eBay.
Weirdly, the portrait of Wood is by the brother of his currently-estranged wife Jo - the artist Paul Karslake. It was commissioned by FX TV channel to help launch the new series of hit US drama True Blood.
Karslake previously painted a famed portrait of fellow Stone Keith Richards as a pirate.
When actor Johnny Depp dined at Richards' one evening, he took inspiration to create his Keef-alike character Jack Sparrow in the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies. Richards still owns the original painting.
Both portraits are pictured below.
Bid here. All money made will be donated to various charities including Give Blood.
Wood himself is a painter. We're not yet sure how he feels about the portrait.


text:
Watch Some Adorable Katie Couric Bloopers
Katie Couric's new daytime show, 'Katie,' starts today. Maybe if we get all of this out of our systems, she'll have a smooth run. Or maybe it will just be wacky zoom city all over the place. Either way, sounds entertaining to us. Hopefully there won't be as many swear words as there are in some of these bloopers we found. Although, again, either way sounds entertaining to us.


text:
Birth Record Alternative, Meaning of Old Words, Internet Limitation, A Search for Evidence
Rhonda's Tips, April 13, 2000
Birth Record Alternative
Q: My grandfather died recently, and some of the family have been trying to track down his father's name for the records and our own info. Some family members have forgotten it because his father died before he was born, and he didn't talk about him much. My grandfather's name is Avery Horton Pruitt, he was born on Jan. 15, 1909, in Avery county, North Carolina. As far as we know, he didn't have a birth certificate, so it's been hard to find out anything about his ancestry. Are there any other avenues we could employ to find out more about his family history? -- Chris
A: An alternative that might reveal the name of your grandfather's father would be the 1910 census. Because Avery PRUITT was born in 1909, this census would show Avery as a one-year-old child and it is likely you will find him living with his family.
The 1910 census has an index to it, referred to as the Soundex. This index is arranged by a special code, that allowed like-sounding surnames to be grouped together (to help overcome issues of spelling). And while it was not done for all of the United States, North Carolina is one of the states that was soundexed. The code you would need to look for is P630. Once at this code, you would need to scan through each PRUITT family looking for one that has a child named Avery.
The soundex and census films can be found at many libraries with genealogical departments and also through local Family History Centers (found in local LDS - Mormon - chapels).
Meaning of Old Words
Q: I keep coming across the word freeman in 1635 and other words like it or similar. Where can I get a dictionary on these words? I want to note the meaning of the time in which it is to be known. Webster says it is a person freed from slavery. Is this like an indentured servant? -- Dawn
A: There are actually two different words that appear to be getting confused and used interchangeably. There is a freedman and a freeman .
A freedman is a man released from slavery.
A freeman is a word from Colonial days. A freeman was a male over the age of twenty-one who owned personal property or real estate. Generally there was a set limit that had to be owned by the individual. It was also necessary that he be a peaceful man, and other Freeman in the area had to endorse him. If he met all of these requirements, he was then entitled to take the Freeman's Oath at a meeting of the town's selectmen.
Being a freeman brought with it certain duties including:
- The right to vote
- Required to pay taxes
- Ability to elect deputies to the General Assembly
- Ability to elect new Freemen
An excellent dictionary for genealogists is The New A to Zax by Barbara Jean Evans. This dictionary deals specifically with the types of terms that genealogists are up against as they go further and further back in their research.
Internet Limitation
Q: I am trying to find some information on my Grandfather. His name is George Oscar Gurley. He was born in Valley Mills, Indiana in the late 1800s and I have looked at a lot of sites and have come up with nothing. Is there anything that you can suggest to help me out on this? -- Loretta
A: Valley Mills is in Marion County, Indiana. Whenever you are beginning to research a new area, it is a good idea to make the USGenWeb Project a stop on your research trail. From that page you can work your way down to the state or county USGenWeb page that you need. These pages will help you in learning about record availability and repositories. In some instances you may even get some immediate answers through the resources that the county coordinator has made available on the site. There is a page for Marion County that you may want to visit.
However, there are times when you will find that the answers you are seeking cannot be found on the Internet. Even when there are answers on the Internet, it is a good idea to turn your attention to primary documents, such as birth, marriage and death records. These records are seldom available online.
Marion County, Indiana began recording birth and death records in 1882. If you need help in narrowing down exactly when your grandfather was born, you may want to locate the family in the 1900 census as this will supply you with a month and year of birth for your grandfather. You can then write to the Marion County Courthouse at the address below.
Marion County Courthouse
City-County Building
Room W-122
Indianapolis, IN 46204
A Search for Evidence
Q: My ancestor Elcana WILLIAMS moved to Texas from Tennessee. The legend was that he was a horse thief and had to leave Tennessee. I went to the library and found a book of Carter County, Tennessee families and his name was in it. He was born in 1803. It showed his father to be George D. WILLIAMS. In order for me to feel comfortable about the connection. I need more concrete evidence. Can you suggest to me where I would go from here? Is there something that would show me that this is really his father? -- CHILIDEN1
A: What you will need to do is to begin researching George D. WILLIAMS. You need to establish his whereabouts during the life of your ancestor. You will need to look for possible interaction between the two individuals. Very often, fathers would sell land to their sons as they came of age, for instance.
You will also need to try to locate a will or probate records on George D. WILLIAMS. Your ancestor may be listed by name in the will. Or you may find a payment made to your ancestor as part of the estate's settlement.
Rhonda R. McClure is a professional genealogist specializing in celebrity trees and computerized genealogy. She has been involved in online genealogy for fifteen years. She is an award-winning author of several genealogy how-to books, including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Genealogy, The Genealogist's Computer Companion, and Finding Your Famous and Infamous Ancestors. She may be contacted at [email protected].
See more advice from Rhonda in her columns Expert Tips, Tigs and Trees, and Overheard in the Message Boards.


text:
Former City Manager
Answers Councilman
In a recent letter to the editor, Councilmember Brent Ashley asked the question, "…if the city is able to provide all services and function efficiently for $6 million less and with over 100 fewer employees, why was the $6 million being spent in the first place and why did the city provide salaries and benefits so long for so many extra employees at the taxpayers' expense?"
I would like to answer his question.
First of all, it should be clarified that the $6 million in cost savings was not accomplished simply by reducing the number of employees by 100, since the costs associated with 100 employees would actually be less than $500,000. Rather, the savings resulted from the more than 100 cost-cutting measures that were mostly brought forward by town employees and approved by the then Mayor and City Council.
While Councilmember Ashley states that "years of bloated budgets and excessive hiring" led to recent financial reforms, I look back and see a community that grew and transformed into the town we have now. Our employee population grew because we greatly expanded the convention center, doubled the size of Northside Park and increased our recreational opportunities. We acquired the Wastewater Treatment Plant and collection facilities from Worcester County and assured the town the control of a basic infrastructure. We built Eagle's Landing Golf Course and grew our Special Events Department into a premier organization that offers events daily during the season and many weekends year-round.
Our Public Safety personnel increased from 158 employees in 1997 to 200 in 2012 to keep pace with the growth in property and number of lives for the police, fire and emergency medical personnel to protect.
So, one could say that the growth in the number of employees was "excessive," but I would say it was responsible and needed to accommodate a growing Ocean City over the last 20 years.
We were able to reduce the number of employees by making conscious decisions in what we did and how we did it.
The biggest reduction in our workforce was in the Public Works Department, where the decision was made to transition from a department that was manned and equipped to perform major infrastructure construction projects to a department that is now right-sized so employees can perform routine maintenance and repairs of our infrastructure. When major work is needed, we now contract out for it. With the build-out of the town, our major infrastructure is in place, and it was time to transition to a smaller work force that is needed more for maintaining that infrastructure than for large construction projects.
Also in Public Works, we abandoned sending our solid waste to the landfill and instead converted to a waste-to-energy solution: After the metal recyclables are removed, our solid waste is now incinerated to create electricity. This process allowed for the elimination of an entire department of employees, vehicles and equipment, saving in excess of $1 million a year.
We reduced services, and that allowed for fewer personnel and related cost savings. For example, we reduced our off-season solid waste collection from twice per week to once per week. We reduced bus service in the off-season. We saved $250,000 by bidding the town's electricity. We offered new employee health insurance options, thus reducing health insurance costs for both the town and the employees.
The right-sizing of our workforce was enabled largely due to the retirement incentive program offered to about 74 employees. A total of 38 employees participated in the program, and it allowed us to move many other employees around from position to position and from department to department. We were able to save their jobs while benefiting from their experience and knowledge in a more productive structure. Many employees took on additional responsibilities as the town worked to right-size.
I trust the above answers the question and gives the public a better insight into how the town transitioned during the downturn in the economy.
Dennis Dare
Ocean City
All For Smoke-Free Beach
Smokeless beaches will be a sensitive issue during our local elections.
Ocean City voters deserve to know where each candidate stands on this issue.
I have always supported the change to remove smoke from our public beaches and will not "flip-flop" or play both sides of the fence on this issue.
Sean Rox
Ocean City
Assateague Not Place
For Transmission Line
Regarding your story, "Offshore Wind Transmission Line May Cross Assateague," on Aug. 3, it should be noted that Assateague Coastal Trust developed a position statement in support of Offshore Wind Energy in 2009 and has been monitoring how and where the transmission lines will come ashore since the 2010 Maryland Legislative session when we raised concerns with our state elected officials regarding SB282 Off–Shore Wind Generation – Qualified Submerged Renewable Energy Lines.
We wrote to then Md. Delegate Jim Mathias and Md. Delegate Norm Conway asking them to submit an amendment that would exempt Assateague Island from this bill. ACT explained that Assateague Island is meant to be enjoyed and protected for the natural and pristine state it is in today and energy transmission infrastructure is not in keeping with that goal. They both denied ACT's request. During a 2010 Mathias/Conway town hall meeting in Berlin, I asked them again about SB282 and was told it was their opinion the island should be accessible to these transmission lines and accompanying infrastructure "for the safety and economic benefit of the region."
I can only wonder why, given the number of miles of coastline these lines could cross, the one area free of development continues to be in the cross hairs? ACT and our members, having spent the past 40 years advocating for the protection of the island's natural resources, stand firm in the belief that the economic impacts from the millions of people who visit that island, precisely because it is maintained as free of man-made infrastructure as possible, far outweighs any political motive to use Assateague Island for anything other than the preservation of a natural area for all to enjoy in its natural state.
Kathy Phillips
(The writer is the executive director of the Assateague Coastal Trust.)
Smoking Not Problem
OC Needs To Examine
Here we go again. I know second-hand smoke is bad as I am a smoker. Everyone writes about smoking but the biggest problem in Ocean City is never talked about.
What the classic cars do to your air quality is and it's off the charts. They will not ban them for one reason and everyone knows why — money. So, if it comes to health or money, guess who wins, of course money.
Do your own test. Get behind the cars at a red light, you better turn off your air and close the windows. So if I can put up with the cars you can put up with a smoker.
John Shipley
Ocean City
Vote Yes To Rebuild
Pines Yacht Club
To build or keep repairing the Ocean Pines Yacht Club is the question.
The present club is forty years old with structural deficiencies. There's money to pay for a new yacht club and we now have a new manager and a chef, who are upgrading the food with homemade soups, sauces and salad dressings along with improved grades of meat. A lot of people just want cheap when they eat out, but not me. I want good quality food and am willing to pay for it.
The setting is lovely and the proposed design is beautiful. Is it too grandiose? I'm sure some will think so and in that case the issue can be addressed.
Remember the old adage "you get what you pay for." I urge everyone to think about the pros and cons so we don't go through what we went through when voting for a new community center. You can't keep patching old buildings, so eventually they have to be rebuilt. The longer we wait the more it will cost.
With good management and consistently good food and service, there's no reason why the yacht club can't be successful. Vote yes to rebuild.
Ann Lutz
Ocean Pines
Thanks To Family
I would like to thank the Moore family of Berlin, especially their son and his friend Damien who swiftly came to my aide. I had suddenly become ill while shopping on Saturday, Aug. 4 (later to find out it was Vertigo) and this wonderful family stayed with me to assure that I was alright.
Thank you.
Pauline Blasena
Honoring Bertha
(The following letter was addressed to Bertha Ortiz, a long-time local coach who passed away recently.) Thank you. Thank you for your kindness, thank you for your caring, thank you for your passion, thank you for your inspiration, thank you for your unconditional love.
Bertha, thanks for being such an outstanding role model for my kids and so many others. Thanks for teaching Pierce and Colton how to be better volleyball players, but more, importantly, thanks for teaching them how to be better people. Like so many others, Pierce and Colton loved you so much. So did I. We will miss you, but will hold in our hearts memories that cannot be replicated.
Bertha you touched so many lives and because of that your touch will be passed on by these individuals for generations to come. Again, Bertha, thank you. Rest in peace, Coach. I'll see you on the other side. Drew Haugh
Ocean City


text:
Some of you may remember my first foray into investing. It was an half thought out idea that was, in hindsight, quite stupid. As a result of that I have been working towards a more sane and economical approach to getting some non-retirement funds invested into the markets. I am by no means a day trader or speculator. I just don't have the knowledge or expertise to start throwing wads of cash at individual companies. So my main goal was to find a company with some decent No Transaction Fee (NTF) mutual funds. Enter Scottrade.
About the Company
Since 1996 Scottrade has been offering online trading to its customers. With over 350 branch offices they are both an online and person kind of shop. As a discount brokerage with a focus for online investing they offer an easy to use online trading platforms for idiots like me. In addition to the simple platform they offer ScottradeElite for true active traders. I am no active trader so their simple interface is all I use. They also offer a mobile site, not to mention that they have local branch offices.
Why I Chose Them
I had initially decided to open an account with Sharebuilder because they had a good automatic investment "plan" that would automagically pull money from your checking account and invest it in your stock/fund of choice. The problem with that was every time I invested my $100 they were going to charge me $4. It was brought to my attention that No Load/No Transaction Fee fund may be the better option for investing minimal amounts of cash. Looking into it I found some decent funds on Sharebuilder but they all required at least $1,000 initial investment. Scottrade on the other hand only required $500 to open an account and their minimum initial investment for a NTF fund was $250. Obviously it works better for me and my piddly amount of cash to go with Scottrade.
Account Process
Opening an account with Scottrade was relatively painless. In fact it was a lot like opening an account an online bank. They ask you the basic kind of questions you would expect to see with your bank and then presto you have an account opened up. One thing was a little bit different was that you do have to pick a local branch who will then send you out some information as well as a request to send in a signature card. Unlike most online bank accounts you actually will have to send something back to them to get full access to your account, I can't remember what you couldn't do without one but it didn't affect me directly.
Using the Account
Using the account was not quite as intuitive as I thought it could be. I had a little bit of a problem trying to find exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to find no load/no transaction fee mutual funds. I went to research and mutual funds but all it let me do was search by symbol. It took me a while to find the mutual fund screener which allowed me to locate no load NTF funds for sale at Scottrade, there were 2915. 2915 was a daunting thing to have to look at so luckily I knew approximately what the symbol was I wanted and zeroed in on my choice. Once I found the fund I wanted buying is was easy as pie. The only thing that I miss about Sharebuilder was the ability to automatically do the investing. I have to remember to go in and buy into the fund when my transfer hits.
So far I haven't found anything that would make me want to jump ship. Their user interface isn't the flashiest thing on earth, in fact it is pretty bland but it gets the job done. I have enjoyed it and they make the transfer of funds from bank to brokerage super easy, which is refreshingly nice.
Who do you use for your online brokerage needs?
{ Comments on this entry are closed }


text:
1018 S Earl Ave, Lafayette, IN 47904
Toll Free: 800-256-6679 Local: 765-447-5050 Fax: 765/449-1183Email Us
The FTD® Twisted Hala BouquetW8-5044
Created with a sophisticated flair that will have your wedding guests taking note, this stunning bouquet is that perfect accent piece or centerpiece that will add to the drama and style of your celebration. Fresh hala leaves take on the look of living art with each leaf twisted at the top and arranged beautifully together in a clear glass cylinder vase. An interesting and simply stylish way to bring color and life to your wedding day! Bouquet includes 10 leaves. Approx. 31"H x 10"W.
- For U.S. and Canada deliveries only
- Delivery Information
All items featured on this site represent the types of arrangements we offer and may vary depending upon availability in certain regions. Substitution Policy


text:
Perusing the summary of these two books will give you an indication of our general interests.
A Genetic Switch
This third edition of A Genetic Switch (2004, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press) comprises a re-print of the first four chapters of the original plus a new chapter that describes recent significant advances. The book describes in basic terms the growth of the bacterial virus lambda. Three chapters describe the processes of gene regulation in lambda and show how they provide a paradigm for gene regulation in development in higher organisms. A fourth chapter outlines the experimental bases of the major conclusions. The new fifth chapter describes, among other things, how, at crystallographic resolution, simple binding interactions between proteins binding to DNA underlies gene activation and, as well, the cooperative binding of regulatory proteins to widely separated DNA sites. The figures from this book are available on the Web site www.genesandsignals.org, and three lectures based on this book and delivered at The Rockefeller University in February, 2005, are available on video on our Web site.
Genes and Signals
What distinguishes a man from a mouse is not so much different proteins, but rather the appearance (or disappearance) of common proteins at different times and positions in the developing (and fully formed) organisms. And very often these and other organisms use similar signals, sent from one cell to another, to determine those patterns. In response to such signals, specific genes are transcribed or repressed, proteins degraded or stabilized, RNA transcripts spliced one way or another, and so on. These are examples of 'regulatory' decisions.
Genes and Signals (Ptashne, M and Gann, A, 2002, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press) ) argues that a rather simple mechanism - recruitment, also called cooperative binding - lies at the heart of many regulatory decisions. The mechanism — to which alternatives can be found, at least in bacteria — was widely exploited by evolution for at least two reasons. First, the mechanism ready lends itself to producing new and additional 'meanings' to signals; and second, because it allows step-wise improvements and 'add ons' to each regulatory process. There is a price, however: the regulatory world, governed by 'Mass Action,' is prone to error, and complexity of a certain sort is required to make it work reliably. The Web site www.genesandsignals.org makes available all the figures from the book, as well as four lectures based on the book delivered by Ptashne at The Rockefeller University in January 2002.


text:
An early stage clinical trial of the experimental drug dimebon (latrepirdine) in people with Huntington's disease appears to be safe and may improve cognition. That is the conclusion of a study published today in the Archives of Neurology.
"This is the first clinical trial that has focused on what is perhaps the most disabling aspect of the disease," said University of Rochester Medical Center neurologist Karl Kieburtz, M.D., the lead author of the study. "While more investigation needs to be done, these results are encouraging and show, for the first time, a statistically significant benefit in terms of improved cognitive function in patients with Huntington's disease."
Huntington's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that impacts movement, behavior, cognition, and generally results in death within 20 years of the disease's onset. The disease steadily erodes a person's memory and their ability to think and learn. Over time, this cognitive impairment contributes to the loss of the ability to work and perform the activities of daily life. There are no treatments current available that effectively alter the course of the disease or improve cognition.
It is believed that mitochondria — the part of the cell that helps convert food to energy — plays a role in the development of Huntington's disease. Lampridine stabilizes and enhances mitochondrial function, a result that has been shown to improve behavioral, cognitive, and functional outcomes in Alzheimer's disease. Scientists speculate that this may have the same effect in patients with Huntington's disease.
The investigators studied the impact of the drug on 91 patients over a 90 day period. Half were given the drug and the other half a placebo. The patients were then evaluated using a cognitive tool called the Mini-Mental State Examination. This exam — which is used by clinicians to evaluate the stage and severity of dementia and Alzheimer's disease ? consists of series of questions used to test an individual's orientation, memory, and ability to follow commands. The researchers found that the drug on average improved the scores of people taking the drug vs. those who received the placebo.
Dimebon is being developed by Medivation, Inc., a San Francisco-based pharmaceutical company which funded the study. The drug is also being testing in patients with Alzheimer's disease. In July of last year, Medivation and Pfizer, Inc. launched a Phase 3 clinical trial of the drug for Huntington's disease. The study, called the Horizon Trial, is being conducted in sites throughout North America, Australia, and Europe. Kieburtz is the principal investigator of the Horizon Trial.


text: Back Antiphospholipid Antibody Does this test have other names? APA, lupus anticoagulant, anticardiolipin antibodies What is this test? This blood test checks for antiphospholipid antibodies, which may be found in people with abnormal blood clots or autoimmune diseases. Your immune system usually creates antibodies in response to an infection or a foreign invader like bacteria. Antiphospholipid antibodies are usually made when your immune system mistakes part of your own body for a harmful substance. In this case, the antibodies seem to be reacting to phospholipids, a normal part of your blood vessels. People who have abnormal blood clots, repeated miscarriages, or autoimmune diseases like lupus and multiple sclerosis often have antiphospholipid antibodies. People with cancer may also have these antibodies, which often fade away when the cancer is treated. The two most common types of antiphospholipid antibodies are lupus anticoagulant and anticardiolipin antibodies. Testing for lupus anticoagulant often uses a test like the Russell viper venom time (RVVT) or kaolin clotting time. RVVT measures how long it takes a type of viper venom to trigger a blood clot. Kaolin clotting time is used to diagnose clotting disorders and detect the lupus anticoagulant. Measuring anticardiolipin antibodies is done directly by looking for antibodies against the cardiolipin molecule. Why do I need this test? You may need this test if you: Have repeated miscarriages Develop abnormal blood clots that could lead to heart attack or stroke Have antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, a group of symptoms that includes miscarriages, a platelet deficiency, and abnormal blood clots Have lupus or cancer What other tests might I have along with this test? Your doctor may also order a partial thromboplastin time, or PTT, which may help find out the cause of a blood clot or bleeding disorder. You may also have a dilute prothrombin test, which helps measure how long it takes a clot to form. What do my test results mean? Many things may affect your lab test results. These include the method each lab uses to do the test. Even if your test results are different from the normal value, you may not have a problem. To learn what the results mean for you, talk with your health care provider. A negative result means that these antibodies are not present. Low to moderate results may mean the antibodies are present because of a recent health problem or a drug you have taken. High levels of this antibody may mean you have a higher risk for blood clots, but your doctor cannot predict when a clot may happen. Your doctor may order a second test in about 12 weeks to confirm the results. A positive result does not necessarily mean you need medical treatment. If you have antiphospholipid syndrome, your doctor may suggest treatment that includes warfarin, an anti-clotting medication. Your health care provider will interpret the results in light of your overall health. How is this test done? The test requires a blood sample, which is drawn through a needle from a vein in your arm. Does this test pose any risks? Taking a blood sample with a needle carries risks that include bleeding, infection, bruising, or feeling dizzy. When the needle pricks your arm, you may feel a slight stinging sensation or pain. Afterward, the site may be slightly sore. What might affect my test results? Certain tests for syphilis can cause a false-positive on this test if done at the same time. Your doctor may order a second test to confirm the results. Recent viral infections, such as HIV, can also skew the results. How do I get ready for this test? You don't need to prepare for this test. But be sure your doctor knows about all medicines, herbs, vitamins, and supplements you are taking. This includes medicines that don't need a prescription and any illicit drugs you may use.


text:
Exactly a quarter-century ago, America's punditocracy proclaimed victory in the struggle against tax complexity and unfairness. The rich applauded right along. We should have been suspicious.
By Sam Pizzigati
Can a small army of policy wonks, working in a bipartisan political environment overflowing with lawmakers willing to compromise, actually put into law a reform package that leaves the U.S. tax code considerably more simple and fair?
Twenty-five years ago, on October 22, 1986, legions of Washington wonks and lawmakers thought they had accomplished just that. Media heavyweights agreed, and so did President Ronald Reagan. He signed into law that day legislation that pundits immediately branded the "landmark" Tax Reform Act of 1986.
The silver anniversary of the "landmark" 1986 tax act is coming and going without any gala celebrations.
America will now have, President Reagan crowed at the signing ceremony, "the most modern tax code among major industrialized nations, one that encourages risk-taking, innovation, and that old American spirit of enterprise."
"Fair and simpler for most Americans," he added, "this is a tax code designed to take us into a future of technological invention and economic achievement, one that will keep America competitive and growing into the 21st century."
Democrats crowed, too. Senator Bill Bradley from New Jersey considered the 1986 legislation his greatest legislative triumph. Democrats pointed proudly to the many tax loopholes the new reform act plugged and the legislation's most signal achievement: the end to preferential tax treatment for capital gains, the profits from buying and selling stocks and other assets.
But this Saturday, the silver anniversary of the "landmark" 1986 tax act — "the broadest revision of the federal income tax in history," according to the Washington Post — is coming and going without any gala celebrations.
"Was it all," Bruce Bartlett, a former Reagan aide, mused last week, "much ado about nothing?"
The 1986 tax reform legislation would be a top-down exercise right from the start.
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 today seems just another milestone on the road to a federal tax code that has our mega rich, as billionaire Warren Buffett has so colorfully noted, paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries. The act's most admirable features have long since evaporated.
We need to understand why — before we let this 25th anniversary slide by. Did the 1986 tax reform effort, we ought to ask, have to end up hijacked by America's high-income set? The short answer: Yes.
Sweeping tax reform, to succeed and leave the tax code truly simpler and fairer, requires two political prerequisites: a set of elected leaders committed to confronting the rich and powerful who benefit from tax code unfairness and a mass popular upsurge that keeps those elected leaders' feet to the fire.
The 1986 tax reform battle had neither.
The 1986 tax battle began in the wake of the 1984 elections, a debacle for Democrats. Their Presidential candidate, Walter Mondale, had talked vaguely about the inevitability of having to raise taxes. But Mondale never defined who he would be taxing. On Election Day, Reagan crushed him.
Mondale's defeat would shove any proposals to tax the rich, or anybody else, off the table. Top Democrats would now talk only about tax "simplification." Toward that end, Bradley and other Democrats would negotiate a grand bargain with the White House: You let us plug tax loopholes and we'll give you lower tax rates.
Reagan agreed. The legislation he signed hiked the capital gains tax rate, plugged various other loopholes, and lowered the top tax rate on ordinary income.
Newspaper editorials would celebrate this bargain as a grand step toward common sense tax fairness. Reformers who read the fine print did no cheering. "Behind the facade of eliminating 'tax preferences for the rich,'" as political analyst Kevin Phillips would later point out, the 1986 act shoved into law some 650 new provisions that benefited special interests.
Most incredibly of all, the legislation set the highest tax rate not on America's wealthy, but on the nation's upper middle class. Ordinary income between $70,000 and $170,000, under the reform, would be taxed at a special "bubble" rate of 33 percent. Income above $170,000 would face only a 28 percent levy, the same top rate that the 1986 legislation placed on capital gains income.
For the rich, a good deal. The capital gains rate, to be sure, had jumped from 20 to 28 percent. But the top rate on other income had been 70 percent when Reagan won election in 1980. His 1981 tax legislation had chopped that top rate down to 50 percent. The new 1986 reform now cut that 50 percent nearly in half.
How could all this happen? All this could happen because the 1986 tax legislation had been a top-down exercise right from the start. No grassroots movement had mobilized to demand a fairer tax system — and keep lawmakers honest. So all the wheeling and dealing around the 1986 reform legislation essentially involved only lawmakers, wonks, and lobbyists for the rich and powerful.
The resulting "reform" didn't do much more than inconvenience America's economic elite. The wealthy, in the years right after 1986, found themselves having to "shift" their income around to avoid higher taxes.
The new law, for instance, left the top individual tax rate lower than the top corporate tax rate. Business owners, notes former Reagan aide Bruce Bartlett, would react by reorganizing their operations into "sole proprietorships and other business forms that caused income that was previously reported on corporate returns to be reported on individual returns."
But the wealthy didn't just shift income around. They pushed back — against the 1986 act's noblest advances. The capital gains tax rate, under their pressure, would eventually drop back from 28 to almost 20 percent in 1997. That rate would drop even further, in 2003, to 15 percent, and that remains the rate today.
The top federal tax rate on ordinary income, in the meantime, did rise in 1993 to 39.6 percent, only to fall back to 35 percent eight years later. That's higher than the 28 percent tax on top-bracket income the 1986 act legislated, but still only half the 70 percent top rate in 1980 — and only a little over a third the 91 percent top rate in effect as late as 1963.
The good news amid all this? With Occupy Wall Street, we have taking root a broad and varied popular movement that openly challenges a system rigged to benefit the top 1 percent, the movement we so sorely missed back in 1986.
A century ago, we also had a broad and varied popular movement that openly challenged America's rich. That movement paved the way for the original progressive income tax in 1913 — and then reappeared in the Great Depression years and sparked a strengthening of that tax in the 1930s and 1940s.
Without that popular spark, "tax reform" will always devolve into "tax charade." On this 25th anniversary of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, let's remember that lesson.
Sam Pizzigati edits Too Much, the online weekly on excess and inequality published by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies. Read the current issue or sign up at Inequality.Org to receive Too Much in your email inbox.