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If you walk into your office and an employee hands you a letter of resignation, it's only natural to start thinking of an immediate replacement. This response is usually supported by one, perhaps two, reasons. The most common reason for this reflex thinking is that even though your headcount has decreased, the workload and the associated deadlines are still your responsibility. Replacing the lost employee as quickly as possible is just common sense.
The other reason is a less logical one, and perhaps more difficult to overcome. I've known managers who believe that if they could operate 'effectively' with a reduced headcount for even a short period of time, they could operate with that new headcount forever — even though my staff had to make superhuman efforts and unreasonable sacrifices to meet existing deadlines and service levels. With the threat of a permanently reduced headcount dangling over your head, you might think that the faster you replace the departing employee, the better.
Putting this irrational hurdle aside for a moment, is the common-sense approach of immediately filling the open position the best possible solution to the problem?
I had always assumed so, until I was unable to fill an IT position at a retail company for about six months due to the lack of suitable candidates. During that waiting period, some very interesting things happened to my team.
The first thing we did was to prioritize our usual tasks. What did we have to do? What would be nice to do? And what could we stop doing? That last category is sometimes surprisingly large. Somehow, our days get cluttered with trivial tasks that do nothing to move us towards our important goals, the ones we are paid to complete. Unless these are discarded from time to time, they make productive work all but impossible.
Once we had decided what we could ignore, we focused our attention on the remaining tasks, both the ones driven by fixed and important deadlines and those that would be nice to accomplish. We also listed new projects we wanted to get going but had not had a chance to initiate because of the existing workload. In other words, we took the loss of an employee and created the opportunity to re-evaluate everything we were doing, focusing on old important tasks and adding new projects that we knew would grow our department.
We then took the bold step of disconnecting all tasks from all staff members and then explored what we'd like to work on. This strategy allowed people to get away from what they found boring or unchallenging and permitted them to attempt tasks, old and new, that they'd never worked on before.
At the end of this shuffling of assignments and several months of monitoring the 'new' team assignments, we had accomplished two important tasks. First, we had revitalized the departmental work experience by introducing a lot of desired change. When we shifted tasks around, team members were given the opportunity to grow into slightly and sometimes completely different positions of responsibility.
Second, we identified department responsibilities we could not deliver because we were lacking in either the resources or expertise. These became the desired skill set of the new hire.
The difference with this "delayed hiring" and the common sense approach of immediately filling the vacant position is best summarized by that last sentence. If you hire immediately, you will have a tendency to hire the exact same skill set that you lost. You will attempt to "repair" the hole in your team with a clone of the missing person. Your goal becomes "protect the status quo."
By using the person's resignation as a forced opportunity (or excuse, if you prefer) to change your department, you end up searching for someone with new skills to add to your existing expertise. Your goal becomes "grow the organization."
There is still, of course, the problem of management and the possibility that they might reduce your headcount while you reshuffle your department. The best solution to that problem is a proactive explanation of what you're attempting to achieve. If they understand what you're trying to accomplish, they might be more willing not to fiddle with your headcount.
de Jager is a speaker, management consultant and seminar leader. Contact him via his Web site, www.technobility.com.


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DIFFICULTY: Moderate
Makes 6 servings
Preparation and cooking time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Lechon Kawali:
1/2 tablespoon whole peppercorns
10 cloves garlic
2 pieces white onion, quartered
3 pieces bay leaf
1 whole pork belly or lechon kawali
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 piece onion, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 pieces tomatoes
1/2 cup bagoong
1/4 cup vinegar
Pepper to taste
Vegetable oil for frying
Lechon Kawali:
1. Place peppercorns, garlic, onion, bay leaf, and lechon kawali in a pot with six cups of water and boil until pork is tender (but not falling apart), about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
2. Pat dry the lechon and set aside.
1. In a pan over medium heat, cook vegetable oil and sauté garlic and onions until fragrant and translucent. Add tomato, cooking until soft and mashed. Add in the shrimp paste and cook, stirring constantly for about 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Add vinegar and allow to boil for about 3 to 5 minutes without stirring and reducing.
3. Season with pepper.
1. Place a pot with oil enough for frying over medium heat. Fry the lechon kawali until crispy.
2. Chop and serve with the binagoongan sauce.

subset: commoncrawl


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Реферат: Andy Is Unsympathetic I
Andy Is Unsympathetic, I'm A Fool Essay, Research Paper
In the video "I'm A Fool," By Sherwood Anderson, there sare many events that occur that cause the main character, Andy, to prove his true personality. In the story Andy cotridicts himselfand shows how easy it is to make insipid mistakes. In the story Andy proves himself to be an unsympathetic character because he acs foolish, timid, unremorsful and as a masquerader. In the story Andy acts foolish because he lies to impress people that he feels to be better than him to put on a good front; in particular he lies about being Walter Mathersand owning horses in Marrietta, Ohio. Andy does this to pretend that he is just as well off as the folks at the race; in addition Andy lies about "his" place in Marrietta, saying how nice it was and how his house was up on a hill along the Ohio River and how he owned stables. Andy admits towards the end of the story that he was a "big boob" for lying about being Walter Mathers, but he had no remorse for telling the lies and he kept it up untill the end of the story. Andy was also a timid character. For instance, whenever the girl he llikes makes eye contact with him. Another reason why Andy is a timid character is because he is reluctant to tell her the truth because he was reserved about his past. In addition, Andy felt that she wouldn't like him because she was well to do and he was not. This made him a timid character because he wouldn't tell her the truth.Andy was also an unremorseful character because he didn't feel guilt for what he had lied about and what he had done. He blamed his own foolishness on everythiing and everyone but himself, specifically when he states that the gentlemen in the hotel with the cane and the necktie got him all balled up to drink whiskey, and that if the gentlemen wouldn't have done that then mabey he wouldn't have lied about those things in the race. Furthermore, Andy states that he jumped up and down in anger, happiness, and sadness because he hadn't told the truth and how he had passed off a swell chance, but then he blames his misakes on the booze and the genlmen with the cane. another equally important characteristic that make Andy an unsympathetic character is that he acts as a masquerader. Throughout the story Andy tries to be something that he is not.For example, Andy dresses up in his best clothing and his new durby hat to go down town to the West House Hotel. He tells himself "to put on a good front" so he takes forty dollars with him to buy some twenty-ive cent cigars. He smkes the cigars and drinks the whiskey just to show off in front of the man who he believes to be well off and who he later blames all his problems on. Secondly, Andy states that because the other men had great backgrounds and good names that he would try to show them up by lieing about being Walter Mathers. In conclusion, the character Andy in the story "I'm A Fool" is an unsympathetic character because he is foolish, timid, unremorseful and he acts as a masquerader. He makes many foolish mistakes and he doesn't blame himself for them.


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Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'underground water pipe'.
Found 1 result
So here is my issue. I live on an tundra island on PvE EU. My island has an frozen lake/pond, which isn't a valid water source to put a "underground water pipe" down. The message says: Can't Place Underground Water Pipe: Must be placed in water or connected below a pipe with water. I have placed several water reservoirs next to this lake. It gets 200% water, so it is a non-stop water source. I've tryed connecting the underground water pipe to it. It will snap into place. But it will not let me place it. It's not a valid water source for some reason. Please make it so that an automaticly 24/7 filling water reservoir, is a valid water source for an underground pipe system. (this message was created after moderator blitzed909 from the Discord server suggested I should make this suggestion here) If the devs don't fully understand my suggestion, contact/@ me on the Discord server. Jahee#6593)


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January 24th, 2-5pm
Gal Palace: 131 S. Rampart Blvd, Los Angeles 90057
Guests were asked if they had any clothes they were tired of, but just can't let em go? They could go refresh that wardrobe creatively! We modified garments destructively (cutting, sewing, repurposing), and non-destructively (pinning, draping). We turned pant legs into poofy sleeves! Reimagined shirt as a skirt! There were also be a clothing swap / material pile for clothes guests no longer wanted!
$5 suggested donation to cover material costs.


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How many dudes do you know who just "have" hair? They don't do anything with it. They let it grow into bizarre, all-over-the-place messes and then complain for a million years about how it doesn't "sit right".
If they do get it cut, they either do it themselves or go to any shop that says "hair cut" on the front and ask for either a buzz cut or a fade, which is why 90% of the guys in Australia have the same hair, no matter what their hair type or head shape.
I wanted to show all you P.TV reading dudes how a proper haircut from a talented hairdresser can legit improve your life, so I sent two blokes I know – one with long, luscious locks and one with the standard "boy" short haircut – to the epic team at RAW Hair in Surry Hills. Here's their thoughts.
I sent Aaron for a haircut because I am fairly sure he hasn't had one in the entire year I've known him. This is pretty common for guys who grow their hair long – the theory is, if you don't need to make it shorter then you don't need a trim, right?
Wrong. The thing is, long hair needs maintenance just like short hair does. Layers add body and keep the "triangle" look at bay, while snipping off split ends will keep things from looking scraggly.
Aaron was understandably nervous about having a serious hairdresser go at his hair.
I'm pretty attached to my hair (zing) and I was a bit nervous going into this because I just wanted to keep my hair long. I never want to go back to semi-long hair. When I was growing it out is there was this weird stage in the middle where it wasn't quite long enough and I just looked like a massive tool.
The thing is, as long as you specify to your hairdresser that you want to keep a certain length or "feel" for your hair, they're likely to respect your wishes. After all, their entire job is to give you a cut so good you want to come back. So of course, Aaron's cut turned out exactly how he wanted it to.
They took a bit off and styled it. To be honest, he told me exactly what he was going to do but I zoned out a bit. All I know is that it feels like it's roughly the same length but it looks much better. Before it was all just kind of like one big tangly mop. It is much less mop-like now. It feels heaps lighter and it sits better on its own. They also did some treatment stuff on my hair which is I think why it feels so nice now. I just keep stroking it.
The biggest win? It's easier to style.
I used to have to put it in a bun a lot of the time because it was getting in the way or just looked a bit ratty, whereas now it just flows freely. It doesn't get in my way as much and I can just kind of leave it out without having to constantly adjust it.
Would Aaron visit a fancy hairdresser again for a cut?
Man, it's worth it just for the head massage they give you when you get your hair shampooed. I almost fell asleep during it. But in all seriousness, I'd definitely go to a fancy place again. I normally just find cheapo places around work to cut my hair. I don't really see myself spending heaps on my hair so maybe I wouldn't get a spenno haircut every time, but I could get one in between dodgy chops.
Eamon told me his last haircut was done by a mate with scissors, which says everything. He had decent hair but it was just a mop on a head. No particular shape or style to it, you know? So he was the perfect choice for dude #2.
I asked for quite short on the sides, fading into the rest of my hair while leaving a bit on the top to style and leave a 'messy'/'surfy' look. I also emphasised I didn't want it TOO short. I felt pretty comfortable because they're a really cool team, great chat, and seemed to have a good understanding of what I wanted.
Something that really threw Eamon was the eye for detail.
They used clippers to get the sides as short as I wanted, but afterward used scissors for the whole remainder of the cut – which is amazing, because usually places I go to use clippers to do the fade. So being all hand cut was really impressive. Then he thinned out my hair and gave it texture to fit my 'messy'/'surfy' brief. I love it. He got it spot on.
Like Aaron, the biggest benefit for Eamon was the ease of styling with his new cut.
It's been super easy to style because it's actually cut to the shape of my head and the way my hair grows, so it sits well naturally.
Would he return?
Absolutely. It's a fairy high budget, but given the experience and the quality of the cut – I'd highly recommend.


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01 Feb Bonita Bay News
Stabilization is the word for 2014.
In 2012 we saw recovery. In 2013 we experienced transition as traditional sales significantly outweighed distressed sales (short sales and foreclosures) and sellers took over the reins. Now, in 2014, our market has stabilized with home prices recovered, activity strong, and demand high.
So, what does this mean for buyers and sellers?
No one can accurately predict how the market will continue, although many experts have weighed in on the subject. What we do know is homes in Southwest Florida are selling and days on market is shrinking. Demand for homes is driven less by investors and more by end users. Additionally, home prices, continue to increase, though at a more modest rate recently. Interest rates have risen and many speculate that they will continue to do so this year, and yet they are still at historical lows giving buyers who don't want to part with their hard-earned cash an opportunity to borrow. And finally, the extreme cold up north this winter is driving more people our way.
If you've been thinking about selling, I'm sure you are struggling with the choice to possibly hold off for higher prices. And while all signs seem to be pointing that way, we simply do not know where prices will be in the future. Demand is high now, the competition is low, and the buyers are here. My question to you is, why wait?
Inventory remains low. As of December 31, 2013, in all of Bonita Bay, there were only 132 homes and condos for sale (according to the Multiple Listing Service). Today, as of February 1, 2014, there are 139 for sale.
Bonita Bay's single-family homes continue to hold at 8 months worth of inventory as of February 1. And condos in Bonita Bay continue to show 5 months of supply.
This chart shows how inventory has dropped over the course of the past 12 months.
Whether buying or selling, if you are looking for Realtor representation, think of me.
Your Bonita Bay Realtor,


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Before I attended AVCon, I can't honestly say that I would ever have thought a psychedelic combination of Pacman with the rhythm genre would be a thing that could possibly exist, nay, thrive—and yet, here we are. It takes an extraordinarily unique individual to stare down the barrel of life and forge such a game.
That's just what the effervescent Archer Stirling (we'll come back to this) of indie studio altArcade has done with his vibrant creation, Atman.
Atman drops you into a maze filled with enemies chasing you down. In the tried-and-true formula, you've got to collect all the cubes in the level and find your way to the exit before they catch you, and along the way, tap your spacebar to the beat of the soundtrack to increase your score.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect to the game is the encouragement to improvise your own rhythm within the quarter or triple note bars, along with the fact that you are rewarded for daring to be spontaneous.
Inspired by Archer's observations of people "finger drumming" on surfaces without even realizing—much like you'd tap pen against a table when your mind's off in the clouds—he hopes to teach the joy of rhythm and the ease of improvisation with Atman. Impressively, he has composed and produced the entire soundtrack himself.
Needless to say, I was eager to get my hands on the game and to have a quick chat with Archer about Atman.
PowerUp!: First things first: Archer Stirling. Really?!
Archer: Well, I can't give my parents credit for it, but it certainly is real!
PU!: How's your AVCon going so far?
A: Excellent! It couldn't be going any better, honestly. We've had a lot of player engagement. Everyone's loving the leaderboard I've got set up, and the competition around it. We're giving away five copies of the game to the top five players by the end of the weekend. I think it's a great incentive to get people picking up the controller and giving it a go!
PU!: Tell us a bit about Atman. How does it work, what's the aim of the game?
A: Atman is basically a psychedelic Pacman first-person turned into a rhythm game. You run around these mazes with all these rainbow cubes scattered around the place, and you've got to pick up all the cubes in the best time possible while avoiding the ghosts that are running around the maze trying to track you down and send you back to the beginning.
PU!: That's a new take on the Pacman and the rhythm formula! How did you come up with that idea?
A: Magic! I got the idea from finger drumming.
PU!: What platforms are you releasing on?
A: Initially on Steam, and we will be looking at putting it on the Epic and Discord online stores as well now that they're available, but if we do have success on any of those platforms we'll be looking at potentially bringing this to the Switch, and PS4 and Xbox too if all goes to plan.
PU!: What are you hoping to achieve from AVCon?
A: Primarily player feedback – it's like a great big play-testing session, and we've gotten a lot of really useful suggestions on what we could do, minor tweaks to make the game easier to play and more intuitive.
Less hard on the eye—it's quite a colourful game, isn't it?
And also to create a community around the game – getting a mailing list set up so that we've got some people who are interested ready to go when the game is out on the market.
PU!: How can we keep up with developments on Atman?
A: You can check out our website and Facebook page, and download our beta at itch.io!
Many thanks to Archer for taking the time to speak with us.


text: Dec52022 Dec 05 2022 - Dec 06 2022Integrating Evolutionary and Engineering Approaches to Failure Analyses Explaining system failures is the focus of enormous efforts in engineering. Explaining vulnerability to disease is the focus for parallel efforts in medicine and public health. Methods from engineering have potential important applications in medicine, and evolutionary explanations for ...Virtual More Info


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If you are the loved one of an alcoholic, it is easy to blame poor lifestyle choices and lack of willpower for the jam your abusive drinker has gotten the both of you into. But it is far more complex than that, and tragically misunderstood. In this episode, Sheri and Matt discuss the brain chemistry of alcoholism. We especially look at it from Sheri's perspective as her opinions changed through her education and understanding of what was really going on in Matt's noggin.
If you resonate with this conversation, and you are seeking support for your recovery as the loved one of an alcoholic, we hope you'll check out our program of connection, empathy, compassion and healing:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:24 — 51.6MB) | Embed
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Summary: With multiple clinical trials under way targeting mutant EGFR in patients with lung cancer, Maity and colleagues address important aspects of a MIG6–EGFR signaling axis using genetically engineered mouse models expressing mutated EGFRs on the MIG6-deficient background. This study extends our understanding of EGFR regulation by MIG6 and reveals that MIG6 antagonizes tumor formation in mutant EGFR–driven lung adenocarcinoma. Cancer Discov; 5(5); 472–4. ©2015 AACR.
See related article by Maity et al., p. 534
EGFR plays a critical role in primary glandular neoplasia initiation, growth, and dissemination. Multifaceted EGFR signaling orchestrates various cellular processes involved in differentiation, survival, cell-cycle progression, and drug sensitivity via RAS–RAF–MAPK, PI3K–AKT, JAK/STAT, and other pathways. Moreover, extensive cross-talk and transactivation have been observed between EGFR and other receptor tyrosine kinases that modulate the progression of solid cancers. Therefore, dysregulation of downstream EGFR signaling pathway modulators is an important factor when determining tumor sensitivity to EGFR inhibitors.
Mitogen-inducible gene 6 (MIG6; also known as RALT, ERRFI1, or Gene 33), a negative regulator of EGFR, plays an important role in signal attenuation of the EGFR network and subsequent EGFR degradation by blocking the formation of the activating dimer interface through interaction with the kinase domains of EGFR and ERBB2. Mig6-knockout mice exhibit hyperactivation of endogenous EGFR, resulting in hyperproliferation and impaired differentiation of pulmonary epithelial cells (1), which may progress to overt glandular adenocarcinoma. In addition, carcinogen-induced tumors in Mig6-deficient mice are unusually sensitive to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). In non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without known EGFR mutations, the response to EGFR-targeted agents is inversely correlated with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT; ref. 2). It those cells, MIG6-mediated reduction of EGFR occurs concomitantly with a TGFβ-induced EMT-associated kinase switch of tumor cells to an AKT-activated state, thereby leading to an EGFR-independent phenotype that is refractory to EGFR TKIs (2). Therefore, in wild-type EGFR tumors, MIG6 is considered a tumor suppressor and may be regarded as a molecular marker for indicating the intrinsic EGFR activity. Consequently, MIG6 may have a clinical value for predicting differential response of tumors to EGFR TKIs.
In lung cancer patients and patient-derived xenograft models with wild-type EGFR, a low MIG6:EGFR protein expression ratio was associated with higher gefitinib sensitivity, whereas a higher MIG6:EGFR value was associated with TKI resistance (3). Moreover, a low MIG6:EGFR ratio correlates with a marked increase in progression-free survival for lung cancer patients (3). Another study concluded that the ratio of MIG6 and miR200 RNA levels predicts response to erlotinib in directly xenografted primary human lung tumors, regardless of their wild-type EGFR expression levels (2), further supporting the role of MIG6 as a predictive biomarker for TKI sensitivity in the wild-type EGFR setting.
The role of MIG6 in molecular mechanisms underlying mutant EGFR-driven lung adenocarcinoma has not been studied in detail. It is well established that EGFR mutation status is a strong predictive factor for anti-EGFR therapy in lung cancer patients. Activating or gain-of-function mutations occurring in exons 19 and 21 result in increased activation of the downstream pathways and increase the sensitivity of the tumor to the EGFR TKIs. Unfortunately, despite the dramatic response to EGFR TKIs, most patients ultimately have a relapse. Mechanisms of acquired resistance to TKIs include EMT, secondary resistant EGFR mutations, e.g., T790M, and activating mutations or amplification of EGFR downstream effectors. Therefore, there is an urgent need to elucidate the signaling pathways activated downstream of mutated EGFR in TKI-sensitive and TKI-resistant tumors. Recent work by Maity and colleagues (4) has uncovered novel insights into the MIG6–EGFR signaling axis and proposed a model whereby increased MIG6 phosphorylation attenuates its ability to inhibit mutant EGFR.
Using the transgenic mouse models, the authors revealed that genetic ablation of Mig6 accelerates NSCLC formation in mice expressing Tet-inducible L858R or del746–750 EGFR alleles. Significantly, Mig6-null mice succumbed to EGFR-driven lung tumors much faster than their wild-type littermates. In the Mig6-deficient background, accelerated lung tumor growth was seen early after induction of mutant EGFRs and was associated with increased EGFR–MAPK signaling, reflecting a substantial role for MIG6 during early stages of mutant EGFR-driven tumor growth. These observations suggest that MIG6 antagonizes lung tumorigenesis driven by EGFR mutations, in the same way it restrains lung tumorigenesis in wild-type EGFR models (1). Interestingly, MIG6 was also shown to be a haploinsufficient tumor suppressor in EGFR del746–750 mice. This is an exciting finding, which suggests that mutant EGFRs may dampen the MIG6-induced inhibitory effect by downregulation of MIG6 protein levels, similar to the regulation of a classic tumor suppressor. Decreased MIG6 RNA and protein expression levels were observed in various human solid tumors, including lung tumors, and were shown to correlate with reduced overall survival. Recent studies in patients with lung cancer harboring wild-type EGFR concluded that absolute MIG6 levels can influence EMT and sensitivity of the tumors to EGFR TKIs (2), raising the question of whether the differential MIG6 expression correlates with initiation, progression, and EGFR-TKI response in the context of mutant EGFRs. These questions remain beyond the scope of the current work and warrant further clinical studies to address these important issues.
In their previous attempt to identify differences between signaling events downstream of wild-type and mutant EGFR, Guha and colleagues (5) discovered that MIG6 was hyperphosphorylated in human bronchial epithelial cells harboring EGFR mutations that confer TKI sensitivity, and mapped Y394 as a major MIG6 phosphotyrosine site in EGFR-mutant cell lines. Although MIG6 phosphorylation on Y394/Y395 (6, 7) and elevated level of MIG6 RNA in EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma cell lines (8) has been previously described, the significance of increased phosphorylation at these sites in an EGFR-mutant background remains largely unknown. In this study (4), the authors have further examined the functional consequences of constitutive MIG6 phosphorylation in EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma cells. Through a series of comprehensive phosphoproteomic and genetic experiments, the authors discovered that phosphorylation at Y394/Y395 is inhibited by erlotinib in TKI-sensitive del746–750, but not in TKI-resistant EGFRL858R+T790M cells, confirming previously reported evidence that MIG6 is a direct target of mutant EGFR (7). The Y394/Y395 site is located within the EGFR-binding region of MIG6 (spanning between residues 323 and 411). Enzymologic studies with purified proteins have shown that MIG6 phosphorylation affects its binding to EGFR and subsequent regulation of EGFR kinase activity by MIG6 (7, 9). Based on the mutational analysis of the above residues, the authors show that tyrosine phosphorylation of MIG6 seems to modulate both stability of mutant EGFR and its affinity. The authors report that phosphorylated MIG6 binds more tightly to mutant EGFR, but in contrast to wild-type receptor, the increased interaction does not direct mutant EGFR to the degradation pathway and enhances its stability. Based on these observations, the authors put forth a model in which enhanced phosphorylation of MIG6 at Y394/Y395 by mutant EGFRs expressed in NSCLC allows these mutant receptors to partially circumvent negative regulation by MIG6 (Fig. 1). Although there is prior evidence that MIG6 tyrosine phosphorylation weakens its ability to inhibit purified near full-length EGFR (9), the authors revealed that despite modulation of EGFR stability, MIG6 still antagonizes tumor formation in the setting of EGFR mutants in transgenic mouse models. Although the exact mechanisms are not yet clear, these observations unveil a conceptually novel mechanism for the biologic regulation of mutant EGFR signaling.
Growing evidence supported by recent studies shows that MIG6 may also exert its tumor-suppressor function by promoting proapoptotic signaling (10, 11). These observations suggest that besides unleashing cell proliferation, loss of MIG6 or increased phosho-MIG6 binding to mutant EGFR could also allow incipient tumor cells to escape from apoptosis (Fig. 1). Therefore, quantification of apoptotic cells at early points post-EGFR induction would be a desirable addition to our understanding of MIG6 tumor-suppressor function. Significantly, although this study proposes an intriguing possibility that phosphorylated MIG6 may exert an oncogenic function by stabilizing mutant EGFR and consequently enhancing its oncogenic potency, residual inhibitory activity of MIG6 is still tumor suppressive, because MIG6 deficiency reduces survival of mouse models due to accelerated tumorigenesis.
Although a number of elements in this study have been previously identified, significant new discoveries by Maity and colleagues (4) connect multiple elements in a novel manner, and provide a convincing case that activating mutations in the EGFR tyrosine kinase domain may disrupt MIG6 suppressive function via increased phosphorylation of MIG6 itself, which causes a reduction of MIG6 ability to inhibit EGFR catalytic activity and promote EGFR downregulation. These findings extend our understanding of MIG6 in EGFR regulation, but additional studies will unravel the molecular mechanisms of its role in various oncogenic pathways and response to EGFR blockade by either small-molecule–targeted therapy or monoclonal antibodies. It is now clear that MIG6 is an important and perhaps key regulator of anti–EGFR-directed therapies, and significant investment in further defining its status as a predictive biomarker in patient samples and clinical studies is warranted.
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.


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RB Leipzig are currently enjoying their best-ever start to a Bundesliga season as they currently sit top of the standings.
After 5 matches, Julian Nagelsmann's side are still unbeaten and have won four and drawn the other of their fixtures so far.
In striker Timo Werner, they have the league's joint-second top scorer with 5 goals and the German has scored in four of those five games.
Having drawn at home with Bayern Munich already, it would be fair to say that Leipzig have already passed the first major test to their aspirations this season.
On Saturday afternoon, they come up against a Schalke 04 side that looks to have turned the corner and are enjoying a good run of form.
After taking just a point from their first two games, Schalke have gone on to win all of their last three games, defeating Hertha, Paderborn and Mainz 05.
David Wagner's side may not be the best test for Leipzig but at the moment, they seem to be doing everything right and will indeed pose serious questions come game time.
Going into the game, Leipzig will miss the services of Konrad Laimer, Hannes Wolf, Tyler Adams, Patrik Schick, Marcel Halstenberg and Kevin Kampl who are all still injured.
For Schalke 04, Benito Raman and Jonas Carls are still injured and will most definitely not be part of the match-day squad.
Last season's reverse fixture ended 0-0 while Schalke have only defeated Leipzig once since the latter earned promotion to the top flight in 2016.
Leipzig's two major competitors for this year's crown-Bayern and Dortmund will also be in action this weekend. The Bavarians will be away to Paderborn while Dortmund hosts Bremen.
Bayern, the other unbeaten side in the division are full of confidence after returning to winning ways last weekend thanks to a 4-0 victory over Koln.
Still without the services of David Alaba and Leon Goretzka, Bayern were pleased to see summer acquisitions Philip Coutinho and Ivan Perisic scored against Koln and will be clear favourites to walk away with all three points at the Benteler Arena.
Bayern are yet to concede a goal against Paderborn and have gone on to win all three of their match-ups, scoring an impressive 16 goals in the process.
For Dortmund, they will be eager to get all three points against Bremen.
The Black and Yellows have not won any of their last two competitive games and conceded late to draw 2-2 away to Frankfurt last weekend.
Against a Bremen side that is struggling for both form and injuries, Dortmund will be expected to walk away with all three points despite being without four first-team players including Matts Hummels.
With all that said, the Bundesliga match-day 6 gets underway on Friday with Union Berlin at home to wobbly Frankfurt.
Union have lost both of their last two games while Frankfurt are winless in their past three competitive fixtures, losing two and drawing the other.
Union comes into the game winless in all their previous 7 matches against Frankfurt and the visitors have gone on to win four of those games including all the last three. However, their latest meeting dates back to March 2012 with both sides still in the second division.
All Bundesliga match-day 6 fixtures
Friday, 29-09-2019
-Union Berlin vs Eintracht Frankfurt @9:30pm
Saturday, 21-09-2019
-RB Leipzig vs Schalke 04 @4:30pm
-Hoffenheim vs Borussia Monchengladbach @4:30pm
-Mainz 05 vs Wolfsburg @4:30pm
-Augsburg vs Bayer Leverkusen @4:30pm
-Paderborn vs Bayern Munich @4:30pm
-Borussia Dortmund vs Werder Bremen @7:30pm
Sunday, 22-09-2019
-Fortuna Dusseldorf vs Freiburg @4:30pm
-Koln vs Hertha Berlin @7pm


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The New 'Tomb Raider' Movie Doesn't Care About Your Boner
Apparently Alicia Vikander's cup size has something to do with her ability to believably raid tombs.
Oh look, a new female-fronted action movie has debuted in cinemas and men are crying about their boners. Again. Weird, how that keeps happening.
If you thought we could go almost a full year without straight men complaining that a female action star's boobs are too small then time to reset the clock, my friends. Just nine months after bros complained that Gal Gadot's breasts weren't big enough for her to be Wonder Woman, they're up in arms because apparently Alicia Vikander's cup size has something to do with her ability to believably raid tombs in 2018's Tomb Raider reboot.
They're not being sexist, though, you hysterical women: the argument is simply this Tomb Raider doesn't come close to Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider.
Although it would be easy to just palm this off as another example of the world being a dumpster fire and men being terrible, their anger is somewhat understandable. The first Tomb Raider movies were made for them: everything was filmed with the male gaze in mind. From the shots through Lara Croft's hot-pant clad legs to the fact it only takes six minutes before Jolie is both wet and naked in the first movie, this was their boner fodder made real.
The new Tomb Raider, however, doesn't give a flying fuck whether you have a stiffy or not. In fact, it wants to punch you in the stiffy… hard.
Do I have to be the asshole who says her tits are too small for me to see her as Lara Croft? Do I have to be that guy? Do I have to be the one who fucking says it?
I guess I do. Sorry. pic.twitter.com/5CsXwYFjBb
— Amazing Atheist Guy (@amazingatheist) March 10, 2018
A Lara Croft For Men
For any adaptation to work — book to movie or video game to television series — things need to be changed and adjusted to fit the medium.
And for 2001, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider fit the medium of movies pretty well. At this point, there had been seven different Lara Croft games where her breast size, hot pants and thigh holsters were as essential as her ability to solve archeological riddles. Majority of the players were men — to begin with — and from a studio standpoint, they reasoned most of the movie's viewers would be men as well, given the character's sexualised history.
The film reflects that. There is only one speaking female role in first film and that belongs to Lara, not so much acted by Angelina Jolie as it is reliant on her ability to wear sunglasses at night. She may have won an Oscar two years earlier for Girl, Interrupted, but Lara Croft: Tomb Raider required little more of her than to pout, arch one perfectly manicured eyebrow and wear a lot of leather so she could slo-mo strut into rooms.
Despite random flashes in London or Some Jungle, majority of the film looks as fake as the soundstage it was shot on. The visual effects don't hold up (the ceramic soldiers, yeesh) and neither does the time-bending illuminati plot (mind you, it didn't back then either). Directed by Simon West who made his debut with Con Air only a few years prior, it was so peak 2000s that you could have imposed Sandstorm by Darude over any action sequence and it would have fit. With a budget of $115M and a worldwide gross of just over $274M, it did okay: not great, not a huge hit, just okay.
Critics didn't really like the movie, but they did all agree on one thing: Jolie was totally bangable in the central role. "There is more tension in Jolie's T-shirts than in the dramatic action," said Kirk Honeycutt (not a Bond villain) from The Hollywood Reporter.
Or there's Stephen Hunter's 'critique' from The Washington Post, which spends an entire two paragraphs talking about her lips. We don't recommend you read the full thing on less than two glasses of wine, but here's an extract: "As for Jolie's presence, it's mainly about her lips … I have concluded that her lips appear even bigger than they were one or two movies ago. Once they were puffy comfort pillows to make all the boys hate the thin-lipped gals they married and therefore ruin marriages in the thousands … Those lips, those ey – . . . oh hell, those lips."
In summary: the reviews were horrendously sexist and majority (over 180) were from men, while only three could be found from female critics.
A Lara Croft For More Men
Two years and countless Kleenex boxes later, a sequel arrived with a title that sounded like a bunch of unconnected words randomly thrown at a whiteboard, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life.
It came from Speed and Twister director Jan de Bont and strayed farther from the video game origins, with the studio deciding it wanted to be less Indiana Jones and more James Bond (from MI6 appearing with a mission from the Queen to the first line out of Lara's mouth being "hello boys, you're all wet"). Riding a dirt bike along the Great Wall Of China isn't even the most ridiculous moment: that's reserved for when she punches a shark in the mouth and then rides it to the surface in the opening action sequence.
Somehow this managed to be better received than the original, yet the reviews remained downright gross. "Maybe I'm over her … but Jolie is often very plain here, and her costumes are hardly ever flattering to her beauty," read Felix Vasquez's piece from Cinema Crazed.
It didn't make a lot of money, with a budget of $95M — cheaper than the first — and Jolie's star power not enough to see it creep past $160M globally. In fact, it did so bad the film was attributed with sinking the new Lara Croft video game. Planned sequels were shelved, games went quiet for a few years, and the time when all we required of a female action star was slo-mo acrobatics faded into oblivion.
Yet with the 2013 video game reboot, Lara Croft began to gain traction again. A tie-in comic series spawned and rumours of a film version of this origins tale began circulating, one that — like the game — would be grittier, grounded and aggressively appeal to the lucrative female fan base. Even before the 2018 Tomb Raider dropped, you could see the difference aesthetically in the posters. The 2001 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider one sheet is the video game covers brought to life, complete with arched back and whipping ponytail.
The poster for the sequel is all about framing her vagina, with strategic strapping creating a triangle target in her skintight, wet leotard. The 2018 Tomb Raider promo image, however, is cropped: no full body shots, no cleavage, no short shorts; just Vikander's ripped arms and her determined face smeared with dirt.
A Lara Croft For Them
If you were old enough to remember seeing the first Tomb Raider movies in the cinema, the theatres were packed with dudes. Every time there was a particularly sexy shot the audience would break out in whoops and cheers: it was almost like community catcalling.
This time around, things were different. Opening night sessions were packed with groups of women, all coming together and celebrating the film like it was lady action movie Christmas. It wasn't quite the same atmosphere as Wonder Woman: Lara Croft, while beloved, can't compete with that iconic 75-year old history. There weren't blue-haired biddies excited about finally getting to see the Amazonian warrior princess on the big screen for the first time: these women were younger. They remembered Lara Croft as one of the few female video games leads they got to play, being older themselves when the franchise was rebooted with the 2013 version.
These women grew up with Lara Croft in the same way a generation grew up with Lynda Carter. And this was the first time the Lara Croft they've seen on screen has been made for them as opposed to for men.
Some people have been complaining that Lara's boobs look too small in the new Tomb Raider Movie.
Don't worry, I got you fam. pic.twitter.com/1o4So7LuxB
— DΞΔTH!NK (@deathink) March 12, 2018
Like Jolie, this Lara Croft is played by a fellow Oscar-winner in Vikander. Unlike Jolie, this Lara Croft is framed as the physical weapon she is by director Roar (Roar!) Uthaug. She karate chop runs better than Tom Cruise and fights for her life with conviction. She is a physically and intellectually capable young woman who uses her wits, cunning and survival skills to pick off the enemy one-by-one.
While female viewers and queer women celebrated this portrayal, for some critics the lack of objectification was to the film's detriment. "Vikander's appearance is also markedly different than Jolie's," wrote Maida from the Philly Voice. "She never comes across as having an ounce of sex appeal and, at times, looks like she could be sixteen. Toss in the lack of curves and Warner Brothers could have decided to gender bend and make a film titled Luke Croft and it would have come across much the same way." His entire paragraph was later pulled from the review with an editor's note.
An actual exert from a professional #TombRaider review….. pic.twitter.com/aX57sbxEpf
— Chris Wilson (@CrisMovieCorner) March 15, 2018
Vikander trained seven months for the role, undergoing a strict regime of weights, cardio and MMA so she would be convincing. Put simply, she got jacked. Unlike the two earlier films, there's no wish fulfilment afforded to male audience members — Croft has no pseudo-romances with interchangeable dudes played by Daniel Craig or Gerard Butler. There's no love story here, just action, occasional archaeological exploration, and a story that moves with a feverish energy.
The guys who grew up thinking of Lara Croft as their sexual fantasy had 20-odd years of that version. Now it's time for the rest of us — the women, men and queers who want to see an action heroine as impactful as the John McClanes, the Indiana Jones' and the Ethan Hunts of the cinematic world.
So just let us have it, will ya?
Tomb Raider is in cinemas now.
Maria Lewis is a journalist, screenwriter and author of It Came From The Deep and the Who's Afraid? novel series, available worldwide.


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This year's Christmas advert by British supermarket Sainsbury's has put itself in the lead as one of the best. German-born British writer Judith Kerr has brought back Mog the cat. Her feline is starring in "Mog's Christmas Calamity." In the story, narrated by British actor Emma Thompson, Mog wakes from a nightmare only to discover smoke coming out of the oven. Mog realizes she has to work quickly to rescue her family and home. The fur ball accidentally dials the fire department and manages to spill or break just about anything she comes in contact with. Despite Mog's best effort, the house is left in disarray, leaving the family heartbroken that Christmas is ruined. This is when neighbours begin to show up to share their own Christmas with them. This video is another tear-jerker. Watch for Kerr's appearance, as a character who suggests a medal for Mog.
This Cat's Christmas Calamity Will Get You In The Proper Holiday Mood. November 16, 2017


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Understanding the Numbers behind your business
Running a service business like Lawn Care probably means every penny counts. Well I guess all businesses should make every penny count, but this is even more important for high volume, lower margin businesses.
Why is Time so Important to a Business Owner?
If you are anything like me, you started a business from scratch and probably were not sure what the hell you were doing. I, fortunately, had a partner so I at least had someone else to not know what we were doing with!
Why do Lawn Care Owners need a CRM to manage their business?
We didn't start a business to work like a dog every day, we wanted some freedom. Don't we all want that?


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The Orchard
© Christoffer Petersen, 2022
I binged the news and
Ran out of things to write,
So I escaped to the garden.
The mouse beneath the planks,
Salvaged from the playhouse, scampered
Under the pile of dressed granite rocks,
While I stacked the wood,
Putting the good pieces to one side
For raised beds and bird boxes.
I thought about boxes for bats,
Remembering the little fellow who
Clung to the wall, low, between the tulips,
But bats are a no-go
In these pandemic times,
Another species in human crosshairs.
I took my dead mother-in-law's garden
Chair, placed it by the iron tracks,
Looking back at the future orchard.
Every bush needs berries, every
Tree will need fruit as
Nothing must grow to waste.
I'll start small – remove the fence and
Plant the trees – apples and pears,
In the shade of the big cherry.
If I trim the branches, keep them
Low, then we'll both be able to pick the fruit –
My wife and I, bent beneath future rays of sun.


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Articles, blogs, whitepapers, webinars, and other resources
A place to improve knowledge and learn.
A place to improve knowledge and learn.
Jess Feldman, content manager for Course Report, met with Edgar Ayala virtually to talk about his experience with a university IT bootcamp. Ayala is a recent alum of UT Arlington's Cloud Engineering Bootcamp powered by QuickStart (watch the full video here).
Python is one of the most popular programming languages in existence, a distinction it has enjoyed for years. Programmers all over the world use Python for a variety of projects, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, web development, desktop applications, and more.


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Homeschooling? Exhausted your caché of activities to do with the kids? If you're looking for some fun to do with the family, we're bringing the activities to you at home.
Over the next couple of months, building on our free family activity packs in 2020, we will be releasing a new Spring series for you to get stuck into.
Our first activity pack is out next week, ready for February half-term, the second pack will be released on the first day of Spring in March, and the final pack for the Easter Holidays.
The materials needed for each pack have been kept to a minimum so you should be able to get stuck in using items you already have at home. Or you can email email@example.com and we will send you the physical activity pack and materials in the post if you feel you would benefit.
The free physical packs have been very popular. To make sure we have enough available for families who need them, please only get in touch if you are unable to print at home and do not have art materials such as paper, pens and pencils.
Our Family Activity Packs are made possible thanks to the generous support of RIVA (Residencies in Visual Arts).


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Books sometimes come around at such a timely moment, and speak to you in such a precise way, that it's almost alarming. The trick of speaking to one's current moment is to make what you're saying immediate and meaningful to your audience without making it so specific that it will seem dated within a short period of time, and seeing the main character of a book pick up her phone and smash likes for DSA chapters and extremely online leftists was so close to home I almost dropped The Hard Tomorrow in shock twenty pages in.
Hannah, that main character, lives in a trailer with her partner, Johnny. She provides elder care for a woman who seems to barely recognize her, and he contributes what he can by dealing weed and bartering for household items with other people who make a living on the margins of respectable society. Their world is not exactly our own; things are just a little bit bleaker, the police and military are just a little bit more brutal, and Mark Zuckerberg is just a little bit more president of the United States. But it's easy enough to recognize as an entirely plausible vision of where we're headed, and it's populated by characters who haven't stepped in out of a dream, but who have emerged from our daily realities.
Hannah and Johnny have the same simple dreams as we have, and our forebears had going back to when those dreams were achievable and caused us to hope instead of dread: They want to build a house. They want to have a child. And they want to live in a world that makes sense. But like so many people in America today, those dreams are derailed by frustrations both small and large. Building a house costs money they just don't have, and Johnny has let himself slide into a bit of a torpor. Their relationship is messier than either one of them are willing to admit, and they've had trouble conceiving. And the political situation keeps getting worse, in ways that they are increasingly unable to abstract away, because they keep crashing headlong into the barriers they try to set up around their idyllic little lives.
Reading The Hard Tomorrow as someone who is deeply involved in political organizing, it's hard not to recognize the same characters, arguments, and situations from my own life reified on the page. Hannah and Johnny's dynamic is alternately touching and exasperating, in the way that so many couples experience who have little in life but one another; Hannah's political protests veer between the frivolous and the deadly serious; and Johnny's friend Tyler is a paranoid gun nut who mocks him for being painfully naïve about the threats they all face. They take their frustrations about their jobs and their circumstances out on each other, and their friendships are a salve that both protects them and shields them from obvious and uncomfortable truths. And more than anything, they are surrounded by questions – their own and others' – about whether or not it's wise to bring a child into a world that seems permanently poisoned.
But Davis' narrative, which unfolds slowly and then sheds awful layers like a dying plant before its final cathartic and beautiful conclusion, doesn't just speak to those of us who make it our business to do something about the way the world is heading. Its narrative strength is going beyond its narrow corridors of story, in which we see very few people other than its principles in any depth or color, to remind us that even we don't seek to change the world, the world comes after us and changes us. The tragedies and victories of Hannah and Johnny, including one terrifying sequence involving Tyler that is struck with an almost dizzying ambiguity, skirt around being mere escalations of drama for the sake of plot and make a mad dash towards the end, providing a purely exhilarating reminder that hope and despair are two strands forever intertwined, and that living through both of them is a struggle we all face no matter how we try to position ourselves.
Davis has narrative gifts, but they'd be wasted if she wasn't such a tremendous illustrator. From the book's gorgeously colored, Edenic cover to its wordless and striking final pages, her skill at composition buoys the story at every turn, creating a seamless whole that makes it one of the best comics I've read in a particularly rich year for the medium. It's sexy, gripping, funny, dark, and moody, with the outdoor scenes pastoral and bright and the urban drama surrounded by pools of black ink and claustrophobic angles. There are so many perfect little details – the body language of a riot cop as he slams a protestor down on the pavement, Tyler's wide affectless gaze, the quiet conflict of facial expressions on Hannah's emotionally torn friend Gabby – that I could spend the bulk of this review talking about them and never get close to explaining how well they work together as a whole. It's enough to say that The Hard Tomorrow is the culmination of a steady progression in her work that is now so fully realized it demands our attention.
All told, this is a book that finds that razor's edge between irrelevance and datedness and balances there with the expertise of a gymnast. One of the frustrating things about our current moment, in which so much is changing so fast and there is a sense of finality and doom that hasn't felt so real since the nuclear terror of the Cold War, is that unlike then, very little art has arisen to meet that moment and reflect it back to us in a way that speaks to our fears and to our hopes. It seems easier to retreat into pleasant nostalgia or thoughtless escapism than to root down to what's gnawing at our souls The Hard Tomorrow doesn't shy away from that task, and giving voice to those hopes and fears is what makes it such a vital and moving book.


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At age six, silly me, I had the idea to ask my father to give me my first guitar lesson. At age nine I was admitted to the "Conservatorio di Milano" in the class of Maestro Ruggero Chiesa, where I graduated with top marks.
A few years after graduating I suddenly got bored with the guitar. Fascinated more and more by the lute, I decided to begin studying it. I learned the technique from the most prestigious Maestros of this instrument.
With the lute I recorded a CD entitled "The Knight of The Lute" and, to satisfy the nostalgia for my previous instrument, I recorded another one with the 19th century guitar "Fandango y Rondo".
Both CDs were produced entirely independently because some friends and I wanted to find a record label dedicated to the guitar and similar instruments. You can imagine how it went …
I think it is worth mentioning that the Lute CD has been enthusiastically reviewed by the prestigious London "Society of the Lute".
"His technique is dazzling, every note precisely placed and weighted, every point of imitation clearly brought out, and all parts in the counterpoint are beautifully phrased".
"In the middle of the sequence Tumeo places the Dowland (Poulton 8z Lam lA), and here he really goes to town, decorating at almost every opportunity, and progressively increasing the tempo to a veryvirtuosic finish. It's rare indeed to experience Dowland as an explosion of joy amidst others' melancholy!"
"The monstrously difficult divisions in `Mounsier's Almaine' are astonishingly well played, though I have some reservations about the phrasing in this piece" Meic Goodyear "The Lute Society of England Magazine" march 98'
Meic Goodyear "The Lute Society of England Magazine" marzo 98'
I played in Italy and abroad, but at one point, fed-up with the pathetic fees and the enormous difficulties in finding suitable venues, I decided to stop performing.
For twenty years I have organized an international festival hosting the most outstanding guitar and lute performers making a little known Milan suburb a hot spot to meet and study for many string instruments lovers.
In 2011 I recorded the CD "Bagatelles".
Today I teach guitar, play for my friends and spend my free time building brass locomotive models and taking care of my bonsai.


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The Children's Social Work Matters (CSWM) programme was launched 10 years ago to champion the vital role of children's social workers and raise industry standards.
Children's social work teams up and down the country have historically had to deal with ever-rising case numbers, negative public perceptions and high vacancy rates, often against a backdrop of budget cuts and unfavourable publicity. In Yorkshire and the Humber the picture is no different and the response has been a collective call to action by the region's 15 council children's services departments.
The Children's Social Work Matters (CSWM) programme was launched 10 years ago to champion the vital role of children's social workers and raise industry standards. In the first and only collaboration of its kind, it also sought to tackle other major issues that were impacting on services, including high agency and vacancy rates, myths and misconceptions about the role, and low morale.
The challenge
In 2011, the CSWM proposition to challenge social work misconceptions through proactive communications and to encourage regional services to work collaboratively was unique, so we needed children's social work teams to make a leap of faith.
We began by building links between stakeholders at all levels and at every opportunity. A major focus was encouraging and supporting teams and individuals to not only be open and honest about their practice challenges, but also to highlight how rewarding our line of work can be.
If we were to dispel misconceptions about the profession, raise morale and attract and retain the right people, we also needed to promote the role and its many benefits.
The solution
The CSWM website was launched in 2011. Aimed primarily at addressing these issues, it provides a wealth of information about the role of children's social workers, including case studies, qualifications needed and routes into the profession.
A jobs page, featuring vacancies from across the region, was added to the site in 2013 and an internal portal was also introduced that same year.
The internal portal provides a platform where children's social workers from across our region can share knowledge, resources and best practice. With online and in-person events playing a huge role in our approach to training, learning and sharing knowledge, we've successfully hosted a number of wide-ranging events and activities for our registered users. Our 'Festival of Social Work' conferences, for example, are a platform to both celebrate and educate, with a genuine recognition of children's social worker achievements and keynote sessions from industry experts and those with care experience. We've also hosted a series of interactive, information-sharing workshops led by our colleagues, parents and young people, covering topics such as workforce resilience, poverty, neglect, accreditation and transitional safeguarding.
The impact
Yorkshire and the Humber was the first region to work together in this way, the scale of which remains unique today, and CSWM continues to receive longstanding national recognition of its work and the value it brings.
The feedback we've had so far from colleagues, partners and stakeholders has been overwhelmingly positive. The website has been viewed 658,991 times by 556,167 unique visitors. This, along with a series of ongoing awareness-raising campaigns, has resulted in staff continuing to report a boost in morale and confidence, as well as a better acknowledgement in the community of the status and importance of the role.
The response from the jobs page has been phenomenal, with some councils reporting a 200 per cent increase in job applications during the programme's third year. We have received feedback from a number of councils to say that when their jobs were not advertised on the CSWM page, there had been a noticeable reduction in the amount of applications they received. As a region, we have since consistently achieved lower-than-national-average workforce vacancy and agency worker rates. 2020 data has shown a vacancy rate of 12.8 per cent in the region against a national rate of 16.1 per cent, with agency rates being 11.1 per cent regionally compared with 15.4 per cent nationally.
The internal portal currently has around 5,000 registered practitioners, students and academics actively engaging at every level of the programme. This includes our many events and activities, which have been attended by thousands of our registered users. We've had feedback from colleagues, telling us that they always look forward to our events, which they find to be insightful, thought-provoking and engaging.
Issues such as poverty, abuse, domestic violence and neglect have always been at the forefront of children's social work practice, but as we know, the pandemic only served to exacerbate those issues, resulting in a national spike in demand for our services. When the pandemic first hit we found ourselves in the fortuitous position of having a well-established infrastructure in place to support our children's social workers at a time when they needed it most. This included the continuation of regular online events and meetings via our secure, online portal, allowing everyone to share good practice and implement different ways of working with families to deliver vital services during the lockdowns. As an example, we held an online, interactive stakeholder event to help support effective practice and child safety during the lockdowns, covering topics from staff working arrangements and well-being, to online safety and emotional support for children in care.
It was those well-established, regional partnerships that proved to be invaluable during those difficult months and it's fair to say the pandemic has further cemented those bonds. Without those trusted, close connections we would not have been able to have such open and frank conversations about the challenges we were all faced with. This made it much easier to implement better working practices with all of our stakeholders, be it with neighbouring authorities, adult social care teams or other key partners; continually sharing resources, knowledge and information.
Whilst there are no quick or easy answers, the CSWM programme has made significant progress in addressing some of the key issues faced by our children's social workers. So much so that in recent years we've been approached by other children's services teams in England looking to replicate our model; a model which has in the past ten years, resulted in collective financial value and cost savings of more than £700,000 for our councils in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
How is the new approach being sustained?
The scale, collective resource, longevity and sustainability of CSWM have enabled significant cost savings and efficiencies as the programme continues to evolve and grow. At a cost of only £7,500 per year to each council, the programme also delivers substantial value.
The scale of resource that the 15 councils bring, has enabled investment in the use of digital technology, and to reach and engage with significant numbers of social workers and stakeholders.
Lessons learned
CSWM is a collaboration that gives our children's social workers a voice, allowing innovative practice to be highlighted, celebrated and shared, all for the benefit of those needing our services.
The bringing together of professionals from a wide range of backgrounds such as marketing, PR, HR, training, academics, practitioners at all levels and importantly those with lived experience on this scale, is unique and is really making a difference across our region. This has ensured that the core CSWM aims; to work collaboratively and learn together, have remained an important focus for the Children's Service teams across the region.
The development, growth and success of the programme has been due in no small part, to the long-standing commitment of all our councils and our many established working groups. This sustained commitment has allowed the programme to grow and evolve organically, producing incremental results, which have reinforced the benefits of participating in the programme for councils.
Ultimately we've also learned that working and learning together as one big children's social work team is helping us to improve outcomes for the children and families we serve to support and protect and CSWM will remain a core driver of this.
Karen Jones, Communications & Marketing Manager
Children's Social Work Matters [email protected]


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Lena Dunham Is A Lying Liar Who Lies
Lena Dunham is a very clever writer, a brave actress and an intelligent woman with some insightful things to say about relationships. Relationships between: parents and their adult children, bosses and employees, husbands and wives, friends, roommates, idol-worshipped heroes and their worshippers, and between romantic or hook-up partners. She is also a savvy businesswoman who's adroitly navigating the entertainment business. For all of these things, I greatly admire Lena Dunham. However, Lena Dunham is also a lying liar who lies. In her breakout hit HBO series Girls, which Dunham writes as well as sometimes directing and producing, Dunham casts and writes herself in the role of Hannah Horvath: the Regular Girl, the Smart Girl, the Not-Hottie, if you will. Hannah is smart and funny, and prone to bouts of neurosis and narcissism, but no more so than anyone in their 20s who lives in New York (or L.A., or Chicago, or London, etc….


text: Shifty garnet-coppered barleywine never fully integrates bourbon barrel influence. Buttery smooth groove develops as oncoming sherry wining deepens black cherry-pureed fig, raisin and plum fruiting alongside sappy molasses sugaring. Astringent hop bittering lingers thru vanilla-fudged dark chocolate finish. On tap at NY Wing Factory, sweet bourbon luster drops off precipitously and casual dried fruiting lacks pertinence.


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Before you start your house search, and certainly before you ask for a loan, it would be beneficial to run through the same calculations as a bank lender would to get an accurate idea of how high of a mortgage you and your family can afford. A basic step would be to multiply your total yearly income by three, and that is the amount you could afford in a mortgage. That is only a ball-park figure, however, and not one you want to bank on. A more important figure to know is your discretionary income: how much do you have left over in your monthly budget? Then you will have to calculate how much you would be able to pay in a mortgage, and then still be able to meet tax payments, insurance, upkeep, etc.
Lenders say that paying a mortgage and any other debts should not take up more than 28 percent to 44 percent of your earnings every month. Thus debt payments should use up $880 or less of a monthly income of $2,000, for example. But what you are able to afford is not the entire equation. Credit history matters too.
Someone with a history of late bill payments may have their application denied, or they may be asked to pay a steep down payment or to have a high interest rate. Even late rent payments can count against you. It does not even matter if you had every reason to miss a payment, unfortunately.
Your FICO score, or your credit score, can be provided by Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion to a lender as they go over your application for a loan. On this score will be a record of how consistently you meet your payments on time, how much debt you still have, etc. Your loan application has a higher chance of being accepted the higher your credit score is. Usually speaking, you have to at least have a credit score of 730 if you want your loan application to be accepted.
Once you have done the math for yourself, you can then ask a lender (or a loan broker) do go over the same information. That is, you could request a prequalification letter, which says that an approved loan for a certain amount is probable because of your income and credit score. If you prequalify, this furnishes you with details on the amount you would be able to get from a loan, and it informs you on the down payment and closing costs that you can expect.
If you can, you will want to be further preapproved for a loan that will be sufficient for what you need. This preapproval would show that a lender has said they would want to approve your loan application because they have looked into your credit history and finances for themselves. Now there is no such thing as a guarantee that a loan application will be accepted, but being preapproved is near enough to one. This will look very good to someone who is selling a home. But loan approval is based on more than your financial situation, as a loan being accepted also depends on the property's appraisal, a title report, and more.
For help understanding all the fine print on the conditions of your loan, on a home appraisal, or in any step of the home-buying process, you could find it of great benefit to work with experts, financial experts and legal experts. Whenever you need help with real estate law, do not hesitate to contact a real estate attorney for the assistance that you deserve. Call one today!


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The quarantine obligation has been extended to those arriving in Italy from the United Kingdom
With the health emergency worsening across Europe, citizens are currently advised not to travel abroad except for absolutely necessary reasons. In particular, Wednesday evening The Italian government imposed stricter restrictions on Returning from the UK Extending the quarantine obligation until a later date.
Specifically, the title of the new rules Those who have resided in or passed through the UK between 7 December 2020 and 6 January 2021. In this case, only those who have it are permitted to enter Italy Registered residence in Italy From a date prior to December 23, 2020 or that has The cause of absolute necessity Mainly linked to medical conditions.
Those who fall into these situations must necessarily follow a specific procedure, or undergo Unhealthy or molecular test within 72 hours prior to departureThen on to another Test within 48 hours of arrival At the airport, port, or border location.
Regardless of the test result, those who return will also have the obligation to undergoCredit isolation for fourteen days At home or residence, notify the local health authorities of the municipality of residence.
Transport crew and personnel Coming from the UK, however, follow a different procedure: the obligation to undergo a molecular or antigen test within 48 hours of entering the national territory, but the subsequent quarantine period is not mandatory.
For more information, you can find the regulation currently in effect at Official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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- Clone
- IA6-2 (See other available formats)
- Regulatory Status
- Other Names
- Ig delta chain C region
- Isotype
- Mouse IgG2a, κ
- Ave. Rating
- Submit a Review
- Product Citations
- publications
|Cat #
|Quantity Check Availability
|25 tests
|100 tests
IgD, a member of the immunoglobulin (Ig) family, is expressed in naïve B cells. It has 3 Ig-like domains and exists in a transmembrane and a soluble form. In general, IgD is not secreted and usually its expression is lost after the Ig isotype switch. After antigen binding, IgD signals through the CD79a/CD79b (Igα/Igβ) heterodimer, resulting in the activation of the B cell.Product Details
Product Details
- Verified Reactivity
- Human
- Antibody Type
- Monoclonal
- Host Species
- Mouse
- Immunogen
- Human IgD
- Formulation
- Phosphate-buffered solution, pH 7.2, containing 0.09% sodium azide and BSA (origin USA)
- Preparation
- The antibody was purified by affinity chromatography and conjugated with Alexa Fluor® 488 under optimal conditions.
- Concentration
- Lot-specific (to obtain lot-specific concentration and expiration, please enter the lot number in our Certificate of Analysis online tool.)
- Storage & Handling
- The antibody solution should be stored undiluted between 2°C and 8°C, and protected from prolonged exposure to light. Do not freeze.
- Application
FC - Quality tested
SB - Reported in the literature, not verified in house
- Recommended Usage
Each lot of this antibody is quality control tested by immunofluorescent staining with flow cytometric analysis. For flow cytometric staining, the suggested use of this reagent is 5 µl per million cells in 100 µl staining volume or 5 µl per 100 µl of whole blood.
* Alexa Fluor® 488 has a maximum emission of 519 nm when it is excited at 488 nm.
Alexa Fluor® and Pacific Blue™ are trademarks of Life Technologies Corporation.
View full statement regarding label licenses
- Excitation Laser
Blue Laser (488 nm)
- Application Notes
Additional reported applications (for the relevant formats) include: immunohistochemical staining of paraformaldehyde fixed frozen sections4 and spatial biology (IBEX)5,6.
- Additional Product Notes
Iterative Bleaching Extended multi-pleXity (IBEX) is a fluorescent imaging technique capable of highly-multiplexed spatial analysis. The method relies on cyclical bleaching of panels of fluorescent antibodies in order to image and analyze many markers over multiple cycles of staining, imaging, and, bleaching. It is a community-developed open-access method developed by the Center for Advanced Tissue Imaging (CAT-I) in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, NIH).
Application References
(PubMed link indicates BioLegend citation)
- Chen K, et al. 2009. Nat. Immunol. 10:889.
- Lee CH, et al. 2005. J. Exp. Med. 203:63.
- Sutter JA, et al. 2008. Clin. Immunol. 126:282.
- Li H and Pauza CD. 2015. Eur. J. Immunol. 45:298. (IHC)
- Radtke AJ, et al. 2020. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 117:33455-33465. (SB) PubMed
- Radtke AJ, et al. 2022. Nat Protoc. 17:378-401. (SB) PubMed
- Product Citations
AB_11150397 (BioLegend Cat. No. 348215)
AB_11150595 (BioLegend Cat. No. 348216)
Antigen Details
- Structure
- Exists in a transmembranal and a soluble form
- Distribution
Naïve B cells
- Function
- Antigen binding, B cell activation
- Interaction
- The CD79a/CD79b heterodimer
- Cell Type
- B cells
- Biology Area
- Immunology
- Antigen References
1. Geisberger R, et al. 2006. Immunology 118:429.
2. Weller S, et al. 2005. Eur. J. Immunol. 35:2789.
3. Brandtzaeg P and Johansen FE. 2005. Immunol. Rev. 206:32.
- Gene ID
- 3495 View all products for this Gene ID
- UniProt
- View information about IgD on UniProt.org
Related Pages & Pathways
Related FAQs
- If an antibody clone has been previously successfully used in IBEX in one fluorescent format, will other antibody formats work as well?
It's likely that other fluorophore conjugates to the same antibody clone will also be compatible with IBEX using the same sample fixation procedure. Ultimately a directly conjugated antibody's utility in fluorescent imaging and IBEX may be specific to the sample and microscope being used in the experiment. Some antibody clone conjugates may perform better than others due to performance differences in non-specific binding, fluorophore brightness, and other biochemical properties unique to that conjugate.
- Will antibodies my lab is already using for fluorescent or chromogenic IHC work in IBEX?
Fundamentally, IBEX as a technique that works much in the same way as single antibody panels or single marker IF/IHC. If you're already successfully using an antibody clone on a sample of interest, it is likely that clone will have utility in IBEX. It is expected some optimization and testing of different antibody fluorophore conjugates will be required to find a suitable format; however, legacy microscopy techniques like chromogenic IHC on fixed or frozen tissue is an excellent place to start looking for useful antibodies.
- Are other fluorophores compatible with IBEX?
Over 18 fluorescent formats have been screened for use in IBEX, however, it is likely that other fluorophores are able to be rapidly bleached in IBEX. If a fluorophore format is already suitable for your imaging platform it can be tested for compatibility in IBEX.
- The same antibody works in one tissue type but not another. What is happening?
Differences in tissue properties may impact both the ability of an antibody to bind its target specifically and impact the ability of a specific fluorophore conjugate to overcome the background fluorescent signal in a given tissue. Secondary stains, as well as testing multiple fluorescent conjugates of the same clone, may help to troubleshoot challenging targets or tissues. Using a reference control tissue may also give confidence in the specificity of your staining.
- How can I be sure the staining I'm seeing in my tissue is real?
In general, best practices for validating an antibody in traditional chromogenic or fluorescent IHC are applicable to IBEX. Please reference the Nature Methods review on antibody based multiplexed imaging for resources on validating antibodies for IBEX.
Other FormatsView All IgD Reagents Request Custom Conjugation
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Compare Data Across All Formats
This data display is provided for general comparisons between formats.
Your actual data may vary due to variations in samples, target cells, instruments and their settings, staining conditions, and other factors.
If you need assistance with selecting the best format contact our expert technical support team.
Alexa Fluor® 647 anti-human IgD
PerCP anti-human IgD
Brilliant Violet 605™ anti-human IgD
Alexa Fluor® 700 anti-human IgD
Purified anti-human IgD
PE anti-human IgD
Biotin anti-human IgD
FITC anti-human IgD
PerCP/Cyanine5.5 anti-human IgD
PE/Cyanine7 anti-human IgD
Alexa Fluor® 488 anti-human IgD
APC/Cyanine7 anti-human IgD
Brilliant Violet 510™ anti-human IgD
APC anti-human IgD
Pacific Blue™ anti-human IgD
Brilliant Violet 421™ anti-human IgD
Purified anti-human IgD (Maxpar® Ready)
PE/Dazzle™ 594 anti-human IgD
APC/Fire™ 750 anti-human IgD
Brilliant Violet 785™ anti-human IgD
TotalSeq™-A0384 anti-human IgD
TotalSeq™-C0384 anti-human IgD
TotalSeq™-B0384 anti-human IgD
PE/Cyanine5 anti-human IgD
TotalSeq™-D0384 anti-human IgD


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- This event has passed.
No More Silence – A social justice forum for domestic violence awareness
October 14, 2018 / 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm @ News
This is a social justice forum that is hosted by the Camphor Church. Read below for details!
Please Save The date
Everyone is welcome, feel free to invite your family & friends!
Camphor Church
United Methodist Women's
Social Justice Forum
Domestic Violence Awareness
~No more silence~
When: Sunday, October 14, 2018
Where: Camphor Church, 585 Fuller Avenue, St. Paul, MN
- Linda EagleSpeaker
- Oliver Williams
- Roxy Walker
- Artika Roller
- Tracy Williams
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Contact: (612) 296-2972
~Light Refreshments will be served during both sessions~


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Devil Shoestring
Used for protecting you and our home, brings good luck, helps getting a job when unemployed, stops gossip, removes hexes.
Devil's Shoestring or known also as Polygonum Amphibium, Hobble Bush, Goat's Rue, or Cramp Bark. A tangled root that can grow to enormous sizes. Herbalists see it as an antispasmodic, particularly in helping to ease menstrual pains. Used magically to bring luck and protection when carried, used in enemy pathways, and in controlling a lover. Root form to be stored in a cool, dark place in a sealed container.
Disclaimer: May also have physical benefits . Always talk to your doctor before using herbal supplements. Some herbs may have side effects when mixed with over the counter medications. Herbal supplements do not replace your prescription drugs.


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Lactic Acid Peel in Clark, NJ
This moderately aggressive treatment is a mild AHA acid that is derived from milk. A much weaker acid than glycolic acid, lactic acid is best known as an acid peel for the removal of sun spots, hyperpigmentation, liver spots and other skin discolorations. A Lactic Acid peel is also recommended for the reduction of Rosacea as it is the mildest of AHA peels. Cosmeceuticals are then applied to supplement the skin and to assist in correcting specific conditions such pigmentation and fine lines.
Introductory Offers
Hand & Stone offers a full complement of specialty massages, facials and enhancements. Introductory Offers valid for One-Hour* Swedish Massage, Classic (or Teens/Men's) Facial or Hot Stone Massage services only. Call the spa for specialty service availability.
Pro-Bright Treatment
The Pro-Bright Treatment is using one of our strongest, fastest peels. This unique three-acid approach provides deep exfoliation that is 100% personalized to you. Ideal for fine lines, wrinkles, uneven pigmentation or breakouts. It brightens, hydrates and lifts - the perfect combo!
Prepping for Dermalinfusion!
Dermalinfusion is a patented, non-invasive, 3-in-1 dermatological treatment that simultaneously exfoliates, extracts and infuses skin with condition-specific serums for an all-inclusive treatment in one step.
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If you've never had a Massage or Facial, you may be wondering what to expect on your first visit to Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa. During your visit you'll experience relaxation and comfort, dedicated to your well-being and peace of mind. We want your spa experience to be a memorable one.Learn More


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March 22, 2010
You mean it's possible for contextual ad placement to not be a screw up?
Really good (or really lucky) buy for Showtime's
Nurse Jackie
on NYTimes.com on the day health care reform is approved.
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Investors have been able to keep up their resolution and initiative by the beginning of Tuesday, so today we have a good chance of seeing the continuation of purchases. Considering that the market experienced the third correction in as many months (Jan. 17, Feb. 6, March 18), the path promises to be thorny, but all the more exciting for that.
Negative tendencies are surprisingly soon forgotten on the cryptocurrency market, and with time more and more players will abandon caution and believe in "eternal growth." We, however, will remain vigilant, and encourage our readers to do the same.
Market indicators confirm the investors' mood: Bitcoin price had already reached $8,700, and is now at the level of $8,500; market capitalization grew by almost 6 percent to $335 bln. The underlying asset helped investors to wait out the storm and now gradually repays its debts to altcoins — Bitcoin cominance fell from 45 to 43.5 percent during the day, which is also a good sign in the context of market recovery.
Altcoins skyrocket at the first opportunity after downtrend
The price of some altcoins literally soared into the sky. In the top 10, the absolute leaders were EOS and Cardano — in just two (incomplete) days, both of them grew by 60 percent from the Sunday minimum.
Ripple is in second place — in the past 24 hours, the change is no astonishing, but an increase of 35 percent in the same two days is still an excellent result. The rest of the top assets grew by an average of 15-20 percent from the peak of sales, and 5-8 percent in the last 24 hours.
A supportive news cycle continues to encourage market growth. Yesterday, Yi Gang was appointed as the new head of People's Bank of China (PBOC), who had earlier spoken positively about Bitcoin and recognized the right of ordinary citizen to use it. It's too early to say or predict anything with certainty, but a lift of China's ban on cryptocurrency operations might begin with this appointment?
Yesterday, the situation developed according to a bullish scenario, so Bitcoin managed to achieve several goals at once. First, buyers were able to protect the level of $8,200 and the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement, and second, they managed to break the upper boundary of the local descending channel (to avoid confusion, we marked it in orange on the chart). Despite the bears' attempts to return the price to the lower register, the break was quickly recovered by purchases to previous levels.
For the moment, the price is moving not just inside a steep channel, but along a parabola. This growth can't continue for long, and the bears seem to be in hiding, plotting new schemes against the bulls. Therefore, a slight rollback would be more than appropriate. We believe that it could happen when the price reaches the next boundary of the descending channel: if the parabola will remain relevant by that time, we are talking about the level of $8,870.
After recharging their batteries, buyers will be ready to move on to further prospects in the form of the $9,000 level, and further, $9,400. The latter of these targets is doubly confirmed by the 0.786 and 1.618 values of successively constructed Fibonacci expansions.
In case of a negative development, if the bears have already licked their wounds, we can see a repeated downward break through the channel and a testing of the $8,000 level, which we also wrote about yesterday.
The minimum price of EOS in the course of the current correction was just under $4. Even though some instruments of technical analysis earlier pointed to a possible price of $3, buyers showed significant interest toward the potential competitor to Ethereum. Clearly, the culmination of sales has passed, and EOS can fall below $4 only in case of an extremely negative and extremely unlikely scenario. A correction to the range of $5.1- $5.4 is much more probable.
Growth targets, on the other hand, are quite clear. With a high degree of probability, the first is $6.8, coinciding with the mirror level of support-resistance, and then $7.9-$8. The second target is confirmed not only by the 1.618 Fibonacci extension, but also by fair price for the asset for the period since beginning of December.
Whether to reduce positions upon reaching this mark is every investor's personal choice, depending on goals, entry points and the state of the market. From time to time, we will return to this coin and discuss further prospects.
Out of the top 10 assets, Cardano took the most damage in the course of three corrections. The price minimum was $0.12, although just a month ago that seemed impossible. We will remind our readers: nothing is impossible in the cryptocurrency market!
After the reversal, buyers showed quite a bit of activity, as evidenced by significant trading volumes. The asset managed to break out of the descending channel, but so far the price has not been able to get a secure foothold above it.
In case of continued growth, we see two potential targets — the level of $0.26, coinciding with the minimum of February 6 and now acting as a mirror, and $0.3. In addition to being a psychologically attractive round number, the target is confirmed by the value of 1.618 Fibonacci extension, as well as the fair price since the end of the previous decline.
In case of unpleasant surprises on the part of Bitcoin, we can expect a repeted test of the channel, and if that doesn't hold — correction to the level of $0.16. However, at the moment, such a scenario seems unlikely.


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March For Our Lives' #RoadtoChange tour made a stop in Poli Pix Co.'s hometown of El Paso last month, sharing its vision for gun-sense communities and to usher in a new generation of voters into the political process.
Perhaps one of the most significant moments from the event for Poli Pix came from speaking with a local Republican, military veteran, and 2nd Amendment supporter about ways to come together and make progress on ending mass shootings. While he admitted that certain gun control laws don't seem applicable to every community (in fact, El Paso is routinely rated as one of the safest cities in the U.S., so we get it), he understood the value of attending the event to hear the other side's perspective. As a father, he found agreement with us that schools should be a safe place while respectfully disagreeing on the general access to guns in our society. We're of the opinion that more conversations like this – underpinned by decorum and respect – should be happening; everywhere and all the time.
By our own account, the Parkland students and others have been pretty moderate in voicing their their policy goals. They're looking for political leadership on establishing mandatory waiting periods to obtain firearms, on reconciling red flag laws to keep guns out of dangerous domestic environments, and on keeping guns out of classrooms. To that point, while there may be individuals in schools with concealed carry permits, it's insane to us that the need for threat-neutralizing skills should ever hold more political importance than cultivating the next generation.
Here's a sample of the full gallery we provided to the organization (32/102 images):


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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
America continues to increase its debt to unsustainable levels and public benefits coffers run up against funding shortfalls, but that doesn't slow down a growing defense budget, or foreign aid package to nations which are routinely involved in egregious human rights violations and often serve as a contentious force in a region, the Middle East, becoming ever more destabilized, also at the hand of Washington's politicians, whether on the right or left.
Both Medicare and Social Security are programs which working Americans pay into, and which are expected to run out of money, while the Pentagon and Israel don't have to worry about their budgets.
Activist Post observes:
As the United States government admits that Social Security and Medicare services are going bankrupt and will both be completely depleted within the next 16 years, American taxpayers are giving around $10.5 million to a close ally that is routinely accused of human rights violations.
The latest report from the Social Security Administration revealed that Social Security funds will be depleted by 2034, and Medicare funds will be depleted by 2026—three years earlier than what was last reported. Last year, Social Security and Medicare funds accounted for 42 percent of federal program expenditures, and as the report noted:
Both Social Security and Medicare face long-term financing shortfalls under currently scheduled benefits and financing. Lawmakers have a broad continuum of policy options that would close or reduce the long-term financing shortfall of both programs. The Trustees recommend that lawmakers take action sooner rather than later to address these shortfalls so that a broader range of solutions can be considered and more time will be available to phase in changes while giving the public adequate time to prepare. Earlier action will also help elected officials minimize adverse impacts on vulnerable populations, including lower-income workers and people already dependent on program benefits.
While the increased reduction in Social Security and Medicare funds can be blamed on the federal government, it is not the only area where government spending should warrant serious concern. In December 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that federal debt held by the public was more than $9 trillion or 62 percent of GDP.
The federal debt held by the public is now $16 trillion or 78 percent of GDP, and the latest projections from the CBO show that it is estimated to increase to $29 trillion or 96 percent of GDP by 2028, which would mark "the largest since 1946 and well more than twice the average over the past five decades."
As the Foundation for Economic Education reported, while the government continues to spend money it does not have as if there are no consequences, it has gotten to the point where it seems unlikely that the debt will ever be paid back:
"A fair amount of this trouble can be laid at the feet of the federal government and its seemingly insatiable habit of spending money it doesn't have. It's gotten to the point that there isn't really anywhere else in the world that has the amount of money the US government needs to borrow. It seemed so easy to just take that money from the Social Security and Medicare trusts at the time, but with federal spending now higher than it's ever been (regardless of whether you adjust for inflation or simply count it as a percentage of GDP), it seems very unlikely that that money will—or even can—ever be paid back."
While the U.S. government's failure to take care of its citizens may be viewed as a good thing because it lets them turn to solutions in the private sector to solve their problems, the government is still robbing citizens through taxes, and making it look as if it will benefit them in the long run through programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
In reality, the federal government is using the money it extorts from citizens to fund endless wars in the Middle East—with the price tag for the longest war in U.S. history costing double the estimate of what it would cost to end homelessness in the U.S. annually in 2018. Millions of taxpayer dollars are also being spent on questionable foreign aid programs, such as the United States' increasing pledges of military aid to Israel.
Former President Obama set the record by pledging $3.8 billion to Israel every year for the next 10 years in 2016, with the largest military aid deal in U.S. history. President Trump increased the amount by pledging an additional $75 million in 2018, while Americans suffering from the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey begged for aid.
The United States' commitment to Israel has stayed the same, even as Israel was caught opening fire on peaceful protesters near their border fence in Gaza, killing dozens and injuring thousands. While other countries accused Israel of war crimes and called for an investigation, the U.S. blatantly ignored the atrocities.
If countries such as Syria, Russia, or Iran, were targeting civilians in the same way that Israel is, the United States would be calling for a full-scale invasion. Instead, the U.S. continues to condone the country's treatment of Palestinian civilians by sending Israel $10.5 million a day—even when Americans are in desperate need—all while the president in office gained support by promising to put "America First."
However one chooses to look at Social Security and Medicare, they are paid for by Americans, and they benefit Americans in a way that is much different from programs termed 'handouts'.
Additionally, with the decreasing number of jobs available which pay wages capable of covering these expenses, a number of real world issues come into play at some point for every American, and that is age and the related issues of declining health, both of which are things which impact Americans who, when these factors are encountered, are no longer able to cover through wages, since not all employers can or will hire elderly or disabled persons and are much less likely than that to pay them an amount capable of not only providing for their living but also for their medical expenses.
The jobs and wage issue strikes Americans of all ages, but the issue becomes even more pronounced when it addresses American who are elderly and experience health issues, which makes covering these expenses on their own something that simply doesn't match today's healthcare and cost of living realities.
But America can host military bases the world over, spend trillions on weapons, and send money to float Israel. Or, at least that's what it chooses. But apparently, choosing Americans first is not what's on the top of the agenda of an administration which touts 'America First' as its motto and justification for waging trade, and shooting, wars the world over.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.


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Idol Killer
A Doctrine Examined - Episode 5 - Yetzer Epithumia & Concupiscence
Updated: Aug 14, 2020
In this episode we consider man's desires, drives and ambitions as understood by the Latin term Concupiscence as opposed to the Hebrew yetser and Greek epithumia.
"If you want it, it's sin... if it feels good, God hates it."
This is often the view adherents of Western Christianity take with regard to our appetites, drives, ambitions and desires... but it isn't the Biblical view.
If Original Sin is true and mankind is stained with concupiscence, then this would corrupt the nature of Christ and deny His role as our Spotless Redeemer. Rather we should understand God has given man ambition, drives, appetites and desires and when used as He intended they are good, but when misused they lead to sin.
This series will conduct a comprehensive examination of Augustinian inherited sin doctrines, consider various passages in Scripture used to teach and refute this, as well as take a critical look and consider the various problems that may arise.
How you can help our ministry grow?
If our content has been a blessing to you, please consider liking, commenting and sharing this with your friends, family and church body. YouTube and Facebook have certain algorithms and your engagement with our content on their platforms helps increase its ranking and exposure.