text:
In recent weeks, the Oregon Republican primary for U.S. Senate has been in the Wall Street Journal, on Fox News, on MSNBC and on the Washington Post's website.
That's an impressive publicity rap for candidates who have little name recognition in a decidedly blue state. There are a few reasons why the battle between front-runners Jason Conger, a state representative from Bend, and Monica Wehby, a physician from Portland, has captured national attention.
One, though the vulnerability of incumbent Democrat Jeff Merkley is open to debate, Republicans believe they could wrest control of the Senate in November. The numbers are close enough that interest is growing even in heavily Democratic states such as Oregon.
Two, both candidates have compelling personal stories that are easily condensed into catchy sound bites. Conger, a state representative from Bend, grew up in poverty and almost dropped out of high school before eventually graduating from Harvard Law. His website describes his story as "Homeless to Harvard." Wehby, of Portland, is a pediatric neurosurgeon whose first television ad features the quip that politics is "not brain surgery." Wehby's opposition to the Affordable Care Act has prompted campaign bumper stickers that read, "Keep your doctor. Change your Senator."
And third, at least to some, the race between Conger and Wehby is representative of a greater struggle within the GOP. The tea party, a grass-roots movement that sprung from the Republican Party in 2009, continues to fracture the conservative base.
Meanwhile, some Republicans warn that if the party doesn't bend on social issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion, it will lose its appeal among younger voters.
Five Republicans will appear on the Republican ballot, including Mark Callahan, Timothy Crawley and Jo Rae Perkins. Only two candidates, however, have dominated the race.
Jason Conger
Conger, 46, was raised by parents whom he describes as "part of the hippie movement" of the 1960s. His parents divorced when Conger was 8. He moved around frequently before settling in Crescent City, Calif. His family struggled to stay afloat, even spending one summer living out of a truck camper. At 16, after repeatedly clashing with his father, Conger moved out of his family home. He married his high school sweetheart, Amy, at 21.
That same year, he ran for City Council in Crescent City and lost by about 20 votes. He was recruited to work on the campaign of a local congressional candidate, Frank Riggs. Riggs won and Conger spent a year working for him in Washington, D.C., before returning to the West Coast. After studying at a community college, he completed his bachelor's degree at California State University, Humboldt. Conger excelled on the law school entrance exams and was accepted to Harvard Law School.
He graduated in 2000 and went to work for Cooley LLP as a corporate lawyer in San Diego. Four years later, Conger and his wife decided to raise their children in a small town. They moved to Bend, where Conger co-founded a real estate investment company now called Cornerstone Realty Holdings. He started his own law practice, then joined the law firm of Miller Nash LLP, where he is a partner.
Conger and his wife home-schooled their five children, ages 8 to 22. They initially tried it as a logistical solution while relocating during law school, Conger said. But they came to appreciate the benefits such as a flexible schedule and the freedom to align the curriculum with the family's faith.
In 2010, Conger defeated one-term Democratic incumbent Judy Stiegler to become the District 54 representative to the Oregon House. He won re-election in 2012 and announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate in October. If elected, Conger said, there are three main issues he would begin work on immediately.
"First, repeal Obamacare and replace it with a more modest and more proven set of reforms that will actually make health care more affordable," he said.
Second, Conger said he wants to "restore active management of our federal forests." Increased logging would jump-start rural economies by putting people to work felling trees and operating mills. Manufacturing would rebound, and secondary economies would grow, too, he said. More revenue would mean more taxes to fund schools and public safety. And logging would improve forest health and reduce costly, risky wildfires, he added.
Third, Conger said he would work to balance the budget and reduce the deficit.
"We have over $2.7 trillion of federal revenue every year," he said. "That seems like a lot of money to run the country with. Somewhere, someone will not get the federal dollars that they've been getting. But it just has to be done."
Monica Wehby
Wehby, 51, was born and raised in Nashville, Tenn. Her father worked as an accountant and small-business owner, and her mother as a registered nurse. Growing up in Nashville, Wehby said she was surrounded by music and learned to play the guitar, banjo and piano.
Beginning at age 18, Wehby's life history starts to read like a curriculum vitae. She attended the University of Notre Dame, then the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, where she said she first pondered the idea of running for Senate. At the time, she was medical student body president, senior class president and chairwoman of the Texas Medical Association medical student section. After graduating, in 1984, Wehby became the first woman to enroll in and graduate from the neurosurgery residency at the University of California, Los Angeles. Next, she completed a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at the University of Utah.
She moved to Portland in 1998 to work as director of pediatric neurosurgery at Randall Children's Hospital at Legacy Emanuel.
Though she has never held public office, Wehby has held professional leadership positions, including president of the Oregon Medical Association, where she led a statewide campaign for medical malpractice reform in 2004. That ballot measure lost.
As a doctor, she said, she is in touch with Oregonians from all over the state and has an intimate understanding of health care. She said she has often considered running for office but wanted to wait until her four children, now teenagers, were older.
"It's like having a baby: There's never a good time, you just have to go for it at some point," she said.
In the last year, as her interest grew more serious, she said she talked several times with Tom Coburn, a physician-turned-senator from Oklahoma. She was on the brink of launching her campaign when she phoned Coburn from her home office. It was September and she said she was looking out a west-facing window, toward the Coast Range, crying as she asked him, "How did you decide to leave your practice? How can I leave all these kids?"
"He told me, 'You're not leaving the kids, you're taking care of everybody …,'" she said.
Since announcing her candidacy in October, Wehby said she has scaled back her medical practice to about half time. If she wins the primary, she said she will take a sabbatical to campaign full time.
"I haven't wanted to leave my medical practice yet. I think it's important to stay grounded and keep in touch with what's going on," she said.
Wehby lives in southwest Portland, down the street from her ex-husband. She divorced in 2007.
Questions about influence
More recently, Wehby has been linked to Andrew Miller, president of Stimson Lumber and one of the top GOP donors in the state. The Oregonian reported in October that Wehby and Miller had introduced each other as their date at political events. In an interview last week, when asked to characterize her relationship with Miller, Wehby said: "We're friends."
The issue cropped up when Miller, along with Nevada businessman Loren Parks, created a Political Action Committee called "If He Votes Like That In Salem Imagine What He Will Do In Congress." According to a quarterly report filed with the Federal Election Commission this month, Parks donated $75,000 and Miller donated $30,950 to the PAC. Miller's sum includes an in-kind donation worth $5,950 — an anti-Conger billboard on Interstate 205 in Clackamas County outside of Portland.
The PAC has also paid for a radio commercial that criticizes Conger's House votes for bills to create the beleaguered state health insurance exchange and build a now-defunct bridge over the Columbia River. It also criticizes his vote for a budget bill that included funds for a new convention center and hotel in Portland.
Under federal law, individuals may only donate $2,600 to a candidate per election cycle, but unlimited donations are permitted to PACs. The catch: A PAC is strictly prohibited from coordinating with a candidate's campaign. That's where Wehby's friendship with Miller has drawn scrutiny.
On MSNBC, liberal talk host Chris Hayes sarcastically lamented: "Why can't a wealthy guy go out and buy something nice for the special someone in his life without everyone getting so suspicious?"
Wehby denied any collaboration between the campaign and the PAC. She said she had no idea who was funding the ads until she saw the FEC filing, which was first reported by Oregon Oracle earlier this month.
"There is absolutely no coordination between our campaign and the group that was doing those (ads)," Wehby said. "I'm a friend. I have nothing to do with those ads. I'm not going to comment any further on them."
Miller did not respond to voice mails requesting comment.
Wehby went on to ask why nobody alleges coordination between Conger's campaign and Oregon Right to Life, a pro-life organization that has endorsed Conger and is running radio ads promoting him and attacking Wehby.
Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life, said the group has been "extremely careful not to have any relationship whatsoever" with Conger or his campaign.
"It's kind of sad," she said. "We haven't talked to Jason in months and months. I saw him at a public meeting once, but that's it."
Conger said his campaign "deliberately severed any communication with (Oregon) Right to Life" after the organization endorsed him, to prevent conflicts of interest.
Atteberry declined to specify how much the organization is spending on the commercials, but the group's quarterly report filed with the Federal Election Commission this month shows it has already spent more than $54,000 on radio and video advertising related to the Conger-Wehby race.
GOP leaders back Wehby
Jennifer Rubin, a conservative writer for The Washington Post, penned a column on April 3 that tallied U.S. Senate seats that might swing from blue to red in November. By her calculations, "If you squint, you get to 14." That's twice as many seats as the Republicans would have to pick up to win the majority. Rubin conceded that Oregon's seat is "not likely to go to the GOP, but it's not nutty to think it might." In her bit about Oregon, the final state in her count to 14, Rubin made no mention of Conger. Instead, she said the state has "a highly competent female Republican doctor Monica Wehby running against Jeff Merkley."
In an April 11 column in The Wall Street Journal, Fred Barnes, a Fox News commentator and executive editor of The Weekly Standard, wrote of Wehby: "The National Republican Senatorial Committee hasn't endorsed her, but it tells anyone who asks that she's the strongest GOP contender." That nod has led to Wehby's significant fundraising advantage over Conger, Barnes wrote.
But Barnes went on to cite a recent survey by a Republican firm, Harper Polling, which determined that Conger would actually fare better against the incumbent than Wehby would. Conger trailed Merkley 47 percent to 40 percent, according to the poll, and Wehby trailed him 46 percent to 36 percent.
All of this helps explain why Conger insists that if this primary race follows the oft-used establishment-versus-outsider narrative, he plays the part of the challenger. Never mind that Wehby has never held political office, he said, she is clearly the "establishment" candidate.
"When I think of an 'establishment' candidate, I'm thinking of the organizations that have enormous resources nationally. Their center of gravity is Washington, D.C.," he said.
Conger said he is bothered by the sort of intervention in a primary that he believes the National Republican Senatorial Committee has demonstrated. Conger said he would prefer that outside money and influences stay out of the race until voters within Oregon have selected their candidate.
But Wehby said Conger met with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, too. She declined to assign any sort of narrative to the primary.
"I don't have any interest in getting into a food fight with my fellow Republicans," she said. "To be honest, I've been focused on Jeff Merkley the whole time. I think I'm the best candidate to beat Jeff."
Conger said the way he sees it, the Republican "establishment" tends to prefer more liberal candidates because experts in Washington believe they will have wider appeal.
"My sense is that was a big part of the motivation to promote Monica. They wanted a pro-gay-marriage candidate in D.C.," Conger said.
Gay marriage
Wehby scoffed at the idea that she was being promoted by out-of-state interests. And she said her views on gay marriage are more nuanced than Conger makes them out to be. She sees gay marriage as an issue for states, not the federal government.
"As Republicans, we are all about personal freedom," she said. "That's what our country was founded on: religious freedom and personal freedom. The federal government shouldn't be involved in the marriage business. … We also have to respect the religious freedom and beliefs of everyone. So I don't believe that churches should be forced to perform ceremonies that they don't agree with."
Conger said gay marriage is a complicated issue because it inherently involves "constitutional tension:" freedom of speech and freedom of religion on one side, equality on the other.
"I fall on the side of: Well, this has been the definition of marriage for thousands of years. … And the justification for changing it doesn't seem compelling to me," he said.
He said that because the tradition of marriage is rooted in procreation, states have a natural interest in promoting the traditional definition.
"The nature of the state interest is in perpetuating itself," he said. "Procreation can only happen between a man and a woman, so there is, I think, a state interest in promoting traditional marriage."
Conger said he does believe civil unions or domestic partnerships should be available "so that people who are in love have the ability to legally bind their lives together."
Conger describes himself as pro-life.
"Life begins at conception and … in an ideal world, abortion would not be legal except in the case of rape (or) when the life of the mother is in jeopardy," he said.
Conger believes that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that prohibited states from banning abortion, was wrongly decided.
"It was almost arbitrary," he said. "I don't think there's a clear federal, constitutional role. It's a state issue."
A Catholic who was raised in the South, Wehby, said she, too, sees herself as pro-life. But to some, she sounds decidedly pro-choice.
"I've dedicated my life to infants and small children, I operate on … little preemies that are just 23 or 24 weeks (gestational age)," she said. "I operate on those babies and I try to save their lives."
Abortion is, she said, "a society issue. We have to make people know that there are other alternatives. We have to make sure they know about adoption, that they have prenatal care, that they don't feel that there's such a scarlet letter on their chest."
Wehby said she rejects the notion that abortion should be a deciding issue for voters.
"In this country, the law is that (abortion) is a personal decision," she said. "It's between a woman and her faith, a woman and her family, a woman and her physician … as a senator, you're not going to be changing that anyway. We've got issues that we can actually do something about as a senator, and so to turn this into a litmus test just doesn't make any sense."
Wehby's career means that abortion is not a hypothetical issue for her, it's an everyday one, she said.
"I counsel moms all the time on this issue, And I can honestly say, in 17 years, I have never recommended to a mom to terminate a pregnancy," she said. "I'm very honest with them, I'll tell them what's going on with the baby. But often I'm the only one that tells them anything good."
Wehby's most recent television spot, "Trust," touches lightly on the topic of abortion.
In the ad, a Gresham mother describes learning, 21 weeks into her pregnancy, that there was something wrong with her baby's spine. Her obstetrician said she should consider terminating the pregnancy. Instead Wehby operated on the newborn infant, successfully reconstructing the girl's lower spine.
The ad shows a healthy-looking 12-year-old girl, and ends with the mother saying, through tears, "all of Washington needs to be full of people like Dr. Wehby."
On the campaign's Twitter feed, the ad was introduced as telling the mother's "remarkable story and why every life is precious." Wehby's campaign has said it's spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to air the ad regularly.
The ad was touted on several popular websites when it was released last week. Conservative news site RedState lauded it as "a hammer of a campaign ad," and The Fix, a bipartisan blog run by The Washington Post, hailed it as "one of the best political ads of 2014."
Affordable Care Act
If there's one opinion that the candidates share, it's this: the Affordable Care Act is awful. Both Conger and Wehby have expended considerable campaign energy trying to portray themselves as the candidate who despises it the most.
Wehby participated in a national television ad opposing the health care bill before it passed, in 2010. She said she had to change her home phone number because she received so many threats.
Yet Conger has criticized Wehby for not opposing the Affordable Care Act wholly enough to vow to repeal it. She has said a complete repeal would be logistically unfeasible at this point.
"It's a great goal to try to have affordable health care available to everybody. But they didn't do it right," she said. "The way to do it would have been incremental approaches … with proven methods that work. Not a massive overhaul like this."
Wehby said she supports the creation of high-risk insurance pools, the expanded use of health savings accounts and tort reform to lower health care costs. She does not agree with requiring a certain level of coverage for all insurance plans, forcing large employers to insure workers who work fewer than 40 hours a week or mandating that individuals buy insurance.
"The biggest problem is the (law's) interference in the doctor-patient relationship," she said. "Because that is a very personal relationship …. Instead, people are having to change doctors, premiums are skyrocketing and it's causing all kinds of problems."
Conger, on the other hand, has said he would fight to repeal the entire law. He would then include some popular provisions of the law in its replacement, such as allowing parents to keep their children on their plan until age 26.
"And I think we need to look at things like permitting interstate competition among insurers," he said. "I like health savings accounts in an expanded sense. I think insurers should be allowed to offer incentives to engage in healthy behavior … without (having to obtain) a waiver."
Conger has also needled Wehby for working with Oregon's other Democratic senator, Ron Wyden, on his failed attempt at health care reform that preceded the Affordable Care Act. In 2007 and again in 2009, Wyden, along with Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, tried to pass the Healthy Americans Act. Wyden's plan for universal health care appeared to have bipartisan support but failed to make it to a vote. The law is sometimes described as a blueprint for the Affordable Care Act.
At the time, Wehby said, she was president of the Oregon Medical Association. Wyden, whom she considers a friend, asked her to look at medical details of the bill. The bill wasn't perfect, she said, but it was better than the Affordable Care Act.
"It had bipartisan support and it was budget-neutral," she said.
Wehby has accused Conger of initially supporting the Affordable Care Act based on his 2011 vote, as a member of the state House, for the bill that created the state health insurance exchange, Cover Oregon. The exchange cost $248 million and its website, originally intended to offer one-stop comparative shopping for health insurance, still doesn't work. The state decided Friday to scrap its exchange altogether, in favor of the federal one.
Conger said he and other lawmakers faced two options at the time: Pass this bill or use the federal exchange.
"It's not like by voting against this bill you've suddenly opted out of Obamacare," he said. "That would have meant using the federal site, which looked to me more like embracing federal-run health care. … All the Cover Oregon bill did was create a public corporation to be the insurance exchange."
Health exchanges such as Cover Oregon, Conger pointed out, are just one part of the 2,600-page statute.
"If I would have known in 2011 what I know now, which is that there would be an absolutely epic failure to … create a state health exchange, I wouldn't have voted for it," Conger said. "We've wasted an extraordinary amount of money. … So I understand the criticism. But to call it a vote for Obamacare is beyond any possible interpretation."
Uphill battle for Republicans
Jim Moore, a professor of politics and government at Pacific University, said he's been surprised by the level of national interest in this race.
"This is not a tea party candidate trying to take on Mitch McConnell," he said, referring to a challenger who has put the Senate minority leader's place on the November ballot in Kentucky in question. "This is two kind of low-level candidates hoping to get interest. Compared to other primaries … this is not very high profile. And yet it's on the radar."
Moore said Merkley's dominance is underscored by polls like the one by Harper Polling that found Conger stood a slightly better chance against the senator than Wehby did. Neither Republican candidate won more than 40 percent of the vote in that survey.
But in 2012, according to Moore, Oregon underwent an "accidental experiment" to gauge the baseline for Republican support. In the primary that year, no Republicans ran for state attorney general or treasurer. But two write-in campaigns launched after the primary landed one little-known Republican on the November ballot in each race. Both won about 40 percent of the vote.
Moore concluded that was the percentage of Oregonians who were likely to check any box with "Republican" next to the name.
Even Knute Buehler, a Bend physician and moderate Republican who ran for secretary of state and is now running for Conger's seat in the state House, won only 43.2 percent of the vote in his loss to Democrat Kate Brown. Buehler, Moore pointed out, had statewide name recognition, bipartisan appeal and the advantage of running for an office that isn't viewed as particularly political.
To a pundit on the East Coast, Moore said, it might look like the gap between Conger's estimated 40 percent and Merkley's estimated 47 percent is small enough to close. But Moore said that could be tough in Oregon. For one thing, he said, it's likely to cost more than 10 times the $1.1 million that Wehby has reported raising so far. Conger has raised even less than Wehby.
At this point, Moore said he doesn't see either candidate beating Merkley.
"But six months is an eternity in politics," he added.
At this time in 2008, Merkley was engaged in a tough Democratic primary race and whoever won that "stood no chance," Moore said, against Republican two-term Sen. Gordon Smith. Then, in September, the nation became aware of what is now called the Great Recession.
"It changed that entire conversation," Moore said.
Merkley could become more vulnerable between now and the general election on Nov. 4 with some kind of personal meltdown, such as an affair, according to Moore. Another economic crash could turn voters away from incumbents. Or a now-simmering issue such as the Affordable Care Act could heat up to boiling and jolt voters' priorities.
"Something like that could happen," Moore said. "But in effect, those are out of control of the candidates. The strategy right now seems to be: Get through the primary, put together as good a campaign as you can and hope the wind blows the right way."
— Reporter: 541-410-9207; firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Video: Pledge to review flood defences after Hemsby homes swamped
PUBLISHED: 09:20 30 June 2014 | UPDATED: 09:41 30 June 2014
Archant Norfolk © 2014
Systems put in place to protect homes in an east Norfolk village from flooding will be reviewed in the wake of a heavy downpour which brought water cascading into properties.
Community leaders have pledged to review the plans for safeguarding Hemsby after many homes were overwhelmed by rainwater during Friday's wild weather.
Properties, particularly those in Newport Road and Yarmouth Road, were hit by similar flooding in 2006, after which a raft of measures were introduced to prevent it happening again.
This included installing new pumps at the village pumping station, organising a programme to ensure drains were regularly cleaned and putting together a surface water management plan.
And council bosses have said they will now review the measures to see if anything can be done to improve them, while Anglian Water has pledged to investigate to establish if "lessons can be learned".
Shirley Weymouth, borough councillor for East Flegg - which covers Hemsby - was disheartened to see the village flood again but did not think the drainage system was to blame.
"It was horrifying to see it after all the work that had been done to prevent anything like this happening again," she said.
"I don't think there was anything wrong with the sewerage system, the pumps were still working. It was just the amount of rain that came down, it was unbelievable.
"Years ago Norfolk County Council allowed for a lot of surface water to go into Anglian Water's system, and so much was going through it just couldn't cope."
She will now be holding talks with council bosses to review the systems in place.
"We will look at things again and see what physically possibly can be done," she added.
Her sentiments were echoed by Great Yarmouth MP Brandon Lewis, who toured flooded villages on Saturday to offer support to those affected.
He said: "One of the people I was talking to had a rain gauge, which measured 30mm in under half an hour [on Friday]. That kind of rainfall is unprecedented.
"Hopefully we won't see that again but what we do need to make sure is that the community is able to get back to normal as quickly as possible."
Mr Lewis also praised the quick response of the emergency services on Friday, after firefighters, the coastguard, police and Hemsby's independent lifeboat were all called to the scene.
Anglian Water engineers were also sent to Hemsby and other communities to help with the clean up operation, which saw an extra tanker sent to Ormesby on Friday evening to help alleviate the flow of flood water.
A spokesman for the utility company said the flooding was the "unfortunate result" of very sudden and heavy rain overwhelming the drainage systems.
They added: "We understand how devastating any form of flooding is to homes and businesses. Our maintenance technicians and engineers have been working flat out to help customers and make sure our pumping stations are working at their maximum capacity.
"We are committed to working with the other agencies responsible for drainage networks to investigate and understand if any lessons can be learned. We will, of course, take all possible steps to address any problems identified within our network."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A pencil dress with an elastic gathered lace top
Added Aug 22, 2012
by Linda O.
Portharcourt, Ni...
The top part of the dress is a stretchy lace with a cotton lining, couldn't find a stretch lining for it. Th down part is a non stretch knit fabric. The center front, the two side seams and the center back are gathered with elastic on the inside. The back is a low V-cut with a zipper closure from the center back to d middle of the skirt. There is a back center slit for leg movement
I wore this outfit to a sunday church servce. Got lots of compliments on it :-)
Material Notes
Stretch lace for the top and a knit medium weight cotton fabric for the down.
- Season
- Summer, Spring
- For
- Women
- Garment Type
- Dress
- Style
- Business, Classic, Evening Wear
- Material
- Cotton, Lace/Sequins
6 Comments Sign in to add a post
Nov 8, 2012, 05.17 PMby Linda O.
Lol it wsnt very easy dear as in stretches coupled wit d gathering but b4 I knew it, it ws done.
Aug 24, 2012, 03.42 AMby Linda O.
Tnks pple. Am glad u guys like my work
Aug 23, 2012, 12.15 PMby jadealamode
looks great! love the colours too
Aug 23, 2012, 12.08 PMby Jodi Wade
Gorgeous colour combination. You look great!
Aug 23, 2012, 09.57 AMby SassyT
Am a fan of yellow and blue. Nice dress.
Aug 22, 2012, 09.45 PMby Mary Athey
Its lovely, the yellow and blue are great to.gether x
Add to Favorites 4 people added it


text:
Look at those curls!" coos the docent at our local zoo as my daughter, Rebecca, 2, extends her chubby fist for a moth-shaped hand stamp. "Just like her mommy," says the woman, giving me that I'm-a-mommy-too look. I consider just nodding, but only for a split second. "Actually, she's adopted," I say. "Her birth mother has straight brown hair, but her uncle had curls when he was a toddler." Soon I'm in the thick of another impromptu informational session on open adoption, which turns out to need a lot of explaining to most people. I could avoid these chats altogether. Rebecca does look a lot like me, and that's something many adoptive parents don't have in this age of new families forged across continents. But I don't duck out of the discussion; open adoption means that much to me.
The term "open adoption" has as many definitions as the word "love." The basic idea: Children know their birth parents' identities—the information's not buried in a government file. Beyond that, openness can range from occasional letters to regular visits. It's up to the adoptive parents and the birth family to decide on the details (usually the birth mother's family, though in an increasing number of cases—not in ours, unfortunately—the birth father stays in touch, too). I know of open-adoption families who've had a birth mother live with them for a month after their child's birth and those who see birth parents only twice a year at an appointed spot. Often these connections grow over time, though sometimes everyone's changing lives cause them to drift apart.
When my husband, Eric, and I chose open adoption, we knew we wanted to live it completely. Even before we attempted to get pregnant, we'd agreed that raising a child mattered more to us than making a baby. After six months of fruitless efforts on our own, a two-year ride on the infertility roller coaster ended when a doctor said our chances were nearly nil. That was painful, but our willingness to adopt prevented us from being paralyzed.
For Eric, open adoption was primarily a matter of principle. He loved the idea of building a family that defied convention. I agreed, but I admit that I also wanted to know our future child's birth family because of my own worries about adoption. I'd heard too many sad tales of the "empty space" adoptees feel inside without knowledge of their biological roots. I knew that no matter how great a mom I became, that hole wasn't mine alone to fill, and I'd need help from those who could.
Blessed with a baby
We'd been waiting only two months when a counselor from the Portland-based Open Adoption and Family Services called to say that a 16-year-old high schooler in Medford, Oregon, had selected us from a pool of about 60 families. Mallory was seven months pregnant and wanted to meet us. Both professional writers, Eric and I had zoomed through the paperwork that some hopeful adoptive parents find daunting—including a "Dear Birth Parent" letter meant to read like a personal ad—and actually enjoyed the required home study. But we never thought we'd be chosen so quickly. In a daze, we drove the 450 miles from Seattle toward this mystery girl.
I don't exactly know what we expected, but she was all we could have hoped for: incredibly poised, funny, sensitive, cautious but clearly willing to try to form an alliance with these two nervous strangers sitting across from her in the local agency office, assaulting her with a photo album full of evidence of their lovely home and healthy lifestyle.
Mallory's mom, Kelly, was the one who really broke the ice. Like me, she's quick to fill awkward silences with a joke. She's also around my age (younger, in fact), and we share a lot of references. Plus, she's stubborn. Kelly's conviction that open adoption would provide her whole family with the best possible outcome helped her overcome her own grief at giving up daily contact with her first grandchild. Once satisfied with Eric and me, she became a rock for all of us.
As day wound into evening, we went to dinner and met Mallory's two brothers and her reluctant dad, who wasn't so sure about this openness thing. (He warmed up over the ensuing weeks, even coming to the hospital after Rebecca's birth, much to Mallory's joy.)
The next morning, standing in a pumpkin patch where we'd gone for an outing, we all agreed to "move forward," as the adoption lingo puts it. We could accept that the birth father had denied paternity and that Mallory didn't want to push the matter. She could deal with the fact that we were older than her own parents. Eric and I drove back home, a single snapshot of a very pregnant Mallory on the disposable camera I'd bought just in case things worked out well enough to deserve recording.
Over the next several weeks, we took turns making that long drive up and down Interstate 5, learning just how delicate a task it is to be truly open. Thanksgiving weekend was particularly nerve-racking. We'd come for a visit, but with less than a month to go until her due date, Mallory was unsure whether she wanted to see us. We were terrified that this meant she was reconsidering her choice, which was her right until she'd sign the adoption papers 48 hours after her daughter's birth. She also announced that she wanted a day alone with the baby after the birth, which sent us further into paroxysms of anxiety. We'll never know whether she just needed some space or whether she had real doubts about us. But we did learn that open adoption also meant dealing with doors that have to be closed.
We did finally come together that weekend. Kelly somehow persuaded Mallory to meet us at a local deli, where we had the first of a series of tearful conversations about how hard this all was. Sharing these emotions somehow released us all. We spent the rest of the afternoon poring over baby-name books at Barnes & Noble. After much chuckling and arguing, one of us (who knows who?) hit upon Rebecca: the perfect name, because in Hebrew it means "faithful," or "to unite."
Then came the birth itself. Mallory called us midday on her due date to say that she'd gone into labor. Knowing her penchant for punctuality—we'd already stashed our bags and a brand-new car seat in our car—we drove to Medford in a record seven hours. We visited Mallory in the hospital and then left her to pace the halls with Kelly and her best friend. We heard Rebecca's first cry from right outside the birthing room door.
With incredible generosity, Mallory invited us in. Each of us held our daughter (we all called her "ours" from the beginning). Then it was our turn to do the hard thing. We left for those promised 24 hours, and yes, we had a tough time not biting our nails off. Yet the moments we'd been together just beforehand, and the days and weeks we'd spent establishing a bond, made us feel a lot less panic-stricken than we might have. We went to a local jewelry store and bought Mallory a traditional open-adoption gift—a mother-and-child pendant with Rebecca's birthstone, blue topaz, embedded. We bought a pair of matching earrings for Kelly, too. They weren't returnable. That was part of our leap of faith.
The next morning, Mallory called and said she'd like us to come to the hospital. The word that best describes what followed: miraculous. For a day and a half we all shared in Rebecca's care and in a torrent of emotions ranging from sorrow to euphoria. Kelly showed me how to change a diaper. Eric chose CDs to fill the room with music. Mallory's friends and family came by. Flowers arrived. Then we took Rebecca into an adjoining room for our first night as her parents. We could feel Mallory and Kelly next door, mourning the imminent loss of their new baby. Knowing their determination to go through with the adoption despite the pain made Eric and me all the more committed to keeping them close within our family circle.
Rebecca's birth and the days surrounding it were definitely the most intense times of my life. I remember walking into Mallory's room after she'd signed the adoption papers but while she was still holding Rebecca, saying goodbye—she'd put the sheet completely over her head, creating a cocoon to protect her during this devastating transition. I also have a photo of Mallory's dad's face, full of melancholy, as he held Rebecca for the first time. But we had happiness, too: Mallory walking arm in arm with me down the hall as Eric carried Rebecca; all of us sharing a messy meal of Thai food on a hospital-sheet tablecloth; Mallory talking to Eric's parents on the phone, becoming family without ever having met.
Adjusting to a new life
Eric and I emerged from this gauntlet of bliss and heartache as parents, forever changed. I wanted to share our wondrous story with everyone. Rebecca, after all, was made of it. But as soon as we returned home with Rebecca and I started telling my friends and family about our experience, I began to hear their amazement. When I'd add that Mallory would visit in three months, and we'd be seeing her every few months after that for the rest of our lives, their amazement turned to something like fear. "Aren't you afraid she'll want to take Rebecca back?" they all—from casual acquaintances to my own closest relatives—asked. (My honest answer: No, because she can't legally, and because, having spent time with her, I believe her when she says she doesn't regret her choice.)
That's when my newfound role as informal open-adoption evangelist began. I offered explanations like this countless times in the first year of Rebecca's life. Often, I smiled through gritted teeth as I did so. It hurt that near-strangers felt free to make rude remarks like, "I'm sure the real mom will lose interest soon," or "Well, I understand why you did it -- it's so hard to get a white baby these days." It made me even crazier that close friends and family, who'd seen us through this process from the beginning, continued to seem clueless about why we'd want Mallory in our lives.
My fellow new mothers were especially shocked. "I could never do that!" one said after the other. "You're so brave." As I ventured into the world of new-parent support groups and infant "playdates," I discovered that new-mama bonding doesn't leave a lot of room for different experiences. For most women, motherhood begins in their own bodies. Mine started with a relationship I'd forged with a stranger, and that would forever be part of the bond growing between Rebecca and me. I have to admit that the love between my daughter and me is not "natural"—it's built from faithfulness and time and mistakes and hard-earned insight, like the connection between her birth mom and me.
I don't blame people for getting spooked by my family's unorthodox situation. A lot of it comes from deeply rooted attitudes about what a family should be. The still-unresolved debates about everything from daycare to working outside the home all begin with the lingering dream of a mommy, daddy, and baby, bound by blood and comfort in their roles. When life doesn't work out in quite that scenario, it makes us all nervous—even those of us who never thought we wanted to live that way.
A mom who acknowledges another mother as central to her family throws everything up in the air. If Rebecca has two mothers (a "sun" and a "guiding star," as a corny pro-adoption poem puts it) then how can I be everything she needs? And if I can't be, am I good enough for her? I've had to wrestle with many of these questions over the past two years. Wouldn't it have been easier if they'd never come up? Not all moms in my position are so eager to dwell on the fact that they're not biologically connected to their child. I have friends who never tell strangers their kids are adopted. For me, though, there's no other choice—not because I'm better or more politically correct, but because my firm belief that family ties are created as much as fated makes anything but unqualified honesty seem like self-deception. I'm a mother because another mother granted that chance to me.
I believe that openness helps put people's sense of family more in tune with reality—a reality that includes stepparents, foster families, surrogacy, stay-at-home dads, and whatever twist on Ozzie and Harriet that life demands next. And I'm grateful for openness in a personal way, even when it's meant standing in a corner while Mallory held Rebecca at her high school graduation or dealing with those questions from strangers and friends. It turns out that the one person who could really make me feel good about being Rebecca's mom was her other mom.
It's Mallory who has written me kind e-mails when I've felt insecure and shared tears of confusion and hugs of reassurance. Sometimes, just acknowledging the weirdness of our situation makes it better.
Mallory, now a college student, has struggled with her own complicated role. Her hometown is fairly small, and she's endured hurtful comments from strangers, even friends. But she's chosen not to hide anything, covering her dorm room with pictures of "my kid" and introducing us as family members to everyone from her grandmother to her former manager at Wendy's. And if you think my momhood challenges people's assumptions, think about her: a proud and loving mother who nonetheless knew that her child would thrive in another woman's embrace.
We've both gained much more from staying connected than ignorant comments can erase. And we care about each other too much to keep quiet about it. But this may change when the 33-inch-tall marvel who united us gets old enough to realize what having two mommies really means. I feel that openness is healthier for Rebecca; I've seen families torn apart by secrets, and I'll do my best not to have that happen to my daughter. I'm raising her to be proud and feel lucky that adoption has given her a big extended family who loves her. But if she ultimately decides that this is all a private matter, I'll follow her lead. Maybe that will be her first act of independence, which I'll have to accept. I'm already getting less intense about playing the role of open-adoption poster mom. Now, when someone comments on how much Rebecca looks like me, I still usually say she's adopted, but I don't launch into a five-minute speech. We've been walking the walk for two years now, and sometimes I figure it's okay to keep the talk to a minimum. After all, we're normal, too—or as normal as any square in this crazy patchwork quilt of love, chance and choice that we call the modern family.
Ann Powers recently moved to Los Angeles with her family to become the chief pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times.


text:
Talma, Finland
By Aleksi Vanninen
Just a half-hour drive away from Helsinki, the capital of Finland, the tiny resort of Talma is like a skatepark. The hill itself is so small that you need to point it for a single good carve at the bottom. Needless to say, freeriding is out of the question-you have to jump and jib around to get your kicks, which is why there're so many talented freestyle snowboarders coming out of our country.The park setup is pretty sweet-three hips, a jib run with four rails in a row, a few different-sized jumps, a pipe, and some mini tabletops for the beginners. Plus, they just made a little snack bar at the bottom of the park where you can chill and check out your buddies jumping like frogs.The owners of the ski hill have always helped us out whenever they've had a chance. It says a lot that Talma was the Finnish ski-resort of the year a few seasons back-a tiny hill from southern Finland beating out the big resorts of Northern Finland and Lapland.Talma is where almost every Finnish pro rider is from and goes to whenever they're home. It's the perfect place to get the early season warm-up and mid-season check-up, and learn new tricks and variations because of the repeat factor. Where else can you get a jump in every two to three minutes? The drawback about Talma would probably be the weather in southern Finland-one day it'll be zero degrees, and the next it's raining. I mean, the rain is okay-kind of like the Finnish equivalent to a powder day. Kids go nuts when it gets soft and slushy. But then the next day it can be freezing again, and then there's no use riding because it's bulletproof. But the convenient location near Helsinki is a big plus.It's nice to see a new generation of riders coming up every year on these slopes-practicing their skills on a daily basis because that's what they love and what keeps them going. A few of them get picked up to travel the world as sponsored snowboarders, the rest keep hitting Talma up like there's no tomorrow. Five-to-seven days a week. All season long.StatsAverage Annual Snowfall: Very little-almost everything is man made.
Vertical Drop: 180 feet.
Number Of Lifts: Six.
Pipes: One.
Parks: One.
Snowskate Parks: Yes.
Lights: Yes.
Nearby Skateparks: Several indoor and outdoor parks in Helsinki.
"Talma is as close to as skatepark as a snowpark gets. The hill is so small that it's easy to keep in good shape-always the same jumps, corners, and hips groomed each night to perfection. It's the breeding ground for the next generation of Finns, and a great place to learn tricks and have fun with your mates."-Joni Malmi.


text:
Nasty by nature
Views: 1143 | Added: 7 years agoMore
I was doing my usual thing out and about for a drink enjoying the lovely day when I come across Nena sitting all alone and having a drink all by her self. So me being on the hunt I go over and offer her some company. She was having some boyfriend problems so I helped her get her mind off that and her mouth on my cock. It was a few dollars for a drink and a few more dollars to get her home but nutting on the pretty little face, Priceless! Enjoy!
Submitted by: realitykings


text:
Government investigations into insider trading took a dramatic turn last fall when the offices of three hedge funds were raided. But a member of the Mendoza's finance faculty has been on the trail of potential illegal insider trading – involving investment banks – for years.
In 2007, when Andriy Bodnaruk, assistant professor of finance, was with Maastricht University in the Netherlands, he and two European co-researchers analyzed trading patterns of investment banks involved in secret merger negotiations. They focused on banks belonging to large financial conglomerates such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.
Companies often hire investment banks to advise them on acquisitions. In that role, they're privy to information about potential takeover targets, bid amounts and the timing of offers. When one company buys another, it almost always offers more than the target company's current stock price. This presents an opportunity to anyone with advance knowledge of a takeover bid to purchase the stock now and sell it at a profit after the bid is announced.
According to the researchers, that appears to be happening within these conglomerates.
Bodnaruk and associates looked at stock-trading records surrounding hundreds of U.S. merger deals done between 1984 and 2003. They found that mutual funds, money managers and other investment divisions of financial conglomerates held stakes in many of the companies that their investment-banking divisions were helping clients acquire. These conglomerates then often cashed out their stakes after the merger was announced.
Bodnaruk acknowledges that the evidence is circumstantial. They have no proof of any particular investment bank using or passing along insider information to profit illegally. Nor did the data they studied indicate whether a conglomerate bought a stake in advance of a merger or already held shares.
However, the researchers say their analysis showed that these trades happen much more often than would be expected by chance.
The researchers' findings prompted an independent investigation and report by the Wall Street Journal published January 14, 2008. The newspaper's article included many examples of suspicious-looking trades but also denials of any wrongdoing by executives at the financial institutions.
The finance professor says government regulators can go beyond the statistical analyses carried out by academics such as himself and demand information directly from the companies. Better disclosure by investment banks could mitigate the problem, he says.
Bodnaruk and his co-investigators published their findings in December 2009 in an article in the Review of Financial Studies, "Investment Banks as Insiders and the Market for Corporate Control."


text:
Beck's "brand new reality" on climate change relies on distorting apparently stolen emails
Research ››› ››› GREG LEWIS
Glenn Beck touted climate scientists' emails that were apparently stolen by hackers from the UK's Climate Research Unit (CRU) -- emails Beck claimed "someone released" -- to assert the existence of a "brand new reality" in which the fundamental legitimacy of global warming is in doubt. But in advancing his claims, Beck distorted the emails and took them out of context to suggest they indicated that climate change was a "scam," ignoring climate scientists' subsequent statements to the contrary.
Beck claims emails are a "potentially major scandal" indicating climate change a "scam"
Beck: Emails indicate "yet another brand new reality" for climate change. From the November 23 broadcast of Fox News' Glenn Beck:
BECK: A potentially major scandal is unfolding after someone released thousands of emails and documents sent between prominent scientists of global warming debate. The New York Times has verified that these emails are legitimate, which wasn't too hard because some of them were written by and to one of their reporters.
This is what appears to be going on behind the scenes and literally trillions of dollars of policy decisions are being based on what these guys are telling us. If your gut said, "Wait a minute, this global warming thing, it sounds like a scam," well, I think you're seeing it now. We told you this was going on, without proof, because we listened to our gut. You'd never believe me, but once again, here we are with yet another brand new reality.
NASA scientist: Emails do not show that "global warming is a hoax"
NASA's Gavin Schmidt: Critics "are using language used in science and interpreting it in a completely different way." Wired's Threat Level blog reported on November 20 that Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said: "There's nothing in the e-mails that shows that global warming is a hoax. ... There's no funding by nefarious groups. There's no politics in any of these things; nobody from the [United Nations] telling people what to do. There's nothing hidden, no manipulation. It's just scientists talking about science, and they're talking relatively openly as people in private e-mails generally are freer with their thoughts than they would be in a public forum. The few quotes that are being pulled out [are out] of context. People are using language used in science and interpreting it in a completely different way." Schmidt is a contributor to the Real Climate blog, which has stated that some of the stolen CRU emails "involve people" at Real Climate.
Beck takes Trenberth email of out context to suggest it undermines "so-called bulletproof consensus" behind global warming science
From the November 23 broadcast of Glenn Beck:
BECK: But first, let's start with the science that has been so settled for all these years. What do these guys saying behind closed doors about their so-called bullet-proof consensus? Well, Kevin Trenberth, he is a climatologist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, he wrote, quote, "the fact is we can't account for lack of warming at the moment and it's a travesty that we can't." Incorrect data? Inadequate systems? Yeah. Travesty, pretty good word for it.
Wired reports Trenberth's response to leaked email: "[B]loggers are missing the point he's making in the e-mail by not reading the article cited in it." Wired's Threat Level blog reported on Trenberth's response to the leaked email:
But Trenberth, who acknowledged the e-mail is genuine, says bloggers are missing the point he's making in the e-mail by not reading the article cited in it. That article - An Imperative for Climate Change Planning (.pdf) - actually says that global warming is continuing, despite random temperature variations that would seem to suggest otherwise.
"It says we don't have an observing system adequate to track it, but there are all other kinds of signs aside from global mean temperatures - including melting of Arctic sea ice and rising sea levels and a lot of other indicators - that global warming is continuing," he says.
RealClimate.org on Trenberth's email: "You need to read his recent paper" for context. A November 23 blog post on RealClimate.org, purporting to "shed some light on some of the context which is missing in some of the discussion of various emails", said of Trenberth's email:
You need to read his recent paper on quantifying the current changes in the Earth's energy budget to realise why he is concerned about our inability currently to track small year-to-year variations in the radiative fluxes.
Trenberth email cited "my own article on where the heck is global warming?" in stating that "Our observing system is adequate" to identify current warming. Trenberth's October 12, 2009, email, which Beck quoted, reads:
Hi all
Well I have my own article on where the heck is global warming ? We are asking that here in Boulder where we have broken records the past two days for the coldest days on record. We had 4 inches of snow. The high the last 2 days was below 30F and the normal is 69F, and it smashed the previous records for these days by 10F. The low was about 18F and also a record low, well below the previous record low.
This is January weather (see the Rockies baseball playoff game was canceled on saturday and then played last night in below freezing weather).
Trenberth, K. E., 2009: An imperative for climate change planning: tracking Earth's global energy. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 1, 19-27, doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2009.06.001. [1][PDF] (A PDF of the published version can be obtained from the author.)
The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.***
Trenberth article indeed referred to what he called an "incomplete explanation" of short-term climate variations, and maintained that "global warming is unequivocally happening." In the article to which Trenberth referred in Wired, "An imperative for climate change planning: tracking Earth's global energy," he wrote:
The global mean temperature in 2008 was the lowest since about 2000 (Fig. 1). Given that there is continual heating of the planet, referred to as radiative forcing, by accelerating increases of carbon dioxide (Fig. 1) and other greenhouses due to human activities, why isn't the temperature continuing to go up? The stock answer is that natural variability plays a key role and there was a major La Niña event early in 2008 that led to the month of January having the lowest anomaly in global temperature since 2000. While this is true, it is an incomplete explanation.
Given that global warming is unequivocally happening and there has so far been a failure to outline, let alone implement, global plans to mitigate the warming, then adapting to the climate change is an imperative. We will of course adapt to climate change. The question is the extent to which the adaptation is planned and orderly with minimal disruption and loss of life, or whether it is unplanned? To plan for and cope with effects of climate change requires information on what is happening and why, whether observed changes are likely to continue or are a transient, how they affect regional climates and the possible impacts. Further, to the extent that the global community is able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the climate change, then information is required on how effective it is. This article addresses vital information needs to help understand climate change.
It is not a sufficient explanation to say that a cool year is due to natural variability. Similarly, common arguments of skeptics that the late 20th century warming is a recovery from the Little Ice Age or has other natural origins are inadequate as they do not provide the physical mechanisms involved. There must be a physical explanation, whether natural or anthropogenic. If surface warming occurs while the deep ocean becomes cooler, then we should be able to see the evidence. It may be that there is insufficient data to prove one way or the other, as is often the case in the deep past. However, since 1979 there have been instruments in space tracking the total solar irradiance (TSI)3,4, and so we know it is not the sun that has brought about warming in the past 30 years5. Hence a key issue is the extent to which we can track energy in the climate system.
Jones email Beck read was distorted, "pulled out of context"
From the November 23 broadcast of Glenn Beck:
BECK: How about Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia? "I have just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years to hide the decline." Yes, he is talking about a trick that another scientist previously used in a peer-reviewed journal to apparently hide the decline in temperatures. Incredible.
RealClimate.org: Jones' email "pulled out of context." In a November 20 post, Real Climate's staff, which is made up of several working climate scientists, cited Jones' 1999 email -- which Beck read -- as "[o]ne example" of "instances of cherry-picked and poorly-worded 'gotcha' phrases [being] pulled out of context." Jones' November 16, 1999, email reads:
Dear Ray, Mike and Malcolm,
Once Tim's got a diagram here we'll send that either later today or first thing tomorrow.
I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd [sic.] from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline. Mike's series got the annual land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999 for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998.
Thanks for the comments, Ray.
LSE Prof: Scientists use "trick" to mean "a clever way of doing something." A November 20 Guardian article reported that Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, said of Jones' email: "It does look incriminating on the surface, but there are lots of single sentences that taken out of context can appear incriminating. ... You can't tell what they are talking about. Scientists say 'trick' not just to mean deception. They mean it as a clever way of doing something - a short cut can be a trick."
RealClimate.org: "trick" Jones referenced is a method for making the "context of the recent warming ... clear" and isn't "problematic ... at all." Noting that "[s]cientists often use the term 'trick' to refer to a 'a good way to deal with a problem,' " Real Climate explained:
No doubt, instances of cherry-picked and poorly-worded "gotcha" phrases will be pulled out of context. One example is worth mentioning quickly. Phil Jones in discussing the presentation of temperature reconstructions stated that "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline." The paper in question is the Mann, Bradley and Hughes (1998) Nature paper on the original multiproxy temperature reconstruction, and the 'trick' is just to plot the instrumental records along with reconstruction so that the context of the recent warming is clear. Scientists often use the term "trick" to refer to a "a good way to deal with a problem", rather than something that is "secret", and so there is nothing problematic in this at all.
RealClimate.org: "hiding the decline" refers to method that is "completely appropriate." Real Climate further explained:
As for the 'decline', it is well known that Keith Briffa's maximum latewood tree ring density proxy diverges from the temperature records after 1960 (this is more commonly known as the "divergence problem"-see e.g. the recent discussion in this paper) and has been discussed in the literature since Briffa et al in Nature in 1998 (Nature, 391, 678-682). Those authors have always recommend not using the post 1960 part of their reconstruction, and so while 'hiding' is probably a poor choice of words (since it is 'hidden' in plain sight), not using the data in the plot is completely appropriate, as is further research to understand why this happens.
Jones reportedly "explained he was not trying to mislead." The New Zealand magazine Investigate reported on November 20:
TGIF asked Jones about the controversial email discussing hiding "the decline", and Jones explained he was not trying to mislead.
"No, that's completely wrong. In the sense that they're talking about two different things here. They're talking about the instrumental data which is unaltered -- but they're talking about proxy data going further back in time, a thousand years, and it's just about how you add on the last few years, because when you get proxy data you sample things like tree rings and ice cores, and they don't always have the last few years. So one way is to add on the instrumental data for the last few years."
Jones told TGIF he had no idea what me meant by using the words "hide the decline".
"That was an email from ten years ago. Can you remember the exact context of what you wrote ten years ago?"
Beck did not mention that emails were apparently stolen by a hacker
Beck said that "someone released thousands of emails and documents," but did not note they were apparently stolen by hackers. On November 20, the UK Guardian reported that, "Hundreds of private emails and documents allegedly exchanged between some of the world's leading climate scientists during the past 13 years have been stolen by hackers and leaked online." The Guardian further quoted a spokesperson for the University of East Anglia, where the CRU is located, as saying: "'We are aware that information from a server used for research information in one area of the university has been made available on public websites. Because of the volume of this information we cannot currently confirm that all this material is genuine. This information has been obtained and published without our permission and we took immediate action to remove the server in question from operation. We are undertaking a thorough internal investigation and have involved the police in this inquiry.'"
- Posted In
- Environment & Science, Climate Change
- Network/Outlet
- Fox News Channel
- Person
- Glenn Beck
- Show/Publication
- Glenn Beck show
Instructions for signing up and claiming your comment history are located here.
Updated rules for commenting are here.


text:
this is a discussion within the Saints Community Forum; New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton Media Availability Monday, September 9, 2013 Opening Statement: We just finished meeting with the team and went through this game. Players will be in meetings here for the next two and a half ...
|Thread Tools
|Display Modes
Threaded by papz
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 11,118
Rating: (0 votes - average)
New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton
Media Availability
Monday, September 9, 2013
Opening Statement: We just finished meeting with the team and went through this game. Players will be in meetings here for the next two and a half hours. I said this yesterday, I thought it was a big win for us yesterday. Any time in week one you start off with a home game against a divisional opponent, it obviously carries a lot of importance. I think there are a lot of things that we are going to have a chance to clean up when the players watch this tape. One thing always about your first game is, its the first time a player goes from 20 snaps maybe to 40 or plus snaps. You deal with some fatigue and you deal with some cramping. You deal with that transition into the regular season. I thought overall we handled that pretty well and yet there are a lot of little things and a lot of big things that we have to be better at.
Can you talk about how your pressure came from the same four guys every time?
Yes, that was the plan going in. I think that anytime you can have and create pressure with a four man surface (pass rush) it certainly benefits you because you are covered in the back end and we will do that in this game. It was part of the plan going in.
Malcolm Jenkins said that you guys watched a lot of film on Matt Ryans tendencies when a team blitzed him and would send an extra man and how he would always find an open receiver, can you talk about that?
He is a smart quarterback and so its hard to just stay in one look versus any of these quarterbacks that are experienced and as talented as he is. You are wanting to change the looks up. I think if they get a steady dose of one thing, they will have an area or idea of where you are weak, and certainly he is one of those players. And he has enough weapons (on the) outside that if he feels like he is getting pressure and a single coverage, generally with each pass play you know exactly where you are going with the football so we try to mix things up and not provide with a constant or same look. Fortunately, our guys handled that aspect well, and back with what you mentioned in the beginning, the four guys rushing were able to disrupt him enough.
Are you happy with the new guys making an impression in the first game?
We have a lot of young players. A lot of young guys in week one that you dont know a whole lot about other than what you see in the preseason, but aside from guys playing on defense or on offense, you talk about Kenny Vaccaro, John Jenkins. Even the receivers, Nick Toon being someone although he is in his second year, he is really in his first year healthy and playing. A guy like Josh Hill stood out and played especially well on special teams as a backup tight end. We are going to count on those guys and quickly they are going to get up to speed and look to improve each week.
Can you talk about your dedication to the run game?
Yes, look there are some frustrating snaps that we are going to look at here this afternoon and there are some snaps where we are close and yet it takes all 11 guys. We were wanting to control the time of possession. I thought it was mostly significant in the fourth quarter. I thought we possessed the ball quite a bit. We had one series in the second half backed up, down to our three and I thought although it didnt result in any points, that series was significant in that it changed the field position back in our favor. And then the final drive that led to a field goal took a lot of time off the clock. We will continue to work on that element, it needs to be better. We were close in some areas and yet we still have to work on and clean up a number of things to improve it.
Read more: Sean Payton recaps win over the Atlanta Falcons
Views: 2506
|Latest Blogs
What I'm Hearing Last Blog: 01-16-2019 By: OldMaid
Mark Ingram drags defender 9 yards for a score Last Blog: 12-10-2018 By: Audiotom
Response to NFL.com "Unpopular Opinions: Drew Brees is most underrated player ever" Last Blog: 10-08-2018 By: jeanpierre
Bounty Money $$$
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: 5800 Airline Dr. Metairie, LA.
Posts: 17,216
Re: Sean Payton recaps win over the Atlanta Falcons
Defense carried the day.
500th Post
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 770
Re: Sean Payton recaps win over the Atlanta Falcons
I saw a lot that I liked and a lot I didn't like. Pass rush was much improved. Still giving up huge plays and F falcons made it look easy in their final drive. A drop by S.Jackson and big play by Vaccaro saved the game. One game lead over the division. Pretty. Good way to start.
1000 Posts +
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: D.C.
Posts: 4,968
Re: Sean Payton recaps win over the Atlanta Falcons
That game was a close call, not a dominating victory but a huge victory in itself.
|Thread Tools
|Display Modes
Linear Mode
LinkBacks (?)
LinkBack to this Thread: http://blackandgold.com/saints/60185-sean-payton-recaps-win-over-atlanta-falcons.html
|Posted By
|The Latest Kenny Vaccaro News | SportSpyder
|This thread
|The Latest New Orleans Saints News | SportSpyder
|This thread
|Sean Payton recaps win over the Atlanta Falcons
|This thread


text:
67 Female Waring Texas United States
Love the outdoors: walking, biking, hiking, camping, concerts, sittinng around the pool, or New Port beach. I am a movie buff. I can dress up for the queen or slug around in my scuffs. I am good company a the gym or at a pub.Overweight
52 Female Good Samaritan Village Nebraska United States
Single tattooed mom of three boys. I am a full-figured woman. I am pretty laid back and am NOT a drama queen. My oldest son is in apprenticing to become a tattooist so I do plan to get many many more tats from him. I love to laugh and try to enjoy life to the fullest.Overweight
51 Female Brooklyn New York United States
FUN LOVING PERSON THAT LOVES TO COOK, SHOP, BOWL AND SPENDING QUALITY TIME WITH THE SPECIAL ONE IN MY LIFE...Overweight
54 Female Pompano Beach Florida United States
I'm the type of person who does not take no for an answer. I consider myself to be unique, and I expect the people around me to accept me as I am. My motto is "all is fair in love and war... take no prisoners...and always aim to kill." I still miss my ex...... BUT my aim is getting better!!!Overweight
59 Female Baxter Minnesota United States
im 4 9 140 plds readhair blue eyes built like bette middler janice joplin look alike i love bikers and love to ride on the back of bikes love to party looking for a serious but playful man to share good times and heart to heart talksOverweight
Create a free profile at Overweight Dating Service, and start browsing,
flirting, and chatting with locals instantly!


text:
Middlebury Schools Abroad Application
Middlebury College Students
Completed applications are due by February 1, 2018 for all 2018-19 applications (academic year, fall, and spring). We strongly recommend that you visit International Programs in Sunderland 129 to speak with an advisor before you complete an application. You may schedule an appointment with an advisor yourself or call 802.443.5745 to request one.
Schedule Schools Abroad advising appointments with staff as follows:
- Alessandra Capossela: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Italy
- Nicole Chance: Brazil, Cameroon, Germany, and Spain
- Bill Mayers: China, India, Jordan, and Morocco
- Susan Parsons: France, Japan, and Russia
- Stacey Thebodo: United Kingdom - Middlebury-CMRS and all external (non-Middlebury Schools Abroad) programs
Students from Other Colleges or Universities
Completed applications are due by October 1, 2018 for Spring 2019 and by March 15, 2019* for Fall 2019 and Academic Year 2019-20. For Middlebury Museum Studies in Oxford (Summer 2019), applications are due April 1, 2019.
*Fall and Academic year Japan applications are due earlier (March 10, 2019) and in hard copy in order to meet our partner university's deadline. Please call for more information.
If the deadline has passed, you will not be able to access the application without first calling our office at 802.443.5745. We can sometimes accommodate late applicants.
The application fee for 2018-19 is $75.
Please click the button below to begin your application.
|Select a program here. You will be asked to create a user account.
|Your application will be auto-saved and can be accessed at any time with your log in information. You will be prompted to log in to your applicant home page here
Most students should only apply to one program. If you apply to one site in one country and later change your mind, you may contact our office to update your location. However, if you are applying to go to one location in the fall and another in the spring, you should complete two applications.
Statement of Nondiscrimination
Middlebury College complies with applicable provisions of state and federal law which prohibit discrimination in employment or in admission or access to its educational or extracurricular programs, activities, or facilities on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, marital status, place of birth, or service in the armed forces of the United States, or against qualified individuals with disabilities on the basis of disability.


text:
Sophomore Wins Award to Honor Shepardby John Dykstra '13 • March 15, 2013 Share:
John Vosel '15 is officially the architect of a future, permanent addition to Evansville's Bicentennial Park.
The Indiana State Bar Association's Leadership Development Academy announced Thursday evening in Salter Hall that Vosel's design for a monument honoring Indiana's longest-standing Supreme Court Justice Randall T. Shepard won the Shepard Public Art Project competition.
Vosel and Mark Shaylor '14 were the two finalists of the statewide competition. They created their designs as part of an art course they took last semester on site-specific sculpture with Professor of Art Dr. Douglas Calisch.
The committee responsible for selecting the winning design judged based on how the designs complied with the request for proposals, artistic merit, elements of design, the level of maintainability and resistance to vandalism, safety, the degree to which the art is interactive, and technical feasibility.
Calisch's students performed a wide range of research on Chief Justice Shepard, Evansville, and the Indiana Supreme Court before they made their designs.
"This was a new challenge for all of us, and the students in the class executed strong designs—maybe because the situation was real and the criteria mattered," Calisch said. "We spent a lot of time relating the visual design to the history, purpose, and placement of the monument."
Vosel's design took the shape of a handprint.
"I knew Randall T. Shepard really likes children and wanted children to be able to interact with the monument," Vosel said. "The hand is actually a form of a painted children's hand. It has rounded edges and a smooth texture for kids to safely run around."
Casey Kannenberg, Chair of the Steering Committee for the Shepard Public Art Project, expressed his satisfaction with Vosel and Shaylor's designs.
"Quite simply, John and Mark had the best concepts," Kannenberg said. "We were pretty amazed at what they were able to put together based on the criteria that we had come up with. We thought it would be difficult to create a design that both honors Chief Justice Shepard and is safe for children to interact with. John and Mark responded the best in terms of vision and execution of their ideas."
Chief Justice Shepard, who is an honorary alumnus of the College and Evansville native, attended the naming of the winning design and praised the College for its emphasis on enlivening one's imagination and living humanely.
"I love Dr. Pat White's phrase about enlivening your imaginations and imagining what life might be with the benefit of a Wabash education," Shepard said. "The answer is in some ways demonstrated by what John and Mark have done and what the Leadership Academy has made possible, which is to enrich the civic life of the community by allowing the creative talents of the best of us be visible to lift up our spirits and to cause us to think through what we might leave with our fellow human beings.
"I hope that all of you will be able to see in your mind's eye how this place might empower you to be great citizens who help your fellow citizens see a brighter future."
President White related Shaylor and Vosel's work to the collaboration of the fine arts and liberal arts.
"I am proud of John and Mark, because this is art in the real world," White said. "These men have created it, and they have had to use their understanding of history, culture, politics, law, and the impact of Chief Justice Shepard's career to make a design."
Vosel received a $2,000 scholarship, and Shaylor received a $500 scholarship for their designs.
Kannenberg said Chief Justice Shepard's monument will be completely constructed either by the end of the year or early next year. Vosel will work with the fabricators for the construction project.


text:
A Fortune 100 North American retailer dramatically improved insight into its customer base and channel partner interactions using a powerful cloud solution. After years of underinvestment in customer service infrastructure, deployment of point solutions to individual contact centers and numerous operational silos, the client is now providing a rich, effective multichannel service experience.
Adopting a hybrid agile approach allowed for quarterly release cycles that span from design/build to user training and supported rapid rollout of point solutions to more than 3,000 agents, 1,000 business users and more than 100 million customers.


text:
A Study of HIV Levels During Pregnancy and After Childbirth
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00041964
Recruitment Status : Completed
First Posted : July 22, 2002
Last Update Posted : July 24, 2012
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- No Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
The purpose of this study is to find out if HIV-infected pregnant women taking anti-HIV drugs have an increased amount of HIV in their blood (viral load) after having the baby.
The purpose of A5153s, a substudy of A5150, is to characterize two anti-HIV drugs (nelfinavir [NFV] and lopinavir/ritonavir [LPV/r]) in HIV-infected women during pregnancy and after childbirth.
Sometimes pregnant women have an increase in their HIV viral load after their baby is born. This study will try to find out how often this happens. It will also examine possible reasons why the increase in viral load occurs.
|Condition or disease
|HIV Infections Pregnancy
Limited data suggest that HIV-infected pregnant women develop postpartum viral rebound. However, viral load changes in the postpartum period have not been adequately characterized. Changes in adherence to antiretroviral therapy, pregnancy-related changes in pharmacokinetics of antiretroviral medications, and decline in immune competence are mechanisms by which postpartum viral load rebound may occur. This study is designed to characterize the incidence and magnitude of postpartum viral rebound during the initial 24 weeks postpartum and to explore the mechanisms and consequences of viral rebound.
Eligible patients are evaluated at gestational weeks 34 and 36, at delivery, and at regular visits for 96 weeks postpartum. Most evaluations include a medical history, physical exam, laboratory tests, and adherence and quality-of-life questionnaires. Viral load and CD4/CD8 cell counts are measured frequently.
Patients are expected to receive at least 8 weeks of stable HAART before delivery, and to continue HAART throughout the remainder of the study. The choice of HAART is left to the primary provider. No antiretroviral drugs are provided by this study.
Patients participating in the A5153s substudy receive either NFV or LPV/r as part of their HAART. Pharmacokinetic blood sampling takes place at 36 weeks gestation, 6 weeks postpartum, and 24 weeks postpartum. Patients record the administration times and doses of their NFV or LPV/r for 48 hours prior to each substudy visit, and hold their regularly scheduled doses of antiretroviral medications on substudy days. Patients arrive at the clinic fasting (no food or drink for the previous 8 hours) and are given a standardized breakfast prior to supervised administration of their NFV or LPV/r dose. An intravenous catheter is placed in an arm vein for blood collection at pre-dose and 1, 2, 4, and 6 hours post-dose.
|Study Type :
|Enrollment :
|129 participants
|Official Title:
|A Prospective Observational Study of Virologic and Immunologic Changes in HIV-Infected Women During the Postpartum Period
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|13 Years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria
Patients may be eligible for this study if they:
- Are age 13 or older.
- Are between 22 and 30 weeks pregnant.
- Have had their pregnancy confirmed by ultrasound at 14 weeks gestation or later.
- Are infected with HIV.
- Are planning to receive at least 8 weeks of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) by the time they have their baby.
- Are available for follow-up for the duration of the study.
Exclusion Criteria
Patients may not be eligible for this study if they:
- Intend to terminate their pregnancy.
- Intend to breast-feed their baby.
- Are carrying a baby with major abnormalities, including spina bifida, anencephaly, hydrops, or ascites.
- Have taken certain medications.
- Are enrolled in other studies that require large blood draws.
- Will be taking anti-HIV drugs only to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and not to treat the maternal infection itself.
- Actively abuse drugs or alcohol in a way that would interfere with participation in the study.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00041964
Show 32 Study Locations
|Study Chair:
|Beverly Sha
|Study Chair:
|Alice Stek
Publications of Results:
Other Publications:
|Responsible Party:
|National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00041964 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
ACTG A5153s
AACTG A5153s
|First Posted:
|July 22, 2002 Key Record Dates
|Last Update Posted:
|July 24, 2012
|Last Verified:
|July 2012
Keywords provided by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID):
Pregnancy Trimester, Third
Pregnancy Complications, Infectious
HIV Protease Inhibitors
Viral Load
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
HIV Infections
Lentivirus Infections
Retroviridae Infections
RNA Virus Infections
Virus Diseases
Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral
Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes
Immune System Diseases


text:
DOVER — A 29-year-old Dover man charged with second degree murder in the death of missing University of New Hampshire student Elizabeth Marriott was ordered held without bail Monday.
DOVER, N.H. — A 29-year-old Dover man charged with second-degree murder in the death of a missing University of New Hampshire student was ordered held without bail Monday.
Seth Mazzaglia is facing a felony second-degree murder charge for strangling or suffocating Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott on Tuesday, Oct. 9, Dover Circuit Court Judge Stephen Morrison said during Mazzaglia's arraignment Monday in Dover.
"What it alleges," he said, "is that on Oct. 9 you recklessly caused the death of Elizabeth Marriott under circumstances manifesting in extreme indifference to the value of human life by strangling her and/or suffocating her."
Morrison entered no plea on Mazzaglia's behalf. He said the defendant has already filled a petition seeking legal counsel. He is being held at Strafford County House of Corrections, and is scheduled to appear for a probable cause hearing on Oct. 29 at 10 a.m.
Seth Mazzaglia is seen via video link during his arraignment Monday, Oct. 15, in Dover, N.H. The 29-year-old Dover resident has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of University of New Hampshire student Elizabeth 'Lizzi' Marriott.
Related Articles and Media Article: Timeline of Marriott's disappearance and arrest of Mazzaglia Article: Arrest made in UNH student's death: Despite no body found yet, police say they know 'Lizzi' Marriott is dead Article: Suspect in killing active in theater, skilled in karate Article: Murder of UNH student comes as heavy blow on campus Article: Relative stunned by death, but admits she 'suspected it since last night' Article: Dover man charged with murder in death of missing UNH student Elizabeth Marriott Article: Vigil planned for family of slain UNH student Elizabeth Marriott Morrison also announced the state will allow Mazzaglia's attorney an opportunity to view the affidavit attached to warrants authorizing police to arrest Mazzaglia and search his apartment this weekend. The information will be divulged to the public defender's office, but will not be made public to anyone other than Mazzaglia and his attorney.
New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Jane Young said the next update in the case will come at 3 p.m. today at the earliest. Authorities will hold a press conference at Dover Circuit Court.
Marriott was last seen Tuesday, Oct. 9, while at a class at the UNH campus in Durham. Family members say she texted a friend in Massachusetts and said she was heading to Dover to visit an apartment on Mill Street. The last transmission from her cell phone came at about 10:10 p.m., when a signal reached a tower in Dover.
Marriott failed to show up for work the following morning at Target in Greenland, N.H., and was also absent from class on Thursday, Oct. 11.
At a press conference Saturday, Assistant Attorney General James Vara announced police have gathered "credible" information establishing Marriott is dead, but they have been unable to locate her body. They were concentrating their search Friday and Saturday at Peirce Island in Portsmouth.
Marriott's car, a 2001 Mazda Tribute, has been discovered at a parking lot at UNH.
Investigators were active on Mill Street in Dover on Friday evening, but would not discuss the investigation. A Dover Police Department crime scene investigation van and two police cruisers were seen parked outside a Mill Street apartment building.
Mazzaglia appears to have been the operator of a website located at www.sjmazzaglia.com. The page provides career history for a man named Seth J. Mazzaglia living at 1 Mill St. in Dover.
The website indicates Mazzaglia is an "experienced actor, writer and fight choreographer," who has been active in southern New Hampshire's theater community for several years.
State Police and investigators from the FBI joined the search Friday for the missing 19-year-old, who was living with her aunt and uncle in Chester, N.H., and commuting to UNH. Marriott is a 2011 graduate of Westborough High School in Massachusetts and was studying marine biology, according to her uncle. She attended Manchester Community College her freshman year before transferring to UNH this year.
No family members attended Monday's hearing, but the court was crowded with media.
A spokesman at the Portsmouth Police Department said Monday afternoon that local police have ceased their search effort at Peirce Island, and have not been active there today. A U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said authorities there have also ceased taking part in the search. Dover police were referring all comment to the attorney general's office.
A spokesman from the attorney general's office could not immediately be reached for comment about the investigation Monday afternoon.


text:
By: Dr. Robert J. Landy
January 16, 2013
As it happens every January, you can bet that millions of New Yorkers have made well-intended resolutions to eat better, exercise more and lose weight. But, if you are among the 72 percent of Americans who say they cannot exercise because of foot pain, those good intentions will never become reality. NOW is the time to take action and get help. The foot specialists of the New York State Podiatric Medical Association are using January as a springboard for educating the public as to the importance of foot health and safety when beginning an exercise program.
With rising obesity statistics also comes an increase in diabetes, heart disease and other related illnesses; exercising and maintaining a healthy weight are two preventative measures that require healthy feet. But the numbers show that Americans view their feet as the least important body part and yet the number one to experience pain! In spite of its prevalence, foot pain is not normal and should be treated by a specialist.
Podiatrists recommend that before beginning an exercise program, make sure your feet are fit, flexible and strong. And always consult with a physician before embarking on any new fitness regimen. Considering that a120-pound person walking a single mile exerts the equivalent of approximately 63 tons, which is a force greater than 125,000 pounds on each foot, it's no wonder that foot injuries are so common among Americans.
Here are some simple foot exercises that can be done at home or at the gym, before you work out:
1. Toe Points - While standing, do toe raises, toe points and toe curls. Hold each position for five seconds and repeat ten times. This is a perfect way to help alleviate toe cramps and strengthen calf muscles.
2. Toe Squeezes - Place a foam toe separator between your toes and squeeze for five seconds. Repeat ten times. This is a good strengthening exercise for people who suffer from hammertoes or toe cramps.
3. The Roll - Applying light pressure and rolling a golf ball under the ball of your foot for approximately two minutes creates an instant massage for the bottom of the foot. This exercise is perfect for people who suffer from plantar fasciitis (heel pain syndrome), cramps or arch pain (and it feels great!). If a golf ball is not readily available, any type of small ball will work just as well.
4. Towel Scoop - Place your gym towel on the floor and pick it up by only using your toes. Repeat this exercise five times. Try this if you have hammertoes, toe cramps, pain in the ball of your foot, or for overall strengthening.
Foot Massage Techniques
A foot massage not only helps to release tension in your feet, but also increases circulation and maintains the health of the skin on your feet. The first step to a perfect foot massage is to be sure that you and your partner are sitting comfortably in separate chairs. If you are giving yourself a foot massage, simply lift your foot across your lap to begin.
Next, apply a generous amount of emollient-enriched skin lotion or Vitamin E cream to hydrate the skin. This not only moisturizes your foot, but also allows your hands to move smoothly.
1. Warm-Up - To begin stimulating circulation and warming up your foot, hold the foot in your hands. Starting at the top of the foot, begin a long, slow stroking motion with your thumbs, from the tips of the toes, down your sole to your heel and up to your ankle. Retrace your strokes back to the toes and repeat 3-5 times or until the foot feels warm.
2. Ankle Rotations - To loosen the ankle joint and relax your feet, cup the foot under the back portion of the heel in order to brace the foot and leg. Grip the foot with the other hand and turn it slowly at the ankle five times in each direction.
3. Toe Stretch - Grasp the foot at the arch. With the other hand, starting with the big toe, hold the toe with your thumb and index finger and firmly pull the toe, slowly moving and squeezing your fingers up the sides of the toe. Repeat this movement twice on each toe.
4. Arch Release - To help release tension in your foot's arch, hold the heel of the foot and use the other hand to apply pressure. Slide the heel of your hand along the arch from the ball of the foot toward the base of the ankle and back up the sole of the foot. Repeat five times.
5. Cool Down - End your foot massage with the same technique used in the warm-up. Then, remove all excess lotion that may be left between your toes with soap and water and dry thoroughly.


text:
Hi all
in the light of recent tragedy in Perth I've decided to make a helmet for myself.
As a skilled board builders, would you have any tips for making a helmet?
Just finished a plaster mold head (close:). Than I'll use a hot vinyl to wrap the mold and seal it.
Was thinking to do epoxy infusion to keep the weight to minimum. Triax FG + carbon-kevlar biax cloth x 2.
Something like a "skin" helmet...Some foam inside + velcro from a cycling helmet.
What do you think?


text:
Helmerich & Payne Inc. (HP) Falls 3.96% for January 07Equities Staff Follow |
One of the S&P 500's big losers for Thursday January 07 was Helmerich & Payne Inc. (HP). The company's stock fell 3.96% to $48.48 on volume of 2.16 million shares.
The stock opened the day at 49.32 and traded between a low of $48.30 and a high of $49.99. The stock finished the day down $2 per share. Helmerich & Payne Inc. has an average daily volume of 2.54 million and a total float of 107.79 million shares. The 50-day SMA for Helmerich & Payne Inc. is $54.79 and its 200-day SMA is $60.85. The high for the stock over the last 52 weeks is $79.90 and the low is $46.16.
Helmerich & Payne Inc is engaged in contract drilling of oil & gas wells for others in the ownership, development & operation of commercial real estates. Its business comprises of three reportable segments: U.S. Land, Offshore & International Land.
Helmerich & Payne Inc. is centered in Tulsa, OK, and has 6,738 employees. Today's trading day leaves the company with a market cap of $5.23 billion. The company has a P/S ratio of n/a, P/B ratio of 1.07, and a 132.5.
For a complete fundamental analysis analysis of Helmerich & Payne Inc., check out Equities.com's Stock Valuation Analysis report for HP. To see the latest independent stock recommendations from Equities.com's analysts, visit our Research section.
The S&P 500 represents the industry standard for large-cap indices. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) may be the most visible stock market index in the country, the S&P 500 has long been relied on by industry insiders and fund managers as the more reliable gauge of portfolio performance.
While the DJIA is price-weighted and only includes 30 stocks, the S&P 500 uses a weighting system that factors in market cap and the size of a company's free float while including some 500 stocks for a more comprehensive look at the broader markets' performance. Its performance is far more representative of the large- and mega-cap stocks for any period of time.
For more news on the financial markets, go to Equities.com. Also, learn more about our independent proprietary equity research reports and our robust do-it-yourself Stock Valuation Analysis reports in our Research section.
All data provided by QuoteMedia and was accurate as of 4:30PM ET.
DISCLOSURE: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors, and do not represent the views of equities.com. Readers should not consider statements made by the author as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. To read our full disclosure, please go to: http://www.equities.com/disclaimer