مقدمه : كريپتوركيديسم حالتي است كه در آن بيضه در مسير نزول طبيعي خود بين منطقه رنال و اسكروتال متوقف شده است. نوع يكطرفه از دوطرفه شايع تر است. در موقع تولد ميزان بروز نزول ناقص 4/3% مي باشد. نصف اين بيضه ها در ماه اول زندگي نزول مي يابند. ميزان بروز كريپتوركيديسم در بالغين 7/0 الي 8/0 درصد مي باشد. شيوع در نوزادان نارس 30% مي باشد. مهمترين نشانه بيماري كريپتوركيديسم ، عدم وجود يك يا هر دو بيضه در اسكروتوم مي باشد. نازايي ، تورسيون ، هرني اينگوينال و بدخيمي از عوارض Undescended Testis (UDT) مي باشد. هدف اين است كه بيضه را در صورت امكان بين سنين 1 تا 2 سالگي به داخل اسكروتوم بياوريم. هدف از اين مطالعه ، بررسي سني بيمارانيكه جهت عمل اركيوپكسي در بيمارستان علوي از سال 79 تا 84 بستري شده اند ، همچنين لاتراليتي بيضه نزول نكرده ، محل قرار قبلي UDT و ناهنجاريها و عوارض همراه آن بود. روش تحقيق : در يك مطالعه مقطعي (Cross- Sectional) تمام بيماراني را كه در بيمارستان علوي از سال 79 تا 84 تحت عمل اركيوپكسي قرار گرفته بودند بررسي نموديم . اطلاعات از پرونده بيماران استخراج و در پرسشنامه ها ثبت شد سپس بوسيله نرم افزار آماري SPSS آناليز شد . نتايج : در اين مطالعه 171 بيمار با UDT وجود داشت كه ميانگين سني عمل 09/8 53/12 سال بود. ( محدوده سني 9 ماهگي تا 47 سالگي ) ، 16 نفر از بيماران (4/9%) در سنين زير 2 سال بودند. سمت راست در 77 مورد (45%) ، سمت چپ در 70 مورد (41%) و 24 مورد (14%) دو طرفه بودند. 122 مورد (4/71% بيضه ها ) در داخل كانال اينگوينال قرار داشتند، 26 مورد (2/15% ) داخل شكم و 5 مورد (9/2%) در ساير محلها بودند. 5 مورد ( 9/2% بيضه ها) وجود نداشتند. هرني اينگوينال در 104 مورد (8/60% ) وجود داشت و در 59 نفر ( 7/34%) بيضه ها دچار آتروفي شده بودند. در 19 مورد (2/11%) اركيكتومي و در بقيه اركيوپكسي انجام شد. نتيجه گيري : در مطالعه ما، ميانگين سن عمل از ساير مطالعات در ساير كشورها بالاتر بود. ميزان اركيكتومي در مطالعه ما از ساير مطالعات بيشتر بود كه نشانگر مراجعه دير هنگام بيماران مي باشد بنابر اين ، جهت جلوگيري از عوارض UDT آموزش والدين ، پزشكان و پرستاران در بدو تولد براي تشخيص به موقع و درمان ضروري است.
Assesment of epidemiology of cryptorchidism in Alavi Hospital at Ardabil from 2000 to 2005.
Introduction: cryptorchidism is a condition in which a testis arrestes in it's normal descent any where between the renal and scrotal areas. Unilateral arrest is more common than bilateral arrest. At the time of birth, the incidence of maldescent is 3.4%; half of such testicles descend in the first month of life. The incidence of cryptorchidism in adults is 0.7%-0.8%. in premature infants, it is 30%. The cardinal symptom of ectopy or cryptorchidism disease is the absence of one or both testes in the scrotum. Infertility, torsion, inguinal hernia and malignant disease are comlications of UDT (undescending Testis). The aim is to bring the testicle into the scrotum as early as possible usually between 1 and 2 years. The aim of this study was to determine the age of patients were operated in Alavi Hospital from 2000 to 2005, laterality of undescending Testis, location of UDT, anomalies and complications. Materials & Methods: In a cross-sectional study we evaluated patients who were treated for UDT during 2000-2005 in Alavi Hospital at Ardabil. The information was obtaind from the hospital medical records and the data was analyzed with SPSS software. Results: In this study there were 171 patients with UDT. The mean age operation was 12.53 8.09 years(range 9 month to 47 years). There were 16 (9.4%) patients less than 2 years of age. The right side was involved in 77 (45%); left side in 70 (41%); while 24 (14%) were bilateral. 122 (71.4%)of the testes were located in the inguinal canal; 26(15.2%) intra-abdominal; 5(2.9%) in the other location and 5(2.9%) were abscent (vanished). Hernia was in 104 (60.8%) and 59 (34.7%) of total testes were atropic. Orchiectomy was performed in 19 patients (11.2%) and orchidopexy was done in the other patients. Conclusion: in our study, mean age of operation was higher than other studies in other countries. Orchiectomy was performed more than other studies. There is a need to educate parents to refer on time to prevent the complication of UDT. Educating of traditional birth attendants and doctors to early diagnosis and treatment is nessesary.
Cryptorchidism , Orchidopexy , Orchiectomy , Inguinal , Hernia , Herniotomy , Ardabil.


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NSW Public Health Orders amended
Luis Izzo
Managing Director - Sydney Workplace
The Berejiklian Government has announced that important COVID-19 Public Health Order restrictions will be relaxed on 14 December 2020.
Prior to 14 December, an employer was required to allow an employee to work from home if it was practicable for them to do so. This saw working from home as the default position for many employees in NSW, especially office-based workers.
This position comes to an end on 14 December and it's back to normal from this date.
Also, some businesses must now implement COVID-19 Safe plans in their workplace.
What does this mean for Employers?
From 14 December 2020, NSW employers are no longer required to allow an employee to work from home.
An employee in NSW can no longer rely on the Public Health Order to say they are working from home. You can now direct an employee to work from their workplace as they did before the Pandemic.
What restrictions remain in place?
Social distancing restrictions will remain in place and certain businesses will need to comply with COVID-19 Safety Plans.
For a list of businesses which require a COVID-19 Safety Plan, go to schedule 1, Column 2 of the Public Health Order.
To access a NSW COVID-19 Safe plan for you industry click here.
What is a COVID-19 Safety Plan?
COVID-19 Safety Plans are comprehensive checklists designed by NSW Health to minimise the spread of COVID-19.
The plans provide clear directions on how businesses should fulfil their obligations to minimise the risk of transmission of COVID-19 on their premises.
How do I go about returning my employees to the workplace?
Practically most employers are taking an 'encouragement approach' to returning to the workplace before Christmas but you are now allowed to direct employees to return as you think fit.
You will need to comply with any on-going Government advice on social distancing guidelines in order to ensure compliance with work health and safety obligations.
It is important that you conduct a review of the workplace prior to allowing employees to return to determine how they will comply with social distancing guidelines, including maintaining 1.5 metres distance between employees wherever possible.
Once it has been determined that the workplace can accommodate the return of employees, the next step will be to advise your employees of the next steps. Early communication with clear messaging is the key to a smooth return to the workplace.
We would recommend the following approach to ensure employees are comfortable and engaged through the return process:
contact the relevant employees in advance and undertake an engagement process regarding the employer's proposed working arrangements;
seek feedback from employees regarding the proposed arrangements and consider any concerns or difficulties raised; and then
adopt an escalating re-acclimatisation approach to returning.
An important element of this will be ensuring that leaders lead by example at an early stage. This might involve a variety of options:
allowing employees who want to be back in the workplace to do so
identifying several days when everyone will return which increases progressively
identifying a number of days for people to be in the office to begin with but at their choice
identifying a date in the future when a return is required
Few of our clients are planning to do this as a 'big bang' but you have the right to do this if you chose to.
Award/EA consultation obligations
Please bear in mind that for some employees covered by awards or enterprise agreements, you may have to comply with the consultation clauses in the relevant instruments before changing the employees' work location - as this activity may be caught by the relevant consultation clauses.
You should seek specific advice regarding the consultation clauses that may be applicable to your circumstances.
What can I do if an employee refuses to return to work?
Where an employee refuses to return to the workplace, your response will depend on the reasons behind the refusal.
Employees who refuse to return to work should be asked to provide an explanation.
If the employee bases the refusal on reasonable health and safety grounds, please contact us to get advice. We anticipate that the likelihood of there being a lawful ability to refuse returning on this basis will be rare (but not non-existent) as the chances of contracting COVID-19 continue to diminish.
Outside of refusals to return on safety grounds, we would recommend seeing a 'refusal' to return to work in the context of a request to work from home (which it in effect would be). This would be considered as:
a flexible working arrangement request under the Fair Work Act (if the grounds to make a flexible working arrangement arise from the Act); or
any other similar request in your business (based on practice or policy etc).
This will allow any dispute regarding on-going working from home to be processed through ordinary decision-making frameworks that are already in place for flexible working arrangement requests.
To be eligible to make a flexible work request under the Fair Work Act, please remember the employee must be:
a parent or guardian of a child of school age or younger;
a carer;
a person with a disability;
over the age of 55;
experiencing domestic violence; or
providing support or care to a person experiencing domestic violence.
Please remember that where a flexible work request is made under the Fair Work Act, such a request can only be refused on reasonable business grounds.
Ultimately if an employee fails to return to the workplace after being directed to do so, and without a reasonable basis to refuse (discussed above) the employee will have failed to comply with a lawful direction and as such exposes themselves to disciplinary action.
Discrimination laws?
You should bear in mind that certain categories of employees (such as employees with a disability and carers) may have added protections based on discrimination law to refuse a direction to return to the workplace.
Again, if this arises please contact us for specific advice as these situations need to be considered carefully and based on the specific facts at hand.
What can I do if I prefer employees to keep working from home?
If the employee is in agreement with this then working from home can continue.
We would urge you to ensure that this is appropriately documented including a process for review and revocation should it cease being your preference in the future. Again, we can assist you with this.
If you want the employee to keep working from home and they decline, we would need to examine their employment contract to determine whether you have the right to direct them to keep working from home. Absent this right, you may have some right to make the direction under any on-going JobKeeper rules or possibly under the changes to the Fair Work Act proposed by the Government this week.
Employees who are working from home under a longer-term arrangement will need to have their working set-up assessed to ensure compliance with work, health and safety obligations.
At the very least, you should ensure employees complete a self-assessment checklist so that you can identify whether any hazards or risks arise from the employee's homework set-up that need to be addressed.
A helpful checklist has been provided by SafeWork NSW which you can access here.
Employers should also give employees instruction on the appropriate way to ergonomically set up their homes. Some very helpful guidance on how to ergonomically set up a home workspace has been provided by Safe Work Queensland here.
What happens if my employee is sick after returning to the workplace?
The same rules will continue to apply as throughout the Pandemic. If an employee tells you that they:
are feeling unwell and may be suffering flu-like symptoms;
have been in contact with someone who has or may have been in contact with someone who has COVID-19; or
have travelled to an area affected by the COVID-19,
they should be directed to follow the Australian Government advice and seek medical advice immediately. This would include promptly getting a COVID-19 test and self-isolating until their results become available.
Employees who are ill with COVID-19 symptoms should not return to the workplace until they are no longer suffering symptoms and have followed any medical or Government advice pertaining to their COVID-19 test.
How does this impact our ability to issue JobKeeper Directions/our current JobKeeper Directions?
The updated Public Health Order does not impact the Fair Work Act JobKeeper enabling Directions.
What has been the experience in terms of employee productivity with employees working from home?
There is no simple answer to this question, with our clients having a variety of experiences.
Academic research has started to provide an insight into productivity outcomes with:
a survey of over 6000 public sector employees demonstrating a significant perception of productivity improvements;
the Workplace Gender Equality Agency research demonstrating that 77% of respondents found working from home helped productivity; and
Swinburne University research (commissioned by the Fair Work Commission) delivering more mixed results:
34.5% of employees felt more productive working from home;
36% of employees felt their productivity was about the same; an
30% of employees felt less productive.
In simple terms, the 'experiment' has been too short lived to give a clear and uniform answer.
Should I try and change my on-going working arrangement now?
Businesses are on a steep learning curve.
Some businesses have seen the Pandemic as an opportunity to save office costs.
Others have seen it as an opportunity to differentiate themselves in the employment market by being more flexible about work location on an on-going basis.
Still others have realised that having employees 'all over the place' has eroded culture and diminished the opportunity drive engagement through informal contact especially with less experienced employees.
Others have realised that they can successfully move to a sub-contract model based on outcomes not time worked.
From an employee perspective there have been lessons learned about self-regulating working hours, effectively segregating work and home and for many managing a sense of isolation.
We have been discussing these issues with clients for many months and the best advice we can give you is not to jump too quickly into fixing some new way of work on an on-going basis.
Review all the learnings you have, understand what has worked and what has not, understand your employees' experience, consider what others are doing and why and allow the Pandemic to end before locking in anything new.
BACK TO ALL RESOURCES

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Buns Over Texas first opened it's doors in Amarillo in 1989. We have been serving great burgers, cheese fries, dogs, chicken, fish and many other menu items for over 22 years. We carry and sell lots of gluten free buns, and offer many menu items aimed at healthy living, such as our new naked burgers. It's a burger wrapped in leaf lettuce, and being totally healthy, along with our veggie fries, which are carrots, asparagus, and fresh green beans. They are flash fried with no breading, and served with our great ranch dressing. But our newest and most exciting addition to Buns is the addition of our giant tea bar. We offer 18 flavors of tea to our customers. Our tea is brewed with RO water, which makes the difference in our tea. RO water is the best water for health.


Three generations of women under one roof and a baby on the way. There's isn't enough room for everybody but no one is leaving without a struggle. REARED is a dark comedy about overcoming family history and fighting for a seat at the table.
Eileen has a full time job, a fifteen year old daughter with a lot of secrets, a mother in-law who's showing signs of dementia, a baby on the way, and a husband who doesn't want to deal with any of it. As she tries to clear the way for the new baby, the family push each other's buttons in the way only families know how. Everyone's struggling for their ideal situation but this is by no means an ideal situation.


text:
fEAST Fest : Romanian Music Festival
The second edition of the loud and adrenaline-fuelled fEAST, the only showcase of Romanian alternative music in Britain, kicks off in October with a line-up of the most charismatic Romanian rock and electro groups: Gojira, Robin and The Backstabbers, Shadowbox, Moon Museum, Şuie Paparude, Coma, Byron, Phoenix, E.M.I.L., and The Blue Nipple Boy.
"Dangerous playing" – old school violin and piano record – initiative of violinist Bogdan Văcărescu
Romanian violonist Bogdan Văcărescu is preparing an album dedicated to almost forgotten violin and piano pieces. Among them, there are pieces such as "The Zephyr" composed by Jeno Hubay, as well as those by Dvorak, Brahms and Beethoven. Through this album, the artist wants to promote a special violin school that had as representatives personalities like George Enescu and Vasile Filip.
For more details regarding this project you can access:
The George Enescu International Competition
The 15th edition of the George Enescu International Competition will be organized in 2016 and represents a special opportunity for young musicians worldwide to assert themselves. The competition is part of the prestigious "George Enescu" International Festival artistic framework, it is affiliated to the World Federation of International Music Competitions and serves as an international golden chance for young musicians.
Romania Charity Ball, Thursday 21st May
The 11th Romanian Film Festival: BREAKING NEW GROUND
CONNECTED EVENT OUTSIDE LONDON
EDINBURGH Tuesday 16 December 2014 at 6.00pm
Filmhouse, 88 Lothian Rd, Edinburgh EH3 9BZ
Edinburgh Premiere: I AM AN OLD COMMUNIST HAG
The International Theological Conference
The important international conference organised by the Romanian theologian priest Dr. Liviu Barbu in honour of the Greek Orthodox theologian, His Grace Ioannis Zizioulas, Metropolitan of Pergam, took place on the 14th of June 2014, in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
The artist and designer Florin Dobre will showcase in London his newest collection ''Back to London with 62.2 Meters'' , S/S 2015
Monday, 16th of June 2014, between 14.00-18.00 hours, the artist and designer Florin Dobre will showcase in London his newest collection ''Back to London with 62.2 Meters'' , S/S 2015, in 5 different locations:
- 14 : 00 – Bloomsbury Square
'Migration & Integration' - Sat 21 June 2014
Masterpieces for Violin and Piano - 8 June 2014
Romanian virtuoso violinist Bogdan Vacarescu and Shetland-born pianist Neil Georgeson present a classical recital including works by Enescu, Ysaye, Wieniawsky and Sarasate. Bogdan is especially admired for his interpretation of Bazzini's The Round Of The Goblins, as well as pieces by Hubay and Kreisler.
A Night of Passion and Romance with Velvety-voiced Oana Cătălina Chițu
One of the Songlines Magazine top rated albums of 2013 was Romanian singer Oana Cătălina Chiţu's 'Divine. Romanian songs from the repertoire of Maria Tănase', a touching musical homage to legendary Maria Tănase (1913-1963), also known as "the Romanian Edith Piaf".


We are inspired by a lot, from nature to fashion to art. These three campaigns – Alexander McQueen, Neiman Marcus and Balmain – for fall 2018, have inspired us. They are where fashion intersects art, and because of that, we had to share them with you.
Alexander McQueen's McQ is a brand we featured in our swimwear editorial, "Urban Chic", so it is safe to say we are inspired by this brand. For their fall-winter 2018 campaign, which was captured in San Francisco, they enlisted models Shanelle Nyasiase, Vittoria Ceretti and Rianne van Rompaey, along with photographer Jamie Hawkesworth.
The Texas-based department store headed to New York City to shoot its fall 2018 "Art of Fashion" campaign. It features model Hilary Rhoda with photography by Giampaolo Sgura. They chose to feature brands that include: Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, The Row, Chanel, Moncler and Saint Laurent.
For Balmain's fall-winter 2018 campaign, the French label brought on board Milla Jovovich to model their latest designs, along with photographer An Le with hair by Balmain Hair x Nabil Harlow and makeup by L'Oréal.


text:
Drug Rehab and Treatment Centers Information Sanibel, Florida
Looking for Drug Rehab and treatment centers in Sanibel, Florida?
There are lots of drug and alcohol treatment programs possibilities to folks residing in the Sanibel region. It is very important recognize all the varieties of rehab choices available in Sanibel, AB., so that you can choose the appropriate treatment option for yourself or a family member. Selecting the proper drug and alcohol treatment center in Sanibel is the most important element in the treatment of substance abuse, drug addiction and alcoholism. The following information will help you to recognize your numerous rehabilitation options allowing an individual to have the maximum possibility of a successful final result.
Let's take a look at the many drug treatment programs in Sanibel, Florida options that coincide with the circumstances of the person searching for treatment.
Inpatient alcohol and drug rehab in Sanibel, AB. is a rehab option ideal for those who will need medical intervention throughout rehab or individuals with considerable drug use histories. People can develop physical and mental dependence to alcohol and drugs even after a brief amount of time, so inpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation in Sanibel is among the most reliable rehab possibility in the majority of situations. Due to dependence and addiction, women and men will frequently not be able to make a full recovery with the minimal services made available from outpatient rehabilitation centers in Sanibel, Florida where drugs and alcohol continue to be easily accessible when they leave the outpatient center. Likewise, individuals in treatment who take part in outpatient rehabilitation as opposed to inpatient alcohol and drug rehabilitation in Sanibel are still vulnerable to negative relationships and situations which may get in the way of their process of recovery. If an individual resides with an abusive partner or continues to maintain associations which entail drug use, any rehab endeavours in outpatient treatment are done in vain. That is why in-patient drug and alcohol rehab in Sanibel, AB. will most certainly produce more tangible outcomes that can prove lasting as opposed to an outpatient drug and alcohol treatment facility where advantages could be very minimal and acute.
In Sanibel there is both short-term and long-term inpatient drug rehab. Short-term is a 30-day facility, while long-term inpatient drug rehab in Sanibel, Florida is much more prolonged and rehab lasts 3 to 6 months on average. It is really an excellent setting for clients as it is a completely drug-free environment where they can recover both physically and mentally without interruptions. Preferably, men and women proceed inside a long-term in-patient drug rehabilitation center in Sanibel for the optimum stretch of time allowed, to enable them to handle anything which can jeopardize their sobriety once they leave rehab. Due to the fact detoxing and becoming physically stable can require two to three weeks by itself, the three to six months in long-term in-patient alcohol and drug rehab in Sanibel will be time well spent and much more effective than short-term centers.
The key aspect of all if you or someone you love is struggling with a substance abuse or addiction problem is to get it resolved right away, call someone and seek the advice of skilled addiction specialists and have an assessment and treatment possibilities to guarantee the best potential for a full recovery.
There are no local drug rehab listings for Sanibel, Florida so we have provided the 6 closest treatment facilities arranged by distance from Sanibel:
AAR Counseling Services
(Fort Myers is 8.2 from Sanibel)
11595 Kelly Road
Contact AAR Counseling Services, by calling 239-591-3990.
Drug and Alcohol Rehab, Outpatient Drug Treatment Programs, Drug Treatment for Dual Diagnosis Clients, Drug Rehabs For Senior Citizens, Drug Rehabs For Women, Drug Treatment Centers For Men, Drug Treatment For DUI and DWI Offenders
Park Royal Hospital
(Fort Myers is 10.2 from Sanibel)
9241 Park Royal Drive
Contact Park Royal Hospital, by calling 239-985-2700.
Hospital Inpatient Services, Outpatient Drug Treatment Programs, Drug Treatment for Dual Diagnosis Clients, Drug Rehabs For Senior Citizens, Drug Rehab Programs For Hearing Impaired Clients, Drug Rehab Centers For Spanish Speaking Clients, Languages other than Spanish
Self Pay Drug Rehab Programs, Drug Treatment Programs That Accept Medicare, State Financed Insurance, Drug Rehabs That Accept Private Health Insurance, Drug Treatment Centers That Accept Military Insurance
Pathways Human Services of Florida
12424 Brantley Commons Court
Contact Pathways Human Services of Florida, by calling 239-332-8009.
Self Pay Drug Rehab Programs, Drug Rehabs That Accept Medicaid, Drug Treatment Programs That Accept Medicare
Genesis Counseling of Fort Myers
12553 New Brittany Boulevard
Contact Genesis Counseling of Fort Myers, by calling 239-939-5504.
Outpatient Drug Treatment Programs, Drug Rehab Centers For Spanish Speaking Clients
Self Pay Drug Rehab Programs, Drug Rehabs That Accept Private Health Insurance, Drug Treatment Centers That Accept Military Insurance, Drug Rehabs With Sliding Scale Fees, Drug Treatment Centers With Payment Assistance Programs
Lee Memorial Behavioral Health Center
Contact Lee Memorial Behavioral Health Center, by calling 239-343-9180.
Outpatient Drug Treatment Programs, Drug Rehab Programs For Hearing Impaired Clients
Self Pay Drug Rehab Programs, Drug Treatment Programs That Accept Medicare, Drug Rehabs That Accept Private Health Insurance, Drug Rehabs With Sliding Scale Fees
SalusCare
(Cape Coral is 14.2 from Sanibel)
1105 Cultural Park Boulevard
Cape Coral, FL. 33990
Contact SalusCare, by calling 239-275-3222.
Outpatient Drug Treatment Programs, Drug Rehab Programs For Hearing Impaired Clients, Drug Rehab Centers For Spanish Speaking Clients
Self Pay Drug Rehab Programs, Drug Rehabs That Accept Medicaid, Drug Treatment Programs That Accept Medicare, Drug Rehabs That Accept Private Health Insurance, Drug Rehabs With Sliding Scale Fees
Current illicit drug use differed by employment status in 2009. Among adults aged 18 or older, the rate of illicit drug use was higher for unemployed persons (17.0 percent) than for those who were employed full time (8.0 percent) or part time (11.5 percent). Among those in the "other" employment category, which includes retired persons, disabled persons, homemakers, students, and other persons not in the labor force, the rate of current illicit drug use increased from 4.9 percent in 2008 to 6.0 percent in 2009.
In 2008, among adults aged 18 or older, age at first use of marijuana was associated with dependence on or abuse of marijuana. Among those who first tried marijuana at age 14 or younger, 13.5 percent were classified with illicit drug dependence or abuse, higher than the 2.2 percent of adults who had first used marijuana at age 18 or older.
Among adults 18 or older, 2.3 million (1.0 percent) made suicide plans in the past year. The rate was 1.1 percent among women and 0.9 percent among men. Rates of adults who made suicide plans were also highest among 18 to 25 year olds (1.9 percent), followed by 26 to 49 year olds (1.1 percent) and adults 50 years or older (0.7 percent).


If you missed the chance to participate in and receive Sequoia's 2017 Employee Experience Benchmarking Report, you can now get instant access to a sub-set of the great data we gathered. We've produced this Report Sampler to highlight a couple of the most sought insights gathered from our participants. This sampler gives you a taste of the types of data and insights available in the full report, which is packed with over 55 pages of goodness.
Make sure to get on the list to participate in the 2018 survey that will be launching Spring 2018. Once you complete the survey questions, you'll immediately get the full copy of the 2017 report, and you'll be part of the exclusive group to receive the 2018 report when it's finished this summer.
Sequoia's annual Employee Experience Benchmark Report is a compilation of often hard-to-find data from fast-growth companies. The 2018 report will be the broadest and deepest report yet, covering data and insights across domestic and global health benefits, perks and wellbeing programs, retirement plans, human resource programs and policies, best business insurance practices, and much more.
To learn more about the Sequoia Employee Experience Benchmark Report, and to get on the list for 2018, click here.
Thank you for your interest in the program – and keep an eye out for the 2018 Benchmarking survey kickoff by following us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.


text:
Q: reformat callback value to add a space between each value I have two requests.. I would like to experiment with both solutions and see which looks better.

*

*I would like to reformat the api callback string to add a space
after each domain, the seperator is ,

*I would like a separate solution to reformat the same string to show all the domain names in list form.

I am making a call to api and the callback string is:

endpoint1.details.cert.altNames

The value of the above is:
www.domain.com,domain.net,ftp.hostname.org.au

For the first solution I basically want to reformat the value output so it has a space between each domain name i.e. www.domain.com, domain.net, ftp.hostname.org.au
For the second solution I would like to reformat the same string so it is displayed in list form

*

*www.domain.com

*domain.net

*ftp.hostname.org.au

A: Use .replace() to replace , with , (with a trailing space).

var input = "www.domain.com,domain.net,ftp.hostname.org.au";

input = input.replace(/,/g, ", ");

console.log(input);

Learn: String.prototype.replace() - JavaScript | MDN

For your other solution, use document.createElement appropriately.

//var input = '"www.geotrust.net", "geotrust.com", "www.geotrust.com"';

var inputArray = ["www.geotrust.net", "geotrust.com", "www.geotrust.com"];

console.dir(inputArray);

var list = makeUL(inputArray);

console.dir(list);

document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].appendChild(list);

function makeUL(array) {
    // Create the list element:
    var list = document.createElement('ol');

    for(var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
        // Create the list item:
        var item = document.createElement('li');

        // Set its contents:
        item.appendChild(document.createTextNode(array[i]));

        // Add it to the list:
        list.appendChild(item);
    }

    // Finally, return the constructed list:
    return list;
}

Learn: Document.createElement() - Web API Interfaces | MDN

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Flirtatiousback . KELLIEMACK. HottAlexxxa. LatinSaory.
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text:
Di seguito viene riportata una sintetica cronologia delle vittime provocate in Italia durante gli anni di piombo nel 1975.

Vittime del 1975

Note

Bibliografia

 Indro Montanelli e Mario Cervi, L'Italia degli anni di piombo (1965-1978), Milano, Rizzoli, 1991.
 Luca Telese, Cuori neri. Dal rogo di Primavalle alla morte di Ramelli 21 delitti dimenticati degli anni di piombo, Milano, Sperling & Kupfer, 2006.
 Sergio Zavoli, La notte della Repubblica, Roma, Nuova Eri, 1992.

 1975

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Orenstein & Koppel (normally abbreviated to "O&K") was a major German engineering company specialising in railway vehicles, escalators, and heavy equipment. It was founded on April 1, 1876 in Berlin by Benno Orenstein and Arthur Koppel.
"O&K" redirects here. For other uses, see OK.
Orenstein und Koppel
Former type
April 1, 1876 (1876-04-01)
Benno Orenstein
Arthur Koppel
January 1, 1999 (1999-01-01)
Railway vehicles
www.oundka.com/de/
Originally a general engineering company, O&K soon started to specialise in the manufacture of railway vehicles. The company also manufactured heavy equipment and escalators. O&K pulled out of the railway business in 1981. Its escalator-manufacturing division was spun off to the company's majority shareholder at the time, Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, in 1996, leaving the company to focus primarily on construction machines.[1] The construction-equipment business was sold to New Holland Construction, at the time part of the Fiat Group, in 1999.[2][3]
Founding and railway work
The Orenstein & Koppel Company was a mechanical-engineering firm that first entered the railway-construction field, building locomotives and other railroad cars.
First founded in 1892 in Schlachtensee, in the Zehlendorf district of Berlin, and known as the Märkische Lokomotivfabrik, the O&K factories expanded to supply the Imperial German Army under Kaiser Wilhelm II with field-service locomotives, or Feldbahn. O&K supplied all manner of railway equipment to the Army. Because of strained capacity at the Schlachtensee shops, work transferred in 1899 to a site in Nowawes, later Babelsberg, near Potsdam. Around 1908, O&K acquired the firm of Gerlach and König in Nordhausen, building petrol and diesel locomotives there under the trade mark "Montania".
O&K expanded to build freight and passenger cars, and above all, excavators for construction. The company also built other heavy equipment, including graders, dump trucks, forklift trucks, compressors, crawler loaders, wheeled loaders, road rollers, and truck cranes.
The company also began manufacturing escalators, transmissions, rapid-transit railway lines, buses, tractors, and cargo ships. Passenger liners, shipboard cranes, and shipbuilding enterprises rounded out the company's profile. Because of the company's thriving export business, a worldwide system of branch offices was created.
In the early years of the 20th century, O&K built bucket chain trenchers, at first from wood, and—after 1904—completely from steel. These were propelled by steam or oil engines. O&K also made railway trenchers for work in heavy soils.
In the First World War, O&K built railway engines and cars of all sizes for the German government. With the collapse of Imperial Germany in November 1918, the victorious Allies put further restrictions on German manufacturing and military capacity, seizing all army Feldbahn engines as per the terms of the Versailles Treaty that ended the First World War. The treaty also removed access to export markets; at the end of 1925, work stopped for three months as a result of the lost business. By 1935, business had recovered and the company produced 5,299 locomotives. After the war, O&K's American subsidiary, the Orenstein-Arthur Koppel Company, was seized by the Alien Property Custodian and sold at an auction where only United States citizens were allowed to place bids.[4]
Besides the Feldbahn contacts, the company produced Series 50 steam locomotives and standard rail gauge vehicles in the 1930s. The company produced diesel locomotives, and Series 44 and Series 50 steam engines, for the national railway company, Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft.
In 1922, they manufactured their first continuous-track steam shovel. In 1926, diesel engines replaced steam engines; the company converted earlier steam units to diesel power as the need arose. O&K merged with a kerosene-engine builder, selling the engines under the O&K banner.
Nazi era and the Second World War
At the Spandau factory, O&K built cable-operated excavators and bucket-wheel excavators for use in the lignite coal mines of eastern Germany. Under the Aryanisation scheme of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, the Orenstein family's shares in the company were forcibly sold in 1935; Orenstein and Koppel was placed under trust administration, and the Babelsberger works were taken over and renamed in 1941. O&K existed in name only, but more commonly used the abbreviation MBA (Maschienenbau und Bahnbedarf AG).
After heavy bomb attacks on Berlin caused a fire in the company's plant-administration buildings, factory production minister Albert Speer redistributed work and factories around the country to lessen the risk from a single attack. For the remainder of World War II, no more locomotives were built in Berlin. Four hundred and twenty-one locomotives already under construction were shifted to Prague to protect the existing factories. During the war, O&K provided 400 Class 52 locomotives.
After the end of the war, the locomotive plant in Nordhausen went idle. Under the German Democratic Republic, O&K changed its name to the VEB Company, and resumed heavy mechanical manufacturing at Nordhausen, producing cable-operated excavator shovels, among other things.
By 1946, the Babelsberg factory resumed production of locomotive boilers, and one year later the plant delivered its first postwar locomotive.
The German Democratic Republic nationalised the railroads and rolling stock manufacturers. The O&K plants in Babelsberg were renamed the LOWA Lokomotiv Plant Karl Marx (LKM). The LKM became the sole manufacturer of diesel locomotives for the GDR, such as the large DRG V180. In the late 1950s, the plant developed steam and diesel engines for the Deutsche Reichsbahn narrow-gauge railways, building approximately 4,160 engines.
Construction of steam locomotives ended in 1969, leaving diesel-hydraulic locomotives as the company's priority. The company's last diesel locomotive was the DB Class V 60D, manufactured until 1976. Over the course of 30 years as LKM, the company produced approximately 7,760 locomotives; about a third of that number were manufactured for export.
By 1964, the company had expanded into air-conditioning and refrigeration technology.
In West Germany, the enterprise resumed operation after World War II in 1949, under the name Orenstein & Koppel AG, with headquarters in Berlin. In 1950, it incorporated under that name after merging with the Lübecker Crane Company. After the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the head office moved to Dortmund.
By the mid-1970s, the enterprise had grown steadily. In 1972, O&K had five working plants: West Berlin, Dortmund, Hagen, Hattingen/Ruhr, and Lübeck; it maintained a central spare-parts service in Bochum. That year, the company had 8,530 employees. The company had 24 business and sales offices in West Germany, and agencies on all five populated continents.
The West German company emphasised the manufacture of railroad cars and construction equipment, particularly excavators. In 1961, O&K manufactured Europe's first series of fully hydraulic excavators. They manufactured over 55,000 hydraulic excavators; more than 700 of those were rated at over 100 tons' service weight. O&K also manufactured the world's largest hydraulic excavator, at 900 tons' service weight with a shovel capacity of over 52 cubic metres (68 cu yd) and an engine output of 2,984 kilowatts (4,055 HP).
The company also diversified into escalator manufacturing.
After 1964, the railway-manufacturing unit was separated from the other production units.
The railway business was transferred to Bombardier, which continues to manufacture rolling stock in Berlin. The Babelsberg site became an industrial park.
The escalator-manufacturing division was sold to the company's majority shareholder at the time, Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, in 1996.[1]
The construction-equipment business was sold to New Holland Construction, at the time part of the Fiat Group, in 1999.[2][3]
"INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS: Escalator Deal by Krupp". The New York Times. New York: The New York Times Company. Bloomberg Business News. 1996-01-16. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
Walker, Jonathan (March 1999). "O&K finds good home with New Holland—Orenstein and Koppel acquired by New Holland". Diesel Progress (North American Edition). Diesel & Gas Turbine Publications. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
"New Holland Acquires German Excavator Company". Rental Equipment Register. Penton Media. 1999-01-01. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
"Will Sell Plant of German Concern" (PDF). The New York Times. New York: The New York Times Company. 1918-09-12. Retrieved 2011-03-10.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to O&K.
List of O and K engines
379 F. 3d 1227—Ungaro-Benages v. Dresdner Bank Ag at OpenJurist—U.S. Federal court case wherein Benno Orenstein's great-great-granddaughter sued Dresdner Bank and Deutsche Bank to recover her family's share of O&K taken under Aryanisation
Documents and clippings about Orenstein & Koppel in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW


text:
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            .then(null, console.error.bind(console));
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: How to add RSS feed from feedburner.com to Thunderbird I found out that Google has a Security Blog and I would like to add the RSS Feed to the list of my favourite RSS feed on Thunderbird:

Unfortunately feedburner.com offers a strange list of RSS feed: My Yahoo, freedly, netvibes, SubToMe, RSSOwl, NewsFire, etc... None of those look like a raw XML feed to me.

I see someone already faced this problem here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4687042/getting-raw-xml-data-from-a-feedburner-rss-feed . The hack
view-source:http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoogleOnlineSecurityBlog
truly shows an XML page but I cannot paste it to Thunderbird.
Why an old and basic technology like the RSS feed have to become so complicated? And is there any solution to this problem?
Is feedburner.com actively denying users to extrapolate the raw XML feed for some purpose? I don't get it.

A: The URL you link to (http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoogleOnlineSecurityBlog) is RSS (well, it is Atom, which is nicer and Feed Readers cope just as well with).
That is why you see XML source code when you prefix it with view-source:.
It just has a style sheet so that if you visit it with a web browser, the data is presented in a readable format instead of an XML tree.
Just enter that URL (without view-source:) into Thunderbird.


text:
#import "NSFileManager+ApplicationSupport.h"

@implementation NSFileManager (ApplicationSupport)

// Aid function
- (NSString *)findOrCreateDirectory:(NSSearchPathDirectory)searchPathDirectory inDomain:(NSSearchPathDomainMask)domainMask appendPathComponent:(NSString *)appendComponent error:(NSError **)errorOut
{
    // Search for the path
    NSArray* paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(searchPathDirectory,domainMask,YES);
    if ([paths count] == 0)
    {
        // *** creation and return of error object omitted for space
        return nil;
    }

    // Normally only need the first path
    NSString *resolvedPath = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
    if (appendComponent)
    {
        resolvedPath = [resolvedPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:appendComponent];
    }

    // Create the path if it doesn't exist
    NSError *error;
    BOOL success = [self createDirectoryAtPath:resolvedPath withIntermediateDirectories:YES attributes:nil error:&error];
    if (!success)
    {
        if (errorOut)
        {
            *errorOut = error;
        }
        return nil;
    }

    // If we've made it this far, we have a success
    if (errorOut)
    {
        *errorOut = nil;
    }
    return resolvedPath;
}

// Get the application support directory on Mac OS X
- (NSString *)applicationSupportDirectory
{
    NSString *executableName = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBundleExecutable"];
    NSError *error;
    NSString *result = [self findOrCreateDirectory:NSApplicationSupportDirectory inDomain:NSUserDomainMask appendPathComponent:executableName error:&error];
    if (error)
    {
        NSLog(@"Unable to find or create application support directory:\n%@", error);
    }
    return result;
}

@end


text:
Jay's Interview with Dan, 1
August 5, 2020 January 6, 2021 ~ Ted
(A chapter of Akayama DanJay.)
Dan bit his nails pacing in the empty airport lobby. Each time he turned about-face, he checked the chart of arrivals and departures on the opposite wall. Jay's flight filtered to the top as his plane approached. "How much longer, Dainty?" Faith stretched across four seats, threading herself under three armrests. She wore a heavy white sweater, since the clouds looked like rain. "Why'd we come so early?"
"He'll be here soon." Through a window over the runways, Dan scanned the misty morning sky for the shape of an airplane. The landing-strips were frosted and dewy. "I wanted to beat traffic."
"It'll be rush-hour on the way back," said Faith. "Maybe I should drive us home so you don't have to worry?"
"I can drive us home."
"Are you sure?" Faith now crawled over the armrests. "You bite your fingertips when you're anxious, Dainty. If you have to drive in traffic, you'll bleed all over the steering-wheel!"
Hearing her say that made Dan anxious, but he resisted biting his fingertips and proving her right. "I'm not anxious about traffic."
"Oh." Faith collected herself in one seat. She crossed her ankles and clasped her hands in her sweater's pocket. "I miss Beatrice too, Dan. She was my girlfriend. You know BeatBax'd tell us it's all gonna be okay."
"I don't want to talk about it." Before he could stop himself, Dan found his index-fingertip between his lips.
"Well, can I get you something for breakfast?"
Dan checked restaurants up and down the airport corridor. "Nothing here appeals to me."
"Chips? Gum?"
"No, no." Dan sighed and looked out a window over the streets of Burbank. "A cinnamon-bun sounds good."
"Oh? Where are they? I'll buy three, so you, JayJay, and I can share!"
Dan pointed out the window. Across the street, a diner advertised bronze cinnamon-buns dripping with silvery icing. "Let me give you some cash."
"Don't worry, they're on me!" Faith pranced to the escalators. "If JayJay gets back before I do, tell him I missed him, okay?"
As soon as she left, Dan bit a fingernail. He tore more than the white crescent, revealing magenta underneath. He rubbed it to salt the wound. If Faith saw the nail, she'd throw a fit. Well, no, but she'd coo sympathetically, and wasn't that far worse? Dan jogged to an airport convenience-store and bought himself black gloves. He didn't wear them right away—he sat near Jay's terminal and ate all the skin around his nails. When Jay's plane broke through the clouds, Dan donned the gloves to hide his hands. Jay was among the first to disembark. Dan waved. "Jay! Jay!"
"Dan! Oran dora!"
"How was the flight?"
"I survived." The two hugged. "Is Faith here? Virgil Jango Skyy shared a story I've got to tell her about."
"She's buying breakfast. She told me to say she missed you."
"If I had a cellphone signal, I would've called you every hour, Dan. You're always telling me how pop-culture appropriates religions, right? For LuLu's, Tatsu picked Sheridan clean!" Jay showed Dan his camera's screen. "Look, three islands: a small sandy one, a middling piney one, and a big mountainous one where centipedes come from! On the second island these masked dancers lead to this circle of monks. They walk, they chant—it's like the Kaaba, but there's a bird in the middle! That's why my framing is wonky: there are giant birds everywhere, and Sheridanians are super emphatic about not photographing them. Here, this statue is actual-size, maybe even a little small."
"Whoa." Dan compared the bird-statue to pines in the background. "They must be eight feet tall."
"Yep. The statue represents the Biggest Bird, a local folk hero even taller than that. It's not coddling a toddler, that's supposed to be a grown man! It's just not-to-scale. Doesn't it look like Professor Akayama after Uzumaki made her a bird-thing?" Jay skipped to a photo of Virgil Jango Skyy with Virgil Blue in the background. "I've never seen anywhere like Sheridan, Dan. You've got to go."
Dan tried to press camera-buttons, but his black gloves were too bulky. "Maybe I can write my thesis on Sheridan. I'll run it by my advisers."
"Here, I got you a souvenir." Jay gave him the orange plush fledgling. "I got one for Faith, too, and I bought some nice seashells, but they're being shipped. Where's she buying breakfast?"
"She's bringing buns from across the street." Dan led Jay to the window overlooking the diner. "There she is."
"She looks happy as she's ever been," said Jay. Faith bounced on her toes waiting at the crosswalk with a bag of buns. "How about you, Dan? Are you feeling okay?"
"Oh, you know." Dan sucked a gloved finger. "Not great."
Jay nodded in sympathy. "Well, then I'm glad you've got each other to help keep yourselves together."
As Faith crossed the street, she saw Dan and Jay at the window and waved at them. "Hey! JayJay!" A speeding bus ran the red light and almost hit her head-on. Faith leapt to safety with a yelp. When her adrenaline wore off, she laughed and finished crossing the street. Then she was struck by a lone lightning-bolt, as if it was aimed at her specifically. She left only a scorch on the sidewalk.
Jay found himself instantly and totally disengaged from reality, incapable of anything other than self-analysis and attempts to describe and understand his own mental state at that moment. He felt like he was watching his life from thousands and thousands of miles away. Dan ran to airport-security as if the NSA could undo the last few moments, but Jay just raised his trembling hands to count his fingers: ten.
Because Beatrice died so recently, and the lightning cremated Faith so thoroughly, their wakes were held together on the same day. Their urns were arranged on a lawn by a lazy river: Beatrice's urn was creamy and marbled, while Faith's urn was matte-white. Jay left the white plush fledgling before Faith's urn, then did his best consoling friends and family, but he didn't recognize half the mourners. He knew Faith's uncle by the tinfoil under his fedora, and he heard Dan's persistent sobbing, but Faith had made lots of friends in art-classes, and Beatrice had tons of connections from nursing-school. "I'm sorry for your loss," Jay said to Uncle Featherway.
"You're Faith's friend, right?" He adjusted his tinfoil fedora to protect himself from whatever Jay was thinking. "Do you know what happens when you die?"
"Um." Jay looked at the urns. "What do you think?"
Uncle Featherway vigorously pointed skyward like he was always waiting for someone to ask him that. "Aliens made humans to mine gold. When we die, we're reincarnated to keep mining. At the end of time the aliens will collect our gold, and everyone loyal to them will board their spaceship."
"Wow. Does the tinfoil keep aliens from reincarnating you?"
"The tinfoil is for different aliens. The mind-readers have battled the gold-miners for eons."
"I see." Jay could only indulge tinfoil-hat theories for so long, even out of consolation. Still, he wondered if Uncle Featherway could corroborate his first ever interview with his niece. "Faith once told me you attended a lecture by monks at Sheridan Cliff-Side College. Before you leave for Wyoming, could I ask you about Virgil Blue?"
"Sure! Best lecture of my life," said Uncle Featherway. "Virgil Blue didn't say anything, though."
"I want to hear your impression anyway. When are you free?"
"After the wake I'll be waiting for my train in the sports-bar across the street. Hey, is that your friend over there? He's pretty beat-up."
"Oh. Excuse me." Jay walked to Dan and pat his shoulder. While Jay wore a dark purple suit and tie, fitting for a funeral, Dan hadn't found the strength to change out of his favorite old orange T-shirt. "Dan, have you eaten today?"
Dan absorbed his tears with his black gloves. "I haven't eaten since Faith died."
"Let's try eating, then. I'll pay."
Dan turned to the urns. They were framed by the river, which Jay thought was a fitting metaphor for impermanence. Dan concentrated on the scene like he could freeze it forever in his memory. Finally they left the wake. "Where should we go?"
"There's a sports-bar across the street," said Jay. "It'll have the essentials."
There was a college football-game on, so the pub was crowded and loud. Dan and Jay could talk near the end of the bar and no one would hear or listen in. Dan declined to order anything, so Jay flagged the bartender's attention to order a tuna-sandwich for him and water for himself. Dan picked crumbs from the bread until he built enough momentum to take a bite. Soon he discovered he was ravenous and finished the sandwich, so Jay bought him another. "Thanks," said Dan. "Jay, you've put up with me for years now. Just… thanks."
"Knowing you has been a pleasure," said Jay. "I know Beatrice and Faith would say the same. Faith always giggled when you tried impressing Beatrice with Bible quotes."
"I killed them." Dan chewed his second sandwich. Jay didn't know what to say. "Both of them are dead because of me."
"You know, I'm just so…" Dan put down the sandwich. "Can I order a drink?"
"Did you drive here?"
"I walked." Jay ordered Dan a pint of stout. Maybe it would help him vent. "When you smoked centipede in my apartment, Beatrice left because of me." Dan drank half the pint the moment it was put before him. The stout was thick brown mud, but its head was foamy white cream. "I made her shake my hand and she couldn't stand me anymore. She pretended she was called by the hospital, and she left in such a hurry she didn't see the bus."
"Dan, even if that were true, it wouldn't be your fault."
"And that's assuming she didn't throw herself under the bus to get away from me for good."
"I can't imagine she did."
"And Faith—oh, poor Faith—"
"Faith was struck by lightning, Dan. That's no one's fault."
"I looked so pitiful she offered to get breakfast, and then I asked for cinnamon buns from across the street. I basically stabbed her in the back."
"You can't blame yourself for acts of God."
"That's where we disagree." Dan sipped more of his pint and finished his second sandwich. "I killed my dad, too."
"I'm sure you didn't, but I'm listening." The wake left Jay in a listening mood, and stout loosened Dan's tongue.
"I don't talk a lot about my parents, do I?" Jay shook his head. "Tell me about your dad first, then," said Dan. "That way I can't back down."
Jay relinquished a personal tidbit. "When he wasn't wearing a business-suit, my dad usually wore a t-shirt he got from a folk-music convention. It said 'Born in Alabama, Raised in Tennessee, if you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree.' He wasn't born or raised in either of those places, but he's been to both, and the phrase sounds like a cultural concept anyone can relate to, I think."
Dan nodded into his half-full pint. Jay had shaken the tree, and now the peaches were tumbling down. "My parents divorced when I was ten. My mom always told me she left my dad because of his unhealthy obsession with his job as a professor of Religious-Studies. She was a psychiatrist, so I guess she knew what she was talking about." Dan had started talking continuously like Virgil Jango Skyy, as if this was a lecture he'd brewed internally for a long, long time. "Every year, for visitation, Mom would drop me off at his university for just a few hours. I'd climb all the way up to his office and he'd give me a book. The last time I saw him alive, he asked how I enjoyed Dante's Inferno, and I said it was the best book he ever gave me, so he gave me the Purgatorio and the Paradiso. I was taken aback; he'd never given me two books at once. Seeing my expression, he asked if I had any questions. I asked, 'what happens to Dante's guide, Virgil? I hope he was only put in Hell to lead Dante to God, and he'll be admitted into Heaven at the end.'
"But he said, 'I'm afraid the Virtuous Pagans are in Hell forever. They'll never join the saints in passing through that final wall of fire into Heaven. But, on Hell's outer rim, their only punishment is distance from God's light, which they never even knew in life. So they're free! Wouldn't you rather spend eternity with those rejected scholars than the stuck-up prudes in Heaven? Remember, Dante's Hell is self-inflicted: the condemned condemn themselves.' "
"Hmm." Jay leaned back on his bar-stool. "Hell's outer rim doesn't sound so bad, but I like your way better, where scholars go to Hell on purpose to bust people out."
"Me too. So I—" Dan paused when the bartender topped off Jay's water. "I asked him for more book-recommendations. Suddenly his face went pale and his hands shook. 'I'm sorry, son. I've really robbed you,' he said. 'I hardly interact with you at all except through academic literary discussions.' I said that was okay, because it got me great grades in English, and I wanted to study religion in college anyway, like him. 'But there's so much more to life than reading books professors give you.' So I asked him to… to give me books as a dad instead. 'That's difficult,' he said, 'because to me, every book is about religion.' He gave me almost half the books on his shelves, one by one, outlining his whole worldview every step of the way. When he was done, he thoroughly traumatized every word into me by jumping out the window. I watched him die."
"Oh. Holy shit." Jay ordered Dan a third tuna-sandwich. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea."
Dan downed the last of his pint all at once. "It's okay," he lied.
But Jay wanted details, and it sounded like Dan cut off his lecture prematurely. He pulled out his notepad and pen. "Which books? What worldview? I mean, if you don't mind discussing it."
"Um." Dan bit his third sandwich, but suddenly lost his appetite. "I'm hesitant to tell you. If you die because of it, that'd be on me."
"Take your best shot, Dan." Jay dated a fresh page. "I'll die when I'm ready."
"Well, his worldview could be called 'Pitying Fig-Makers,' I guess." Jay wrote that with a question-mark next to it. "First he handed me some sci-fi based on Dante's Inferno. 'Dante called out corrupt politicians and religious leaders with the language of his day,' he said, 'confronting them with the doctrine they claimed to represent. This sci-fi book modernized that concept so today's readers can understand and appreciate it, and it almost won a Hugo and a Nebula, so it obviously succeeded in reaching people. All literature is written by people,' he said, 'and anyone can write anything about anything, and then anyone can interpret it in any way. No one needs permission. No one has authority. Fundamentally there's no difference in legitimacy between this sci-fi novel based on Dante's Inferno, the real Inferno, the Bible, the Koran, or a pile of leaves.' "
Jay documented the sci-fi in his notepad. "So your father was an atheist?"
"Not quite. He didn't think atheists went nearly far enough, because deep in the abyss you loop back around to seeing the face of God inside you. I asked him, if there was no legitimate authoritative text, then how could anyone know what to believe? 'There's no such thing as believing,' he said. 'Consciousness is neurological background radiation from which reality bubbles like particles and antiparticles—and even that's giving us too much credit!' He passed me two biology textbooks—Lamarck and Darwin—and two physics textbooks—Newton and Einstein. 'Hundreds of years ago, science didn't look like it does now. Hundreds of years hence, science will advance beyond our recognition—in fact, the purpose of science is its own replacement, and claiming otherwise demotes it to supernatural superstition. Consider Dalton's hubris in naming atoms 'that which cannot be split,' as if he'd found reality's rock-bottom. Even the formal logic of mathematics has been reinterpreted again and again.' He gave me a textbook about non-Euclidean geometry. 'All truth,' he said, 'will eventually be considered naive and flawed in the face of another, better truth, which will itself be swept away. Clinging to any truth is being trapped in a religion, hiding the complexity of reality behind the simplicity of a bible, perhaps without even noticing, but probably noticing and denying it. Alternatively, accepting the impermanence of all truths reveals religion to be a great and complicated tool, a tool with many names: gods, governments, sciences, philosophies, histories, ancestries, morals, economies, laws, and so on. They intersect and they overlap, many limbs of one constantly shape-shifting Swiss army-knife. Humans evolved over billions of years, and metaphors evolved alongside. An atheist rejecting metaphors is ripping out their own organs because they don't understand them, just like a preacher discards their God's creation when they deny science.' "
Jay tapped his pen on the bar. "So governments, sciences, and so on, your father describes them the same way an atheist describes God? Not actually real in an absolute objective sense, but impacting the world through mutual delusion?"
"Deeper, Jay. It's only a delusion if you haven't caught on to what's really happening. You and I are religions for our cells. Cells are religions for their subatomic particles. Every God is as real as you and me—that's just not saying very much! When Descartes says 'I think therefore I am,' he's using the same circular reasoning as a fool who knows God exists because they hear Him in their head. I asked my dad, what's the tool for? He gave me a pile of history books and a pile of anthropology books, and told me 'cultures are enclosed by semipermeable membranes. Within a culture there are simple rules, like, wear this funny mask, or, don't eat these foods.' "
"Or, don't take pictures of birds?" asked Jay. "Or, use these preferred pronouns? Low-ball asshole-detectors?"
"Exactly. 'Someone who can't even follow the simple rules can't be expected to follow more important rules, like, don't murder or rape anyone,' he said. 'The wise know all these rules are artificially constructed, but usually follow the simple ones anyway for the sake of the important ones. But different cultures have different rules, so life is terrible! War! Slavery! Torture! Genocide! The important rules are broken by the fig-makers, those who mistake the window-dressing of simple rules for more than it is—or, worse, those who pretend to make that mistake for personal benefit, reinterpreting rules or even inventing new rules just to claim they've been wronged. Religions are written to create and protect cultures, then stolen and perverted to loot cultures to death, even the culture of origin. Fig-makers assign themselves and everyone around them to suffer everlastingly just to justify their own actions. This is ongoing, never-ending, and nightmarish.' "
Jay puzzled with his pen on his lip. "Fig-makers? Making figs?"
"An ancient Italian way to flip the bird." Dan made fists with the tips of his thumbs stuck between his index and middle fingers. When his thumbs wiggled, they looked like worms poking out of the dirt. Jay wondered if the figs were meant to be diminutively phallic. "Dante said the damned made figs at God for the torment they ultimately chose for themselves with the free will God gave them. My dad said these fig-makers walked among the living, perpetually surrendering free will to blame anything available for their own decisions and the resulting consequences. They probably won't say they're making figs at God—they might even say God's on their side, or there is no God—but when they condemn themselves, they give God-like status to whatever they claim condemned them."
"Hmm. Like…" Jay bobbed his head left and right as he wrangled ideas together. "Plenty of religions have important God-given rules about not setting people on fire. But if a preacher declares their neighbor a witch working for Satan, then the preacher could justify doing anything to that neighbor, even if they secretly knew they made it all up."
"Yeah, and in doing so, the preacher surrenders their God's power to the idea of Satan and the witch, so when they burn them at the stake, that's making figs. It won't solve the preacher's problems—it might make them worse!—so they'll keep finding more witches to blame."
" 'Those witches made me do it!' " said Jay. He thought he sounded a little like Lio. "Just give someone the demonic ability to shrink your wiener with black magic and you can make all the figs you want. Lots of folks have been lynched like that."
"Um. Sure." Dan covered his face with his black gloves. "I considered mentioning that, actually. Sorceresses in the Congo have enough power to shrink penises, but not enough power to avoid lynchings." He smiled uneasily. "I guess I didn't think I was the one of us to mention black magic." Jay breathed through his teeth. "Sorry," said Dan.
"Don't—" Jay put his palm on his forehead. "Dan, Sheridan is covered in colorful flowers. Native Sheridanians have all different skin-colors. The monks wear different-colored robes, too. In LuLu's, Zephyrs come in every color possible, and their crews wear matching bodysuits. Why?"
"I don't know. Why?"
"So you can tell them apart." Jay flipped to another fresh page. "Keep talking about fig-makers, Dan."
"Anyway, I asked my dad, if life is this never-ending nightmare, what do we do about it? 'Wake up and play the game!' he said. 'Steal Gods back from fig-makers by making a new God which wears their Gods like hand-puppets, and use it for the benefit of all because that's what Gods are for. This God will be stolen, too, for fig-makers to use in malice, but that's okay, because you can always make another, even reusing old names. If there's a real God, it's the loving emptiness behind the window-dressing, to whom all human conventions appear futile and transient. We can put God in any costume, because the real God wears us as costumes.' "
Jay scribbled notes, trying to understand. "Trying to convince the preacher they're wrong about witches is a waste of time, because they probably don't believe their own excuse for burning their neighbor at the stake. Your father says we can protect that neighbor by introducing new belief-systems, like telling the preacher 'witches would be a lot nicer if they weren't being set on fire all the time,' or 'maybe you're a witch, too, and if you're not, well, maybe you should be.' "
"Or, if need be, by taking direct action ourselves," said Dan. "He gave me a copy of the Bhagavad Gita to show how the wise might even appear to break their own important rules, like by fighting in a truly righteous war. I told you about the Bhagavad Gita once, right? When you went to Nepal?" Jay nodded. "Arjuna couldn't engage in combat until he saw Krishna's true shape for himself. He needed deep understanding of the ultimate reality before he could resort to violence. At the time, that just didn't make sense to me. Could a loving God really be used to justify any war as righteous? Wasn't that twisting morality like the fig-makers? My dad said I was right to be concerned: anyone opposing fig-makers had to avoid becoming a fig-maker themselves. But then he flipped through a picture-book of deities with bulging eyes, shaking fists, and gaping maws of pointed teeth. 'All these are avatars from Gods of compassion, protection, and pure love,' he said. 'Do they look that way to you?'
" 'No,' I said! 'They look angry as all Hell.' " Dan quivered a little just thinking about them.
" 'Precisely!' said my dad. 'When a mother sees her toddler sticking a fork in an electrical socket, she might look angry! Wrathful! Hateful! The toddler might fool themselves into believing mother's hatred is what's electrocuting them, but truly her look comes from love's desire to protect the ignorant from themselves. A fig-maker feigning ignorance to take advantage of God's love will watch it morph to protect them in these furious manners, because feigned ignorance is ignorance. Satan is just another great and complicated tool to show such love in so many ways.' "
"In movies you might smack someone to wake them up or calm them down." Jay slapped the air. "It's for the best, even if it looks pretty bad."
Dan nodded. "Next he handed me a copy of the Lotus Sutra. Have you ever heard of it?" Jay shook his head. "I hadn't either. 'The Buddha says most people won't accept his ultimate teachings of emptiness and compassion, preferring teachings which promise an easy reward,' he said, 'so Bodhisattvas use skillful means, presenting inferior lessons within a contemporary cultural context, eventually leading to the real lessons which are beyond context. Avalokiteshvara can take any shape to share their lesson that form is emptiness and emptiness is form.' "
"Avalokiteshvara?" Jay remembered such a name from the art-museum. "Is that Shiva on one side and Parvati on the other?"
"You're thinking of Ardhanarishvara. Avalokiteshvara tried and failed to save all sentient beings, so they grew eleven heads and a thousand arms with eyes on their palms to perceive and end all suffering."
Now that's a giant anime space-robot, thought Jay. "Jesus has a couple heads, too. I've shown you photos of Asian Christ, Hispanic Christ, African Christ."
"Maybe Christ is one of Avalokiteshvara's heads, or vice versa. My dad would say both at once. Christ said 'split the stick and you will find me there.' If you can't see Christ in Avalokiteshvara, my dad's Christ is bigger than your Christ, and my dad wasn't even Christian, so that's just sad."
"Was your father a Buddhist?"
"No, no. He was explaining the potential of all belief-structures—although he was probably a fan of Zen's Bodhidharma, who meditated in a cave until his arms and legs fell off thinking about the emptiness of Buddhism itself. 'Fig-makers put themselves in a made-up Hell so they can demand a made-up Heaven, possibly without even realizing how they've created an actual Hell for themselves and everyone around them. The wise make up Heavens and Hells to help people who need them, manifesting an actual Heaven by cultivating a proper understanding of nihilism which leads to universal benevolence. That means anything can be a lesson from God's emptiness, even thoughts, daily interactions, and ordinary pop-culture.' "
"Any pop-culture in particular?" asked Jay.
"Yeah! When he said that, he gave me the last books he ever gave me, a pile of manga—LuLu's Space-Time Acceleration. It was the first time I'd ever seen it."
"No way," said Jay. "Your father introduced you to LuLu's?" He shouldn't have been so surprised. Jay's own father introduced him to LuLu's when he brought the DVD-set as a souvenir from Japan. "What was his impression of it?"
"My dad said it demonstrated his perspective. 'In LuLu's, Earth's most powerful fig-makers are so egocentric they're insulted by the existence of anything else, a self-imposed torment justifying taking the form of a cosmic horror called the Hurricane. The Hurricane eats everything and everyone it considers unworthy, becoming Hell itself. The survivors fight the Hurricane in the Galaxy Zephyr for the sake of the natural cycle of life and death with one new lesson learned, Heaven-on-Earth in comparison. The Galaxy Zephyr rips parts off the Hurricane and eats them, recycling the universe. This is wisdom versus ignorance, radical acceptance versus vanity, proper nihilism versus an imposter.' "
"Sounds like your father detected Tatsu took LuLu's straight from a monastery," said Jay.
"He must've. He kept going on and on about it. 'The mortals in the Galaxy Zephyr's holy weapon, a discus called the Wheel, must have no clue about their role in what amounts to hand-to-hand combat between Heaven and Hell,' he said. 'If it were explained to them, I suspect they'd reject the concept outright. If they knew their purpose, they couldn't serve it! But, because the Galaxy Zephyr wisely fights for all aspects of reality, including the grotesque portions like the Hurricane, those mortals in the Wheel must be reenacting the giant space-robot combat in miniature. As above, so below! The manga demands readers join the fight against the Hurricane in their everyday lives by making them reconsider the relationship between the cosmic and the mundane.' "
"Maybe you can explain this to me better than Virgil Jango Skyy," said Jay. "Why does the Galaxy Zephyr need to save the Hurricane's pilots? They're not just fig-makers—they ate the universe and blew up Earth!"
"My dad compared it to metta-meditation," said Dan. " 'First the Galaxy Zephyr's crew-members feel compassion for themselves and each other,' he said. 'Then Akayama collected the golden-winged Zephyr because it easily inspires and accepts compassion. To achieve inner peace and defeat the Hurricane once and for all, the Galaxy Zephyr must eventually account for fig-makers who are difficult to feel compassion for, and who rebuke compassion when they get it. And, saving the pilots of the Hurricane will give the Zephyrs moral license to defeat the Hurricane itself by proving its fig-making was unwarranted. The world we live in is a terrifying place, and to redeem it, we must allow ourselves to be terrifying too. We defeat the Hurricane using the Hurricane within us, a Jungian brand of enlightenment. We are multilayered sieves, stealing bad Gods, processing them, elevating them into good Gods.' "
Jay wrote all that down. "That's one heck of a worldview."
"Yeah, I couldn't fit all his books in my backpack. I had to carry half of them in my arms. 'Wow, Dad, thanks for all these!'
"He just looked out over the campus quad. 'Dan, before you read the Purgatorio, you should know Dante's Virgil has another layer of frustration. His Aeneid saved a soul from Hell, but he's still barred from Heaven. In justifying Alighieri's Almighty, I can only suggest transporting souls to salvation would be more important to Virgil than Heaven. To grease divine mechanisms would be his utilitarian delight. Every aspect of Hell is necessary to maintain Dante's scheme, even the woods of suicides. So thank you for visiting me, because teaching you is the only resolution I could hope for in this life. I know I've given you the tools to recover from what I'm about to do.' Then he jumped out the window. His body broke branches and he splattered across the quad. He died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital."
Jay capped his pen. "Dan, thank you for telling me all this. I knew your father died just before we met, but I never knew he committed suicide like that." He bought Dan a second pint, and a pint for himself. They both needed it. "You didn't kill him, though."
"Recommending books was the only thing keeping him alive." Dan drank a little stout. "I sucked that from him like a vampire."
Jay thought a Sheridanian might see it differently. Dan's father offloaded his worms onto his kid. "When I went to Wales, you told me about the sin-eaters. You're a sin-eater, Dan, and apparently a good one." He wondered if Dan's father had ever smoked centipede or if his mental-health issues were home-grown. He sipped his stout's white cream. "You were the best aspect of life for someone obviously struggling."
Dan started eating his third sandwich again. "He was showing me how to die." Jay shook his head in remorse. "How not to die, I mean." Jay sighed with relief. "Christ knew he would be crucified, and went to Jerusalem anyway. In a previous life, the Buddha threw himself away to feed his corpse to hungry tigers. Christ and the Buddha would tell you not to kill yourself, but they get away with it because of the depth of their understanding. They proudly used their deaths to relieve others of their suffering. My dad vainly jumped to escape his own. Those are the only two ways to off yourself." Dan had eaten most of his third sandwich like a hungry tiger, but now lost his appetite. "Anyway, you can see why high-school was difficult that year. This one time…" Dan put the sandwich down. "I think I gotta pee. I'll be back."
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IT'S SEVERE WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK | Upper Peninsula of Michigan Radio - Yooper News, Interviews, Pictures, and Calendar of Events - Great Lakes Radio, Inc.
A regular to the program for several years, Matt Zika, Warning Co-ordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Negaunee Township, joined Mark and Walt to discuss Severe Weather Awareness Week. This week is a time to get prepared for the possibility of severe weather such as tornados, strong thunderstorms and heavy rains during this spring and summer.
Matt discussed a series of ways to be ready for sudden changes in the weather such as having a NOAA-approved weather radio and more. He also discussed an upcoming training session for folks interested in becoming storm spotters and weather watchers for the National Weather Service.
You can listen to the interview with Matt by clicking below.


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About Last Night: Gracias, Manu
Manu Ginobili's No. 20 is retired in San Antonio, Slovenia holds a party in Miami and the Bucks dodge a big bullet
Dan McCarney, NBA.com
Manu Ginobili's No. 20 is raised to the rafters in San Antonio.
Tim Duncan is the greatest Spur, followed by David Robinson and George Gervin.
But most beloved? One could make a strong case that honor belongs to one Emanuel David Ginobili, whose flamboyance, intensity, humility and Latin American roots earned him a level of affection in San Antonio that no other player could match.
That appreciation was on full display Thursday at the AT&T Center, where the Spurs' 116-110 victory over the Cavaliers was merely an appetizer for the main event: The retirement of Ginobili's No. 20.
"He was unlike any other basketball player we had ever seen," former teammate Sean Elliott said during the ceremony. "He was a magician who stole your breath away."
The Spurs honored Manu Ginobili with a tribute video during Thursday's ceremony.
In the case of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, that often meant literally.
"I never cursed before I met him," Popovich joked before the game, remembering the ill-advised passes and out-of-control drives to nowhere that inspired fits of rage.
But there were many more moments of brilliance, providing creativity and unpredictability to a defensive-minded Spurs team that, despite its excellence, sorely needed both.
"Without Manu," Popovich said, "there were no championships (in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014)."
Said Duncan, "It was all genius. You saw things before anyone else did. You did things nobody else would."
Gregg Popovich, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker share their best Manu Ginobili stories.
Ginobili's cult status in San Antonio is matched by outright deification in his native Argentina, which he led to Olympic gold in 2004 during a national career that covered nearly two decades.
Add it all up, and you have one of the most unique careers in basketball, which ended with Ginobili matching Bill Bradley as the only players in hoops history to win European, Olympic and NBA championships.
Not bad for a kid who grew up on the other side of the world, loving the NBA but never imagining he would be good enough to get that far, let alone be great.
"It was not even a second thought," Ginobili said. "Not one Argentinian in history had made it to the NBA. So why was it going to be me? There was no way me or anyone that was near me could ever envision a career like this.
"The game gave me so much, I am in debt forever."
So are we. Gracias, Manu.
Ginobili was retired by the time DeMar DeRozan joined the Spurs last offseason. That didn't stop him from sporting some sweet Argentina-inspired kicks in his honor.
DeMar DeRozan with some Argentinian-themed kicks on the night of Manu's jersey retirement. 🔥🇦🇷 #CourtsideCertified | #GraciasManupic.twitter.com/EsDRuGmgM6
— NBA TV (@NBATV) March 29, 2019
Slovenian reunion
Roughly 2,000 Slovenians gathered in Miami for a momentous occasion: The first NBA meeting between national heroes Goran Dragic and Luka Doncic.
The Wade jerseys outnumbered tonight. pic.twitter.com/IBxTH5LoLe
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) March 28, 2019
The two teamed up to perfection several summers ago, leading the tiny European nation to its first continental championship at EuroBasket 2017. While Dragic starred with 35 points against Serbia in the final, it was Doncic who drew headlines over the course of the tournament with his uncommonly mature game.
Said Dragic after that victory: "He's a born winner. Mark my words, he's going to be one of the best in the whole world."
Doncic isn't there just yet, but give the Kia Rookie of the Year contender time. He's still only 20.
In the meantime, Dragic was more than happy to school his young compatriot, dropping just the second triple-double of his career with 23 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists as the Heat prevailed 105-99.
Taking a page from Dwyane Wade's book, Dragic and Doncic swapped jerseys during a warm postgame meeting. And their fellow Slovenians? They didn't want the night to end.
this is just amazing!!!🇸🇮🇸🇮❤❤ pic.twitter.com/qvdBKSeiAS
— Luka Doncic (@luka7doncic) March 29, 2019
The man of the night @Goran_Dragic having some postgame fun with his native Slovenians 🇸🇮 who came out strong for tonight's game! pic.twitter.com/QWZG0xEeR7
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) March 29, 2019
Dodging bullets
The Bucks' championship hopes flashed before their eyes as superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo went down in a heap and limped to the locker room late in their league-leading 57th victory, over the Clippers.
Antetokounmpo returned shortly thereafter and was actually getting ready to check back in before the Bucks pushed far enough ahead for coach Mike Budenholzer's liking.
Though Antetokounmpo wouldn't say exactly what happened, it appeared to be an aggravation of the right ankle sprain that has hampered him in recent weeks.
"I'm definitely working on it, trying to get it healthy, stronger," said Antetokounmpo, who piled up 34 points, nine rebounds and five assists. "Usually when you sprain your ankle, you're out three or four games. But I don't like missing games, so I have to work through it. I'll be ready to play until coach tells me not to."
Budenholzer said he'll wait to see how Antetokounmpo feels in the coming days before he makes any decisions about his availability for the Bucks' next game, against the Hawks on Sunday.
"I'm definitely working on it on a daily basis trying to get it healthy, stronger... I have to work through it while playing and try to get my strength back."
Giannis on his ankle: pic.twitter.com/kj0tsZykcY
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) March 29, 2019
Mr. Miracle
Jamal Murray did a pretty passable Ginobili impression with this ridiculous shot against the Rockets:
Last laugh vs. The Joker
Like pretty much everybody else who follows the NBA, Houston's Clint Capela never imagined Nuggets star Nikola Jokic would be this good.
"He was really smart and talented," Capela said of their initial meeting at the 2014 Nike Hoop Summit, the annual showcase pitting the best junior prospects from around the world. "He had all that but to translate that to the NBA and have that much impact, I would never guess that."
Capela might as well have been talking about himself after developing into one of the league's most dependable and consistent players since the Rockets took a flyer on him with the 25th pick in the 2014.
The hard-working center outplayed Jokic in their latest meeting, scoring one more point (17-16) while grabbing nearly twice as many rebounds (15-8) in the Rockets' 112-85 victory. It was Capela's 40th double-double of the season, good for fourth in the NBA.
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The Harmful Truth About Vaping And How To Talk To Your Teen
What may look like a USB charger or pen in your child's backpack, could be doing more than you realize. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), also known as vape pens, take many shapes and sizes but they are posing serious dangers for teens and young adults.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), today 1 in 20 middle schoolers and 1 in 5 high schoolers – roughly 3.6 million teens – are vaping. This has prompted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Surgeon General to issue warnings that vaping among youth has reached epidemic levels.
The worrying part? Youth think vaping is harmless. As a parent, here's what you should know about vaping and how you can help educate your teen to make smarter choices.
What Are E-Cigarettes?
E-cigarettes are electronic devices that heat a liquid and produce an aerosol or mix of small particles in the air that usually contain nicotine, flavorings and other harmful chemicals to make the aerosol. These flavorings usually come in an assortment of flavors, which can be very tempting to teens and young adults.
Why It's So Dangerous
When e-cigarettes first came out, they were hailed as a "safe alternative" to smoking because they lacked tar and other harmful gases found in cigarettes, but Bahar Altaha, a child and adolescent psychiatrist with Banner Behavioral Health, says one pod can contain the same amount of nicotine as one pack of cigarettes. "We are still learning the long-term effects of e-cigarettes, but there are serious concerns about their addictive effects on youth and their overall lung health."
Not only do these e-cigarettes pack a nicotine punch, they also contain ultrafine particles that are inhaled deep into the lung, as well as the chemical diacetyl, a flavoring linked to lung disease, according to the U.S. Surgeon General and U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also says nicotine use among teens changes how synapses in their brains are formed—affecting attention and learning and increasing the risk of mood disorders.
Dr. Altaha says there have even been cases where e-cigarettes have exploded in people's faces, causing injuries and burns. "If a vape pen battery overheats or someone doesn't properly handle and charge batteries, they can risk serious injury."
Tips for Talking to Your Teen
It's hard to start a conversation with teens without risking push back from them. Here are three conversation starters courtesy of the CDC:
Connect and Encourage. Getting off nicotine is hard, but I'm so happy I quit. Don't make that mistake and get addicted. Smoking and tobacco use of any kind is unsafe.
Remind and repeat. You may be tempted by e-cigarette flavors, but inhaling them has been found to be harmful.
Share facts and resources. I hope none of your friends use e-cigarettes around you. Even breathing in the cloud they exhale can expose you to nicotine and chemicals that can be dangerous to your health. I also read a report stating it can affect how your brain develops.
"Unfortunately, you have to be vigilant as a parent," Dr. Altaha says. "Google pictures of different vaping tools to know what the latest ones look like, search your teen's backpack and continue an open dialogue with them."
Concerned about your child's use of e-cigarettes? Speak with a Banner Health behavioral health specialist or call our Nurse on Call, a free health care advice line, at (844) 259-9494.
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FrankAvery@mehaffyweber.com
Frank Avery is a partner at the San Antonio-based defense litigation firm of MehaffyWeber. He has over 31 years of extensive experience trying lawsuits in the practice areas of personal injury, construction defects, consumer law and employment law. He has represented clients throughout Texas in all phases of complex civil litigation cases and has made it his staple to protect the rights of those he represents.
Frank received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1981. He went on to earn his Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas in 1985. Before becoming a partner at MehaffyWeber, Frank was a partner at O'Connell & Avery, LLP.
Peer-review rated as One of the Best Lawyers in San Antonio by San Antonio Scene Magazine 2006 and 2017.
Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society
Member, Arkansas Law Review
Articles Editor, Arkansas Law Review
Presentation: "Five Tips to Help You Avoid Employment Related Lawsuits," American Institute of Architects-San Antonio Chapter, 2003.
Presentation: "Five Tips to Help You Avoid Employment Related Lawsuits," Professional Engineers in Private Practice-San Antonio, 2003.
Presentation and paper: "Jury Issue Submission in the Premises Liability Case," Zurich North America-Dallas Claims Office Seminar, July 1, 1999.
"Article IX and the Noncomplying Secured Party's Quest for a Deficiency Judgment," 38 Arkansas Law Review 200, 1984.
General Negligence and Products Liability
Fayetteville, Arkansas
J.D., 1985
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
B.A., 1981
State of Texas, 1985
United States Supreme Court, 1990
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, 1990
United States District Court, Western District of Texas, 1990
United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, 1999
Texas Association of Defense Counsel
Life Fellow, Texas Bar Foundation
Defense Research Institute
San Antonio Bar Association
State Bar of Texas, Construction Law Section
Defense Counsel of San Antonio


A song by the Beatles is running through my head as I write this column. "Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends." Sometimes we really need the help, and in certain instances, we wouldn't be who we are or where we are today if it wasn't for the help of our friends.
Such is the case for the Collier County Public Library and the Friends of the Library of Collier County, Inc.


Women continue to be subjected to violations of their human rights. Violence towards them is a crucial mechanism through which women are subjugated. Gender based violence is a silent global epidemic (UNDP 2011) and its devastating effects cannot be underestimated. This thesis proposes an integrated geographical or place-based approach to understand gender based violence. It offers an enhanced, theoretically more rigorous, 'spatialised' ecological model. The traditional ecological model has been reworked as a multi-dimensional structure, where the layers are (re)conceptualised as simultaneously social and spatial units constructed through and constituted in their connectedness with each other and with elsewhere; with spaces within, through and beyond them. In the new model, the layers are portrayed not as separate from one another, but rather linked together in a single interconnected whole. The ways in which risk factors interconnect with each other and mesh together fashion 'spaces of vulnerability' where violence against women is normalized and legitimated. Cholistan is one such place; a place of intense vulnerability. The 'roots' of gender based violence in Cholistan are deep and entrenched; interconnecting in complex ways to bestow adangerous and devastating legacy on Cholistani women. The thesis adopts a mixed method approach. In total 900 cases of abuse were examined. In addition, 17 interviews were conducted with a variety of key gatekeepers and 25 victim women were interviewed. In total 10 local community leaders were also interviewed in a group forum. The thesis presents evidence of the widespread and persistent abuse of Cholistani women. Violence towards women in Cholistan takes a myriad of forms. some of which are universal, some of which are culturally specific, embedded in the socio-cultural norms and traditions found in this isolated, barren and geographically remote locale. These include factors such as the propensity of exchange marriages, extended family structures, childlessness, son preference, as well as dowry-related issues and poverty; compounded by a lack of functioning state-led judiciary or law enforcement agencies; leaving no avenue of recourse for women These factors interrelate with each other in complex ways and at a variety of scales; to creating a space in Cholistan where violence against women is legitimated, sanctioned and ultimately played out.