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Geoff Nunberg, the linguist contributor on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, is the author of the book The Years of Talking Dangerously.
If the word of the year is supposed to be an item that has actually shaped the perception of important events, I can't see going with anything but occupy. It was a late entry, but since mid-September it has gone viral and global. Just scan the thousands of hashtags and Facebook pages that begin with the word: Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Slovakia. Occupy Saskatoon, Sesame Street, the Constitution. Occupy the hood.
The word itself can take credit for a lot of its success — this isn't an item like "debt ceiling," which just happened to be hitched to a big story. But give props to the magic of metonymy, too. That's the figure of speech that lets us use names like Wall Street, Hollywood or Seventh Avenue to refer to the things that go on there.
Wall Street is particularly suited to actions that exploit its double meaning. It's a compact place where it's easy to generate symbolically charged confrontations. Those yuppie types with champagne glasses chuckling at the demonstrators from a terrace, the midnight police sweeps, the phalanx of officers in their Robocop gear in front of the Brown Brothers Harriman building — it was as if everybody had stepped out of a political cartoon from a Depression-era copy of the New Masses. Nothing was only itself.
Now, it's true the protesters weren't really occupying Wall Street in the old sense, taking it over the way workers in the 1930s occupied a factory or students in the '60s occupied the dean's office. This is a new meaning of the verb, for a form of protest adapted to the age of smartphones and Twitter, not to mention REI. Once the new occupy grew capital letters, you could export it to places that had no direct connection to finance, as franchises of the original: Occupy Oakland, like Macy's San Francisco. They could have just been called protests, but it wouldn't have felt as much like a movement.
The movement came with its own culture too, just a few subway stops from the national media. It gave color to the story, as reporters turned ethnographers returned from the field with reports of the people's microphone, the jazz-hand finger-flutters, and the drum circles. It was street theater, or a dinner party with paper plates, or an exercise in constructive group dynamics, or a reprise of Woodstock or of the Bonus Marchers of 1932. The occupiers were romantics, holy fools, anarchists. Or they were an incoherent mob of dirty hippies — and with iPads, moreover. I make "dirty hippie" a strong candidate for comeback word of the year. It would have vanished from the language years ago if it hadn't been kept on life support on South Park.
Whatever the movement is, it isn't a wing of electoral politics. People talk about Tea Party Republicans, but nobody's tempted to talk about Occupy Democrats. But it has revived the culture of protest among the young and on the left. As protests go, occupying is high maintenance and seasonal, and the movement might have a different form and name five years from now. But it has already altered the political language with that slogan "We are the 99 percent." Economists have been talking about the top 1 percent for a long time, but it has suddenly become part of our national table talk. It's the most specific term for class in American public life since the late 19th century, when social reformers warned about the undue power and influence of what they called "the upper tenth."
The rise of the 1-percenter talk has left the right uncharacteristically defensive and nonplused. Some Republicans have raised the familiar charge of class warfare. Newt Gingrich called the 99-1 concept un-American and divisive, and he warned against attacking the very people you hope will create jobs. But the polls show that a large majority of Americans are concerned about income inequality, whether or not they're sympathetic to the occupiers themselves.
And talking about "the 1 percent" has its advantages. It seems to put things on an objective basis and strips away the vagueness and the emotional overtones that go with talking about "the rich." It has caught the public fancy, too. Even the Wall Street Journal has gotten into the game with a Web page that lets readers calculate their income percentile from 1 to 100. (What, only 98.7?)
And Republicans themselves have been using the phrase, if not always comfortably. Mitt Romney initially described the Wall Street protests as dangerous class warfare. Then he thought better of it and said he understood how the protesters felt, and that he worried about the 99 percent in America, not the 1 percent.
I was struck by a Thanksgiving op-ed in The Washington Times that said "The so-called '99 percent' have never had it so good." The phrase doesn't make a lot of literal sense — what else would you call them? But it suggests the right's frustration. "So-called" is what people say when they've lost control of the conversation and have to use the other's guy's language, like the liberals who talk about "so-called family values."
So why not make "the 99 percent" itself the word of the year? Well, for one thing, occupy is that rare linguistic phenomenon, a word that bubbles up out of nowhere and actually helps to create the very thing it names. And anyway, "the 99 percent" wouldn't be part of our political discussions if occupy hadn't gotten there first.
Copyright 2021 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.

subset: commoncrawl


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Geoffrey Payzant and Eduard Hanslick collection
- Collection
- 1981-2001 predominant
Collection includes correspondence, notes, typescripts, translations, photocopies of journal articles, and other working papers about Eduard Hanslick. Hanslick was the focus of Payzant's later research, which resulted in two books (published 1986 and 1991), several articles, and various lectures. The fonds consists of the research used in these writings, as well as a typescript manuscript of Payzant's translation of On the musically beautiful: a contribution towards the revision of the aesthetics of music (1986), and copies of his lectures, also titled "On the musically beautiful." The correspondence includes copies of letters between Hanslick and Robert Zimmermann (1824-1898), as well as correspondence between Payzant and other scholars about Hanslick, and correspondence between Payzant and Dietmar Strauß.
Payzant, Geoffrey


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What is depression?
Depression is a serious mood disorder that affects your whole body including your mood and thoughts. It touches every part of your life. It's important to know that depression is not a personal weakness or character flaw. Treatment is often needed.
Once you've had an episode of depression, you are at risk of having more throughout life. If you don't get treatment, depression can happen more often and be more serious.
What causes depression?
Researchers are studying the causes of depression. Several factors seem to play a role. It may be caused by chemical changes in the brain. It also tends to run in families. Depression can be triggered by life events or certain illnesses. It can also develop without a clear trigger.
What are the symptoms of depression?
While each person may experience symptoms differently, these are the most common symptoms of depression:
Lasting sad, anxious, or "empty" mood
Loss of interest in almost all activities
Appetite and weight changes
Changes in sleep patterns, such as inability to sleep or sleeping too much
Slowing of physical activity, speech, and thinking OR agitation, increased restlessness, and irritability
Decreased energy, feeling tired or "slowed down" almost every day
Ongoing feelings of worthlessness or feelings of undue guilt
Trouble concentrating or making decisions
Repeating thoughts of death or suicide, wishing to die, or attempting suicide ( Note: This needs emergency treatment.)
If you have 5 or more of these symptoms for at least 2 weeks, you may be diagnosed with depression. These symptoms would be a noticeable change from what's "normal" for you.
The symptoms of depression may look like other mental health conditions. Always see a healthcare provider for a diagnosis.
How is depression diagnosed?
Depression can happen along with other medical conditions. These include heart disease or cancer, as well as other mental health conditions. Early diagnosis and treatment is key to recovery.
A diagnosis is made after a careful mental health exam and medical history. This is usually done by a mental health professional.
How is depression treated?
Treatment for depression may include 1 or a combination of the following:
Medicine. Antidepressants work by affecting the brain chemicals. Know that it takes 4 to 8 weeks for these medicines to have a full effect. Keep taking the medicine, even if it doesn't seem to be working at first. Never stop taking your medicine without first talking to your healthcare provider. Some people have to switch medicines or add medicines to get results. Work closely with your healthcare provider to find treatment that works for you.
Therapy. This is most often cognitive behavioral or interpersonal therapy. It focuses on changing the distorted views you have of yourself and your situation. It also works to improve relationships and identify and manage stressors in your life.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). This treatment may be used to treat severe, life-threatening depression that has not responded to medicines. A mild electrical current is passed through the brain. This triggers a brief seizure. For unknown reasons, the seizures help restore the normal balance of chemicals in the brain and ease symptoms.
With treatment, you should start to feel better within a few weeks. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or even years. Continued treatment may help to prevent depression from appearing again.
Depression can make you feel exhausted, worthless, helpless, and hopeless. It's important to realize that these negative views are part of the depression and don't reflect reality. Negative thinking fades as treatment starts to take effect. Meanwhile, consider the following:
Get help. Some research shows that if depression is treated as soon as possible, long-term problems are decreased. If you think you may be depressed, see a healthcare provider as soon as possible.
Set realistic goals in light of the depression and don't take on too much.
Break large tasks into small ones. Set priorities, and do what you can as you can.
Try to be with other people and confide in someone. It's usually better than being alone and secretive.
Do things that make you feel better. Going to a movie, gardening, or taking part in religious, social, or other activities may help. Doing something nice for someone else can also help you feel better.
Get regular exercise. Studies show exercise can improve mood.
Expect your mood to get better slowly, not right away. Feeling better takes time.
Eat healthy, well-balanced meals.
Stay away from alcohol and drugs. These can often make depression worse.
It's best to delay important decisions until the depression has lifted. Before deciding to make a big change—such as, change jobs or get married or divorced—discuss it with others who know you well and have a more objective view of your situation.
Remember: People don't "snap out of" a depression. But they can feel a little better day-by-day.
Try to be patient and focus on the positives. This may help replace the negative thinking that is part of the depression. The negative thoughts will fade as your depression responds to treatment.
Let your family and friends help you.
When should I call my healthcare provider?
If you have 5 or more of these symptoms for at least 2 weeks, call your healthcare provider:
Lasting sad, anxious, or "empty" mood
Loss of interest in almost all activities
Appetite and weight changes
Changes in sleep patterns, such as inability to sleep or sleeping too much
Slowing of physical activity, speech, and thinking OR agitation, increased restlessness, and irritability
Decreased energy, feeling tired or "slowed down" almost every day
Ongoing feelings of worthlessness or feelings of undue guilt
Trouble concentrating or making decisions
Repeating thoughts of death or suicide, wishing to die, or attempting suicide ( Note: This needs emergency treatment.)
In crisis
If you have thoughts of harming yourself or others, tell someone right away. Ask a friend or family member to stay with you. Don't stay alone. Call or text 988 You will be connected to trained crisis counselors at the Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also call the Lifeline at 800-273-8255 (TTY: 800-799-4889). An online chat option is also available at www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org. Lifeline is free and available 24/7. Until you feel better, ask a trusted family member or friend to remove all firearms from your home and secure them in a location unknown to you.
Key points about depression
Depression is a serious, treatable mood disorder that affects your whole body including your mood and thoughts.
It's likely caused by several factors, such as the environment or a chemical imbalance in the brain. Some types of depression seem to run in families.
Depression causes ongoing, extreme feelings of sadness, helplessness, hopeless, and irritability. These feelings are usually a noticeable change from what's "normal" for you, and they last for more than 2 weeks.
Depression is most often treated with medicine or therapy, or a combination of both.
Sometimes people with severe depression have thoughts of harming themselves. Tell someone right away if you feel this way. Call or text
988 or go to an emergency room if you have a suicide plan and the means to carry it out.
Next steps
Tips to help you get the most from a visit to your healthcare provider:
Know the reason for your visit and what you want to happen.
Before your visit, write down questions you want answered.
Bring someone with you to help you ask questions and remember what your provider tells you.
At the visit, write down the name of a new diagnosis and any new medicines, treatments, or tests. Also write down any new instructions your provider gives you.
Know why a new medicine or treatment is prescribed and how it will help you. Also know what the side effects are.
Ask if your condition can be treated in other ways.
Know why a test or procedure is recommended and what the results could mean.
Know what to expect if you do not take the medicine or have the test or procedure.
If you have a follow-up appointment, write down the date, time, and purpose for that visit.
Know how you can contact your provider if you have questions.
The month's most popular health news, stories, and tips in your inbox.
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Interview with Head of Design at Nokia about Lumia 920, relationship with Microsoft
Mobile Geeks were able to record Marko Ahtisaari, Head of Design at Nokia, when he sat down with bloggers and the like for thirty minutes while they threw across some questions surrounding the company's advanced Windows Phone and its relationship with Microsoft.
The Lumia 920 is Nokia's latest flagship handset running on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform. The device has been in the news for innovation with both the screen and the on-board shooter, as well as wireless charging (Qi standards).
Ahtisaari goes into detail about how Nokia refines user experiences with the likes of Nokia Music, wireless charging, accessories and more. While many believe Nokia to be the old player in the game, the head of Nokia goes into an interesting explanation about how the work comes together from the multiple teams, as well as where inspiration comes from.
Live Tiles is explained to be saviour of user frustration with countless actions being required to find and locate information within apps. Ahtisaari moves onto state that observing people use technology is how Nokia designs the technology. To enable consumers to glance at a Nokia Windows Phone and maintain strong eye-contact with another person should they have company - which is what Microsoft believes the platform helps achieve: to spend less time on a Windows Phone but get more done.
When asked what comment would make him most proud if a consumer were to leave feedback on a Lumia Windows Phone, Ahtisaari replied with the following:
We're to find that Nokia will continue to develop its brand through the use of differentiating designs and colours used to separate the company from competitors. According to the head of design at the company, Nokia has a tighter, smaller and more efficient team who works on hardware, software, design and more to pack the magic into a chassis.
He's also queried on text input, future innovation, as well as design versus functionality. It's well worth checking the video out to hear what Marko Ahtisaari had to say about Lumia and Nokia as a whole, as well as why didn't Nokia include a magenta / pink Lumia 920.
Get the Windows Central Newsletter
All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.
Source: YouTube; thanks, hag_nor, for the tip!
Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.


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I had several ideas of projects for these fabrics, but I ended up with this bag. I was able to use all the 10 different fabrics for it!
Here is the other side of the same bag.
And here is the bottom!
It will be a birthday gift for a two-year-old I used to babysit. The bag is filled with lots of goodies and is going to fly across the ocean soon! Not sure if he remembers me (probably not!), but he'll definitely enjoy seeing the sea animals on his bag! And it makes 'me' feel good to be able to make something to show him how much he is cared for by us.
Now, time for a giveaway :D Laurie has allowed me to give away her Don't Be Crabby fat quarter bundle to one of you! For your chance to win the bundle, please leave one comment on this post by October 29, Monday! Good luck ;)
Have a great rest of the week!


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Alternative Medicine May Help Ease Chronic Sinusitis
Study found combining it with Western treatments brought more relief to patients
URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_123193.html (*this news item will not be available after 06/19/2012)Wednesday, March 21, 2012
The authors say that their study is the first to explore the potential of combining Western medicine with Eastern therapies among these patients, who experience swollen and inflamed sinuses, facial pain, headaches and impaired breathing.
"Our study was small, looking at a handful of patients who were not benefiting that well from standard treatment," acknowledged study author Dr. Jeffrey Suh, an assistant professor of rhinology and skull base surgery in the department of head and neck surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"And my take on alternative treatments is that Western medicine is effective for the majority of patients," he added. "But for those who don't get complete relief, adding in a more holistic Eastern approach that includes exercise, improved sleep, a better diet, and acupuncture and self-administered acupressure seems to provide an alternative that can have great benefit."
Suh and his colleagues report their findings in the March issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology.
The authors point out that chronic rhinosinusitis is a very prevalent condition in the United States, with nearly 30 million American adults diagnosed with the disease in 2010 alone, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The acute version of the disease is typically due to infection, experts say. However, the chronic form (namely, cases enduring past 12 weeks) is thought to stem from a variety of environmental and anatomical causes (such as the presence of polyps or a deviated nasal septum), thereby complicating treatment efforts.
Such efforts usually include the use of nasal corticosteroid sprays and nasal irrigation, while in some instances surgical intervention is required. Despite such efforts, some patients remain debilitated.
Suh and his team focused on 11 such individuals (eight men and three women), between the ages of 32 and 70. Many had struggled with the condition for years. None had had any kind of surgery in the three months before the study started. Similarly, no one had undergone acupuncture or acupressure intervention in the two months beforehand.
During the study, all previous treatments were continued. However, patients were offered eight weekly 20-minute sessions of therapeutic acupuncture and acupressure massage, performed by licensed therapists. Counseling was also offered to teach patients how to self-administer acupressure at home.
A dietary analysis was also conducted, and patients were given nutritional guidance that tracked traditional Chinese approaches towards food consumption. Stress management was also discussed, as were the benefits of regular exercise.
The result: The team found that when applied alongside modern medicine, the use of such so-called "staples of Eastern medicine" appeared to be both safe and effective.
After two months, all the patients showed a statistically significant gain in terms of quality of life, with a drop in feelings of frustration and restlessness and a boost in their ability to concentrate.
What's more, patients were found to have less of a problem with runny noses, reduced sneezing and a subsequent reduced need to blow their noses. Facial pain and pressure also appeared to drop off somewhat.
"These were the worst of the worst patients," Suh stressed. "And during treatment they got better. Now were they completely better? No. Only some of their symptoms improved. And those who did not keep up the lifestyle modifications like self-administered acupressure returned to their previous state after the study. But those who kept it up continued to see a benefit. So this offers some hope, and leads us to consider the next question, which is what might be possible with Eastern therapy alone?"
That said, Dr. Jordan Josephson, a sinus and allergy specialist with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, cautioned that chronic sinusitis is a "very complex problem" for which there is no simple solution.
"Augmenting traditional medicine with Eastern therapies is a very wise thing to do for sinus sufferers," he said. "In my practice, I certainly do this. Because it's not a question of antihistamines or acupuncture."
"And the reason for that is that we're not taking about a cure," Josephson said. "This is not a cold or a sniffle. If you have chronic sinusitis, it's chronic, like diabetes. So, the best thing to do is to treat patients with a combination of diet, antibiotics, antifungals, nasal sprays, allergy treatment, acupuncture, lifestyle changes, irrigation with saline and irrigation with medicines. You need a comprehensive plan for each individual patient that will give them the best chance at control."
Copyright (c) 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
- More Health News on:
- Acupuncture
- Complementary and Alternative Medicine
- Sinusitis


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Online Purchase
(Purchase through sarangcollection.com or other channels like facebook, pinterest)
Returns will be accepted within 14 days of original purchase along with the new condition and original tags attached. Return shipping cost will be the responsibility of customer, upon request Sarang can assist on shipping methods.
No refund, exchange only on clearance items. Exchange can be with similar item or with the Store Credit !!
No Return or exchange on dresses and apparels after alteration.
In Store Purchase
No returns, exchange only within 7 days of original purchase. Exchange could be with similar value item or with store credit !! For Exchange item must be in original condition with original tags attached.
No refund or exchange on Clearance items
No refund or exchange after alteration
This is an apparel size guide for women's clothes sizes XXS to XL. Included are directions on how to measure and a link to a printable tape measure.
Women's Clothing Size Chart
Sizing Guide XXS XS ------- S ------- ------- M ------- -------- L -------- XL
U.S. Sizes 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Bust (inches) 31.5 32.5 33.5 34.5 35.5 36.5 38 39.5 41
Waist (inches) 23 24 25 26 27 28 29.5 31 32.5
Hip (inches) 33.5 35 36 37 3 39 40.5 42 43.5
Inseam (inches) 31 31.25 31.5 31.75 32 32.25 32.5 32.75 33
How to measure for the right size Bust: Measure around the fullest part of bust under arms with arms relaxed down at sides.
Waist: Measure around natural waistline which appears as crease when bending to one side.
Hips: Measure around fullest part of body at the top of legs with feet together.
Inseam: Measure from inside crotch seam to the hem of pants that fit you well.
Rise: Measure from the crotch to top of waistband.
Sits above waist (inches) = 11-12
Sits at waist (inches) = 10-11
Sits low on waist (inches) = 8.5-10
Sits ultra low on waist (inches) 7-8.5
Skirt Length: Measure from the waist down. Skirts are measured from center front. Skirts with waistbands are measured from seams down. Skirts without waistbands are measured from top down.
Coat/Dress Length: Measure from the highest point of the shoulder down.
Tall Sizes: Women 5'7"-6'; sizes 6-16, tops 1"-1.5" longer; pants inseam 2" longer and rise 1" longer; skirts and dresses 2"-3" longer.


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The Power of Choice One size almost never fits all – especially when it comes to your financial needs and goals. That's why The Miliare Group offers products and services from over 100+. trusted providers.
Products & Providers
"The Miliare Group financial professionals help many of the industry's top financial services and insurance companies bring their products to families throughout North America."
The list above indicates companies that have a relationship with our platform. It is not necessarily a list of product providers the Miliare Group agent identified on this web page is able to represent.
Real-World Products
Our focus is to change lives by matching education with common financial tools and strategies that help families overcome real-life financial challenges. The knowledge and ability to save, protect, and grow money is something everyone should have access to.
Insurance Protection
The most important part of preparing for the future is protecting it. Help clients prepare for uncertainty, as they may live too long, die too soon or become disabled. They need products that can help them protect the life they've built.
Retirement Strategies
A key to any financial strategy is preparing for retirement. You'll be able to offer people a variety of options to help them prepare for their leisure years.
College Funding
Whether preparing to send the first - or fifth - child to college, many families can benefit from the help of a financial professional.
Legacy Strategies
Without a personal legacy plan, the value of someone's estate can be eroded by taxes, and the disposition of their assets may not be what they intended. Families need to be aware of this risk. They need a financial professional who can work with their attorney and tax professional in funding legacy strategies that can include life insurance products.
Long-Term Care
A plan to cover long-term care expenses is often overlooked but can be a key component of a solid financial foundation. Although the need for long-term care may be far into the future for many people, the time to plan for it is now – to help ensure expenses are covered if and when extended care is needed.
Business Solutions
Small business owners need financial and insurance solutions for themselves and their employees, and they need to ensure the future security of their business. As a licensed financial professional, you can offer a variety of products and services to help them meet these needs.
The number of Americans who say they are living paycheck-to-paycheck1
The number of American households that lack life insurance; 20 percent of households with children under age 18 are uninsured2
1. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/31/62percent-of-americans-still-live-paycheck-to-paycheck-amid-inflation.html#:~:text=Personal%20Finance-,62%25%20of%20Americans%20are%20still%20living%20paycheck%20to%20paycheck%2C%20making,main%20financial%20lifestyle%2C'%20report%20finds
2. https://www.insurance.com/life-insurance/coverage/term-life-insurance.aspx


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And On The Seventh Day, She Blogged
Things have settled down 'round here. Wonderbaby has recovered from her mysterious fever and stopped throwing lemons at me. She still much prefers Daddy, but whatever. I'm used to rejection. I can take it.
Still - am exhausted from the trauma that was Thursday and the bitch-slapfest that was Friday and the tequila that I had to drink to recover on Saturday. So, all you get today is a Whassup Y'all 'Round Up.
What's up in Her Bad Mother's 'hood?
Unrequited love.


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"A loss, a win – what matters to me is that I show up every day, just like I showed up to practice today." - Court McGee
On Sunday, February 17, 2013, Court McGee reached 2,500 days of sobriety.
"Pretty crazy, huh?" he asked me with a laugh, breaking the silence over the phone when he told me how many days it had been since his last sip of alcohol when we spoke a couple of weeks earlier.
While most pre-fight interviews focus on the previous result and the opponent on deck, speaking with the articulate 28-year-old who embodies the word "fighter" in many ways is always a chance to talk about so much more. There are very few topics that are off limits with McGee, who has never hesitated to discuss his past struggles, present situation inside and outside the cage, or future goals with nothing but complete openness and raw honesty.
Fighting may be his profession, but the cage isn't just his place of business. As much as he loves the competition, fighting on the biggest stage in mixed martial arts also affords McGee a platform, a way to reach out to those who are struggling and going down the same dangerous paths he managed to survive.
Win or lose, the man who was once clinically dead sees every fight as a chance to show others that you can make it out. It's a message he carried throughout his winning turn on Season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter, and the same one he will bring to the cage with him when he makes his welterweight debut Saturday night inside the Honda Center in Anaheim, California at UFC 157.
"(Fighting isn't) the end-all, be-all," said McGee, who faces veteran Josh Neer this weekend. "Don't get me wrong: it can feel like that. There are some days when you wake up and think it's the end of the world, and there are other days where it's the greatest feeling, but maintaining that sober lifestyle, and knowing that a loss isn't the end of the world…"
One thing you get used to in talking with McGee is how quickly and frequently he shifts direction when he speaks, leaving sentences dangling without a conclusion as he pivots to a tangential thought.
"You can lose jobs, gain jobs, make a lot of money, lose a lot of money," he said, re-starting his paused point from a slightly different angle. "But it's kind of `Are you happy with where you're at?' and `Are you happy with what you're doing?' and `Do I think I'm doing what my higher power thinks I should do?' and I am. I'm able to carry the message to people all over the world."
As we spoke on a Monday afternoon earlier this month, McGee told me he lost a friend the day before. He said it with the flat tone and unwavering voice of a man who has spent a lot of time talking about friends who left this world too early, and one who knows all too well what it's like to be in the same place.
"He was a great guy. He was funny, a little off – he wasn't a real popular guy – but there was something about him that was real personable; not a lot of people didn't get along with him, you know? He was a great guy, and for whatever reason, he overdosed on some sleeping medication. That was Saturday night or Sunday morning.
"I just think that I fight to carry the message to people like that – who haven't gone over the edge – and think if I can make it out, you can make it out, and that gives me inspiration to show up. That's one of the things, man – you've just got to suit up and show up – and I've done that."
He'll suit up and show up again on Saturday, looking to halt a two-fight losing streak when he steps into the cage as a welterweight for the first time.
Relocating to the 170-pound ranks was something McGee discussed with his coaches prior to his pairing with Costa Philippou last March. After dropping a unanimous decision to the surging Serra-Longo Fight Team member in Sydney, Australia, he returned to the cage four months later to take on Nick Ring at UFC 149 in Calgary, Alberta, putting his plan to change weight classes on hold once again.
"About a week before I had agreed to fight Costa, I had been talking and thinking about going down to 170, but then I got offered the fight, so it was kind of like, `OK – we'll take it, and then we'll go down after.' Then it was like, `OK, I'll fight Nick again; I've got a good game plan going in. I'll stick with it, and just worry about cutting down after.'
"Immediately after, I called (UFC matchmaker) Joe (Silva) and said, `My next fight is going to be at welterweight.' It was part of the game plan for a while, but I thought the matchups were good. It ended up working out the way it did, but everything worked out the way it was supposed to, you know what I mean? I just have to be okay with the way things work, accept the way things are, and try to make the best of my decision, the decision of the judges, and try to kick some ass on the next one, you know?"
McGee felt he did enough to earn the victory against the former in Australia, and just about everyone who saw the fight with the latter believed he should have been declared the winner in Calgary.
Some fighters who find themselves on the wrong side of a questionable decision never miss a chance to remind you that the judges robbed them. As much as he still disagrees with the final scorecards, McGee's reasons for focusing on the positive elements of each contest are fairly standard when it comes to the world of fighting, and a sharp dose of reality when examined in terms of the life the fighter used to live.
"I used them as an experience to try and grow from," explained McGee, whose record now sits at 3-2 in the UFC and 13-3 overall following his consecutive setbacks. "It's `what can I learn from it?' and `what can I take positive from it?' instead of making everything negative, and blaming everybody else. That would stop me from being the best I could be, and that would stop me from being able to carry the message.
"If I dwelled and `I should have had this' and `I should have had that' – if I had everything I wanted, I'd be f***ing dead right now or in prison, you know what I mean? I kind of make the best of it because things are a lot better than I could have ever imagined them to be.
"Don't get me wrong: losing is really difficult to deal with as a professional athlete," laughed McGee as he resumed. "It hurts your pride, hurts your ego, you start second-guessing, and you go through a lot of emotions that a lot of people wouldn't understand unless they've been through it, but that's part of it; that's part of the journey."
As a competitor, McGee is focused on avoiding the anguish of a third straight defeat on Saturday night. Just as he has since his first fight, he's ready to suit up, show up, and put his skills to the test in the cage.
As always, it's about much more than just the outcome of the fight.
"It's not just fighting any more – it's a business, it's a job, it's a career. I have a family that I have to support, and the responsibility of being a dad. And then the most important responsibility is staying sober, because I wouldn't be where I'm at today if I didn't maintain my sobriety.
"A loss, a win – what matters to me is that I show up every day, just like I showed up to practice today. I felt good today, but there are Mondays where I don't want to be there, and I don't want to practice; I feel terrible, but the point is that I show up. It's the same thing that I show up for my children. I tell my wife I love her, and I clean the living room even though I don't want to. It's the last thing I want to do, but it's my living room too.
"By me showing up every day, I can show someone else in the world that if I can show up and do this every day, doing the best I can do – whether I win or lose, I'm still me, I've shown up, and I've done the best I can do – maybe they'll take a little bit of inspiration from that, and they'll show up for whatever they need to show up for, whether that's bagging groceries at WalMart or helping their wife clean the living room."
Suit up and show up, every day, no matter what you're doing. You never know who your efforts will inspire.
Court McGee has done it every day for the last 2,500 days, and the outcome of Saturday's fight won't stop him for continuing to do the same come Sunday morning.


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Bug bites and stings are, for the most part, no more unpleasant than a homework assignment — kind of annoying but basically harmless.
Occasionally, though, an insect bite or sting can cause serious problems. So you should know when a simple ice pack can bring some relief and when a visit to the local hospital is in order.
For most people, being stung by a bee is a minor nuisance. The affected area may get a little red or swollen and it may be slightly painful, but that's about it.
Bee and wasp stings can cause real problems for people who are allergic, though. A person can get a localized allergic reaction (swelling, heat, or itching of the skin around the sting area) or a systemic allergic reaction, meaning that the venom causes a reaction throughout the body.
In the case of a systemic reaction, the person may break out in hives. Other symptoms can include wheezing; shortness of breath; rapid heartbeat; faintness; and swelling of the face, lips, throat, or tongue.
If a person has these symptoms, call 911 immediately. If an epinephrine auto-injector (EpiPen) is available, it should be used right away. It hardly ever happens, but severe allergic reactions to bee and wasp stings can be fatal if the person doesn't get medical help.
Fleas can be lumped into the irritating-but-not-serious category as well. They are often found on Fido or Fluffy, but they can also be attracted to you. Flea bites can cause itching or a rash.
Depending on where you live, ticks could ruin a good camping trip. One variety known as deer ticks is known to carry Lyme disease, so the trick is to get them off your body fast. In the United States, the northeastern and upper midwestern states are most affected by the threat of Lyme disease. But there have been cases in most states in the U.S., and the disease is also seen in Europe and Asia.
Different types of ticks found throughout the United States can carry other diseases, too, such as tularemia or Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Ticks are often found in wooded or grassy areas.
Mosquitoes hang out anywhere people, food, or pools of still water are found. Generally they aren't anything to worry about: They bite, you itch, end of story.
But sometimes, infected mosquitoes can give people diseases. You may have heard about West Nile virus, which is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. The good news is that most people, especially healthy people under 50, who get West Nile virus do not have any symptoms from it. And although the virus can put people at risk for developing a serious infection called encephalitis, in reality this hardly ever happens. Less than 1% of the people who are infected with West Nile virus become seriously ill.
Mosquitoes in other parts of the world can carry other diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever.
Most spider bites are minor, although they can cause mild swelling or allergic reactions. But a small percentage of teens become ill after being bitten by brown recluse or black widow spiders. Although not everyone will have a reaction, you should see a doctor and get treatment quickly if you think you've been bitten by one of these spiders.
The brown recluse is brown (big surprise) with a small shape of a violin in a darker brown area on its back. These spiders are small but tough, with a ½-inch body (about 1 centimeter) and legs stretching another inch (3 centimeters) or even more. They are found mostly in midwestern and southern parts of the United States, and they like to hide in dark, quiet places like attics or garages, under porches, and in woodpiles. When humans enter their space unexpectedly, they bite out of fear. The bites usually don't hurt at first — and most people don't even know that they've been bitten.
Brown recluse bites don't cause problems for many people. Others may notice swelling and skin changes 4 to 8 hours after the bite. The swelling may form a blister, which can later turn black and leave a scar as it heals over the next few months. Chills, fever, rash, pain, nausea and, rarely, more serious symptoms (like seizures or coma) also can follow a bite.
If you think you might have been bitten by a brown recluse spider, wash the area with soap and water, put an ice pack on it, and go to the emergency room right away, even if the bite doesn't look bad.
The black widow is found in southern Canada, throughout the United States, and in Mexico. Easily identified by its shiny coal-black body and orange-red hourglass shape on its underbelly, it's a similar size to the brown recluse spider and it should be treated as carefully.
Most often, people who have been bitten by a black widow don't even know it until they feel the symptoms. But there are warning signs that give time to act before things get too serious: People who are bitten by a black widow may get pain at the site of the bite, then dull muscle pains, especially in the chest or belly, within minutes to an hour of being bitten. They may develop painful muscle cramps and severe pain, might throw up (or feel like they might), and have chills, fever, or a headache within a few hours.
As the spider's venom spreads in the body, a person may get severe abdominal cramping. If any of these things happen, or if you think you may have gotten a bite from a black widow spider, wash the area with soap and water, put an ice pack on it, and go to the emergency room right away, even if the bite doesn't look bad.
Spider bites can sound scary, but it's actually extremely rare that someone will die from one. Young children and the elderly are most at risk.
For most varieties of bug bites and stings, antihistamines will help to stop itching and lessen swelling, and acetaminophen can help relieve any pain. Or ibuprofen can be used to help reduce swelling while relieving some pain. Some people use a topical 1% hydrocortisone cream (sold in stores without a prescription) to ease itching.
Remove ticks as soon as you notice them. Ticks removed within 24 to 48 hours are less likely to transmit diseases like Lyme disease. Using a pair of tweezers, slowly pull the tick out from its head, which is closest to your skin. Slowly pull upward without twisting. That helps ensure that you remove the whole tick. Have someone help you get ticks in any hard-to-reach places of your body. Clean the area with soap and water, and treat with an antiseptic or antibiotic cream to avoid infection.
Do not try to burn a tick off. Heat only agitates the insect, causing it to burrow deeper into your skin. When you've pulled the tick out, put it in a jar or zip-locked bag. (Your doctor may want you to save the tick so that its type can be identified.)
After a bee or wasp sting, if you can see the stinger, remove it as quickly as possible to lessen your exposure to the venom.
Wash the sting or bite with soap and water and keep it clean. Apply some calamine lotion or a paste of water and baking soda (unless the sting is near your eyes). Put an ice pack on the affected area for 15 minutes every few hours or so, or cover the sting with a cold compress. Apply an antibiotic cream to prevent further infection. Using a 1% hydrocortisone cream can reduce redness, swelling, itching, and pain.
If you are allergic to bee or wasp stings, see your doctor for a prescription for an epinephrine auto-injector. In case of a severe allergic reaction, use the epinephrine auto-injector and call 911. An epinephrine auto-injector is easy to use — your doctor or pharmacist will explain how.
If you're severely allergic to stings, talk to an allergist about getting venom immunotherapy (shots).
How do you know when a sting or bite is too much for you to handle alone? If you have any symptoms of a systemic allergic reaction, call 911 right away. If an epinephrine auto-injector is available, it should be used immediately. Symptoms to watch for include:
In the case of a black widow or brown recluse spider bite, or if you have any doubt about what kind of spider bit you and you're feeling sick, develop a blister, or have cramps, get to the emergency department immediately. (Take the spider with you if you were able to kill it safely.)
If bites or stings get infected or if an open sore or blister refuses to heal, make an appointment with your family doctor.
Human beings don't have to sit around and wait to be a sample on the insect buffet. Here are some steps we can take to protect ourselves:
Reviewed by: KidsHealth Medical Experts
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Grandpa's special pancakes
When I was little, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house in the Dallas neighborhood of Oak Cliff. Sundays through Fridays, my grandmother ruled the kitchen. But on Saturdays the stove belonged to Grandpa. Every Saturday morning, you'd walk into their house and the smell of smoky bacon, spicy sausage and sweet syrup would waft through the air, inviting you to take a seat at the table and dig into a tall stack of Grandpa's special pancakes.
When cooking his pancakes, he'd always mix his batter with an eggbeater in a large 32-oz. glass measuring cup, which made it all the easier to pour the batter into the skillet. And while his pancake recipe is pretty simple, because they were made with both expertise and love they are still the best pancakes I've ever had.
Even though my grandparents were living in Dallas, they had never given up their family farmland in far North Texas. On both farms are pecan trees, and so they always had a steady supply of this sweet and crunchy Texas treat. Grandpa would throw them into his pancakes, and when blueberries were in season he'd add those as well. The soft, puffy pancakes combined with the snap of fresh nuts was a perfect marriage—so sweet and delicious, in fact, that no butter or syrup was even necessary.
When they retired and moved back to the farm, Grandpa didn't abandon his Saturday-morning pancake tradition. If I'd be visiting, my grandparents always insisted I stay through Saturday so I could eat some of his pancakes. It was a request I never refused.
My family loves to both eat and cook, and my brother Jacob has decided to continue Grandpa's pancake-making tradition. So when my Grandpa died in 2008, on the morning of the funeral, we woke up early to find Jacob in the kitchen beating up a batch of pancakes just like Grandpa's. After eating and cooking, my family loves nothing more than the opportunity to remain at the table talking and laughing for hours on end. And Jacob's pancakes were indeed a fine tribute as we sat around that morning at the farm, eating puffy pancakes while sharing memories and stories about Grandpa.
Grandma gladly gave me his pancake recipe, which is made all the more dear by the added instructions, "Mighty good on Saturday morning." And yes, you can eat these pancakes anytime, but for me they'll always be Grandpa's special Saturday pancakes—a sign that a happy time of family gathering has begun.
Grandpa's special pancakes
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon whole-wheat flour
- 1 heaping tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup shelled pecans
- Beat together the egg and milk. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix (can add more milk if needed).
- Pour 1/4 cup onto skillet heated at medium.Cook for a couple of minutes on one side (until edges are brown and bubbles form in batter).Flip and cook on other side a couple more minutes.
- Serve immediately.Don't forget: Mighty good on Saturday morning!


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Water damage restoration is sometimes needed in seemingly unlikely situations. Damage service is not required only when there is a huge flood – sometimes even smaller damages like faucet leaks can have grave effects on your home. The points below will help you identify some of the situations in which you could call a that type of company to help you out.
The most obvious reason to call a damage company is of course flooding. Hurricanes and floods can destroy your home, but professional service can restore your property to pre-incident condition. However, even a leaking refrigerator or washing machine should be fixed and the damage caused by it should be assessed. This too can be done and remedied by a water damage restoration company.
Carpet/ Upholstery Damage
If your carpet is stained with wine or soaked with water, you need not necessarily replace it. A water damage company can use professional equipment to dry out the carpet and remove stains, restoring it to pre-incident condition. Some companies like SOS Water Damage even restore carpets after fire and smoke damage.
Grout & Tile Cleaning
Sometimes the grout between your tiles could become dirty with dampness. Alternately, your tiles could be dirty because of exposure to water and fire damage. This too calls for the services of a company that would clean your tiles/grout without damaging them.
Mold Remediation
Something as harmless as a leaking washing machine or even a major natural flooding incident can have serious secondary effects. These include mold growth which can cause serious health hazards. In this case a restoration company takes care of mold remediation. Typically, tiled areas will be pre vacuumed and sprayed with cleaning agents. Then the floor would be buffed with a rotary cleaner to evenly spread the cleaning solution. In some cases, industrial blowers will be used to dry the surface completely.
Fire Damage Restoration
Some damage service companies extend their services to fire damage restoration also.
Trained technicians employ a range of on-site techniques to restore both, the property and its contents such as furniture, paintings, etc. via an established network of specialist contractors.
Allergy Control
If you have a tendency to develop asthma or other respiratory problems, then there might be dust mites or mold growth in your home. Water damage service companies can use special formulae to get rid of dust mites and fungi.
Wind Damage
Restoration companies also restore damages by hurricanes. A good company like SOS Water Damage will offer you a 2 year guarantee that their work will last, while other companies only offer a 1 year guarantee.
Bio hazard Clean up
Some Water Damage service companies offer efficient and safe asbestos removal services. They usually can address large and small environmental problems and issues. These companies offer a full range of asbestos removal and demolition services.


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23 Apr Drop in gas prices benefits US drivers, economy
NEW YORK (AP) — A sharp decline in the price of oil this month is making gasoline cheaper at a time of year when it typically gets more expensive. It's a relief to motorists and business owners and a positive development for the economy.
Over the past three weeks, the price of oil has fallen by 9 percent to $88 a barrel. That has helped extend a slide in gasoline prices that began in late February. Nationwide, average retail prices have fallen by 28 cents per gallon, or 7 percent, since Feb. 27, to $3.51 per gallon. Analysts say pump prices could fall another 20 cents over the next two months.
The price of oil is being driven lower by rising global supplies and lower-than-expected demand in the world's two largest economies, the United States and China. As oil and gasoline become more affordable, the economy benefits because goods become less expensive to transport and motorists have more money to spend on other things. Over the course of a year, a decline of 10 cents per gallon translates to $13 billion in savings at the pump.
Diesel and jet fuel have also gotten cheaper in recent weeks, which is good news for truckers, airlines and other energy-intensive businesses.
"It makes a big difference to my bottom line," says Mike Mitternight, owner of a heating and air conditioning service company in Metairie, La. He has five pickup trucks that can burn $1,000 of gas per week when prices are near $4 a gallon. Lately he's been paying as little as $3.19, and saving $200 a week.
Gasoline prices typically rise in the late winter and spring as refiners shut down parts of their plants to perform maintenance and begin making more costly blends of gasoline required by federal clean-air regulations. The trend was earlier and less dramatic this year. Pump prices only came within 15 cents of last year's peak.
Oil production is growing quickly in the U.S. and Canada, helping boost global supplies. And some of the factors that pushed prices higher the two previous years – political turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East and refinery disruptions in the U.S. – haven't materialized this spring.
At the same time, demand for fuels is growing slower than expected. China, the world's biggest oil importer, is experiencing slower-than-expected economic growth. And much of Europe is in recession.
In the U.S., wintry weather in the Midwest and Northeast has kept more drivers off the roads this spring, analysts say.
The typical U.S. household will spend an estimated $326 on gasoline this April, the equivalent of 7.8 percent of median household income, according to Fred Rozell, an analyst at GasBuddy.com. That's $38 less than last April, when households spent 8.8 percent of their income on gas.
"It's the difference between going out to dinner one more time or not," says Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. "It matters."
The U.S. government releases its initial estimate of economic output during the first three months of 2013 on Friday. Economists forecast the economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent, compared with 0.4 percent in the final three months of 2012.
Philip Verleger, an economist who studies energy prices, says that many monthly household expenses are fixed, but gasoline is one of the few big expenses that varies. That means when gasoline prices rise – or fall – people notice.
"This is the equivalent of a pay raise," he says.
Shippers and airlines are also benefiting. Fuel is by far airlines' biggest and most volatile cost. A one-cent decline in the price of jet fuel saves the U.S. airline industry $180 million over a year, according to the industry group Airlines for America. Lower energy prices also give potential customers more money to spend on air travel.
Airlines aren't ready to celebrate yet because the relief could prove to be short-lived, says John Heimlich, chief economist at Airlines for America. "It looks promising but we're not counting our chickens," he said.
Political turmoil or refinery problems could crop up at any time. Analysts are particularly worried about the transition of power in Venezuela, a major oil exporter, after the death of President Hugo Chavez. Violence has erupted in the wake of a closely contested election, and the financial situation of the country is precarious. Analysts worry that the country's oil production could slip.
Also, refinery maintenance in the Midwest is already affecting prices there. Drivers in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana are paying only slightly less than they did last year at this time, and prices there have been creeping up over the last couple of weeks.
Gasoline prices reached a high this year of $3.79 per gallon on Feb. 27. Last year's peak was $3.94, and it came on April 6; last year's low was $3.22 on Dec. 20. The average price for all of 2012 was $3.63 per gallon. The Energy Department forecasts the 2013 average will be $3.56.
Analysts say there are limits to how far oil and gasoline prices will fall. Countries in the developing world are still growing fast and pushing world oil demand higher, perhaps to a record this year. And if oil prices fall too far drillers will be forced to cut production to try to stem the decline.
That means Mike Mitternight, the small business owner in Louisiana, won't likely get his wish: He'd like to see gasoline prices between $2 and $3 per gallon.
"I still think it's high and we could bring it lower," he says.
Jonathan Fahey can be reached at http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey .
©2012 The Associated Press


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In 2009, The Avett Brothers became one of the surprise hits of the year. Paste Magazine considered their I and Love and You the best album of that year, calling it "an overpowering acoustic album brimming with sadness and soul."
That sadness took on new meaning recently. Bassist Bob Crawford took a temporary leave from the band to tend to his infant daughter, Hallie, after she developed a brain tumor.
Next month, The Avett Brothers release a new album, The Carpenter, which explores the delicate balance between life and death.
NPR's Laura Sullivan spoke with the band about the difficult period since their last album, starting out by asking Crawford about his daughter.
Bob Crawford: She presented on Aug. 28 of 2011. And by "presenting," we mean my wife found her in her bed having a seizure. She's still under treatment; she'll be under treatment until November of this year. She's on oral chemo, she's being treated through Saint Jude's Children Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. She's doing really well. I mean, it's astroblastoma glioma, which is a terrible, terrible thing. But she's ... a miracle.
Sullivan: How old is she?
Crawford: She's 2 and a half.
Sullivan: Are you touring with the band while this is going on, or are you mostly with your family?
Crawford: This is actually my first trip in a year. But I've gone out and done shows. You know, when things were going well, I would break off and play two or three shows at a time, as best I could. But I think what's important to understand with this is there's a lot of kids that are going through this, and there's a lot of families that go through this. What they face every day is unimaginable. I think you always need to have hope on these things.
In the music, you need the theme of death to celebrate life. And what you see at St. Jude, people are daily celebrating life while they're fighting off death.
Sullivan: Has it brought you guys, as a band, closer together?
Crawford: Incredibly, incredibly close together. My wife and I couldn't have faced this without these guys.
Sullivan: Seth, do you guys realize how often the theme of death appears on this album? At least half of these songs deal with it in some way. I'm wondering if maybe it's been something you guys have been thinking about because of what Bob has been going through.
Seth Avett: That certainly advanced it quite a bit. That certainly brought priorities into focus, sort of violently and very quickly. You know, the record basically was finished by the time that shift, that life-altering event, came down. But it's not the only tragedy that we're familiar with. The older you get, and this is a kind of a depressing thought, but in some ways you're just biding your time between tragedies. Anytime something's not going completely off the rails, you should be really thankful for it.
Sullivan: You guys have been recording for years, but you earned legions of new fans with your last record, I and Love and You. All of a sudden, there you were in the Top 20 on the Billboard charts. When something like that happens, do you try to analyze what you did differently? Do you try to repeat it?
Scott Avett: You really don't want to repeat it (laughs). We try not to repeat what we do. However, everything we've done has been from the ground up. We were so blessed with what I guess some would consider failure early on: We had a very slow increase in crowds, increase in notoriety. But we've never been all that surprised. We also were raised with huge amounts of [false] confidence, so I would imagine when we went into this we were more surprised that we weren't superstars on our first recording — which was a god-awful recording as far as quality. We were so urgent, so anxious and so fast-paced that we were just rushing through everything?
Sullivan: Why are you thankful for the slow growth?
Scott Avett: Because at 25, if I was sitting at this desk speaking with you, as pompous as the things I have to say are now, they would be millions of times more pompous and inappropriate.
Sullivan: You certainly get a lot of love for your music. What would you say is the greatest compliment that you guys have received?
Seth Avett: There's a certain nature of compliment that is easily the best one to receive, and that comes out of tragedies in the lives of our fans: when someone says to us, "Your music helped me though this hard time" — alcoholism, a death in a family, cancer news, whatever. Last night we played in Chico, Calif., and a family was there that recently had a tragedy with a fire taking their home. You could see in their faces that they had been through something very rattling and life-changing, but you could also see that they were there to have a good time and to find some joy. And being able to be a part of that or provide a forum for that — is there anything that could be better than that? I mean, we're just writing songs and playing them for people.
Scott Avett: I've also been very flattered and honored to see teenage kids picking up instruments under our inspiration. I think that's just amazing, because I remember being there. I understand that feeling, I recall it clearly. That, to me, is a very special thing.
Crawford: I think the best compliment is the way the people, our fans, how they support each other. If there's a death in the fan community, they all rally around that family. And the way that they've supported our family — as we've gone through the tragedy that we've gone through, we've gotten an amazing outpouring of support from the Avett fanbase. Like Seth said, we're just writing songs and playing them, and the love that's been generated by all that is just overwhelming.
Seth Avett: It's a weird sort of compliment, and a beautiful thing, to become peripheral to that and to see — you know, this cliche, "Music brings people together" — to actually see that in real life and only vaguely be aware of all the connections that are being made. We're just something they have in common.
Scott Avett: It also has become a responsibility of ours, an obligation that I think has taken time for us to accept and take on. Early on, you don't really imagine that sort of thing and you kind of wonder if it really happens. Once you see it really happening, you have to believe. If someone is telling you this is what you are to them, whether you believe it or not, you have the responsibility to respect that.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Apply lamination for high touch decals, for use on water bottles, canes, computers, etc. What is this?
This Betty Decal is die cut - which means it is cut to the exact shape of the image, and made in the USA at our facilities in Chino Valley, Arizona. Each Betty Decal is made with the highest quality 2.5mil High Gloss 5-Year Calendared vinyl. The vinyl used is UV and water resistant, and will last many years without fading, peeling or cracking. Detailed instructions are included with each order.
This decal is sandwiched between a waxy backing paper and a clear transfer tape, and is adhesive-backed, perfect for installation on the exterior of windows or other non-porous, smooth, hard surfaces.


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Mention service design to your UX colleagues and you may find yourself unwittingly engaged in a game of Buzzword Bingo. Whether you call it "service design," "holistic design," "multi-channel experience design" or "cross-channel design," chances are you're all talking about the same thing. And your next challenge is defining exactly what you mean when you say "service design."
The field of service design is still young and evolving. And its interdisciplinary nature makes it difficult to define. In fact, according to the first-ever textbook on service design, This is Service Design Thinking, no common definition of service design exists. And the authors propose that limiting ourselves to one definition could constrain this new way of thinking.
Isn't It Just Good Marketing?
As someone with experience in both marketing and experience design, I'm intrigued by the ways in which the fields of marketing and service design overlap and complement one another. Creating great user experiences to promote positive associations with a brand is hardly a new concept to marketers. But service design looks at user satisfaction more broadly—at every point in a given experience—and seeks to enhance it by infusing a brand's essence across all products, systems, services, and interpersonal interactions.
Here are a few things to consider when we compare marketing and service design:
- Traditional marketing has focused on the 4 P's: product, price, promotion and place. Modern marketing adds participants (the people involved in the transactions), processes (the flow of the interaction), and physical evidence (real-life or virtual surroundings and concrete clues).
- Marketing is about organizations creating and building relationships with customers to co-create value; design aims to put stakeholders at the center of designing services and preferably co-design with them.
- Marketing researchers study customers to develop insights into their practices and values; designers can use insights as the starting point for design and add a focus to the aesthetics of service experiences.
- Marketers tend to have backgrounds in social science. Service designers generally come out of art and design schools.
In the end, it doesn't really matter whether service design is just one facet of marketing or vice versa. What matters is that an understanding of how people interact with each other, with things, and with organizations is central to designing services.[*]
What a Production!
Think of everything that goes into a really stellar performance, whether it's a ballet, a Broadway musical, or a film. You need a script or score, a director, light and sound people, and a host of other specialized professionals. It takes months of work to create those magical two hours that transfix an audience. Service design is remarkably similar. The customer/user may never know everything that went on "behind the scenes." All she knows is whether her experience was great, so-so, or downright abysmal.
At Mad*Pow, we've helped many companies create positive customer interactions by helping them with those three new P's: participants, processes, and physical evidence. When Aetna wanted to create a unified member messaging strategy, we began by conducting interviews with Aetna plan members to gain insight into the pros and cons of their experiences, their expectations, and what types of information they wanted from their health insurance company, and when. Was it easy to understand their benefits and claims? What types of interactions were the most or least frustrating? What questions did members ask most frequently when they called Aetna member services? What channels for communication and interaction did they prefer?
Research told us that we needed to ensure that people know about any special programs that are available to them so they could get the most from their benefits. This information would now be delivered whether they were calling the call center, reviewing their mailed explanation of benefits, viewing the website, or reading an email they had received. Another objective was to help members avoid the frustrations associated with having to pay more than they thought they would need to, which in many cases can be prevented by doing some upfront research. We knew we would need to get in front of the potential for frustration by instead building awareness of tools that Aetna has to "know before you go." These tools enable a member to check provider quality and cost before their visit, to decrease the surprise factor.
Identifying potential trouble spots and visualizing a better member journey helped us develop a comprehensive communications strategy, approach to governance, and process that provided the framework for Aetna to get the right message to the right person at the right time. We learned that there were certainly optimal ways to craft and deliver different types of messages; that they needed to be highly relevant to them personally, triggered based upon preference or specific events, and tailored to the delivery platform.
The new strategy also provided Aetna's internal team with a new approach for accomplishing business objectives. Now customer service, marketing, and many other lines of business collaborate around how to optimize each channel to help their members get from point A to point B. There is an understanding that a member may not start and finish in one channel; rather, their awareness is built and interactions weave across channels.
In this case, service design included traditional research, desktop web, mobile web, and text message design, CSR desktop design, and member communications strategy development—nothing that's necessarily unique or groundbreaking, but all critical factors to think about when creating a seamless, positive customer experience.
Deal with Reality
Now let's look at an example from the field of obesity prevention in healthcare, where there is a growing interest in programs and products that motivate individuals to swap unhealthy behaviors for healthy ones.
We can approach the challenge of behavior change with the belief that the problem of adoption and engagement can easily be solved with fun interfaces, sleek design, and feature-rich technology. But if that were truly the case, anyone who's ever downloaded a bestselling diet or fitness app would be rocking skinny jeans and form-fitting t-shirts.
A more comprehensive approach to tackling obesity looks at the problem as more than the simple equation: too many calories in + not enough calories out = supersized nation. It takes into account socioeconomic factors such as family income, job status, and neighborhood safety, as well as interpersonal relationships, family challenges, etc.
One example of this holistic approach is Engine's Southwark Rise project. Engine, a British service design and innovation consultancy, was charged with the task of "exploring childhood obesity and the challenges of creating better life chances for children from the most deprived backgrounds." The highly successful project used "accessible methodologies and simple tools" to "provide useful frameworks for understanding the challenge and opportunities to build alliances both internally and externally." Of the 20 Southwark parents recruited to serve on the design team, all twenty committed to further involvement in the project.
Setting the Stage for Excellent Service
Good service design anticipates trouble spots and sees them as opportunities to positively change a user's experience to one of first-rate service. These trouble spots are defined by the frustration and anxiety they cause for the customer/user. Service design allows us to proactively address the tough spots and resolve them smoothly and skillfully.
Online retailers have become particularly savvy about overcoming some customers' aversion to shopping outside of a brick–and-mortar store. "What if I don't like the color, the fit, the fabric? What if it doesn't fit? Will I have to pay a fortune in return shipping?"
A UIE article circa 2009 discusses the early days of online retailing and a study of how people bought hiking boots online. While REI and LL Bean offered virtually identical boots at similar price points and with similar marketing copy, users were way more likely to buy their boots from REI. Why?
REI's site featured images of the hiking boots' soles, while the L.L.Bean site only had one view. And this, it turns out, mattered to buyers. UIE's researches assumed that the decision to post multiple views of the shoe was rooted in market research. But when they called REI to confirm this theory, REI's designers told them that it was actually the photographer's idea. This particular photographer had worked in an REI retail store and had observed many a prospective buyer turning the hiking boots over to see their treads. So, the web designers translated that in-store experience into a valuable online equivalent. That's service design!
Beyond Center Stage
Great service design goes beyond a corporate mission statement or flawless information architecture. It means that every one of a company's employees understands that customer care is an integral part of the job. When problems arise, these employees step up and make things right.
Apple also shows up regularly on Bloomberg/Businessweek's Customer Service rankings. And here's one example that shows why. A friend of mine bought his daughter an iPod touch for her birthday. A few days later, they made a trip to the Apple store to buy a protective case. While they were there, she dropped the touch, and, of course, the screen shattered. A store employee who saw the whole thing go down rushed over and, without even checking with a manager, offered to replace the touch at no cost. As my friend posted on his Facebook page, Apple now has a customer for life.
Now, I don't know whether Apple has a written policy on "dealing with clumsy customers." But I do know that Apple's culture is one that fosters teamwork, passion, and loyalty from their employees. And respect is key to the organization's management style. It doesn't seem like a stretch to say that employees feel empowered to make on-the-fly decisions like replacing a kid's broken iPod Touch.
Of course, you don't need to be a corporate behemoth to delight your customers. The other day I had a client meeting in Boston. Rather than battle rush hour traffic, I decided to hop on the C&J Trailways daily commuter bus to Boston. What did I get for the cost of my ticket? Free parking at the station, free wifi on the bus, TV's and headphones, and a silent cell phone policy to ensure a peaceful ride. And to top it off, they even provided a complimentary pre-ride snack to tired commuters (like me) waiting in line to board in the morning.
Are You Ready for Your Close-Up?
Regardless of the channel—social media, web, mobile, in-store, product experience—organizations that want to deliver great user experiences have to take time to educate their employees at all levels and at all touchpoints about what the company stands for, what it means to work there, and what kind of experiences they need to ensure for all users.
Great service design means everyone involved is on board with creating the experience the audience wants. Take it from me, that can't happen without a common goal, proper communication, and lots of practice.
Kimbell, Lucy. "Marketing: Connecting With People, Creating Value," from This is Service Design Thinking. 2010, BIS Publishers. [back ^]


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Good morning.
Your erstwhile members of Congress are high-tailing it out of Washington for the weekend (no votes in the House, and the Senate took the day off but promises to return Monday).
But there's plenty to digest.
Fallout from Thursday's House hearing on computer problems marring the health care overhaul rollout. Across-the-pond anger over America's spying on allies. And, yes, donkeys. We'll get to that.
First, let's look at political reaction to the House hearing where executives of the IT companies that built the Obamacare website were quizzed about its failures.
Their message to Congress: the rollout was rushed, and the insurance exchange website should have been tested months, not weeks, before it went live Oct. 1.
"It was not our decision to go live," said Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president of CGI Federal, which handled most of the project, as quoted by the Washington Post. She said the decision was made by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.
CMS officials, the Post says, declined to spell out why the complete tests started so late.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, scheduled to testify next week, will no doubt be asked to explain.
But just what is the point of the GOP-led House inquiry? To fix problems, or kill the health care overhaul?
In the they-want-to-kill-it camp is Energy and Commerce Committee member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., who at the hearing called out his GOP colleagues for holding what he derisively labeled a "monkey court."
"The goal here should be to fix it, not nix it," Pallone said. "The Republicans are not trying to make this better — they are using the website glitches as an excuse to delay or defund Obamacare."
And, indeed, conservatives on and off Capitol Hill are making no bones about their continued aim to scuttle the law.
Jonah Goldberg, writing in the conservative National Review, reminds that when President Obama addressed the website problems earlier this week, he noted that the website is just a small part of the health care overhaul.
Says Goldberg: "So, sure, the website is just one small part of Obamacare. But your jugular is only one small part of your anatomy, too."
Here's Goldberg's dream scenario: "Still, the barely holding conventional wisdom on the right and left is that the website will get fixed eventually, the glitches will be de-glitched, and one day we'll all look back and laugh at the fuss. That's possible. But with every passing day it's less likely. And if more Democrats join the movement to delay the individual mandate (Republican senator Marco Rubio has already drafted legislation to do exactly that), the whole thing could start to unravel almost overnight."
BloombergBusinessweek reports that this all plays intoRepublicans' pivot from their failed government shutdown strategy over Obamacare to a delay and defund effort. As part of that strategy, Republicans have turned again to House oversight hearings, which they've used for inquiries in the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and the Internal Revenue Services scrutiny of Tea Party groups, the publication says.
Michael C. Bender and Kathleen Miller write: "The pivot from a failed legislative assault to investigating the troubled rollout at oversight hearings follows a Republican campaign to choke off the law's funding, which led to the first partial government shutdown in 17 years. The shift may help Republican leaders avoid a similar legislative fight, which hurt the party in public opinion polls."
Writing in the New York Times opinion blog, Juliet Lapidos characterizes the standoff as between lawmakers who "hope that government programs work well, and if they don't try to fix them," and those who want much less government.
Here's Lapidos: "In theory, our representatives hope that government agencies carry out their missions smoothly, and if something goes wrong, try to figure out what happened to avoid making the same mistake in the future.
Obviously that's not how things work in the United States, where one of the two parties doesn't even believe in government. Republicans want to shrink government until it's small enough to drown in a bathtub! They think there's nothing scarier than the prospect of a government employee trying to help! With beliefs like those, it's not surprising that — with disturbing frequency — they root for failure in order to score points."
Her conclusion, in breaking down Republican arguments: "If the glitches indicate deep problems, then health care reform will fall apart, in which case Republicans will pick up seats in the next election. In other words, disaster would be good for (the) party."
Check out RealClearPolitics' roundup of pollson public approval of the law.
As the heathcare overhaul debate continues stateside, anger about American spying on allies deepened overseas.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says international trust in President Obama has been "shattered" by revelations about the depth of NSA spying — including claims that Merkel's own phone may have been tapped.
The Daily Mail reports on the widening crisis, and my NPR colleague Scott Neuman has a wrap up of developmentshere.
Reports the Mail: "Brazil and Germany have joined forces in an attempt to pile pressure on the United Nations to rein in the snooping activities of American spies.
The two nations want a UN General Resolution that promotes the right to privacy on the internet in the first major international response to the National Security Agency's infiltration of the online communications of foreigners.
The step comes after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the recent US espionage scandal has shattered international trust in Barack Obama following claims her phone may have been tapped by American agents."
Other news we're watching:
*NPR's Kathy Lohr tells us how the fight over abortion in Texas is playing out in federal court, where a new state law with tighter restrictions on the practice is being challenged.
*And, finally, the donkeys. This has pretty much nothing to do with politics, but it's a fascinating look at tactics being used by Australian sheep farmersto keep wild dogs at bay — including the deployment of donkeys. The story is told in photos, some graphic.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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The Big Bertha 2008 Irons take forgiveness to new heights by integrating a set of clubs featuring the new i-brids clubs designed to replace hard-to-hit long irons.
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Each week, we highlight a design or product innovation that you might not have heard about yet. Many of them come through your submissions (here's the form), but this week's idea came to us from our NPR Two-Way blogger, Eyder Peralta, who thought this was pretty cool. We did, too.
With this dual-purpose device, you won't have to fumble around for a flashlight for trick-or-treating or the next time the power goes out. The Bulb Flashlight is a low-heat, rechargeable LED bulb that doubles as a handheld flashlight.
The bulb charges when screwed into a light fixture but works as a torch for up to four hours without a battery. Extend the handle after screwing off the bulb and you have an instant source of portable light.
The product is eco-friendly — using just six watts of power to produce light equivalent to a 40W incandescent bulb. But it's not cheap. The New York Museum of Modern Art's online store is selling it for $45, with 10 percent off for members.
We've been searching for the designer, which the MoMA store lists as Lin Guohui. I called a Lin Guohui who teaches computational biology at the University of Alberta, but he says, "I know nothing about it." So Lin Guohui, designer, if you are out there, we'd love to hear from you.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Ford, Daimler, Renault Nissan form alliance to develop cars powered by hydrogen
January 28, 2013
By Tom Krisher
Ford is joining with Daimler and Renault-Nissan to speed development of cars that run on hydrogen, with hopes of bringing a vehicle to market in as little as four years.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles generate electricity after a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is stored in special high-pressure tanks, and the only emissions are water vapour and heat.
Under the alliance, each company will invest equally in the technology. They plan to develop a common fuel cell system that the companies will use to power their own vehicles. The companies also plan to take advantage of their combined size to reduce costs.
Many automakers have been testing the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for years, but so far haven't been able to bring costs down enough to sell the vehicles in mass markets. The zero-emissions cars have great potential to cut pollution and reduce the world's reliance on oil for transportation.
"Working together will significantly help speed this technology to market at a more affordable cost to our customers," Raj Nair, Ford's group vice-president for global product development, said in a statement issued Monday. "We will all benefit from this relationship, as the resulting solution will be better than any one company working alone."
The companies said that engineering work on the individual fuel cells and the overall hydrogen system will be done jointly by the companies at several locations around the world. They also are studying joint development of other parts for fuel-cell vehicles in an effort to bring down costs.
Work will be done at the site of a previous fuel cell joint venture between Ford and Daimler in Vancouver, British Columbia, as well as a Daimler facility in Nabern, Germany, and a Nissan operation in Oppama, Japan, Ford spokesman Alan Hall said. He was not aware of an executive being appointed to run the joint venture.
The automakers say that together they have 60 years of experience developing fuel cell vehicles. Their test vehicles have travelled more than 10 million kilometres.
The alliance between Ford Motor Co., of Dearborn, Michigan; Daimler AG of Germany, maker of Mercedes vehicles; and the joint operations of France's Renault SA and Japan's Nissan Motor Co., is another example of global automakers combining forces to develop engines and other new technology. The companies are trying to share expensive development costs, yet keep their products different.
Nissan and Renault have had combined operations for years. Toyota Motor Corp. and BMW AG said earlier this month that they are working together on next-generation batteries for green vehicles called "lithium-air." Their collaboration, first announced in late 2011, also is working on fuel cells with hopes of completing a vehicle by 2020.
French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen and General Motors Co. of the U.S. have a deal to share in purchases of parts and services to cut costs. Toyota already has a joint venture with Peugeot Citroen to make small cars in Europe.
—The Associated Press
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Can you imagine the immorality of throwing food you've just bought into the trash? Just thinking about it seems paradoxical, but that's what happens, far too often, in the rich West.
In January, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London published a fascinating report on food waste, entitled Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not, which looked at the situation in both rich and developing countries. For example, the report has calculated that household waste in the United Kingdom alone amounts to 7 million tons of food every year, worth £10.2 billion. On average, all this discarded food costs every family £480 annually, which over the course of a lifetime means a waste of between £15,000 and £24,000.
The report is most critical of the richest countries, where waste is greater and also more easily avoidable. The main problems the report highlights are the same as those given in many similar studies, and include impossible-to-finish super-sized portions, "all-you-can-eat" offers, the supermarkets' refusal to sell slightly crooked carrots or blemished apples and consumers' confusion between best-before and expiry dates.
Additionally, the report makes the point that this waste of food translates into a waste of water, land and energy. According to the researchers, if those 7 million tons of food were not wasted in the United Kingdom, the saving of the energy consumed to produce, package and transport it would be the same as removing 20% of cars from the country's streets.
But as well as drawing attention to the waste correlated to the food we throw out, the report also shows that if we adopted a series of virtuous behaviors at an individual and collective level, and adopted appropriate solutions on a case-by-case basis, we would be able to provide 60 to 100% more food, while also freeing up water, land and energy. Slow Food believes we should be taking advantage of this opportunity, and is closely following the issue at a European level. Specifically, the international organization is participating in a work group on food waste coordinated by DG SANCO, which will meet for the second time on February 8 in Brussels.
Global food: waste not, want not
New Scientist, 14th January 2013


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Take a close look at the stunning image above showing a newly formed impact crater on Mars: The blue streaks of material, known as ejecta, radiate 9 miles from the 100-foot crater, according to NASA.
The picture was taken from orbit by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Nov. 19. The same area was imaged by the MRO's Context Camera in July 2010 and again in May 2012 — with no crater in the first and a telltale surface scar in the second.
The orbiter's HiRISE camera was used on the latest pass to get more details, according to the University of Arizona, Tucson, which runs the instrument:
"Our image shows a large, rayed blast zone and far-flung secondary material around an approximately 30 meter-diameter (100-foot) crater indicating a large explosion threw debris as far as 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) in distance. Because the terrain where the crater formed is dusty, the fresh crater appears blue in the enhanced color due to the lack of reddish dust."
NASA has run before-and-after imaging of fresh craters on Mars before and has determined that there are about 200 new ones per year of at least 12.8 feet in diameter. However, the space agency says, "few of the scars are as dramatic in appearance as this one."
As many people know, NASA commonly uses what is known as "false color" to enhance certain features on what otherwise are often black-and-white images from the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as various planetary probes, including the Mars orbiter. What fewer people might know is that the practice is somewhat controversial.
Io9.com reports there was "a minor furor" in 2004 when a New Scientist article raised questions about the true color of Mars, saying there were "accusations of NASA tinting the pictures it got from Mars to make it look more like the Red Planet of legend."
According to io9:
"It turned out to be a simple filtering mix up. The Mars rover used green, blue, and red filters to approximate colors as people would see them. The red filter, however, was usually a waste of time, since [there] was little green or blue on Mars. There were some on the [spacecraft] that had landed, though, as so when the rover used green, blue, and infrared filters, the blues and the greens looked reddish, and people saw the entire picture as 'fake.' "
And as SPACE.com has pointed out:
"[Throughout] the storied history of the Hubble Space Telescope, the beauty of those color images has sometimes overshadowed one important question: Where does that color come from? After all, some of Hubble's amazing photos — and images from other space telescopes, for that matter — depict astronomical objects in ultraviolet or infrared light. But the human eye can't perceive those colors. When people look at a Hubble image showing these hues, what exactly are they seeing?"
NASA image processor Zolt Levay asked, writing in :
"The flat-out gorgeous Hubble spacescapes look too good to be true. Are these objects really so colorful? If we could fly out to these celestial wonders, would they look this way to our eyes? If not, as a few hard-core NASA cynics claim, are the pictures being overly colorized to seduce the public? What is 'truth' when it comes to Hubble's universe?"
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Desert Bighorn Family in Southern Utah
A close-up of a desert bighorn sheep in Zion National Park in Southern Utah. I was hiking through the hills when in the early evening I came upon a large group of about thirty individuals, including other rams, ewes, and lambs. It took me an hour to get this close for this shot.
- Copyright
- © 2013
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- 4288x2848 / 8.3MB
- Keywords
America, American Southwest, Animalia, Artiodactyla, Bovidae, Caprinae, Chordata, Iron County, Kane County, Mammalia, O. canadensis, Ovis, Ovis canadensis, Ovis canadensis nelsoni, USA, United States, Utah, Washington County, Zion, Zion National Park, animal, baby, baby animal, beautiful, beauty, big, big game, big horn, bighorn, bighorn sheep, bovid, desert, desert bighorn sheep, environment, ewe, game, habitat, hunting, inland, juvenile, kid, lamb, mammal, national park, native, natural, nature, ram, sheep sorrel, southwest, spring, vertebrate, wild, wilderness, wildlife, zoology
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- Bison, Goats and Sheep (Bovines)