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We're thrilled to announce the return of GamesBeat Next, hosted in San Francisco this October, where we will explore the theme of "Playing the Edge." Apply to speak here and learn more about sponsorship opportunities here. At the event, we will also announce 25 top game startups as the 2024 Game Changers. Apply or nominate today!
If you're reading this, there's a good chance you're still stuffing your face with leftovers, preparing to do so, or regretting that fifth helping of turkey with all the fixins. Even diligent weight watchers let themselves go during holiday feasts — so what better time to look at the next generation of fitness tech?
Over the past week, I've had a chance to test out Fitbit's One, its third-generation activity tracker, and Jawbone's redesigned Up health wristband. I went from not tracking my activity at all to constantly wearing two of the most advanced health tracking devices available. The result: Lots of data … and constantly feeling like a lazy bum.
Sure, I've dreamed of living a healthier life, but you know how it goes — work, chores, and sheer laziness inevitably get in the way. The promise of these fitness gadgets is that they'll point out just how terrible your daily habits are, and with the power of data, they'll force you to be move more, eat better, and get more sleep.
Both the Up and One can track your steps, sleep habits, and give you an estimate of calories you've burned. The One clips onto your clothes, just like its predecessors, while the Up is meant to be worn all day on your wrist.
No matter how you do it, simply tracking your activity has health benefits: People who do so generally increase their activity by 26 percent, according to the American Medical Association. Even if you don't have a strict diet plan and a trainer at the gym, fitness data can make you healthier.
In comparing the Jawbone Up and Fitbit One, I definitely settled on a favorite. But I also learned that these devices are extremely personal — what works best for me may not end up working for you. But at least you now have a number of mature fitness gadgets to choose from.
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Jawbone's Up: You can trust it this time
Let's not mince words. The original Jawbone Up was a failure. Released in November, 2011, the Up sported a slick Yves Behar design and came from one of the most trusted names in gadgets. But a month after launch, Jawbone was forced to suspend production of the Up and offer full refunds due to issues with its electronics.
Instead of giving up, Jawbone went back to the drawing board to figure out exactly what went wrong. It turns out building a flexible, wearable computer was harder than Jawbone anticipated. Now, after 2.9 million hours of user testing and the development of 28 new manufacturing processes, Jawbone has relaunched the Up. And even though it looks the same as the old Up, this new Up is a completely different beast internally.
One quick glance at the two Up models laid bare is enough to tell you which one is better built. The new model features a strong coating around the Up's internal electronics, and it also seals together with the Up's rubber exterior to keep water out.
According to Travis Bogard, Jawbone's vice president of product management and strategy, water damage was one of the biggest problems the company faced with the first Up. Jawbone went through all of the usual industry standards for testing, but once the Up failures started rolling in, the company quickly realized it needed to come up with rigorous new testing standards of its own.
Now Jawbone is confident the Up will withstand whatever consumers throw at it. But you'll have to pay a bit more for this model: It's retailing for $130, instead of the $100 last year's model cost. For now, the Up is only compatible with iOS devices. The company says it's working on an Android app but hasn't said when it will be available.
I've been using the new Up wristband almost non-stop over the past week. It's survived showers, pouring rain, and several instances where I forgot to take it off before messy cooking situations. Perhaps due to its more solid internal construction, it also feels more flexible and comfortable than last year's model. That's particularly important, since it's meant to be a device you never take off — even while sleeping.
The Up is a bit too thick to hide completely, but with its bright color options you may not want to hide it. And it's light enough that you can easily forget you're wearing it. Jawbone claims the Up has 10 days of battery life, and it's performance over the last seven days I've been wearing it seems to confirm that figure.
The good: Strong design, revamped app
Design still holds up: I immediately lusted after last year's Up model the moment I saw it — chalk that up to a simple, yet elegant design that makes it seem like a piece of cyberpunk jewelry, not just a gadget. Jawbone didn't change anything with the new model's design, and I can't blame it. One year later, I'm still drawn to the Up in a visceral way.
Vastly improved mobile app: The original Up iPhone app released last year was fairly basic — it showed the number of steps you took and your sleep performance and offered you a way to track what you ate. But there wasn't much of a social component, and the food tracking was mostly manual.
This time around, Jawbone's Up app finally feels complete. You can track what you eat (using the device's matching iPhone app) more easily with a massive database of foods and their nutritional information, and you can add friends to your "Team" to compare their performance. You can also track your mood through the app and log additional exercises like yoga and cardio workouts.
Best of all, the Up app now uses all the data it collects to generate useful insights about your behavior. If you don't get enough sleep while travelling, or if you tend to eat unhealthy lunches at work, Up will nudge you to be better.
Sleep tracking and silent alarm works wonders: Not much has changed when it comes to the way the new Up handles sleep, but its ability to track the quality of your sleep and wake you up gently is still worth mentioning. The wristband can figure out how much light and deep sleep you've had, as well as how long it took you to fall asleep once getting to bed.
And since it knows how well you're sleeping, Up's silent alarm can pick the best time to wake you, so you get up feeling refreshed. It's the perfect solution for anyone who hates waking up to a blaring alarm in the morning.
The bad: Syncing is a pain
For all of the Up's whiz-bang technology, you still have to plug it into your phone's headphone jack to synchronize it, even though the FitBit One and Nike's FuelBand both offer wireless BlueTooth syncing. According to Jawbone's Bogard, the company still thinks wireless syncing has a ways to go. That's ironic, given that Jawbone made its name with its wireless Bluetooth headsets and wireless Jambox speakers.
Synchronizing the Up is a simple process, but it feels like an imperfection in an otherwise quality product. It's also a pain when it comes to making simple changes to the Up, like changing the time of its silent alarm or tweaking its activity reminder (which buzzes to keep you from sitting down for too long). It's not tough to get into the habit of syncing the Up twice a day, but plugging it in just to make a simple alarm clock change seriously diminishes its futuristic veneer.
You can be sure Jawbone is working to get wireless synchronization in future versions of the Up, but for now your only option is decidedly old-school. For some people, this may be reason enough to opt for another fitness gadget. But I've gotten used to the inconvenience — and it's also somewhat fun to see the stares from strangers when I plug my unassuming bracelet into my iPhone.
Fitbit's One: The pedometer, evolved
While Jawbone is a relative newcomer to fitness gadgets, Fitbit has been at this for a while now — and it shows. The company first showed off the Fitbit Classic in 2008. The Classic was widely praised for its compact clip-on design and its ability to track your steps and sleep. The Fitbit Ultra, released last year, added stair tracking, among many other new features.
With the Fitbit One, the company took all of its experience in this arena and crafted it into its most compelling device yet. It can synchronize wirelessly with your smartphone and has a smoother, pebble-like design. Instead of building the clip directly into the device, the One includes a small, removable clip "jacket" — a helpful addition, since it prevents the device itself from getting damaged if the clip gets caught in your clothing.
There's nothing truly revolutionary about the Fitbit One, but that's mainly because the company has done such a good job of establishing itself as a fitness leader with its past few devices. It's hard to blame Fitbit for not pushing the envelope a bit more when it's already done so pretty significantly several times. With wireless syncing and a strong ecosystem, the Fitbit One could be the ideal device for fitness gadget newcomers and addicts alike.
The Good: Almost everything
Secretly geeky: The Fitbit One may not be as flashy as Jawbone's Up, but it's perfect for people who don't want to flaunt their fitness tracking. In my week using the One, I appreciated how unobtrusive it was — you can clip it onto your jeans and easily forget it's there.
Data strong: It was nice to get access to my Fitbit data from the company's extensive online dashboard (Jawbone's Up relies entirely on its mobile app, for now). The site gives you many more ways to look at your data without fishing through a mobile app.
Easy synchronization: Where the Jawbone Up is annoying to sync, the Fitbit One is a dream. The device can wirelessly synchronize with Bluetooth 4.0-compatible iPhones and Android smartphones, as well as with computers through Bluetooth. Fitbit includes a Bluetooth USB receiver, just in case you have an ancient computer.
Useful ecosystem: Fitbit's $130 Aria Wi-Fi scale can help you, and seven other people in your household, easily keep track of your weight. And the $60 Fitbit Zip is a good option for keeping track of your kids' health — it can track their steps and distance traveled, but not sleep or stairs climbed.
The Bad: Competitors are more exciting
As great as the Fitbit One is, it lacks the striking appeal of Jawbone's Up and Nike's FuelBand. In the end, it's the evolution of a device that's been around for several years, instead of something that feels new and fresh. (Just compare Fitbit's functional, but slightly boring app, to Up's and Fuelband's.)
This may not mean much when assessing its quality, but when it comes to convincing lazy consumers that they need to keep track of their health, it certainly helps to appeal to them on a more visceral level.
Up vs One
After using both fitness gadgets for the past week, it's the Up that I'm most excited to use every day. Sure, the manual syncing is annoying, but I love its gorgeous design and colorful app. Most of all, I appreciate how it makes a simple statement — the future of technology isn't just about what we've got in our pockets, it's about what's right up against our skin.
The Up feels like the precursor to the inevitable rise of body augmentation — you don't have to wear the Up for too long before it feels like a part of you. The up has a strange and almost ineffable pull on me as a gadget geek and someone who appreciates artistic technology.
For the pragmatic types, Fitbit's One may be more your style. It offers better access to your fitness data, as well as a few more helpful features. It's also the best fitness gadget option for people who just hate wearing things on their wrists (that's a bigger group than you may think).
Summing up: A wealth of choices
Even if you vehemently disagree with my preferred fitness gadget (as a reviewer, I'm used to this), the beauty of the current marketplace is that there's a choice for just about everyone. Beyond the Up and Fitbit's devices, there's Nike's popular Fuelband, and smart pedometers like Striiv's. And if you have a smartphone, you don't even need an additional gadget: You can dive into fitness apps like Runkeeper and Endomondo.
When it comes to fitness gadgets, reviews may not be enough. You may have to try a few before you figure out what works best for you. But no matter what you choose, it's hard to go wrong. I have friends who've lost a significant amount of weight using all of the above options.
What's important is that you find something that helps you get off your butt — and constantly reminds you to be better.
Jawbone and Fitbit provided VentureBeat with units for review.
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subset: commoncrawl


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This story was originally published May 31, 2013. Once again, two U.S. teams, the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning, are headed to the Stanley Cup finals.
The N.H.L.'s conference finals will begin on Saturday, and fans in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh can still dream of a Stanley Cup championship. But this year is an unhappy anniversary for America's northerly neighbor. It is 20 years since the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Los Angeles Kings to win the 1993 Stanley Cup; no Canadian team has won the championship since.
Just how unlikely has Canada's Stanley Cup drought been? And is there anything in the league's economics that might help to explain it?
The answer isn't simple, so let me give you the executive summary before we parse the details.
First, bad luck is a major component. Even after accounting for the fact that Canadian teams have rarely been among the league's best in recent years, you would still have expected Canada to pick up at least a couple of Stanley Cups at some point.
Second, the N.H.L.'s economic structure changed at an unfavorable time for Canada. During the first half of the 20-year drought, the league allowed teams to spend freely, but Canadian teams were hampered by the weak Canadian dollar. Since 2005, the Canadian dollar has recovered substantially, and Canadian teams are now turning large profits. But they are limited in their capacity to invest those profits in superior players because the league has instituted a hard salary cap.
Third, there is almost certainly a shortage of N.H.L. teams in Canada relative to the demand for hockey there and the revenues that Canada contributes to the league. Teams in nontraditional hockey markets like Raleigh, N.C., Tampa, Fla., and Anaheim, Calif., have won Stanley Cups since 1993, but without doing especially well financially. So have the Colorado Avalanche, who relocated from Quebec City in 1995-96. Had the distribution of N.H.L. teams more closely matched fan interest in the sport across the United States and Canada, Canada would have more teams in the league and – very probably – at least one Stanley Cup championship.
Finally, and related to the excess demand for hockey in Canada, Canadian teams routinely sell out their arenas at high ticket prices — whether or not they are any good. This may reduce their incentive to compete.
The simplest way to conceive of the situation is to assume that each N.H.L. team begins with an equal chance of winning the championship and to estimate the odds of a Canadian team winning the Stanley Cup as a function of the number of Canadian teams in the league.
Eight of the 26 N.H.L. teams, or 31 percent, were from Canada in the 1993-94 season. The percentage fell to 20 (6 of 30 teams) by 2000-1, before increasing to 23 percent after the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg in 2011.
If a champion were randomly chosen from all N.H.L. teams active each season, the odds that a Canadian team would have won at least one Stanley Cup since 1993-94 are 99.2 percent. (This period comprises 19 seasons, excluding 2004-5 when the N.H.L. canceled its season because of a labor dispute.) That means the chance of Canada failing to have won a Stanley Cup is just 0.8 percent, yielding odds of about 125-to-1 against.
But it is naïve, of course, to assume that the Stanley Cup champion is chosen randomly. Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals, for example, aren't merely unlucky to have failed to reach the playoffs in 28 years: they have usually stunk. Perhaps the Canadian N.H.L. teams just haven't been very good either.
At first glance, the difference in competitiveness seems minor. Canadian teams have averaged 35.3 wins and 81.5 points per regular season over this period, compared with 36.7 wins and 84.4 points for the American teams. Canadian teams made the playoffs 54 percent of the time, compared with 56 percent for the United States-based clubs.
However, the Stanley Cup is not normally won by an average team that just sneaks into the playoffs — instead, it usually goes to one of the best teams in the league. Eleven of the 18 Stanley Cup champions since 1993-94 have been seeded No. 1 or No. 2 in their conference. And there has been a lack of elite Canadian teams; only 14 percent of the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds since 1993-94 have been from Canada.
A more exacting way to evaluate the odds is by estimating each team's chance of winning the Stanley Cup as a function of its playoff seed and its regular-season power rating. (Power ratings, in this case, are taken from hockey-reference.com's Simple Ratings System, which accounts for each team's goal differential and strength of schedule during the regular season.) We can accomplish this by means of a logistic regression analysis. The probabilities for each season are recalibrated such that the 16 teams that make the playoffs have exactly a 100 percent chance of winning the Stanley Cup, in total.
In the 1996-97 season, for instance, I estimate that the Canadian teams had just a 2.1 percent chance of winning the Stanley Cup on the basis of their regular-season performance. Three of the six Canadian teams made the playoffs that year — but all as No. 7 or No. 8 seeds, and none of them were much good.
In 15 of the past 19 N.H.L. seasons, in fact, the probability of a Canadian team winning the Stanley Cup, as calculated by this method, was lower than you would get if you drew from among all N.H.L. teams at random. Only twice — the Ottawa Senators in 2005-6, and the Vancouver Canucks in 2010-11 — did a Canadian team enter the playoffs as the best bet to win the Stanley Cup on the basis of regular-season performance.
You would still have expected a Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup sooner or later. The chance that at least one would do so was 97.5 percent, according to this method. Nonetheless, the lack of dominant Canadian teams has helped to make the 0-for-19 drought merely unlikely rather than almost impossible — raising the chance of the Canadian shutout to 2.5 percent from 0.8 percent. So it is worth asking why Canadian teams have rarely been among the N.H.L.'s elite.
Perhaps Canadian teams are competing on an unlevel playing field? Among the seven current Canadian N.H.L. teams, the median television market is 1.7 million people. By contrast, the median American team competes in a television market with 5.4 million people.
Professional hockey, however, has an extremely regional following: it is extraordinarily popular in almost all of Canada, reasonably popular in parts of the northeastern and midwestern United States, and quite obscure elsewhere in the United States. These differences more than make up fo
r the smaller size of Canadian markets. In fact, the typical Canadian team has considerably more N.H.L. fans in its market than the typical United States team does.
In 2011, I estimated the number of fans for each N.C.A.A. football team by comparing Google search traffic for the term "college football" in different media markets. We can do the same thing for hockey by evaluating the number of people who searched for the term "N.H.L."
On a per-capita basis, searches for the term "N.H.L." were more than seven times as common in Canada as in the United States. Although the United States population is about nine times larger than Canada's, this makes up for a lot of the difference.
How many N.H.L. fans are there in each country? A 2010 YouGov poll estimated that 11 percent of American adults were serious N.H.L. fans; a 2007 Scarborough Research study, using a stricter definition that was limited to the most avid fans, put the total at just 4 percent. Using the midpoint of those two surveys yields an estimate that 7.5 percent of Americans are N.H.L. fanatics, or about 23.5 million Americans among a population of 314 million.
The frequency of Google searches in Canada for "N.H.L." implies that about 54 percent of Canadians are serious N.H.L. fans, or about 18.5 million people in a country of 34.5 million.
In other words, the two countries are reasonably close in their number of N.H.L. fans, despite the United States' vastly larger population. I estimate that Canada accounts for something like 45 percent of the N.H.L. interest between the two countries. (The N.H.L., incidentally, makes about 40 percent of its national television licensing fees from Canadian networks — and the percentage is likely to increase after the league negotiates new Canadian TV contracts.)
If N.H.L. teams were distributed between the countries in proportion to fan interest, Canada would have something like 12 to 14 teams out of a 30-team N.H.L. Instead, Canada has seven teams. This undersupply means that the Canadian N.H.L. teams have larger numbers of fans, on average.
In the chart below, I have used the Google search data to estimate the proportion of people in various United States and Canadian media markets who are serious N.H.L. fans. (The method uses Google search data at the metro-area level for the United States and at the provincial level for Canada as metro-level data is unavailable for Canada.)
The results demonstrate how much difference hockey avidity can make. Compare the cities of Los Angeles, Boston and Calgary. There are about 17 million people in the Los Angeles media market, 6.2 million in Boston's and 1.6 million in Calgary's. Based on their Google search traffic, however, I estimate that only 6 percent of the population in Los Angeles are serious N.H.L. fans, compared with 17 percent in Boston (high by United States standards) and 67 percent in Calgary (high even by Canadian standards). As a result, the three markets are roughly equivalent on hockey terms: each has about 1.1 million serious N.H.L. fans.
Another astonishing result can be obtained by comparing Houston and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan — two markets that are occasionally mentioned as possible sites for N.H.L. expansion teams. Houston's media market has about six million people, compared with not quite 340,000 for Saskatoon. However, I estimate that only 2 percent of Houston residents are serious N.H.L. fans, versus 46 percent of the population in Saskatoon. Thus, they are roughly equal at about 150,000 N.H.L. fans each.
Accounting for the far greater propensity of Canadians to follow hockey, the median Canadian team plays in a market with about 1.1 million N.H.L. fans, while the median United States team plays in a market with about 530,000 fans.
The American cities that have had their hockey teams for a long time generally place well above the United States median, however. Of the United States-based markets that had an N.H.L. team continually since 1990, all but St. Louis have at least 500,000 fans.
So a couple of decades ago, there was a nice balance in the N.H.L. between American cities with large populations but moderate hockey interest, and Canadian cities with moderate populations but intense hockey interest. There were a few outlying cases — Los Angeles has very low hockey interest but a very large population, while Buffalo has a modest population but levels of hockey affinity that approach Canadian levels. These teams functioned well enough, and no team was dragging down the average that much. The American markets that the N.H.L. has ventured into since 1990 have only about 250,000 hockey fans on average, however.
These differences in hockey interest have a profound effect on each team's bottom line. In the chart below, I have compared the number of hockey fans in each market against their estimated operating profit or loss in 2011-12, according to Forbes magazine. (For the markets with multiple hockey teams, I have divided the fans as follows: in New York, 55 percent of the market to the Rangers, 25 percent to the New Jersey Devils and 20 percent to the Islanders; and in Los Angeles, two-thirds to the Kings and one-third to the Anaheim Ducks. These estimates are derived by evaluating the number of Google searches for the team names among the residents in each metropolitan area.)
This measure of hockey fans does a very good job of predicting each team's profitability. The 13 teams with 700,000 or more N.H.L. fans in their markets all made money and totaled $357 million in operating profits. The six teams in markets with fewer than 300,000 fans all lost money, totaling $77 million in operating losses. The teams between 300,000 and 700,000 fans had varied results but roughly broke even, on average. (This is the range in which a quality of a team's management matters, along with other factors like per-capita income in the region and a team's appeal outside its immediate metropolitan area.)
Six of the seven Canadian teams are above the 700,000-fan threshold (and therefore made money). So did Winnipeg, with roughly 560,000 fans. In total, Canadian teams brought in $219 million in operating profits in 2011-12 — whereas the American teams made a net of just $31 million. (Outside of the highly profitable Rangers, in fact, the United States-based teams lost money that year.)
So why have the Canadian teams struggled to win Stanley Cups?
Part of it stems from the same reason that operating profits are so closely tied to the number of N.H.L. fans in each team's media market. N.H.L. teams vary greatly in how man
y fans they have available to them. But under the league's current collective bargaining agreement, there is relatively little revenue sharing. There is a hard salary cap, however, along with a high salary floor, so each team's player expenditures are about the same.
The good news for the Canadian teams is that, with nothing else to spend them on, those extra revenues flow through straight through to the bottom line. The bad news is that they could not spend them by investing in better player talent, even if they wanted to.
Before the lost season of 2004-5, the N.H.L.'s economics were different: there was no salary cap. But something else was different as well: the Canadian dollar had been historically weak against the American dollar. Thus, the Canadian teams could not take full advantage of the excess demand for hockey in the country.
In the next chart, I have estimated per-game ticket revenues for American and Canadian N.H.L. teams since 1995. Ticket revenues are calculated as per-game attendance during the regular season, multiplied by average ticket prices as reported by Team Marketing Report. (Since 2003, Team Marketing Report has designated a portion of tickets in each arena as premium seats; I assume that 20 percent of ticket sales are priced at premium levels.) All figures are denominated in current (inflation-adjusted) United States dollars. The chart also shows how much revenue the Canadian teams would have brought in had the American and Canadian dollars been trading roughly at parity throughout the period, as they have been recently.
Per-game ticket revenues for the Canadian teams lagged somewhat behind the United States teams from 1995 through 1999. This was mostly because of the weak Canadian dollar; the Canadian teams would have run even with or slightly ahead of the American teams otherwise. From 2000 through 2003, the American and Canadian teams made about the same amount of money from a typical game despite a still fairly weak Canadian dollar. Since then, the Canadian dollar has strengthened, and Canadian teams have moved considerably ahead of the American teams: the average Canadian team now makes about 50 percent more than the average American team on a per-game basis. However, it is during this period that the N.H.L.'s salary cap has been in place.
But even if the Canadian teams cannot spend their extra revenues on better player talent, this does not fully explain why they have been underachieving in the Stanley Cup and not at least winning their fair share of championships.
Much of the reason, I must emphasize again, boils down to bad luck. Canadian teams have reached the Stanley Cup finals five times in the 19 seasons since 1992-93 but have come up short on each occasion, including in four cases where the series went to the seven-game maximum.
One other factor, however, may be that there is so much excess demand for hockey in Canada that the Canadian franchises do not have to field especially strong teams to sell out their stadiums or to make a considerable profit. In the next chart, I have compared the per-game ticket revenues for each team in the 2012-13 season against the number of points they tallied between this season and the last one.
For the United States teams, there is an imperfect but reasonably clear and statistically significant relationship between on-ice success and ticket revenues. There are lots of fair-weather American hockey fans, and they may not turn out unless their team is pretty good. In Canada, there is less competition from other sports, and there are many die-hard hockey fans who attend games almost no matter what. Consider, for instance, that the Toronto Maple Leafs increased their average ticket prices from about $75 (in inflation-adjusted United States dollars) in 2005-6 to $140 this season (or from about $85 to $140 in inflation-adjusted Canadian dollars) — despite never qualifying for the playoffs in the interim. They have almost always sold out their stadium anyway.
These results can be generalized across other seasons. I ran a regression analysis that estimates per-game ticket revenues as a function of the number of hockey fans in a given media market, the number of points that a team averaged between the current season and the previous one, and a time trend. (Point totals are adjusted relative to the league-average number of points to correct for seasons shortened by labor disputes and changes to N.H.L. rules; the number of fans is expressed as a natural logarithm.)
For American teams, an additional regular-season win (worth 2 points in the standings) yields about $10,600 in extra ticket revenues per game, or roughly $430,000 over a full regular season. For Canadian teams, the marginal value of an additional regular-season win is about $1,400 per game (or $60,000 per season), which is not statistically or practically significant.
So the Canadian N.H.L. teams may suffer from a version of the problem that the Chicago Cubs faced during the "bleacher bum" years. Their fans are so loyal — happy enough to turn out for the spectacle and the beer even if the team stinks — that the franchises don't have all that much incentive to put out a competitive product.
Whether this has actually translated into complacency or mismanagement is harder to demonstrate. Even if N.H.L. teams are constrained in how much they can spend directly on player salaries, they could make other expenditures that should eventually translate into on-ice success — for example, by investing more in scouting and development. The Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens and the Vancouver Canucks each employ 20 or more scouts, according to their Web sites — well above the N.H.L. average of about 15. So there is some evidence that they are making a good-faith effort to produce a quality team. (I wouldn't want to slander any professional sports franchise by comparing it with the Chicago Cubs.)
Nevertheless, a strong case can be made that these teams could stand some additional competition from N.H.L. franchises in their media markets and elsewhere in Canada.
I estimate, for instance, that there are five million N.H.L. fans in the greater Toronto region (which I define fairly liberally to include the outskirts of the Golden Horseshoe): about twice as many as in the New York metropolitan area, which has three N.H.L. teams. And Montreal and Vancouver are not far from New York in their number of N.H.L. fans.
Even acknowledging that additional N.H.L. teams in Toronto would not expect to draw as well as the Maple Leafs — just as the Islanders and the Devils do not have nearly as many fans as the Rangers —
; adding a second team in the Toronto area seems all but certain to produce another profitable N.H.L. franchise in a league where many teams are unable to break even. The new team would need to capture only about 14 percent of the Toronto market to reach the 700,000-fan threshold that seems to guarantee profitability in the N.H.L. A good case could also be made for a third Toronto-area team, along with second teams in Montreal and Vancouver.
At the other end of the fan-interest scale, it seems very difficult for N.H.L. teams with fewer than about 300,000 hockey fans in their media markets to turn a long-run profit under the league's current economic system. One might hold out hope that the newer hockey markets in the United States will grow to provide more revenue for their teams, but the evidence has not supported this conjecture so far. Per-game ticket revenues for United States teams in nontraditional media markets have grown at a rate of just 1.4 percent per year (inflation-adjusted) over the past 18 seasons, compared with 2.6 percent annually for traditional United States hockey markets and 4.2 percent annually for Canadian teams. These struggling United States teams hurt the Canadian teams both directly by diluting the share of Canadian teams in the league, and indirectly by compelling a salary cap structure that is meant to protect the struggling American teams (but which has yet to make most of them profitable).
My best guess is that the economically optimal distribution of N.H.L. franchises would look something like the schema in the chart below. This would include two new teams in the greater Toronto area, one new team in Montreal and one new team in Quebec City. In lieu of a second team in Vancouver, Seattle — a marginal hockey market but probably better than several United States cities that already have N.H.L. teams — would get a franchise in the hope that support might spill over into British Columbia and other parts of the Pacific Northwest. New York would retain its three N.H.L. teams as the Islanders sought to find success in Brooklyn, while Los Angeles (which has no more N.H.L. fans than Philadelphia or Boston and fewer than Vancouver or Montreal) would be shaved to one. The six United States markets with fewer than 300,000 N.H.L. fans would lose their teams.
This would yield a league with 11 Canadian franchises out of 28 — just shy of 40 percent — a level that comes much closer to the share of N.H.L. interest and revenues between among the two countries. And it would all but ensure that Canada's Stanley Cup drought ends sooner rather than later.


text:
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Cowboy Boots and Tutus
Dracen, unbeknownst to us, set his alarm clock on Christmas Eve for 4:30 a.m. but was sleeping so hard that it woke us up before it did him. Charlie sprang from the bed to see what was the matter and to shut down the obnoxious blaring and was coming back to bed...
But I, of course, couldn't leave it alone since the worry wart in me was kicked into overdrive and I just had to go check to make sure he was still breathing since he clearly was not fazed by the ruckus. So I followed suit by springing from the bed and dashing across the hall where I blew past Charlie and flung my hand toward the sleeping boy's forehead and he stirred which meant he was indeed still breathing so I was relieved but also realized that...Oh crap! I'd done it now!
We tried to tiptoe back to bed in hopes that he would go back to sleep but no longer had we nestled back in to complete our long winter's nap when we heard the feet hit the floor. He was up and he was headed to his brother's room to wake him up too. I think I had had about two hours of sleep at this point but I got up to join them in the dead of dark as they checked out their Christmas loot.
Charlie soon followed. Devin was the first to go back to bed followed by Charlie, me and Li'l Bit. Dracen was not having any part of going back to bed so he and Brisco Darling settled in on the couch with the remote. He was in it for the long haul because he didn't finally settle down until nearly midnight on Christmas Day.
Yesterday it was just the two of us here since Devin had left for his trip and Charlie had gone back to work and somehow the t.v. ended up on a marathon of that show about extreme couponing which was stressing me out immensely so I suggested we go to a movie later, perhaps The Adventures of Tintin. We watched the trailer and I thought he'd be all over seeing it but he insisted we watch the trailer of the Chipmunks movie and he was sold.
"But...but...this one is about a boy and his dog and...and, pirate ships! Hadn't you rather see it?"
His response was, "I like bright movies."
And how could I argue with that? Alvin and the Chipwrecked Chipmunks it would be.
After Charlie got home, I told Dracen to go take a shower and get ready for the movie. He wore jeans, his new cowboys boots that Santa came through on, his new flannel shirt and was packing his survival tool and new iPod touch (that Santa also came through on) in his pockets. But one very important thing was missing...that pocket watch Santa brought (that Santa is a mighty good man). He had left it at his Momaw and Popaw's house the day before and informed me that we just had to go get it before the movie.
Of course we obliged because duh, everyone knows a cowboy boot wearing man must have a good pocket watch in order to go see a very bright film about singing chipmunks...
Everyone also knows that every good little Dachshund needs her very own dress complete with a pink tutu. Thanks, Santa! I know that one was for me. ;)
11 comments:
Happy to see you and yours had a nice Christmas.ReplyDelete
I'm feeling sorry for the poor Puppy. LOL
It sounds like Santa came through big time!ReplyDelete
I'm lovin' the pink tutu! I really want a miniature dachshund....I just have to convince my husband ;) Grandma came through on cowboy boots for my son...he walks around just like Woody from Toy Story - it's pretty hilarious. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!ReplyDelete
We were also up at 4AM doing the gift thing. This was after they woke me up at 230 and I said not until 4AM.ReplyDelete
I went back to bed afterwards, and they let me, because they all knew what was good for them. :)
And... singing chipmunks? I've been avoiding the movies like the plague until that is out of the theatres. God love ya. :)
The dog looks thrilledReplyDelete
What a little stinker!!ReplyDelete
I'm so glad that my kid can't set an alarm. His internal one is already set for TOO EARLY.
We are actually taking him to see Alvin and the "Chicken punks" as he calls them tomorrow. This will be his first movie at the theater. I'm super excited about it.
Yes, I only wish Santa would come get the credit card bills he left at my house. LOL!ReplyDelete
My son totally LOVED The Adventures of Tin Tin, btw. For me, it was just ah-ight. I'm not much of an Indiana Jones-meets-Johnny-Quest kind of girl any way.
Sounds like yall had a great Christmas. Happy holidays!
We saw WE Bought a Zoo... good, but VERY emotional for a single parent and NOT the kids movie we thought it was... YIKES!ReplyDelete
Lol your Dachshund is so cute in her tutu.ReplyDelete
I've spent far too many Christmases opening presents in the dark! When the kids get older, you'll get to sleep in again, I promise!ReplyDelete
Was the Itouch a part of his survival kit?ReplyDelete
I've already told 2 of my kids they can't touch their DS or Itouch, again, until they get permission!
We got up about 8 and had to get it together to go to church. My Julia was baptized by her daddy:) So precious!


text:
BISMARCK, ND—Three months ago, Mark Sennis received the news that everyone dreads: Ben Murphy, a friend and coworker with whom he "occasionally went out to lunch," had been diagnosed with cancer.
"You never think you're going to be the one," Sennis said. "At first, I remember thinking, 'How can this be happening to me? What have I done to deserve to have a friend with cancer?'"
Sennis, who has known Murphy since they started working in the same department at Motorola in 2003, said having a friend with cancer is "a life-altering experience."
"People ask me how I'm doing, and I say, 'I'm scared and I'm angry,'" Sennis said. "Unless you've personally experienced the pain and hardship that comes with having a coworker you're fairly close to get cancer, you wouldn't understand."
Sennis said that, while it initially seemed like "life had come to an end," he "made the decision to keep living."
"One thing I've learned in all this is that life goes on," Sennis said. "Well, maybe not for Ben. But for me. The only thing I can do is take it one day at a time."
Sennis said he doesn't want people feeling sorry for him.
"A lot of my friends start to say 'I have a friend who's just been fired,' or 'I have a friend who tore a tendon,'" Sennis said. "Then, they realize that I have a friend with cancer, and they get quiet, like they think they can't discuss their problems with me anymore. I just want people to treat me like normal."
Sennis said he wishes he'd appreciated the good times he enjoyed with his friends before he got the news.
"You never understand what you have until your friend's cancer takes it away," Sennis said. "Like, I used to complain about having to go to Wednesday Wings with the guys from sales, but last week we had to cancel because Ben was getting a bone-marrow biopsy, so I sat at home alone all night."
"It was a pretty depressing picture," he added.
Sennis said chemotherapy has been particularly hard for him.
"Ever since the chemo started, it's been a whole other story," Sennis said. "I had to spend a good part of my Sunday hanging out in the waiting room last week. I was so exhausted I could barely move."
"Just try finding something decent to eat out there," Sennis added. "I ate a sandwich from the hospital deli, and the bread was, like, Wonderbread, and the turkey tasted terrible, like it was day-old or something."
Sennis said that, ironically, the presence of Murphy's family made the situation more difficult." I'm going through an emotional time," Sennis said. "Ben's entire family was the last thing I needed at the hospital. Do you realize how hard it is to talk to people you don't know at all?"
Sennis added: "The hardest part was talking to Ben's girlfriend. I never liked her, but because of Ben, I had to go through these awkward conversations. 'How many more chemo sessions does Ben have?' 'Is Ben keeping down his food?' It was really hard."
Sennis said his struggle has made him reconsider his relationship with God.
"I wonder why God would do this to me," Sennis said. "It's like God is punishing me for something by giving cancer to a friend of mine."
Due to the adversity he has faced, Sennis said he has had to take special care of himself.
"I don't consider giving up an option," Sennis said. "So, for the past two months, twice a week, I've been treating myself to a massage. It's expensive, but it's the least I can do for myself as I go through this really tough time."
Added Sennis: "I'm not going to let Ben's cancer beat me."


text:
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At the end of any voting day the Steuben County Board of Elections will only accept calls from poll site inspectors and coordinators. Unofficial but accurate voting results for every election district will be available on our website as soon as they are received by our election-day personnel.
Please remember to click on the refresh button on your web browser to update your screen.
The Board of Elections needs to keep the phone lines open for our Election Inspectors and Technicians. Calling the office will only hinder our efforts to provide fast accurate results online after the polls close.
Thank you.


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on January 27, 2014
on December 17, 2013
on November 5, 2010
by David Spark on February 14, 2009
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It is estimated this project will increase the tax rate by an average of $0.86 per $1,000 of assessed property valuation over the 20-year repayment term. The estimated debt for this project will increase the annual property tax for a home assessed at $150,000* by an average of $129.71 during this 20-year term ($10.81 per month). For a $300,000 home the increased average annual property tax over the 20-year term is estimated to be $259.41 annually ($21.62 per month).
The actual tax rate for this debt will vary year by year based on the final project cost repayment schedule for the bonds, fluctuations in interest rates based on market conditions, and Village growth rate.
Estimated Financing Plan Tax Impact
*Single-family home statistics in Weston (Per Village Assessment records as of 12/07/2020)
Average assessed value is $158,800. Median assessed value is $149,700
Show All Answers
The proposed construction will replace an outdated and unsuitable main building including the public works garage. It will replace a collection of cold storage outbuildings and allow all emergency response vehicles and equipment to be stored in a minimally heated space. There is no space in the current facility to create separation between the equipment bay and machinery for metal working such as welders, band saw, bearing press, lathe, etc. which are safety issues. Existing buildings have poor insulation, inadequate HVAC equipment, and poor security features, allowing for unrestricted and unauthorized access. Staff labor is redirected to building maintenance and emergency response is hampered by cramped conditions and time lost, particularly for winter operations. The proposed project will also combine park operations offices and equipment with other Village administration and equipment at one site.
The first Municipal Building(s) at 5500 Schofield Avenue date back to 1956. As the Town and Village have grown over 60+ years, the main building, garage, and the site have been renovated and remodeled about every 10 years. More recently the Village has struggled to meet changing needs for technology, energy efficiency, and building security. The Village retained Kueny Architects of Pleasant Prairie, WI, in 2015 to conduct a condition assessment of the Municipal Buildings at all sites including Public Safety and Parks. Kueny's recommendation was to REPLACE the existing administrative offices and public works garages, combining also with parks administration, at a central site. Major points include:
2016 Presentation
2018 Presentation
Consider that Weston is the second largest municipality in Marathon County with a current population of just over 15,000 expected to increase to over 22,000 by 2040, representing half of the expected growth in Marathon County over the next 20 years. A modern facility to serve the next generation…and beyond…is needed.
Yes. The Village, with assistance from its architects and engineers, determined renovation of the existing buildings and site could be considered, but renovation would not resolve spatial issues and ADA accessibility issues throughout the building. Spatial issues include locations, layout, and security of offices for the present and for future needs. ADA accessibility issues apply to restrooms and to other areas of the building. Other challenges are the condition of the current electrical system, heating and ventilation deficiencies, and undersized plumbing. (See "Facilities Evaluation" page)
The current estimated project cost is $16.6 M. The building itself accounts for $14.4 M of this cost. The land purchase, which was not in the original project estimates, accounts for $1.0M of the total project. The balance of $1.2 M is in site preparation, shop equipment, architect's fees, furniture, and contingencies.
Building costs change over time. The original estimate was made 4 years ago. The construction industry uses a tool called the RS Means Index to monitor building cost fluctuations over time. According to the RS Means Index, a building project estimated at $12.5 M in July of 2016 would now be approximately $14.4 M in January of 2020. The Village also purchased the new property on Camp Phillips Rd in the spring of 2020, adding $ 1 M to the project total.
This project is one of many the Village needs to consider as it plans for continuing to provide services to the taxpayers. The condition of our facilities impacts our delivery of services and ultimately the value of your property.
If the building project is not done there certainly would be less money borrowed in total for capital projects – those that replace deteriorated assets like buildings, streets, bridges, sidewalks, etc. However, it is not realistic to think these assets will not require replacement over time (just as a homeowner must replace things like their roof, driveway, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, or other parts of their property that have a finite useful life). Deferring a project does not eliminate the need, it only kicks the can down the road and makes it more costly in the future.
So, the answer to the question is, sure, the Village portion of property taxes for debt would remain lower for some time, but the need for a new facility does not go away and future Village residents will pay more.
As the Village and the architect proceeded with the preliminary design on the current site, it became apparent construction on the existing site would leave no room for future expansion. Rather than attempt to acquire additional property adjacent to the current site that was not for sale, the Village observed the former G&B Produce site at 4707 Camp Phillips Road was on the market and purchased the property. The new site gives the Village 13 acres for a building project vs. only about 8 acres at the current site and is still centrally located.
Another benefit of having a new site is having no interruption of day-to-day operations during construction. If building were to take place on the existing site, public works would have lost its garages and mechanic bays during the construction and would have had to temporarily locate at the Ryan Street yard waste site. This would have required additional cost for improvements to the garage at Ryan Street as a temporary base of operations for Public Works and created operational inefficiencies during the construction.
The existing site and buildings will eventually be sold. That could be in their "as-is" condition or with the buildings demolished and the site prepared for a new development.
Comparison is under construction.
Energy saving and conservation capabilities have improved greatly over the past 60 years. A new building will include cost-effective technologies for HVAC along with modern controls and insulation, for the Village's situation. Modern (LED) lighting systems and controls will contribute to a much more energy efficient building.
With unknown developments for the future of alternative energies, the building design will include provisions to add solar collectors either at the time of construction or later. A major hurdle to overcome with solar power is finding a cost-effective method of storing the generated electricity.
Sustainable Design Upgrades to be incorporated in the new building include:
•Roof Ready for Solar Panels - Future
•Energy recovery units on ventilation equipment
•Super-insulation of building envelope
•Sun shading devices for occupied spaces
•Use of natural light
•High efficiency motors
•Minimize exterior heat absorption (high reflectance low emissive)
•Low E double glazed windows
•Daylight & Views
•Destratification fans
•Lighting controls (occupancy sensors)
•Daylight Harvesting
•High efficiency LED lighting
• Waste Oil Heaters
The Village must follow public bidding law for this project. This requires advertising for bids and award to the lowest responsible bidder. Qualified local companies will be given the same ability to bid as others from outside the area. A project such as this will be awarded to a general contractor who then, usually, hires other companies (sub-contractors) for specialty trade work such as plumbing, HVAC, electrical, site work, etc. The general contractor or any of the sub-contractors may well be locally based.
Restricting the ability to bid on the work to local contractors could increase project costs by limiting competition and is also not legal.
No. The Village is not required to hold a referendum since much of the purpose of this project is for public works.
Replacement of the current Municipal Facility at 5500 Schofield Avenue has been considered since 1999, just 3 years following the Village's incorporation. The original facilities were built at a time (1956) when the Village's population was under 3,000. Consider that Weston is now the second largest municipality in Marathon County with a current population of just over 15,000 expected to increase to over 22,000 by 2040, representing half of the expected growth in Marathon County over the next 20 years. The Village has outgrown its "home." A modern facility that can serve Village taxpayers effectively and efficiently for the next generation…and beyond…is needed.
The current facility creates inefficiencies in the use of taxpayer dollars such as:
The current building poses safety concerns in today's world where control of entry by non-employees and multiple exit options for occupants have become necessities.
Attempting to sink millions of dollars into the existing facility is not the answer.
There is a consensus opinion among the members of the Building Committee that a new facility is needed. On December 9, 2020, the Committee unanimously approved forwarding the recommendation to proceed with completing design of a new municipal facility to the Village Board. The design and bidding documents are to include some alternate bid items to consider upon opening of bids.
There are still details to determine and more public outreach to follow. The goal is to have a facility that allows Village staff to serve the taxpayers of the Village of Weston effectively by working more efficiently.
Building to Serve.


text:
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A bit about Open Social
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The Google Phone: The Story So Far, Some Launch Details & What's Next — The Wall Street Journal has been reporting on Google's mobile phone efforts and how it is beginning to draw some interest from carriers, especially in the United States. Sprint (S) and Verizon (VZ) are in talks with Google …
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Ben Worthen / Business Technology: The Gphone Is All About Mobile Software
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INTEGO SECURITY ALERT - October 31, 2007 — OSX.RSPlug.A Trojan Horse Changes Local DNS Settings to — Redirect to Malicious DNS Servers — Description: A malicious Trojan Horse has been found on several pornography web sites, claiming to install a video codec necessary to view free pornographic videos on Macs.
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Discussion: Bits and Digital Daily
Saul Hansell / Bits: Bye Bye Pampers: Google Is Fifth Most Valuable Company
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily: Google Guys to Pose for 'Obscene Wealth Weekly'
New York Magazine:
Trent Reznor and Saul Williams Discuss Their New Collaboration, Mourn OiNK — Spoken-word and hip-hop artist Saul Williams toured with Nine Inch Nails last year, and Trent Reznor liked him so much that he decided to produce his new album. The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust! …
Discussion: p2pnet, Consumerist, Techdirt, Profy.Com, Listening Post, P2P File Sharing and TorrentFreak
Mike Masnick / Techdirt: Trent Reznor Explains Why OiNK Was Cool
Paul Glazowski / Profy.Com: NIN's Trent Reznor Claims To Have Account At Torrent Site OiNK
Eliot Van Buskirk / Listening Post: Trent Reznor: OiNK Was Better Than ITunes
Ben Jones / TorrentFreak: What Waffles? The Hydra Lives On
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Nine Inch Nails Frontman Was a Member of OiNK
Nine Inch Nails Frontman Was a Member of OiNK
Discussion: CrunchGear and Valleywag
Vince Veneziani / CrunchGear: Trent Reznor used OiNK
Jordan Golson / Valleywag: Trent Reznor used shut-down music sharing site [Oink]
Brad Linder / Download Squad:
Is Google adding multi-protocol chat to Gmail? — It looks like Google may be planning some new Gmail features. Many users are already noticing a "newer version" of the Gmail interface with faster page loading and an expanded contact manager. But did you notice that you can choose …
Discussion: Google Operating System, CyberNet and Mashable!
Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System: Google to Connect to Other IM Networks Using Jabber Transports
Kristen Nicole / Mashable!: Gmail Rolls Out More New Features: IM Imports
Steve / CO-ED Magazine:
Facebook Music is Coming! — As reported earlier this year, Facebook has been rumored to announce an online music service to compete with iTunes and MySpace in the near future. — This just in: the "Facebook Music" platform will serve as the social networking giants first step into the music space.
Discussion: TechCrunch, Mashable!, Valleywag and hypebot
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch: More Facebook Music Rumors
Kristen Nicole / Mashable!: Fueling the Facebook Music Rumors
Jordan Golson / Valleywag: Facebook Music platform to launch next week? [Digital Music]
Bruce Houghton / hypebot: Facebook Music May Launch Next Week
David Goetzl / MediaPost Publications:
ESPN To Air NBA Games On TV, Web — IN THE LATEST EXAMPLE OF what could lead to so-called "cable bypass," ESPN's NBA games this season will be simulcast live on the Web. — And it's not just a few less appealing ones, but every game carried on ESPN and ESPN2, including the playoffs.
Discussion: last100, Mashable! and Lost Remote
Daniel Langendorf / last100: ESPN, TNT to stream live NBA games this season
Kristen Nicole / Mashable!: How Will Free ESPN Hurt the Cable Companies?
Cory Bergman / Lost Remote: ESPN to stream its NBA games live online
Kip Kniskern / LiveSide:
Messenger 9, GTalk integration, Messenger API, new client for Mac OS X - news unveiled at Georgia Tech presentation (whew) — In a presentation to the Georgia Institute of Technology's IEEE Student Branch yesterday, Microsoft employee and Georgia Tech graduate Andrew Jenks had some surprises in store.
Discussion: Mashable!
Kristen Nicole / Mashable!: Windows Live Messenger's Dual-Ended Approach to APIs
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Prosper Registers With SEC to Create a $500 Million Secondary Market in Peer-to-Peer Loans — One of the most disruptive startups in the financial industry is Prosper, a peer-to-peer lending marketplace. Since its launch in February, 2006, Prosper has attracted more than 450,000 members who have loaned $96.4 million to each other.
Discussion: Business Wire, Epicenter and VentureBeat


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Bates County Traffic Lawyers
Speedingticketkc.com's Traffic Attorney serves clients in the Circuit Court of Bates County in Butler. Our Bates County Traffic lawyers provide services related to speeding ticket and traffic related consultation and representation. If you have any outstanding traffic tickets, warrants, or past traffic tickets you want off your record; use the "get a quote" link on this page to give us some basic information about your situation
The information you submit is confidential, and we reply to all requests the same business day if submitted before 4pm cst. Requests received after 4pm are normally followed up on the next business day. For more immediate assistance, give us a call at 816-398-8772
Our price to handle standard traffic tickets is a flat $75 fee. Fees for other services may vary, but our rates are among the most competitive in the area.
Bates County TRAFFIC Lawyer
Speedingticketkc.com is a full-service traffic law firm with concentration in traffic law matters in Bates County Circuit Court. As a modern traffic law firm, we pride ourselves in our ability to solve all kinds of traffic violations. Many people consider traffic tickets minor legal infractions, but the truth is, the situation could be far more serious than that.
Whether it is basic traffic citations, warrants, speeding tickets, suspended license, DUI's, DWI's, or any other traffic violation, our Bates County traffic lawyer handle it conclusively. We have digitized our processes to allow our clients to solve basic traffic matters from the comfort of their homes.
Our Bates County traffic Attorney has extensive experience representing clients who are cited for various in traffic offenses in Bates County Circuit court. If you've been cited for any traffic violation, our Bates County traffic lawyer will be available to answer your questions and offer immediate assistance.
Benefits Of Hiring Our Bates County Traffic Lawyer
Save you the hassles
Our Bates County traffic Attorney will save you time, money and all the hassles associated with Bates County traffic tickets by representing you in Bates County Circuit court and negotiating with the Bates County prosecutor to ensure you get the best results possible. At Speedingticketkc.com, we employ a simple process in handling traffic matters .Our Bates County traffic lawyer will negotiate with the prosecution to amend a traffic citation to a non-moving violation.
Avoid higher insurance rates
Usually, having traffic violations on your driver's license drastically increases insurance premiums. For this reason, having al speeding ticket Attorney to defend you in Bates County Circuit court may save you from costly insurance rates. Our Bates County speeding ticket lawyer will convince the courts to reduce your traffic citation to a non-moving violation which won't raise your car insurance rates.
Keep Points Off Your License
A traffic ticket adds points to your driver's license. If you accumulate too many points, your license could be suspended or even revoked. You do not want to lose your driver's license as it comes with many consequences. Our Bates County traffic Attorney will defend you against the ticket and negotiate a plea to have it reduced to a non-moving violation and keep points off your license.
At Speedingticketkc.com, our traffic citation defense works in a very simple process. You can either call our speeding ticket lawyer or visit our website and click "Amend Your Ticket Today" . You'll be required to provide pertinent information about your citation. Our traffic Attorney will contact the prosecutor and negotiate for the best outcome. We will send you an email with pertinent information such as fine, court costs, link to pay, and an electronic contract which you can sign online with your device.
Our Bates County traffic lawyer will file on your case and set a court date(if necessary) and request a recommendation from the prosecutor. If the prosecutor accepts the offer you pay fine online or the firm pays it with a check. We will then send you a receipt to your email.
At Speedingticketkc.com, our Bates County traffic Attorney offers our clients utmost convenience in the following ways:
- Flexible and hassle-free mode of payment- You can pay in cash, or with your credit card, check, or money order.
- In most cases, clients do not have to appear in court.
- Clients can contact our speeding citation lawyer directly and avoid the inconvenience of having to visit the office.
- Most traffic matters can be resolved online, by phone or email.
- Flexible hours to contact our speeding ticket Attorney.
At Speedingticketkc.com, we offer legal representation at very competitive rates. Our Bates County speeding citation lawyer's fee for basic traffic tickets is $75. However, fees for other services may vary based on various factors. Furthermore, we treat your all your information with utmost confidentiality.
Contact us today for any kind of assistance or if you have any questions so our traffic Attorney can be of immediate assistance.
TRAFFIC TICKETS Handled By Speeding Ticket KC
Basic Traffic Tickets Handled for the $75 Flat Fee
- Speeding
- Less than 20 mph over the speed limit(certain exceptions apply)
- not in a school zone or construction zone
- No Insurance
- Stop Sign or Stop Light Violation
- Minimum Speed Limit
- Driving on Wrong Side of the Road
- Failure to Yield
- Lane Violation
- U-Turn violation
- Following to Close
- Improper Passing
- Various other tickets(contact us if yours is not listed)
All of the above tickets exclude any that involve a traffic accident
Traffic Tickets Handled AT A DIFFERENT RATE
- Speeding(over 19 MPH over)
- Driving While Suspended or Revoked
- Traffic Tickets Involving an Accident
- Careless and Imprudent Driving
- Driving Without a License
- Leaving the scene of an accident
- Eluding the Police
- Hit & Run
- Aggessive Driving
- Minor in Possession
- Various other tickets(contact us if yours is not listed)
For For More In Depth Criminal Matters, Visit Our Sister Firm Below
How Our Traffic Ticket Defense Works
Call or Click "Amend Your Ticket Today" and Inform us your ticket number and any other information relating to your ticket. If you are under 21, tell me your age.
An email will be sent to you containing all pertinent information including an electronic contract(you can sign it online with your smartphone, tablet or computer), request for pertinent information, fine and court costs, and a link to pay.
I will file on your case and set a court date and request a recommendation from the prosecutor.
If the prosecutor accepts my offer you pay your fine online(KCMO Tickets only) or the firm pays it with a check. Receipt from jurisdiction is sent and your email.
Keep Insurance Rates Low
Insurance companies review your driving record to see if you have had traffic tickets when you apply for insurance. If you have traffic tickets on your license, they are known to raise your rates as much as 22% for over 3 years. This can cost you over a thousand dollars.
Do not waste your money on high insurance premiums. Let our speeding ticket attorney negotiate a plea to amend your traffic ticket to a non-moving violation
Do not waste your time going to court and trying to plea your case in front of a judge. Let our traffic lawyer do the work for you.
Speedingticketkc.com has a simple process. Quick and Easy. Our traffic attorney has you covered. Put the flashing lights behind you and move on with your life! Let our traffic lawyer contact the prosecutor and negotiate a plea to amend your traffic ticket to a non-moving violation!
Keep Points Off Your License
Missouri has a point system that keeps track of traffic tickets in Missouri. Speeding tickets are moving violations in Missouri and add points to your license. If you get too many points you can lose your license. These points last on your record for up to 3 years. Losing your license can be devastating to your personal and professional life. Do not let traffic tickets curtail your life. Let our traffic lawyer contact the prosecutor and negotiate a plea to amend your traffic ticket to a non-moving violation.
- No Court Appearance (in most cases),
- No Office Visit,
- Flexible Hours to Contact Our Traffic Lawyer
- Most Matters Can Be Handled By Phone or Email.
- Pay with Credit Card. Check, Cash or Money order.
Speedingticketkc is now handling misdemeanors, felonies, animal control tickets, driving while suspended, DUI's, and DWI's.
Contact us now to find out our flat rates on those criminal matters.
flat free
It is true, $75.00* is our traffic attorney's fee for basic traffic tickets. Examples of basic traffic tickets are: speeding under 19 mph over the limit, failure to have or produce insurance(but you have it now), stop sign or signal violation, turning violations, following too closely(non-accident), and several other 2-4 point violations.
Click here for a list of 2-4 point violations. Some Exceptions are made, contact our traffic lawyer to find out. More complex traffic tickets have different rates. Remember, the traffic lawyer's fee does not cover fines/court costs due to the court. Contact us for a detailed quote.
*on basic traffic tickets
TRAFFIC Lawyers SERVING Bates County AND BEYOND
Speedingticketkc.com is a modern traffic law firm in the digital age with an old fashioned personal touch by our Traffic Attorney.
Our electronic process allows you to handle your basic traffic matter without ever leaving home. But, you will always know our traffic lawyers are available to answer your questions by just making a call. Kansas City local traffic attorney Chris Simons handles your matter from beginning to end, giving each client his direct email and personal cell phone number.
Cities we serve: Adrian, Archie, Bates City, Belton, Blue Springs, Buckner, Butler, Cameron, Claycomo, Cleveland, Drexel, Fairview, Ferrelview, Gladstone, Grain Valley, Grandview, Greenwood, Houston Lake, Independence, Kansas City Missouri, Kearney, , Knob Noster, Lake Lotawana, Lake Tapawingo, Lake Waukomis, Lake Winnebago, Lawson, Lee's Summit, Liberty, North Kansas City, Oak Grove, Oakview, Parkville, Peculiar,, Platte City, Platte Woods, Plattsburg, Pleasant Hill, Raymore, Raytown, Riverside, Smithville, Sugar Creek, Tracy, Warrensberg, Weatherby lake, Weston,
Contact us if your ticket is not on this list so our traffic lawyer Missouri can be of assistance.
Statewide: Missouri Fine Collection Center, Missouri State Highway Patrol
Counties we serve: Bates County, Benton County, Caldwell County, Cass County, Chariton County, Christian County, Clay County, Clinton County, Cooper County, Daviess County, Dekalb County, Henry County, Holt County, Jackson County, Johnson County(MO), Livingston County, Nodaway County, Pettis County, Platte County, Ray County, Saline County, St. Clair County,
Contact us if your ticket is not on this list so our traffic lawyer Missouri can be of assistance.


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Osteoporosis is a disease that weakens the bones. Weakened bones are more likely to fracture (break). Osteoporosis affects men and women, but postmenopausal women are most at risk. To help prevent osteoporosis, you need to exercise and nourish your bones throughout your life.
The body builds the most bone during these years. That's why boys and girls need foods rich in calcium. They also need plenty of exercise. A healthy diet and exercise helps bones grow strong.
During young adulthood, bones become their strongest. This is called peak bone mass. The same habits that kept bones healthy in childhood help keep bone healthy in adulthood.
Bone mass declines slightly during these years. Your body makes just enough new bone to maintain peak bone mass. To keep your bones at their peak mass, be sure to exercise and get plenty of calcium.
Menopause is when a woman stops having monthly periods. After menopause, the body makes less estrogen (female hormone). This increases bone loss. At this point, treatment may be needed to reduce risk of fracture. Exercise and calcium can also help keep your bones strong.
In later years, both men and women need to take extra care of their bones. By this point, the body loses more bone than it makes. If too much bone is lost, you may be at risk for fractures. You can lessen bone loss by staying active and increasing your calcium intake. If you have osteoporosis, you can also learn ways to increase everyday safety.
Publication Source: U.S. Office of the Surgeon General
Online Source: U.S. Office of the Surgeon General
Date Last Reviewed: 2007-01-15T00:00:00-07:00
Date Last Modified: 2005-06-02T00:00:00-06:00
Awesome. Highly recommend. I drive 2 hours just to see doctor Miller and staff. Well worth the drive.
Always treated well at Dr Millers office Love her bedside manner and staff is always pleasant.
As always very nice great doctor and great staff.
Dr.Miller is a great doctor.


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Black Girl Walking
It was exactly two weeks ago today that I first heard of Renisha McBride. I read half the story—the 19-year-old African American girl, shot in the face by a 54-year-old white man, after she'd been in a car accident, walked down the road, and knocked on his door seeking help—and dutifully posted it to the hate crimes blog I manage.
The white man, Theodore Wafer, went unnamed at first, leaving Renisha the focus of the news, as her family waited and waited for criminal charges. "Half of her face is gone," Renisha's aunt Bernita Spinks said, a few days after the killing. "You know, we have to go and bury her and they're not even knowing if she's going to be able to have an open casket."
As a mother to a black child and a sister to three young black women, I was terrified by news of the death. Honestly, I initially couldn't read it all. I needed to take a brief break to focus on petitioning the court for full custody of my son and filing a permanent restraining order against a man who'd said that if I ever left him, he would come after me with a shotgun and shoot me in my face.
It took 13 days after the murder—only after grassroots protests, vigils, and social-media outrage—for the prosecution to agree to charge Theodore Wafer with second-degree murder, manslaughter, and possession of a firearm during a commission of a felony.
Even as I tried to distract myself, I kept thinking about Jonathan Farrell, Marissa Alexander, Aiyana Jones, Jordan Davis, and Trayvon Martin. It was Martin's murder that had inspired me to found my African American hate crimes blog. The names and faces had kept coming.
The fact that Renisha McBride's murder gained enough national attention to shame a conviction and arrest out of Detroit was due in large part to the efforts of committed activists like Yusef Shakur and the Detroit writer/filmmaker/activist dream hampton. "It's kind of unfathomable that we [had] to show up at the Dearborn Police Department ourselves, a hundred of us, and demand transparency, demand an arrest,"dream hampton said. "We're responsible for the discharge of our weapons, just as we're responsible for our vehicles."
Renisha McBride was only 19. She was bright, gifted, loving and loved. She could have been me. She could have been any one of my sisters. We have all been stranded, cell phone battery dead or dying, in need of strangers for help.
Most of the black women I know have assumed we'd be more likely to receive help in those situations than our black brothers would, even if that help came with tons of sexual harassment. We know far too well the depth of those bruises that never heal from sexual assault, sexual abuse, menacing, and rape by men close to us. But most of us had not conceived that for white men like Ted Wafer, blackness is inherently criminal and violent, even when written on the body of a black woman.
In the aftermath of Renisha McBride's death, I have heard people say it is reverse racist to draw attention to white on black crime when there is black on black crime and black on white crime. These people claim that Theodore Wafer had a right to shoot Renisha McBride because she knocked on his door an hour after her car accident. I'd love for these inquisitive souls to ask themselves why black perpetrators, regardless of the crime, regardless of gender, are disproportionately arrested and tried more that their white counterparts.
This coming Wednesday, I go to court to try to convince a judge to make my temporary restraining order permanent against a man who said that if I left him, he would hunt me down and shoot me in the face with guns that are his Constitutional right to own. I do not expect to succeed. California family law states that men who have abused their wives, girlfriends, or children still have rights to the child—including custody and visitation—and rarely allows restraining orders to prevent this.
Domestic violence law, like in many other things, protects the man and not the best interests of the woman or child. And I wonder, if this man eventually succeeds in carrying out his threats, will the discussion be, like it is with Renisha McBride's death, like it was with Trayvon Martin, what did Hope Wabuke do to deserve being shot dead? In the chest? In the back? In the face?
Will the police also decline to arrest the man who shoots me? Or, if I manage to defend myself with a warning shot, like Marissa Alexander, will I be arrested for doing so—separated from my 11-month-old baby who is so anxious when apart from me he cries uncontrollably for "My mom mom," until he's back in my arms?
Really, though, I wonder what I as a black woman can do, in America in 2013, to be seen not as the target of raced and gendered violence, but as a black woman worthy of respect, decency, and protection because of my race and gender, not in spite of my race and gender. What will it take for black women like me, like Marissa Alexander, and like Renisha McBride, to ever be treated and defended by the citizens of our country as innocent?
Hope Wabuke is a mom and writer who runs a communications company called The WriteSmiths. She writes for Ms. Magazine online, and is Director of Media & Communications for the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction. She is currently at work on a novel and a poetry collection about her family's escape from Idi Amin's Ugandan genocide. She blogs at hopeafteryoga.com and drivingwhenblack.com. You can follow her on Twitter@HopeWabuke.
[Image by Jim Cooke, photos via AP]


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I want to travel | inkperfect's Jagua 12cm x 7cm
I want to travel | inkperfect's Jagua 12cm x 7cm
Newest jagua tattoo technology - jagua semi-permanent tattoo sticker last up to 14 days.
Tattoo will develop within 12 to 24 hours. Apply only on clean and dry skin.
The effect is very much similar to Inkbox's stickers (we love inkbox) and we are constantly looking to launch a jagua version because:
♡ We want to simplify the application process (you only need water!)
♡ A more affordable option so tattoos lover can wear them daily!
♡ Skin-safe! Jagua is a natural ingredient derived from plants :))
Tattoo size:
Tattoo canvas is 12cm x 7cm, so actual tattoo will be smaller than 12cm x 7cm.
Commonly used as a:
- Wrist tattoo
- Neck tattoo
- Palm tattoo
- Sleeve tattoo
- Thigh tattoo
- Ankle tattoo
- Half-sleeve tattoo (use a few of them to create your half-sleeves)
- Full-sleeve tattoo (use multiple of them to create your full-sleeves)
Word tattoo
Floral tattoo
Collapsible content
How to use?
💧 All you need is water only!
⏳ Tattoo will develop within 36 hours.
1. Clean and dry your skin.
2. Remove the transparent flim.
3. Place tattoo face down on skin.
4. Wet the back of the tattoo thoroughly and press firmly for ~30 seconds.
5. Gently peel off the back paper and allow the tattoo to dry.
For Singapore:
> Free normal mail for orders below S$20.
> Free trackable mail for orders above S$20.
> Same day delivery option available at checkout page.


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Looking Back At Kobe Bryant's Failed Rap Career
If you're a rap or basketball fan who came of age in the early aughts, you missed the beginning -- and ending -- of Kobe Bryant's rap career. Yes, his rap career. In the late 90s, Kobe Bryant was signed to Sony and the label had big plans for him to become a breakout star, pairing him with producers like The Trackmasters, and keeping him in the company of artists like Nas, Noreaga and 50 Cent... R


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You are here
News Release
Monday, January 30, 2006
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Information New on NIHSeniorHealth
Information about the diagnosis and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has just been added to NIHSeniorHealth, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Web site designed especially for seniors. Consumers can log onto www.nihseniorhealth.gov to learn more about this slowly progressing lung disease, which is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, damages the lungs, making it difficult to breathe.
"Early detection and appropriate treatment of COPD can slow the progression of the disease and help improve quality of life and the way people live and work," says Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D., director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which developed the content for the COPD topic on the NIHSeniorHealth Web site. "There are many different types of treatment that can help people with chronic lung disease. The new COPD topic on NIHSeniorHealth is an excellent source of information that will benefit older adults at risk."
One of the fastest growing age groups using the Internet, older Americans increasingly turn to the World Wide Web for health information. In fact, 66 percent of "wired" seniors surf for health and medical information when they go online. NIHSeniorHealth is a joint effort of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The site is based on the latest research on cognition and aging. It features short, easy-to-read segments of information that can be accessed in a variety of formats, including various large-print type sizes, open-captioned videos, and even an audio version. Additional topics coming soon to the site include heart failure, falls and fractures, and clinical trials. The site links to MedlinePlus, NLM's premier, more detailed site for consumer health information.
The NIA leads the Federal effort supporting and conducting research on aging and the health and well-being of older people. The NLM, the world's largest library of the health sciences, creates and sponsors Web-based health information resources for the public and professionals. The NHLBI supports research in diseases of the heart, blood vessels, lung, and blood, and sleep disorders. All three are components of the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®


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Apr. 15, 2014
By Sophia Saifi and Paul Armstrong, CNN
Two brothers previously jailed for cannibalism and then released, have been arrested again after police discovered a child's severed head at their home in a remote village in northwest Pakistan.
Mohammed Arif Ali was arrested early Monday after neighbors alerted police to a "foul smell" coming from his house in the village of Kahawar Khan in the Bhakkar district of Punjab, district police chief Ameer Abdullah Khan told CNN Tuesday.
When they went to investigate, they discovered the decapitated head of an infant next to a burning stove. The head, which is now being examined at a hospital in the nearby village of Darya Khan, looked to be around five days old, Abdullah said
Arif Ali was arrested at the scene, while his brother, Mohammed Farman Ali, was apprehended by police hours later on the outskirts of their village.
Police said both men confessed to eating human flesh.
The brothers were released from prison last year after serving a two-year jail term for similar offenses — they admitted dismembering a woman's body they had stolen from a graveyard in Darya Khan where they lived at the time.
With no explicit law on cannibalism in Pakistan, the two men were convicted of desecrating a dead body and other public order offenses in a case that provoked widespread revulsion across Pakistan, according to CNN affiliate Geo TV.