text:
SSR 86-14c: SECTION 216(h)(2)(A) OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT (42 U.S.C. 416(h)(2)(A)) RELATIONSHIP -- CHILD BORN OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE -- INHERITANCE FROM FATHER -- ILLINOIS
20 CFR 404.354(b) and 404.355(a)
SSR 86-14c
Davis v. Heckler, 1A Unempl. Ins. Rep. (CCH) ¶ 16,146 (U.S.D.C. N.D., ILL. 1985)
- R applied for child's insurance benefits on behalf of her three children ont he deceased worker's earnings record. The evidence of record showed that the children were born out of wedlock and that the worker had died while domiciled in Illinois. At the hearing before the administrative law judge (ALJ). R testified that the worker had acknowledged his paternity of the children on numerous occasions to family and friends. Statements from several of these persons, most notably the worker's brothers, corroborated R's testimony. There was no conflicting evidence. An ALJ denied R's application based primarily on the absence of corroborating documentary evidence of paternity and evidence indicating that the worker had not lived with R and the children. On appeal, the district court noted that, under Illinois law, an illegitimate child may inherit from his natural father if "the decedent acknowledged paternity, and the acknowledgment is proved by clear and convincing evidence." Citing prior case law, the court found that, notwithstanding the absence of any written acknowledgement of paternity or proof that the worker had lived with R's children, the uncontradicted testimony provided by R and by several other persons was sufficient, under Illinois law, to establish that the worker had acknowledged his paternity of R's children. consequently, the district court held, in reversing the ALJ's decision, that R's children were entitled to child's insurance benefits on the worker's earnings record.
NORGLE, District Judge:
This matter is before the court on Plaintiff's, Lula B. Davis, motion and Defendant's, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services ("Secretary"), cross motion for summary judgment. Ms. Davis seeks judicial review of a final administrative decision of the Secretary's denial of her application for children's insurance benefits under the Social Security Act ("Act"), 42 U. S .C. §§ 402(d), 416(h). Because the Administrative Law Judge's ("ALJ") decision under section 416(h) and Ill. Rev. Stat. Ch. 110-½ § 2-2 is not supported by substantial evidence, that decision is reversed. The Secretary is ordered to pay the benefits to which the Davis children are entitled.
The facts in this case are adequately set out in the ALJ's decision. Tr. 18-21. Therefore, only the facts required by this decision will be discussed. Section 402(d) of the Act provides that an unmarried child of a person who dies fully or currently insured may be entitled to a surviving child's benefit if that child is under the age of 18 and was dependent at the time of the parent's death. Mathews v. Luca, 427 U.S. 495 (1976). To determine if an applicant is the child of a deceased insured the Secretary initially looks to the state law of intestate succession. Section 416(h)(2)(A) provides:
- In determining whether an applicant is the child or parent of a fully insured individual for purposes of this title, the Secretary shall apply such law as would be applied in determining the devolution of intestate personal property . . . by the courts of the State in which such insured individual was domiciled at the time of his death.
42 U.S.C. § 416(h)(2)(A). There is no dispute that Mr. Smith was domiciled in Illinois at the time of his death. The applicable provision of the Illinois Probate Act, therefore, is Ill. Rev. Stats. ch. 110-½ § 2-2. that section provides that an illegitimate child may inherit from his natural father if "the decedent acknowledged paternity, and the acknowledgement is proved by clear and convincing evidence." Under § 202, the term "acknowledgment" must be applied in its non-technical sense. Mezel v. Mobley, 21 Ill. 2d 20, 22, 170 N.E. 2d 595 (1960).
Prior to a discussion of the ALJ's decision in this matter we note that the Secretary's decision must be supported by substantial evidence. The Supreme Court has defined substantial evidence as "relevant evidence [that] a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion." Richardson v. Perales, 402 U.S. 399, 401 (1971). However, in arriving at a decision the ALJ is to consider all competent and probative evidence; he should not merely pick and choose from the evidence in order to support a particular conclusion. Whitney v. Schweicker, 695 F.2d 784, 788 (7th Cir. 1982).
[Uncontradicted Testimony]
In this case, the ALJ heard testimony from Ms. Davis that Mr. Smith was the father of the three children. Moreover, she testified that Mr. Smith acknowledged his relationship to the children on numerous occasions to family and friends. The record contains statements from several of these persons (most notably Mr. Smith's brothers) corroborating Ms. Davis' testimony. Additionally, the ALJ herd the testimony of one Willie Thompson, a neighbor and frequent visitor to the home of Ms. Davis, Mr. Smith and the children. Mr. Thompson testified that Mr. Smith acknowledged his relationship to the children "at least a half a dozen times" over the years of their friendship. Tr. at 52. There is no indication in the administrative record to contradict the above mentioned evidence. Instead, the ALJ's decision rests primarily on the absence of corroborating documentary evidence and various indications that Mr. Smith did not live with Ms. Davis and the children. Neither of these considerations is conclusive in a determination made under Ill. Rev. Stat. ch. 110-½ § 2-2. See Cooper v. Harris, 499 F.Supp. 266, 268 (N.D. Ill. 1980).
The Secretary contends the Illinois appellate court's decision in Morelli v. Battelli, 68 Ill. App. 3d 410, 386 N.E.2d 328 (1st Dist. 1979), controls this case. In Morelli, the plaintiff alleged he was the acknowledged illegitimate son of a decedent. He produced testimonial evidence to support his allegations. The decedent's estate, however, offered testimonial evidence which contradicted the plaintiff's witness. The appellate court affirmed the circuit court's resolution of the conflict in favor of the decedent's estate. The present case does not involve conflicting testimony. In fact, the only testimony in this case favors Ms. Davis. The facts in Cooper v. Harris, supra, are closer to those in the present case.
In Cooper, a child was denied benefits under the Act because the ALJ declined to give weight to oral testimony of the decedent's acknowledgment of paternity in the absence of the "appropriate document." Id. at 268. The "appropriate document" consisted of a statement signed by the decedent and later destroyed by fire in a government office. In the place of any documentary evidence the plaintiff offered her own testimony and that of relatives regarding the decedent's acknowledgment of paternity. After noting that proof of paternity under § 2-2 is not limited to written evidence, the court found the testimonial evidence overwhelming in establishing the decedent's paternity. Id. The Cooper court reached its decision under § 2-2 notwithstanding the absence of any written acknowledgment of paternity. Id. ("The secondary evidence [plaintiff] introduced more than satisfied the rule.")
Additionally, , in Larimore v. Chatterton, 64 Ill. App. 3d 470, 381 N.E.2d 76 (3d Dist. 1978), the appellate court held a decedent's paternity was established by clear and convincing evidence despite the fact that almost all of the evidence introduced by the Plaintiff was testimonial in nature. Id. at 142-43. There the Defendant did not offer conflicting testimonial evidence, but instead relied on the Plaintiff's failure to produce a formal birth certificate. In using the mother's testimony to support its holding, the court noted that she was in the best position to know the facts regarding her child's paternity. Id. at 141. Thus, in the present case, Ms. Davis' testimony was not subject to less weight merely because she failed to produce a formal birth certificate or similar documentary evidence.
Based on the foregoing analysis it was erroneous for the ALJ to find that Ms. Davis did not meet her burden under Ill. Rev. Stat. Ch. 110-½ § 2-2. Therefore, under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), the Secretary is ordered to pay the benefits to which Doris, Lean and Jerome Davis are entitled. Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment is granted and Defendant's cross motion for summary judgment is denied.


text:
Did you know that professional car transport companies can help you move your car between most major US cities including Bowmansville? Moving.com has helpful information on auto transport. We offer tons of other moving solutions for car transport such as information on closed vehicle shipping vs. open-air transport, plus information on what to do to prepare your vehicle before it gets loaded onto the transport truck. Check out our information, and don't forget to request your free quotes for car shipping rates.
People moving from one state to another are facing a hectic time in their lives. All their belongings must be packed, and their utilities must be turned on at their new home and turned off at the old place. In addition to these stresses, people moving long distances also must decide what the best car shipping method is for them. Moving.com can help people moving to Bowmansville find a reliable and trustworthy auto transport company that serves the local area. At Moving.com, users can find up to four free quotes from car shipping companies that serve the Bowmansville area. Simply choose the best car shipping rates from the provided quotes. All of these car shipping companies continually provide reliable service, customer satisfication, and are worthy of your trust. Let Moving.com and our extensive network of auto transport companies assist you with your car transportion needs during your move to Bowmansville, NY.
Many people are nervous about car shipping because they don't know how their cars will be transported to their new residence in Bowmansville. Auto transport happens all the time in many different ways; many people have more than one automobile. Some have a motorcycle and a car while others may have a truck and a motor home. If you're looking to move to the Bowmansville area and you are wondering how car transportation will work for you, you should investigate auto shipping at Moving.com. Moving.com will help you get a great quote on your vehicle shipping. Now when you move to Bowmansville, NY you can figure out the best car shipping rates by filling out our short form today.
|Income and Jobs

subset: commoncrawl


text:
"The overriding challenge for our generation is to build a new economy–one that is powered largely by renewable sources of energy, that has a much more diversified transport system, and that reuses and recycles everything." –Lester R. Brown, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
Chapter 2. Population Pressure: Land and Water: Water Tables Falling
Nowhere are falling water tables and the shrinkage of irrigated agriculture more dramatic than in Saudi Arabia, a country as water-poor as it is oil-rich. After the Arab oil export embargo in the 1970s, the Saudis realized they were vulnerable to a counter embargo on grain. To become self-sufficient in wheat, they developed a heavily subsidized irrigated agriculture based largely on pumping water from a deep fossil aquifer. 34
After being self-sufficient in wheat for over 20 years, in early 2008 the Saudis announced that, with their aquifer largely depleted, they would reduce their wheat planting by one eighth each year until 2016, when production will end. By then Saudi Arabia will be importing roughly 15 million tons of wheat, rice, corn, and barley for its population of 30 million. It is the first country to publicly project how aquifer depletion will shrink its grain harvest. 35
The Saudis are not alone. Scores of countries are overpumping aquifers as they struggle to satisfy their growing water needs. Most aquifers are replenishable but some are not. For example, when aquifers in India and the shallow aquifer under the North China Plain are depleted, the maximum rate of pumping will be automatically reduced to the rate of recharge.
But for fossil aquifers, like the Saudi aquifer, the vast Ogallala aquifer under the U.S. Great Plains, or the deep aquifer under the North China Plain, depletion brings pumping to an end. Farmers who lose their irrigation water have the option of returning to lower-yield dryland farming if rainfall permits. But in more arid regions, such as in the southwestern United States and parts of the Middle East, the loss of irrigation water means the end of agriculture. 36
In Yemen, a nation of 23 million people neighboring Saudi Arabia, the water table is falling by roughly 6 feet a year as water use outstrips aquifer recharge. With one of the world's fastest-growing populations and with water tables falling everywhere, Yemen is quickly becoming a hydrological basket case. Grain production has fallen by half over the last 35 years. By 2015, irrigated fields will be a rarity and the country will be importing virtually all of its grain. Living on borrowed water and borrowed time, Yemen ranks high on the list of failing states. 37
Falling water tables are already adversely affecting harvests in some larger countries, including China, which rivals the United States as the world's largest grain producer. A groundwater survey released in Beijing in August 2001 revealed that the water table under the North China Plain, an area that produces over half of the country's wheat and a third of its corn, was falling fast. Overpumping has largely depleted the shallow aquifer, forcing well drillers to turn to the region's deep aquifer, which is not replenishable. 38
The survey reported that under Hebei Province in the heart of the North China Plain, the average level of the deep aquifer was dropping nearly 3 meters (10 feet) per year. Around some cities in the province, it was falling twice as fast. He Qingcheng, head of the groundwater monitoring team, notes that as the deep aquifer is depleted, the region is losing its last water reserve—its only safety cushion. 39
A World Bank study indicates that China is mining underground water in three adjacent river basins in the north—those of the Hai, which flows through Beijing and Tianjin; the Yellow; and the Huai, the southern most of the three. Since it takes 1,000 tons of water to produce 1 ton of grain, the shortfall in the Hai basin of nearly 40 billion tons of water per year (1 ton equals 1 cubic meter) means that when the aquifer is depleted, the grain harvest will drop by 40 million tons and China will lose the food supply for 130 million of its people. 40
As serious as water shortages are in China, they are even more serious in India, where the margin between food consumption and survival is so precarious. To date, India's 100 million farmers have drilled more than 21 million wells, investing some $12 billion in wells and pumps. In August 2004 Fred Pearce reported in New Scientist that "half of India's traditional hand-dug wells and millions of shallower tube wells have already dried up, bringing a spate of suicides among those who rely on them. Electricity blackouts are reaching epidemic proportions in states where half of the electricity is used to pump water from depths of up to a kilometer." 41
As water tables fall, well drillers are using modified oil-drilling technology to reach water, going down a half mile or more in some locations. In communities where underground water sources have dried up entirely, all agriculture is now rain-fed and drinking water must be trucked in. Tushaar Shah, who heads the International Water Management Institute's groundwater station in Gujarat, says of India's water situation, "When the balloon bursts, untold anarchy will be the lot of rural India." 42
Growth in India's grain harvest, squeezed both by water scarcity and the loss of cropland to non-farm uses, has slowed since 2000. A 2005 World Bank study reports that 15 percent of India's food supply is produced by mining groundwater. Stated otherwise, 175 million Indians are fed with grain produced by water mining. 43
In the United States, the USDA reports that in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas—three leading grain-producing states—the underground water table has dropped by more than 30 meters (100 feet). As a result, wells have gone dry on thousands of farms in the southern Great Plains, forcing farmers to return to lower-yielding dryland farming. Although the depletion of underground water is taking a toll on U.S. grain production, irrigated land accounts for only one fifth of the U.S. grain harvest, compared with close to three fifths of the harvest in India and four fifths in China. 44
Pakistan, a country with 177 million people that is growing by 4 million per year, is also mining its underground water. In the Pakistani part of the fertile Punjab plain, the drop in water tables appears to be similar to that in India. Observation wells near the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi show a fall in the water table between 1982 and 2000 that ranges from 1 to nearly 2 meters a year. 45
In the province of Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan, water tables around the capital, Quetta, are falling by 3.5 meters per year—pointing to the day when the city will run out of water. Sardar Riaz A. Khan, former director of Pakistan's Arid Zone Research Institute in Quetta, reports that six of Balochistan's basins have exhausted their groundwater supplies, leaving their irrigated lands barren. 46
Iran is overpumping its aquifers by an average of 5 billion tons of water per year, the water equivalent of one fourth of its annual grain harvest. It too faces a day of reckoning. 47
Israel, even though it is a pioneer in raising irrigation water productivity, is depleting both of its principal aquifers—the coastal aquifer and the mountain aquifer that it shares with Palestinians. In response, Israel has banned the irrigation of wheat, its staple food, and is now importing nearly all the wheat it consumes. Conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians over the allocation of water are ongoing. 48
In Mexico—home to a population of 109 million that is projected to reach 129 million by 2050—the demand for water is outstripping supply. Mexico City's water problems are well known. Rural areas are also suffering. In the agricultural state of Guanajuato, the water table is falling by 2 meters or more a year. In the northwestern state of Sonora, farmers once pumped water from the Hermosillo aquifer at a depth of 10 meters (35 feet). Today they pump from more than 120 meters. At the national level, 51 percent of all water extraction is from aquifers that are being overpumped. 49
Since the overpumping of aquifers is occurring in many countries more or less simultaneously, the depletion of aquifers and the resulting harvest cutbacks could come at roughly the same time. And the accelerating depletion of aquifers means this day may come soon, creating potentially unmanageable food scarcity.
34. Craig S. Smith, "Saudis Worry as They Waste Their Scarce Water," New York Times, 26 January 2003.
35. Andrew England, "Saudis to Phase Out Wheat Production," Financial Times, 10 April 2008; USDA, op. cit. note 2; U.N. Population Division, op. cit. note 8.
36. Michael Ma, "Northern Cities Sinking as Water Table Falls," South China Morning Post, 11 August 2001; Smith, op. cit. note 34; John Opie, Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land, 2nd ed. (Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), p. 3.
37. U.N. Population Division, op. cit. note 8; USDA, op. cit. note 2; Christopher Ward, "Yemen's Water Crisis," based on a lecture to the British Yemeni Society in September 2000, July 2001; Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy, "The Failed States Index," Foreign Policy, July/August 2009, pp. 80–93.
38. Ma, op. cit. note 36; share of China's grain harvest from the North China Plain based on Hong Yang and Alexander Zehnder, "China's Regional Water Scarcity and Implications for Grain Supply and Trade," Environment and Planning A, vol. 33 (2001), and on National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical Yearbook 2008, electronic database, at www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2008/indexeh.htm, viewed 9 June 2009.
39. Ma, op. cit. note 36.
40. World Bank, China: Agenda for Water Sector Strategy for North China (Washington, DC: April 2001), pp. vii, xi; U.N. Population Division, op. cit. note 8; USDA, op. cit. note 2.
41. Number of farmers and well investment from Peter H. Gleick et al., The World's Water 2006–2007 (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2006), p. 148; number of wells and rate of aquifer depletion from Fred Pearce, "Asian Farmers Sucking the Continent Dry," New Scientist, 28 August 2004.
42. Pearce, op. cit. note 41.
43. USDA, op. cit. note 2; John Briscoe, India's Water Economy: Bracing for a Turbulent Future (New Delhi: World Bank, 2005); U.N. Population Division, op. cit. note 8.
44. USDA, Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators 2000 (Washington, DC: February 2000), Chapter 2.1, p. 6; irrigated share calculated from FAO, op. cit. note 3; harvest from USDA, op. cit. note 2; Sandra Postel, Pillar of Sand (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999), p. 77.
45. U.N. Population Division, op. cit. note 8; fall in water table from "Pakistan: Focus on Water Crisis," U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks News, 17 May 2002.
46. "Pakistan: Focus on Water Crisis," op. cit. note 45; Sardar Riaz A. Khan, "Declining Land Resource Base," Dawn (Pakistan), 27 September 2004.
47. Chenaran Agricultural Center, Ministry of Agriculture, according to Hamid Taravati, publisher, Iran, e-mail to author, 25 June 2002; USDA, op. cit. note 2.
48. Deborah Camiel, "Israel, Palestinian Water Resources Down the Drain," Reuters, 12 July 2000; USDA, op. cit. note 2; "Palestinian Water Crisis Deepens," BBC News, 20 April 2009.
49. U.N. Population Division, op. cit. note 8; Tushaar Shah et al., The Global Groundwater Situation: Overview of Opportunities and Challenges (Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute, 2000); Karin Kemper, "Groundwater Management in Mexico: Legal and Institutional Issues," in Salman M. A. Salman, ed., Groundwater: Legal and Policy Perspectives, Proceedings of a World Bank Seminar (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1999), p. 117; U.N. Development Programme, Human Development Report 2006 (Gordonsville, VA: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), p. 146.
Copyright © 2009 Earth Policy Institute


text:
Kirsti asks: "Hey y'all, have you ever seen anybody make a rainbow with a 12 gauge shotgun?" No Kirsti, we certainly have not. But we are about to see it in this video you made.
Meet Microsoft's New Surface Laptops
Yes, people. It's Monday and we already have the most absurd, stupidest video of the week. High five, everyone. [Neatorama]


text:
Our Health Library information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Please be advised that this information is made available to assist our patients to learn more about their health. Our providers may not see and/or treat all topics found herein.
Pregnancy and Epilepsy
Most of the time, people with epilepsy who become pregnant deliver healthy babies. But the risk of birth defects, stillbirth, and seizure-related problems is higher for babies born to someone with epilepsy. Most antiepileptic medicines increase the risk even more.
If you have epilepsy and become pregnant, stopping medicine treatment is not always the best solution. Having seizures during pregnancy can also harm the baby. And pregnancy causes changes in your body that may increase the frequency of seizures.
The following information is based on guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology.footnote 1,footnote 2
Before you become pregnant
Before you become pregnant, talk with your doctor about your epilepsy treatment. Seizures or seizure medicine may cause damage to the baby very early in your pregnancy, before you even know that you are pregnant. Your doctor will help you consider whether potential seizures or continued use of antiepileptic medicine poses the greater risk to your baby.
In general, the recommendation is to only use one medicine for epilepsy and to use it at the lowest possible dose to avoid potential problems from the medicine. Medicines may not harm a baby as much as seizures during pregnancy may.
If you are not yet pregnant but are planning to become pregnant, stopping medicine might be an option if you have been seizure-free for several years. Your doctor may suggest a trial run without the medicine before you become pregnant. Experts recommend that this trial run take place at least 6 months before the pregnancy so that you and your doctor can see the results of stopping your treatment. If you begin having seizures, you may need to go back on medicine.
While you are pregnant
If you need to stay on medicine during your pregnancy, your doctor may suggest some changes in your treatment that reduce the risk of birth defects. These changes may include:
- Switching to a medicine that is safer for the baby.
- Taking a single medicine.
- Changing the medicine dosage.
- Having blood tests to make sure you have the right levels of seizure medicine in your body.
- Taking folic acid or other supplements before you get pregnant and during your pregnancy. (Folic acid reduces the risk of some birth defects.)
You may put yourself and your baby at greater risk if you change, reduce, or stop taking your medicine while you are pregnant. Talk with your doctor first.
Other concerns
- During your pregnancy, you may need more frequent checkups to monitor the baby's condition and blood tests to monitor your drug levels.
- After birth, it's very important for your baby to get the routine vitamin K shot. (Some antiepileptic medicines can cause a temporary blood disorder in newborns that makes it hard for their blood to clot normally. Vitamin K can help reverse this problem.) Your doctor may recommend that you take vitamin K during your pregnancy.
- Breastfeeding while you are taking antiepileptic medicine is usually safe. But talk to your doctor about any concerns you have. If you are taking a barbiturate (such as phenobarbital) to control your seizures, breastfeeding may make the baby drowsy or irritable, because the drug may get into your breast milk.
If you have epilepsy and find out that you are pregnant, talk with your doctor right away. Do not stop taking your medicine without first talking to your doctor.
- Harden CL, et al. (2009). Practice parameter update: Management issues for women with epilepsy—Focus on pregnancy (an evidence-based review): Teratogenesis and perinatal outcomes: Report of the Quality Standards Subcommittee and Therapeutics and Technology Assessment Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Epilepsy Society. Neurology, 73(2): 133–141.
- Harden CL, et al. (2009). Practice parameter update: Management issues for women with epilepsy—Focus on pregnancy (an evidence-based review): Vitamin K, folic acid, blood levels, and breastfeeding: Report of the Quality Standards Subcommittee and Therapeutics and Technology Assessment Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology and American Epilepsy Society. Neurology, 73(2): 142–149.
Current as of: May 1, 2023
Author: Healthwise Staff
Clinical Review Board: All Healthwise education is reviewed by a team that includes physicians, nurses, advanced practitioners, registered dieticians, and other healthcare professionals.
Next Section:Related Information
Previous Section:Overview
Next Section:References
Previous Section:Related Information
Next Section:Credits
Previous Section:References
Current as of: May 1, 2023
Author: Healthwise Staff
Clinical Review Board: All Healthwise education is reviewed by a team that includes physicians, nurses, advanced practitioners, registered dieticians, and other healthcare professionals.
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Learn how we develop our content.
To learn more about Healthwise, visit Healthwise.org.
© 1995-2023 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


text:
Author: Geoff Johnson
Christmas with Beanie; a case of osteosarcoma
by Geoff Johnson
Beanie Sturgess, a 9year old entire greyhound x collie bitch, was referred to me on 1/10/07, three tenths lame with a diagnosis of osteosarcoma of the right fore. Examination confirmed a walnut sized bony swelling on the lateral aspect of the proximal humerus. Radiographies clearly showed osteolysis, new bone formation, and periosteal new bone formation, subsequently confirmed by Hamish Denny as an osteosarcoma. Beanie was on Flexicam for pain relief. The case carried of course a very bleak prognosis conventionally, leading the owner to seek homeopathy. The family wanted to see if they could have one more Christmas with Beanie.
In my consulting room, Beanie looked very gentle and lay motionless by the owner accepting strokes. She approached me only once in the hour consultation. When she moved, her lameness was obvious. Her character was described as faithful, submissive, lively, and playful.
Her history reveals the group of compounds from which the required homeopathic medicine is chosen. She was the first in the litter of pups to explore, bark and jump up, and was the most agile and the quickest learner. The mother only spent one night with the pups and afterwards only saw the pups to feed them, which she did standing up, before leaving to sleep elsewhere. The behaviour of the mother may have contributed to Beanie developing separation anxiety at five months. She still howls if left alone. She also became 'dependent for cuddles'. She is very perceptive, especially to the owners going away. She is sensitive to raised voices and reprimand. She fears thunder and storms, wishing to hide in a corner or sit with the owner; if the owner consoles her, she calms down. She is not bothered about hierarchy with other dogs and is neither dominant nor submissive. On a walk, she disappears, exploring everywhere. These facts suggest that the homeopathic medicine required is probably a compound containing phosphorus.
Beanie was brought up in the wilderness, in France, and had a stray dog companion with whom she would go roaming for long distances every night. She had complete freedom with her 'partner in crime', who would lead her away on these jaunts. In April '07, the Sturgess family returned to Somerset, leaving the stray behind. Beanie became depressed, seemed 'lost', with an air of 'what have I done wrong?' In July, Beanie vomited fresh blood. In August, she developed reverse sneezing which passed. In September, lameness developed on the right fore, with subsequent diagnosis of the tumour.
Based on the above information, and the knowledge of which medicines are effective for bone cancer, I prescribed an aqueous solution of Phosphorus 200c, 5ml tid.
The owners reported after a week that Beanie seemed more alert and had only vomited twice in seven days, which was unusual. The lameness was no better. I instructed them to continue with the Phosphorus 200c.
On the 12-11-07, Beanie was very happy and lively but had gone very lame. This coincided with the family moving house again. The tumour was getting bigger.
Because the lameness had worsened and the tumour grown, I thought that the remedy required by Beanie was either not Phosphorus or that the case was incurable. Beanie, however, seemed to the owners and to friends met out on dog walks, to be more happy and lively. This mental amelioration without physical improvement suggested that the required remedy was closely related to Phosphorus. This could mean elements adjacent to Phosphorus horizontally or vertically in the periodic table, or a compound of Phosphorus.
The worsening of the lameness when the owners moved house is reminiscent of the development of the tumour after the original move from France. The likely aetiology in Beanie's case is moving house and the stress that this entails. An investigation of the twelve medicines particularly useful, when ailments come on due to the specific stress of homesickness, reveals that the commonest one is Phosphoric acid. This is also known to be a major remedy to counter the effects of grief; leaving the stray dog behind in France.
I changed the prescription to Phosphoric acid 200c tid.
On 8-1-08, Mrs Sturgess reported that the lameness had decreased and Beanie was full of life. I advised that Phosphoric acid 200c was to be continued tid, alternating weekly with Carcinosin 200c tid. This alternating system was developed in India by Dr Ramakrishnan, who has successfully treated thousands of cases of cancer using homeopathy.
By April 2008, the bony lump had decreased in size and Beanie was not lame; she was weaned off the Flexicam. There was no pain or necessity for painkillers for 14 months, and the Phosphoric acid was continued.
In July 2009, 22 months after diagnosis, Beanie became lame again and did not respond to increased doses of Phosphoric acid. Even with amputation the median survival time for an osteosarcoma is 18-25 weeks (Denny – Guide to Canine and Feline Orthopaedic Surgery Third Edition). The lump started to grow and it was decided to avoid any potential suffering, so Beanie was put to sleep at the end of August.
They had all enjoyed two 'extra' Christmases.
NB: If readers would like to contact me for a more in depth reason for the choice of Phosphoric acid and the relevance of the history and Beanie's behaviour, they are welcome to do so.
A white greyhound puppy; Scott Robinson
Danish Christmas tree; Malene Thyssen
Keywords: osteosarcoma, homesickness, grief, separation anxiety, perceptive, sensitive to sounds, explorer
Remedies: Phosphoric acid, Phosphorus


text:
BookMusings: (Re)Discovering Pagan Literature
A lively discussion of ancient and modern Pagan literature -- including children's books, graphic novels, science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries -- along with interviews, author highlights, and profiles of Pagan publishers.
Addendum: On Book Review Etiquette
A few months back, I wrote a post about proper book review etiquette. Most of it was common sense stuff: be polite, be fair, point out the good aspects and the bad. Well, I apparently forgot one obvious point of etiquette:
Use the book review space to write an actual review.
It turns out -- and this never would have occurred to me -- that one does not actually have to write a review in the review box. No. It can be used instead to ... oh ... ask for dating advice. Look for a hook-up. Play a furry rpg. Rail against those with different political or religious beliefs.
No, I am not making this up. See Thea Harrison's latest release Falling Light. Mina Carter's Solar Storm. And there are hundreds, probably thousands, more examples.
Really? Really?!
If you need dating advice, ask in the appropriate venue. You know, like on a dating site. Or seek out an advice columnist. Or talk to your friends. Heck, see a therapist if you need to do so. Same goes for seeking out a hook-up. All those folks out there playing a furry rpg -- for crying out loud! Build your own website! Use live journal, Facebook, myspace, whatever.
If you are going to use the review space, write a flippin' review! Anything else ... well, it's just plain rude. Impolite. Annoying. Frustrating. Juvenile. And rude!
Grow up. Respect the authors who put so much work into their books and write an actual review; don't skew the rating by giving a book you've never read five stars and then writing a rant about a rival furry clan. Respect the other readers out there in search of honest reviews, that they might responsibly spend their time and money; do you have any idea how annoying it is to see a new book listing, see the dozen four and five star ratings -- only to discover that every single one of them is part of conversation about Susie Q wanting to hook-up with Johnny at the prom?
Yeah. Ugh.
Take your juvenile conversations; obsession with others' sex lives, religion, and politics; and your furry playacting someplace else and leave the book review sites to people who actually read books and want to talk about them.
Please login first in order for you to submit comments


text:
GoPro HD Hero 3 3+ Gooseneck Mount
Out of stock
Now Only $19.99 Regular Price $34.95
This bendable neck delivers versatile camera-angle adjustability, making it easy to capture a wide range of perspectives. Combine it with any GoPro mount that features a quick release base—including the Suction Cup, Jaws: Flex Clamp, Curved + Flat Adhesive Mounts and more—or use it on its own as a handheld camera grip. Multiple Goosenecks can be joined together for extended length and flexibility. Measures 8" (20.3cm).
- Delivers versatile camera-angle adjustability to capture a wide range of perspectives
- Can be attached to any GoPro mount that features a quick release base
- Doubles as an adjustable handheld camera grip
- Makes it possible to elevate the camera above the mounting surface to achieve a higher perspective
- Ideal for capturing hard-to-reach shots around corners or over obstacles
- Multiple Goosenecks can be joined together for longer reach and greater flexibility
- Measures 8" (20.3cm)
Write Your Own Review


text:
Lynx Bluetooth Wireless Speaker
Some of you are probably thinking, "But what if I want awesome wireless bluetooth speakers but I'm not a cat person?" Don't worry one bit! Despite the name, these don't actually include any real cats. So now others of you are probably thinking, "But I wanted the cat!" We're really sorry about that. You're the real victims here.
Ends on January 16 at 9AM CT


text:
I have a big and complicated time lapse film project on the horizon, and one of the new pieces of gear I recently picked up was an eMotimo TB3 Black robotic panoramic head.
I have created my fair share of time lapse films in the past. However, for this project I really wanted to step up my game by adding some killer dynamic time lapse sequences.
That is where the eMotimo TB3 comes in. The eMotimo TB3 is basically a robotic panoramic head that allows a time lapse film maker / photographer to make pan and tilt moves (two axis) while filming a time lapse photography sequence.
(The eMotimo TB3 head can also be added to a robotic dolly to produce pan, tilt and push / pull moves – three axis control.)
The resulting time lapse video sequences can be pretty mind boggling – and that sense of dynamic motion is exactly what I wanted to add to my work.


text:
148th Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance!
By glblguy
Welcome to the 148th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! I am beyond honored to be your host and had a great time reading through all of the excellent articles submitted. Let me tell you, being this is the first carnival I've ever posted, I had no idea how hard it was to pick the "editor's picks"! All the articles were so great!
Without further rambling from me, here are all of the carnival entries organized by category. As you read through the carnivals, you'll also receive a photo tour of my home state, North Carolina. I hope you enjoy it!
Glblguy's gathering of top picks
My favorite place to gather my family together is in the mountains of North Carolina, which make up the whole western side of the state. The picture above is a view from the Blueridge Parkway.
Now, here are my top picks:
- Blueprint for Financial Prosperity presents Curb Spending By Writing Goals on Credit Cards – Jim shares a great way to remember your financial goals by writing them on your credit or debit card. What a great and original idea. I also really like the idea that it may spur conversation with someone.
- Cash Money Life presents Spend $10. It's Worth It! – Patrick reminds us that it really is the little things in life that matter.
- I've Paid For This Twice Already… presents Sometimes It Is The Amount of Money You Make – So many personal finance articles focus on expense reduction. Paidtwice looks at it from a different perspective, by taking a look at increasing her income through alternative streams.
- Girls Just Wanna Have Funds presents Beneath the Iceberg: The Psychology of the Recession (and a silver lining) – Ginger not only helps you understand why some are feeling the way they do about the recession, but provides tips on how to survive and strengthen them while it's going on.
- Tales from the road less traveled presents Emotional Spending – Momma provides a really good and personal read that shows how hard it is to manage spending, especially when emotions are involved. Best part of the article is this quote: "We just resolve to do better next time and move on."
- Free Money Finance presents Stuck – FMF offers some help to a mother who feels like she is stuck working when she wants to be at home with her kids. Are you a parent who "feels like you can't afford to not work"? Read this article and realize you aren't stuck.
- My Family's Money presents Outsource To Your Kids Already! – Steward shares an interesting article that really made me think and even spurred some good discussion between my wife and I. At first I didn't like the idea, but then the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. For me, the key here is keeping it your childs choice.
There's lots to do in the NC Mountains, including visiting Cherokee, NC where there is an Indian reservation a zoo, and plenty of places to do a little river rafting.
- Consumerism Commentary presents If Monthly Budgets Don't Excite You, Try This – For those that aren't fans of monthly budgets, Flexo provides a possible alternative.
Or, you could visit Grandfather Mountain, home of the "mile high bridge".
- Pinching Copper presents Riding a bicycle to work – Seb shares all the great reasons you should consider riding your bike to work. Assuming you live close enough that is.
- Get Financially Fit! presents How
to reduce your risk of unemployment dramatically – Rio shows their is a relationship between education levels and the unemployment rate
My favorite place is Chimney Rock Park and Lake Lure (yes I've stood on top of the chimney)
- Taking Charge presents Presidential candidates have bad credit – Emily lets us know that that even the political candidates aren't immune to debt and credit issues. They even have reputations for not paying bills on time or at all.
- Smart Money Daily presents 5 Important Steps Towards Credit Repair – JS shares a 5 step guide to help you repair your credit. These are useful regardless of whether you fix it yourself or hire someone.
- FiveCentNickel presents Credit Card Bonus Offers: $1200 Worth of Deals! – nickel shares a list of credit card bonus deals. I'm not a fan of credit cards, but if you are, his list contains a bunch of bonus money!
- CreditAddict.com presents Are You Willing to Sell Your Credit Score? – Credit Addict sheds some light on what happens to your credit score when you apply for all of those credit card deals.
- Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog presents The 6 Best Credit Cards According To CNN Money – Raymond tells us about the credit cards that CNN Money selected as their top card choices by category.
- The Frugal Duchess presents 5 Tips for Improving Credit Scores – Sharon shares 5 tips to improve your credit score.
- Antishay Ventenne presents How to Have No Credit Cards, Protect Your Identity… and Be Safe – Shanti talks about the steps you need to live a debt free life after you've paid off all your credit cards. Excellent information.
Rather not hike? No problem, how about a nice leisurely drive on the Blueridge Parkway?
- My Debt Quest presents My Spiral
Into Debt – Jonathan shares a personal story about his journey into debt and then shares some basic principles for getting out of debt.
- The Simple Dollar presents How Big Should My Car Down Payment Be? – Trent provides a very comprehensive answer on how much of a down payment you should have when buying a car. There are a number of things you need to consider.
- American Consumer News presents 10 Warning Signs of Debt Disaster – Debbie provides 10 signs that you may be headed down a very troublesome path with debt.
- Discover Debt Freedom presents A Common Sense Way to Reduce Your Debt – Debt Freedom Fighter tells us how to reduce your debt the common sense way, stop going further in debt!
- Think Your Way To Wealth presents Should i stop contributing to my 401k to pay off debt? – RC answers the question and gives us a few things to consider.
Or visit Biltmore Estates, nestled in the mountain city of Asheville, NC
- Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Idling our way to $4 per gallon – mbhunter wonders why, with gas prices so high, people still leave their cars idling in parking lots?
Or maybe you are a city type. Visit Raleigh, the state capital.
- The Digerati Life presents How Money Challenges Prevent You From Building The Life You Love – You can't buy love, but "Focusing on wealth creation for the sake of our families will help us create just the life we're looking for, for ourselves and for those we love". Good stuff.
- Master Your Card presents Why America NEEDS a Recession – Jonathon asks Does America need a recession? That is the argument Jonathan makes and I think he might actually be onto something.
- The Wealth Accumulator presents Keeptrack of your financial progress – Enoch tells you what to keep track of, how often and how. Tracking your finances will not only keep you on track, but will make your progress visible.
Raleigh not big enough? How about Charlotte?
- Being Frugal presents When Times are tight: 168 Frugal Ways to Make Your Dollar Stretch – Lynnae shares a HUGE list of tips to reduce your expenses and help weather the recession.
- The Wisdom Journal presents 24 Signs You May Be A Mega Consumer – Wondering if you might be a "Mega Consumer"? Check out Ron's list and see.
- Money & Fitness Blog presents Netflix vs. Redbox: Which is the better DVD rental service? – Luke does a nice job comparing the two movie rental services. I'm a pretty avid Redbox fan, but may have to give Netflix a try after reading his review.
- Sense to Save presents Spend to save: Items that can save you money in the long run – Kacie shares a pretty comprehensive list of tihngs you can buy that might cost you in the short term, but will save you money in the long term.
- Kids Meal Crowd presents The Lesson of the $26 FREE DVD Rental – Danielle shares her story of how a $1 Redbox rental ended up costing her $26! 3 steps forward, 1 step back.
- Blunt Money presents Cleanup with
craigslist – bluntmoney provides some tips on how to clean-up your stuff with my favorite selling service, Craigslist.
- My Investing Blog presents Use your "gut" instinct when deciding who and when to tip – Hank presents some good advice here and the bottom line is if you're having food delivered, give a good tip!
While you're in Charlotte, check out some Nascar. The #24 shop is right across from the speedway.
- FIRE Finance presents Etrade's Quickplan – Personalized & Easy Retirement Planning! – A good introduction to ETrade's retirement planning tool, Quickplan.
- Dividends4Life presents Harvest the Fruit – Dividents4Life shares an interesting article that makes an analogy between dividend investing and mango trees. Plant and nuture your tree today.
- Amateur Asset Allocator presents Does Your Fund Company Put You First? – Kyle shares four ways you can tell if your fund company is putting you first.
- Moolanomy presents Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) – Pinyo goes into the details of Efficient Market Analysis. Make sure you read through the comment as well as there is some great discussion going on.
- Quest For Four Pillars presents Is Lending Club Bankrupt? – Four Pillars asks: Is LendingClub Bankrupt? Four Pillars speculates they are. I didn't think p2p was a good idea.
- Finance Viewpoint presents Investing 101 – Knowing when to sell a stock – Andy shares tips to help you know when the time is right to sell a stock. This is a really easy to understand but thorough article.
- Free From Broke presents Saving Money For College When Your Children Are Older – So you have teens and haven't started saving for college yet. What should you do? FMF gives you some thoughts and perspective.
- The Platinum Years Network presents Your Best Investment Posture? Benign Neglect – Bob shares a great story about a book he read and a lesson he learned about focusing on a macro view of economic conditions. Bob says "Do not get too close to the market!"
- Investing Adventures presents General Electric Fizzles – Market Retesting Lows? – Jorge wonders if GE's recent earnings miss is a sign of more downward direction for the market.
- Uncommon Cents presents $4,000 Now, Nothing Later: the Beauty of the Roth IRA – Ryan tells about the beauty of the Roth IRA. Now only a pf blogger would find an IRA beautiful!
- Canadian Capitalist presents Another Reason to Avoid Hedge Funds – Canadian Capitalist does some reasearch into hedge fund compensation and finds that it is difficult for investors to tell the smart managers apart from unskilled ones.
- Everyday Finance presents Vulture Investing with the Pros – Dan discusses an opportunistic investing method for the current market environment."
- The Dividend Guy presents Did Some Buying To Meet My Asset Allocation Goals – The Dividend guy previously identified some gaps in his asset allocation and summarizes some recent transactions he made to meet his target allocation.
- My Dollar Plan presents Stock Splits 101 – Madison shares the basics of stock splits and what they do to your investments.
Money Mangement
What? Don't like the mountains or the city?? How about the outer banks? Nothing but sun, sand, water, and quiet.
- Bible Money Matters presents College Expenses: Should parents pay for their children's tuition? – Pete shares his personal story about college and shares his thoughts on the advantages of children paying for their own education. Really good perspective that challenges the current view that parents should pay for college.
- brip blap presents A Quick and Easy Way to Control Spending – Steve has an excellent post that encourages us to write things down in order to eliminate a habit, including spending. Excellent advice.
- My Two Dollars presents How We Managed To Survive Financially After I Left My Corporate Job. – David talks about how he left his corporate job, after he felt like it was killing his spirit. Now he survives just fine and states "the last 17 months of all those years has been the most rewarding and interesting, and I hope I don't have to ever trade it in to go back!"
- Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning presents Understanding Is the Key to Saving More Money – David says that understanding what you need vs. want is the key to saving money.
- Cortni Marrazzo from Saving Advice Blog presents Can
a Brand New Car Be a Better Deal than a Used Car? – Cortni considers buying a new car because she thinks it's a better deal, but is it?
- David Bates from Protect Your Nest Egg in Retirement presents 10 Questions Baby Boomers should ask their Financial Advisors Now! – Are you close or at retirement? 10 questions you should be asking you financial planner. If their answers are no, it might be time to find a different one.
- LAL from LivingAlmostLarge presents The Money
Charade, – LAL wonders if everyone is just putting on a charade with their money. They also wonder why we can't talk openly about money, and that maybe if we did it would really help. What keeps you from talking about money, fear or pride?
- The Financial Blogger presents Couples With Different Levels of Income – Money is difficult to manage when you're on your own, but when you combine two incomes together along with a relationship, things become a bit more complicated.
- Can I Get Rich On A Salary presents The 9 Or So Paths To Getting Rich—And My Purported Analysis Of Them (Part 1) – G Blogger looks at the various ways people get rich.
- Know The Ledge presents Money Management Basics Revisited – Joe revisits the basics of money management.
While there, check out the Wright Brothers Memorial. First in Flight you know!
- Funny about Money presents Generating Traffic with Carnivals and Festivals – vh shares a very insightful article that uses statistics and traffic measures to show the benefits of participating in blog carnivals. Not directly personal finance related, but good information.
- Million Dollar Journey presents The Best Time to Start is NOW – FrugalTrader answers the question of when to you should start doing something about your finances. When? Now.
- Working for Rachel presents The Financial Generation Gap – Rachel provides some really good insight into the financial generation gap that makes it seem like young people don't know how to save. She argues its a different world for them, and I agree.
- Chief Family Officer presents Our car buying experience – Part Two: Financing and the Trade-in – CFO shares her experience of financing a new car and surprising the dealership after the deal with a trade-in. Way to go! Nothing better than getting a great deal.
- Dreaming of Ferraris presents Reasons to Not Buy That Car… – Foxie gets tempted by a red Honda S2000, but maintains control and manage her debt. Good choice!
- Millionaire Money Habits presents Should I Use a 401k Debit Card? – Ryan tells us why 401k debit cards are such a bad idea, and I couldn't agree more.
- Ask Mr Credit Card presents Bought a New Lexus RX 350 – My Adventure and Reasons – Mr. Credit Card buys a new Lexus and shares his reasons why and takes us through the negociation process.
Real Estate
Wilmington, NC isn't far away and houses the Battleship North Carolina
- No Debt Plan presents How Much House Do You Buy Each Month? – Kevin shares a good article that overviews the mortgage process of paying monthly interest and principle and goes into how you account for making extra payments.
- The Personal Financier presents How to Successfully Navigate Your Way through Home Renovations: 10 Practical Tips – Great timing on these renovation tips Dorian, at least for me, since we're looking hard at a house that really needs some. Particularly appreciated the info on contracts.
- The Orange Paper presents Black Money Saves Our Financial Sector – Austin provides a comparison of the India housing market to the US market and some perspective on what caused the current US housing crisis. Informative read.
- Finandom Dot Com presents Home Improvements That Really Increase Your Property Values – Harrison helps us understand what home improvements will get us the most return for the money…but don't always expect to get your money back.
Maybe head a little further south, and walk one of the many beaches on the NC coast.
- Single Guy Money presents Most Reliable Used Cars – SGM shares a summary of the most reliable used cars from 2007 from Edmunds.com. Looking for a reliable used car? Look here first.
- GRACEful Retirement presents Time for a Book Report – Grace reviews the Social Security Answer book and recommends it.
Oh yeah, don't forget to grab some Carolina BBQ!
- Don't Feed The Alligators presents 7 Ways in Which Wealth Building is Like Weight Control – MITBeta shows that weight loss and wealth building both have a great deal in common.
- Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck presents Five (Nonsensical) Reasons to Delay Saving for Retirement – Five of the most common ways people convince themselves they can delay saving for retirement. Prepare to be unconvinced.
- Invest In India presents Saving Habits that show results – Everything Finance provides basic money management tips to save money and manage your finances. Basic tips that never get old.
- Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents 7 Tips for Cheaper Travel – Excellent tips to save money while traveling. Particularly liked the idea of staying in a cottage instead of a hotel!
- Prime Time Money presents 7 Can't Miss Ways to
Kick-Start the Saving Habit – PT shares that overall savings in America is on the decline and privides some dead-on tips on how to start saving.
- Sound Money Matters presents 10 Tips to Survive Wedding Season without Going Into Debt – Aryn provides 10 tips to help you save money during peak wedding season. Great tips!
- Alpha Consumer presents Taking a Vow of Frugality – Taking a vow of frugality isn't necessarily the way to go… making big changes over time can end up saving more money than going cold-turkey.
- My Daily Dollars presents The GroceryGame – Amy provides a comprehensive review of the Grocery Game and shares how it's working for her.
- The Money Kings presents Why You Should Get A Hybrid Car NOW! – The Money Kings layout their reasons for why we should all buy Hybrid cars now. I'd love to, can't afford one!
- Frugal Babe presents Should We Be Saving Less? – Frugal Babe has paid off all her debt for the mortgage and wonders if she should be saving less and using a little money "just for fun".
- Your Finish Rich Plan presents 10 Tips To Jumpstart Your Emergency Savings Fund – Will shares some tips on how to get that all too critical emergency fund started.
- Save and Conquer presents Retirement Planning – Saving – Bryce takes us through the process of how to save for retirement.
- Financialgal presents Weddings – resisting the urge to splurge – Financialgal provides us with some useful tips for staying within the wedding budget.
Last, but not least, make sure you eat some grits with those biscuits!
- The Happy Rock presents Professional Tax Preperation Saved Me Over $5,000 – The Happy Rock shares how he found that using a tax professional to do your taxes really pays off.
- Online Savings Blog presents How the Bush Tax Cuts Have Affected You – junger provides some details on the bush tax cuts and how they may effect you.
- Money Crashers presents How To File For A Tax Extension – Erik tells us how to file for an extension to avoid those late fees!
- Growing Money presents Make More Money With the Same Paycheck – Smarty tells us how to make more money by not getting a tax return.
Photo credits to: Matthew Abadi,msprague,Karl Palutke,triplezero,kreg.steppe,kreg.steppe,candescent,rvaphotodude,Ricardo (Kadinho) Villela,HowdeeDoodat,Go Card USA,Go Card USA,Go Card USA, Mark Sadowski, wilbanks, nickgraywfu


text:
LTE is simultaneously being pushed forward on several fronts, and the result for users will be faster networks, better coverage and the ability to access networks while travelling abroad.
LTE has now become a mainstream technology with major deployments in every geographical area. But the abbreviation stands for Long-Term Evolution and what has been available so far in terms of speeds and features is only the beginning, a fact highlighted over the last week as operators and vendors have announced the groundwork for new improvements.
There are commercial LTE networks in 70 countries, and by the end of the year that number will have increased to 87, according to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA). Most of those LTE customers cannot yet use their LTE-enabled devices abroad, but that is slowly starting to change. The rise in the number of networks, and the availability of smartphones with up to six LTE spectrum bands, is making it viable.
Swisscom's LTE subscribers have, for example, been able to surf when visiting South Korea since June 21. The coverage is expected to be expanded to Canada and Hong Kong at the beginning of next month, and become available in some European countries late this summer. More countries will then be added on an ongoing basis, the Swiss operator said.
The global nature of Swisscom's LTE roaming offering makes it an important step, according to Ericsson, which has provided the underlying equipment. It shows that Diameter, the signalling protocol that makes LTE roaming possible, has become more mature, and roaming is now more about operators sitting down and signing agreements. Other operators that offer roaming on a more regional basis include TeliaSonera and Telstra.
While many operators are busy rolling out first generation LTE, SK Telecom on Wednesday bragged that it had launched the world's first publicly available LTE-Advanced network with the world's first compatible phone, Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4 LTE-A. Another Korean operator, LG U+, will start offering LTE-Advanced in July, it said on Thursday.
LTE-Advanced includes a number of new technologies, and of those SK has decided to implement two elements, Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) and Carrier Aggregation. The latter will soon become available in other parts of the world, as well.
"We see a tremendous interest for Carrier Aggregation, not only in Korea but all over the world," said Per Narvinger, head of Ericsson's LTE radio products.
Carrier Aggregation allows networks to devote more resources to some users by treating two channels in the same or different frequency bands as if they were one. That technique will allow SK Telecom to offer speeds of up to 150Mbps by combining two 10MHz channels. That speed can be achieved without Carrier Aggregation by operators who have 20MHz of continuous spectrum in one band, which is kinder on smartphone and tablet batteries.
"It is true that Carrier Aggregation uses more battery, but what you can do is use clever algorithms to carefully choose when to turn it on," Narvinger said.
The advantages of using Carrier Aggregation will instead become more apparent when operators combine larger chunks of spectrum. Speeds of up to 300Mbps will be possible by marrying two 20MHz channels. The current standards allow for up to five 20 MHz channels to be aggregated. according to SK.
But Carrier Aggregation isn't just about theoretical top speeds: Implementing the technology will also mean improved (albeit lower) speeds even for users who haven't got the perfect coverage needed for the highest speeds, according to Narvinger.
CoMP, the other LTE-Advanced technology adopted by SK Telecom, is used to coordinate and combine signals from multiple base stations to improve both coverage and capacity, especially at the edge of a base station's coverage area. It can be used to improve uplink and downlink quality.
Next year, SK Telecom also plans to add Enhanced Inter-cell Interference Coordination (eICIC), which ensures that signal quality isn't degraded because of interference from a different base station than the one the user is attached to.
The technology can be particularly important when building so-called heterogeneous networks, which use a mixture of traditional large base stations, called macro cells, and smaller base stations to provide additional coverage at busy spots within the macro cells.
Adding small base stations to a network should result in better coverage and higher speeds overall, but it also makes interference more difficult to control. That's where eICIC comes in: Using it decreases interference for users attached to the small cell, at the expense of reducing macro cell capacity. For the technology to make sense, between 60 percent and 80 percent of the traffic has to go via the small cells, according to Narvinger.
A number of other operators including Sprint in the U.S., Telstra in Australia, Optimus in Portugal, Yota in Russia, and Tele2 and Telenor in Sweden have all announced LTE-Advanced trials or roll-out plans, according to GSA. Verizon Wireless plans to start using Carrier Aggregation during the second half of the year, according to spokesman Tom Pica.
LTE has very much been developed with data in mind, but most operators are still dependent on voice revenue, and vendors are making progress here too.
On Thursday, Ericsson demonstrated HD Voice calls and video calls over TD-LTE or LTE-TDD (Time-Division Duplex) networks using a commercial LTE smartphone from Sony at its Wireless Innovation Lab & Demo Center in Shanghai.
Sony's Xperia SP M35t phone supports TDD and FDD versions of LTE, as well as TD-SCDMA, HSPA and GSM. Sony announced the smartphone this week and will begin selling it when 4G licenses are finally awarded in China, something that is expected to happen this year.
This is the first time a commercial 4G phone has been used to show HD voice over TD-LTE, and it marks a key milestone in the maturity of the TD-LTE ecosystem, according to Ericsson.
TD-LTE uses one channel for both upload and download traffic, compared to LTE-FDD, which uses separate channels for download and upload traffic. Calls can now be made on the two network types and between them, as well.
"We strongly believe that FDD and TDD will grow together into one network," Narvinger said.
Voice over LTE (VoLTE) has so far seen little success, and has only been rolled out by a small number of operators. But Narvinger thinks that successful launches in South Korea will help increase its popularity.


text:
A plume of Saharan dust spanned the Mediterranean Sea in late January 2013. Extending roughly 1,110 kilometers (700 miles), the plume stretched from the coast of Libya to southern Italy and mingled with clouds in the north. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on January 21.
The dust plumes were translucent but thick enough to remain discernible across the Mediterranean. This plume followed days of intermittent dust storm activity off the coast of Libya.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Michon Scott.
- Instrument: Terra - MODIS


text:
New Bridge
Wednesday, 2nd November 2005 by James Turnbull
The New Bridge, formerly the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) Bridge, is the world's seventh largest suspension bridge and was declared the construction of the 20th century in Slovakia. The globe at the south side provides all the support for the bridge, so it does not require a pylon in the Danube. Here's a ground level shot.
Built between 1967 and 1972 the upper deck was inaccessible in the Communist era as, at 95 metres above ground, it gave great views of capitalist Austria. These days you can visit either the observation deck, the 'UFO Taste' restaurant or 'UFO Groove', a "stylish nightclub" (apparently).
Thanks: Andrej Kvasnica, Jan Koubek


text:
Click to Access our Catalog in PDF
Our Blog is managed with
A Tumblr Client for the Mac
Hotel Cloud Booking Management.
Booking Engine
Front Desk
Payment Gateway
Channel Management
Hotel Concierge App
Hotel Buchung Motor
Cloud Buchung Engine
Motor de Reservas
Hotel Booking Engine
Motore di Prenotazione
© 畳)
solar airfield light, solar airport light, solar runway light
Solar powered aviation light offers big benefits over
traditional battery and hard-wired aviation lights, Low
Maintenance, No underground wiring, No Cutting No trenching.
Audible signaling, Visual Signaling, Wireless.
A signal for every signal need. For Airports, Hospitals, Industry and Military applications to safety and security communicate visually digitally and wireless signals that can be data processed seen and heard. complete line of electronic audible and visual signals for indoor, outdoor, and hazardous locations.
We come with innovative features that meet all your signaling applications needs. From simple horns and bells to demanding factory automation signaling utilizing your PLC or Devicenet network, IQTraffiControl.com provides complete factory solutions. Find out what makes signaling sense to you!
OkSolar.com Affiliate
aviation lights, A650, solar papi,windsock solar,solar
LED,airport lights solar, solar LED airport signs, airfield
lights solar,aviation lighting solar,airport lighting solar,LED
runway signs solar,taxiway lights solar,obstruction light
solar,precision approach path indicator solar


text:
You Can Really Prevent Hair Loss
There's nothing quite like seeing a guy with a full head of thick hair to make you jealous, if you're currently losing yours. Life obviously isn't fair, but did it really have to mess with your hair!? Being bald is something that some folks can't get their heads around. You don't have to accept this fate, however. Here are some hair loss tips that may work for you.
DHT is the byproduct of testosterone breakdown and is the major factor in hair loss. This actually means that hair loss is due mostly to a hormonal imbalance. Many studies have shown that this is true, including one test among Japanese men who ate westernized diets. Improve your diet today.
There are various supplements that you can take to maintain the quality of your hair. Vitamin C is a great supplement that will restore collagen to your hair and provide you with energy during the course of the day. Take one vitamin C pill to start your day off right in your fight against hair loss.
Wear a swimming cap if you frequently exercise or swim in chlorinated swimming pools. The chlorine found in most pools can cause major damage to your hair even making it fall out. If you opt to swim in a pool without a cap, be sure to wash your hair thoroughly after swimming.
Think about starting out on a vitamin regimen in order to prevent further hair loss. Vitamins B, C, D, and E have all been known to help strengthen and fortify the chemicals in your body, as well as supporting your body's cellular growth. Starting a multi-vitamin regimen might just help you prevent hair loss.
One thing many people take for granted when trying to prevent hair loss is proper combing. A wide tooth comb should always be used to untangle your hair, thereby reducing torn hair from tangled or matted areas. Hair should ideally be combed when it is dry, since combing wet hair can result in additional breakage.
Stress has also been shown to have a link to hair loss. If you want to keep that full healthy head of hair try to stay as stress free as possible. It has been shown that stress causes constriction and restriction of blood flow to the scalp, which causes hair follicles to die.
Try using Rogaine or another solution that contains minoxidil to help prevent hair loss. This is a topical solution that must be applied to the scalp twice a day, and it can be used by both men and women. Many people notice that after several months of use, their hair loss ceases. Some even experience a regrowth of hair.
Use vitamins to help retard hair loss. In addition to taking oral vitamins, there are vitamins that have many benefits when used topically. Try ginkgo biloba, zinc, saw palmetto, and vitamin B5. Each of these have properties that make hair more healthy and slow the rate at which it sheds.
Believing that there's nothing to be done about hair loss can be a hopeless feeling. It may sound trite to someone with their hair, but it's seriously depressing to start losing it. Make sure you implement the tips you've just read, when you want to finally do something about that hair loss.


text:
KDE 3.4.3 Release Announcement
Thursday, 13 October 2005
KDE Project Ships Third Translation and Service Release for Leading Free Software Desktop
KDE Project Ships Third Translation and Service Release of the 3.4 Generation GNU/Linux - UNIX Desktop, Offering Enterprises and Governments a Compelling Free and Open Desktop Solution
The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.4.3, a maintenance release for the latest generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes. KDE 3.4.3 ships with a basic desktop and fifteen other packages (PIM, administration, network, edutainment, utilities, multimedia, games, artwork, web development and more). KDE's award-winning tools and applications are available in 51 languages.
KDE, including all its libraries and its applications, is available for free under Open Source licenses. KDE can be obtained in source and numerous binary formats from download.kde.org and can also be obtained on CD-ROM or with any of the major GNU/Linux - UNIX systems shipping today.
KDE 3.4.3 is a maintenance release which provides corrections of problems reported using the KDE bug tracking system and greatly enhanced support for existing translations and new translations.
For a more detailed list of improvements since the KDE 3.4.2 release in July, please refer to the KDE 3.4.3 Changelog.
Additional information about the enhancements of the KDE 3.4.x release series is available in the KDE 3.4 Announcement.
Installing KDE 3.4.3 Binary Packages
Packages Creators. Some Linux/UNIX OS vendors have kindly provided binary packages of KDE 3.4.3 for some versions of their distribution, and in other cases community volunteers have done so. Some of these binary packages are available for free download from KDE's download.kde.org. Additional binary packages, as well as updates to the packages now available, may become available over the coming weeks.
Package Locations. For a current list of available binary packages of which the KDE Project has been informed, please visit the KDE 3.4.3 Info Page.
Compiling KDE 3.4.3
Source Code. The complete source code for KDE 3.4.3 may be freely downloaded. Instructions on compiling and installing KDE 3.4.3 are available from the KDE 3.4.3 Info Page.
Supporting KDE
KDE is a Free Software project that exists and grows only because of the help of many volunteers that donate their time and effort. KDE is always looking for new volunteers and contributions, whether its help with coding, bug fixing or reporting, writing documentation, translations, promotion, money, etc. All contributions are gratefully appreciated and eagerly accepted. Please read through the Supporting KDE page for further information.
We look forward to hearing from you soon!
About KDE
KDE is an award-winning, independent project of hundreds of developers, translators, artists and other professionals worldwide collaborating over the Internet to create and freely distribute a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop and office environment employing a flexible, component-based, network-transparent architecture and offering an outstanding development platform.
KDE provides a stable, mature desktop including a state-of-the-art browser (Konqueror), a personal information management suite (Kontact), a full office suite (KOffice), a large set of networking application and utilities, and an efficient, intuitive development environment featuring the excellent IDE KDevelop.
KDE is working proof that the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software development model can yield first-rate technologies on par with and superior to even the most complex commercial software.
Trademark Notices.
KDE and K Desktop Environment are trademarks of KDE e.V. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and
other countries. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are
the property of their respective owners.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.
All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.
Press Contacts
Sirtaj S. Kang
C-324 Defence Colony
New Delhi
India 110024
Phone: +91-981807-8372
Matthias Kalle Dalheimer
S-683 92 Hagfors
Phone: +46-563-540023
Fax: +46-563-540028
|North America
George Staikos
889 Bay St. #205
Toronto, ON, M5S 3K5
Phone: (416)-925-4030
Hamish Rodda
11 Eucalyptus Road
Eltham VIC 3095
Phone: (+61)402 346684
|South America
Helio Chissini de Castro
R. José de Alencar 120, apto 1906
Curitiba, PR 80050-240
Phone: +55(41)262-0782 / +55(41)360-2670


text:
Happy Friday, all! It's the final day of our Teacher Appreciation Week Giveaway Extravaganza at The Mailbox Blog. We've had loads of fun and we hope you have too!
Today's giveaway includes a duck (yes, it's a rubber one), two adorable duck books, and—wait for it—a $20 THANK YOU gift card for Bath & Body Works. Every teacher deserves to be pampered, don't you agree?
To enter for a chance to win this "quack-tastic" prize pack,
leave a comment on the blog that tells one of your favorite
ways to unwind or be pampered.
Just be sure to do this before midnight, May 13.
Sending bunches of TLC (Teacher Lovin' Care) your way!
PS: Remember to enter all five of this week's giveaways plus our First Friday Giveaway for the month of May before midnight, May 13.


text:
With millions of people making New Years resolutions to participate in the "Battle of the Bulge" here's some useful ammo to help you adhere to your weight loss plan, keep you motivated and ensure victory:
1. Enlist
Just as new enlistee signs a contract that commits him/her to their military task and duty, similarly, if your goal is to lose weight, you too should sign a contract with yourself, your trainer, a friend or a loved one. Essentially a contract cannot be broken and there is usually a penalty to do so. A contract places the commitment to paper and the responsibility on you, which will increase your resolve and motivation to the task of losing weight. If you need to, assign a reward for the satisfactory fulfillment of the contract rather than a penalty. For example, if you attain your target weight, write in the contract that you will take a spa vacation to show off your "new" body. This is a form of positive reinforcement, which gives you an eventual goal to work toward and tends to work better than negative reinforcement like punishment.
2. Recruit backup
For many people the "battle of the bulge" is exactly that. Give yourself a leg up right from the start and recruit the services of a well-qualified (check credentials) personal trainer or exercise physiologist. These "officers" are experienced in their field and will offer the correct guidance, training and motivation to conquer the enemy (fat). If you cant afford this service, recruit the assistance of a friend or family member to offer moral support and motivation.
3. Know Your Enemy
To go into battle with no knowledge of the enemy is guaranteeing defeat. With the guidance of your "officer", or on your own, find out information on fat loss. This may involve doing some homework on fat metabolism and basic nutrition. Learn about how to "identify" the enemy by being able to recognize fattening foods and bad carbohydrates and research topics like how to shift the scales toward negative caloric intake. Don't be afraid of exploring a little of the science behind weight loss – the web is essentially a free of source of information – use it!
4. Know Thyself
Just as it is important to know and study the enemy, you must also know some information about yourself. Make a list of possible obstacles that may derail the successful implementation of your upcoming battle plan and jot down proposed solutions on how to deal with them. Forecast where you may weaken in your resolve. For example, if you have a weakness for scoffing Ding Dongs at midnight or certain situations make you more likely to eat junk food or drink alcohol uncontrollably like at parties.
It may also be very helpful at this point to find out your EAR or Estimated Average (Caloric) Requirement. Your EAR gives an indication of the number of calories your body needs to maintain its current mass, taking into account the subjective estimation of your daily activity levels – for example, exercise participation and physical activity associated with your work. (Click here [http://www.bossfitness.com/interactive.asp] for a handy caloric calculator)
5. Develop a "battle plan"
With the help of your "officer" or with your own "top secret" information from your research, carefully devise a strategy to follow. Like many successful battle plans, attacks should involve multiple strategies. An obvious battle plan would be to begin a sensible "diet" to restrict caloric intake, yet does not border on starvation levels. This is decent single strategy attack, but if you really want the enemy on their heels, you need a multiple-strategy attack.
Consider using the combined forces of diet and exercise to shift your energy intake levels to less than your expended energy levels. Resistance training will not only greatly add to your energy expenditure, but will also increase your lean muscle mass and as a result, increase your resting metabolic rate. A multiple-strategy approach such as this will greatly increase weight loss over dieting alone.
Make a chart using colored pens to designate the multi-strategy attack plan. This will provide you a tactile image of your battle plan and help you stay motivated and in control. Remember the battle may continue for several months or possibly indefinitely, so adjust your plan accordingly and consider making permanent lifestyle changes concerning exercise and eating habits.
6. Set strategic and realistic goals
A successful battle campaign will involve setting goals of smaller victories to result in eventual victory. Setting goals will increase your motivation and adherence to the task and allow for assessment of progress. Sit down and strategize with your trainer or your partner and decide on achievable weight loss goals. Assign a time frame to achieve your "mini victory" and write them down on a chart. Check off every "mini victory" as you attain them.
A rule of thumb for gradual weight loss that will stay off is to aim to lose about one percent of your body weight a week. The human body does not simply "let go" of its fat stores – it gradually releases them when caloric expenditure is greater than consumption. For example, if you weigh 225 lbs, you can safely lose about 2.3 lbs a week. A pound of fat contains 3 500 calories, so 2.3 lbs contains 8 050 calories. So in this case, look to cut about 1 150 calories from your EAR using a combination of diet and energy expenditure from exercise.
If your battle plan involves resistance training (it should!), do not place a high priority on scale readings as this may lead to frustration. Resistance training will increase muscle mass (muscle weighs more than fat) and may confound scale readings.
7. Arm yourself!
At this point you will already be armed with a powerful array of non-tactile weapons – knowledge, moral support and guidance. Now, arm yourself by financially committing to either purchasing quality exercise equipment or a long-term gym membership. Buy a sensible diet book (for example, South Beach Diet) and a journal to write down your feelings, experiences on a daily/weekly basis if possible. Keeping a journal of the types of foods you eat and your feelings/attitude toward eating and exercise will help provide concrete evidence to identify signs of progress or regression and keep you on track.
8. Get out there and fight!
By now you will be prepared enough to face the enemy. Realize that the battle of weight loss is just that and that it will sometimes have to be fought tooth and nail. Use your weapons and resources to stick it out when your resolve begins to wane. Remain committed to yourself and your personal campaign and realize that others "back home" are supporting you.
9. Monitor your Campaign
Use your resources and the tips in this article to monitor the progress of your weight loss plan. Use a combination of body weight, waist/hip circumference changes and the results of your journal to get the "big picture". See if there are any aspects of your battle plan that need "tweaking" or revision. A highly effective way of objectively monitoring your fat loss and lean muscle tissue gain is to monitor your body composition (% body fat, % lean muscle tissue and bone).
Try to find a local personal trainer or fitness service that offers body composition tests. Body composition can be measured by a variety of different methods depending on the sophistication of the service. The simplest and least expensive method of determining body composition is by means of skinfold measurement. Other more sophisticated (and accurate) methods involve the use of Bioelectrical Impedance Assessment (BIA) equipment.
10. Integrate a "new government" for your lifestyle
Once you have achieved victory and attained your weight loss goal, consider the lifestyle changes that you will need to make to maintain your goal weight. You may need to make exercise a part of your daily routine or continue to follow a sensible eating plan that restricts certain foods, or both. If your campaign was an extended one, you will most probably already have made some permanent changes to the way you deal with eating and physical activity.
Also, if your battle plan involved resistance training, you will find it much easier to maintain your desired weight because of an increased muscle mass and metabolic rate. Realize that it was an uphill battle to get to the point where you are and plan to "do whatever it takes" to keep or even improve your physical condition.
This article has highlighted some basic strategies to help make your weight loss goals more attainable. Use these pointers and you are virtually guaranteed "victory!"
David Petersen is a Personal Trainer/Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and the owner and founder of Body Tuneup Shop Inc. based in Clearwater, Florida. More articles, information and client testimonial video clips can be found at http://bodytuneupshop.com
NOTE: You're free to republish this article on your website, in your newsletter, in your e-book or in other publications provided the article is reproduced in its entirety, including this note, author information and all LIVE website links as above.


text:
A new, unpatched vulnerability which is used to perform an attack. The name "zero-day" comes from the fact that no patch yet exists to mitigate the vulnerability being exploited. Zero-days are sometimes used in trojan horses, rootkits, viruses, worms and other kinds of malware to help them spread to and infect additional computers. Also spelled as "zeroday", "0day" and "0-day."
For more information about zero-days, refer to the blog post Security terms explained: What does Zero Day mean?


text:
The first thing you do is contact a casino employee. If there is a question of whether or not you have won a jackpot and you dispute the casino's response you may telephone the Gaming Control Board's Enforcement Division. An agent will arbitrate the dispute. If your dispute with the casino is for $500 or more, and cannot be settled, the casino is required to notify the Gaming Control Board.
The Gaming Control Board's Enforcement Division has five offices throughout the state:
HomeAbout UsGaming CommissionDivisionsHuman ResourcesLocationsI Want To...
Contact Us | Locations | Disclaimer/Privacy Policy | Site Map
©2023 Nevada Gaming Control Board. All Rights Reserved. Website Created by Vision Internet
The Nevada Gaming Control Board is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Thank you for visiting the Vision Demo Site.


text:
George Stephanopoulos 'Can't Imagine' Congress Would 'Beat' Hillary Up Over Benghazi
Previewing Hillary Clinton's testimony on the terrorist incident in Benghazi, George Stephanopoulos scoffed at the idea that members of Congress would dare grill the outgoing Secretary of State.
Talking to Martha Raddatz on Tuesday, the Good Morning America co-host predicted, "But she's very well practiced at [testifying] and I can't imagine they're really going to beat her up on her last few days as Secretary of State."
In fact, Senator Rand Paul did aggressively question Senator Clinton, telling her, "Had I been President at the time and I found out you had not read the cables… I would have relieved you of your post." Additionally, since when has someone leaving been an excuse not to press them on important issues?
Correspondent Raddatz offered misleading information as she asserted, "There has already been testimony from Clinton's deputy, already an investigation into what happened, already people relieved of their jobs, George."
In fact, the New York Post reported on the day after Christmas that no one had really been "relieved of their jobs":
The four officials supposedly out of jobs because of their blunders in the run-up to the deadly Benghazi terror attack remain on the State Department payroll — and will all be back to work soon, The Post has learned.
The highest-ranking official caught up in the scandal, Assistant Secretary of State Eric Boswell, has not "resigned" from government service, as officials said last week. He is just switching desks. And the other three are simply on administrative leave and are expected back.
A transcript of the January 23 segment follows:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We're going to turn to Washington now where Hillary Clinton will wrap up her stint as Secretary of State by taking the hot seat on Capitol Hill. Tough questions are coming from committees investigating the terrorist attack in Libya that claimed the lives of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. Our chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz is covering it all. And Martha, those questions perhaps even more pointed now that we're learning that terrorists involved in this weekend's terror attack in Algeria may also have been part of Benghazi.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Yes, George. There are three surviving militants from that horrific attack in Algeria and this morning an Algerian official is telling the New York Times that under interrogation, one of those militants said some of the attackers in Algeria were also part of the attack on the consulate in Benghazi last September. That sort of regional cooperation between extremists is something that Hillary Clinton and others have long warned about. So, I suspect she will be asked about that this morning.
STEPHANOPOULOS: No question about that. And a lot of other questions coming as well. This is something that Senators and House members have pushed for for a long time from Hillary Clinton. But she's very well practiced at this and I can't imagine they're really going to beat her up on her last few days as secretary of state.
RADDATZ: Well, they might try. I think you'll hear pointed questions about why there was not more security in a volatile place. They want to ask whether she was aware of requests for more security? If not, why not? If so, why was the request denied. There has already been testimony from Clinton's deputy, already an investigation into what happened, already people relieved of their jobs, George. But they want to know Clinton's role.
-- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.


text:
Starting today, Microsoft will give resellers up to $10 for each device they sell from a list of 21 Windows 8 touch-enabled PCs and tablets, company executives said.
The new program is the latest move by Microsoft to kick up sales, which on the PC side have been downright depressing. Research firm IDC, for instance, has forecast a decline of nearly 8% for 2013, and has already hinted that the drop may be even steeper. In tablets, Microsoft has had little luck in making much of an inroad into a market dominated by operating systems built by rivals Apple and Google.
But the selective nature of the incentive program -- fewer than two dozen different devices qualify -- shows it's also a continuation of a strategy Microsoft has used since last summer's launch of the Surface line, when the company said it entered the hardware business to have a platform that really flaunted Windows 8.
Both Tami Reller, the CFO of the Windows division, and Jon Roskill, who heads the firm's global partner group, talked up the new program, dubbed "TouchWins," at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) today.
"The whole idea is to provide incentives for the commercial channel for featured devices and tablets, PCs and tablets, and through this program we will provide incentives directly to authorized distributors, as well as reseller partners, who sell featured PCs and tablets that have Windows [8] Pro and are touch-enabled," said Reller during the day's keynote.
Among Microsoft's U.S.-based authorized OEM distributors are big-name sellers like Ingram Micro and ASI. Resellers run the size gamut from tiny consultancies to huge outfitters such as CDW.
Later in the presentation, Roskill characterized TouchWins as "pouring gasoline on that touch fire" as he stood in front of a screen that pegged the program's per-device incentives between $5 and $10.
Twenty-one devices from nine OEMs -- Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba -- have been tagged as eligible for the cash-back incentives. Acer, for example, sported three qualifying devices: the Aspire S7 touch-based "ultrabook," which lists for $1,300; and the Iconia W5 and Iconia W7 tablets that sport screens of 10.1-in. and 11.6-in., respectively.
(Each vendor's eligible devices can be found by clicking on the company logos here.)
The low number of qualifying devices puts TouchWins in the same general category as the Surface and Microsoft's Signature class of "crapware"-free PCs. Like those lines, TouchWins pushes systems Microsoft believes parade Windows 8's capabilities. It's just one more attempt to put the OS's best possible foot forward, said analyst Carolina Milanesi of Gartner.
TouchWins could also be seen as a stop-gap move, one that takes the best Windows 8 devices available now if, as Milanesi and other analysts expect, by this fall OEMs will have moved to newer processors that deliver much longer battery life -- one of the biggest criticisms of current hardware running Windows 8 Pro.
Already-enrolled partners can jump onto the TouchWins program immediately, said Roskill, while others will be able to sign up later this summer.
This article, Microsoft kicks back $5-$10 to resellers who peddle select Windows 8 hardware, was originally published at Computerworld.com.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His email address is firstname.lastname@example.com.
See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.
Read more about windows in Computerworld's Windows Topic Center.


text:
Personalised Solid Copper Photo Print
A beautiful way to display a cherished photo, complete with your own text and personal message.
This photo style solid metal print looks fantastic with your Instagram pictures, selfies, family photos, and holiday snaps. The metal has a brushed finish which we print directly onto, so your photos will look great. The prints are waterproof and highly scratch resistant too.
Choose from two sizes, medium and large. Create a beautiful display by combining different sizes and metals.
Like all of Oakdene Designs products, our copper photo prints are manufactured and printed in England.
You can add personalised text underneath the image as well as having the option to add a message to the bottom of the product, this is great for gifting occasions or simply adding information about the image.
If you would like specific line breaks please include a '//' where you would like these.
Choose from solid copper, stainless steel or brass. All metals have a brushed finish.
Add the optional gift box to make the perfect gift.
Medium: H12 x W10 x D3cm
Large: H17 x W14 x D4cm
Dimensions are to the nearest centimetre.
Made From
Made from a single sheet of thick folded copper, stainless steel, or brass all with a brushed finish. Printed in special hard wearing and waterproof inks directly onto the metal, with a clear varnish printed over the image to further enhance the quality and finish.
This product and its components are designed, sourced, and manufactured in England.