text:
The proposed Skylon vehicle would operate like an airliner, taking off and landing at a conventional runway.
Its major innovation is the Sabre engine, which can breathe air like a jet at lower speeds but switch to a rocket mode in the high atmosphere.
Reaction Engines Limited (REL) believes the test campaign will prove the readiness of Sabre's key elements.
This being so, the firm would then approach investors to raise the £250m needed to take the project into the final design phase.
"We intend to go to the Farnborough International Air Show in July with a clear message," explained REL managing director Alan Bond.
"The message is that Britain has the next step beyond the jet engine; that we can reduce the world to four hours – the maximum time it would take to go anywhere. And that it also gives us aircraft that can go into space, replacing all the expendable rockets we use today."
To have a chance of delivering this message, REL's engineers will need a flawless performance in the experiments now being run on a rig at their headquarters in Culham, Oxfordshire.
The test stand will not validate the full Sabre propulsion system, but simply its enabling technology – a special type of pre-cooler heat exchanger.
Sabre is part jet engine, part rocket engine. It burns hydrogen and oxygen to provide thrust – but in the lower atmosphere this oxygen is taken from the atmosphere.
The approach should save weight and allow Skylon to go straight to orbit without the need for the multiple propellant stages seen in today's throw-away rockets.
But it is a challenging prospect. At high speeds, the Sabre engines must cope with 1,000-degree gases entering their intakes. These need to be cooled prior to being compressed and burnt with the hydrogen.
Reaction Engines' breakthrough is a module containing arrays of extremely fine piping that can extract the heat and plunge the intake gases to minus 140C in just 1/100th of a second.
Ordinarily, the moisture in the air would be expected to freeze out rapidly, covering the pre-cooler's pipes in a blanket of frost and compromising their operation.
But the REL team has also devised a means to stop this happening, permitting Sabre to run in jet mode for as long as is needed before making the transition to a booster rocket.
Key tests for Skylon spaceplane project
The proposed Skylon vehicle would operate like an airliner, taking off and landing at a conventional runway.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Editor's Note: Alan Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard Law School.
Story highlights
Alan Dershowitz: Prosecutor in Trayvon Martin case could face "nightmare scenario"
He says based on evidence that is public, there could be probable cause to indict
But there may not be enough evidence to remove reasonable doubt of guilt
Dershowitz: Many people would not be happy with such a mixed outcome
On the basis of the evidence currently in the public record, one likely outcome of the case against George Zimmerman is a mixed one: There may be sufficient evidence for a reasonable prosecutor to indict him for manslaughter, but there may also be doubt sufficient for a reasonable jury to acquit him.
Any such predictions should be accepted with an abundance of caution, however, because the evidence known to the special prosecutor, but not to the public, may paint a different picture. It may be stronger or weaker.
Media reports suggest that police found Zimmerman with grass stains on the back of his shirt, bloody bruises on the back of his head and other indicia that may support his contention that Trayvon Martin was banging his head against the ground when Zimmerman shot him.
We don't know what Martin's body or clothing show, other than the fatal bullet wound. If there are no comparable bruises or grass stains and if the bullet wound and powder residue establish that the gun was fired at very close range, this too might support a claim of self-defense.
Then there is a recorded cry for help, which, if it turns out to be the voice of Martin, would undercut the defense – if the voice analysis passes scientific muster and is deemed admissible into evidence.
There may be additional forensic evidence – or witnesses – of which we are now unaware, though it is unlikely there is a "smoking gun."
Finally, there is the overarching and historically painful reality that an unarmed black teenager lies dead at the hand of an armed Hispanic man who ignored a dispatcher's advice not to follow and engage the "suspect," and who may have – and this too is forensically unclear – uttered a racial epithet while chasing him.
These "facts" give rise to several possible scenarios of what may actually have occurred on that dark rainy night. Under the Florida self-defense statute, it matters greatly what happened, most especially who "initially provoke[d] the use of force," and who started the physical encounter.
If Zimmerman initially provoked the deadly encounter, then he cannot invoke any "stand your ground" defense. He would then be under a legal obligation to "exhaust … every reasonable means to escape."
Though this statute is anything but a model of clarity, it does suggest that whoever "provokes" a deadly encounter has a heavy burden of justification in claiming self-defense. But the statute doesn't define "provokes," and that ambiguous word may hold the key to the outcome of this tragic case.
If provocation is limited to a physical assault, and if Zimmerman's account that Martin blindsided him with a punch is believed, then Zimmerman did not provoke the encounter. But if provocation includes following the victim and harassing him, then Zimmerman may well qualify as a provocateur. Moreover, a jury may believe that Zimmerman started the physical confrontation by grabbing Martin. This would almost certainly constitute provocation.
But to complicate matters further, even a provocateur has the legal right to defend himself under Florida law if he can't escape and if he is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm, as Zimmerman claims he was.
All this goes to show how factually driven this case is under Florida law. And we don't yet know all the facts. The special prosecutor, who has said she will not use a grand jury to decide whether to indict Zimmerman, has an obligation to consider all the evidence and to apply the law to the facts.
All she needs in order to indict is probable cause that a crime has been committed. A jury that ultimately decides whether the defendant is guilty needs much more: proof beyond a reasonable doubt. But what if a prosecutor concludes that there is both probable cause and a reasonable doubt?
That is the nightmare scenario that this prosecutor may well face. In ordinary circumstances, most prosecutors would not bring such a case, because it would be a waste of resources to indict someone who will probably be acquitted. But this is anything but a run-of-the-mill case.
Moreover, the Florida statute provides an additional layer of protection to a defendant claiming self-defense: A judge must decide whether the defendant is "immune from prosecution," that is, if the judge believes his actions fall under the law of self-defense.
So the following mixed outcome is certainly possible: The special prosecutor indicts; the judge does or doesn't grant immunity; if he doesn't, the jury acquits.
Many people would be unhappy with such a mixed outcome, but it is not the job of the law to make people happy.
Follow us on Twitter: @CNNOpinion
Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Alan Dershowitz.


text:
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
It Was a Monday
"Mom? Why did you stop? Why are you talking to that policeman?"
"He pulled us over for having expired registration."
"Why is it expired?"
"Because our fifteen year-old car wouldn't pass a smog check so we had a new catalytic converter put in but then it still wouldn't pass a smog check because we have to drive the car ninety miles to re-set the computer and apparently we've only driven about forty miles so far and I couldn't tell because our odometer doesn't work and also I didn't have our updated insurance in the car and mommy was irresponsible and didn't start this process three months ago when she should have."
"Mom? You have something in your nose."
"Nice. Thanks for telling me, Bob."
"Mom? Where did you put it?"
"Put what?"
"The thing you just took out of your nose?"
21 comments:
This same thing happened to me, except without the booger-check, and it was the THIRD time being stopped for the same expired tag and the officer said he was supposed to impound my car and my son was in the car WITHOUT a car seat. All I could say was "have mercy on me". I wish Bob had been there to remind me of the important things in life like clean noses and responsible booger disposal.ReplyDelete
Oh, Lord.ReplyDelete
Sorry about the pullover...sorry about, well, all of it.
This made my day. :DReplyDelete
It's so nice to know that other people have days like this, too.
In Florida we don't have no stinkin' smog checks. We do, however, have boogers.ReplyDelete
at least he won't leave you to be embarrassed in public. What a gentleman- looking after his momReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 9, 2011 at 8:46 AM
Nasty day, indeed. It's a good thing you have a Bob to cheer you up and take care of your nasal hygiene.ReplyDelete
so sorry. but do you want to hear something that will make you feel better? i convinced terry to trade in our otherwise-fine-except-we-can't-pass-emissions car so that we did't have to buy a new catalytic converter. i'm pretty sure we spent more in the new car process than we would have had we bought the damn c.c. lazy and irresponsible.ReplyDelete
so happy to be back reading smacksy again. i missed you.
Smog checks are the devil. And old cars not passing smog checks.ReplyDelete
But Bob? Is awesome.
So sorry not to have met Bob Rosenberg at BlogHer. Because I'm pretty certain I had something in my nose and no one would tell me.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 9, 2011 at 1:12 PM
And I know why I'm so thankful not to have smog checks here. LOL What a booger of a day!ReplyDelete
Excuse me, I have to go check my car registration.....and my nose.ReplyDelete
Definately a booger of a day.....but it does remind me that I need to pay my own registration.ReplyDelete
Isnt it just wonderful that registration is set by our birthdays....so we have a bill sent to us as a gift?
It's like, "Oh, not only do you have the joy of turning 30 this month, but you also have to pay us X number of dollars..."
Hahaha, oh Lisa. This one is too much.ReplyDelete
- Ilene WaterstoneAugust 9, 2011 at 11:46 PM
Will Bob also tell me when I have foliage in my teeth and lipstick on them, which is most of the time?ReplyDelete
So sorry about the car stuff pal.
Thank you for this one!ReplyDelete
I am so in love with the hilarious humanity of this post I can hardly stand it.ReplyDelete
Only a woman completely comfortable in her skin could post that conversation.ReplyDelete
I love you more than I did 5 minutes ago.
Such a Monday. Boomtown Rats had it right re: the Mondays. I love the reflection photo and am, of course, sorry about the car mess and the Case of the Disappearing Booger. BTW: hate the word "booger." Thanks for fostering this little bit of self-knowledge.ReplyDelete
So, hate to do this to you, but this is what Baby E said:ReplyDelete
"Well? Where did she put it?"


text:
When NHL hockey player Cory Stillman and his wife Mara started looking for a new South Florida home, they knew they wanted a home theater.
More importantly, they wanted one that they and their children would actually use.
"We've had friends with theaters in their basements," says the Florida Panther left wing. "But when you have kids who are 10 and under, they're not going into a dark theater unless Mom and Dad go with them. Maybe when they're teenagers you'd rather have them in the basement," Stillman laughs. "We wanted a house where we'd put every room to good use."
So when the couple stumbled upon a Mediterranean-style spec home in the gated community of Hawks Landing in Plantation, they were wowed immediately by the home's stunning home theater, which was designed from floor to ceiling by Jeffrey Smith, owner of First Impressions Theme Theatres Inc. in North Miami. Not only were they blown away by the home theater's elegant design, but they were impressed by the way its layout suited their lifestyle. "It's perfect that [the home theater] is right off the kitchen so we can monitor what the kids are watching," Stillman says. "That was the biggest thing for us."
Little did the Stillmans know, though, that their beloved home theater almost ceased to be. Originally slated to be a billiards room, the space now boasts a 7.1-channel Niles speaker system, a Marantz VP-12S4L DLP projector, 15-foot-tall ceilings, and a clear view of the lake and the Italian-glass mosaic swimming pool beyond.
Long before the Stillmans laid eyes on their future abode, builder Betsy Rauch of Robinette Homes and interior designer Eloise Kubli of Collective Construction & Design Inc. decided to transform the space with the help of First Impressions. "We wanted one extra-special touch that other homes didn't have," Rauch says. "Something that would take the house to a level beyond the typical builder's spec house."
Before the first piece of gear was selected or the sight lines were calculated, Smith's team altered the room's square shape. The room, tall as it was long, was perfect for a brightly lit game room, but it was an acoustical nightmare for a home theater. "The first order of business was to create a lower tray ceiling, which allowed us to give some scale to the space," Smith says. It also allowed First Impressions' fiber-optic sky ceiling to be the theater's high point. "You feel like you're looking through a skylight into the heavens," Smith says of his trademarked ceiling treatment.
As for the interior design of the balance of the room, Smith worked closely with Kubli to craft a look that would appeal to a broad scope of home buyers. "The finishes of this home are elegant, traditional, classical—natural woods, recycled glass mosaics, Venetian plasters," Kubli says. "When I design a theater, I take the approach of [making] it totally different from the main house. [But] in this situation we wanted more of an extension of the house." As a result, the theater features wool carpeting with a subtle pattern and neutral leather tones; the walls are bathed in suede fabric.
"Elegant" and "subdued," however, are not the first adjectives to roll off Stillman's tongue when discussing his new home theater.
"I love that you can watch action movies really loud without the rest of the house hearing it," he says. "But my big thing is watching sports in there in high-definition. It feels like you are standing right on the field or on the court—or right in the rink. You become part of the game. Really, [this theater] is everything we could have hoped for."
Tech Talk: A Family Affair
Oftentimes, when discussing the technical merits of a home theater or media room, we focus almost exclusively on the equipment list.
And make no mistake about it: The gear in this theater is a perfect example of how to get a whole lot of bang out of a finite number of bucks.
The Marantz SR8002 THX Select2 Surround Receiver, for example, is a feature-packed, high-performance integrated controller that sells for a fraction of the cost of comparable separates. And the Niles IW2550LCR In-Wall Enclosed Home Theater Loudspeakers are a brilliant selection for the room's main left, right, and center speakers.
As their name implies, they combine the space-saving and decor-friendly aesthetics of an in-wall with the more robust performance characteristics of a fully enclosed cabinet or floor-standing loudspeaker.
But from a technological point of view, the interesting story is how this room—like all home theaters designed and built by First Impressions—was constructed. Company owner Smith explains: "We build home theaters from the ground up in our facility. They're bolted together, checked for fit and finish, tagged, taken apart and reinstalled at the site."
Many of Smith's clients drive or fly in to see their finished theaters first-hand before they are shipped out to the homesite.
That preview allows them to make reasonable changes to the theater before installation. "That's unique in the industry —to see a completed theater standing up before it's actually installed," he says.
Building theaters this way allows Smith and his team to avoid problems during installation. "Let's face it: When we go to jobs in France and Sweden and Canada, we can't count on being able to run to Home Depot," he says. What's more, the pre-construction step also facilitates the sort of room-within-a-room design common to high-end recording studios. "We don't attach to anyone's walls," Smith says, adding that this particular home theater is built on 3/4-inch birch plywood backers. Sway braces are added to the walls. "So we technically attach, but we're still floating," he adds.
Because of that—as well as First Impressions' proprietary 450-pound Noise-Lock door system—Smith's home theaters are acoustically isolated from the rest of the home, assuring that exterior sounds do not interfere with the movie-watching experience, and movie noise doesn't leak out and disturb the peace and quiet of the rest of the residence.
The room's live and dynamic floating floor system also contributes to an amazing, naturally tactile bass experience unlike any other. "Nothing transmits bass energy through the chair and up into the torso the way a floating floor does," Smith says. "The air from the subs gets into the floor and expands and contracts at the different frequencies, so the bass is kicking. It's natural. You can feel explosions coming up from the floor."—Dennis Burger
BUILDER: Robinette Homes of Plantation, Fla. (954.370.7172, robinettehomes.com)
INTERIOR DESIGNER: Collective Construction & Design Inc. of Plantation, Fla. (collectiveconst-design.com, 954.733.8282)
THEATER ARCHITECT AND DESIGNER: First Impressions Theme Theatres Inc. of North Miami, Fla. (800.305.7545, cineloungers.com)
Photography by Grossman Photography
Chief Manufacturing Universal Ceiling Projector Mount
Crestron CLS-C6 iLux Integrated Lighting System
Crestron CLW-DIM1 Wall Box Dimmer, Single Button
Crestron CLW-SW1 Wall Box Switch, Single Button
Crestron CNX-B4W 4-Button Designer Keypad, White
Crestron MC2W-C17PAK SmarTouch Control Package
LG BH100 Blu-ray/HD DVD player
Marantz SR8002 THX Select2 Surround Receiver
Marantz VP-12S4L DLP high-definition projector w/ long throw lens
Middle Atlantic racks and hardware
Niles CM750FX 7″ Surround Effects Loudspeakers with Pivoting Woofer & Dual Tweeter Pod (4)
Niles IW2550LCR In-Wall Enclosed Home Theater Loudspeakers (3)
Niles Pro15SW Professional Quality, Cabinet, High-Power Home Theater Subwoofer
NXG HDMI cable
Vutec 110″ Vision XWF Fixed Screen


text:
Please see the video of our first tactical course! Lobo Tactical Winter Mobility – SD 480p
Follow @MickMulroy
[email protected]
Skype: LoboInstitute
Lobo Portal
© 2023 Lobo Institute.
Lobo Institute and Grassroots Reconciliation Group are available to do a screening of the documentary "My Star in the Sky", a story about Anthony and Florence Opoka who were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army and forced to be soldiers in a brutal civil war. Please contact [email protected] to set this up!


text:
Collada.NET is a reliable and robust solution for reading, manipulating, and saving collada scenes, animations or models in .NET applications including vertex manipulation, texture library access, support for animation keys, and more. The extensible 100% C# COLLADA reader and writer that eliminates the need to marshal in from the COLLADA DOM. While trying to code a 100% C# toolset, it didn't take long for us to tire with the constant need and complexity of marshaling in from the COLLADA DOM. We scoured the web searching for a .NET solution, preferably in C#, that would enable us to more easily read, write and manipulate data but never found anything we were completely happy with. We decided to create our own .NET solution in C#.
We're using our COLLADA.net library in our MogBox tool to reprocess complex 3D content as seen in this demo video. Our COLLADA.net library made it possible for us to build this strictly C# tool that truly accomplishes some amazing feats reprocessing complex 3D content. We believe in this community and that through sharing technology, the whole can become stronger. We simply can't express how much we've enjoyed being able to stay in a .net environment without having to marshal anything. We hope that by releasing our solution, others will be able to get further in their own development efforts more quickly. You can learn more about our COLLADA.net solution on our web page.


text:
Prayer of the little children of the Divine Will
For each day from Ash Wednesday to Divine Mercy Sunday
For The Jubilee Year of Mercy
Heavenly Father, In the Name of Jesus, In the Unity, Love and Power of the Holy Spirit, Under the Mantle of Mary Our Blessed Mother, with all the Angels and Saints, and through the Intercession of The Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, we, the little children of the Divine Will, echo her Prayer to help fulfill her task, to repair and re-do all the acts, thoughts, words and deeds of all souls, past, present and future, and to hasten the Salvation and Sanctification of mankind, and with our voice, give You, Triune God, the Divine Glory as if it was done by all in a Divine Manner, as You Originally Wanted from Adam and his children. And so we say:
'Heavenly Father, we come to Your Throne to bring to You Your dear children, broken and separated from You, so that You may bind and re-tie once again that Divine Will which was severed from You by Adam. We the little children of Your Most Holy Divine Will asks this of You and we take on the commitment to satisfy You for everyone. Please bind again the human will with the Divine Will bringing the Kingdom of Your Will so that It may come and Reign upon earth as it is in Heaven. Nothing is denied to Your little ones because what they ask is nothing other than the Echo of Your Own Divine Will and of what You Yourself Want.'
We pledge to pray these prayers each day from Ash Wednesday to Divine Mercy Sunday,
for the complete healing and restoration of all Your children and situations:
February 17 – For Our Holy Father Pope Frances, and for all Popes from Peter to the last
February 18 – For all Cardinals, Bishops, Priests and Deacons of all time
February 19 – For all Seminarians, all Religious men and women of all time
February 20 – For all teachers and Promoters of the Faith of all time
February 21 – For all Fathers, Adoptive Fathers, Grandfathers, throughout the generations
February 22 – For all Mothers, Adoptive Mothers, Grandmothers throughout the generations
February 23 – For all the unborn, newborns, infants, toddlers, and all children
February 24 – For all young people, teenage, young adult, and all seeking their vocations
February 25 – For all the single men and women and for all elderly
February 26 – For all the infirm and suffering, mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally
February 27 – For all souls before death, at any age and circumstance
February 28 – For all soldiers, law enforcement, fire protectors, service persons of all types
March 1 – For all farmers, workers, slaves of all time
March 2 – For all Your chosen people, the Hebrews, Israelites, Jews
March 3 – For all Patriarchs, Prophets, saints of the Old Testament
March 4 – For the Apostles, disciples, for all saints of the New Testament
March 5 – For all missionaries and martyrs
March 6 – For all Saints having aided Redemption and Sanctification
March 7 – For all Catholics of the East, of the West, of all Rites
March 8 – For all Protestants and all Christians
March 9 – For all Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and for all who do not know You, O God
March 10 – For all sinners and all in need of Your Infinite Mercy
March 11 – For all leaders, from Kings to politicians, from high authority to low
March 12 – For all medical persons, lawyers, professors, business persons of every sort
March 13 – For all astronomers, scientists, intellects of every degree
March 14 – For all handicapped and all suffering imperfections of mind and body
March 15 – For all abandoned, outcast and unwanted
March 16 – For the poor, homeless, week, the unloved everywhere
March 17 – For the cancellation of all debts and curses in all family lines
March 18 – For the generational healing of all family lines
March 19 – For the exorcism of all demons in souls and in or on the earth anywhere
March 20 – For the Angels to descend upon earth in the aid and protection of all Your chilren
March 21 – For the Angels of the Last Times to come and fulfill Their Tasks according to the Divine Will
March 22 – For all displaced people, those in refuges and in transition
March 23 – For all homosexuals and those uncertain of their Divine dignity
March 24 – For all addicts of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, food, entertainment, sex and of every vice
March 25 – For all aborted babies at any stage of development
March 26 – For all persons in having supported abortion by politics, human reasoning or indifference
March 27 – For all mothers, fathers, medical or evil persons responsible for killing any unborn child
March 28 – For the conversion of all souls, for their Salvation and Sanctification
March 29 – For the Proclamation 5th Dogma of Our Lady Mediatrix, Co-Redemptrix and Advocate
March 30 – For Our Lady, Mother and Queen of the Divine Will, to Honor Her as such
March 31 – For Luisa Piccarreta, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, to Honor Her as such
April 1 – For the Gift of the Divine Will be given to the Holy Father
April 2 – For the release of all souls from Purgatory
April 3 – For the Unification of the East and the West Churches under the Roman Pontiff
April 4 – For the intentions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the fulfillment of all Her Requests
April 5 – For the Glorification of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta
April 6 – For the blessing of the little family of which we are members.
April 7 – For the Book of Heaven to be known, loved and possessed by all
April 8 – For the Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ in His Second Coming, all for His Glory
April 9 – For the Great Outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Second Pentecost
April 10 – For One Church, One Flock, One Shepherd
April 11 – For the Kingdom of the Divine Will on earth as It is in Heaven


text:
Anthony Gucciardi, Contributing Writer
Activist Post
Stating that newborn babies 'aren't people' and it is therefore acceptable to kill them, two 'ethicists' writing for the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Ethics are now calling for after-birth abortions.
The writers, who worked with Australian universities in the construction of their paper, say that newborn babies simply do not have a "moral right to life."
Furthermore, the paper goes on to state that the babies have no right to live as they do not offer "at least basic value" that would represent a loss.
Study authors Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, both from the University of Melbourne, state in their paper that "after-birth abortion' (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion, including cases where the newborn is not disabled." They go on to say that while it is infanticide, they prefer not to call it that. Instead, they prefer the term 'after-birth abortion' — a term that avoids the true labeling of the proposed technique.
Authors of the paper write that simply being a human isn't something that grants 'a right to life'. It appears the paper authors believe that they are the ones who are to determine whether or not a human can live or die. Under this train of thought, then these 'after-birth' abortions are not limited to infants.
In fact, if being a human does not grant a 'right to life', then so-called 'ethicists' could soon state that everyone with a disability no longer has the right to live. Does this sound familiar? From 1929 to 1974, the United States began forcibly sterilizing individuals they deemed to not be 'fit to live'.
During this time period, around 60,000 people were forcibly sterilized nationwide under the admitted eugenics program. The authors of this paper are now recommending that certain human beings simply do not deserve to live, in the same manner of the U.S. government in 1929. The authors even take it a step further, going from sterilizations to full-blown murders — genocide on a larger scale.
The paper states:
Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a 'person' in the sense of 'subject of a moral right to life'.
Merely being human is not in itself a reason for ascribing someone a right to life. Indeed, many humans are not considered subjects of a right to life…
The news comes just after the 'Euthanasia Coaster' hit the mainstream and alternative media; a proposed rollercoaster design that would 'euthanize and execute' its passengers. The creator of the coaster, Julijonas Urbonas, says the machine is engineered to take the life of a human being with "elegance and euphoria."
The coaster even met similar scientific reception as the concept of after-birth abortions, as the transhumanism science organization "HUMAN+" displayed the concept of the Euthanasia Coaster at the Science Gallery in Dublin from April through June 2011.
Explore More:
- Medical Panel Pushes for Free Birth Control for Women
- Persistent Organic Pollutants Could Lead to Birth Defects in Half of All Newborns
- Government Announces Plan for Free Birth Control
- Infants Born with Low Vitamin D Levels Prone to Developing Lung Infection
- Second-hand Smoke Could Actually Cause Birth Defects
- Birth Control Increases Risk of Contracting, Transmitting HI
This article first appeared at Natural Society, an excellent resource for health news and vaccine information.
Madhouse Medical Tyranny: When Health Becomes Sickness


text:
LORAIN, Ohio – A World War II veteran received his Ohio high school diploma this month more than seven decades after he joined the Navy to avoid graduating because he was embarrassed that he couldn't afford a $9 suit for the ceremony.
Leonard Puma, of McKeesport, Pa., didn't share his disappointment over not getting his diploma until this year, long after he ended his career as a union leader in the Pittsburgh area.
"The only thing I regret is that I never went to 12th grade," he said.
Puma, 88, failed in his first attempt to reach school officials at his old district in Lorain, west of Cleveland, but his daughter followed up with the school.
"Here he was, a labor union leader, and he never shared this with anyone," said his daughter, Lisa Puma, of Alexandria, Va. "It always bothered him that he never received it."
Puma served as president of Ironworkers Local No. 3 near Pittsburgh and later was business manager of the Pittsburgh Building and Construction Trade Councils.
Lorain schools Superintendent Tom Tucker told The (Elyria) Chronicle-Telegram (http://bit.ly/16OLACQ) that such requests have become less frequent.
"We got it done pretty fast," Tucker said. "The school board signed it, and we sent it out along with an old photograph of the high school."
Lisa Puma said her father was shocked when his family surprised him with the diploma.
"He thought it was a dead end," she said. "But he was very humbled and appreciative. Let's face it, he's not going to use it to get into college at 88 years old. He just needed to have closure."
Information from: The Chronicle-Telegram, http://www.chronicletelegram.com


text:
All video games contain the fingerprints of their developers, the oft subtle maker's mark that set the work apart in the eyes of devoted fans. Clay Jam's prints are anything but subtle, covering every inch of this whimsical hand-crafted game for iOS and Android.
Clay Jam, which we briefly featured late last year, is the magical creature of Fat Pebble, a Brighton-based indie developer consisting of industry veterans Michael Movel (creative director), Chris Roe (art director) and Iain Gilfeather (technical director.) The three of them boast 40 years of combined experience in the game industry, working with companies such as Lionhead, Climax, Blitz and Zoë Mode.
After years of making bigger console titles, Fat Pebble was formed, as Movel explained during a recent interview with Kotaku, to create "quirky fun games." It doesn't get much quirkier than building an entire game out of clay.
Clay Jam challenges players to roll a pebble down a series of hills, gathering clay as they roll over the bizarre creatures dotting the landscape. As creatures are collected, the pebble grows larger, Katamari-style, allowing the player to roll over even bigger creatures. Size matters, for at the bottom of each hill there lurks a gigantic clay creature. The bigger your ball, the further away you smack this gargantuan invader at the end of your run.
Building on the clay concept, instead of directly controlling the pebble the player can only trace furrows in the soft earth, guiding the pebble into and away from obstacles as the situation warrants.
Collected clay is used to unlock new roaming creatures, upgrade and unlock new hills to roll down and purchase power-ups to assist in your downhill domination. Clay Jam is a free game—everything is unlockable through normal play—but if you wanted to speed things up by purchasing extra clay I'm sure Fat Pebble wouldn't mind.
It's a simple, addictive little game that's as enjoyable to play as it is to look at. Every aspect of the title, from the tiniest creature to the menu font, was crafted and animated by art director Chris Roe's own hand. The team briefly flirted with the idea of importing the clay models as 3D objects, but ultimately decided to animate traditionally. It was a wise decision. The ageless nature of Claymation relies on those imperfect movements as much as it does the fingerprints left by the artist's careful hand.
Topped off by music from local artists and sounds from a local sound guy, every lovingly-molded inch of Clay Jam is an uncanny delight.
Clay Jam — Free [iTunes]
Clay Jam — Free [Google Play]


text:
500MHz, 2ch analog + 1ch RF 9kHz-500MHz (3GHz optional), 2.5GSa/s, 10Msa memory - optionally expandable with 16ch digital and/or 1ch 50MHz Function/250MSa/s Arbitrary Waveform Generator - free Digital Voltage Meter after registration.
Product specifications
|2 Analog, 2 Analog + 16 Digital, 2 Analog + 16 Digital + RF
|Bus Decoding
|CAN/LIN, Flexray, I2C/SPI, I2S/LJ/RJ/TDM, Mask Testing, MIL-STD-1553, RS232/422/485/UART, USB
|Freq Range
|500,00 MHz
|Memory Depth
|Signal Generator Type
|Function Generators, Waveform Generators
|Signal Generator Nr. Channels
|Signal Generator Frequency
|50,00 MHz
Product description
Today's integrated designs need an oscilloscope that is just as integrated - such as the MDO3000 Mixed Domain Oscilloscope (MDO) Series. It is the ultimate 6-in-1 integrated oscilloscope that includes an integrated spectrum analyzer, arbitrary function generator, logic analyzer, protocol analyzer, and digital voltmeter/counter. The MDO3000 is completely customizable and fully upgradeable. Add the instruments and performance you need now - or later.
- Oscilloscope
- 2 and 4 analog channel models
- 1 GHz, 500 MHz, 350 MHz, 200 MHz, 100 MHz bandwidth models
- Bandwidth is upgradable (up to 1 GHz)
- Up to 5 GS/s sample rate
- 10 M record length on all channels
- >280,000 wfm/s maximum waveform capture rate
- Standard passive voltage probes with 3.9 pF capacitive loading and 1 GHz, 500 MHz, or 250 MHz analog bandwidth
- Spectrum Analyzer
- Frequency range
- Standard: 9 kHz - oscilloscope bandwidth
- Optional: 9 kHz - 3 GHz
- Ultra-wide capture bandwidth up to 3 GHz
- Frequency range
- Arbitrary Function Generator (Optional)
- 13 predefined waveform types
- 50 MHz waveform generation
- 128 k arbitrary generator record length
- 250 MS/s arbitrary generator sample rate
- Logic Analyzer (Optional)
- 16 digital channels
- 10 M record length on all channels
- 121.2 ps timing resolution
- Protocol Analyzer (Optional)
- Serial bus support for I2C, SPI, RS-232/422/485/UART, USB 2.0, CAN, LIN, FlexRay, MIL-STD-1553, and Audio standards
- Digital Voltmeter (Free with product registration)
- 4-digit AC RMS, DC, and AC+DC RMS voltage measurements
- 5-digit frequency measurements
- FastAcq™ high-speed waveform capture rate finds elusive signal anomalies quickly
- Wave Inspector® Controls provide easy navigation and automated search of waveform data
- 33 automated measurements and waveform histograms for simplified waveform analysis
- TekVPI® probe interface directly supports active, differential, and current probes for automatic scaling and units
- 9 in. (229 mm) WVGA widescreen color display
- Small footprint and lightweight – Only 5.8 in. (147 mm) deep and 9.2 lb. (4.2 kg)
- Spectral Analysis
- Dedicated front-panel controls for commonly performed tasks
- Automated peak markers identify frequency and amplitude of spectrum peaks
- Manual markers enable non-peak measurements
- Trace types include: Normal, Average, Max Hold, and Min Hold
- Spectrogram display enables easy observation and insight into slowly changing RF phenomena
- Automated measurements include: Channel Power, Adjacent Channel Power Ratio (ACPR), and Occupied Bandwidth (OBW)
- Arbitrary Function Generation
- Generate predefined signals to quickly simulate missing devices in designs
- Capture signals on analog or digital inputs, transfer to the arbitrary edit memory, and replicate out from the AFG
- Add noise to any signal to easily perform margin testing
- Mixed signal design and analysis
- Automated triggering, decode, and search on parallel buses
- Multichannel setup and hold triggering
- MagniVu™ high-speed acquisition provides 121.2 ps fine timing resolution on digital channels
- Protocol Analysis
- Trigger, decode and automatically search on packet-level content on most common embedded design serial bus standards.
- Export protocol decode tables for use in documenting results
- Digital Voltmeter and Frequency Counter
- Quickly validate voltage or frequency measurements at a glance
- Graphical readout provides information on stability of the measurement
- Fully upgradeable
- Add functionality, increase bandwidth or spectrum analyzer frequency range over time as your needs change or budget allows
- Power analysis
- Limit and mask testing


text:
CLASSROOM 21 | by Greg Limperis
How educators can avert déjà vu by waking up to today's social media reality.
Fifteen years ago, I began teaching in a state-of-the-art school. Back then, it was a $40 million, first-of-its-kind elementary and middle school. An inner-city K-8 facility in Lawrence, Mass., it housed about 1400 students on opening day, and with a gymnasium, auditorium, cafeteria, library, television studio, art and home economics rooms—it was huge. It also housed three media rooms, and every classroom was outfitted with five student computers, a printer and a computer on every teacher's desk. Every teacher was also issued a laptop, and all the computers were networked to the district intranet. There was a television in every classroom, and a library-based video center that piped out videos to any classroom upon request over the school intranet. The resources were impressive.
As a first-year teacher, I refused to let any of this go to waste, and quickly decided (with little help or support) that I would make full use of this technology in my classroom. As a homeroom teacher, I had students conduct research and present using the computer. My second year, delegates from around the world toured my class to see our daily integration of these tools used with inner city youth. By year three, I had done so much to integrate technology into our school that my principal requested that I become the school's very first Technology Facilitator.
Over the next few years, I trained and mentored various new employees, assisting them in becoming Technology Facilitators as well. After six years, I was transferred to another, brand-new state-of-the-art school where I've been the Technology Facilitator ever since.
However, since leaving my first school, their tech integration has taken many steps back. Teachers aren't trained. They have little experience with the best resources to integrate technology. Further, very few colleges do a great job of prepping teachers to integrate technology. If they do, many move into buildings unequipped to provide for these "students of the future". Some still resemble turn-of-the-century schools. Technology very often goes unused. If it is used, it's limited use.
Fifteen years of teaching and technology integration hasn't progressed much further than when we first started. My new school actually has less computers per classroom, and more technology that goes unused for various reasons—not for my lack of skills or desire to train others.
In fact, two years ago, I even founded a professional learning network on Linkedin, Ning, Twitter, Diigo and Facebook to help share my skills. Though we now have thousands of members worldwide, very few are employees from my district. Why? I'm not certain, but I do know that I've shared the site and encouraged them to join. Instead, many teachers in my district are consumed with improving test scores. While ARRA money has been given out in the millions of dollars—and I'm sure some has reached our district (urban; 85 percent Hispanic; 85 percent at or below poverty)—for fifteen years we've hovered near bottom in state standardized test performance. Millions of dollars in state, federal and grant money later, little has changed.
So you ask me: What's the future of education? What's the influence of social media on that? My answer: the only way social media will result in any significant change to education over the next fifteen years is, if we as educators express our desire for change. Enough is enough! What we're doing isn't working.
As quoted in "Teaching for America" (New York Times, November 20, 2010), U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated in a November 4, 2010 speech:
One-quarter of U.S. high school students drop out or fail to graduate on time. Almost one million students leave our schools for the streets each year. … One of the more unusual and sobering press conferences I participated in last year was the release of a report by a group of top retired generals and admirals. Here was the stunning conclusion of their report: 75 percent of young Americans, between the ages of 17 to 24, are unable to enlist in the military today because they have failed to graduate from high school, have a criminal record, or are physically unfit.
We aren't even preparing these students to enlist in our Army. According to the same New York Times article, the U.S. now ranks ninth in the world in college attainment.
Meanwhile, I use social media in my classroom, and I've polled my students on whether they enjoy using this medium better than the standard way they currently learn in the classroom. Just about every one of them has said, "Yes." They want change. Unfortunately, we're not providing them with any meaningful change. Yet of all the times change is possible, we've never been more ready or more set up to succeed than right now. With millions of dollars earmarked for education and specifically technology in education—we can't afford to get this wrong.
How often will we be able to say this will happen? Will we do what is right for our students? Will we lead them into the future in a way that is meaningful for them, that uses cutting-edge technology to not merely enhance, but to help drive their learning? Will we give their teachers the skills and support they need in order to make this happen? Or, will we just throw all kinds of new technologies at them with little follow up and support, only to see the technology once again be used with very little purpose and even less meaningful lessons?
Where will our educators go for models of great teaching? Who will supply them with needed support if the school district does not? This is where we as educators need to make things happen for ourselves. If those in leadership positions cannot, do not, or even refuse to do it for us, we still have a tremendous opportunity to use our social networks to facilitate large-scale change.
Nonetheless, with all the teachers in this country and around the world, a professional networking group like mine shouldn't have just 3,000 members. Classroom 2.0, the juggernaut of all social networks, shouldn't have just 60,000 members. We should all be involved in these efforts—globally.
Our students, our countries and our future can't wait another fifteen years for this change. It has to be swift. It has to be decisive—and change in education has to be meaningful for all students. We need to prepare our students for tomorrow today—providing them with the same tools we use in our professional lives. I would like to look back fifteen years from now and say with tickled amusement,"Hey! I remember when we used to teach that way!"—and I think our students would want that, too.
Greg Limperis is a Middle School Technology Facilitator in Lawrence, Mass., who founded the very popular Technology Integration in Education professional learning network, reaching thousands of educators worldwide. He has shared with others what he knows and they have joined him in sharing their insights as well. Join them in bringing about change using your 21st century skills.


text:
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has tossed a law that made it illegal to sell for promote sex toys.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas law making it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices, punishable by as many as two years in jail, violated the right to privacy guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
The Court's reasoning:
In its decision Tuesday, the appeals court cited Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 opinion that struck down bans on consensual sex between same-sex couples.
"Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its laws to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct," the appeals judges wrote. "The case is not about public sex. It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of consensual private intimate conduct. This is an insufficient justification after Lawrence."
(25 comments) Permalink :: Comments


text:
Welcome to Tacoma World!You are currently viewing as a guest! To get full-access, you need to register for a FREE account.
As a registered member, you'll be able to:
- Participate in all Tacoma discussion topics
- Communicate privately with other Tacoma owners from around the world
- Post your own photos in our Members Gallery
- Access all special features of the site
Double Cab available with 4 Cylinder (In Venezuela)
Discussion in '2nd Gen. Tacomas (2005-2015)' started by surfponto, Jan 18, 2007.


text:
Guardian UK
Ian Stewart
February 12, 2012
In the Black-Scholes equation, the symbols represent these variables: σ = volatility of returns of the underlying asset/commodity; S = its spot (current) price; δ = rate of change; V = price of financial derivative; r = risk-free interest rate; t = time.
It was the holy grail of investors. The Black-Scholes equation , brainchild of economists Fischer Black and Myron Scholes, provided a rational way to price a financial contract when it still had time to run. It was like buying or selling a bet on a horse, halfway through the race. It opened up a new world of ever more complex investments, blossoming into a gigantic global industry. But when the sub-prime mortgage market turned sour, the darling of the financial markets became the Black Hole equation, sucking money out of the universe in an unending stream.
Anyone who has followed the crisis will understand that the real economy of businesses and commodities is being upstaged by complicated financial instruments known as derivatives. These are not money or goods. They are investments in investments, bets about bets. Derivatives created a booming global economy, but they also led to turbulent markets, the credit crunch , the near collapse of the banking system and the economic slump. And it was the Black-Scholes equation that opened up the world of derivatives.
The equation itself wasn't the real problem. It was useful, it was precise, and its limitations were clearly stated. It provided an industry-standard method to assess the likely value of a financial derivative. So derivatives could be traded before they matured. The formula was fine if you used it sensibly and abandoned it when market conditions weren't appropriate. The trouble was its potential for abuse. It allowed derivatives to become commodities that could be traded in their own right. The financial sector called it the Midas Formula and saw it as a recipe for making everything turn to gold. But the markets forgot how the story of King Midas ended.
Black-Scholes underpinned massive economic growth. By 2007, the international financial system was trading derivatives valued at one quadrillion dollars per year. This is 10 times the total worth, adjusted for inflation, of all products made by the world's manufacturing industries over the last century. The downside was the invention of ever-more complex financial instruments whose value and risk were increasingly opaque. So companies hired mathematically talented analysts to develop similar formulas, telling them how much those new instruments were worth and how risky they were. Then, disastrously, they forgot to ask how reliable the answers would be if market conditions changed.
Black and Scholes invented their equation in 1973; Robert Merton supplied extra justification soon after. It applies to the simplest and oldest derivatives: options. There are two main kinds. A put option gives its buyer the right to sell a commodity at a specified time for an agreed price. A call option is similar, but it confers the right to buy instead of sell. The equation provides a systematic way to calculate the value of an option before it matures. Then the option can be sold at any time. The equation was so effective that it won Merton and Scholes the 1997 Nobel prize in economics. (Black had died by then, so he was ineligible.)
If everyone knows the correct value of a derivative and they all agree, how can anyone make money? The formula requires the user to estimate several numerical quantities. But the main way to make money on derivatives is to win your bet – to buy a derivative that can later be sold at a higher price, or matures with a higher value than predicted. The winners get their profit from the losers. In any given year, between 75% and 90% of all options traders lose money. The world's banks lost hundreds of billions when the sub-prime mortgage bubble burst. In the ensuing panic, taxpayers were forced to pick up the bill, but that was politics, not mathematical economics.
The Black-Scholes equation relates the recommended price of the option to four other quantities. Three can be measured directly: time, the price of the asset upon which the option is secured and the risk-free interest rate. This is the theoretical interest that could be earned by an investment with zero risk, such as government bonds. The fourth quantity is the volatility of the asset. This is a measure of how erratically its market value changes. The equation assumes that the asset's volatility remains the same for the lifetime of the option, which need not be correct. Volatility can be estimated by statistical analysis of price movements but it can't be measured in a precise, foolproof way, and estimates may not match reality.
The idea behind many financial models goes back to Louis Bachelier in 1900, who suggested that fluctuations of the stock market can be modelled by a random process known as Brownian motion. At each instant, the price of a stock either increases or decreases, and the model assumes fixed probabilities for these events. They may be equally likely, or one may be more probable than the other. It's like someone standing on a street and repeatedly tossing a coin to decide whether to move a small step forwards or backwards, so they zigzag back and forth erratically. Their position corresponds to the price of the stock, moving up or down at random. The most important statistical features of Brownian motion are its mean and its standard deviation. The mean is the short-term average price, which typically drifts in a specific direction, up or down depending on where the market thinks the stock is going. The standard deviation can be thought of as the average amount by which the price differs from the mean, calculated using a standard statistical formula. For stock prices this is called volatility, and it measures how erratically the price fluctuates. On a graph of price against time, volatility corresponds to how jagged the zigzag movements look.
Black-Scholes implements Bachelier's vision. It does not give the value of the option (the price at which it should be sold or bought) directly. It is what mathematicians call a partial differential equation, expressing the rate of change of the price in terms of the rates at which various other quantities are changing. Fortunately, the equation can be solved to provide a specific formula for the value of a put option, with a similar formula for call options.
The early success of Black-Scholes encouraged the financial sector to develop a host of related equations aimed at different financial instruments. Conventional banks could use these equations to justify loans and trades and assess the likely profits, always keeping an eye open for potential trouble. But less conventional businesses weren't so cautious. Soon, the banks followed them into increasingly speculative ventures.
Any mathematical model of reality relies on simplifications and assumptions. The Black-Scholes equation was based on arbitrage pricing theory, in which both drift and volatility are constant.
This assumption is common in financial theory, but it is often false for real markets. The equation also assumes that there are no transaction costs, no limits on short-selling and that money can always be lent and borrowed at a known, fixed, risk-free interest rate. Again, reality is often very different.
When these assumptions are valid, risk is usually low, because large stock market fluctuations should be extremely rare. But on 19 October 1987, Black Monday, the world's stock markets lost more than 20% of their value within a few hours. An event this extreme is virtually impossible under the model's assumptions. In his bestseller The Black Swan , Nassim Nicholas Taleb , an expert in mathematical finance, calls extreme events of this kind black swans . In ancient times, all known swans were white and "black swan" was widely used in the same way we now refer to a flying pig. But in 1697, the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh found masses of black swans on what became known as the Swan River in Australia. So the phrase now refers to an assumption that appears to be grounded in fact, but might at any moment turn out to be wildly mistaken.
Large fluctuations in the stock market are far more common than Brownian motion predicts. The reason is unrealistic assumptions – ignoring potential black swans. But usually the model performed very well, so as time passed and confidence grew, many bankers and traders forgot the model had limitations. They used the equation as a kind of talisman, a bit of mathematical magic to protect them against criticism if anything went wrong.
Banks, hedge funds, and other speculators were soon trading complicated derivatives such as credit default swaps – likened to insuring your neighbour's house against fire – in eye-watering quantities. They were priced and considered to be assets in their own right. That meant they could be used as security for other purchases. As everything got more complicated, the models used to assess value and risk deviated ever further from reality. Somewhere underneath it all was real property, and the markets assumed that property values would keep rising for ever, making these investments risk-free.
The Black-Scholes equation has its roots in mathematical physics, where quantities are infinitely divisible, time flows continuously and variables change smoothly. Such models may not be appropriate to the world of finance. Traditional mathematical economics doesn't always match reality, either, and when it fails, it fails badly. Physicists, mathematicians and economists are therefore looking for better models.
At the forefront of these efforts is complexity science , a new branch of mathematics that models the market as a collection of individuals interacting according to specified rules. These models reveal the damaging effects of the herd instinct: market traders copy other market traders. Virtually every financial crisis in the last century has been pushed over the edge by the herd instinct. It makes everything go belly-up at the same time. If engineers took that attitude, and one bridge in the world fell down, so would all the others.
By studying ecological systems, it can be shown that instability is common in economic models, mainly because of the poor design of the financial system. The facility to transfer billions at the click of a mouse may allow ever-quicker profits, but it also makes shocks propagate faster.
Was an equation to blame for the financial crash, then? Yes and no. Black-Scholes may have contributed to the crash, but only because it was abused. In any case, the equation was just one ingredient in a rich stew of financial irresponsibility, political ineptitude, perverse incentives and lax regulation.
Despite its supposed expertise, the financial sector performs no better than random guesswork. The stock market has spent 20 years going nowhere. The system is too complex to be run on error-strewn hunches and gut feelings, but current mathematical models don't represent reality adequately. The entire system is poorly understood and dangerously unstable. The world economy desperately needs a radical overhaul and that requires more mathematics, not less. It may be rocket science, but magic it's not.


text:
Daily Coffee Habit Linked To Lower Risk Of Liver Cancer, Study Says
By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times
In their continuing quest to prove that coffee is indeed a health food, medical researchers analyzed the health records of nearly 180,000 Americans and determined that the ones with a daily java habit were less likely to get a common type of liver cancer than their less-caffeinated counterparts.
The study, presented this week at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting in San Diego, may not be enough to get your coffee break covered by your health insurance, but the results were striking.
Compared with people who drank no more than six cups of coffee per week, those who drank one to three cups per day were 29 percent less likely to develop hepatocellular carcinoma, or HCC, which is the most common form of liver cancer. Serious coffee drinkers — those who downed four or more cups per day — were 42 percent less likely to be diagnosed with the disease.
"Now we can add HCC to the list of medical ailments, such as Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke, that may be prevented by coffee intake," study leader V. Wendy Setiawan, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California's Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a statement.
Though she is not a physician, she added: "Daily coffee consumption should be encouraged in individuals who are at high risk for HCC."
Hepatocellular carcinoma accounts for about 85 percent of all liver cancers in the United States, and kills about 16,000 people a year, according to 2008 review article in the Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 3.2 out of every 100,000 Americans is diagnosed with HCC each year, while researchers at the National Cancer Institute say the rate is 4.9 cases per 100,000 Americans.
Setiawan and her colleagues decided to look for a link between HCC and coffee consumption after epidemiological studies from other countries suggested that the drink could reduce the risk of the cancer.
They examined data on 179,890 African-Americans, Native Hawaiians, Japanese Americans, Latinos and Caucasian adults who enrolled in the Multiethnic Cohort Study in the 1990s. The study participants reported their coffee-drinking habits (along with lots of other dietary data) when they joined the study.
Eighteen years after the study began, 498 of the volunteers had developed HCC. But the risk wasn't spread evenly among coffee drinkers and non-drinkers. Although the researchers controlled for factors such as the volunteers' body mass index, drinking and smoking habits, ethnicity and other factors, they found that these things didn't affect the relationship between coffee consumption and HCC.
Setiawan said she wasn't sure why coffee seems to protect the liver, but the research team intends to investigate the link (if any) between java and chronic liver diseases.
And in case you were wondering, the study was not bankrolled by Starbucks. Funding came from the National Cancer Institute.
Photo: AFP.com


text:
The North Face Embroidered Men's Canyon Flats Fleece Jacket
Style #6534 View Women's Style
Product Details
Features include:
-100% polyester fleece
-Smooth-faced fleece with a brushed interior for comfort
-Vislon center front zipper
-Concealed-zip right chest pocket with welding detail
-Raglan sleeves for extra mobility
-Secure-zip hand pockets
-Contrast, high-density The North Face logo heat transfer on left sleeve
Customer Reviews
2 Reviews2 reviews by Trustpilot 0 by Queensboro
"I'm a huge North Face fan, and being able to get my logo on North Face apparel is pretty much awesome! "by Arbeit Consulting
4 years ago
"My favorite jacket of the 3 North Face I have purchased from Queensboro. It's sporty, comfortable and durable. Absolutely recommend this one!"by Cory Chalmers
5 years ago


text:
May|June 2005
The Brains Behind Blackmun By David J. Garrow
Readers Respond: Justice Blackmun
Unbecoming Justice Blackmun By William Saletan
A Measure Of Truth By Kermit Roosevelt
The Federalist Capers By Roderick M. Hills, Jr.
A Dirty Little Secret By Eric Redman
Justice on the Half Shell By Aaron Kuriloff
The Prince of Darknet By Joseph D. Lasica
Unbecoming Justice Blackmun
Linda Greenhouse's book reveals a justice who cared more about politics than about women's rights.
FEW SUPREME COURT JUSTICES HAVE BEEN VILIFIED as judicial activists the way Harry Blackmun was. In conservative lore, he manufactured a radical, undemocratic regime of abortion rights based on a flimsy foundation of "penumbras" and "emanations." Now we have his previously private files1,600 boxes of notes, draft opinions, and morewhich New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse has sifted through for her new book, Becoming Justice Blackmun. The results reveal that Blackmun was every bit the activist his enemies imagined, but that his agenda in Roe v. Wade and during the decade afterward was hardly liberal. Judicial activism and liberalism, in this instance, were two different things.
Blackmun's files show how thoroughly his thinking about Roe and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton, changed and expanded in the year between initial oral arguments and the court's rulings. His first draft of Roe dismissed the law in question, a Texas abortion ban, as too vague. In pre-argument notes for Doe, he wrote that another abortion ban, one with limited exceptions, was "pretty good and strikes a good balance of the asserted interests."
The idea of a broader right to abortion bubbled up from lower courts, propelled by result-oriented arguments that seemed indifferent to how they were supported by the Constitution. The Georgia district court that had decided Doe before the case reached the Supreme Court cited both the "retained by the people" clause and the "penumbras" underlying the right to privacy. "For whichever reason, the concept of personal liberty embodies a right to privacy which apparently is also broad enough to include the decision to abort a pregnancy," the court said.
Blackmun's notes convey the same casual attitude. He began with intuition and then looked for a constitutional peg. "Right of the mother to life, health, physical & mental," he wrote in October 1972. "Translated this means 9th and 14th amendment rights." In his notes, he posited an abortion right similar to the right to contraception, then conceded the difference between the two acts, but shrugged, "Whatever the answer, something fundamental is involved. [There's] much precedent for this sort of thingGriswold, etc." In his final draft of Roe, he concluded that "This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty [or] . . . the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass" abortion. Fourteenth, Ninth, etc., this sort of thing, something fundamental, whatever.
Part of the "etc." Blackmun invoked as precedent was Eisenstadt v. Baird, the 1972 decision that extended the right to contraception to single people. This was a sham, however: The justices designed the precedent to suit the progeny. Justice William Brennan's draft of Eisenstadt, which was circulated months after oral arguments in Roe, "was obviously crafted to apply in the abortion context," Greenhouse writes, noting that Brennan made the unnecessary assertion in Eisenstadt that the right to privacy entailed a right to choose whether to "bear" a child. Days after the court handed down Eisenstadt, Blackmun worked a reference to it into a draft of Doe, and later into Roe. Meanwhile, a federal court in Connecticut took the cue, declaring that Eisenstadt established a right to abortion. Justice Lewis Powell advised Blackmun to follow the Connecticut court's reasoning, and Blackmun ultimately did so, completing the daisy chain.
BLACKMUN'S PAPERS VINDICATE EVERY INDICTMENT of Roe: invention, overreach, arbitrariness, textual indifference. But they also implicate his critics. In a 1970 letter, Chief Justice Warren Burger lectured Blackmun about the evils of injecting personal morality into constitutional law. A year later, though, Burger prodded his colleagues to expand Roe or Doe to address the rights of would-be fathers. In December 1972, when Blackmun asked the other justices to comment on his trimester framework, Burger ignored the request and brought up the question of fathers again. Blackmun fended him off with a footnote pointing out that no law or litigant in either case had raised the question. This didn't stop Burger from resuming the lecture: When Blackmun drafted a decision-day announcement that the justices "have endeavored, too, to note the changes in attitudes" toward abortion among medical organizations, Burger wrote in the margin, "We ought not to look for it!" Burger edited the sentence to read, "We cannot escape noting, too . . ." Judicial restraint turns out to be less a principle than a pose.
The justices were hardly oblivious to politics. Greenhouse finds a 1972 poll in Blackmun's files showing majority support for the right to abortion when the question was framed in terms of a woman and her doctor. She also discovers the results of the court's 1992 Electoral College office pool. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor captured an $18 jackpot; Blackmun came in second. While still on the bench, Blackmun later wrote an enthusiastic letter to the winner he picked, Bill Clinton.
If the sin of activism goes both ways, so does the hypocrisy about it. In 1986, having denied to a friend that Roe reflected his moral views on abortion, Blackmun dismissed O'Connor's opinion in Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists with the comment, "She is just against abortion"as though she was presumptively guilty of imposing her values but he was not. The man who had declared a right to abortion in Roe after writing that the case required no such boldness then scolded the United States solicitor general in Thornburgh for challenging Roe when neither party had requested such boldness.
The most flagrant hypocrisy concerns political timing. In 1973, Blackmun fumed under the suspicion that Burger was delaying Roe to avoid embarrassing President Richard Nixon before his second inauguration. But in 1992, Blackmun used his concurrence in Planned Parenthood v. Casey to warn women that the election might decide Roe's fate. Blackmun's clerks urged him to rush the case through so that it could be decided "before the election," giving "women the opportunity to vote their outrage." Meanwhile, they drafted a statement for him to deliver if the other justices voted not to proceed with such haste. The statement read: "I feel that this Court stands less tall when it defers decision for political reasons."
SO BLACKMUN PLAYED POLITICS. But what were his politics in Roe and the years that followed? Was he a feminist crusader? Or was he, as his files suggest, more of an old-fashioned conservative? At his retirement ceremony two decades after Roe, Blackmun portrayed the case as a pioneering advance in a difficult climate, "a step that had to be taken as we go down the road toward the full emancipation of women." Certainly the climate in Roe's day was difficult: Men dominated legal scholarship, and anxiety about feminism was rising. During the court's deliberations, President Nixon condemned "abortion on demand." Burger, who was preoccupied with fathers' rights, echoed Nixon in a concurrence insisting that Roe didn't require abortion on demand. Greenhouse interprets Nixon's remark as a gesture to pro-lifers, but phrases such as "on demand" and "for convenience" sent a more precise message: that women should not have too much control when deciding whether to have abortions.
How could a right to abortion be established in such a climate? By emphasizing the supervisory role of doctors. That was the headline of the poll found in Blackmun's files: "ABORTION SEEN UP TO WOMAN, DOCTOR." It was also the implicit advice of the moderate Powell and the wily Brennan. Powell urged Blackmun to frame abortion as "a medical problem broadly defined," and Brennan proposed to strike down the Georgia law because it "overrides a good faith determination by the attending M.D." A male clerk of Blackmun's at the time advised the justice that he would be most likely to succeed if he reasoned "not that the woman's right is so strong but that to permit other criteria in these statutes [other than the doctor's view of the best course for the patient] is in the end to restrict medical judgment about what is best for each woman."
Did these external constraints force Roe's emphasis on doctors rather than women? That's what Blackmun told himself later. Greenhouse finds in Blackmun's files a 1993 article excerpting a lecture in which Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then an appellate judge, faulted Roe's focus on doctors. On the article, Blackmun had penned, "She picks at Roe. Better to have been decided on equal protection. With all respect, could not have been done."
Maybe that's so, but in his early notes and drafts, Blackmun, who had once been the Mayo Clinic's general counsel, saw Roe and Doe as medical discretion cases all the way. That is why he assessed the Georgia law, which subjected abortion decisions to the approval of three doctors and a hospital committee, as "a good balance of the asserted interests." It is also why he preferred to decide Roe on the grounds that the law in question was vague. His first draft rejected the Texas law as "insufficiently informative to the physician . . . who must measure its indefinite meaning at the risk of his liberty."
Even after Blackmun shifted toward a privacy rationalein Doe in May 1972, and in Roe five months laterhis focus remained on the doctor. His outline of a revised Roe opinion posited, "A fundamental personal liberty is involved hereright to receive medical care." His final draft insisted that early in pregnancy, "the abortion decision in all its aspects is inherently, and primarily, a medical decision, and basic responsibility for it must rest with the physician."
IT'S HARD TO IMAGINE THE EARLY BLACKMUN approaching Roe from the standpoint of sexual equality. He jotted down the attire of female lawyers who argued before the court. In a 1971 memo, he dismissed Reed v. Reed, a case about overt sex bias in estate administration, as "much ado about nothing." He complained that Ginsburg's brief in that case, filed when she was a law professor at Rutgers University, was "filled with emotion" about the oppression of women. "I would hope that we do not get into a long and emotional discussion about women's rights," he told his fellow justices. In 1972, preparing for re-arguments in Roe and Doe, Blackmun wrote, "No absolute right to do with body as one chooses."
Greenhouse thinks that as the years went by, Blackmun came to understand and appreciate feminism. In 1975, he rejected the assumption that girls were "destined solely for the home" rather than "the marketplace and the world of ideas." In 1976, he parted with Burger, ruling that a married woman could not be required to get her husband's consent before having an abortion. And in the 1977 abortion funding cases, he accused his colleagues of libertarian indifference to "the individual woman concerned, indigent and financially helpless."
Greenhouse cites such opinions as evidence of a foxhole conversion. Roe "would open him to new ideas," she writes. But the evidence that his ideas changed in the 1970s is dubious. The 1975 case was unusually egregious: It involved state-ordered financial discrimination, based on the supposition that boys but not girls required preparation for careers. In the spousal consent case, Blackmun brushed off a brief that presented what he called "the extreme on the female side." In the abortion funding cases, he talked about class, not sex.
Other cases show how little Blackmun changed. In 1973, he refused to categorize pregnancy discrimination as sex discrimination or to designate women as a suspect class, deserving of particular legal protection akin to what the law gave blacks and members of other minority groups. In 1975, he said that the court should leave to Congress any reform of sex-based differences in survivors' benefits, writing "That is where it belongs really if changing times are equalizing incomes." In 1976, Blackmun was still taking notes on what female lawyers worein one case, his future colleague Ginsburg. And in 1981, Blackmun rejected a female clerk's advice to side with a lower court against a single-sex nursing program. He wrote, "I have come to suspect that it is easy to go too far with rigid rules in this area of claimed sex discrimination, and to loseindeed destroyvalues that mean much to some people."
Not until 1986 did Blackmun's voting record turn measurably to the left. He sided with Brennan and Marshall about 75 percent in the 1981-85 terms and about 95 percent in the 1986-90 terms. That coincides with Blackmun's shift to feminist rhetoric in Thornburgh (1986), Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), and Casey (1992). What happened? The files are silent. Greenhouse finds a picture of Blackmun surrounded by the women of his family. She retells his daughter's story of an unintended pregnancy that ended in marriage, miscarriage, and divorce. But nothing connects any of it to Blackmun's jurisprudence.
Greenhouse compares her investigation to "plunging down a rabbit hole into a separate world, so different from the surface." But when she gets to Blackmun's mind, all she finds is surface. He recorded other justices' remarks at the first conference on Roe and Doe, but not his own. He kept a "chronology of significant events" that reveals nothing about significant events. He asked his wife and daughters what they thought of abortion, but all he said after hearing them out was, "I think I'll go lie down. I'm getting a headache."
Maybe Blackmun had a foxhole conversion. Or maybe he got something more like post-traumatic stress disorder. Maybe the conservative assault on Roe, which became a serious threat with Thornburgh and the appointments of Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy, made Blackmun not wiser but angrier. That's when his notes and dissents turned caustic. That's when he started grumbling about a Reagan "cabal" of justices, accusing the administration of "a personal attack on me," and blasting his colleagues in Rust v. Sullivan. By 1992, Blackmun was so bitter he couldn't see Roe's salvation in the emerging moderate bloc of Justices Kennedy, O'Connor, and David Souter. It was Justice John Paul Stevens who warned Blackmun in 1991 not to alienate the moderates and who ultimately negotiated with them to save Roe in 1992. In the biggest political coup of his career, Blackmun was where the critics of his judicial activism said he always should have been: out of the politics and out of the action.
<& /legalaffairscomp/ads_articles.comp &>


text:
UnBooks:Choose Your Own Adventure:One Ordinary Day
UnBooks:Choose Your Own Adventure:One Ordinary Day is brought to you by the makers of Crossfire[1] and Mr. Buckets.[2]
Ah, morning time. The smell of bacon and pancakes wafts up to your bedroom.
"Time to get up and go to school," you state happily.
You get up, bound to the door, and down the stairs to the kitchen.
"Oh, good. You're up, pumpkin," your mom states sweetly as she heads over to the counter and blows out the breakfast-scented candle. "Come on now, and eat your gruel."
"Awww, Ma!" you complain.
"SHADDUP," mom screams at you, with an angry, contorted face. "You ungrateful piece of garbage..."
Her sudden change startles you, but her face quickly changes back into the smile that you know and love.
"Now get out of here scamp. You don't want to be late for school," she says, kissing you on your forehead.
You run out and whiff the sweet smell that is Seattle, Washington.
"Boy-oh-boy," you say joyfully. "What a beautiful day! It's only barely raining! It would be a great day to walk to school."
Just then you see your school bus come around the corner. It seems to be running a little late as it is. Walking would be great, but can you be sure you will arrive at school on time? You wouldn't want to upset mom, would you? This is terrible. Your first decision, and its only 7:15. Your day sure better not be full of these decision things.[3] Well, what do you do?
|Choose to walk to school?
|Choose to ride the bus?
|Featured Article (read another featured article)
|Featured version: 15 August 2010
|This article has been featured on the main page. — You can vote for or nominate your favourite articles at Uncyclopedia:VFH.


text:
WORCESTER, Mass. — Prosecutors and defense lawyers filed a joint court motion Monday asking a judge to release one of the friends of Boston Marathon suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from federal custody while awaiting trial.
Robel Phillipos, 19, was charged last week with lying to investigators looking into the April 15 bombings. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth student faces a maximum of eight years in prison if convicted.
Authorities say he lied to investigators about visiting Tsarnaev's dorm room three days after the bombings.
Both sides said in the court motion that they agree to allow Phillipos to be released under strict conditions, including home confinement and monitoring with an electronic bracelet, along with a $100,000 bond.
A magistrate judge is expected to consider the request during a hearing Monday afternoon.
Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, was killed after a gunbattle with police four days after the bombings.
A funeral director trying to find a cemetery to take Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body pledged to ask the city of Cambridge to allow him to be buried in a city-owned cemetery because the brothers lived in Cambridge for the last decade.
But Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy said he is urging Tsarnaev's family not to make the request.
"The difficult and stressful efforts of the citizens of the City of Cambridge to return to a peaceful life would be adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests, and wide spread media presence at such an interment," Healy said in a statement Sunday.
Healey said the families who have loved ones interred at the cemetery also deserve to have their deceased family members rest in peace. He said federal agencies should take the lead in the burial.
Worcester funeral director Peter Stefan said hasn't been able to find a cemetery in Massachusetts willing to accept Tsarnaev's remains. He said if Cambridge turns him down, he will seek help from state officials. Stefan said Monday that he is looking outside of Massachusetts and does not think Russia will take the body.
Phillipos is accused of lying to investigators about visiting Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's college dorm room on April 18, three days after the bombings. Two other friends were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by taking a backpack with fireworks and a laptop from Tsarnaev's dorm room. All four had studied at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Defense attorneys for Phillipos said in court documents their client had nothing to do with the deadly bombings and isn't a flight risk.
The Tsarnaev brothers are accused of carrying out the bombings using pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails, ball bearings and metal shards. The attack killed three people and injured more than 260 others near the marathon's finish line.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured and remains in a prison hospital. He has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and faces a potential death sentence if convicted.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, of Montgomery Village, Md., and three of his friends met with Stefan on Sunday to wash and shroud Tsarnaev's body according to Muslim tradition.
Tsarni told reporters that he is arranging for Tsarnaev's burial because religion and tradition call for his nephew to be buried. He would like him buried in Massachusetts because he's lived in the state for the last decade, he said.
"I'm dealing with logistics. A dead person must be buried," he said.
He said he was grateful to Stefan for agreeing to arrange the burial and to his friends for accompanying him to Massachusetts to aid with the funeral.
"These are my friends who feel for me … as I do understand no one wants to associate their names with such evil events," he said.
Tsarnaev, who had appeared in surveillance photos wearing a black cap, was identified by authorities as Suspect No. 1.
The state medical examiner ruled that Tsarnaev died from gunshot wounds and blunt trauma to his head and torso, and authorities have said his brother ran him over in a chaotic getaway attempt.
Tsarni has denounced the acts his nephews are accused of committing and has said they brought shame to the family and the entire Chechen ethnicity. The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago with their parents. Both parents returned to Dagestan last year.
Tsarni said Sunday that he hopes to eventually see Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at his prison hospital.
"This is another person left all to himself," he said.
Talk to us
- You can tell us about news and ask us about our journalism by emailing firstname.lastname@example.com or by calling 425-339-3428.
- If you have an opinion you wish to share for publication, send a letter to the editor to email@example.com or by regular mail to The Daily Herald, Letters, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.
- More contact information is here.


text:
This disc has not yet been reviewed. The following information has been provided by the distributor.
One of the longest-running horror film series began with this gory shocker from director Sean S. Cunningham, who had previously produced Wes Craven's classic Last House on the Left. Entrepreneur Steve Christie (Peter Brouwer) re-opens Camp Crystal Lake after many years during which it has been cursed by murders and bad luck. The young and nubile counselors all begin to die extremely bloody deaths at the hands of an unseen killer during a rainstorm which isolates the camp. A woman is chopped in the face with an axe, another has her throat sliced in amazingly gruesome fashion, a male counselor (Harry Crosby) is pinned to a door with arrows, and a young Kevin Bacon has an arrow shoved through his throat from below a bed. Victor Miller's script is not particularly impressive, but Cunningham's tense direction, and some remarkable special-effects by acclaimed makeup artist Tom Savini are enough to make it worthwhile. 1950s quiz show regular Betsy Palmer appears as the cook whose son, Jason (Ari Lehman), drowned 25 years earlier while neglected by romancing counselors. Palmer was reportedly cast because she was willing to drive her own car to and from the set. Trivia buffs should note the decapitation scene near the end, in which the female killer exhibits rather hirsute hands clutching at the air. The hands belong to Savini's assistant, Taso N. Stavrakis. Friday the 13th made over 20 million dollars at the box office and spawned numerous sequels.


text:
1. What is MentoringForFree.com & how does it work?
Network marketing has a huge problem. Most companies do lousy training. Most uplines don't do ANY training. New reps sign up full of hope ... and then they're abandoned in droves.
Mentoring For Free is a free, comprehensive MLM training program with free, simple lead generation tools for your MLM business. To see everything you get for free in this system, CLICK HERE.
To see details of the turbo lead generation system you get with our PRO version ($19.95/month), CLICK HERE.
The purpose of Mentoring For Free is to help you find people who want to make money from home, and to train you to build lifelong relationships with those people, and then show you how to work together to sell your products and/or services.
And then we'll train your people to do the same, so you can focus on building your business. If you build and we train, you'll get both income & stability.
2. What makes you think your program better than the hundreds of others out there?
MentoringForFree.com is ONE of a kind. Go to the homepage.
Read the stories of the mentors who are on our nightly phone calls. These are people who have learned how to build relationships over the phone and on the internet.
MLM is a relationship business. Our mentors will teach you exactly what to ask and what to say on the phone to build relationships with the key people who will build your business.
You will hear others do it, live & interactive. Then YOU will do it. You will not get this type of personal training by successful people FOR FREE anyplace else. It just won't happen.
3. How can I use Mentoring For Free to build my MLM business?
1. Join for free.
2. Send people to YOUR Mentoring For Free affiliate site (a duplicate of this site).
3. When anyone joins Mentoring For Free through your affiliate site, you will be notified of their contact information. This is a person who is SERIOUS about getting trained and building their business.
4. Contact that person to begin building a long-term business & personal relationship ... as you will be trained to do on our nightly coaching calls.
People don't join companies. People join people. With Mentoring For Free, it doesn't matter what company you promote.
When you send a prospect to Mentoring For Free, you are gifting them with a FREE lead generation, recruiting, & training system. When they join here, they join YOU. That's much more powerful long-term than promoting them into some company.
4. Will it work for anyone?
You have to be coachable. You must make a commitment to be on our training phone calls. You must be a "leader-in-training."
If you're just a follower or a shortcut seeker, don't bother. On the other hand, we provide a diverse team of mentors who will work with you to help you build a profitable home business in ANY company you want to promote. We'll train you, so you can train your people.
Our successful mentors are people who have been on a LOT of our training calls. They will tell you that the more often you hear the right way to do things, the more natural it becomes to do it. And the more confidence you get in your ability.
If you are dedicated, if we see that you are truly "a mentor with a servant's heart", and if your production in your chosen company demonstrates that you have learned our system, you will be invited to become one of our mentors. You cannot promote your opportunity within our group or on our calls, but the prospects who you invite on our training calls will recognize you as a leader in this industry.
You can't put a price on that.
5. Can I be successful just using my computer, without actually talking to people?
No. Very simple. No. No. No. No. You have probably already tried 1 or 5 or 10 or 100 ways of making money without building relationships. And here you are, still looking. That should answer your question.
6. I know almost nothing about computers & the internet. What can I do?
Get on our phone calls. We will mentor you through the process. You will learn to use some very basic technology to develop a steady stream of leads for your business.
Even if you just turned on a computer for the first time, on our calls you'll learn low-cost and sometimes no-cost techniques to build a list, build relationships, and build your network marketing business.
You don't need skills. Just follow a simple plan.
7. There are a lot of sources to buy cheap leads. Why should I go to the trouble of generating my own?
Those leads you buy have already been emailed, picked over, mailed, and called, multiple times. You waste money & time when you buy leads. Worse, you get discouraged by lousy results. You feel like YOU are a failure. And it's just not true.
We'd even say, do NOT join an MLM if you think you're going to build an empire by buying leads. All you'll do is build your company and your upline's income. You'll get beat up doing it, and you'll quit. THAT is the cycle for most people who buy leads. It's crazy.
Instead, promote YOURSELF. Build your OWN contact list using easily duplicated techniques. THAT is something you'll have forever, no matter what happens to some company or some upline.
The philosophy is simple: Build YOUR future, not some company's future.
Our plan is easy & realistic. Anyone can do it. THIS is the right direction ... as opposed to almost everything else you see online.
8. What if I get bad leads from you?
That is one of the beauties of our system. We NEVER hear, "Oh, these are bad leads."
Why? Because we don't send you any leads.
Instead, you advertise, offering my ebook or other useful, free printed materials. Leaders are readers. When you ONLY target leaders, then they are ALL great people. They listen to how you can help them reach their dreams.
We train you to do this entire process free. Or you can spend $19.95 a month and use ALL the tools in the Mentoring For Free Back Office.
9. Are you currently active in an MLM company?
10. Will you steal my people?
Fact is, most people don't HAVE any people. None who trust them, anyway. Many uplines' idea of support is harranguing you to make 100 cold calls a day.
TRUE support is to take you by the hand and lead you through every step of this business, so you can actually experience it in real time and get good at it.
That is what we do in real life in our individual MLM businesses. THAT is what you'll learn how to do on our training phone calls.
No companies are mentioned. No products are promoted. No one is ever recruited. Listen in. See for yourself. Then decide.
11. I'd feel more comfortable if you weren't in the business.
I understand. So look around. Do a Google search. There are a ton of people who have never actually built an MLM business who will be happy to take your money to train you.
MentoringForFree is for people who aren't being successfully trained by either their company or their upline. Believe me, you WANT a mentor who is successfully building an MLM business. How can you possibly trust anyone else?
12. Will I somehow get billed when I get on your conference calls?
No. Our MLM business brings good income, thank you. Our tools & phone calls support our people. And they work their butts off. And Linda & I love them and appreciate them.
You are welcome to join in and learn how to be successful. Or not. It's up to you.
13. NOBODY in this business gives away 10 hours a week of their personal time for free to people who aren't in their downline. Why do you do that?
We owe everything to this business. It tortures me to hear people denigrate network marketing because of the greed of some companies and their "Super Star Reps."
I don't do ANYTHING in life that isn't fun. Whatever I do, it's because I love it.
So I do what I can to balance the scales. I choose to support with every fiber of my body ANYONE who invests their hopes & dreams & life into this industry. It makes my day to help keep their spark alive.
I will train anyone for free. No strings. I am not threatened by anyone or any company in this industry.
But I do understand that they are threatened by me. Most STILL don't take the time and make the commitment to train their own people.
14. Why don't you print the phone number & training call times on your webpage?
Because SOMEBODY suggested you come here. That person wants to build a relationship with you, to YOUR benefit. You need to contact that person and talk with them about what they do ... and about building business & personal relationships. THAT is what will bring you stable, long-term income.
Thanks for taking the time to read this FAQ!
Michael Dlouhy