text:
"Necessity is the mother of invention." The customization career of Johnny Salters embodies this Plato quote on a daily basis and for good reason; he's a Lowrider living in Monetta, South Carolina. If you've never heard of the town, it's because Monetta is one of the most rural hamlets on the East Coast. "It's really country out here, " Johnny says with a bubbly Southern drawl, " we don't even have a red light in this town." Those of you who are unfamiliar with Johnny probably assume that a guy as isolated as he is must buy his Lowriders pre-assembled from elsewhere, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The fact is that this 21-year veteran of the Lowrider culture builds his masterpieces himself, out of his shop, "Salters Custom Paint and Body" in Monetta. While others would outsource the majority of their work in his situation, Johnny instead chose to singlehandedly become a jack-of-all-trades, experimenting tirelessly and learning the tricks of the trade that have made him one of the most respected builders in the culture today. "People don't understand that out here we don't really have a choice; we have to do all the work ourselves. There aren't shops out here like there are on the West Coast. Even if you took your work to somebody else, they'd most likely be three hours away and their workmanship can't touch the West Coast shops," he explains. Determined to earn his respect by working for it, Johnny put his nose to the grindstone and has already carved out quite the resume for himself. With a feature for his '61 Impala named "Southern Belle" appearing in the February 2000 issue, and his '59 Impala "Cloud Nine" featured in 2007, this talented builder is no stranger to the pages of Lowrider Magazine. He also had his builds featured in a Snoop Dogg video as well as having them showcased in other publications, but it was his Third Place finish with "Cloud Nine" in the Lowrider Las Vegas Supershow that really moved him up in the rankings. "I was worried initially about going to Vegas with "Cloud Nine," he says. "I just thought 'these guys are gonna pick my car apart. They're not gonna believe that this country guy who drove all the way from South Carolina knows anything about Lowriding.'" After placing third, Johnny's confidence received a boost, and the attention towards his build inspired him. "People couldn't believe that I had done all the work myself! Coming in third to me was heaven sent; I finished behind Chris Roark's '58 and Faustino's '58 and for those two guys to beat me, I didn't have any problem with that. I mean, these guys were top builders, I was thrilled! Everybody respected my work, and that just meant so much to me, coming from where I'm from," Johnny says with sincerity.
Motivated by his experience, Johnny knew it was time to begin work on his masterpiece, a 1958 Impala Convertible that he had tucked away six years ago at his shop. "The first year of Impalas is the '58, making it probably one of the hardest and most expensive model years to build and own," Johnny states. An owner of over one hundred previous Impalas, and a handful of '58's, Johnny knew that this convertible was special and was determined to put his all into the build. "They hardly reproduce anything for the '58s, so everything on my car is OG stuff, from the side trim, the continental kit, everything; it's all been reworked and redone," he beams. It's a good thing he had been collecting parts long before he started on the build. "I paid two grand for the pair of spot lamps years ago, and they go for something crazy now, like $3,000 a piece!" Johnny says with a laugh.
After finding the car through a friend in Louisiana, Johnny began by replacing most of the panels which suffered the usual rust that comes along with sitting in that area. Once the body work was complete, Johnny laid down the paint himself, choosing this striking PPG Factory Sierra Gold color, which of course was supplemented by adequate amounts of clearcoat. Johnny restored, rewired, and refurbished the Crate 350 engine himself, using a Matson Radiator and a bevy of Street Performance products, which were chromed by Supreme Plating in Inglewood, CA. "For fifteen years we've always sent all of our chrome out to Supreme Plating in Inglewood, we have a great relationship with them," Johnny explains. Some of the rare accessories Johnny added to the '58 come in the form of the following stock products: a Continental Kit, cruiser skirts, Trail Master Spotlamps, compass, Autronic eye, Wonderbar radio, floor mats, power windows, power vents, and power seats.
As if adding these hard-to-find parts to the build didn't uphold tradition enough, Johnny really went the extra mile when it came to the hydraulic set up. He chose to build an old-school aircraft setup. "This was my first aircraft set up, I've built many hydraulic set ups before, but this time, I had my work cut out for me," he says with a laugh. Johnny began experimenting with the parts and using his telephone as a lifeline between some veteran builders for assistance. "I called on John Kennedy and Ted Wells for help, and I also reached out to Andy Lodi, who was particularly helpful to me in building the set up." In the end, the kit Johnny assembled features four Pesco 777 pumps, four oxygen tanks, four Adex Dumps, four water faucet slowdowns, four filters, and six Optima batteries, which power the system. He also assembled the stock suspension; which uses an ABS four-wheel disc brake system and features moldings and custom engraving from David the Engraver. "I did all the installation, plumbing, bent my own hardlines, wrapped my frame, molded and extended my arms, pretty much everything," Johnny says exhaustedly. When it came time for the final touches, Johnny called on veteran mural master Fonzy to cap off the build. "We flew Fonzy out to our shop and he lived with us for two weeks while he did my trunk lid and one of my customer's trunk lids," Johnny says with a smile. "I'm a guy that goes to church and really respects God, so Fonzy painted a cross scene with my two kids' pictures and the likeness of Jesus with a picture of the car, it's just beautiful," says the South Carolina mechanic.
With the help of his beloved wife, Georgette, the finished '58 was christened "8 Cents" because of its Penny color and the model year, and with that; the career of this veteran car builder has come full circle. A student of Lowrider Magazine since he was 16, taking influence from car clubs like Premier, Lifestyle, and Southside, as well as builders like Lowrider veteran Robert Espinoza, Johnny's success in the automobile customization field leaves him with much to be thankful for. "I'll be honest with you, God's been good to me, I have really conquered so much in my life already, and I'm lucky to have a certain talent," Johnny says humbly. After trying three times unsuccessfully to leave the Chevy dealership he worked at to open his own shop, things finally worked out for this master builder. "I decided I was going to leave all of this in God's hands and if he wanted me to go into business, than it would start to work," he says. Though he felt pressure to move to an area like the West Coast that would give him more business, he never strayed from his home in Monetta, and is proud to be a beacon of Lowriding within the region. With his amazingly supportive wife, Georgette ("I'll see a car on Craigslist and an hour later, she'll be riding with me to another state to check it out") and his daughter, Haley, and son and future-Lowrider, Josh, by his side, there isn't much more out of life that Johnny could wish for. Except of course, a Lowrider cover feature to call his own. "For me to get a cover, it's unbelievable; it's like my dream come true. Ever since I began lowering cars as a teenager and reading the magazine, I've pushed myself to become a better builder." Johnny has already taken several first place trophies at a show in Tampa with "8 Cents" and he is well on his way to Dallas to qualify for this year's Supershow. Though his road in Lowriding has certainly been a long one, it has, in true Lowrider fashion, been well worth the ride. "Just follow your dreams, if you want it, you can have it; you just have to work hard for it," Johnny says with a youthful enthusiasm. Giving thanks to God, his wife and kids, John Kennedy, Ted Wells, Andy Lodi, Fonzy, the crew at Supreme Plating, and Redman's of Augusta, Georgia, Johnny can't wait for the world to see his latest pride and joy. No matter how much time and money Johnny has put into the build of his '58 Impala Convertible, he can rest assured that in the eyes of all who read Lowrider Magazine, "8 Cents" will forever remain priceless.
"8 Cents"
Vehicle: 1958 Chevy Impala Convertible
Owner: Johnny Salters
Location: Monetta, SC
Engine: Johnny installed a Crate 350 with a Turbo 350 Transmission, Matson Radiator, Street Performance Pulleys, Street Performance parts, which were fully chromed by Supreme Plating in Inglewood, CA.
Paint: Basecoat Clear Coat PPG Factory Sierra Gold, painted by Johnny at his shop, Salters Custom Paint and Body in Monetta, SC. Murals by Fonzy.
Interior: A Cars, Inc. kit with a Dakota Digital Dash was installed by Redman's of Augusta, Georgia.
Suspension: Johnny installed an ABS 4 wheel disc brake system, and used a stock suspension which was molded and extended. All of the chrome was done by Supreme Plating in Inglewood and the engraving came courtesy of David the Engraver.
Stereo: Johnny installed two JL Audio Amps, two JL Audio C5 5-¼" mids, Kenwood headunit, and two Pioneer 10-inch subs.
Wheels: 13×7 Zenith 72 Spoke, engraved by David the Engraver.
Tires: 5.20s
Original Accessories: Continental Kit, cruiser skirts, Trail Master Spotlamps, compass, Autronic eye, Wonderbar radio, floor mats, power windows, power vents, and power seats.


text:
Doggy Day Care in Cheyenne, OK
Drop off your dog at your sitter's home in the morning, and pick them up in the evening.
Rover also offers doggy day care in:
|Carter, OK
|Crawford, OK
|Durham, OK
|Elk City, OK
|Hammon, OK
|Leedey, OK
|Mayfield, OK
|Reydon, OK
|Sayre, OK
|Sweetwater, OK
We've been there, cancelling meetings or plans with friends to make sure you can be there for your dog. Good news: You can easily find and book doggy day care in Cheyenne on Rover. Whether you need a one-time daytime pet sitter or someone to take care of your beloved pet every weekday, we've got you covered. Care for your dog and peace of mind for you are just a few clicks away. If you already have a favorite overnight sitter, ask them if they offer day care too. Or, if you've never used Rover, this is the perfect opportunity to find a new best friend for your dog when you're at work. We can help you find a sitter who'd love to watch your dog.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Roger Clark, 85 - January 02, 2008
Roger R. Clark, 85, of Gothenburg, died Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2007, at Gothenburg.
Services were held on Friday, Dec. 28, at the American Lutheran Church of Gothenburg with the Rev. Matt Coplen officiating. Burial took place at the Peckham Cemetery.
Clark was born on Sept. 7, 1922, to James Stuart and Sara Lindberg Clark in Gothenburg at the home of his grandparents, Frederick and Marie Lindberg. He lived with his parents, sister, Betty Jacqueln, and brothers, Dale James and Van Gordon, on a farm eight miles southeast of Gothenburg.
He attended Potter School in District No. 32 and graduated from Gothenburg High School in 1940. He was active in F.F.A., football and National Honorary Society. During his senior year, he was president of his class, captain of the football team and F.F.A. state vice-president.
In 1942, he had civilian pilot training at Spearfish, SD, and spent the years from 1944 to 1946 in the Air Force stationed at bases in Colorado, Nevada, Texas and the Philippines.
Clark was married to Frances Marie Vobejda on Sept. 10, 1946, at Denver, CO. To this union, six children were born, Carol, Alan, Bruce, Dennis, David and Jim.
He farmed 12 miles southwest of Gothenburg since 1946. Like his grandfather, Elwood, and his father, James, he was very active in cooperatives. He became a member of the Farmers Co-op Elevator board in 1957 and Gothenburg Co-op Oil board in 1958. These two companies were later merged and became known as Farmland Service Coop (now All Points Cooperative).
Clark was a member of Farmland Industries board in Kansas City, MO, since 1965, and served as chairman of Farmland Foods board. He was also a past chairman of the board of directors of Agricultural Council of America in Washington, D.C.
?He had enjoyed flying, sports and family card games, according to family members.
?Clark was preceded in death by: his parents, James and Sara; an infant son, Douglas Jay; a grandson, Jason Douglas.
?Survivors include: his wife, Frances; his children—Carol (Joseph) Adams of Lincoln, Alan (Cecily) of Cozad, Bruce (Joyce), Dennis (Mary Lou), David (Deb) and Jim (Mary), all of Gothenburg; grandchildren—Brian and Remi Adams, Wayne and Johanna Adams, Angela and Russell Wenz, Joseph Adams, Sheana Clark, Gretchen Clark, Jessie and Ben Mulvaney, Jordan and Angela Clark, Patrick and Jenna Clark, Kaitlyn Clark, Joshua Clark, Ashley and Rob Micek, Jed Clark, Jonathon Clark, Ali Clark and Jacob Clark; great-grandchildren—Aidan Adams, Hunter Adams, Noah Mulvaney, Anya Mulvaney, Caden Mulvaney and Grady Clark; two brothers—Dale (Ardith) Clark of Brady and Van Clark of North Platte; a sister, Betty (Glenn) Weiss of Greeley, CO; brothers-in-law—George (Gloria) Vobejda of Overland Park, KS, Harvey (Darlene) Vobejda of Grand Rapids, MN, and Vernon (Jarla) Vobejda of Colorado Springs, CO; sister-in-law, Virginia Vobejda of Littleton, CO; numerous nieces and nephews.
Memorials are suggested to the Presbyterian Church, Salvation Army or donor's choice.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.blase strauser.com.
Arrangements have been placed in the care of Blase-Strauser Memorial Chapel of Gothenburg.
Latest Headlines
- Gothenburg native releases first novel
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- Brady places champ and runner-up at State FCCLA
- Swedes continue conference domination
- Dancing With The Stars changes venues
- Middle-of-the-Pack Finishes For Swede Boys and Girls
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text:
Flexner on Finishing: The Thick & Thin of Veneer Repair
Veneer is just thin wood – so don't be afraid of it.
By Bob Flexner
Pages: 66-68
From the November 2009 issue #179
Buy this issue now
I love repairing old furniture – the older the better. I find repairing more challenging and satisfying than making new because someone else, or time and age, has set the parameters within which I have to work.
I've written several articles in Popular Woodworking on furniture repair, including "Regluing Doweled Chairs" in April 2007 (#161) and "Animal Hide Glue" in August 2007 (#163). Both articles are available free at popularwoodworking.com/finishing.
But I haven't written on veneer, and lots of things can go wrong with veneer. For some reason many woodworkers, and even professional furniture restorers, have a fear of working with veneer (some shops even refuse to do it). I find this fear difficult to understand because veneer is just thin wood, subject to the same rules as thick wood.
Recently, I had the opportunity (joy, really) of replacing some missing veneer on one of the oldest pieces of furniture I've ever worked on– an early 18th-century George II bachelor's chest with a hinged top that opens to a desk. The challenges were a little greater than usual, so I thought I'd show you how I dealt with them.
One aside before starting. After you've worked on a lot of old furniture, you become adept at spotting anomalies that indicate fakery or a "marriage" of two or more pieces of furniture. On this card table I saw nothing to make me question its authenticity.
From the November 2009 issue #179
Buy this issue now


text:
At some point during the Danish cartoon controversy, we noted that the Iranian government had announced that it would sponsor a Holocaust cartoon contest. They were going to solicit cartoons about the Holocaust to prove…something, I'm not sure what. Anyway, it's happened, as the Associated Press reports:
An Iranian newspaper's contest for Holocaust-related cartoons has drawn some 700 entries from 200 people, with some drawings mocking the Second World War slaughter: One entry shows Jews going into a gas pipeline.
Most contest entrants are Iranian, but six are Americans and a few cartoons have been submitted from as far away as Indonesia and Brazil, according to the Hamshahri newspaper. A few of the drawings have been posted online.
One submission reflects the opinion of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who drew international outrage last year when he said the Holocaust was a myth.
The cartoon, by Iranian Firouzeh Mozafari, shows a circle of nine Jewish men entering and leaving a gas chamber that shows a counter reading "5,999,999," implying that Jews have inflated the number of Holocaust victims.
American cartoonist Mike Flugennock's cartoon asks: "What has Ariel Sharon learned from the Holocaust?" It shows bulldozers razing Palestinian homes and an Israeli soldier pointing a gun at a Palestinian protester's head, above Flugennock's answer to his own question: "Humiliation, tyranny, brutality and murder."
Farid Mortazavi, who is managing the contest for Hamshahri, said he has received about 700 cartoons from some 200 artists. A website run by contest organizers says entries have come in from 35 countries. The newspaper is offering prizes of up to $14,000 Cdn.
"We still expect more American cartoonists to send their caricatures to the contest," Mortazavi said.
Another American cartoonist depicted the Statue of Liberty with its torch extinguished and its eyes and mouth sealed with metal plates and a sign reading, "Closed until further notice. Bushco Demolitions."
It's interesting to see how many entries there were. Apparently the world's cartoonists don't much fear that rabbis will issue a fatwa, or that rampaging mobs of Jews will burn down their houses. And here in America, of course, over-the-top attacks on the Bush administration are practically required. One suspects that any editorial cartoonist who didn't engage in such attacks would be expelled from the fraternity.
So the Iranians' contest proves what? I guess it proves that there is only one religion that cartoonists are afraid to offend.
By the way, I couldn't find the web site where these cartoons are being posted with a quick search. The newspaper is Hamshahri. Probably one of our enterprising readers can track down the web site where the cartoons are.
Via Power Line News.
UPDATE: On a related subject–Iran, not cartoons–Joshua Sharf has some pungent comments on a rather bizarre ecumenical initiative in, of all places, Denver.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Frank Simmons of San Francisco emails us to say that the Iranians have a point:
I was sad to see that you just regurgitate the Zionist viewpoint. You are more like the powerlessline. Think for yourselves and maybe you could have something here.
(the 6million # is inflated, why else would there be laws in Europe to forbid to even question it?) Are you afraid of the truth, or the jewish political machine, or both?
One thing about that "Jewish political machine," they hardly ever behead anyone. We might have to start printing more of the emails we get from liberals. I think it would open a few eyes.
UPDATE: A reader pointed us to this site where the Israel News Agency reproduces some of the cartoons along with photos and other information about the Holocaust. Gateway Pundit has more.


text:
Volleyball's Katherine Santiago Named Spartan Top Performer
Related Links
GREENSBORO, N.C. – UNCG volleyball freshman libero Katherine Santiago (San Juan, Puerto Rico/Colegio Adianez) has been named this week's Spartan Top Performer. The Spartan Top Performer will be chosen weekly from all sports in season and will run throughout the 2012-13 UNCG athletics campaign.
Santiago continued the sensational start to her career in the match against American during this weekend's Spartan-Aggie Invitational, racking up a match and career-high 32 digs. She was named the tournament's top libero and earned a spot on the all-tournament team for her efforts during the weekend as she averaged 5.15 digs per set. Santiago was the first Spartan to eclipse 30 digs in a match since current junior Kellie Orewiler tallied 36 in a four-set affair at Western Carolina Oct. 30 of last season.
The rookie currently leads UNCG in total digs (123) and digs per set (3.97). She is also one of just four Spartans to play in every set this season.


text: This corner composition (with Dove Grey tempera lacquered Oak doors) expresses all its character through designer finishes, treatments and materials. A matt lacquered finish (available in eight colour shades)for an interior that is almost more living-room than kitchen. The wall units, shelves (Spotless Metal), hanging rails and vintage-look handles are in steel; the boiserie shelf system is in wood.


text:
PS the windows logo came up fuzzy!
08-14-2011 11:09 AM - edited 08-14-2011 11:21 AM
@ all
try uninstalling BioExcess (fingerprint thing) - click on BioExcess in the tray and click disable. go to programs and features and uninstall BioExcess.
Why: I just got the hang again. I had to remove power and battery to clear it. The very first thing that popped up was a flash of Please Wait, and then the fingerprint request.
See if that helps...
The BioExcess we got is dated Dec 1 '10, the latest is Jun 21 '11 Can we get the update???
08-14-2011 02:00 PM - edited 08-14-2011 03:53 PM
Just noticed that there's a BIOS flash available for the V570, so flashed it, and survived. Probably don't need it, though as only fix listed is for non OEM win7 install hangs.
Thinking BioExcess is the prob... <--------------------------------------
EDIT: there is one dated 4-13-11 or something - I tried installing over the existing one. DON'T. I had to restore to a previous OS (I use Macrium Reflect) image, uninstall the shipped one, and then install the Apr one, and all seems to be well.............
Can't sent it back. Looks like a picture taken with vaseline on the lens.
I say again, BioExcess fingerprinter.
I uninstalled the factory one and then installed the Apr one from Lenovo downloads. (do NOT install on top of the old one - it hangs.)
Now MUCH faster going to the LOGIN screen.
I only use fingerprint for Win Login. I only occasionally got the hang at please wait. ymmv!
I'd like to hear from some folks who are having this prob a lot.
sorry for dup post - we've got 2 threads about the same thing...
@ JameZ
the only non-Lenovo things in startup are adobe, antivir (avitra), and Acronis TrueImage. It's a pretty slim system. Love it!!!
Again, I note that since I uninstalled the BioExcess factory and installed the later version of BioExcess, my boot up has been much zippier. I have had no hang since doing that.
Also, it seems that complaints have fallen to zero, or folks are on weekend.
Bought a V570, kept getting stuck on boot up. Brought it back. Got another one, started locking up on boot AGAIN. Tried the battery pull thing / hold the power button, which didn't help at all. (Which is a BS fix in my opinion.)
Saw here to uninstall BIOEXCESS, and voila, uninstalled it, and haven't had any problems since (knock on freaking wood, though.) In my opinion, this was clearly responsible.
Where is the latest version of it? Would love to have the fingerprint scanner, but if it locks up the computer, obviously I don't need it.
go to
enter your serial number or whatever to get the list of proggys.
Way down in software you will see an Apr version of BioExcess - that's what I'm using now, with no prob as yet.
That Apr version is when Lenovo got it. The internal date is Jan 11, so Egis realized their prob right away, but somehow it failed to get on the release software.
Glad it worked for you!!!


text:
West of Here (Hardcover)
Please email or write store for pricing and availability information.
Special Request - May Not Be Available
February 2011 Indie Next List
"I loved this big, gorgeous novel in which characters and story lines flow, merge, and diverge like the streams and channels of a river. The story spans more than 100 years in the fictional town of Port Bonita, Washington, and its surrounding wilderness. Evison pulls together such grand themes as our relationship to the land, what we make of our past, and what we owe the future. His writing style is unpretentious and delightful, a combination of big ideas and down-to-earth, friendly delivery that's perfectly suited to this quintessentially American novel."
— Christie Olson Day, Gallery Bookshop &, Mendocino, CA
At the foot of the Elwha River, the muddy outpost of Port Bonita is about to boom, fueled by a ragtag band of dizzyingly disparate men and women unified only in their visions of a more prosperous future. A failed accountant by the name of Ethan Thornburgh has just arrived in Port Bonita to reclaim the woman he loves and start a family. Ethan's obsession with a brighter future impels the damming of the mighty Elwha to harness its power and put Port Bonita on the map.
More than a century later, his great-great grandson, a middle manager at a failing fish- packing plant, is destined to oversee the undoing of that vision, as the great Thornburgh dam is marked for demolition, having blocked the very lifeline that could have sustained the town. "West of Here" is a grand and playful odyssey, a multilayered saga of destiny and greed, adventure and passion, that chronicles the life of one small town, turning America's history into myth, and myth into a nation's shared experience.


text:
GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina hospital that recently changed its name has also adopted a new slogan: "Cheat Death."
Gaston Memorial Hospital in Gastonia has become CaroMont Regional Medical Center and plans to work with restaurants to create "Cheat Death" menus and will work with gyms to create "Cheat Death" workouts. A social media campaign will offer tips on cheating death.
CaroMont CEO Randall Kelley says the hospital hopes to create a community health movement.
But not everyone likes the new slogan.
County commissioner and hospital board member Jason Williams says the new slogan is a bad idea. Williams says the hospital's new marketing campaign needs a new, positive slogan.
He says some hospital employees think the "Cheat Death" slogan cheapens their work. He says some pastors consider the slogan blasphemous.


text:
BERLIN (AP) — German lawmakers are sending legislation on possible copyright restrictions on Internet search engines, commonly called the "Google Tax," to an expert committee for further review.
The levy, being pushed by publishers, would require search engines to pay each time they link to media content like newspaper articles or photographs.
After a debate that began close to midnight, Parliament said Friday the matter was passed on to its legal committee. There was no immediate word on when the committee may issue recommendations.
Google on Tuesday launched a campaign dubbed "Defend Your Web" aimed at drumming up support to defeat the measure.
In a short online video, Google warns "for more than 10 years you've been able to find what you are looking for." A planned law, it says, "would change that."


text:
It's happened!! 2 years of bitching and moaning, but I'm finally ready to unleash the fury of:
7 Moar Lefts = MY ICE CREAM BAR
(VNSFW!! here's a glimpse at 1st project. VNSFW!!)
As one can expect this is the 2nd Left Rights album: Bad Choices Made Easy.
Bad choice #1: Like the last project this is the entire album, all 41 tracks.
Bad choice #2: You can use any source. I mean any! If you want to use anime, go 4 it. If you want to use live action, go 4 it. If you want to use hentai, go 4 it. If you want to make a stop motion animation of the characters from DBZ and Naruto fighting the T-rex from Jurassic Park scrolled on your parents wall in human feces and filmed at 90fps, Hell yes!. Cat feces instead, not as cool, but go 4 it. Like I said, anything...
Bad choice #3: I want all tracks handed in in 720p (16:9 of course) 23.976 and of course using a lossless avi format (beta dates will be assigned as tracks get picked up.)
Bad choice #4: The deadline in June 8th 2013. That's 8 months to make me some damn magic! Also my birthday so all you f___ers are going give me helluva present de infinite joy!
Bad choice #5: Do not edit the audio..... koop... |:< That makes my life a living hell and wont make me a nice person. Some songs do overlap, if you pick one of them I will address you on individually with any side requests.
Bad choice #6: If the track has a PV, your track better be superior to the PV or at least damn close. Some tracks have a *, that means that this is one I expect one hell of a great job on. These tracks I wont give away lightly. I'll need some kind of written proposal or treatment before i give away and it better be damn good. All proposals should be PMed to my org account.
Bad choice #7: Last time I gave the editors 2 hour to complete the tracks and them things at them randomly. This time you have MONTHS to make me some goddamned magic. I expect well polished insanity. There is a fine line between utter crap and total mental screwage, find that line and let it be your guide. I wont accept crap in the name of humor this time. I also highly recommend diving deep into your skill-set and finding some kind of unique aspects you can bring to the table. Custom animations and VFX are a big plus.
Bad choice #8: Depending on my level of boredom or how funny it seems at the time, I might assign a few tracks.
Bad choice #9: We need a sig banner or 2, and a big cinematic poster of some sort. Even if you don't want to edit, I could use some photoshop skills for extra props in the credits
track list:
(view all tracks here)
- Bruja de los Jaime
- * I'm on Crack editor: GuntherAMVs - source: ¿tba?
- Jack the Riffer editor: Lonewolf - source: ¿tba?
- White editor: AMV_4000 - source: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
- F*ck MSI
- Fart Doodie and a Cocky Pee
- Deuce Courtesans and a Lambs Tail of Snuff editor: Dicknugget - source: ¿tba?
- * Why You in My Phyzical editor: Copycat_Revolver - source: ¿tba?
- I Like the Smell of My Amiga
- Whistling Dixie editor: Chaosprojects - source: K-On!
- Chubbinz editor: Pilkie-Pai - source: Keroro Gunso, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
- Da Finga editor: Pilkie-pai - source: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
- * Geeks for Fans editor: Ileia - source: ¿tba?
- Man editor: toothpickvic - source: ¿tba?
- Young Black and Constipated
- Xyzpdqbgs editor: Ghet - source: a whole hot mess of anime
- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
- Fire in the Kitchen
- The Mask of Zorro
- Alabaster Street editor: Mr. Pilkington - source: Colonel Paprika's Lamprey Hearts Club Band
- Dadeaddudeindebtdude
- * Pope John Paul the 3rd Chaosprojects - source: Saints Row the Third
- Little Hard Ons
- The Man With Ze Mustache editor: Chaosprojects - source: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
- *Force You to Love Me
- Eagle Head
- Twinkle Twinkle
- * Genesis 16:12 editors: Fall_Child42 and ReggieSmalls - source: ¿tba?
- Meow editor: Dicknugget - source: ¿tba?
- Ass in My Face Part 1
- *Ass in My Face Part 2 editor: ReggieSmalls - source: ¿tba?
- Food
- Mike B. Good
- Hopeless editor: Lord Rae - source: Darkwing Duck
- Free Porn editor: Mr. Pilkington - source: My Little Pony: Friendship is Witchcraft
- * Super Suburb Chix
- Dowst
- Party Time Crust Cakes
- Pictures of Doodie
- Cheaper by the Fruzzen
- Magic Bone
Get cracking! I want this beast full before long!


text:
Jerry N Uelsmann is a master printmaker. I came across his work in Amsterdam in 1978 and was blown away with his skills in the darkroom. It should be a great exhibition
Like others here I was quite disappointed not to see more of Jerry Uelsmann's work in the "Faking It" show at the Met.There is a recent and very good documentary on Lynda.com about both Uelsmann and his wife Maggie Taylor. His website links to it but I'm not certain that it can be viewed without subscription to the site. It's well worth watching if it is indeed available.
I'm prejudiced because their documentary on Uelsmann and Taylor uses one of my photographs (a portrait of Minor White), but I think it is a great documentary, and would be even without my photo.Eric M.
Many of the photographers in the show... weren't faking anything. They were manipulating their photos, but...
transitive verb1: to alter, manipulate, or treat so as to give a spuriously genuine appearance to


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Volume 18, Number 5
July/August 2001
Managing an Impaired Lawyer's Practice and Files During Recovery
By Frederic W. (Fritz) Knaak
It was worse than her worst nightmare. Hung over, Linda* walked past her daughters' bedrooms and down the stairs, thinking that, as usual, they were making their own breakfast and that she'd be late for court again. To her surprise, however, the court had come to her.
Judge Elaine Edwards* was in the living room waiting for her, as were her mother, father, sister, daughters, two good lawyer friends with whom she shared her office, and two strangers-one an alcoholism intervention specialist, the other a member of Minnesota Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers (Minnesota LCL), who had been called by the family to help.
In the harsh light of early morning, Linda's deepest fears about losing her professional esteem and sense of independence and self-worth, not to mention her family, were threatening to become reality. Never in her life had she felt more exposed and vulnerable. She felt a keen sense of shame and a strong feeling that, somehow, she wasn't up to the job of being a lawyer and now everyone else would find out. She was near panic.
These intense feelings, which are perfectly normal, are easily the greatest problem for the recovery of a lawyer like Linda. The group that had assembled in her house to conduct what is called an "intervention" had anticipated those feelings and was ready with answers when she fiercely resisted their suggestion of a chemical dependency treatment program. "I can't do that," she said. "What about my clients? Who will take care of my daughters?"
When Linda's family first called Minnesota LCL, the staff immediately organized a work group of three lawyers to help coordinate both the intervention and the resources that Linda would require to get the help she needed. One of the things they had anticipated was her need to have assistance getting and keeping her practice on an even keel while she was away from it during her recovery.
Thomas Gmeinder, a Minnesota lawyer and long-time Minnesota LCL member and former chair of the group, has assisted many other lawyers in this kind of case. "One of the reasons we developed the three-lawyer panel," he jokes, "is that we figured a desperate drunk would be more than a match for any two of us."
In fact, the program director and panel coordinate with the family, partners, and, in cases where the lawyer makes the initial request, directly with the lawyer. As fellow lawyers, one of the things the panel members can focus on is the lawyer's worries about his or her files and caseload.
"One of the first things that any lawyer worries about is who will take care of the files and cases," says Barbara Knigge, program director of Minnesota LCL. "That's true whether it's an issue of going to chemical dependency treatment, or other health-related issues. Our members are all lawyers, most of whom have had similar experiences. When a family member, partner, or good friend calls us in to help, that's one of the key areas we hone in on, just to be sure the bases are covered and a big source of worry is eliminated. Then, the lawyer will be more open to treatment and support."
In Linda's case, her office mates were called on to help. "Usually, the fears a lawyer has about what may happen to a file are blown way out of proportion to reality," says Gmeinder. "At this point for lawyers going through their own problems, their personal fears make everything seem a crisis when, in fact, it hardly ever really is when looked at in the cold, hard light of day. Usually, say nine times out of ten, it doesn't take much more than a few phone calls and letters to clear a calendar. People will always think they're the 'one,' but really they're the 'nine.'"
In cases where no other lawyers are immediately nearby, Minnesota LCL members with similar practices are called in to help. Minnesota family lawyer John Gilsdorf has worked on a number of such cases. "Nothing that I do as a lawyer gives me a greater satisfaction than helping another lawyer out that way. It's one thing I can do that really will help other lawyers in a way that really matters."
Gmeinder agrees. "One of the best things I remember when I was chair [of Minnesota LCL] was that I could get on the phone and within an hour I could have a three-lawyer panel in the office of any lawyer in the Twin Cities. The desire to help others is still a huge motivator among people in our profession. And they were offering real help, the kind calling for time and sacrifice."
Gilsdorf remembers one case in particular. "The lawyer admitted that he had 'a problem' and that he needed treatment. But, he 'just couldn't go just then' because he had a discovery motion to defend the very next day. This, of course, is a classic lawyer's 'duck.' Since it was a family law matter, the panel gave me the call and asked if I could do a discovery motion hearing the next day. I did it and got the result I would have expected if it had been my case alone. Frankly, it was probably better that he wasn't there." The lawyer was able to go to treatment that night and was on the road to recovery by the time Gilsdorf entered the courtroom. The judge in the case was never informed of the reason for the change. It was simply a matter of one lawyer covering for another.
The problems are often tougher, however, than covering a single hearing, notes Cindy Hinderlite, a former Minnesota LCL program director and now an administrative/project director for the Johnson Institute Foundation in Minnesota. "It can be a real mess" when a lawyer has slid into depression or chemical dependency. The problems can include stacks of unanswered letters and unchecked calendars. In some cases, several lawyers have needed to be called in to help while the impaired lawyer was out for treatment, she recalls.
Minnesota LCL operates apart from the bar association, and the referrals and work done by its members, including file assistance, are kept confidential. Members deem their work to be a matter of assistance directly to other lawyers, and not part of the disciplinary arm of the courts. This can be important in reassuring struggling lawyers that facing up to their alcoholism or other problems won't suddenly deposit them in front of an ethics panel. In the program's 25-year history, the confidentiality of a lawyer seeking help has never been compromised or abused.
The fact that other lawyers can provide confidential help on files during treatment doesn't mean that Minnesota LCL intervention will prevent a lawyer from facing the consequences of unethical behavior. "Sometimes," argues Knigge, "what has to happen is that the lawyer has to lose his or her practice." What Minnesota LCL can offer in that case, she notes, is the kind of professional help the lawyer will need to get healthy again. "The strange thing is," she adds, "some of the lawyers who lost their practices but got sober and went on to other things will tell you that, all things considered, it was the best thing that ever happened to them." Not all calls for assistance are for interventions or from third parties. In fact, many requests for help come from lawyers calling for themselves. The procedure isn't all that different from the Minnesota LCL's point of view. "We still put three people together," says Gmeinder, "but we're able to get things done much more quickly because we can work things out directly with the lawyer. It's easier to help and coordinate, and we're an immediate resource for the person needing the help."
Frequently, the first contacts are anonymous. Women in particular are very reluctant to identify themselves at first when calling for information, says Knigge. The rapid growth of the numbers of women in the legal profession has added a particular twist to the equation. "There is a general pattern of chemical abuse among woman lawyers that differs from male lawyers," explains Knigge. "Generally, women are much more likely to be private, 'closet' drinkers, whose immediate associates, and even family members, including husbands, do not know they have a problem. In many ways, the pressures on women in the profession have been harder to deal with. They have had more to prove and fewer peers with whom to work things out. Plus, invariably, we see family and child-care issues at the forefront of their worries," says Knigge. "We deal with a lot of single moms."
In our example, Linda's family had agreed before the intervention to take care of her daughters while she was away at treatment. "Typically, we coordinate with the family to make sure those issues are dealt with," notes Knigge.
Veronica Casey, a well-known attorney with an established Twin Cities suburban practice, agrees that women have had particular problems in dealing with chemical dependency issues in the legal profession. Casey notes that a "tremendously helpful" trend is the "growing number of women who have served as role models of professional success in recovery from chemical dependency." Casey has found that offering quiet, private help on a one-on-one basis can be very effective with women who have come to her for help with their alcoholism.
Henderlite agrees: "Earlier on, there weren't a lot of women openly helping one another in these programs. In the ten years I was helping to do interventions for lawyers, very rarely, at least early on, were women available to help." One of the results was handing off files to men while the woman went off to treatment. But this may have created an inadvertent and negative symbolism. "It's just more helpful to have other women around to offer support," says Casey, "even though these problems are not unique to men or women."
Twenty-five years ago, only Minnesota and California offered this kind of assistance to lawyers trying to get help in recovering from chemical dependency. Because of this, both states have cadres of lawyers experienced in helping their fellow attorneys with these kinds of needs. Today, 34 other states have programs similar to Minnesota LCL, sometimes with similar names, other times under the umbrella of "lawyers assistance programs." All are focused on getting help to where it's needed and are growing by leaps and bounds with lawyers helping themselves by helping their colleagues. "Lawyers, men and women, who either feel they may need help or know others that do, should know that literally hundreds of their colleagues are there to help," says Gmeinder.
The key step is to ask for help. It will be there.
*Not her real nameLawyers Helping Lawyers
When Minnesota's LCL celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this year, Judge Leon Emerson of California will be the guest of honor.
In 1976, a dozen Minnesota lawyers were trying to set up an organization to help lawyers recover from chemical dependency. Only California had organized anything like what they hoped to do. When the Minnesotans came calling for advice, on his own, Judge Emerson came to Minnesota to offer to be of any help he could. He is considered one of the founders of Minnesota Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers.
Since then, many of those same Minnesotans who met with Judge Emerson have had the opportunity to return the favor, by meeting with colleagues in other states tryng to set up their own organizations. That spirit of lawyers trying to help their fellow lawyers is in the oldest and finest tradition of helping others that is the core of the practice of law.
Because of lawyers like Judge Emerson, lawyer assistance programs are now flourishing in a majority of states. The extent of the services they provide, and their governance, varies from state to state. In addition to services for alcohol and substance abuse, most of these programs also provide services in the areas of gambling, sexual addictions, and mental health problems. An excellent source of information on what's available and who to contact can be found through the ABA website at www.abanet.org/cpr/colap/assistance.html. A summary of various state programs follows:
- ALABAMA: Lawyer Assistance Program, 334/834-7576, firstname.lastname@example.com
- ALASKA: Lawyer Assistance Committee, 907/264-0401, firstname.lastname@example.com
- ARIZONA: Member Assistance Program, 602/340-7334, 800/681-3057 (24-hour crisis line), email@example.com
- ARKANSAS: Lawyers Helping Lawyers, 501/782-7294, email@example.com
- CALIFORNIA: The Other Bar, 800/222-0767 (24 hours), firstname.lastname@example.com; State Bar of California, 415/561-8200
- COLORADO: Lawyers Health Program, 800/432-0977 (in state only); 303/825-7076 (24 hours), email@example.com
- CONNECTICUT: Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, 860/623-9835, email@example.com
- DELAWARE: Lawyers Assistance Committee, 302/995-7001 (24 hours), email@example.com
- DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Lawyer Counseling Program, 202/347-3131 (9-5 and answering machine), firstname.lastname@example.com
- FLORIDA: Florida Lawyers Assistance, Inc., 800/282-8981 (national, 24 hours), email@example.com
- GEORGIA: Drug & Alcohol Resource Center, 800/289-0201; lawyer assistance committee 770/429-1499, firstname.lastname@example.com
- HAWAII: Attorney & Judges Assistance Program, 808/531-2880 (24 hours), pager 808/574-9491
- IDAHO: Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, 208/454-2531, firstname.lastname@example.com
- ILLINOIS: Lawyers Assistance Program, 800/527-1233, firstname.lastname@example.com
- INDIANA: Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program (JLAP), 866/428-5527 (24 hours), firstname.lastname@example.com
- IOWA: Lawyers Helping Lawyers, 800/243-1533, firstname.lastname@example.com
- KANSAS: Impaired Lawyers Assistance Committee, 913/573-2992, email@example.com
- KENTUCKY: Lawyers Helping Lawyers, 502/564-3795
- LOUISIANA: Alcohol & Drug Abuse Committee, 800/354-9334 (24 hours), firstname.lastname@example.com
- MAINE: Alcohol and Substance Abuse Committee, 207/786-3173, email@example.com
- MARYLAND: Lawyer Counseling Program, 410/685-7878 (24 hours), 800/492-1964 x252, email@example.com
- MASSACHUSETTS: Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, Inc., 617/482-9600 or 800/525-0210, firstname.lastname@example.com
- MICHIGAN: Lawyers & Judges Assistance Program, 517/346-6306, 800/996-5522, firstname.lastname@example.com
- MINNESOTA: Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, 651/646-5590, firstname.lastname@example.com
- MISSISSIPPI: Lawyers and Judges Assistance Program, 800/593-9777 (24-hour confidential hotline), firstname.lastname@example.com
- MISSOURI: Lawyers' Assistance Program, 800/688-7859 (24 hours and answering service), email@example.com
- MONTANA: Lawyers Helping Lawyers, 888/385-9119, email@example.com
- NEBRASKA: Alcohol & Drug Abuse Committee, 402/475-6527, email@example.com
- NEVADA: Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, 702/455-4827, firstname.lastname@example.com
- NEW HAMPSHIRE: Lawyers Assistance Committee, 603/224-6942, firstname.lastname@example.com
- NEW JERSEY: Lawyers Assistance Program, 800/246-5527 (24 hours), email@example.com or Bill Kane at email@example.com
- NEW MEXICO: Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, 505/242-6845, 800/860-4914 (24 hours, in state only), email@example.com
- NEW YORK: Lawyers Helping Lawyers, 800/255-0569 (24 hours, nationwide), email@example.com
- NEW YORK CITY: New York City Lawyer Assistance Program, 212/302-5787 (24 hours), email@example.com
- NORTH CAROLINA: Positive Action for Lawyers, 800/720-7257, firstname.lastname@example.com
- NORTH DAKOTA: State Bar of North Dakota, 701/746-7366 (daytime), 701/775-3701 (evenings)
- OHIO: Lawyers' Assistance Program, Inc., 800/348-4343 (24 hours), email@example.com
- OKLAHOMA: Lawyers Helping Lawyers, 800/346-7889, firstname.lastname@example.com
- OREGON: Oregon Attorney Assistance Program, 503/226-1057, 800/321-6227, email@example.com
- PENNSYLVANIA: Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, 888/999-1941 (helpline), 800/335-2572, firstname.lastname@example.com
- RHODE ISLAND: Confidential Assistance Program, 401/421-5740, firstname.lastname@example.com
- SOUTH CAROLINA: Lawyers Caring About Lawyers, 803/252-3663
- SOUTH DAKOTA: Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, 605/771-0275, email@example.com
- TENNESSEE: Tennessee Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, 877/424-8527, firstname.lastname@example.com
- TEXAS: Texas Lawyers Assistance Program, 800/343-8527, 512/463-1453 (voice mail), email@example.com
- UTAH: Lawyers Helping Lawyers, 801/753-7400
- VERMONT: Lawyer Assistance Program, 800/633-0028 ext. 52, email@example.com
- VIRGINIA: Lawyers Helping Lawyers, 800/838-8358, 804/644-3212 (confidential voice mail), email@example.com
- WASHINGTON: Lawyers Assistance Program, 206/727-8265, firstname.lastname@example.com
- WEST VIRGINIA: Lawyer Committee on Assistance and Intervention, 304/233-1974, email@example.com
- WISCONSIN: Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, 608/764-5844, 800/254-9154, email@example.com
- WYOMING: Lawyers Assistance Committee, 307/778-7663
Frederic W. (Fritz) Knaak, in private practice for 22 years, is a partner at Holstad & Knaak, P.L.C., in St. Paul, Minnesota. A former board member of Minnesota Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, he also served ten years in the Minnesota State Senate.
The author of this article has granted permission for reproduction of the text of this article for classroom use in an institution of higher learning and for use by not-for-profit organizations, provided that such use is for informational, non-commercial purposes only and any reproduction of the article or portion thereof acknowledges original publication in this issue of GPSolo, citing volume, issue, and date, and includes the title of the article, the name of the author, and the legend "Reprinted by permission of the American Bar Association."


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The nation's laws have changed, but how do you legislate the heart?
The nation's laws have changed, but how do you legislate the heart?
In Stockton, those who walk in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr. struggle still with that age-old question. Fifty years after the "I Have a Dream" speech, the city's black religious leaders recognize - and lament - King's unrealized spiritual call for equality.
"If believers don't believe that God's spirit within us is greater than our culture, then we will never change," said Ernie Jordan, pastor of Rock of Hope City Church on South Oro Avenue.
"With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together ..."
Jordan has worked hard in his southeast Stockton neighborhood to build a multicultural church, trying to reverse the continuing clich� that the nation's most segregated hour each week takes place during Sunday worship.
"Hopefully, the community of faith will change," Jordan said. "If not, nothing is going to change."
La Nita Green, co-pastor with her husband, Eddie, of Stockton's Keys to Life Christian Fellowship, sees irony in the way legal protections, but not necessarily personal viewpoints, have changed since the 1960s.
"We don't have to sit in the back of the bus anymore," she said. "That's true, but that's only law. That's not everybody's heart - that's what needs to change in America for us all to be free."
Black or white, young or old, a person of faith or one who relies on humanity's evolution, how you view race and race relations depends on your life experiences.
For most older black Americans, a defining life experience took place on another Wednesday 50 years ago - Aug. 28, 1963. When King left his script and used a single word - "dream" - in poetic intervals, he lifted his speech into immortality and lifted the hearts and hopes of millions.
"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
The past five years have produced confusing, conflicting emotions in the nation.
In 2008, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, an unimaginable achievement a generation ago. Early last year, Trayvon Martin, a black high school student, was shot fatally in Florida. His death, and the acquittal last month of the man who killed him, have renewed the national debate on racial profiling.
Some older black residents, many of them having moved to Stockton from the American South, carry traumatic childhood memories. The Martin case reminds them of:
� Lynchings and beatings.
� Humiliating, unequal access to American life.
� Unfair treatment by whites.
� The hopelessness and fear of injustice handed down by those in authority.
Still others, like former Stockton City Councilman Ralph Lee White, see the fight for civil rights as ongoing. While believing in King's message of nonviolence, White said he is ready once again to take to the streets.
Fifty years ago, White was in Washington, D.C., and was forever changed by what he heard.
"I was a little more militant before that," White said. "I was ignited by what I heard and wanted to push harder. But after Martin's speech, I was a little more peaceable. He changed my way of thinking."
White was 20 at the time. When he returned to Stockton, he was determined to work for racial equality and helped organize boycotts against businesses with unfair labor practices. In 1971, he was elected to the City Council and pushed for more diversity in local government.
White is 70 now, and hardly less strident. He acknowledges that much of the progress sought by King has come to pass.
"But much of it has been lost," he said. "This is ridiculous. We're probably going to have to go back to the streets and pick up what Martin Luther King Jr. started.
"We cannot wait around for another speech. It's a little too late for that."
"We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence."
Willie Gene Easter, born in 1945 and a teenager at the time of King's speech, draws a direct line from the slain civil rights leader to his father and to himself.
"My dad was a Pentecostal preacher in Stockton," Easter said. "I think Martin Luther King (Jr.) was a great man and had a dream that came true. He believed in freedom, justice and equality. So did my dad (Willie Lee Easter, who died in 1997).
"And I believe in those same principles."
Easter, 68, plays pool most mornings at the Oak Park Senior Center. By 9 a.m., he scoots off to work at a barber shop just south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
His fellow pool players, a diverse group, keep shooting 8-ball throughout the day.
Easter has known Glenn Lapitan, 67, since their days at Edison High School.
"Yeah, things are worse," Lapitan said. "It's not any better today than it was. This president hasn't fixed anything. If you go to an international fair, every ethnic group sticks together."
Another pool regular is 72-year-old Peter Schlatter.
"We've always had a salt-and-pepper society," he said. "King's speech was one of the best ever given. He tapped into the human frailties - the marches, the Vietnam War. There were a lot of pent-up emotions."
Previous generations, Schlatter said, still carry old prejudices with them. "They don't want to let it go. They don't change. They use the same old excuses."
"One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."
A circle of friends rearranges the dominoes inside the Taft Community Center every day. Sometimes a half dozen men show up to play, sometimes a dozen. They occupy a half-hidden back room.
Taft is operated by San Joaquin County government and is in an unincorporated pocket of south Stockton on Downing Avenue.
This month, Lee Vurn Jones, a 71-year-old regular, walked in late one morning and proudly showed off his 50-year membership certificate in the Operative Plasterers' & Cement Masons' International Association of the United States & Canada. He received a gold watch from the union.
"I had my apprenticeship in Stockton," Jones said as he sat down at the dominoes table. "I would go on jobs and build houses that I couldn't buy. No one talked openly, but I couldn't buy in Lincoln Village West.
"There were laws on the books against that, but no one enforced the laws."
Jones, a 1960 Franklin High School graduate, lives on Airport Way. He raised six children; four of them are college graduates. His life motto: Obey all laws.
"That means all of white man's laws," he said. "There is no justice in the law for minorities."
Jim Jones, no relation to Lee Vurn Jones, can be found most days at a seat opposite the long-time union man. Many of their friends left when the conversation centered on King's speech and its relevance today.
"They get angry when they think about what they endured," Jim Jones said.
He is 76, lives nearby and is retired after a career in management at five General Motors plants.
"King's speech was special," he said. "We didn't know what he was trying to instill. But nothing has changed, period. I really learned from situations I was forced into.
"It started in grade school when white kids were told not to play with black kids because they're monkeys."
Steve Kohn, 59, is newer to Stockton - and the domino table. "There never will be a United States of America as long as we have states' rights," Kohn said. "This country is for the rich."
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.' "
Glenn R. Shields, pastor of Progressive Community Church, joins Jordan in seeking spiritual answers to the persistent problems of prejudice.
"I think America has to see it as America's problem - not just a black or white problem," Shields said. "At the root is the selfishness of man. What I really admire about King is, in the midst of a hostile world and society, he never allowed racism to make him bitter. His speech is evidence of that."
Jennet Stebbins, a 69-year-old San Joaquin Delta College trustee, worries that the "Dream" message of nonviolence and stubborn insistence on equality is lost on the latest generation.
"It was a great speech," she said. "We still celebrate it, but it's a lot different today. Too many youngsters aren't motivated and not concerned."
"This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality."
In Stockton, there is hope in an emerging generation of black leadership.
Charles A. Johnson, 34, is involved in organizing Black Family Day. He also is a youth adviser with the NAACP.
Michael Tubbs was elected last year to the City Council. He's 23.
And Jerron Jordan, pastor Ernie Jordan's son, is a charismatic, outspoken 28-year-old who has spent eight years in state prison and is now asking tough questions of others.
"I was too black for some and too white for others," he said last week at a downtown prayer rally commemorating the '63 March on Washington. "In prison, I answered the call from my ancestors. Three words changed my life: Who are you? I only knew who I wanted to become."
Jordan used the rally to ask that question of Stockton: "Who are we? As a nation? As a community? As a people?"
Record Librarian Delailah Little contributed to this report.
Contact reporter Kevin Parrish at (209) 546-8264 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Signature: Signature stamp on sculpture
Image rights: Johan Tahon / Gerhard Hofland
Manufacturer: Johan Tahon
Expo Chicago 2017
About Johan Tahon
Using sculpture as a medium to embody the unconscious, Belgian sculptor Johan Tahon creates melting, elongated human and animal figures. His oversized plaster head sculptures challenge existential notions of space and reality, making intangible human emotions visible. One critic wrote that by "following his obsessive creative urge, he tries to make dreams, fantasies, and images appear." Tahon draws inspiration from classical Greek and Byzantine sculptural styles, as well as modernist sculptors like Wilhelm Lehmbruck and Alberto Giacometti. The artist's raw, unpolished works expose the physicality of his artistic process. Tahon, who studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, has exhibited in Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey, and Italy.
Belgian, b. 1965, Menen, Belgium, based in Munkzwalm, Belgium and in Istanbul


text:
Friday, 3 February 2012
St Georges Scout Troop
6 comments:
I'm not convinced this is Holy Trinity. The boy on the left is holding a 2nd Hyde flag which is probably St George's, and the church door and archway behind the boys don't resemble those at Holy Trinity.
- Saturday, 04 February, 2012
- Tom said...
Hi Werneth Low... I see I might have to rename this post... I'll drop Fred an email and see what he says.
- Saturday, 04 February, 2012
- downsie21 said...
Hi Tom I did say that this was St. Georges scout troop and the lad holding the Union flag in centre of back row is my cousin Neville Massey.
- Wednesday, 08 February, 2012
- Tom said...
Hi Eric
Sorry for the delay in updating this post with the correct title... and information...
- Wednesday, 08 February, 2012
St Georges Scout Group is 4th Hyde
Holy Trinity is 3rd Gee Cross
The only 2nd Hyde Group I can see is Westleyen Chapel on Water Street or Norfolk Street and thar seems to have closed in 1938
- Thursday, 23 February, 2012
This is 4th Hyde (St Georges) cub pack, probably about 1940. Phil Kindlisides was Akela and he is seated in the biddle. The cub on the extreme right is Derek Sowter.
- Saturday, 23 March, 2013


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Difference between revisions of "Toila"
Earth : Europe : Baltic states : Estonia : East Estonia : Toila
Latest revision as of 04:36, 27 September 2012
Toila [2] [3] is a small town in North-East Estonia. It's situated about 40km west from Narva and 10 km northeast from the town of Jõhvi.
Toila is a popular place for weekend breaks and holidays, especially with Estonians from Ida-Virumaa County.
Get in[edit]
By bus[edit]
Bus schedules can be checked at Bussireisid.
Get around[edit]
See[edit][add listing]
Do[edit][add listing]
Toila has a small fishing and yachting port.
Oru Park and its palace have become popular for walking and enjoying the outdoor events that take place there.
Buy[edit][add listing]
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The official Estonian tourism website provides an extensive list of options for accommodation in Toila.
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Rams to open season on November 18th at Ramapo, 7:00 p.m.
Farmingdale, N.Y. - The 2008-09 Farmingdale State men's basketball team returns to defend their Skyline Conference Championship and will attempt a third Championship in four years. The team has compiled an 83-31 record over the past four seasons under fifth year Head Coach Erik Smiles. With the loss of Brian Robinson, Peter Lipka and Warren McAllister to graduation, the Rams will look to the new crop of seniors and the addition of some very athletic underclassmen.
This season Farmingdale State will be returning 2007-08 Skyline
Conference and ECAC Metro Player of the Year, senior guard Damien
Santana (Brooklyn, N.Y./Grady), who averaged over 21 points and six
rebounds last season. Santana is on pace to become Farmingdale
State's All-Time leading scorer, as he holds 1311 career
points and will look to surpass former teammate Kenny McMillan's
(2002-06) record of 1776 points.
Joining Santana among the senior class are forward Erastus Shannon (Amityville, N.Y./Copiague), forward Davon Jackson (New York, N.Y./Rice) and guard Joe Cammarata (Levittown, N.Y./MacArthur). Shannon was a First Team All-Skyline selection last year after pulling down a team-leading 8.3 rebounds per game and scoring 11.8 points per game. Jackson shot 40-percent from three-point range in 07-08 and averaged 4.3 rebounds per game. Cammarata led the team last season shooting 81.5-percent from the free throw line.
Also returning is junior guard Dan Phillips (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin), junior guard Merlin Bass (Queens, N.Y./Holy Cross) and junior forward Terrence Howard (Queens, N.Y./Cardozo).
Coach Smiles has brought in a mix of seven players who he expects to make an immediate impact on the program. Atop the list is junior transfer Michael Campbell, a 6-5 guard/forward, who averaged 18 points and nine rebounds at Globe Community College. Campbell was a 1st Team All-Division One Region XV player at Globe. Torrance McGill, a transfer from Concordia College, is a 6-2 guard who averages 11 points and seven rebounds. Nikita Davis, a 6-7 sophomore transfer from Briarcliffe College, is an inside and outside player who averages 19 points and seven rebounds.
The Rams will tip-off the 2008-09 season at Ramapo College on Tuesday, November 18th at 7:00 p.m. The Skyline Conference schedule will begin on December 2nd at Polytechnic Institute. The first home game is scheduled for December 10th against Bard College.


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Collins Mini Gem Polish-Portuguese & Portuguese-Polish Dictionary is an up-to-date, easy-reference dictionary, ideal for learners of Portuguese and Polish of all ages. The dictionary covers about 10,000 words from each language with Collins pre-recorded audio pronunciation for each word.
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"Pride" is one of those human emotions that always gets a bad rap – not only is it listed as one of the seven deadly sins (you know them: sloth, greed, gluttony … etc.) but it's usually associated with arrogant behavior out in the workaday world.
I say "usually" because of course the term "taking pride in one's work" is utterly in NO WAY related to the negatives traditionally linked to the biblical definition of "pride."
Indeed, taking pride in one's work is considered to be one of the most commendable values anybody in any job – from the corporate suite on down to the janitorial foot soldier – can espouse. And rightly so, I emphatically stress.
I got to thinking about this topic this weekend after reading an absolutely fabulous story written by Kathleen Boyle for the Washington Post newspaper concerning the security guards stationed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Unfortunately, this wonderful example of why "pride" should sometimes be a highly-prized value got buried several sections deep within the Post's newsprint folds, well out of sight of most readers.
Taking pride in one's work, of course, is nothing new to truckers – indeed, it's almost ingrained within the DNA of the many drivers I've met over the years.
Take for example the late Darrell Hicks – a trucker affectionately known as "Uncle Darrell" for his work with children through the Trucker Buddy program.
I met Darrell several times over the past decade and a half – and oh how the industry will miss him – and he just seemed to epitomize the kind of truck driver who not only loved what he did for a living, but wanted to share both his passion and his experience with the next generation of potential big rig operators.
[Here's a nice local television news clip from two years ago about the Trucker Buddy program Hicks so selflessly championed for many decades.]
Taking pride in the job of driving a big rig is often also shown in the way veteran drivers try to help their less-experienced and rookie brethren navigate the complex challenges involved in operating a tractor-trailer.
Now, while I've shared the perspective of Larry Wright – a driver for Schneider National – several times in this space, it still remains an excellent example in my mind as to the way taking pride in one's work translates into a benefit for all involved.
It just goes to show that "the pride factor" as I call it is something alive and well in today's workforce – and should be encouraged, if not lauded, by employers of all shapes and sizes. Because that pride translates into quality worker, whether you're a truck driver or a National Archive security guard, and pays dividends in all sorts of ways that can and can't be measured.
Simply put, it's something worth treasuring for the long haul.


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ARENA Dances: Main Street
ARENA DANCES is a modern dance company based in Minneapolis. Their work gives shape to emotions and explores the depths and the limits of what drives us as humans to connect, to break away, to survive.
Main Street, a new work commissioned by the College of Saint Benedict, is an exploration of growing up in a small town and is partially inspired by St. Joseph, MN. The Main Street Project explores how current attitudes, relationships and habits have changed over the years. The performance will juxtapose visceral and explosive movement with electro/techno/pop music, folk-inspired songs, and projections of filmed interviews with people from diverse communities and backgrounds. The work ultimately asks the question, does "Main Street" still exist?


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For me, the IRS scandal, though certainly a big deal, currently ranks behind two bigger deal stories — immigration reform and Benghazi. I view the Schumer-Rubio bill as a long-term political game-changer and, indeed, nation-changer. And Benghazigate implicates the president, high ranking administration officials, and the president's likely successor as standard bearer of the Democratic Party. By contrast, we do not know that the president had anything to with the IRS's misdeeds.
Yet, it seemed immediately apparent to me that the IRS story overwhelms the other two in terms of the potential danger posed to the administration. Why? Because any American can easily understand the unfairness and fearsomeness of using the taxing power for partisan political purposes.
But my confidence in these sorts of political assessments isn't sky high these days. Thus, I was happy to read that Nate Silver also sees political resonance in the IRS scandal. He assesses the likely political fall-out from a scandal by asking the following five sensible questions:
1. Can the potential scandal be described with one sentence, but not easily refuted with one sentence?
2. Does the scandal cut against a core element of the candidate's brand?
3. Does the scandal reinforce a core negative perception about the candidate?
4. Can the scandal be employed readily by the opposition without their looking hypocritical, risking retribution or giving life to a damaging counter-claim?
5. Is the potential scandal occurring amid an otherwise slow news cycle?
The long-and-short of Silver's analysis of these questions is that "the I.R.S. story scores relatively high, meaning it could have a substantial political impact."
As to the first question, "simplicity seems to be on the Republicans' side in the I.R.S. case in a way it hasn't been on Benghazi." As to the second, "the I.R.S. story has the potential to affect perceptions of the executive branch, the Democratic Party and the United States government as a whole, and Mr. Obama." Similarly, as to the third, "when it comes to the grievances of Tea Party voters in particular, the I.R.S.'s actions could hardly be more substantively or symbolically resonant."
Fourth, Republicans face little risk of a backlash when they press the administration on the IRS's conduct. It will be difficult to portray concern about IRS abuses as a partisan squabble. President Obama and other Democrats sense this, as is clear from their initial public reaction.
Finally, does the IRS scandal arise in a slow news cycle? I would say no, given Benghazihate. But Silver argues that this puts Republicans in something of a no-lose position:
The news media could portray the Benghazi and I.R.S. stories as "joint scandals," meaning that both would get plenty of coverage at the expense of other issues like immigration reform. Or, the news media could focus on the I.R.S. case instead of Benghazi — but for the reasons I've outlined here, the I.R.S. story probably entails much more political downside for Democrats.
I still think that Obamacare and the state of the economy will be the two most important issues, among those on the current horizon, in 2014. But I agree with Silver that the IRS may well prove to be a burden for Democrats, and a drag on President Obama's popularity.


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More than 20 faculty members and their students at MIT Sloan seek to improve the ways we care about ourselves as individuals and one another, as we rethink our society's health care systems.
Here are five examples of real-world engagement and a commitment to solving the world's most complex problem—health care.
Retsef Levi, J. Spencer Standish (1945) Professor of Management, and Massachusetts General Hospital's Dr. Peter Dunn
Waiting at the hospital is bad enough. Waiting for surgery—and after surgery—is a taxing experience with the potential for medical consequences, and a familiar one for many Americans.
But at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), those waits are getting shorter, thanks to a strategic partnership between the hospital and MIT Sloan.
In November of last year, surgery units at MGH implemented a new scheduling system that loosened the bottlenecks of patients waiting to enter surgery, in the operating theater after surgery, and in the important Post-Anesthetic Care Unit, where patients are closely monitored immediately after leaving the operating theater.
Since implementation, MGH has halved the number of patients facing long waits to enter surgery. And the hospital has freed up about 4 percent of beds reserved for post-surgery patients—all without new resources or a reduction in caseload.
"As much as 4 percent sounds like a very modest impact, it boils down to the science of queuing systems," said Retsef Levi, the J. Spencer Standish (1945) Professor of Management. "If the system is highly utilized—as it is at MGH—even a small difference can have a significant positive impact on how long patients are waiting."
Prior to the changes, the scheduling process for surgery at MGH was rife with inefficiency—and mirrored a problem experienced by hospitals across the country.
Collaborating with Levi and a team of MIT students from the Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program, as well as post-doctoral fellows, MGH designed two improvements to scheduling.
In the past, the scheduling of elective surgeries resulted in unbalanced bed occupancy levels, peaking in the middle of the week and causing longer waits for both nonelective surgeries and patients waiting for a hospital bed after surgery.
So the group used integer programming to improve efficiency in the hospital's block scheduling system for operating rooms (OR), smoothing the bed census over the week and reducing occupancy by 4 percent.
The team also reserved some operating room blocks as "open" and allowed central OR administration to determine when nonelective surgeries would be scheduled. That made better use of operating rooms and reduced by half the number of patients with unreasonable waits to enter surgery.
The team also reserved some operating room blocks as "open" and allowed central OR administration to determine when nonelective surgeries would be scheduled. That made better use of operating rooms and reduced by half the number of patients with unreasonable waits to enter surgery.
But the new schedule threw off surgeons' long-established work schedules, meaning that change required buy-in from hospital leadership and support from surgeons.
"This was a burning platform that resonated with every single one of our surgeons," said Dr. Peter F. Dunn, executive medical director of Perioperative Services at MGH. "They struggle to get their patients into the OR in a timely manner. The end product with this system is a positive result for surgeons and our patients."
"More than 40 percent of surgeons changed their schedules, which is unheard of," Levi said.
Unlike routine consulting to implement known best practices, MIT Sloan's work with MGH is seeking innovative solutions to problems experienced by hospitals across the United States. Levi also worked with the hospital to improve wait times in its Pre-Admission Testing Area, where patients receive comprehensive exams before surgery. That work—completed with Kelsey McCarty, MBA '10; Leo Espindle, LGO '11; Andres Garro, LGO '11; Devon Price, LGO '11; and Jérémie Gallien of London Business School—was summarized in a teaching case and won the New Case Writer award from the European Case Clearing House.
Levi and Dunn, along with MGH President Peter L. Slavin, MD, have presented the results of the scheduling improvements at the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Institute of Medicine.
"What we hope to do," said Dunn, "is take our lessons learned and help apply them in those institutions that don't have what we have afforded to us."
In the past four years, MIT Sloan's Global Health Delivery Lab (ghdLAB) has covered a good deal of ground—tens of thousands of miles, in fact.
With some 40 projects completed on African and Indian soil, and another set of student teams overseas in March 2012, MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer Anjali Sastry said ghdLAB has embarked on an interesting look at its impact so far. The goal? To assess the benefits, including performance improvements and lessons learned, gained by partnering organizations that have worked with students on the front lines of healthcare delivery—from Kenya to South Africa to India.
MIT Sloan's rich experience with action learning inspired Sastry to design ghdLAB in 2008. The current study could help fill a void in the research on action learning in management education.
"We are going back to every project to ask how we helped. Did we impose any costs? Are we seeing benefits spilling over to other areas? What about continuity? Are people building on the work that we did?" said Sastry. "We're gathering firsthand data and conducting systematic interviews. Early indications reveal more positive effects than we had realized."
"Across the United States and globally, business schools are engaging in more project-based action learning, but we need to better document what makes it effective," said Sastry. "I think that we can align seeking to deliver the most effective help to our partners with delivering the best learning experience for our students. When ghdLAB students bring to bear the best of their MIT Sloan toolkit to tackle problems collaboratively, I think our contributions can go beyond volunteering. Our study will help us to say, 'Here's where we made an impact.'"
As is the case with other action learning courses at MIT Sloan that combine classroom learning with an intensive on-site experience, ghdLAB is much coveted—80 students recently applied for 36 seats. What sets ghdLAB apart is its focus on the challenges of healthcare delivery in developing nations. Student teams tackle the barriers and constraints facing both for-profit and non-profit enterprises in increasing scale, scope, and quality of care.
Projects have taken on process improvement, business model innovation, marketing, and strategic planning in varied settings. Recently, student teams worked with a Kenyan slum clinic to increase utilization of its healthcare services, an HIV-prevention initiative in South Africa to build a research function within their monitoring and evaluation department, and a community nursing outreach program in India to improve pre- and post-natal care in the community.
"With ghdLAB, the issues are thrown into sharp focus because needs are so extreme," said Sastry. "Low-resource settings offer us an opportunity to work with different models and to explore important questions, such as: How can you do more with less? Can for-profit business provide social goods for the lowest-income populations? How do we share what we have learned? And how can the right management tools and approaches be brought to the front lines of healthcare?"
"People have argued that we need a field of healthcare delivery studies that investigates needed innovations, explores sustainability and scale, and looks at the entire patient experience," said Sastry, who discusses this idea and presents student experiences in a new video.
"Healthcare delivery poses challenges that every country is confronting," Sastry emphasizes. "These are global issues. By working in different settings, not only do students get amazing learning experiences, but we also get a chance to return to the classroom to distill, share, and contrast our learning," said Sastry. "And, as our impact assessment is revealing, when we focus on how to learn from experience and deliver practical improvements, benefits extend far beyond the project—for both students and partners."
—Mary Tamer
It is a sad and cynical assumption to consider: There is no guaranteed material benefit to developing and manufacturing drugs and vaccines for the third world.
But a new economic model developed by—among others—Professor Ernst Berndt, the Louis E. Seley Professor in Applied Economics, intends to provide that guarantee.
The Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) model seeks to speed the development of drugs and vaccines for the third world by using philanthropic dollars and a guaranteed price to stoke production. If drug manufacturers are guaranteed a worthwhile price through donor funding, Berndt believes they will pursue the development and manufacturing capacity expansion of critical drugs.
A pilot program is under way with pneumococcal vaccines, which fight infections that kill more than 800,000 children under the age of five every year. More than 80 percent of those deaths occur in countries eligible for assistance from the AMC pilot, according to an article Berndt and colleagues published in Health Affairs last year.
"It's highly prevalent," Berndt said. "A lot of kids die from it in the third world."
The model works like this: A consortium of donors (in this case, five donor countries—Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Russian Federation, Norway—and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) fronts enough funds to allow a project administrator (the GAVI Alliance working with the World Bank) to offer drug companies a set price to develop a finite amount of a new vaccine or drug. Under the model, the first units delivered command a higher price, offering a greater reward for initial manufacturing and a marginal cost for later sales.
The donated funds cover upfront development and additional manufacturing capacity costs, enabling third-world countries to pay a predetermined marginal drug cost from the start.
This advance commitment model has taken hold. In December 2011, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline each announced its commitment to supply up to a total of 480 million doses of pneumococcal vaccines Prevnar-13 and Synflorix through 2023, building on their original March 2010 commitment to supply up to 300 million doses under GAVI. In late 2011, GAVI announced it would be introducing the pneumococcal vaccines into an additional 18 countries, bringing the total number of countries supported through the AMC to 37.
"What we hope we can do in several years is to quantify the reduction in infant mortality," Berndt said. "And how much did we spend? So we know cost per life saved. We are already beginning to evaluate how much more rapidly the diffusion of the vaccine to developing country markets is, as compared with a traditional R&D model."
The pilot was launched in 2009 and will last until at least 2023. But Berndt has determined a few early lessons. The AMC model requires a sustained donor commitment to GAVI to support early R&D, he said.
Some level of trust is also required. The model creates a legally binding promise that the program administrator will pay a certain price for drugs or vaccines—so long as the demand exists. Drug manufacturers are taking a risk on that demand appearing.
"Industry has to take some risk here," Berndt said. "One of our goals was to ensure that the risks industry takes are similar to those they take under first-world drug market conditions."
But even with some risk and some uncertainty, Berndt is optimistic the model can bring affordable drugs to market in the third world more quickly than in the past.
"I think we'll know a lot more in the coming year," he said. "As far as I can tell, it's the first collaboration of its kind. The potential payoff is so great. Industry can play a vital role. Mutually beneficial transactions are possible."
—Zach Church
When someone is rushed to an emergency room with heart problems, does it matter how much money the hospital spends on that patient?
It may seem logical that high-end medical care would lead to better results for patients. But economists and policy specialists have debated the question extensively, and uncovering a clear answer has proven difficult.
Now an innovative study by Joseph Doyle, Alfred Henry (1929) and Jean Morrison Hayes Career Development Professor, shows that hospitals that spend more money to treat people who enter their emergency rooms are indeed successful in lowering the mortality rates of those patients.
"More intensive and expensive treatment leads to better outcomes," said Doyle, whose study examined tens of thousands of cases in which out-of-state visitors were admitted to emergency rooms in the state of Florida over a span of several years.
Among other findings, Doyle discovered that an increase of about $4,000 per patient in hospital expenditures led to a 1.4 percent decrease in the mortality rate. The results were published in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.
Uncertainty over the effectiveness of medical spending stems, in large part, from the fact that health care providers in some regions of the United States spend considerably more on their patients than providers in other regions do, yet some studies have shown that patients in higher-spending areas do not necessarily have a lower mortality rate than those in lower-spending areas.
But other economists have found data suggesting that additional spending does make a difference; hospitals that spend more money while producing similar outcomes may simply be dealing with sicker patients.
Doyle studied the problem by looking at emergency room visits of people visiting Florida, an approach that reduces the impact of local patient variation on medical spending.
The study examined nearly 37,000 hospitalizations from 1996 to 2003. Doyle analyzed patient data by ZIP code, age, and even seasonality of visit to ensure he was studying demographically similar tourists being treated throughout Florida.
Florida has significant "variation in how areas treat patients after heart attacks," Doyle said. "Florida looks like a microcosm of the U.S., with high-spending and low-spending areas. And the per-capita income of an area is not correlated very well with [hospital] spending." In Fort Lauderdale, for example, hospitals spend 30 percent more on heart patients than they do in nearby affluent West Palm Beach.
Therefore, the variation in results that Doyle found does not stem from the prior health of patients, but from the level of care itself. Specifically, the greater expenses—and benefits—in heart treatment seem to come from a broader application of intensive care unit (ICU) tools and having more medical personnel on hand.
"The higher-spending hospitals use more ICU services, and they have higher staff-to-patient ratios, so they use more labor," Doyle said. "And that's expensive."
Overall, a 50 percent increase in what Doyle calls a hospital's "spending intensity" allows it to reduce mortality rates due to heart problems to about 26 percent below the mean. He said that identifying the precise medical technologies that provide the greatest additional benefit per dollar spent remains a work in progress—and will require ongoing analysis as new technologies are introduced.
"There are smart ways to spend money and ineffective ways to spend money," he said. "And we're still trying to figure out which are which, as much as possible."
Fewer than 20,000 kidneys are available for transplant in the United States each year, yet more than 80,000 people are waiting for a kidney transplant.
A new method for determining who receives a transplant, developed by MIT Sloan faculty and a former student, can increase the years of life gained by recipients by 8 to 10 percent. And it does so without undermining the fairness criterion that is a central part of the kidney allocation process.
Developed by Dimitris Bertsimas, the Boeing Leaders for Global Operations Professor of Management; Vivek Farias, the Robert N. Noyce Career Development Professor; and Nikolaos Trichakis, PhD '11, the method focuses on the desired outcome—a fair distribution of transplants based on age, race, blood type, illness, and other factors. It also creates a formula for allocation that best matches that outcome while maximizing efficiency.
Until now, selecting who receives a kidney has been determined by a scoring rule that prioritized patients based on their time on dialysis. That rule worked, but was not efficient. A proposed new scoring rule focuses on achieving a fair and equitable distribution of kidneys. Using their method, however, the professors set out to find an equation that not only resulted in the same fair distribution of kidneys achieved by the proposed new rule, but also maximized the number of extra years lived by recipients.
It worked, with an 8 percent bump in life years. In real terms, that's about 2,000 extra years of life distributed among recipients.
What is considered "fair" is, of course, subject to periodic reevaluation. But the beauty of the new method, the professors said, is that it can be easily adjusted to the changing definitions of fairness. The federal committee tasked with determining who goes where on the kidney waitlist could come up with any desired result—directing more transplants to teenagers or diabetics, for example—and the tool would almost instantly determine the best new scoring rule to start with.
"Let's say in the future there are new requirements, new ethical regulations," Bertsimas said. "Our system is built to accommodate these ideas."
"Our aspiration is that the system, because of its flexibility and because it is outcome driven, will become the key tool to design and evaluate future kidney allocation proposals," he said.
Any proposed allocation scheme requires that potential kidney recipients are ranked based on a number of factors, such as wait time, transplant-ready matches, patients with extensive pain, age, and prior donors. On the other side of the equation, kidneys must be distributed in a fair manner relative to race, age, blood type, and other factors.
Any proposed allocation scheme requires that potential kidney recipients are ranked based on a number of factors, such as wait time, transplant-ready matches, patients with extensive pain, age, and prior donors. On the other side of the equation, kidneys must be distributed in a fair manner relative to race, age, blood type, and other factors.
"There is no methodology, prior to our work, that maximizes the outcome while fulfilling fairness requirements," Bertsimas said.
And it's fast. No more hit or miss, testing rules one by one to find the best fit. The desired answer comes first, and the method determines the best rule to get there.
"What we've done is take that entire process and reduce it to a number of hours," Farias said.
While still a proposal, there is some likelihood that the method will be put into use. Farias recently joined the scientific advisory committee of the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, the non-profit group charged with managing the kidney waitlist. As medical realities rapidly change, the need for a flexible tool to fairly and efficiently allocate donor kidneys becomes only more urgent.
"In the arsenal of policymakers," Farias said, "it is a powerful tool."
Health care in the United States is—and here's an understatement—a complex challenge.
A fractured network of providers, insurers, government entities, and vendors of medical drugs, equipment, and technology operates with little collaboration or systems-level coordination. This often leads to spiraling costs, poor care, and bureaucratic tangles.
Retsef Levi, the J. Spencer Standish (1945) Professor of Management, thinks there is a better way. At MIT Sloan, he is forming a new center to reexamine health care management.
"If you look at health care costs in the U.S. over the last 50 years you see, with few exceptions, that costs increase. Last year, they amounted to over 17 percent of GDP. That's over $2.9 trillion annually. And compared to other developed countries, the U.S. is not ahead of the curve. It is estimated that every year 100,000 people die in hospitals in the U.S. from avoidable medical errors, and that at least 30 percent of spending on health care is waste due to overuse, underuse, and misuse of resources.
"Two approaches to 'fix' the health care industry have emerged over the years, a market incentive approach that views the problem as simply an incentive problem driven by the current payment schemes used in the health care industry, and a 'lean approach' that views the problem as simply a process re-engineering problem.
"What is missing is the recognition that the challenge of fixing the health care industry is, in essence, a complex management problem of health care delivery organizations, and not enough attention has been spent considering the capabilities these institutions need to develop to deliver more cost-efficient, higher-quality care. This is where the MIT Sloan approach comes from. We will focus on the organizations and systems that deliver care, and we want to develop a multidisciplinary approach to study them and then propose different ways and develop new analytical tools to structure them and operate them. This includes finances, HR policies, analytical tools, operations and system design, and so forth.
"This is where I think that the center will bring a new message that does not replace, but rather complements, other approaches."
"MIT Sloan has long-term partnerships with many academic medical centers in the Boston area, including some of the most prestigious hospitals in the world. These partnerships have already resulted in large-scale implementations with tangible results. We also have connections with drug and biomedical companies, as well as insurers and payers.
"Direct collaboration with health care providers and other players is critical. They will have to transform their missions and the way they do business. We will see more distributed networks of institutions that will manage the health of specified populations in a proactive way. In addition, they will need new and different types of employees, and will need to educate existing employees on new business models. In both cases, I think MIT—and MIT Sloan in particular—can help in a fundamental way.
"We are envisioning a new model of funded research. Unlike traditional models in which external organizations provide financial support to fund the research work of faculty and students, we will build collaborative teams that engage different players in the industry—hospitals and health care delivery systems, insurance companies, pharmaceutical and biomedical companies, patients—to create new frameworks and tools that could be applied immediately in the field.
"There are over 20 faculty members at MIT Sloan working on healthcare-related research, and more across the Institute. And they span all the academic groups at the School. The opportunities for strategic collaborations are enormous."