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Impact of Windows and Daylight Exposure on Overall Health and Sleep Quality of Office Workers: A Case-Control Pilot Study
Study Objective:
This research examined the impact of daylight exposure on the health of office workers from the perspective of subjective well-being and sleep quality as well as actigraphy measures of light exposure, activity, and sleep-wake patterns.
Participants (N = 49) included 27 workers working in windowless environments and 22 comparable workers in workplaces with significantly more daylight. Windowless environment is defined as one without any windows or one where workstations were far away from windows and without any exposure to daylight. Well-being of the office workers was measured by Short Form-36 (SF-36), while sleep quality was measured by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). In addition, a subset of participants (N = 21; 10 workers in windowless environments and 11 workers in workplaces with windows) had actigraphy recordings to measure light exposure, activity, and sleep-wake patterns.
Workers in windowless environments reported poorer scores than their counterparts on two SF-36 dimensions—role limitation due to physical problems and vitality—as well as poorer overall sleep quality from the global PSQI score and the sleep disturbances component of the PSQI. Compared to the group without windows, workers with windows at the workplace had more light exposure during the workweek, a trend toward more physical activity, and longer sleep duration as measured by actigraphy.
We suggest that architectural design of office environments should place more emphasis on sufficient daylight exposure of the workers in order to promote office workers' health and well-being.
Boubekri M, Cheung IN, Reid KJ, Wang CH, Zee PC. Impact of windows and daylight exposure on overall health and sleep quality of office workers: a case-control pilot study. J Clin Sleep Med 2014;10(6):603-611.
Since the sick building syndrome of the 1970s and the World Health Organization's Declaration on Occupational Health for All in 1994,1 occupational health has become a salient issue among health professionals and architects alike. With the increased interest today in green architecture, daylighting is becoming an important design consideration. Typically, daylighting recommendations are made in the form of daylight factor levels ranging between 2% to 6% depending on building types and activities. A daylight factor is a percentage of indoor illuminance compared to the outdoor illuminance on a horizontal surface. The daylight factor principle is valid for stable overcast sky conditions only; sunny conditions are too dynamic and changing to be considered.
Although there are many studies that have explored the relationship between daylighting, psychological well-being, and workers' productivity or school children's performance,2–4 few have addressed the impact of daylight at the workplace on sleep, quality of life, and overall health. Exposure to light-dark patterns is one of the main environmental cues for circadian rhythms that influence approximately 24-hour biological, mental, and behavioral patterns such as sleep and activity.5 The timing of light exposure is very influential on these rhythms, and previous research has shown that office environment lighting during work hours can act as a regulator of circadian physiology and behavior, with blue-enriched artificial lighting even competing with natural light as an entrainer.6 Given that office hours occur during biologically natural daylight hours, we posit that light exposure in the office environment will have effects on sleep, and via sleep and other influences also have effects on physical and mental health.
Current Knowledge/Study Rationale: Both the amount and timing of light exposure is important for physical and mental health. While research indicates possible links between light exposure in workplaces and workers' productivity and performance, less is known about the role of workplace light exposure on workers' quality of life and sleep quality.
Study Impact: Office workers with more light exposure at the workplace tended to have longer sleep duration, better sleep quality, more physical activity, and better quality of life compared to office workers with less light exposure at the workplace. Office workers' physical and mental well-being may be improved via enhanced indoor lighting for those with insufficient daylight in current offices as well as increased emphasis on light exposure in the design of future offices.
There is much evidence that links insufficient sleep and/ or reduced sleep quality to a range of significant short-term impairments such as memory loss, slower psychomotor reflexes, and diminished attention.7–9 If windowless environments or lack of daylight affect office workers' sleep quality, there will be subsequent effects not only individually but also on a societal level, leading to more accidents, workplace errors, and decreased productivity. Sleep quality is also an important health indicator that may have effects on, and interactions with mood, cognitive performance, and health outcomes such as diabetes and other illnesses.10–13 Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the effects of daylight as it may provide a profound way to improve office workers' productivity and health as well as the safety of the community they work and live in. Deprivation to light damages monoamine neurons and produces a depressive behavioral phenotype in rats.14 In humans, a direct correlation between the severity level of seasonal affective disorder and exposure to natural light is well documented.15–17 Results of several studies suggest that both natural and artificial bright light, particularly in the morning, can improve significantly health outcomes such as depression, agitation, sleep, circadian rest-activity, and seasonal affective disorder.18–26
These effects of light exposure, or the lack thereof, illustrate the importance of proper light exposure for physical well-being and mental health. In our modern society, many responsibilities at the workplace and at home dictate self-imposed alterations and/or loss of daylight in our daily lives. Findings from the previously discussed research suggest that the light exposure determined by our daily schedules will have subsequent consequences on our mood, cognitive performance, and overall well-being. However, studies exploring the impact of daylight exposure, or the lack thereof, on the health of office workers are very scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the influence of light exposure at the workplace, through the existence or absence of windows and of daylight, on office workers' sleep patterns, physical activity, and quality of life via actigraphy and subjective measures. In our study we compared two groups of office workers—those with windows and abundant levels of daylight and those without windows and with no direct contact with daylight at their workstations— in terms of overall health and well-being and subjective sleep quality using well-validated scales, and objective measures of sleep, activity levels, and light exposure via actigraphy. We hypothesized that office workers with windows in the work-place would have more light exposure, better sleep quality, more physical activity, and higher quality of life ratings compared to office workers without windows in the workplace.
A total of 49 participants were recruited, including 27 day-shift workers in windowless workplaces and 22 comparable day-shift workers in workplaces with windows. Workers were selected from volunteers within administrative support staff and other office workers on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) whose work schedule was from 08:00 to 17:00. The typical recruitment process was done by contacting an office manager, who in turn provided names of volunteers from his/her group. The participants were not told about the specific objectives of the study but were informed that the study was about the impact of workplace physical and social conditions on productivity and well-being.
In addition, a subset of the participants had actigraphy recordings to measure light exposure, activity, and sleep. A total of 21 participants had actigraphy recordings, including 10 office workers in windowless workplaces and 11 office workers in workplaces with windows. Participants were selected for actigraphy based on a convenience sample with volunteers from office locations with and without windows.
Once the volunteers were identified, daylight factors at their workstations were measured. Only daylight factors > 2% were kept in the study for workers in workplaces with windows. Generally, daylight factors < 2% are deemed not useful for task performance illumination. In this study, we define a windowless workplace as one without any windows or one where workstations were far away from windows and therefore had no exposure to daylight and no views to the outside world. The Institutional Review Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) approved the research study, and all volunteers gave informed written consent as required by UIUC regulations and standards. The cities of Urbana-Champaign are relatively small, and the commute for most participants is generally less than 15 minutes by car. Nearly all participants drove individual cars to work.
Measures - Questionnaires
Office workers' health related quality of life was measured by Short Form 36 (SF-36), a questionnaire with 36 items related to the physical and psychosocial domains of health influenced by a person's experiences, beliefs, and perceptions of health. The SF-36 survey is a well-validated health status questionnaire that measures an individual's physical functioning, bodily pain, and perception of the ability to perform physical, social, and emotional role functions.27
The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was utilized to evaluate subjective sleep quality of the participants. This self-rated questionnaire assesses sleep quality and disturbances over a 1-month time interval.28 The PSQI is composed of 19 self-rated questions and 5 questions rated by a bed partner or roommate. Only the self-rated items were used in scoring the scale. The 19 questions generate 7 component scores: subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleeping medication, and daytime dysfunction. Each component score ranges from 0 (no difficulty) to 3 (severe difficulty). The component scores are summed to produce a global score with a range of 0–21. A higher score indicates lower sleep quality. A PSQI global score > 5 is considered suggestive of significant sleep disturbance.
A daylight deprivation survey was administered that includes questions pertaining to demographic characteristics (age, gender, race, and working experience) and behavioral characteristics (self-reported amount of exposure to daylight on a scale of 1-10 [with 1 being always exposed and 10 being never exposed], hours of outdoor activities per day, eating behavior prior going to bed, and duration of current light exposure level).
Measures - Actigraphy
Participants wore an Actiwatch-L (Minimitter) on their non-dominant wrist. An actiwatch device is an ambulatory physiological data logger often used in research and clinical settings to detect and record motion during wake and sleep. The Actiwatch-L has an accelerometer sensitivity of 0.05 g-force and is equipped with a photodiode for measuring amount and duration of light illuminance. Participants were instructed to continuously wear these actiwatches for 2 weeks without removing them (except for bathing) during the period of time they were answering the questionnaires. Participants were also instructed to leave the actiwatches exposed to the environment at all times and to avoid covering them with clothing. The questionnaires and actiwatches were administered during late spring and summer seasons.
Valid data were recorded for a range of 6 to 10 workdays and 2 to 4 free days in participants, with the average participant yielding 8.4 workdays and 3.4 free days of actigraphy data meeting inclusion criteria for analysis, as determined by < 4 h off-wrist time per day. Analysis was conducted on Actiware software version 5 (Philips Respironics) with 30-sec sampling epochs and wake threshold value of 40 activity counts. Sleep start was defined as the first 10-min period in which no more than one epoch was scored as mobile. Sleep end was defined as the last 10-min period in which no more than one epoch was scored as immobile. Wake threshold selection was set at medium.
Actigraphy measures were calculated as the average of each participant's valid workdays (split into wake time to 08:00 for workday mornings, 08:00 to 17:00 for work hours, and 17:00 to sleep start for workday evenings) and valid free days for activity and light exposure variables, and for nighttime hours following workdays and free days for sleep variables. Actigraphy variables analyzed include total activity counts (sum of all valid physical activity counts for all epochs in the active period from wake time to 08:00 for workday mornings, 08:00 to 17:00 on workdays for work hours, 17:00 to sleep start for workday evenings, and for wake periods during free days), sleep onset time (clock time of sleep start on nights following workdays and free days), sleep onset latency (time elapsed between the start time of a given rest interval and the following sleep start time on nights following workdays and free days), sleep efficiency (the percentage of scored total sleep time to interval duration minus total invalid time for the given rest period on nights following workdays and free days), wake after sleep onset (total minutes between the start time and end time of a given sleep interval scored as wake on nights following workdays and free days), sleep time (total minutes between the start time and end time of a given interval scored as sleep on nights following workdays and free days), sleep fragmentation (sum of percent mobile and percent immobile bouts < 1 min duration to the number of immobile bouts for the given interval on nights following workdays and free days), and average light exposure (sum of all valid illuminance data in lux on a logarithmic scale for all epochs from the start time to the end time of a given interval multiplied by the epoch length in minutes from wake time to 08:00 for workday mornings, 08:00 to 17:00 on workdays for work hours, 17:00 to sleep start for workday evenings, and for wake periods during free days).
Statistical Methods
First, we performed a χ2 test (homogeneity for proportions) to compare distributions of the demographics and behavioral characteristics as measured by the daylight deprivation survey (age, race, gender, working experience, self-reported amount of exposure to daylight, hours of outdoor activities per day, eating behavior prior to going to bed, and duration of current light level exposure) between participants working in workplaces without windows and participants working in workplaces with windows. Secondly, we performed t-tests to determine any statistical difference between the two groups in terms of office workers' health related quality of life and sleep quality as measured on the SF-36 and PSQI.
For the subset of participants with actigraphy recording, distributions of the demographics and behavioral characteristics as measured by the daylight deprivation survey between workers in workplaces with no windows and workers in work-places with windows were compared to distributions in the overall group. T-tests were then utilized to gauge differences between the two groups in terms of the following previously defined actigraphy measures: total activity counts, sleep onset time, sleep onset latency, sleep efficiency, wake after sleep onset, sleep time, fragmentation index, and light exposure. Pearson bivariate correlations were run between work hour light exposure as measured by actigraphy and subjective questionnaires and other actigraphy variables.
Demographics and Behavioral Characteristics of the Two Groups of Workers
Results of the χ2 test show no significant differences between these two groups in terms of distributions of age, race, gender, working experience, hours of outdoor activities per day, eating behavior prior to going to bed, and duration of current light level exposure (Table 1). Therefore, these two groups were comparable except in their amount of self-reported amount of exposure to daylight (Table 2).
For the subset of participants with actigraphy recording, distributions of the demographic and behavioral characteristics as measured by the daylight deprivation survey between workers in workplaces with no windows and workers in work-places with windows are comparable to respective distributions in the overall group, again with no significant differences in these distributions between groups except in their amount of self-reported amount of exposure to daylight.
Light Exposure of the Two Groups of Workers
The self-reported amount of exposure to daylight scale shows office workers in workplaces without windows perceived they had significantly less exposure to daylight than office workers in workplaces with windows, as expected (Table 2). Results from actigraphy confirm average light exposure differences during work hours for the two groups, with workers in workplaces with windows receiving more light exposure than workers in workplaces without windows (Table 3 and Figure 1A; 3.00 log lux versus 2.58 log lux; p = 0.02). There was no significant difference in light exposure from wake time to start of the work period (Table 3; 2.57 log lux versus 2.38 log lux; p = 0.32); however, workers with windows in the workplace had more light exposure during workday evenings (Table 3; 2.50 log lux versus 1.93 log lux; p = 0.008) and during free days (Table 3; 3.30 log lux versus 2.37 log lux; p = 0.003) than workers without windows in the workplace. While we cannot say from our data collection whether this difference is from natural daylight or artificial lighting in the office building, workers without windows at the workplace had significantly lower average light exposure than workers with windows during workday work hours and evenings as well as during free days.
Physical and Mental Conditions of the Two Groups of Workers
Workers in workplaces without windows had significantly worse scores on two of the SF-36 dimensions—role limitation due to physical problems (RP) and vitality (VT)—than workers in workplaces with windows (Figure 2; p = 0.001 and p = 0.004, respectively). There was also a positive correlation between light exposure during work hours and role limitation due to physical problems (R = 0.503, p = 0.02). Overall, both the physical component summary (PCS) (p = 0.09) and mental component summary (MCS) (p = 0.11) scores of those in workplaces without windows were lower than scores of those working in workplaces with windows (Table 4). Participants in workplaces without windows reported poorer scores on all time on workday nights (R = 0.483, p = 0.03). While there were no significant differences between workers with windows and workers without windows in sleep onset time (21:46 versus 22:04), sleep onset latency (10 min vs 19 min), sleep efficiency (91% vs 89%), wake after sleep onset (30 min vs 37 min), and sleep fragmentation (19 vs 22) on workday nights, the averages point toward better measures of sleep quality for workers with windows at the workplace than workers without windows at the workplace during the workweek. Similarly, workers with windows at the workplace slept more than their counterparts on free day nights (506 min vs 389 min; p = 0.005), and although there were no differences in sleep onset time (22:06 vs 22:48), sleep onset latency (15 min vs 20 min), sleep efficiency (91% vs 90%), wake after sleep onset (31 min vs 36 min), and sleep fragmentation (20 vs 22) on free day nights, the averages point toward better measures of sleep quality for workers with windows at the workplace than workers without windows at the workplace during free day nights.
These results demonstrate a relationship between work-place light exposure and office workers' sleep quality, activity patterns, and quality of life. Workers in workplaces with windows not only had significantly more light exposure during work hours but also slept an average of 46 minutes more per night during the workweek than workers in workplaces without windows. Workers with windows in the workplace also had more light exposure during the workday evenings and during free days, as well as longer sleep time compared to workers without windows in the workplace. However, there were no differences in light exposure in the mornings before the work period. Workers without windows also reported poorer scores than their counterparts on the global PSQI score and the PSQI component score for sleep disturbances. None of the other component scores of the PSQI were significantly different between groups, nor were actigraphy sleep variables other than sleep time different between the groups.
These findings suggest that light exposure, or the lack thereof, during work hours may have effects beyond the workplace that impact sleep duration and quality, which may then have further effects on other health factors. Research indicates that insufficient sleep and reduced sleep quality have myriad health and safety consequences. For example, insufficient sleep and reduced sleep quality have been associated with higher evening levels of cortisol, impaired glucose metabolism, increases in appetite via decreased leptin and increased ghrelin levels, and higher body mass index, as well as increased fatigue and deterioration of performance, alertness, and mental concentration, which can lead to increased error rates and subsequent risk of injury.7–9,29–32
These health and performance consequences may affect perceived health related quality of life, as measured by the SF-36. Our results from the SF-36 show workplaces without windows have significantly negative impact on workers' role limitation due to physical problems (RP) and vitality (VT), as well as a marginal negative impact on workers' mental health compared to workplaces with windows. These results are similar to the findings of a study that examined five dimensions (GH, V, SF, RE, and MH) of the SF-36 and found that the scores of vitality (VT), social functioning (SF), and mental health (MH) for those working in dark offices are lower than scores for those working in offices with more lighting.33 Another study focusing on predictors of burnout among nurses found that exposure to at least three hours of daylight per day resulted in less stress and higher satisfaction at work.34 While those with more daylight in the workplace also have higher daily physical activity during work hours and workday evenings, our analysis cannot determine whether the workers get more activity because of the daylight or whether they have more daylight exposure due to activity. There was no difference in physical activity between the two groups during free days despite differences in light exposure during free days, and correlations between physical activity levels and light exposure during work hours, workday evenings, and free days did not suggest a strong relationship. Nonetheless, it remains a possibility that differences in activity level may influence light exposure and also sleep, yet the tendency towards higher activity levels indicates workers with more daylight exposure may have fewer physical problems or complaints regarding vitality in parallel with our findings on subjective measures of the SF-36.
Prior to this study, little was known about how architectural features such as windows impact light exposure and subsequent effects on physical and mental factors. Via examination of the influence of office settings with and without windows on office workers' light exposure, sleep, physical activity, and quality of life via actigraphy and subjective measures, this research study shows office workers in workplaces with windows may have more light exposure, better sleep quality, more physical activity, and higher quality of life ratings than office workers in work-places without windows.
This study has some limitations that could be addressed in future work. For example, the small sample size and sampling methodology could be addressed in a larger study. Participants for this study were volunteers based on a convenience sample, which may have introduced bias. The amount of light in an office may be associated with position or level of experience in the workplace; however, we found no differences in age, race, gender, years at current job, and duration of working in current light levels between workers in office settings with and without windows. We also do not have data from the participants on caffeine use, measurements of stress levels, and chronotype, which is of interest given the outcome measures of this study. Although we observed no differences in sleep onset time between the two groups of workers on workday nights and free day nights, the possibility remains that chronotype, circadian timing, or other behavioral measures may be responsible for some of the differences observed in the two groups of workers. This warrants further investigation. The objective measures of wrist actigraphy support the subjective findings; however, actigraphy data were collected for only 21 of the 49 total participants. Furthermore, although actigraphy has reasonable validity and reliability and is often used as a sleep assessment tool in sleep medicine, this methodology has some limitations. Sleep diaries were not collected in this study, and therefore were unavailable for the actigraphy analysis. For sleep-wake periods, actigraphy has low specificity for detecting wakefulness within sleep periods. Actigraphy is also neither sensitive to low light levels nor calibrated for artificial fluorescent lighting. As such, light exposure measurements for workers in office settings without windows may be an underestimate. In addition, since light exposure data are collected from the wrist, there is the possibility that error may be introduced by covering of the actiwatch, and therefore, reported values may not be fully representative of the light levels reaching the retina. Our data collection methods also do not allow for differentiation between natural daylight and artificial lighting, and do not allow for analysis of specific wavelengths of light exposure. Future studies would benefit from using devices that collect spectral distribution for comparison between the two workplace groups. Lastly, additional benefits of workplaces with windows, such as the roles of views and other dimensions, were not taken into account in this study. Views may bring some psychological dimension while daylight may have physiological effects. Future research may be able to dissociate the different roles of views and daylighting of windows. This can be done, for example, by exploring the differences between skylights that provide very limited views to the sky only versus side windows. Despite these limitations, significant differences are seen with light exposure levels and subsequent measures of sleep quality and physical and mental well-being.
As emphasized in the World Health Organization's Declaration on Occupational Health for All,1 the focal point for practical occupational health activities is the workplace. Therefore, employers have a social responsibility to plan and design a safe and healthy working environment for their employees. Some countries (such as Canada, Germany, and France) recommend certain amounts of daylight in schools and offices. Yet even in these countries it is not a requirement. In the United States, the national building code lists windows primarily as a means of emergency escape and rescue as opposed to natural lighting. Given the results of this study, we conclude that emphasizing daylight exposure and lighting in the workplace may positively affect the well-being of people working in those spaces. Lower amounts of light exposure in the workplace was associated with reduced sleep duration, poorer sleep quality, lower activity levels, and reduced quality of life in this sample of office workers. Light exposure in the workplace may therefore have long-lasting and compounding effects on the physical and mental health of the workers not only during but also beyond work hours. Enhanced indoor lighting for those with insufficient lighting in current offices as well as increased emphasis on light exposure in the architectural design of future office environments is recommended to improve office workers' sleep quality and physical well-being. Workers with limited or no access to windows in the workplace may increase their light exposure during work hours in various ways. Taking a walk during a break and enjoying lunch outdoors are simple ways to increase daytime natural light exposure. Further research is needed to determine what light exposure durations or intensities are sufficient or optimal for benefits to well-being.
This was not an industry supported study. This research was supported by the Illinois Campus Research Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and NIH grants 5T32 HL790915 and P01 AG11412. Dr. Zee has a Philips/Respironics Educational/Research Gift to Northwestern University, owns stock in Teva, and is a consultant for Sanofi-Aventis, UCB, Johnson and Johnson, Merck and Co, Takeda, Purdue, Philips, Jazz, Vanda, and Ferring. Dr. Reid has received research support from Philips Consumer Lifestyles for research unrelated to the work reported in the paper. The other authors have indicated no financial conflicts of interest.
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text:
Sunday, 16 February 2014
My Valentine Date with My Girl Maddy
60 comments:
Awww! You are as romantic as I am, Speedy MOL! It was a great day :) xoxReplyDeleteReplies
it was just lovely Austin,xx SpeedyDelete
Oh Speedy mi man, what an EVENING of romance you had! My little nephew,I didn't know you were such a Don Juan, such a Cyrano, such a rabbit about town! Tell mummy she is so talented and uses her photo skills to bring us the most amusing stories of your life. Oh how I adore you! Happy love dearest Speed bump!ReplyDeleteReplies
hehehe thanks Auntie Anita,Maddy is just the sweetest,xx SpeedyDelete
Awww what a sweet date and what a lovely couple you make. Great music. Have a serene Sunday and get in some big easy today.ReplyDelete
Misaki is my guest blog today and they have nominated you for next Sunday. You don't need to do anything just email me a link to the post you'd like me to host. mollyDOTthewallyATbtinternetDOTcom.
Best wishes MollyReplies
Aww thank Molly will do,xx SpeedyDelete
Speedy what a date! It was just the best wasn't it? Your date looked so romantic. I'm glad I got to catch up with you there.ReplyDeleteReplies
it was the best Cocco,xx SpeedyDelete
looks like you and Maddy had a wonderful Valentines Day!ReplyDeleteReplies
It was Juliet,xx SpeedyDelete
Speedy, what a special time you had with Maddy. I love that table at the beach!ReplyDeleteReplies
Me too Annie,xx SpeedyDelete
Speedy, you're so romantic! You were in Thailand? You should have come over to visit us!ReplyDelete
Maddy is such a lucky Girlbun to have you as her special Manbun!Replies
Maybe next time Furies,she is special,xx SpeedyDelete
That was such a wonderful time and you two really looked wonderful Speedy!ReplyDeleteReplies
Awww thanks Pall,xx SpeedyDelete
Haha!! Love your photos! Looks like you had a pawsome day!!!!ReplyDelete
Happy Sunday!!
((Husky hugz))Replies
Thanks ,it was pawsome,xx SpeedyDelete
Speedy, I don't suppose I could carry your luggage for you? Open doors? I never get to do anything. WOL! That stands for "whimper out loud." Anyway, I do love to see you doing what you do. BSAJReplyDeleteReplies
Awww Auntie Jane next time I go on a Jaunt I'll come and Visit you,xx SpeedyDelete
Oh Speedy you had such a lovely time xxxReplyDelete
- Anonymous16 February 2014 at 19:13
Love the photos xxxReplyDeleteReplies
Aww thanks,xx SpeedyDelete
You certainly had a busy Valentines Day, Speedy. And a happy day too.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks,it was the best,xx SpeedyDelete
OMD do you wanna dog as a girlfurriend BOL xxoxxxReplyDelete
Mollie and AlfieReplies
Hmmyou might get over excite and squish me...hehehe,xx SpeedyDelete
Yow Speedy yer a pawsitive gentlebunneh n Maddy must lub ya wif all her furry heart!! Ya planned da most purrfect Valentine'z Day!! OKAYZ efurryone else; take no-tice of what Speedy did fer hiz romantick date!!! Diz iz how me LADIEZ want to bee treeted!!!ReplyDelete
DAT kiss waz pawsum too...me had a sweet kiss wif me Kuruk...Izn't LUB Grand??
Lub Nylablue =^,,^=Replies
Love is grand,*Blushes*xx SpeedyDelete
What a grand date you had. You are so thoughtful. Purrs and paw-pats, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista JoReplyDeleteReplies
Awww thanks*blushes*xx SpeedyDelete
Speedy sure looks like you had a wonderful time.ReplyDelete
Sue BReplies
It was perfect,xx SpeedyDelete
Wow, Speedy. You looked so dapper at the ball and what a BEAUTIFUL spot for a picnic. I'm very impressed, indeed.ReplyDelete
Thanks Pal,xx SpeedyDelete
What a great date you had with your girl Maddy.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Flynn,it was,xx SpeedyDelete
Such a fun post! What a wonderful time Speedy!ReplyDeleteReplies
Hehehe it was lots of fun Auntie Shell,xx SpeedyDelete
Oh Speedy! Me is so furry happy that yous could stop by the ball! And it is so romantic that yous guys had a nice romantic and quiet Valentines!ReplyDelete
Aww thanks,I had to say hello to my pals as well,xx SpeedyDelete
Speedy, what a cute couple you two are!ReplyDeleteReplies
Aww thanks Guys,xx SpeedyDelete
How romantic Speedy! Especially visiting Thailand. Sounds like fun :)ReplyDeleteReplies
Aww thanks Ann,it was fun,xx SpeedyDelete
How sweet. I hope I can go on a romantic beach trip with you one day too, Speedy ;-)ReplyDeleteReplies
Awww thanks that would be lovely too,xx SpeedyDelete
- Anonymous17 February 2014 at 11:53
You look like you had a brilliant time!ReplyDeleteReplies
It was Dalton,it was,xx SpeedyDelete
What a romantic bun you are Speedy! Very cute couple.ReplyDeleteReplies
Awww thanks Amelia,xx SpeedyDelete
You are a romantic rabbit Speedy.ReplyDelete
You and your date had a very nice time.
Nice pictures.
Aww thanks Hisia,,you are so sweet,xx SpeedyDelete
Dear One, your auntie approves. Lovely friends, just lovely. I assume Mummy and Daddy were just off camera. Hope so. BSAJReplyDeleteReplies
Awww Auntie Jane the would be so embarrising ,and besides they had their own date,xx SpeedyDelete
Well aren't YOU the romantic one! woo woo!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous17 February 2014 at 21:23
Lovely post xReplyDelete
- Anonymous18 February 2014 at 14:19
Wow that's really romantic. And the spanish music and the moonlight... wow that was an unforgettable night. I danced with Nellie too, have you seen her fabulous legs? Wow!!ReplyDelete
Fancy date there you have! Who paid?!ReplyDelete
I am sorry for any inconvenience but after getting a rude unsavoury comment I have now enabled comment moderation from now on all Spam or Unsavoury comments will be removed and reported.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Instagram and Pinterest might be ruining your lunch.
Looking at too many pictures of food can make eating less enjoyable, a study by marketing professors at Brigham Young University has found, because the images make you feel like you've already experienced the meal.
"In a way, you're becoming tired of that taste without even eating the food," co-author Ryan Elder said in a statement. "It's sensory boredom you've kind of moved on. You don't want that taste experience anymore."
He and co-author Jeff Larson studied how an explosion of food pictures affects the eating experience by asking 232 people to look at and rate pictures of food. Half the participants viewed 60 pictures of sweets such as cake, truffles and chocolate, and the other half saw images of salty foods chips, pretzels and french fries.
Afterward, participants were asked to eat salty peanuts and rank how much they enjoyed them. The people who had seen the salty-food pictures reported less enjoyment. Even though they hadn't actually seen pictures of peanuts, the researchers said, they were satiated by the sensory experience of saltiness from the photos.
Elder and Larson published their findings in the Journal of Consumer Psychology
"If you want to enjoy your food consumption experience, avoid looking at too many pictures of food," Larson said in a statement. "Even I felt a little sick to my stomach during the study after looking at all the sweet pictures we had."
The concept could work the other way, too. If you have a weakness for desserts, going on a binge of sweet pictures could make you steer clear. The effect, though, seems to depend on seeing a large number of pictures.
"It's not like if you look at something two or three times, you'll get that satiated effect," Elder said.
And Instagramming your dinner might not be all bad. Another study out of the University of Minnesota and Harvard Business School, published in August, found that performing certain rituals before eating can make you enjoy the food more, because it prompts greater involvement in the experience.
Twitter: @lwhitehurst


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Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens drew on his own thoughts about the Japanese in the aftermath of World War II to say that New Yorkers should be more tolerant of the plan to build an Islamic center near ground zero in New York.
"Guilt by association is unfair," he said.
In a speech Thursday to the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation in Washington, he recalled his service in Pearl Harbor during the war as an intelligence analyst working with codes. When he returned there in 1994, he said, he had an emotional response to seeing Japanese tourists visiting the USS Arizona memorial.
"Those people don't really belong here," he said he remembered thinking. "We won the war, they lost it. We shouldn't allow them to celebrate their attack on Pearl Harbor, even if it was one of their greatest victories."
But he said he quickly realized that Japanese visitors would have a range of emotions, remembering relatives who died during the war or thinking about the horrors of war.
"I suspect that many New Yorkers who lost friends or relatives as a result of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 may have reacted to the news that Muslims are planning to erect a mosque or a religious center in the neighborhood much as I reacted to the sight of the Japanese tourists on the Arizona," he said.
But Stevens, 90, said New Yorkers may have had second thoughts, as he did.
"The Japanese tourists were not responsible for what some of their countrymen did decades ago; the Muslims planning to build the mosque are not responsible for what an entirely different group of Muslims did on 9/11," he said.
Stevens noted that the National Japanese American Memorial recognizes the injustice of the internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent during the war.
He called that "a powerful reminder of the fact that ignorance — that is to say, fear of the unknown — is the source of most invidious prejudice."


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You are looking Pincode of Sarkanpur B.O. Here you will find more than Pincode of Sarkanpur B.O. So friend first of all Thank you for visiting my portal. Here are the details about 472115.
Pincode of Sarkanpur B.O is 472115
Details of Post Office:- Sarkanpur B.O, TIKAMGARH, MADHYA PRADESH
Post Office- Sarkanpur B.O belongs to MADHYA PRADESH/TIKAMGARH/Sarkanpur B.O
Telephone No:-
Post Office Type:- Branch Post Office
District:- TIKAMGARH
Country code :- Sarkanpur B.O,Branch Post Office,472115,,Khargapur,TIKAMGARH,MADHYA PRADESH,CHHATARPUR,BHOPAL HQ,MADHYA PRADESH
Sarkanpur B.O is a branch of India post and pincode: 472115 Belongs to:- MADHYA PRADESH
Because of Khargapur have some other areas of same pincode 472115 so be careful to read necessary details.
Where this post office is?
Contact Address:- Postmaster, Post Office Sarkanpur B.O, Sarkanpur B.O,Branch Post Office,472115,,Khargapur,TIKAMGARH,MADHYA PRADESH,CHHATARPUR,BHOPAL HQ,MADHYA PRADESH, TIKAMGARH, MADHYA PRADESH, CHHATARPUR India (IN), Pin Code:- 472115
Indian post offices provide a wide range of services to customers, including:
Mail Services: Indian post offices offer a variety of mail services, including delivery of letters, postcards, and parcels, as well as registered and speed post services.
Retail Services: Indian post offices also provide retail services, such as the sale of postal stationery, postal supplies, and gifts.
Government Services: Indian post offices offer various government services such as the distribution of pensions, postal ballots, and election materials.
Financial Services: Indian post offices provide a range of financial services, such as savings accounts, recurring deposits, fixed deposits, money orders, and postal life insurance.
Philately Services: Indian post offices offer philately services, including the sale of stamps, first-day covers, and philatelic souvenirs.
Premium Services: Indian post offices also offer premium services such as same-day delivery, express parcel delivery, and e-commerce delivery.
Passport Services: Some Indian post offices also provide passport services, such as accepting passport applications and issuing passport-related documents.
Overall, Indian post offices provide a wide range of services to customers, making them an essential part of the country's communication and financial infrastructure.
Delivery Status:- Branch Post Office
Postal Taluk:- Sarkanpur B.O,Branch Post Office,472115,,Khargapur,TIKAMGARH,MADHYA PRADESH,CHHATARPUR,BHOPAL HQ,MADHYA PRADESH
Postal Division:- TIKAMGARH
Postal Region:- BHOPAL HQ
Postal Circle:- MADHYA PRADESH
State:- https://birchi.in/MADHYA PRADESH
Friends PIN code (Postal Index Number) likeSarkanpur B.O is 472115 is a unique 6-digit code. Pincode is uniquely specify the post or parcel belongs which area. So it is used by India Post to sort the post and parcels. The country's postal service, to identify the delivery post office of a particular area or location like TIKAMGARH. The PIN code system 472115 was introduced first in India in 1972 to simplify and streamline the mail delivery process.
The first digit of the PIN code 472115 indicates the region like BHOPAL HQ, the second digit indicates the sub-region like CHHATARPUR, and the third digit indicates the sorting district like TIKAMGARH within that region. The last three digits represent the specific post office within that sorting district.
For example, if the PIN code of a particular location is 472115, the first digit in 472115 represents the region, the second digit represents the TIKAMGARH sub-region, and the third digit represents the Sarkanpur B.O sorting district. The last three digits indicate the Sarkanpur B.O office within the TIKAMGARH sorting district.
There are some query related Pincode number are
What is a Pincode number?
In India a Pincode number e.g. 472115, also known as a Postal Index Number, is a unique identification code assigned to each post office and its corresponding delivery area in India. It is a six-digit number e.g. 472115 used by India Post, the country's postal service, to sort and deliver mail and parcels to the correct destination. The Pincode system just like 472115 was introduced in India in 1972 to simplify the mail delivery process and make it more efficient.
How many digits are there in a Pincode number?
Pincode number in India is comprised of six digits with relevant meaning 472115.
What is the significance of the first digit in a Pincode number?
in India is comprised of six digits with relevant meaning. The first digit represents the region, followed by two digits for the sub-region, and then three digits for the individual post office. The Pincode like 472115 system was introduced in India in 1972 to simplify the mail delivery process and make it more efficient. It has since become an important tool for logistics and supply chain management in the country.
How are Pincode numbers assigned to different areas in a city or town?
Pincode numbers e.g. 472115 are assigned to different areas in a city or town in India by the India Post, the country's postal service. The process of assigning Pincode numbers involves several steps:
The India Post divides the country into nine regions, each represented by a unique first digit in the Pincode number e.g.
Each region e.g. BHOPAL HQ is further divided into sub-regions, represented by the next two digits in the Pincode number.
The India Post assigns Pincode numbers to each post office in the country based on its location within the sub-region like BHOPAL HQ.
The Pincode numbers(472115 ) are then published in a database that is made available to the public for reference.
New Pincode 472115 numbers may be assigned to areas that were previously not covered by any Pincode number(472115), or existing Pincode numbers may be modified to reflect changes in the area's boundaries or postal infrastructure.
What is the difference between a Pincode and a Zip code?
Pincode (472115) and Zip code are both systems of postal codes used to identify specific geographical locations for the purpose of mail delivery. However, there are some key differences between the two:
Pincode is used exclusively in India, while Zip code is used primarily in the United States, although other countries such as Canada and the Philippines also use a similar system called Postal Code.
Pincode consists of six digits(472115), while Zip code usually consists of five digits(54676), although there are some extended Zip codes that have nine digits.
The format of Pincode(472115) and Zip code is different. The first digit in Pincode represents the region, the next two digits represent the sub-region, and the last three digits represent the post office(Sarkanpur B.O). In Zip code, the first five digits represent the delivery area, while the last four digits represent a more specific location within that area.
The system for assigning Pincode (472115) and Zip code numbers is different. Pincode numbers e.g. (472115) are assigned by India Post, while Zip codes are assigned by the United States Postal Service (USPS).
Despite these differences, both Pincode and Zip code serve the same basic purpose of identifying the location of the recipient or sender of mail or packages.
How can I find the Pincode number for a specific address?
There are several ways to find the Pincode number for a specific address in India:
Online Pincode search: You can use the India Post's online Pincode search tool to find the Pincode number for a specific address. Simply enter the name of the area, district, state, or post office, and the tool will provide the corresponding Pincode number.
Google Maps: You can use Google Maps to find the Pincode number like (472115) for a specific location in India. Simply search for the location in Google Maps and click on the "Directions" button. Enter your starting location and select the "Car" or "Walk" option. The Pincode number (472115) will be displayed in the address bar at the top of the page.
India Post mobile app: India Post has a mobile app that you can download for free from the App Store or Google Play Store. The app includes a Pincode search feature that allows you to find the Pincode number (472115) for a specific address.
Post office: You can visit your local post office like(Sarkanpur B.O) and ask the staff to help you find the Pincode number for a specific address just alike (472115). They will have access to a database of all Pincode numbers (Sarkanpur B.O and should be able to assist you in finding the correct Pincode number 472115.
What happens if I enter an incorrect Pincode (like miss any number or wrong) while sending a courier?
If you enter an wrong Pincode number while sending a courier in India, the courier may not be delivered to the intended recipient or may be delayed in reaching its destination. The India Post's automated mail sorting system uses Pincode numbers to sort and route mail to the correct post office and delivery area. If the Pincode number is incorrect, the mail may be misrouted to the wrong post office or delivery area, causing delays or even loss of the mail.
In some cases, if the Pincode number is incorrect, the courier may be returned to the sender or held at the post office for pickup by the recipient.
To ensure that your courier reaches its intended recipient in a timely manner, it is important to double-check the Pincode number (472115) before sending it. You can use the India Post's online Pincode search tool or consult a telephone directory to find the correct Pincode number (472115) for the recipient's address.
What is the importance of Pincode numbers in logistics and supply chain management?
Primarily (472115) Pincode number play a crucial role in logistics and supply chain management in India. Here are some reasons why these play an important role:
Accurate address verification: Pincode numbers alike (472115) help to accurately identify the delivery area and post office of a particular address, making it easier to verify and validate addresses for delivery.
Efficient routing and sorting: Pincode numbers e.g. (472115) are used to route and sort mail and parcels to the correct post office Sarkanpur B.O and delivery area, helping to ensure timely and accurate delivery.
Tracking and tracing: Pincode numbers e.g. 472115 are used to track and trace packages throughout the delivery process Sarkanpur B.O, providing customers with real-time updates on the status and location like Sarkanpur B.O of their shipments.
Inventory management: Pincode numbers are used to manage inventory in warehouses and distribution centers, helping to ensure that products are stored and shipped to the correct locations.
Demand forecasting: Pincode numbers can be used to analyze demand patterns and forecast demand for specific products in different regions, helping companies to optimize their supply chains and reduce costs.
In short, Pincode numbers like 472115 are essential for the efficient and effective management of logistics and supply chain operations in India, helping to ensure accurate and timely delivery of goods and services to customers.
How has the use of Pincode numbers impacted the delivery of goods and services in India?
Pincode numbers (472115) has been a major factor in improving the delivery of goods and services in India, helping to connect businesses and customers across India and facilitating economic growth and development.
Disclaimer: This website is based on India post PIN code database and PIN Identification is a set of key determined my India Post. We are not liable for the accuracy or misinformation but this information is for general purpose uses.


text:
Trade up to a higher-antioxidant morning juice. Photo by Saidi Granados.
Category Main Page
Articles & Reviews
Category Main Page
Articles & Reviews
Main Nibbles
Articles & Reviews Of Foods
From A To Z
KAREN HOCHMAN is Editorial Director of THE NIBBLE.
May 2008
CAPSULE REPORT: First, pomegranate promised superfruit health benefits. Then, it was açaí from the Brazilian rainforest. Now, yumberry from China is clamoring for your attention. It has a flavor profile that's a cousin to pomegranate with some distant kinship to açaí. The rich juice has a sweetness with a hint of the exotic. As the subtropics continue to yield antioxidant-rich fruit, say "yum" and try a sip of yumberry juice. Like pomegranate juice, it's delicious in cocktails, too. There are three organic and four natural flavors.
The yumberry is a pretty red tree fruit that has been cultivated in Asia for about 2,000 years (and eaten wild as far back as 6,000 years). In China, it is called yangmei, in Japan, yamamomo. In English, the tree is variously called the yumberry, Chinese strawberry, Chinese bayberry, Japanese bayberry and red bayberry. There is also a variety called the wax myrtle, giving way to the name waxberry for the fruit. It may be unfortunate that marketers have chosen yumberry as the preferred name, because it sounds like a kid's flavor and the yumberry is pretty serious stuff. (Though we will concede that yumberry sounds better than waxberry.) A high-antioxidant superfruit, it joins açaí and pomegranate as a better alternative to breakfast juice. It's a good mixer for gin, tequila and vodka cocktails, too.
Frützzo, a company that focuses on high-antioxidant, 100% fruit juices (its first line was pomegranate juices, which we reviewed in our category analysis of pomegranate juice), was the first company in America to market blends of pomegranate and nutrient-dense ingredients such as blueberries, raspberry and açaí. (In terms of blended juices, it beat the category originator, Pom Wonderful, to the proverbial punch.)
The yumberry tree is most widely cultivated in the hills surrounding the Yangtze Delta, in China, where the fruit blooms for just three weeks a year. It is eaten fresh as well as made into juice, syrups and other products. In the U.S., juice is currently the only form available.
The area is conducive to organic production, so one can find a good amount of organic product alongside conventional product. Frützzo offers both.
From the outside, the yumberry looks like a lychee. But while the lychee's thin exterior peels off to reveal a white fruit inside, the yumberry is a solid fruit with red-purple interior similar in color to pomegranate arils. The phytochemical hero in the fruit is the free-radical-scavenging antioxidant, oligomeric proanthocyanidin (OPC). It also has carotene, thiamin, riboflavin and the antioxidant vitamin C.
As with pomegranate, the flavor of the juice will vary quite a bit, as there are more than 100 varieties of yumberry tree. You won't find the information on the bottle, just as apple juice bottles usually don't tell you what variety of apple was squeezed. But for students of botany, there are white, pink, red and purple varieties. Usually, the purple variety of yumberry has the best quality and taste. The flavor, too, can be compared to pomegranates; although as you'll note in our review of pomegranate juices, the flavors vary widely from brand to brand, based on the subspecies of pomegranate and where it was grown.
There are three organic and four natural flavors of Frützzo yumberry juices. Frützzo's free-radical-fighting super juices will help fight disease-causing free radicals—but you need to be strong to start with, because those caps are hard to twist off! All flavors are available in natural and organic except Yumberry with Cherry, which is currently made only in natural.
To create the best flavor profile, the blended juices are a combination of cherry, pineapple, apple and elderberry juices in addition to the yumberry.
Yumberry. Tart and candied, plain yumberry is a serious-tasting juice; kids probably wouldn't like it, and we personally prefer a blend.
Yumberry With Blueberry. This, along with Pomegranate, is our favorite flavor, and is the less sweet, more elegant of the two. While the strong yumberry flavor overwhelms any direct taste of blueberry, the blueberry adds welcome complexity to the blend.
Yumberry With Cherry. The cherry makes this berry, already sweet, rather candied and popsicle-like in flavor. This would likely be the kids' favorite.
Yumberry With Pomegranate. A more sophisticated flavor, this is a very popular choice, according to the folks at Yumberry. We liked the flavor of the organic blend even better than the natural.
We enjoyed our yumberry juice:
An eight-ounce portion provides as few as 73 calories (some flavors have a few calories more).
The juices are packaged in fully recyclable glass bottles. However, avid recyclers that we are, we've been refilling the cute bottles with our home-brewed iced tea.
NATURAL: Yumberry, Yumberry With Blueberry, Yumberry With Cherry, Yumberry With Pomegranate
ORGANIC: Yumberry, Yumberry With Blueberry, Yumberry With Pomegranate
USDA Certified Organic
Find a store locator at Frutzzo.com.
Frützzo is available at grocery stores, natural supermarkets, specialty stores and big box stores nationwide. Costco carries a 64-ounce size for $5.39.
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text:
by Rick Rozoff
Global Research, May 14, 2009
"Today the situation is much more serious than before August 2008….[A] possible recurrence of war will not be limited to the Caucasus.
"The new President of the United States did not bring about any crucial changes in relation to Georgia, but having a dominant role in NATO he still insists on Georgia's soonest joining of
the Alliance. If it happens, the world would face a more serious threat than the crises of the Cold War.
"Under the new realities, Georgia's war against South Ossetia may easily turn into NATO's war against Russia. This would be a third world war." (Irina Kadzhaev, South Ossetia political scientist, South Ossetia Information Agency, April 2009
On May 12 James Mattis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation [ACT] and commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, spoke at a three-day symposium called Joint Warfighting 09 in Norfolk, Virginia, where NATO's Allied Command Transformation is based, and stated: "I come with a sense of urgency. The enemy is meeting like this as well." [1]
A local newspaper summarized his speech:
"Mattis outlined a future in which wars will not have clearly defined beginnings and ends. What is needed, he said, is a grand strategy, a political framework that can guide military planning." [2]
He failed, for what passes for diplomatic reasons no doubt, to identify who "the enemy" is, but a series of recent developments, or rather an intensification of ongoing ones, indicate which nation it is.
Last week the head of the U.S. Strategic Command, Gen. Kevin Chilton, told reporters during a Defense Writers Group breakfast on May 7 "that the White House retains the option to respond with physical force – potentially even using nuclear weapons – if a foreign entity conducts a disabling cyber attack against U.S. computer networks…."
An account of his talk added "the general insisted that all strike options, including nuclear, would remain available to the commander in chief in defending the nation from cyber strikes."
Chilton "said he could not rule out the possibility of a military salvo against a nation like China, even though Beijing has nuclear arms," [3] though the likely first target of alleged retaliation against equally alleged cyber attacks would be another nation already identified by US military officials as such: Russia.
In late April and early May of 2007 the government of Estonia, which was inducted into NATO in 2004 and whose president was and remains Toomas Hendrik Ilves, born in Sweden and raised in the United States (where he worked for Radio Free Europe), reported attacks on websites in the country which were blamed on Russia.
Over two years later no evidence has been presented to substantiate the claim that Russian hackers, much less the government itself, were behind the attacks, though it remains an article of faith among US and other Western officials and media that they were.
The response from American authorities in the first place was so sudden and severe, even before investigations were conducted, as to strongly suggest that if the attacks hadn't been staged they would need to be invented.
Right afterward Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne stated, "Russia, our Cold War nemesis, seems to have been the first to engage in cyber warfare."
The US Air Force news source from which the above is quoted added that the events in Estonia days earlier "did start a series of debates within NATO and the EU about the definition of clear military action and it may be the first test of the applicability of Article V of the NATO charter regarding collective self-defense in the non-kinetic realm." [4]
NATO's Article 5 is a collective military defense provision, in fact a war clause, one which first and to date for the only time has been used to support the protracted and escalating war in Afghanistan.
References to it, then, are not to be taken lightly.
On a visit to Estonia last November Pentagon chief Robert Gates met with the country's prime minister, Andrus Ansip, and "discussed Russian behavior and new cooperation on cyber security…."
It was reported that "Ansip said NATO will operate under the principle of Article 5 of the alliance's treaty, which states that an attack on one ally is treated as an attack on all," and "We are convinced that Estonia, as a member of NATO, will be very well defended."[5]
That the repeated mention of NATO's Article 5 continued a year and a half after the alleged cyber attacks when none had occurred in the interim is revealing.
At the beginning of this month the Pentagon announced that it was launching what it called a "digital warfare force for the future," at Fort Meade in Maryland under the control of the U.S. Strategic Command, whose chief, Gen. Kevin Chilton, was quoted earlier as threatening the use of force up to and including nuclear weapons.
The initiative was characterized in a news report as follows:
"Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, also the Pentagon's leading cyber warfare commander, said the U.S. is determined to lead the global effort to use computer technology to deter or defeat enemies…." [6]
The Pentagon is a synecdoche for the Department of Defense and everything related to its activities is cloaked in the same euphemism, so when pressed the US will insist its new cyber warfare project is intended for defensive purposes only. Any nation which and people who have been on the receiving end of US Defense Department actions know better. The new US cyber warfare command, its rationale based on a supposed Russian threat emanating from a non-military incident in the Baltics over two years ago, will be used to cripple the computer systems of any nation targeted for direct military assault, thus rendering them defenseless, and will be particularly effective for space-based and Star Wars (missile shield, interceptor missiles) first strike plans.
On the same day the report of General Alexander's pledge to "defeat enemies" appeared another news item reported that "A quasi-classified satellite that will serve as an engineering trailblazer for ballistic missile tracking technologies flew into space Tuesday [May 12]." [7]
It was a Space Tracking and Surveillance System Advanced Technology Risk Reduction (STSS-ATRR) satellite, which "is part of a space-based system for the Missile Defense Agency.
"Sensors aboard the STSS-ATRR satellite and on the ground will communicate with other systems to defend against incoming ballistic missiles." [8]
A few days earlier the California-based manufacturer Ducommun in a news report titled Ducommun Incorporated Announces Delivery of Nanosatellites to U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command announced that "its Miltec Corporation subsidiary delivered flight-ready nanosatellites to the U.S. Army pace and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (USASMDC/ARSTRAT) in Huntsville, Alabama on April 28, 2009."
The delivery was "the completion of the first U.S. Army satellite development program since the Courier 1B communications satellite in 1960."[9]
Military satellites used for neutralizing the potential of a rival nation not so much to launch a first strike but to respond to one blur the distinction between so-called Son of Star Wars missile shield projects and full-fledged militarization of space.
A recent Russian commentary saw it in just that manner:
"Withdrawal from the 1972 ABM Treaty signified a switch to the testing and deployment of a global missile defense system, with a view to fully removing the deterrent potential of China, and partially that of Russia.
"Washington [is] still trying to eliminate international legal restrictions on the formation of a system, which would theoretically make it invulnerable towards an act of retaliation, and even a launch-under-attack strike." [10]
Added to which is another "quasi-classified" subterfuge related to a prospective resumption of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) talks between the US And Russia.
American Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller stated this week "that the US is not prepared to cut warheads removed from delivery means and kept in storage." [11]
So in addition to US plans to deploy ground-, sea-, air- and space-based anti-missile systems primarily around and against Russia (Poland, the Czech Republic, Norway, Britain, Japan and Alaska to date), the Pentagon will hold in reserve nuclear warheads for activation without a monitoring mechanism provided to Russian inspectors and arms reduction negotiators.
On May 6 Euronews conducted an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who warned, "The way it [the US anti-ballistic missile shield] is designed has nothing to do with Iran's nuclear program. It is aimed at Russian strategic forces, deployed in the European part of the Russian Federation." [12]
To add to the concerns of Russia and other nations, On April 30 the US established a Navy Air and Missile Defense Command (NAMDC) at the Naval Support Facility at Dahlgren, Virginia.
"NAMDC is the lead organization for Navy, joint and combined Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD). NAMDC serves as the single warfare center of excellence to synchronize and integrate Navy efforts across the full spectrum of air and missile defense to include air defense, cruise missile defense and ballistic missile defense." [13]
The past two weeks has been a fertile period for stories in this vein and, to bring attention nearer the Earth, the US-based Strategy Page reported from a Russian source that "The United States has bought two Su-27 fighter jets from Ukraine" to "be used to train American military pilots, who may face opponents in them" and that the "US military will use them to test its radar and electronic warfare equipment." [14]
This was at the very moment that the US client in Ukraine, President Viktor Yushchenko, his national poll ratings plummeting to near 1%, signed a directive to prepare for full NATO membership and a few days after a US military delegation visited the country to inspect a tank unit and to plan "reforming the system of combat training…." [15]
In terms of US training for warfare against the Russian Air Force, the Ukrainian development is only the latest in a number of such activities.
Immediately following the nation becoming a full member of NATO, the US 81st Fighter Squadron flew to Constanta, Romania (in which nation the Pentagon has acquired four new bases since) to engage in combat training against Russian MiG-21s.
According to one US pilot present, "It was pretty neat – you're sitting in a MiG-21 that will be airborne with a MiG-21 pilot within days. This was an arm of the Soviet Union. These pilots were flying before the Soviet Union fell. They have quite a bit of perspective." [16]
In July of the next year the US 492nd Fighter Squadron was deployed to the Graf Ignatievo Air Base in neighoring Bulgaria to insure the opportunity for "Air Forces from multiple nations to learn about each other's aircraft tactics and capabilities.
"The pilots of the F-15E Strike Eagles and the MIG-29s and MIG-21s are sharing knowledge of aircraft and tactics as the exercise wraps up its first week of training."
A US Air Force colonel was quoted as saying, "Only two of the 38 aircrew members have had a chance to fly against MIGs. By the time the exercise is over, everyone will have had a chance to either fly in a MIG or fly against one." [17]
A month afterward the US Air Force 22nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron arrived in Romania for the Viper Lance exercises which "marked the first time U.S. F-16 pilots have trained in Romania" and "where "MiG-21 and F-16 pilots [flew] integrated formations to conduct basic fighter maneuvers, dissimilar air combat training and air-to-ground strike missions…." [18]
This time the quote is from an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot:
"My flight in the backseat of a Lancer [MiG-21] is a good opportunity to look at different aircraft and it's a real privilege and an honor. I want to see what they see from their cockpit, and view a new angle of understanding against our adversaries." [19]
Two weeks ago a US Air Force fighter squadron flew to the Bezmer Air Base in Bulgaria where an American airman said, "This is the first time a USAFE [United States Air Forces in Europe] fighter squadron has deployed to this location….The most rewarding part of this experience is knowing that I am helping the pilots train for war." [20]
To prepare the US for air combat against the full range of Russian military aircraft, India was invited to the annual Red Flag air combat exercises in Alaska in 2007, war games "meant to train pilots from the US, NATO and other allied countries for real combat situations.
"This includes the use of 'enemy' hardware and live ammunition for bombing exercises." [21]
India provided six Sukhoi SU-30MKI fighters which were "particularly interesting to the exercise as [they are] Russian-made, thus
traditionally considered 'hostile.'" [22]
May 1st, on the occasion of the Czech Republic taking over the six-month NATO air patrol rotation in the Baltic skies over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – five minutes flight from Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg – a Czech official boasted "The area we are protecting is about three times larger than that of the Czech Republic. This is a NATO outpost."
Lithuanian Air Force Commander Arturas Leita announced that "the Baltic countries would probably ask for the prolongation of the air force mission within NATO until 2018." [23]
From June 8-16 Sweden will host a NATO drill, Loyal Arrow, described as "biggest air force drill ever in the Finnish-Swedish Bothnian Bay," [24], also not far from St. Petersburg, with a British aircraft carrier and more than 50 fighter jets participating.
That exercise will begin exactly a week after the US-led NATO Cooperative Lancer 09 war games end in Georgia on Russia's southern flank.
In speaking of the dangers of the last-named but with equal application to all that has preceded it, the South Ossetian Ministry for Press and Mass Media website recently quoted political scientist Irina Kadzhaev as warning:
"Today the situation is much more serious than before August 2008. The then threat endangered only South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but after Russia's recognition of these states' independence and the conclusion of agreements envisaging the presence of Russian armed forces on their territories, a possible recurrence of war will not be limited to the Caucasus.
"The new President of the United States did not bring about any crucial changes in relation to Georgia, but having a dominant role in NATO he still insists on Georgia's soonest joining of the Alliance. If it happens, the world would face a more serious threat than the crises of the Cold War.
"Under the new realities, Georgia's war against South Ossetia may easily turn into NATO's war against Russia. This would be a third world war."[25]
1) Virginian-Pilot, May 13, 2009
2) Ibid
3) Global Security, May 12, 2009
4) Air Force Link, June 1, 2007
5) U.S. Department of Defense, November 12, 2008
6) Associated Press, May 5, 2009
7) Space Flight Now, May 5, 2009
8) Pratt & Whitney, May 5, 2009
9) Ducommun Incorporated, April 29, 2009
10) Russian Information Agency Novosti, May 7, 2009
11) Russia Today, May 5, 2009
12) Euronews, May 6, 2009
13) Navy News, April 30, 2009
14) Moscow News, May 11, 2009
15) National Radio Company of Ukraine, April 29, 2009
16) Air Force Link, August 2, 2005
17) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, July 24, 2006
18) Stars and Stripes, August 26, 2006
19) Air Force Link, August 17, 2006
20) Air Force Link, April 28, 2009
21) Indo-Asian News Service, November 26, 2007
22) Avionews (Italy), November 28, 2007
23) Czech News Agency, May 1, 2009
24) Barents Observer, May 7, 2009
25) Ministry for Press and Mass Media of the Republic of South Ossetia, April 27, 2009
Also See:
NATO War Games In Georgia: Threat Of New Caucasus War
Project 2012: Predictions Coming True? Nuclear War Begins Soon? Updated


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Hofgut Eiderbichl, Iffeldorf, Germany
An artificially created lake serving as a reservoir for fire protection, a biotope, and watering place for animals.Read more
Egerer private brewery, Germany
Preclarification of brewery wastewater from the Egerer private brewery before introduction into the community wastewater network. Clarification should take place in the existing round tank with a 12m diameter and a depth of max. 6.5m.Read more
Aeration at brewery in Germany
Aeration, biological treatment of processwater for a breweryRead more
Water treatment, Tyumen, Russia
In the Tyumen region in northern Russia, drinking water is obtained from groundwater. This requires treatment, since the groundwater is heavily polluted. The purification of groundwater using traditional technology is very energy-intensive and costly. This project was intended to reduce the time for maintenance and operating costs by using alternative technology.Read more
Pond aeration, Hanau, Germany
A stagnant body of water (pond) on business premises is to be revitalized using a Tsurumi submersible aerator.Read more
Waste Water Clarification at Campsite, Croatia
Establishment of a clarification treatment plant for a campsite on Krk IslandRead more
Primate enclosure, Augsburg Zoo, Germany
Aeration of the moat and operation of artificial stream in primate enclosureRead more
Iron depositing, Zwolle, Holland
Deposition of iron using a submersible aerator in Zwolle, HollandRead more
Sewage treatment, apartment building, Croatia
Construction of a new apartment buildingRead more
Sewage treatment, hotel complex, Croatia
Treatment of waste water from a hotel complex with a total capacity of 600 personsRead more
Treatment of abbatoir wastewater, Hungary
Treatment of discharge water from an abbatoirRead more
Feldhofe mud dump site, Germany
Treatment of surface discharge water before it enters the receiving water courseRead more


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Crochet Pattern: Sandwich CookiesBy Emilee Gettle – 11 Comments
|When I was a child I remember one afternoon, while I was taking my nap, my mom crocheted some play food for me. When I awoke there by my pillow was some sweet handmade goodies! Now it's my turn, and as soon as my little girl awakes from her nap she'll have these little cookies waiting for her. They are so easy to make and a lot of fun. You can whip up a batch in no time! Make a baker's dozen and give in a small tin to a little one in your life. Don't forget to take some for children on your baked good delivery route this holiday season!
|Skill Level:
Finished Size: 2 1/2″ (6 cm) in diameter
Brown Light Weight Yarn
White Brushed Boucle Yarn
Crochet Hook H (5.0 mm)
Brown Embroidery Floss
Round 1 in pattern measures 1/2″ (1 cm) in diameter.
Need help understanding the crochet abbreviations and symbols? Check out the crochet abbreviation chart.
Crochet Pattern: Sandwich Cookies
Make 2 brown and 1 white.
Round 1: Ch 4, sl st in first chain made to form a ring, ch 1, 10 sc in ring, sl st in top of beginning ch-1: 10 sc
Round 2-3: ch 1, 2 sc in each sc around, sl st in top of beginning ch-1
Finish off.
Sandwich creme between two chocolate layers and stitch together with embroidery floss.
If you need help, feel free to ask a question and I'll respond as soon as possible! Have fun and happy crocheting!


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How can I process continuous data without triggers?
Most of the FieldTrip documentation is written for a cognitive neuroscience audience, i.e. researchers that usually are performing experiments in which different stimuli are presented and where the subject performs different mental tasks.
However, you can also use FieldTrip for analyzing continuous data that does not contain any triggers. One way for processing continuous data is to read it as a single, very long data segment. That is done by skipping ft_definetrial and by calling ft_preprocessing like this
cfg = []; cfg.dataset = 'yourfile.ext'; ... % further specification of filter settings etc. data = ft_preprocessing(cfg);
This will give you a raw data structure containing all continuous data represented as a single, very long trial. You can plot it with
plot(data.time{1}, data.trial{1});
For some analyses, e.g. spectral power estimation, it is better to have the data in smaller chucks. You can segment the continuous data after reading it into Matlab using ft_redefinetrial or while reading it in using the following configuration:
cfg = []; cfg.dataset = 'yourfile.ext'; cfg.trialfun = 'ft_trialfun_general'; cfg.trialdef.triallength = 1; % in seconds cfg.trialdef.ntrials = inf; % i.e. the complete file cfg = ft_definetrial(cfg); % this creates 1-second data segments
... % further specification of filter settings etc. data = ft_preprocessing(cfg);
This uses the ft_trialfun_general function to segment the data. This function is included in FieldTrip, type help trialfun_general for more details.
An example for making overlapping segments
cfg = []; cfg.dataset = 'yourfile.ext'; hdr = ft_read_header(cfg.dataset); begsample = 1:256:hdr.nSamples; % slide with 256 samples endsample = begsample + 512 - 1; % the segment length is 512 samples offset = zeros(size(begsample)); cfg.trl = [begsample(:) endsample(:) offset(:)] sel = find(endsample>hdr.nSamples); cfg.trl(sel, :) = []; % remove the segments that are beyond the end of the file data = ft_preprocessing(cfg);


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We told you earlier about accused child rapist Jerry Sandusky's consulting pay from The Second Mile. But there are other revealing tidbits to be gleaned from the charity's tax records, such as who sits on its board. Consider Matt Millen, the ESPN analyst and former Nittany Lion who choked up on air the other day while talking about Sandusky's alleged crimes.
Millen is a member of Second Mile's honorary board, a fact he has disclosed "several times" on air, according to an ESPN spokesman. An honorary board position is usually a titular role for people who are willing to lend their names to an organization but don't want much involvement. Tax records, however, identify Millen as a member of the charity's state board of directors. It's an unpaid but significant role.
According to The Second Mile's bylaws, which were revised in November 2009, directors on the state board "create and approve policies," "adopt an annual fundraising plan," and "establish and enforce an appropriate set of bylaws governing the organization," among other things.
In the past few hours, The Second Mile has removed the lists of all its board members from its website. Until this afternoon, for instance, you could find the members of the honorary board on this page, which has since been pulled (screenshots are below). Millen's name appeared there alongside Mark Wahlberg's, Andy Reid's, and Arnold Palmer's. Cal Ripken and Lou Holtz recently asked The Second Mile to remove their names from the roster.
None of those names shows up in The Second Mile's tax returns—except Millen's. (If you're wondering if this is the Matt Millen, GuideStar, a nonprofit database, identifies The Second Mile's Matt Millen as an "ESPN Football Analyst.") Millen is identified as a director of The Second Mile on the IRS forms from 2009 and 2010, which pertain to tax years. The 2009 return, for example, covers a period from Sept. 1, 2008, to Aug. 31, 2009. Millen apparently held (or may still hold) a position of real importance at the charity. On the 2009 form, "director" is also the title listed for Jerry Sandusky. That's a distinction the ESPN analyst has failed to make clear to his audience.
UPDATE (4:50 p.m.): Millen and his wife gave The Second Mile at least $50,000 in 2010, according to the charity's 2010 annual report (image below). Has he told ESPN viewers? Unclear. [H/T Dan Fink]
UPDATE (6:09 p.m., November 14, 2011): We may have misread the donor category to which Millen and his wife belong. Upon further review, it looks like Matt and Patricia Millen gave between $10,000 and $19,999 to The Second Mile during the fiscal year 9/1/2009 through 8/31/2010. Apologies.


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Who won the biggest contracts of January 2012?
We count down the largest contract awards that hit the market in January.
From a couple billion-dollar plus awards to intelligence support to cloud computing, we covered a variety of contract awards in January.
We count down the 10 biggest contract awards that hit the market in January. To qualify for our countdown contracts need to be publicly announced during the month and covered by Washington Technology. Some of the contracts may have been awarded before January, but were not publicly disclosed until that month.
We covered 40 contracts worth $9.1 billion during January and the top 10 contracts accounted for nearly $8 billion of the total. Half of the contracts in the top 10 are single awards, including the largest, while the rest have multiple winners. One contract is under protest.
Without further ado, our contract countdown starts with No. 10.
10. ManTech wins $91M Navy task
ManTech International will provide communications technology and engineering services to support the Naval Air Center's research and development and other needs for the National Capital Region's fixed, deployable and mobile systems.
9. Planned Systems International takes on health codes worth $96M
The company will do systems analysis, code maintenance and administration for the Defense Health Services System. The work includes processes and methodologies for developing requirements, change controls and documentation.
8. Raytheon wins $179.5M Air Force award
Raytheon will provide contractor field services support for U-2 sensors, data links and the Air Force's distributed common ground system, an intelligence system.
7. Verizon captures $186M postal service network contract
Under this contract, Verizon is the prime on the Postal Service's Telecommunications Integrated Postal Service contract. The company will design, build and manage an Internet Protocol communications network for the Postal Service.
6. 7 win $250M Army cloud contract
This multiple-award contract will be used to provide cloud services to support the Army Program Executive Office – Enterprise Information Systems. The winners are:
Criterion Systems Inc.
General Dynamics Corp.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services
IBM Corp.
Lockheed Martin Corp.
MicroTech LLC
Northrop Grumman Corp.
5. 9 companies share $476M defense contract
The nine companies will compete for work under the Defense Department's Omnibus Network Enterprise contract. Services include systems engineering, information assurance and program management.
The nine winners are:
AT&T Technical Services Company
Booz Allen Hamilton
CACI Technologies Inc.
General Dynamics One Source LLC
Link Solutions Inc.
ManTech Information Systems and Technology Corp.
MorganFranklin Corp.
TASC Inc.
TWD & Associates Inc.
4. 5 win $900M anti-IED contract
Under this contract, the companies will provide support to combat improvised explosive devices. The winners are:
BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc.
Lockheed Martin Corp.
SRA International
Science Applications International Corp.
Wexford Group International
3. Trio wins FAA contracts topping nearly $400M
Human Solutions, Inc., SRA International Inc. and TASC Inc. have won contracts from the Federal Aviation Administration to support the systems that share information between air traffic controllers while planes are in flight.
2. 26 primes named to $1.9B Air Force support contract
Twenty-six companies and research entities have won prime spots on the Air Force's Design and Engineering Support Program (DESP III), a seven-year, task order contract that covers the acquisition of engineering and technical services.
The winners are:
Aerospace Engineering Spectrum
Arinc Engineering Services LLC
Battelle Memorial Institute
Booz Allen Hamilton
Dynamics Research Corp.
DRS C3 & Aviation Co.
Global Consulting International Inc.
General Dynamics Information Technology
Gauss Management Research & Engineering
Hebco Inc.
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
Ki Ho Military Acquisition Consulting Inc.
Lockheed Martin Corp.
MI Support Services LP
Maden Tech Consulting
NCI Information Systems Inc.
Northrop Grumman Corp.
Science Applications International Corp.
Scientific Research Corp.
System Sustainment Alliance JV
Support Systems Associates Inc.
Standard Aero Redesign Services Inc.
Sumaria Systems Inc.
University of Dayton Research Institute
VSE Corp.
Wyle Laboratories Inc.
And the largest contract award announced in January is...
1. Lockheed wins $2B contract for South Pole project
The company will modernize technologies to transport scientists, staff and supplies to and from the Antarctic region to support the U.S. Antarctica research program.
It should be noted that this contract is currently under protest.
Lockheed will work with the National Science Foundation in the multi-year contract to install a cost-effective streamlined infrastructure for managing the three work stations and medical facilities, research vessels, construction projects and remote sites in and around Antarctica.


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U.S. nuclear outages back within five-year range
U.S. nuclear outages peaked above 27 gigawatts on April 16 due to the combination of seasonal refueling outages and several forced outages. U.S. nuclear reactor operators typically schedule refueling and maintenance outages for the spring and fall to help ensure that reactors are available to meet higher electric demand levels in the summer and winter.
Nuclear outages in 2011 were unusually high through the first half of the year and part of the fall due to the confluence of the refueling season and several forced outages, including outages resulting from weather events (such as tornadoes or flooding). Nuclear outages in late February and March 2012 were above the 2011 level because of a combination of refueling and forced outages in mid-to-late February and into March.
Some notable units in extended outage include:
- Southern California Edison's San Onofre Units 2 and 3 near San Diego, California, have both been offline since January 31 as a precaution after a steam generator tube leak on Unit 3 and the discovery of excessive wear in the Unit 2 steam generators. Initially, Unit 2 was brought offline for a refueling outage on January 9 and has remained offline while repairs are conducted.
- Pacific Gas and Electric's Diablo Canyon Unit 1 near Avila Beach, California was shut down April 23 for refueling and maintenance. Diablo Canyon Unit 2 was taken offline on April 27 due to an influx of sea salp, a small jellyfish-like organism, in the water intake but has since returned to 100% power output.
- Progress Energy Florida's Crystal River Unit 3 has been offline since September 2009 to repair the reactor containment. After evaluating whether the unit should be repaired, Progress announced it will spend $0.9 billion to $1.3 billion to bring the unit back online in 2014.
- Omaha Public Power District's (OPPD) Fort Calhoun reactor initially went offline on April 10, 2011 due to flooding on the Missouri River and has remained down while the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspects the plant. OPPD recently presented an Integrated Performance Improvement Plan in response to the flooding.
Tags: capacity, electricity, generating capacity, nuclear, outages


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President Obama was supposed to be all about hope and change.
But after almost four years he's squeezed the hope out of most of us.
A new Rasmussen poll is the latest proof that the only hope of getting out of our economic ditch is to fire the hopeless guy in the White House who keeps digging it deeper.
Since early 2009 Rasmussen has been asking two questions that serve as a good barometer of what people think about both our present and our future.
The first question is: "Will today's children be better off than their parents?"
The answers from late July are as depressing as the latest GDP numbers. Only 14 percent of adults told Rasmussen they expect today's children to be better off than their parents. Meanwhile, 65 percent said they think our children will be worse off.
In 2009 those numbers already were nothing to brag about -- 27 percent and 47 percent. But the trend under Obama is clear and grim. The only bright spot is that the poll numbers are so bad they can't get much worse.
The other question Rasmussen asked is: "Is it still possible for just about anyone in America to work hard and get rich?"
Amazingly, given the Obama administration's relentless propaganda assault on the rich and successful, 28 percent of Americans told Rasmussen they still believe it can be done.
Working hard and creating wealth by providing things or services people want or need is as American as Steve Jobs, Bruce Springsteen and Mitt Romney.
Millions have done it. It's part of the American Dream. It's something the president should be publicly encouraging and cheering, not punishing and scolding or demeaning.
Unlike Barack Obama, my father knew this. Speaking to the 1984 Republican National Convention, Ronald Reagan said that what had made America the greatest country in the world was still true:
"The poet called Miss Liberty's torch the 'lamp beside the golden door.' Well, that was the entrance to America, and it still is. And now you really know why we're here tonight.
"The glistening hope of that lamp is still ours. Every promise, every opportunity is still golden in this land. And through that golden door our children can walk into tomorrow with the knowledge that no one can be denied the promise that is America.
"Her heart is full; her door is still golden, her future bright. She has arms big enough to comfort and strong enough to support, for the strength in her arms is the strength of her people. She will carry on in the '80s unafraid, unashamed, and unsurpassed.
"In this springtime of hope, some lights seem eternal; America's is."
My father did his best to make sure that America's lamp of hope and promise burned brightly. He knew America's strength was in its founding principles and its people, not its government.
He knew if he kept taxes low, regulations rare and America strong, the future would be even brighter for future generations.
Four years ago no one expected Barack Obama -- a community organizer with no understanding or appreciation of what it takes to succeed in the private sector -- to think or act like Ronald Reagan.
But it's too bad for the country that Mr. Obama didn't behave more like one of his favorite rich men, John F. Kennedy. Kennedy, for all his faults, knew that the best way to assure a better future for our children was by lowering taxes, making the country strong and believing in the greatness and goodness of America.
Hope and change had little to do with it.