Obtrusions in the intestines not allowing the bolus of food to pass through.
The cramps may originate in small or large intestine. The cause of intestinal colic could also be impacted faces, formation of scar tissues or infected diverticula or Crohn's disease. Partial gastrectomy increases the risk of having intestinal colic. Keeping yourself hydrated can prevent intestinal colics.
There are sharp symptoms, hard to avoid.
Self-care: Eat fibre rich foods, but if you've had gastrectomy, avoid them. Stay hydrated. Avoid fatty foods and lose weight if you're obese.
Medications: Anti-inflammatory pain relievers can only help in reducing pain temporarily.
Specialists: Depending on severity of inflammation and location of stones and gallbladder, drugs or shock-wave therapy may be used by your surgeon. Gallbladder might required to be removed surgically. mfine strives to bring best healthcare services to you from around the country; choose from the best doctors by engaging with us.


Dynamic Weddings - Planning ARE YOU A VENDOR?
Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dynamic Weddings is a company that specializes in professional Wedding Planning, Day of Coordination, Photography, Videography, DJ/MC, Photo Booth and other wedding services for area brides and grooms. This talented team of Vancouver Wedding Planner can coordinate any function, big or small, to perfection. By helping you create a customized timeline with all the small details that make weddings special, your big day will be a dream come true. Rely on their 20+ years of wedding expertise!
This team know that having a professional help you make important decisions and guide you in the right direction is priceless. The day of coordinator service has proven to be very valuable. It's important to have a "go to person" to handle all the logistics and little things that often fall through the cracks.
Dennis & Dynamic Weddings Made Our Day Unforgettable!
The level of service that we received throughout the entire process was exceptional. With the help of Dynamic Weddings, we put together a timeline of deliverables so that our planning process was smooth and stress free. It was ensured that our photographer who worked with us for our engagement photos was working with us at our wedding as well which gave us a sense of comfort. The biggest thing we heard throughout the wedding planning process from anyone who's gotten married was "be prepared for something out of your control to go wrong". My wife and I laugh at this now because with the guidance and care that Dennis and Dynamic showed us, our special day went off without a hitch and I think that's the biggest compliment we could give! Thanks Dynamic, our special day wouldn't have been as special as it was without all of your help!
Hi Derek, We absolutely loved everything about your wedding. First off, you were such an amazing couple and totally worked well with our team. You were so open to our ideas and expertise and it all flowed so smoothly. We were so much more effective by having the majority of our services working for you at the same time. It was truly excellent experience for us all. Congrats!
My wife and I booked Dynamic Wedding's services through our venue which highly recommended them. We were glad to have made that choice. Dennis was a pleasure to work with, he gave us lots of guidance and help planning our special day. He created a very helpful day of schedule and looking back had we not had his help, it would have been a mess! The day of wedding he kept us all on track and was able to adjust to the changing circumstances. The entire day Dennis was always checking to make sure we were okay, he even got our dinner leftovers sent up to our room for later since he knew we would be hungry again after such a long day. DJ Trent was our DJ/MC, he was outstanding! Not only did he look like actor Jack Black, but he was just as funny! The number one comment we got the whole night was "Great DJ/MC". He would make witty playful remarks on the fly and brought the room alive! All and all we would definitely recommend Dynamic Wedding's to anybody that want's a great and stress free wedding. You should also think about getting the photo booth they provide! We got to keep a thumb drive of all the funny photo's of our guests making silly faces and dressing up, it's a lot of fun. To sum thing's up, you don't want a cheap service for your special day and be flipping a coin on how they will do. Dynamic Wedding's will give you a premium service and give you peace of mind at a reasonable rate.
Hi Brody, Thanks so much for your comments. Yes, there is a definite fine line when you are a Wedding Planner to make recommendations, keep things moving and encourage decisions while keeping the whole process light and fun. I'm glad you experienced all that when we planned your big day and it all came together when I was your Day of Coordinator. I'm glad our DJ/MC and photo booth fit well with your day and overall, it couldn't have worked out any better. Congrats to you both and thanks so much!
Dennis helped us to organize our songs, order and timeline. We thought we had a good grasp of it before hand, but once Dennis started to explain the details we were blown away! He took his time explaining everything and helping us to organize what would be smoothest. Everything went off without a hitch, highly recommend!
Hi Kristi, Thanks so much for your thoughtful review. We appreciate it. Yes, it was a truly awesome day, despite it being on a Sunday in October. It was lovely and you were so organized. Thanks for being open to our suggestions. I'm glad that you were able to incorporate our timeline and various suggestions to make the little details count! I find that it helps the day run smoothly and we can anticipate issues BEFORE they happen. Your open mind allowed that to happen. Thank you. All the best to you both!
We used Dynamic Weddings for photography, DJ, day of coordinator and a few hours of wedding planning services. I appreciated the wedding planning services, as their itinerary template was very helpful. It was nice to have all of the services through the one company so that things could be coordinated seamlessly. Our day of coordinator Vin was amazing! She was so helpful throughout the entire day, making sure everyone was where they were supposed to be. Things ran so smooth, and she made sure my husband and I had a drink in our hand throughout the evening. She was so happy, helpful, and organized throughout the day.
Our photographers Erick and Lawrence were phenomenal, and our DJ/MC Trent had the guests dancing all night long (see my reviews in the photography and dj sections). Very professional company! The wedding was amazing!
Hi Ashley, Thank you for the kind review. We enjoyed helping you plan your wedding and were so happy with the way it turned out. Thanks for trusting our experience. We were happy to see it flow so effortlessly. All the best!
Would highly recommend their services!
We were so impressed with Dynamic Weddings! They stayed in constant contact with us throughout the whole process and truly listened to what we wanted. Their staff felt like family, they were incredible to work with and made the day so enjoyable! They provide pretty great bundle prices that seem to be unbeatable with many other companies. Dennis took the time to sit with us and go through many things with us that he truly didn't have to do. He helped us stay on track throughout the months leading to the wedding and had an amazing DOC the day of ensuring everything was going as planned. We're forever thankful for all their hard work and time spent with us!
Hi Stefania, Your wedding was an excellent example of how taking the time to communicate, plan and prepare in advance makes such an event successful. The execution with our Day of Coordinator and our other vendors was flawless as a result. Having our team that work together and know each other well really made all the difference. We really did feel like part of the family and loved working with you. The end product was amazing!


text:
Ask us about the AllCore360º in our new Infrared Sauna Capsule
Partner with AllCore360º
AllCore360º Machine
AllCore360º Infrared Sauna
Athletic Sports
Premium Wellness Facilities
Gray Chiropractic & Sports Associates: Innovation in Chiropractic Healing with the AllCore360°
By Blake WhitneyJuly 15, 2019September 24th, 2020No Comments
Gray Chiropractic & Sports Associates is a chiropractic practice based in Winston Salem, NC, dedicated to exploring holistic chiropractic healing through cutting-edge research and technology.
"The biggest complaint that comes to us is: 'My core is weak. My back hurts. I can't really exercise my core.' With the AllCore360°, we're able to answer those needs and give care. We first applied it to athletes after meeting Dr. Bertrand and Blake and seeing the great results with athletes. Now, our athletes will get on the machine just because they love the workout, not for any specific condition or reason, but just because they can't get that kind of core workout anywhere else." – Dr. Gray, Gray Chiropractic & Sports Associates
Dr. Gray with Gray Chiropractic & Sports Associates has been in practice for over 25 years with a sincere focus on bridging the gap between traditional, holistic chiropractic wellness and the latest in physical therapy and exercise technology. With clients that range in their ages, needs, and concerns, Gray works with his assistant Frank Volrath to deliver the best aide for a number of patients and their unique goals.
"People come to use because they've got a spinal concern," says Gray. "What we try to do here is create an environment where the latest literature and technology come together to really make an impact on the health, wellbeing, and maintenance of an individual with those complaints. By adding the core to the recipe of treatment, we enhance the patient's experience and also their clinical outcomes."
Taking from the professional athlete arenas where they have access to the most current approaches to musculoskeletal rehabilitation, Gray's method includes a lot of time and attention researching and incorporating current trends into his practice to better address patient ailments and health problems. To that end, he's very skeptical in uncovering research that will enhance his way of addressing conditions or looking at technology that can yield a compound or higher degree of outcome with regards to pain or functional limitations. When he first discovered — and rode — the AllCore360°, he didn't want to be overenthusiastic about it, and it's benefits, and instead took a neutral approach.
"I wanted to be mindful of my experience when I first tried it," comments Gray. "I was taking notice of what I felt prior to the 10-minute ride and afterward, and I have to say, I'm undoubtedly sure that there was a different feel to my spine and to the movement of my body. In fact, I didn't let anyone know that I had a slight injury to my SI joint, and was sore and stiff on top of it. And after I took the ride, I was, quite amazingly, less stiff and able to be a little more free with my motion. Three or four days later, my lower back and SI joint was quite calm. I was taken aback by the positivity of the experience, and started talking with Frank about how we could bring this technology to our clinic."
After bringing the AllCore360° to his practice, Dr. Gray started incorporating the machine into his assessments for clients that ranged from young athletes to those suffering from pain. "What the AllCore360° brings to the table, which is very interesting, is a continuous workout for 10 minutes," notes Gray. "You can't get that anywhere else, whether you're with a trainer or not. With AllCore360°, our patients develop the foundation that carries on to other parts of their life."
With the AllCore360°'s ability to be adapted to the mobility level of any rider, Gray's patients were able to engage their whole core, and activate the deep core muscles that support the spine. Both Gray and Volrath saw marked improvement among a number of their patients, including a teenage weightlifter with hip pain, a retiree with chronic back pain, and an octogenarian yogi with neck pain.
"I have everyone from 83-84-year-olds to 16-year-old athletes on the AllCore360°. I've got clients with back pain, people that sit at desks, people that drive all of the time. I've got retirees, golfers, weightlifters, everyone. We can adapt the experience over time, and that's a big driver for what the overall recommendation for each patient would be." – Frank Volrath, Gray Chiropractic & Sports Associates
FUTURE:
Moving forward, Gray plans to remain dedicated to the results — as long as his patients are seeing returns on their physical investment, he knows the value of the AllCore360° will only grow.
"The AllCore360° is a game changer," says Gray. "As a clinician, we have our everyday approaches, but we need to step outside of the box to invite different perspectives on the paradigm that we once had, and look at ways that we can enhance in a short period of time. It really comes down to if people can experience it, and if they can feel it. By feeling it and seeing it, patients are more inclined to see how much practice plays a role in their overall health and wellbeing, especially in relation to their spinal health. The AllCore360° is just that practice."
Rider Highlights: Meet Harry!
Harry completed Dr. Gray's AllCore360° program and told Dr. Gray that "AllCore360° has enabled [him] to resume activities that were difficult in the past due to scoliosis and lack of core strength."
Read more case studies here.
Blake Whitney
Previous PostThe Evidence Based Chiropractor: Core Stability and Performance with the AllCore360°
Next Post5 New Trends in Chiropractic Tools — And What They Mean For Your Patients
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Stack implementation with array I am trying to implement stack with array in C. But I guess my push function is not correct.(Maybe there are some other mistakes) Because when I run the code, it prints "Stack is empty!" two times.
How can I solve this problem and is this implementation logic is true?
#include <stdio.h>

#define SIZE 10

 typedef struct stack
 {
     int top;
     int items[SIZE];
 }stack;

 void push(int a, stack st)
 {
     if((st.top + 1) != SIZE)
     {
         st.top++;
         st.items[st.top] = a;
     }
     else
     {
         printf("\nStack is full!");
     }
 }

 void pop(stack st)
 {
     if(st.top != -1)
     {
         st.top--;
     }
     else
     {
         printf("\nStack is empty!");
     }
 }

 void printList(stack st)
 {
     int i;
     for(i = 0; i < st.top + 1; i++)
     {
         printf("%d -> ", st.items[i]);
     }
     puts("");
 }

 int main(void)
 {
     stack stack1;
     stack1.top = -1;

     stack stack2;
     stack2.top = -1;

     push(3, stack1);
     push(5, stack1);
     push(7, stack1);

     printList(stack1);

     pop(stack1);
     printList(stack1);

     pop(stack1);
     printList(stack1);
 }

A: Hi your stack implementation is wrong.Using gdb you can verify this.You are passing structure as value you should pass as address.
On gdb you can see
In main
gdb) p &stack1
$4 = (stack *) 0x7fffffffddf0
In push fn
(gdb) p &st
$3 = (stack *) 0x7fffffffdd90
both are different.
correct code is given below.
#include <stdio.h>

#define SIZE 10

typedef struct stack
{
        int top;
        int items[SIZE];
}stack;

void push(int a, stack *st)
{
        if((st->top + 1) != SIZE)
        {
                st->top++;
                st->items[st->top] = a;
        }
        else
        {
                printf("\nStack is full!");
        }
}

void pop(stack *st)
{
        if(st->top != -1)
        {
                st->top--;
        }
        else
        {
                printf("\nStack is empty!");
        }
}

void printList(stack *st)
{
        int i;
        for(i = 0; i < st->top + 1; i++)
        {
                printf("%d -> ", st->items[i]);
        }
        puts("");
}

int main(void)
{
        stack stack1;
        stack1.top = -1;

        stack stack2;
        stack2.top = -1;

        push(3, &stack1);
        push(5, &stack1);
        push(7, &stack1);

        printList(&stack1);

        pop(&stack1);
        printList(&stack1);

        pop(&stack1);
        printList(&stack1);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Medicine Mama's Apothecary is offering this fabulous gift set perfect for mama's to be. The set includes; Baby & Mama Gentle Nourishing Skin Cream, Sweet Bee Magic Wand All in One Lip and Face Balm, and V Magic Intimate Wellness Cream. This set is a $65 value but they are currently selling it for just $49.95 and if you use the code MothersDay at checkout you will get an additional 10% off your order. Find out more information on Medicine Mama's Apothecary by liking them on Facebook.


Two grant schemes for heritage projects have been announced by the Department for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Details are below and application forms are available either from me or directly from the Department contacts listed.
Biodiversity Awareness Fund, deadline June 28th.
Completed applications should be submitted by email to biodiversitypolicy@ahg.gov.ie or by post to Environment Fund Grant Scheme 2013, Biodiversity Policy Unit, National Parks & Wildlife Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, 7 Ely Place, Dublin 2. The closing date for receipt of applications is Friday, 28 June 2013. Any queries regarding this scheme should be emailed to biodiversitypolicy@ahg.gov.ie.
Mr Jimmy Deenihan, TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht invites applications from bodies, such as charities, academic institutions, local authorities, professional organisations and others, for funding for good quality projects which will support and complement the Actions of the Government Policy on Architecture 2009-2015. Any funding made available for such projects will be provided in accordance with the guidelines outlined below.
The overall level of funding available for eligible projects in 2013 is less than €100,000 in total. For projects which will not be fully completed in 2013, applications for a discrete portion (to be completed in 2013) of a project will be considered. Depending on the level of funding available, applications for funding may also be invited in 2014.
Financial assistance from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht may not exceed 80 % of the estimated overall cost of delivering a project. The unfunded element may include personnel time invested and/or other financial resources.
The closing date for receipt of applications by the Department is 3pm on Monday, 3 June, 2013. Applications, including any supplementary material, will be accepted in softcopy format (ideally .pdf or .doc) by email to architecture@ahg.gov.ie .The email subject should be entitled 'GPA Grant Aid 2013' and include the project name. The size of the email should not exceed 15MB.


text:
Q: ASP.Net Update Panel with "The message received from the server could not be parsed" Okay, I've seen this asked in a couple of spots but never really got an answer that helped or that I understood.  I'm just starting back on ASP.net and am using VS 2010 on the 4.0 framework.
I found some code online to allow you to generate an .xls Excel file from a dataset.
The code is below, but when I run this code from a button outside of my ajax update panel it works perfectly.   If I execute the code from a button inside the update panel (where I need it to be) then I get the following:
Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerParserErrorException The message received from the server could not be parsed.
I have tried the two versions of the header shown and have tried the completerequest() instead of response.end.
Could someone explain to me why this doesn't work in the update panel and how I could make it work in the update panel?
Thanks in advance!
Protected Sub ExportDataSetToExcel(ByVal ds As DataSet, ByVal filename As String)
    Dim response As HttpResponse = HttpContext.Current.Response

    ' first let's clean up the response.object
    response.Clear()
    response.Charset = ""

    ' set the response mime type for excel
    response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"
    'response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream"
    response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=""" & filename & """")

    ' create a string writer
    Using sw As New StringWriter()
        Using htw As New HtmlTextWriter(sw)
            ' instantiate a datagrid
            Dim dg As New DataGrid()
            dg.DataSource = ds.Tables(0)
            dg.DataBind()
            dg.RenderControl(htw)
            response.Write(sw.ToString())
            'HttpContext.Current.ApplicationInstance.CompleteRequest()
            response.End()
        End Using
    End Using
End Sub

A: Try this:
response.Flush();
HttpContext.Current.ApplicationInstance.CompleteRequest()

Do not call reposne.End()

A: check out this sample:
How to download/open the file that I retrive by server path?
it shows how to write a handler to DL a file.

A: Sorry, I know is a bit late, but found the answer right now.
Try with this answer. I resolve it doing what it is said here and it works perfectly


text:
ESPN Cuts Hank Williams From Monday Night Football Over Obama 'Hitler' Remark
ESPN who airs NFL Monday Night Football games cut the intro to the game performed by Hank Williams Jr. after Jr made some remarks on the Fox Networks "Fox & Friends" Monday morning about President Obama.
Here is the report from Fox News:
ESPN pulled Hank Williams Jr.'s classic intro song from its broadcast of Monday night's NFL game after the country singer famous for the line "Are you ready for some football?" used an analogy to Adolf Hitler in discussing President Barack Obama.
In an interview Monday morning on Fox News' "Fox & Friends," Williams, unprompted, said of Obama's outing on the links with House Speaker John Boehner: "It'd be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu."
Asked by the hosts to clarify, Williams said, "They're the enemy," adding that by "they" he meant Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
Anchor Gretchen Carlson later said to him, "You used the name of one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe, I think, the president." Williams replied, "Well, that is true. But I'm telling you like it is."
"While Hank Williams Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to 'Monday Night Football,"' the network said in a statement. "We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight's telecast."
Williams released a statement through his publicist, saying: "Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme -- but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me -- how ludicrous that pairing was. They're polar opposites and it made no sense. They don't see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the president."
ESPN did not say whether the intro, synonymous with "Monday Night Football" since 1989, would be used again after this week's Colts- Buccaneers game.
Source: Foxnews.com
So here is the question. Do you think ESPN should have pulled the intro?
Filed Under: ESPN, Football, Hank Williams JR
Categories: Entertainment, News, Sports, SWLA News, Television


text:
Capari () is a village in North Macedonia. It was formerly a municipality center, but is now within the Bitola municipality.

Demographics
According to the 2002 census, the village had a total of 493 inhabitants. Ethnic groups in the village include:

Macedonians 493

References

External links
 www.capari.org -- A website devoted to bringing the rich culture, history and beauty of the Macedonian village of Capari to the world.
 www.facebook.com/Capari.Macedonia -- Facebook Page for Capari.

Villages in Bitola Municipality

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Travel - How The West Was... Win! - Does My Bomb Look Big In This?
Travel - How The West Was... Win!
As you come off the barren M4 Western Motorway just before the Light Horse Interchange - incidentally the largest collection of flyovers in the Southern Hemisphere – you'll drive along the scrubby edges of Prospect Reservoir… but ready yourself for a shock! Nestled behind the Royal Cricketers Arms - a glorious 1880s pub - you will transcend into a piece of super-modernity.
Atura Blacktown cuts an impressive, angular visage against a backdrop of clear blue sky.
The gleaming white box celebrates beams and sharp angles, with glowing yellow signage that looks even better by night.
This retro-futuristic vision is the work of architect Peter Israel, with a nod to Jørn Utzon – the man who made smooth concrete and exposed fittings so chic at Sydney Opera House.
Interior designer Nic Graham, who made a name for himself on the cool interiors of QT Sydney and QT Gold Coast, adds some hipster credibility to the hard-edged, uncompromising space, creating a high-quality playground for the common people.
...as you sip on a poolside Atura Sour ($16).
The Timewarp Package (from $179/couple) combines a funky room-for-two with a drive-in movie and morning-after breakfast, with about 250-metres of driving in-between.
...the pieces of retro-kitsch you'll find dotted across the rooms and large communal space.
Housed in Danish-style plywood cabinetry, the selection of handpicked Grab and Go items include splashes of sheer brilliance - like underwater cameras for use at the neighbouring Wet'nWild.
If you're on a budget you'll find heat-and-eat meals you can prepare in your fully-equipped kitchenette or let them do the work for you at the Roadhouse Bar and Grill.
Breakfast shows off Atura's attention to detail, with enameled cast-iron Le Chasseur pots resting on subtly incorporated cook-tops, dispensing with the need for an ugly bain-marie.
They make buttery mushrooms finally work on a hotel buffet.
High quality produce, from Lurpak butter to T2 teas, help the small range outperform buffets of bigger size.
This eye-for-detail also extends to the rooms, where fancy Malin+Goetz products ensure you can forget your (salon) shampoo.
Atura Blacktown really ups the ante on four-star, delivering what is basically a five-star experience without any fluff or pretension. You won't find white tablecloths, but you will find an eager, young crew - handpicked from surrounding suburbs - who seem rather chuffed to watch you marvel over finding this hotel in their 'hood. They'll fill you in on where to find local restaurants and attractions; and even if the caged bar mimics the slick QT Sydney look, they won't bat an eyelid if you forgo upmarket spirits for a Bundy'n'Coke.
Finally, if staying jacked-in is critical, complimentary hotel-wide wifi, cloud printing, and large-screen Apple iMacs should help you Instagram your friends into a frenzy of envy.
Yes, this is totes how the West was… win!


text:
Q: jquery not working in html5 doc I was watching a vidoe from lynda.com on how to make a scrolling marquee and I used the code in a HTML5 page and it does not work. So far the only problem I can find is that with a HTML4 there is in the  tag
html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"
With out this the for some reason it will not work.
Does any one know why?

A: Well, after taking a look at one of the first "training videos", I would strongly suggest to stop using that site for learning purposes.
It's like a collection of all the worst practices, available at single locations.
If you want to learn Javascript, you should instead avoid use of frameworks for now, and concentrate on learning the basics. Few links you might find useful:

*

*you should begin by watching Douglas Crockford: The JavaScript Programming Language, it is an almost 2 hour long lecture in 4 parts, which will cover the basics you need to know.

*http://eloquentjavascript.net/ : online (and free) book about Javascript, covering all the major things you must know

*http://yuiblog.com/crockford/ : this page contains lectures about javascript. You could say that that they are organized in university style. There is the history, then some basics.  Then off to the deep end. At first you will have trouble understanding most of the advanced stuff. thats normal.

*http://bonsaiden.github.com/JavaScript-Garden/ : collection of advices and things-you-should know for people who are new to Javascript.
When you are done with all of this, then take a look at jQuery. It will give you a solid understanding, which will help you see the common mistakes made by people who call themselves "jQuery developers" and not make them yourself.


Everyday people lack the necessary information and access to properly dispose of their unwanted or expired medications, leaving many to resort to harmful practices. The lack of proper drug disposal practices in the United States has caused both environmental and human harm. While local government disposal programs and annual Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) "take-back" programs divert many of the unwanted or expired medications from the waste stream, these programs are not enough to reduce improper disposal of pharmaceuticals. Given the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in January 2014 and the expected increase in the amount of medications dispensed to patients, it is recommended that the United States adopt a federally mandated disposal policy to reduce the harmful environmental and human harm that improper drug disposal wreaks on society.
Improper medication disposal is a significant environmental and public health problem in the United States. Traces of pharmaceuticals in drinking water and unsafe stockpiling of medications in the home have contributed to the argument for alternative methods of disposal that divert consumers from disposing of medication down the toilet or in the trash. Although previously considered acceptable methods of disposal, these practices are now understood to be detrimental not only to the health and safety of consumers but to aquatic life. Pharmaceuticals thrown in the trash eventually end up at municipal landfills and accumulate in leachate, liquid that forms and passes through solid wastes, eventually suspending into our water system. Contaminated leachate has adversely impacted our environment as millions of gallons discharge annually into our waterways without adequate waste treatment systems in place to filter all compounds.
The Department of Environmental Protection in Maine conducted a 2009 study on leachate samples at three municipal solid waste landfills and found traces of forty different prescription and over-the-counter medications. Some argue that the majority of pharmaceutical traces enter our waterways via human excretion. However, a recent report revealed that many of these products show up in filtered water as well. Because there are no criteria currently in place to evaluate the toxicity levels associated with concentrations of some of these medications, even at low levels, little is known about the effects they can have on our bodies.
Additionally, improper disposal harms aquatic life. In 2006, two chemists discovered anti-depressant remnants in the brains of fish. Further observation showed delayed reactions in fish towards predators (generated stimuli in the study). One chemist attributed this slow response to anti-depressant remnants found in the water. As a result, fish were slower in protecting themselves against predators. If this continues, the United States could see a potential decrease in the population of fish as a natural resource for human consumption.
Given imperfect access or information on proper disposal methods (what is considered safe or unsafe and the associated costs), some consumers have chosen to stockpile their leftover medications within their homes. Unfortunately this practice has shown to encourage abuse of prescription drugs among teenagers, as one in four teens (24 percent) now admit to abusing prescription drugs at least once in their lifetime—up 33% from 2008. More than half of these teenagers retrieved those medications from their parent's medicine cabinets. Not only are teens abusing medications, some are sharing them with their peers at gatherings called "pharm parties," where a variety of pills are consumed by teens in one setting. Over the last few years this has led to a 14% increase in the number of emergency room visits attributed to the misuse and abuse of these drugs. According to the DEA, if proper drug disposal methods were in place, access and availability of these drugs to teens would be reduced.
The United States government should adopt a mandated disposal policy that addresses the challenges faced by current prescription drug abuse and disposal trends. In January 2014, 32 million previously uninsured citizens became eligible to acquire health coverage under the new Affordable Care Act signed by Congress. This includes an increase of roughly 19.5 million people in Medicaid alone. As a result, the pharmaceutical industry can expect greater demand by consumers for prescription medications and will supply more to the market. If a disposal program is not in place and consumers are misinformed about how to properly dispose of their medications and where to take them, the public health and environmental conditions of the United States will become worse.
A federally mandated policy is therefore necessary to implement long-terms solutions that address current practices. The goals of this policy should include a significant reduction in prescription drug abuse trends among teenagers, and an increase in incinerated medications. In this report, two policy alternatives are evaluated against the status quo: "Single Provider" policy, which allocates full administrative and financial responsibility in operating a national disposal program to the pharmaceutical industry, and the "Shared Cost" policy, which allows the industry to split costs with state governments.
Current policies on medication disposal come from a variety of sources. On the federal level, The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (Title II of The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970) regulates the manufacture and distribution of controlled substances in the United States. These include "narcotics, stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, anabolic steroids, and chemicals used in the illicit production of controlled substances."  In order to produce, distribute, or prescribe any of these drugs, one must register with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). If a "non-registrant" person wants to dispose of their medications, they must follow guidelines set forth in Title 21 of the Act. In most cases, an authorized registrant or agent of the DEA is present to collect the drugs. However, many consumers are unaware of this process, making personal disposal of drugs difficult.
This law resulted in the creation of "take-back" programs outside of registered state and local law enforcement agencies. Before this amendment, only registered state and local law enforcement agencies had "take-back" programs. Now, pharmacies and other participating health facilities can register with the DEA to host collection bins and consumers can dispose of their medications in at those locations.
Local governments have responded to the 2010 law by partnering with independent pharmacies within their counties. For instance, in April 2012 the City and County of San Francisco launched their Safe Medication Disposal Program with an $110,000 grant from the pharmaceutical industry. Regulated by the County's Environmental Health Department, tax revenue helps fund the program through partnerships with independent pharmacies. Consumers may place their leftover medications in a clear bag and place the medications in a collection bin at one of the sites. Across the bay and similar to the San Francisco program, minus the partnership with the pharmaceutical industry, Alameda County has its own disposal program. In July 2012, the county became the first local government in the country to pass an ordinance mandating pharmaceutical companies to operate and fund collection programs. In 2013, Pharmaceutical and Manufacturers of American (PHARMA) sued Alameda County, stating that its ordinance violated the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which allows for the free exchange of goods. A federal court in San Francisco and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, leading PHARMA to appeal its case to the Supreme Court. On May 26, 2015, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case letting Alameda County's ordinance stand.
A "Single Provider" policy would require the Pharmaceutical Industry to solely finance and operate a disposal program that collects, transports, and disposes of unwanted prescription and over-the-counter medications without shifting cost to consumers in the form of higher medication prices, as outlined in the Alameda County Safe Medication Disposal Ordinance. The Pharmaceutical Industry is defined as all producers who sell, offer for sale, or distribute prescription and non-prescription medications in the United States. Medications can include orphan products, which are medications that are no longer in production, or products acquired outside of the United States. This "Product Stewardship Program" (PSP) can be operated by one producer or many producers in a Product Stewardship Organization (PSO). The PSO would be responsible for the safe collection and disposal of medications.
The PSO must submit a plan to the DRSA for approval. In addition, they must pay a fee to the DRSA for administrative cost to regulate the program. If the PSO, at any time, does not comply with any of the requirements set forth in the plan, the DRSA can administer a penalty. Regulatory structure over the PSP(s) and penalties are designed by the DRSA.
A "Shared Cost" policy would require the Pharmaceutical industry to work in partnership with state governments to establish a Product Stewardship Program. In this case, the pharmaceutical industry and the state government would work together to determine an appropriate and effective cost toward implementing a PSP, given the demand by consumers and the regulatory agency. For instance, in San Francisco County the Department of Environmental Health (DEH) administers the County's Medication Disposal Pilot with a grant from the pharmaceutical industry. However, the DEH is responsible for designing the program and complying with state and federal regulations on safe disposal methods.
Cost to fund the program can be administered through a tax on every prescription medication supplied to the state or through an annual funding grant provided by the Pharmaceutical Industry. It is the responsibility of the DRSA to report the effectiveness of the program to the state legislature and for the legislature to determine the frequency of the reporting (i.e. quarterly, mid-year, annually, etc.).
In both options 2 and 3, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would monitor the activities of state disposal programs. If a PSO incurs more than three penalties in one year by the DRSA, the EPA would enforce sanctions against the organization.
Current policies are not enough to reduce the harmful side effects caused by improper drug disposal, as evidenced by the rise of prescription drug-related emergency room visits among teens and the emerging traces of pharmaceuticals found in our water system. With the new health care law and the potential increase of pharmaceuticals available to consumers, local government programs and annual DEA take-backs cannot alone successfully reduce the effects of improper drug disposal. Furthermore, implementation and regulatory oversight of such programs cost money and local governments are financially unable to meet the demands of consumers for more disposal sites. Without more support from the pharmaceutical industry, future drug disposal trends are expected to get worse.
In administering an effective drug disposal program, both the government and members of the pharmaceutical industry have been shown to be equally capable. In 1997, British Columbia instituted a product stewardship program requiring pharmaceutical companies to develop collection programs that take back and dispose of expired and unused mediations. The cost of the program is fully paid by the pharmaceutical industry while British Columbia acts as the regulatory agent. This concept of "Extended Producer Responsibility" assigns no fee to consumers to dispose of their medications or pharmacies who decide to host bins (though some increased cost may be passed along in the form of higher prices for medication). With its implementation, British Columbia has successfully increased the amount of returned products to pharmacies by 26% from 2011 to 2012. If a Single Provider policy is adopted, the pharmaceutical industry should be able to administer a national drug disposal program.
Locally, San Francisco County administers its own program through the Department of Environmental Health. Partnerships between 13 independent pharmacies and 10 police stations, in a year, has allowed San Francisco to collect 17,142 pounds of expired and unwanted medications to be incinerated. . Yet, annual donations by the pharmaceutical industry help finance the program and it is unclear if the same effectiveness would be accomplished without their support. If a Shared Cost policy is adopted, the state could use San Francisco's program as an administrative model for running a state-wide program.
It is important to evaluate efficiency and equity when analyzing the alternatives. It is clear that local government disposal programs are not enough to promote the above goals. Sabatini (2013) states that San Francisco city officials are presently unsatisfied with current take-back operations and are seeking long-term financial solutions for their program. However, a key question is should responsibility of funding a state disposal program fall exclusively on tax payers or should the pharmaceutical industry fund or at least share the cost of its administration. To analyze this argument, the financial impact to the pharmaceutical industry and to individual states in administering a drug disposal program must be evaluated.
According to World Health Organization (2013) the global pharmaceuticals market is currently worth $300 billion a year and, in response to the ACA's implementation in January, its revenue is expected to increase by $35 billion over the next decade. Therefore, could the pharmaceutical industry fully fund and operate a national disposal program as described in the Single Provider Policy and is it fair given potential economic risks?
PHARMA's 2013 Biopharmaceutical Research Industry Profile outlines the industry's spending on Research and Development and total sales. In 2012, they brought in approximately $295 billion dollars in revenue. Sixteen percent was spent on Research and Development (R&D), both in the U.S. and abroad, including cost of salaries, materials, supplies, manufacturing of drugs, and contracted or granted funds to laboratories or educational institutions for research purposes. This calculation did not include "cost of routine quality control activities, capital expenditures, or any costs incurred for drug or medical R&D conducted under a grant or contract from other companies or organizations" or the costs of promoting drugs. This leaves about $247 billion in profit, less the unincluded costs. Based on this analysis, the pharmaceutical industry can financially support a nation-wide drug disposal program and remain profitable. In British Columbia there are 8.2 million people who dispose of their medications under a program .It costs the industry $430,340 thousand a year to operate the program and there has been no reported increased medication costs to the consumer. If a similar program is adopted in the United States, annual costs are expected to be around 16.5 to 26.5 million dollars, considering the population size and standard of living of the United States compared to Canada.  This makes up 0.005 to 0.01 percent of the industry's current total sales.
In terms of the Shared Cost Policy, individual states must generate revenue to support a state-wide disposal program, which means increased taxes. However, a tax on consumers can lead to less spending on goods and services, ultimately driving down economic activity and generating less revenue for state programs. Additionally, some state governments are currently trying to recover from debt, and lack the revenue to fund and administer a new program. When predicting potential costs, a new drug disposal program can be financially compared to an existing recycling program. For instance, in California the collection of household hazardous waste (batteries, sharps, and paint, etc.) costs taxpayers $16 million ($0.42/per person) a year. With additional support from the pharmaceutical industry, costs could be leveraged for a drug disposal program without placing a significant burden on taxpayers. For states smaller than California, costs for running such a program would be less.
Based on the above analysis, it is recommended that the federal government adopt the Single Provider Policy. Although both policies are effective in administering a drug disposal program, the Single Provider Policy is predicted to be more efficient at meeting the above goals. There is less of a financial risk to the industry compared to the economic impact a Shared Cost would have on state resources. Current annual revenue by the pharmaceutical industry plus projected revenue from the ACA will generate more than enough money to exclusively fund and administer a nation-wide drug disposal program. Society will benefit extensively and outcomes from the program will . They may however oppose the recommended policy and challenge its legality in court.
Angelica Gums is completing her final year in the Mills Public Policy Program. Her policy interests are in economic and education policy. After graduating, she seeks a career in government or consulting.
 Raloff, J. (2008, December). Antidepressants Make for Sad Fish: Drugs May Affect Feeding, Swimming and Mate-Attracting. Science News, 174 (13), 15. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20465780.
 Sanborn, H. (2012). Safe Drug Disposal Powerpoint. Sacramento, CA: California Product Stewardship Council. Retrieved via email.
 Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (2013). Disposal of Controlled Substances. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
 Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, S. 3397, 111th Cong. (2010).
 Oakley, D. (2015, May 26). Supreme Court: Big Pharma must pay for prescription drug disposal in Alameda County. Retrieved June 7, 2015, from http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_28191245/supreme-court-big-pharma-must-pay-prescription-drug.
 Alameda County Safe Drug Disposal Ordinance (2012). Retrieved from http://www.acgov.org/aceh/safedisposal/index.htm.
 Standard of living was determined by the Levy Institute of Economic Well-being (LIMEW) measurement tool which computes "gross money income…noncash government transfers, public consumption, income from wealth, and household production, and nets out all personal taxes." It estimates Canada's LIMEW as 7 percent lower than the United States.


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Latest News in the WorldPhoto
COVID-19: World Bank, IMF and others mobilise resources to free Africa of COVID-19
8 months ago read comments by Michael Hammond
- The World Bank, the IMF and other global agencies have discussed strategies to help African countries combat the coronavirus
- Plans relating to the judicious use of resources were outlined by countries that took part in the discussion
- The meeting followed calls for a suspension of debt payment in order to provide resources for poor countries
The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other stakeholders, on Sunday, April 18, 2020, discussed the possibility of a quicker strategy on a response to the coronavirus in African countries.
Inputs were received from Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa and chairperson of the African Union, Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) among others.
Officials from the individual countries took the opportunity to outline their policy plans in line with the judicious use of resources.
READ ALSO: COVID-19: IMF reveals 5 countries have pledged $11.7 billion for poor countries
Per a report by citibusinessnews.com, the meeting was also an opportunity for the United Nations to pledge its continuous support to reemphasize its commitment to a standstill on debts from May 1, 2020.
The meeting followed calls from the President of the World Bank, David Malpass and the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, and other partners for a suspension of debt payment in order to provide support for the poorest countries.
YEN.com.gh understands that official creditors have mobilised about $57 billion for Africa in 2020 alone.
This includes about $18 billion each from the IMF and the World Bank for the provision of frontline health services, support for the poor and vulnerable and the protection of the economy from unexpected shocks.
It has been estimated that private creditor support this year could amount to an estimated $13 billion.
However, the continent needs an estimated $114 billion in 2020 in its fight against COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revealed that countries all over the world have spent a total of $8 trillion to combat the coronavirus.
The countries that form the G20 have been recognized as the highest spenders, YEN.com.gh has learned.
The G20 is made up of Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the United States of America, India, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
The rest are France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and the European Union.
READ ALSO: COVID-19: African countries must reopen their borders - World Bank
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51-year-old Fred Drah recovers from COVID-19 in Ghana | #Yencomgh
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Happy weekend Good morning messages for him
Glory be to God - Davido says as Chioma Rowland tests negative for COVID-19


Read to complete prayer or watch the video, below.
In July 2019, the Presbytery of Santa Fe will be sending a delegation of 41 youth and 7 brave youth leaders to Purdue University in Indiana for the Presbyterian Youth Triennium - including a week of fellowship, worship, and fun!
Why do you want to go to Triennium?
"I want to attend Triennium because I believe that it would help me form a deeper connection and understanding of my faith as well as allowing me to meet more youth from the larger Presbytery."
"I want to go because I want my spirituality to grow into something greater than what it is."
What kind of impact might Triennium have on you? On your church?
"I hope this opportunity will help me grow in my faith and gain confidence as I prepare to start high school."
"I'm at a stage where just believing in God doesn't drive me the way I think it should. I know that there are other people who are where I'm at, and if I can share my Triennium experience with them, it would help both of us greater appreciate the Church and God's role in our lives."
If you would like to support youth going to Triennium, you can make a contribution to the Triennium fund through the Presbytery office or donating online (memo 'Triennium').
Please contact Luke Rembold at youth@santafepresbytery.org if you have any concerns or questions.
Thanks to Shepherd of the Valley Presbyterian Church for hosting, especially to Jason and Priscilla Belvin for their work on the food for the weekend, and Shelton Caldwell for his hospitality and preparation of space around the church.
Another successful fall Presbytery Meeting at Ghost Ranch, including the Celebration of the Presbytery's 150th Anniversary, a joint worship with the PSF and the Synod of the Southwest with a message delivered by the PCUSA Stated Clerk, Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, and the commissioning of the 2018-2019 ABQ YAVs - just to name a few of the special highlights!
For more photos, please visit the Presbytery of Santa Fe Facebook page.


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Posts tagged "fake"
Cordy's War Story: A Crisis of Credibility
Cordy Swope (Twitter) describes himself as either a Design Researcher with Grey Hair or a design researcher with grey hair.
IDEO. NYC. Early 2010.
I had been summoned from Europe to lead a project about the future of education in the US. At IDEO, there is a well-established a code of ethics for site visits. This code takes extra measures to protect the privacy of informants – especially their identities and contact data. IDEO also has sensible, street-smart guidelines for fieldwork in sketchy environments. In previous jobs, I had seen a situation in which two of my female design researchers had to go to remote, sparsely populated parts of the Midwest and visit big, burly, smiling men who stored every conceivable power tool in their dungeon-like tornado cellars.
There is never a shortage of people in NYC though, and recruiting there offers many delights. For instance, NYC is one of only several places where it is possible to recruit for impossibly specific profiles like: "Seeking 3 single dads who have volunteered with their children at a local charity organization within the past 2 weeks, and who also must struggle with their own gender identity and make at least $150K/year." In the Tristate, if you are one in a million, by definition there are at least 22 of you.
Our recruiter used Craigslist for most projects and straightaway found us one of our targets: a working mother who had successfully completed a BA online while still raising a family. I had a new team and my associate design researcher was an eager, empathic and articulate ethnographer doing her first project at IDEO. We headed out to Inwood in Brooklyn for our first site visit, hoping to get insights from this working, baccalaureate mom.
During the ride, I played the senior mentor guy, offering advice about doing ethnography "in a design context." We arrived at the address in Inwood, an obscure part of Brooklyn that looks like a sad, dilapidated part of Queens that in turn, tries to look like a nondescript suburb in Long Island. We were buzzed into the building, walked up to a door and were greeted by a large woman with a curly red mane of hair. Her name was "Roberta-but-call-me-Bert."
She let us in. The apartment was dim. It smelled of litter box mixed with burnt Dinty Moore beef stew that Ramon, Roberta-call-me-Bert's husband had overheated on the stove. The dingy plaster walls were covered in old shopping lists, written in a mangled scrawl that suggested vaguely menacing pathologies and personality disorders suffered by their author.
The sofa we sat on smelled of cat piss, and the living room offered up no pretense of ever having been cleaned. We sat up straight, made eye contact in that standard, pious, non-judgmental manner that earnest ethnographers often adopt. We began the paperwork. We were offered water and politely declined.
I asked her about work, family, free time; all of the perfunctory questions before we got into her BA experience. Since I was the seasoned professional, I led the discussion, "Tell me a story about your favorite class…", "Did you make friends with your classmates?", "Do you still keep in touch?" Since my associate was taking notes, I focused on keeping the discussion moving and letting Roberta-call-me-Bert lead us to all sorts of exciting insights.
The trouble was, she didn't.
"Oh, I don't remember much about that class," she said about her favorite statistics course she took just before graduating 18 months ago. "Yeah, I pretty much kept to myself, because I had to work and raise a family, you know?" I nodded my head earnestly.
I began asking her questions about change: "Do you view your daughter's education differently now since you got the degree?" "Not really," she said, as her daughter ate ice cream from a container while watching a YouTube video about dog fighting.
We eventually went on our way. Once out the door, I was about to launch into the debrief. Since I was the experienced one, I was going to teach my associate a simple, time-honored 20 minute structure I often use for debriefs: Interesting Behaviors/Motivations and Drivers/Problems and Frustrations/Opportunities.
I noticed that she was grimacing.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"That was a waste." she replied.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"She lied, she never went to college."
I was gobsmacked.
And she was absolutely right.
There were no interesting behaviors. There were no drivers or motivations. There were no problems or frustrations. There were no opportunities.
There was no diploma. It was "packed away somewhere."
We returned to the office. Another colleague was leading a project in men's fashion and desperately trying to recruit shop-along dyads of couples in their 40's and 50's where wives selected the husband's clothes. She said they had already recruited one couple on Craigslist and that her name was Roberta from Inwood, Brooklyn.
cordy swope, ethnography, fake, fieldwork, frequent flyer, liar, participants, recruiting, war stories
Ferreting Out Fake Reviews Online [New York Times] – We recently worked with a client exploring how online reviews impact purchase decisions. It's a fascinating, emergent space . Our focus was more on using reviews than creating reviews but we surfaced a lot of insights around authenticity and more importantly, credibility (choosing who to believe is fundamentally different than identifying what is "fake").
"For $5, I will submit two great reviews for your business," offered one entrepreneur on the help-for-hire site Fiverr, one of a multitude of similar pitches. On another forum, Digital Point, a poster wrote, "I will pay for positive feedback on TripAdvisor." A Craigslist post proposed this: "If you have an active Yelp account and would like to make very easy money please respond." The boundless demand for positive reviews has made the review system an arms race of sorts. As more five-star reviews are handed out, even more five-star reviews are needed. Few want to risk being left behind. Determining the number of fake reviews on the Web is difficult. But it is enough of a problem to attract a team of Cornell researchers, who recently published a paper about creating a computer algorithm for detecting fake reviewers. They were instantly approached by a dozen companies, including Amazon, Hilton, TripAdvisor and several specialist travel sites, all of which have a strong interest in limiting the spread of bogus reviews.
Curator Andrew Robison decides what goes into National Gallery's emergency box [WaPo] – Extant Cold War scenarios are aging out faster than naming your kids after soap opera characters, meanwhile there's an overwhelmed-by-stuff story lurking in here. What would you take from your house if you could take 3 things in 30 seconds? If you could take 20 things in an hour? If you had three days to pack a large duffel bag? These decisions are terrifying ones and for all our curation, enthusiasm for collection, etc., the accumulation of analog and digital artifacts alike is continually proving to be one of the defining problems of our time.
But in an emergency, not everything can be saved, and so he carefully ranks which works should be spared. The Canaletto is an obvious candidate for his top-priority list of 74 works on paper, but if it is included, something else has got to go. In 1979, with Washington worried about 52 hostages in Tehran and terrorist threats at home, Robison's boss asked him to create a big container for works of the highest value. If catastrophe hit, the container could be spirited away to an undisclosed location. Today, Robison has seven boxes in two separate storerooms – four for European holdings, three for American. These do not include the museum's 10,000 photographs, 3,800 paintings and 2,900 sculptures, outside of Robison's purview and mostly too big for any mad dash out the building. In the two storerooms that Robison asked not be photographed or their locations disclosed, the black, cloth-lined boxes, each the shape of very large books, bear the label "WW3," drawn in calligraphy. These in-case-of-World-War-III containers lie ready for any possibility, and in Robison's absence, security guards have a floor plan that shows their exact location, like an X on a pirate map.
art, disaster, emergency, fake, five-star, museum, national gallery, preservation, quickies, reviews, scenario, stuff, ww3
Forever in authentic blue jeans
Intersting recent ad for Lucky Jeans
Two details of the ad:
I am impressed how the overall aesthetic of the ad just oozes authenticity. There's real craft and attention to detail, leading to a strong sense of quality. But all these details they are calling out are examples of manufactured fakery: making new jeans look like worn jeans. They've taken inauthenticity to such a level of quality that it becomes authentic in its own way!
For more on this theme, see my recent interactions column with Stokes Jones, On Authenticity
advertisement, authenticity, clothing, denim, design, details, fake, inauthenticity, jeans, lucky, pants
Don Norman on Ethnography and Innovation – Some great commentary on Norman's piece (discussed here as well) including the very exciting revelation that Edison did something very much like ethnography!
General Motors – The Lab – It's a pilot program for GM, an interactive design research community in the making. Here you can get to know the designers, check out some of their projects, and help them get to know you. Like a consumer feedback event without the one-way glass.
We work on ideas that will influence our future vehicles. We want to share our ideas, inventions and pre-production vehicle designs. We want to build the right cars and trucks for your future. We want your opinion.
Iceberg Digital Book Reader for the iPhone – Digital books as content, as hardware, as a platform, as an OS, as an app? Interesting to see a range of approaches appearing. Iceberg use the iTunes store to sell the books, which seems like a brilliant strategy, leveraging a storefront/distribution platform that already exists.
Steal These Books – From Wikipedia page about book theft, a set of articles that describe what books get stolen from bookstores (independent, chain, and campus) and libraries.
Archaeology's Hoaxes, Fakes, and Strange Sites – A large set of links to articles about fake archeological-type stuff (discoveries, artifacts, and the like). How and why.
archaeology, authenticity, auto, automobile, automotive, books, bookstore, cars, community, crowdsourcing, customers, debate, design, eBook, edison, eReader, ethnography, fake, future, gm, history, iceberg, ideas, innovation, input, insights, iphone, itunes, library, marketing, norman, observation, reading, reading ahead, research, shoplifting, stealing, store, theft, titles
Meet The New Authenticity – an older post here about a topic recently revisited in my interactions column – One package had a label with a jagged edge, meant to suggest torn paper. It didn't look like real torn paper, it looked like a manufactured torn edge. Some people really liked it, but one person called it as unacceptably fake. He pointed to another packaging label that he had purchased, as this one had a more realistic-looking torn edge, where the paper was frayed and small threads and fibers were visible.
He was very clear that both of these edge treatments were done by machine; that no paper was torn by hand. The vernacular of the jagged paper was completely unacceptable. The more realistic (as he imagined it) frayed edge was the right way to do it.
It's a bit of a post-modern take on authenticity, where it's more of aesthetic that supports suspension-of-disbelief, rather than some extremely absolutely True and Real version. What does the way it looks let me comfortably accept into my reality?
authenticity, fake, interview, real, research
In defense of inspired design: Deyan Sudjic and "The Language of Things: Understanding the World of Desirable Objects" – Tthe Clift Hotel in 2001 was reborn as an outpost of the globe-trotting cultural elite. The 1913 exterior still exudes staid pomp; inside it's a dark wonderland of affectation, with theatrically scaled furniture, thick silk drapes & techno rhythms in the background.
The interiors are by Philippe Starck whom Sudjic describes as "constantly seeking to amuse the grown-ups with his daringly naughty tricks."
The ambiance is profoundly different a few blocks away at Blue Bottle Cafe. Here, light streams through the bare windows of a 17-foot-high corner retail space. The stools are utilitarian, the walls dull white.
Yet everything here is arranged as deliberately as at the Clift, including the coffee beans in grainy paper bags with the blend names stamped by hand. It's all very DIY – and you can grind the beans at home with the $700 grinder on sale a few feet away.
"In objects we value the 'authentic,' the hand-pressed. It's often the same thing with cities," Sudjic said .
Dance Off with the Star Wars Stars 2009 – Many YouTube videos to explore here, but possibly one of the most inauthentic things ever. Taking beloved character archetypes out of their true context and into a tepid cheesy new context. Funny, or a betrayal, (or cool?) depending on where you come from. While the related video, Star Wars Weekends – Special Effects Edition (with real lightsabers!), evokes a real authenticity, even though it creates humor by mixing fantasy with reality, there's a underlying difference – love for the original versus exploitation of the original
The Case of the Inappropriate Alarm Clock – Another complex and rambling Errol Morris investigation into politics, authentication, media, photography, truth, fakery, and more
Les Sans Culottes: a French band from Brooklyn that isn't really French – "Brooklyn's Les Sans Culottes have taken the whole faux-French-band thing pretty far—the group's live shows are superenergetic, fake-multicultural events. You might not learn anything about French culcha, but you'll probably hop around like a lunatic."
Authentic Organizations — aligning identity, action and purpose – A blog that explores
* What does it mean for an organization to be "authentic"?
* Why does it matter that an organization be authentic?
* Which organizations are being authentic, and what are they doing to pursue authenticity?
* Which organizations are not being authentic, why, and what could they be doing to become more authentic?
* What should an organization do to become more authentic, or to address a specific authenticity dilemma?
* What can you and I do, as organization members, as managers, leaders, scholars or practitioners, as persons, to help organizations pursue authenticity?
When Consumers Search For Authenticity: In The Eye Of The Beholder? – "Consumer identity goals (or their idealized images of themselves) underpin assessments of whether a brand is authentic (genuine, real, and true) or not." The researchers identified three primary identity goals: a desire for control, connection, or virtue. "These goals reflect three respective societal norms: the need to be practical, to participate in community, and to be moral," the authors explain. "When seeking to achieve these different goals, consumers choose different brands. When consumers desire to be in control, they may view McDonalds as an inauthentic brand partner because fast food leads to increases in weight. Alternately, McDonald's may be viewed as a genuine partner when the same consumer is seeking to connect with others."
Creating Authentic Product Experiences: a teaser for this presentation – Authenticity is an increasingly crucial attribute for successful products and services, but understanding how to apply it is slippery. In this presentation, Steve presents a number of facets of authenticity, from product form and aesthetics, to the evolution of meaning over time, to personal interactions, and brands. While there is no magic answer to "what is authenticity?" the journey to answer that question is an essential one.
All This ChittahChattah (Kindle Edition) – Understanding culture, design, and business – For only $1.99 a month. Not available to customers in the US, for reasons I don't understand.
America, architecture, art, authenticity, band, Blog, bluebottle, cheap, chittahchattah, clift, coffee, culture, dance, design, economy, entertainment, experiences, exploit, fake, highlight, history, hollywood, hotel, kindle, manipulation, marketing, media, music, organizations, photography, politics, portigal, presentation, product, propaganda, psychology, reading ahead, starwars, subscription, trailer
A thoughtful consideration (that could have so easily gone curmudgeonly) on the changes in how (and how much) we consume art – Cameras replaced sketching by the last century; convenience trumped engagement, the viewfinder afforded emotional distance and many people no longer felt the same urgency to look. It became possible to imagine that because a reproduction of an image was safely squirreled away in a camera or cell phone, or because it was eternally available on the Web, dawdling before an original was a waste of time, especially with so much ground to cover.
Michael Pollan on the cultural shifts revealed by themes in food-related TV entertainment – The historical drift of cooking programs — from a genuine interest in producing food yourself to the spectacle of merely consuming it — surely owes a lot to the decline of cooking in our culture, but it also has something to do with the gravitational field that eventually overtakes anything in television's orbit…Buying, not making, is what cooking shows are mostly now about — that and, increasingly, cooking shows themselves: the whole self-perpetuating spectacle of competition, success and celebrity that, with "The Next Food Network Star," appears to have entered its baroque phase. The Food Network has figured out that we care much less about what's cooking than who's cooking.
Nine Reasons RadioShack Shouldn't Change Its Name – Best one is " RadioShack has problems beyond any issues with its name." Also they did already change name from Radio Shack to RadioShack.
Radio Shack: Our friends call us The Shack – Do they really now? More proof that you can't simply declare yourself cool. Promo or overall rebranding, it reeks of inauthenticity.
Understand My Needs – a multicultural perspective – A Japanese usability professional compares the norms of service that retailers provide in Japan with those elsewhere (say, his experience living in Canada), and then contrasts that to the common usability problems found in Japanese websites. Culture is a powerful lens to see what causes these differences, and how usability people can help improve the experience.
advertising, art, authentic, brand, change, complexity, consumption, cooking, cool, culture, design, distance, eating, electronics, evolution, experience, fake, food, inauthentic, information, japan, louvre, marketing, media, museum, name, naming, paintings, paris, pollan, radioshack, retail, shack, shopping, slogan, society, store, usability, web, website
Paul Graham on the "social norm" problem with the Segway – This is a point I made in my interactions column "Some Different Approaches To Making Stuff" – Kamen is the genius who got it wrong, because he focused only on technology and not on culture and behavior.
"The Segway hasn't delivered on its initial promise, to put it mildly. There are several reasons why, but one is that people don't want to be seen riding them. Someone riding a Segway looks like a dork.
My friend Trevor Blackwell built his own Segway, which we called the Segwell. He also built a one-wheeled version, the Eunicycle, which looks exactly like a regular unicycle till you realize the rider isn't pedaling. He has ridden them both to downtown Mountain View to get coffee. When he rides the Eunicycle, people smile at him. But when he rides the Segwell, they shout abuse from their cars: "Too lazy to walk, ya fuckin homo?"
Why do Segways provoke this reaction? The reason you look like a dork riding a Segway is that you look smug. You don't seem to be working hard enough."
Like Nike+ for happiness, iPhone app is data collection for PhD thesis – "At repeated periods throughout the day you'll be pinged by your iPhone either by email or by SMS, and prompted to answer a short one-minute survey. This one asks how happy you are, what you're doing (yes, "making love" is an option, though hopefully it's an activity you'd prioritize over doing some science) whether you exercised recently, whether you're alone, who you're talking to and what you're thinking about." Essentially a "beeper study" but somehow a more viral story ("iPhone"!) than normal.
'True Blood' Beverage – "Inspired by HBO's hugely successful vampire drama series, True Blood, Omni Consumer Products struck a deal with the network's licensing division to releasing 'Tru Blood' the actual beverage..a drinkable product inspired by a beverage meant to taste like blood so that fake vampires from a pay-cable TV show can survive without having to resort to feasting on humans."
appearance, apps, beverage, blood, culture, design, drink, fake, fantasy, genius, gesture, happiness, HBO, innovation, interactions, iphone, kamen, language, narrative, norms, pretend, product, psychology, reality, research, segway, simulation, society, success, tracking, trends, tv, vampire
The Hand-made's Tale
At Verve Coffee Roasters, my favorite cafe in Santa Cruz, each cup of coffee comes with a cup insulator hand-tied from a napkin by the person serving it. It's a nice little touch that makes that cup of coffee seem special and folksy.
and fake real…
AT&T, keepin' it unreal with a fake photocopied-annotated-and-passed-around-the-office flyer–a piece of marketing collateral that they mailed to my house. (It's crumpled because I threw it out, then decided to write about it and rescued it from the trash.)
What are companies thinking when they send us stuff like this? Fake real, with its pretensions to authenticity, is even worse than fake.
Quickies: Fake Authenticity
Don't Brand Me, Bro
This Space Available
Meet the new authenticity
at&t, authenticity, brand, cafe, coffee, collateral, cup insulator, customer service, fake, flyer, marketing, real, Santa Cruz, Verve Coffee
HERMENAUT: Fake Authenticity: An Introduction – Equaled in fake authenticity only by Restoration Hardware, which sells new-but-old-looking pencil sharpeners and fire irons to people who apparently want to live inside a catalog, The House of Blues doesn't bother to lacquer its walls with old Ebony magazine covers, like the recently deceased bluesman Junior Kimbrough did at his juke joint in Mississippi. Instead, Ackroyd & co. just bought Kimbrough's place as soon as he died and carved it up for cufflinks. That might not be exactly accurate, but it is how you feel when you step inside a HoB. They do sell "outsider art" cufflinks, though. Did you know that HoB has its own curator? who's aggressively acquired for that chain the world's largest collection of outsider art? A questionable category anyway, this kind of painting is freely mixed at the Harvard Square HoB with old signs advertising everything from shoeshines to churches, and faux-aged signs entreating you to "Have mercy & say yeah!" and directing you to the T-shirt display.
Zara Logue's Contemporary Design class at University of Oregon – This semester's theme is Authenticity. I'll be giving a guest lecture (remotely) on April 29.
authenticity, design, fake, guest, lecture, logue, oregon, philosophy, portigal, Portland, remote, telepresence, theory
Shanzai – the trendy appeal of fake goods in China. – Shanzai means "mountain fort" and echoes slogans from the cultural revolution. Nike is Mike; Samsung is Samsing, Adidas is Avivas.
bootleg, brand, china, culture, fake, imitation, knockoff
Florida Faux, part 1
While in Florida last week I had the chance to learn a bit of history and realized that the manufactured experiences intended to evoke another time/place go back to the earliest days of Florida land booms.
In Orlando, I stayed at the Lowes Portofino Bay, meant to evoke a resort on the Italian Riviera.
Some faux touches included the scooters parked – well, installed, actually – around the grounds…
…and the made-to-look Old Country stair details.
But getting around the place was a nightmare.
In order to convey some sense of authenticity, the architects echoed bits of a townscape, with limited ability to see what was ahead. Although what you could see was devoid of any actual real details – no people, no commerce, no mess, nothing that would help you located yourself or make a decision about what direction you might want to go into. It felt like a rendered videogame background before the branding, characters, and gameplay was added. I just found it frustrating trying to get around, with a very small amount of triumph when I succeeded or found an alternative; but I wasn't there to work on getting un-lost and I wanted the hotel's precious Portofino-ness to get out of my way so I could perform basic wayfinding tasks.
FreshMeat #1: Blue Hawaii, or Viva Las Vegas
Artsy Hotel Raises the Barre
We're not in Kansas anymore
Also: Orlando pictures; Miami pictures.
architecture, authentic, emotion, fake, florida, history, hotel, navigation, orlando, portofino, townscape
What symbols stand for
In Suketu Mehta's stunning Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found is the following passage
I ask him about the rituals of the renunciation. He gives me a parable. A long time ago, a man was conducting a wedding. A cat was running around the marriage hall, disturbing things. So he tied it to a pillar. Afterward generations of the man's family, whenever they had a wedding, found a cat and tied it to one pillar of the hall, believing it to be a required wedding custom. The goings-on around this diksha, the doctor says, are like that cat tied to the pillar: The original meaning has been lost, and people are just doing it because that it how it has always been done.
Reader's Digest reports, via the New York Times about the growing presence of fake wedding cakes. Average price for a wedding cake is $543, and
"For as low as $100, you can snag a pretty good replica made out of foam, with a secret compartment tucked in the back for hiding that special first piece," the article states.
It's intriguing to play an Idiocracy-esque futurist and imagine how the ritual will decay (or is that evolve?) further. In 50 years will we wave a knife around and toss sugar packets, to symbolize the symbols of the cake and the cutting-of-the-cake?
Anne points out the similarity to the Roast Beef story where successive generations cut the ends of the roast beef because that is how they were taught. When they go all the way back to the origin, it turns out they didn't have a big enough pan and so that "ritual" was simply a coping mechanism.
Learn more about cake rental at CakeRental.com.
cake, fake, india, maximum city, ritual, roast beef, symbols, wedding
When life imitates art, things get blown up
Recently we had this story from Ohio
Five teenage girls from Portage County face potential criminal charges after attempting to play a real-life version of Super Mario Bros.
The Portage County Hazardous Materials Unit and Bomb Detection Unit were called in to downtown Ravenna on Friday morning after seventeen suspicious packages — boxes wrapped in gold wrapping paper with question marks spray painted on them — had alarmed residents.
And now, a few weeks later, comes this one
A newspaper promotion for Tom Cruise's upcoming 'Mission: Impossible III' got off to an explosive start when a county arson squad blew up a news rack, thinking it contained a bomb.
The confusion: the Los Angeles Times rack was fitted with a digital musical device designed to play the 'Mission: Impossible' theme song when the door was opened. But in some cases, the red plastic boxes with protruding wires were jarred loose and dropped onto the stack of newspapers inside, alarming customers.
Times officials said the devices were placed in 4,500 randomly selected news boxes in Los Angeles and Ventura counties in a venture with Paramount Pictures designed to turn the 'everyday news rack experience' into an 'extraordinary mission.'
Thanks, Dirk!
blow up, bomb, bomb squad, fake, marketing, MI, Mission Impossible, promotion, Super Mario Bros, Tom Cruise
Real Women, Real Beauty, Fake Ethnography
Dove has been making a big splash with its recent advertising campaign based on showing Real Women with all their flaws (i.e., a range of body tapes and ages that aren't typical hair/skin care models), so it's not surprising that a recent ad for Dove used the aesthetic of ethnographic interviews. This has been done a zillion times, especially in the last few years as ethnography becomes a more common touch point in our culture (and as the producer and the consumer collapse further). I've written about this many times, but I'm still struck whenever I see an ad doing this.
The Dove ad involved women being interviewed while they were bathing, and it cut between lower-quality video clips of several different women, with half of the clips being about the product, and half being about the process of being interviewed: "Oh, I'm in the tub, isn't this a bit awkward?!"; "You're all up in my armpit now." were two examples.
I know a fair amount of research does get done in seemingly impossible settings such as the bathroom, but I've never been directly involved in such a study myself. I did see a Whirlpool presentation many years ago about how they did such a study (i.e., people wear bathing suits) but overall it sounds pretty fun just for the added challenges of establishing a comfortable rapport in such a socially awkward setting.
advertising, aesthetic, Dove, ethnography, fake, tv


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Home / IDP / IDP STUDS AND DUDS: Week 15 IDP Start/Sit
IDP STUDS AND DUDS: Week 15 IDP Start/Sit
Gary Davenport December 17, 2020
We're almost home.
In the vast majority of IDP leagues, just two weeks remain in the regular season. By the time the dust settles on Week 15, there will be just two teams still alive and those two teams will compete next week for the championship. It's a big week.
Win this week's contest, and Week 16 brings a battle for the title that was every IDP manager's goal at the outset of the season.
It is….the final countdown.
What? Did you think for one second we were going to get through a season without me inserting that video into a column? Have we met?
Of course, getting that Week 15 win won't be easy. The four remaining teams in each IDP league have made it this far for a reason. Winning a game against a loaded team is far from a gimme—especially when you consider that injuries couldn't care even a little bit which week of the season it is.
In the IDP semifinals, any edge you can gain over the opposition is important. Every resource you can get your hands on could be the difference between setting a lineup that moves you along to the championship game or seeing the season end just short of the goal line.
Fortunately for you, IDP Studs and Duds here at Fantasy Sharks is here to help.
Each week during the 2020 season, I'll point out some Individual Defensive Players who could be set to exceed expectations this week (Studs), as well as some that for whatever reason are riskier plays than normal (Duds).
This isn't necessarily to say that every "Stud" is a must-start (it depends on your other options) or that every "Dud" should be glued to your bench (just that the odds of a letdown week are greater than usual). I also tend to avoid obvious start recommendations—I would hope you don't need me to tell you that Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald should be in lineups Sunday against the New York Jets.
Numbers in parentheses denote ranking in fantasy points allowed to that position in 2020 in Fantasy Sharks Default IDP Scoring.
IDP STUD OF THE WEEK
Jerome Baker – OLB, Miami Dolphins (vs. NEP) (2)
The Miami Dolphins are one of the bigger surprises of the 2020 season, and the team's defense deserves a lot of the credit for that success. Third-year linebacker Jerome Baker has been a key contributor for that defense—largely because the former Ohio State standout is willing to do just about anything the coaching staff asks of him.
"I'm asked to do a lot of things," Baker said, via Travis Wingfield of the team's website. "If it's covering running backs, if it's playing the middle of the field, if it's pass rushing – whatever it is, I've been asked to do so much in my time here in Miami so I'm kind of used to it. If they throw something at me, I kind of take it as they trust me to do it and I go out there and do it."
The Patriots have employed one of the most run-heavy offenses in the NFL this year, and that has resulted in quite a few fantasy points being allowed to linebackers this season—the most in the AFC. When the Patriots and Dolphins met at Gillette Stadium in Week 1, Baker posted a massive stat line—16 total tackles (12 solo) and a sack.
WEEK 15 IDP STUDS
Carlos Dunlap – DE, Seattle Seahawks (at WAS) (6): Dunlap missed last week's win over the New York Jets, but early indications are that he will play in Week 15. Assuming that's the case, he gets a great matchup against Washington's immobile quarterbacks.
Cameron Heyward – DE, Pittsburgh Steelers (at CIN) (3): Heyward's numbers are down in 2020—just three sacks through 13 games. But a Bengals team that leads the AFC in fantasy points allowed to D-linemen and sacks allowed offers a prime "get right" spot.
Kerry Hyder – DE, San Francisco 49ers (at DAL) (2): Hyder has been a rare bright spot for the Niners, and with his next sack, Hyder will set a new career-best in that category. He has a good chance to get that sack this week against the Cowboys' banged up O-line.
B.J. Goodson – ILB, Cleveland Browns (at NYG) (4): Goodson has been Cleveland's most productive linebacker this season, and in Week 15 he gets a Big Apple homecoming against a New York Giants team surrendering the fourth-most fantasy points to linebackers.
Myles Jack – OLB, Jacksonville Jaguars (at BAL) (6): Jack has taken a back seat to Joe Schobert this season, but both Jaguars linebackers could be set for big games against a Ravens team that ranks second in the NFL in rushing attempts—over 32 per game.
Patrick Queen – ILB, Baltimore Ravens (vs. JAX) (5): As rookie linebackers often are, Queen has been an up-and-down fantasy option in 2020. But the former LSU star gets an excellent IDP matchup for linebackers this week against James Robinson and the Jaguars.
Marcus Allen – S, Pittsburgh Steelers (at CIN) (2): Need a "Hail Mary" play? Allen has safety eligibility with most IDP providers, but he played 75 percent of the defensive snaps for the Steelers last week against the Bills as an inside linebacker.
Micah Hyde – S, Buffalo Bills (at DEN) (1): It goes without saying that Jordan Poyer is a must-start, but Hyde could be a sneaky-good play too against a Broncos team that leads the league in fantasy points allowed to defensive backs and giveaways.
Kareem Jackson – S, Denver Broncos (vs. BUF) (5): Hyde isn't the only deep safety who could have a big game on Saturday. The Bills attack opposing defenses vertically as much as any team in the league—and it shows in the fantasy points the team allows to defensive backs.
Featured	2020-12-17
Gary Davenport
About Gary Davenport
A member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and Pro Football Writers of America who resides in Columbus, Ohio, Gary has been featured on a number of fantasy websites and in nationally circulated publications. These publications include the USA Today Fantasy Football Preview and the magazines distributed by Fantasy Sports Publications Inc., for whom Gary is a both a contributing author and associate editor. Gary is an nine-time FSWA Award finalist and three-time winner who has been a finalist for that organization's Fantasy Football Writer of the Year award each of the last four years. He won the honor in 2017 and 2019. Gary also appears regularly on Sirius XM Radio (including live from Radio Row at Super Bowl XLIX) and over-the-air stations across the country. Gary was one of the co-founders of, and Head Writer at, Fantasy Football Oasis before joining Fantasy Sharks as an IDP Senior Staff Writer in 2011. He knows football. Or so he's heard.
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THE GREY REPORT: Divisional Round
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Forgotten Ally - Book Review
Oxford professor Rana Mitter elucidates a chapter of the Second World War that many in the West are not familiar with. His book, Forgotten Ally, is a history of China's role in the war, which for China began in 1937, four years before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Mitter's history paints a fairly sympathetic portrait of the Chinese Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-shek, which bore the brunt of the Japanese offenses over the entire eight years of conflict. Mitter's history also closely examines two other Chinese wartime leaders: Mao Zedong leader of the Chinese Red Army, and Wang Jingwei, the man who led the collaborationist government of Japanese-occupied China during the war, China's Quisling if you will.
As Mitter points out, Chinese suffering at the hands of Japan began decades before with the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, when Japan took possession of Taiwan and gained political supremacy on the Korean Peninsula. In World War I, the Allied Powers acquiesced in Japan's takeover of German colonies in the Pacific, which included territories in mainland China. The next war between China and Japan actually began in 1931, when the Japanese Kwantung Army took over the Chinese province of Manchuria, and placed the deposed, Manchu puppet emperor Puyi at the head of the rump state. Most casual historians in the West are familiar with the Soviet role in defeating Nazi Germany, and the immense suffering of the Russian people during the war. China's role in the Pacific Theater was somewhat analogous to that of the Soviet Union in Europe. Churchill and Roosevelt wanted the Chinese to bleed the Japanese as much as possible. Roosevelt also saw a role for a democratic China in the postwar world and lobbied to include Chiang in Allied discussions in Cairo. The United States supplied China with a number of increasingly exorbitant loans, hoping that Chiang would stay in the war, and keep the one million Japanese troops in China busy. Chiang's biggest trump card, of course, was his ability to withdraw from the war, and live out the conflict in his remote wartime capital Chungking.
The best part of Mitter's history is the description of the colorful cast of competing characters among a team of allies supposed to be united in a front against the Japanese. In fact, as Mitter points out, there was as much, if not more, in-fighting among the disparate Chinese factions (and among the Americans supporting them) than between them and the occupying Japanese. Mao's much-vaunted Eighth Route Army was more interested in marshaling its resources than in fighting set-piece battles against the much-stronger Japanese. Chiang and various Nationalist generals were also more interested in preparing for the civil war they all knew would follow once the Americans had defeated the Japanese (and stealing as much wealth as possible in the process). Wang just hoped to hang on and receive a golden parachute to Japan once the war ended. Britain had no interest in opening a Chinese front; Churchill wanted his Anglo-Indian Army to liberate British colonies, starting with Burma (and hoping to utilize U.S.-led Chinese troops to do so). U.S. leadership was equally divided about China. This dissonance was encapsulated in the wartime rivalry between Generals Joseph Stilwell and Claire Chennault.
Meanwhile, the Chinese people suffered. They suffered at the hands of the Japanese, at the whim of the callous Chinese leadership (on all sides), and at the randomness of the elements and of disease. The greatest example of their suffering, described by Mitter, was the decision by the Nationalist government to blow up the dike system holding back the Yellow River in June 1938. Chiang hoped the subsequent flooding would hold back the invading Japanese troops (which had just sacked Nanjing). Instead the flood left millions of Chinese peasants homeless, killed upwards to one million of them, and literally shifted the mouth of the river hundreds of miles to the south. And unlike the Soviet Red Army which inflicted a crushing defeat on their Nazi occupiers, the Chinese armies were never able to exact revenge on their Japanese overlords. This was left to the Americans. Instead, after enduring perhaps twenty million deaths between 1937 and 1945, the Chinese people were left to four more years of civil war, famine, disease, and destruction. Anyone with an interest in this under-appreciated theater of the war should pick up Mitter's history.
Fiction to Film


There are a number of ways to weld pieces of metal, such as TIG and MIG welding. What is the difference between these methods though? In the following article we will look at this in greater detail.
You can be forgiven for thinking they are the same thing, as both use electric arcs to produce the intense heat necessary and obviously both join metals together. Furthermore, they both use inert gas mixtures that stop the welding electrode corroding.
Metal inert gas welding or MIG welding for short, consists of the weld being made having a metal wire fed continuously into them. Gas Metal Arc Welding or GMAW for short, involves the use of a wire as a consumable welding supply as a material as filler for joining metals together.
Tungsten Inert Gas welding or TIG Welding for short uses a tungsten electrode that is non-consumable to pass the electric current over the metals that need to be joined and could involve filler material. This process is also known as Gas Tungsten Arc Welding or GTAW for short.
Thicker metal object welds can be completed quicker using MIG welding than TIG welding, because the former uses a consumable filler material.
As a filler is not used, the metal pieces need to be hot enough to combine for TIG welding. Therefore, this is generally easier to accomplish with metal this is thinner.
MIG welding is generally the go-to choice for welding heavy duty or really thick materials and TIG is usually opted for when metal that is thinner.
For easier results that are more consistent, automated TIG welding machines are preferred. MIG welding is usually chosen because it is relatively easy to work with. It is also more forgiving with regards mistakes than TIG, so non-professionals and newbie operators tend to opt for it.
With TIG welding, stricter control over the current, pressure and timing involved is necessary. CNC or computer numerically controlled machines are best used for TIG welding. These can perform the same welds time and time again, with greater consistency than a manual welder.
Regardless of if its a TIG or MIG automated machine, it is crucial to use the controls and adjust the settings correctly, or you will repeat the same mistake.
It really depends on the job you have to complete. As we highlighted further up the page, heavy and thicker welding is accomplished easier with MIG welding as it involves a filler material.
On the other hand, thinner pieces of metal can be joined more effectively together using TIG welding. Welding supplies involves less money because TIG does not require a filler for joining two metal pieces together.
Automated TIG welding equipment generally requires less maintenance, as the electrode is not being consumed during the process. The electrode though still needs to be polished and cleaned before and after it is used, particularly when working with stainless steel. See the new Parweld XTM Digital Welder.
With all of the above in mind then, the best form of welding for each job will differ. As is the way with many things nowadays, we are moving onto using digital welders because we feel they are more effective and efficient.