The Virginia Senate has advanced legislation to establish an extremely aggressive timeline for the City of Alexandria to address concerns over its Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO).
The CSO issue isn't a new one. Discharges from the combined sewer system in Alexandria, (like those in Richmond, Lynchburg, Washington, D.C. and the more than 800 older cities across the country) that are dealing with this issue, concern environmentalists greatly as they pollute waterways with untreated wastewater.
Cognizant of the importance of addressing this situation, the city has made serious progress in its stormwater and wastewater treatment in recent years, engaging in sewer separation, partnering with Alexandria Renew to process 13 billion gallons of wastewater every year, and beginning work on three of the four CSO outfalls, focusing on the ones that release into Little Hunting Creek. Those three outfalls were prioritized over CSO Outfall #1 that releases a mix of wastewater and stormwater into Oronoco Bay when it rains, because they drain into a much smaller body of water where the wastewater becomes more concentrated. In keeping with the normal regulatory process, there was also an order to address them issued by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Planning and construction on the Oronoco Bay outfall had been slated to begin once construction of the other three outfalls was completed. Last fall, after concerns were raised in discussions with environmental advocates, myself, and other legislators, Alexandria voluntarily accelerated the timeline for addressing this outfall by 14 years, and I proposed legislation to advance the project by an additional six years.
Tackling the additional infrastructure project required to resolve the Oronoco Bay outfall while simultaneously addressing the three other outfalls is a daunting task. Solutions range from the construction of a three million gallon holding tank under Oronoco Bay or the shore to, alternatively, a holding pipe, that could be as large as ten feet in diameter. These large-scale options could also be complicated by working in potentially contaminated soil. The project will involve coordination with federal agencies, geotechnical investigators and civilian contractors, and costs under the expedited timeline could range from $150-$200 million in addition to the $188 million already slated to address the three outfalls along Little Hunting Creek.
Legislation proposed by Sen. Stuart (R-Stafford) and co-patroned by Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon) (SB898), mandated that the city remedy Outfall #1 by 2020 — an impossible deadline of three years. Engineers working with the CSOs in Richmond, Lynchburg, and Washington, D.C. have estimated that, if started today, the project would take between 9-12 years at a minimum. The bill's consequences for not meeting that deadline would have included a loss of all state funding for the city, approximately $115 million per year. The bill sought to subvert the regulatory process by allowing the General Assembly to act as 140 amateur environmental regulators over the established procedures of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. With an overwhelming 10-3 committee vote, the catastrophic Stuart-Surovell proposal seemed poised to make its way rapidly through the Senate.
Speaking against the Stuart-Surovell proposal on the Senate floor, I stressed the importance of working toward a deliberate, intelligent and realistic solution. After the original proposal was delayed on the floor, I negotiated with Senator Stuart to bring the timeline more in step with reality. While the improved bill that passed the Senate moves towards those goals, it still imposes an onerous completion deadline of 2025. However, it averts the potential loss of state funds and also likely removes the threat of the City of Alexandria having it's AAA/aaa bond rating downgraded.
The Alexandria Chamber of Commerce wrote that the original bill was "a draconian measure that unfairly targets all Alexandria business owners, citizens, employees, public servants including public safety officers and teachers, and visitors." And, I agree.
Though the compromise is far from perfect, it is a huge step forward and I will continue working to improve the final legislation that emerges. Working with members of the House of Delegates, a similar proposal on has already been improved upon.
It is, as always, my continued honor to serve the residents of the 30th District.
Join me and other area legislators where we will provide an update on the 2017 legislative session and answer your questions.
Arlington: Saturday, Feb. 11, 2-4 p.m., Arlington Mill Community Center – 909 S Dinwiddie St., Arlington with Del. Alfonso Lopez.


Tobias Troll | Global what?
Danke Oya, und viel Spaß beim lesen.
Poverty and injustice, the product of over 500 years of Western colonial politics, are the fertile soil in which terrorism grows. Decisions about development aid at the G8 summit are by no means enough. A new beginning is what international relations need.
On 2 September 1898, British colonial troops, led by General Kitchner, crushed the local Muslim forces in the Battle of Omdurman. 50,000 warriors armed with machetes and spears found themselves facing 8,000 colonial soldiers equipped with machine guns and modern artillery. It was "the most signal triumph ever gained by the arms of science over barbarians. Within the space of five hours the strongest and best-armed savage army yet arrayed against a modern European Power had been destroyed and dispersed", wrote a young Winston Churchill about the battle, in which10,000 Sudanese died under the hail of British bullets and only 48 Brits lost their lives.
Today London laments its victims of the terror attacks of 7 July. At the same time, the families of the 25,000 to 100,000 civilian casualties of the war in Iraq and ensuing occupation lament theirs. Neither tragedy is any less grave than the other. But so as to understand the logic of the terrorists and to get to the root cause of terrorism, the developments and hallmarks of today's power structures which the terrorists oppose must be analysed. The "western model", which once again feels under attack, has been aggressively expanding all over the world for more than 500 years. To begin with the West used force to accomplish its political aims. Nowadays it achieves these through the use of economic and institutional pressure, although superior military technology is a favourite back-up plan, as in the case of Iraq. The balance of the world economy, the international political community and the dominant media are all "western". A gigantic solidarity machine is set in motion for every kidnapped European in Iraq, whilst non-western victims are left to fend for themselves – unless they happen to be the translator of the French hostage, Florence Aubenas.
The ignorance surrounding the suffering and worries of non-westerners, of the AIDS epidemic and the bloody conflict in the Congo, about Europe's support for dictators when convenient and its refusal to provide shelter to refugees, all lead to a collective and cumulative feeling of worthlessness among the marginalised. Divide and conquer – the western approach to power since the times of Julius Caesar – has thus far hindered the establishment of a notable degree of solidarity among the repressed. Radical groups have for the first time been able to capitalise on these feelings on a global level within the coherent and international system of the Islamic religion. The people who attach themselves to Al Qaeda or other groups sympathetic to their cause hope to regain their honour and feeling of self-worth, even if they must kill for this. After all, the others kill too. Bin Laden is celebrated as a hero in many parts of the world – and not just in Islamic parts. He embodies the resistance to the system which secures power and influence for a very small part of mankind – the so-called West.
Contrary to what the men gathered at Gleneagles would like to have us believe, this confrontation does not stem from disagreements about values such as human rights, freedom or democracy. This confrontation is about power. In the aftermath of the attacks on London, George Bush declared that the contrast between those who try to protect human rights and freedom and those who kill and are bad at heart could not be greater. But following Hiroshima, Vietnam, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, we have learnt that the categories of good and evil are entirely relative. The fact is that only a new beginning in the field of international relations can dry out the mire which is the fertile soil of terrorism. Tony Blair's initiative to increase development aid spending by 50 billion each year until 2010, as approved at Gleneagles, may be a start but is by no means enough. The very nature of the G8 summit, at which the most powerful men in the world hide behind barbed wire to decide the fate of millions, is a further perpetuation of injustice. And whilst those pulling the strings remain detached from events and above criticism, innocent civilians will continue to be the victims. In London just as in Iraq.
This text was originally written in German language and was published in English, French, Italian, Spanish and Catalan. English translation by Fiona Wollensack.
These are the opening words of my master dissertation research. They are not mine, but pronounced by my friend and source of inspiration Adebayo "Bayo" Akomolafe, in one of the twelve interviews I did for this study. This sentence sums up my thinking and findings in a poetic and beautiful way: We need to overcome the "modernity" paradigms, and in order to so, we need to change our "mental infrastructures" and connect as a human movement to build another world.
I'm thankful for the encounters and exchanges I had through this research process, in particular with the twelve interviewees.
"This dissertation examines the potential and character of a global citizens movement to address a paradigm shift towards a just and sustainable planetary future, and the role development education can play in facilitating such a process. It argues that a "great transition" is necessary to move beyond the current anthropocentric and unsustainable growth, market, profit and competition based system, resulting in exploitation of people and planet. As planetary democratic mechanisms to address global challenges don't exist, global civil society is the only force that can address such a profound change process. However, the NGO sector became largely co-opted by the system it claims to change. Relinking institutionalised civil society, in particular big NGOs, with social mobilisations and grassroots experimentation is crucial to build systems of influence that can address systemic change. A multi-layered, non-hierarchical and inclusive global citizens movement should move from a focus on policy change to nourishing radical alternatives and addressing values, discourse and culture that constitute the understanding of what is possible.
Enjoy the reading, and don't hesitate to comment!
This quote is an extract from the recent publication "The Journey from Istanbul – Evidences on the implementation of the CSO DE Principles" by the global CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness.
We are proud that DEEEP has been chosen as one of 19 case studies from all over the world. Under the title "DEEEP: CONCORD Europe's transformative action experiment on citizen's emancipation for global justice" (page 43) you can read how we try to address each of the 8 principles. Tell us what you think!
There was not much activity on this blog in the last, well, 11 months – my apologies to the faithful reader who comes here regularly (if you exist). This is because the DEEEP project took most of my energy since the beginning of the year. DEEEP? Read more about it in this short article, which was originally published in the Smart CSOs Blog on Theory and Practice. Enjoy – and come back! You won't have to wait for another 11 months for updates – promise.
DEEEP is an EC-funded, project-based support mechanism created by the confederation's development education working group (the DARE Forum) 10 years ago. When DEEEP entered its fourth project phase, running from 2013 to 2015, many elements of Smart CSOs thinking where already considered during the drafting process, and more concretely implemented in the first months of the project, when the team and strategic orientation was set up. With our team of six and a range of stakeholders from CONCORD, we introduced Smart CSOs thinking in a two-days "DEEEP retreat", the project's official kick-off.
As result, the project's stakeholders resolutely positioned DEEEP as a tool for social transformation: DEEEP's vision is "systemic change through engaged global citizens", and its mission "a renewed civil society based on values and citizen participation" – an ambition which goes far beyond previous project phases and the objectives of most development NGOs. The participatory vision process led to broad ownership of this radical repositioning of DEEEP, from a support mechanism for one CONCORD working group to a confederation-wide recognized tool to bring upon meaningful transformation within civil society and ultimately in the economic and political system. All work areas of DEEEP have integrated this transformative ambition in their respective strategies (for example to develop a "new advocacy", to explore system change approaches through the research portfolio or to implement a resolutely emancipatory practice in the capacity development field).
The implementation of this vision results in activities which go far beyond a traditional charity approach to development education (reinforcing public support for development aid), and privileges actions with a more system oriented, cross-sectoral and long term citizen engagement with social change. For example, DEEEP facilitated the participation of CONCORD in the first ever European Citizens Summit, which united 230 participants from all sectors of civil society to explore a new vision and narrative for Europe, based on shared values such as solidarity and justice – a quite unusual business for a confederation whose main scope remains institutional policy work. A global conference in Johannesburg in November will explore ways to "Building a global citizens movement".
Beyond the level of concrete activities, the positioning of DEEEP as a "transformational action experiment" results in a strong value base, which is shared by the team and the management, and which is the base line for all activities and decisions, also beyond the core business of development education. For example, ambitious internal "green policies" are being developed, and the HR policies follow a logic of empowerment rather then traditional line management. Instead of solely contracting a final project evaluation, a "critical friend" will accompany the project permanently to facilitate an emancipatory learning process. Regular team meetings and retreats allow staff to co-shape the projects development, and by applying a systems thinking approach, we try to critically assess all organizational practices and implement innovative and sustainable solutions regarding procurement, climate impact, staff policies, fundraising etc. The project tries to continuously cultivate seeds of new CSO practice through streamlined reflection and learning loops, which are rooted in the values and vision of truly emancipatory change.
Maybe the most positive experience of setting up DEEEP as transformatory action experiment is that interest and feedback from internal and external stakeholders is overwhelmingly positive: It seems that people are eager to see that things can be done differently by thinking bold on the vision and learning humbly at the same time. We would be happy to share our learning and learn from you, so please get in touch!
Children are citizens, with specific characteristics and a potential to contribute to the collective like any other social group. This is not the credo of an obscure child-power movement, but international law of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which has been ratified by all UN member states but USA and Somalia. I learned this in my Development Education Master at the IOE/University of London, where I'm following Hugh Starkey's module on citizenship, children's rights and identities in this autumn term (see short youtube clip above).
A qualitative shift towards a truly human rights based education has to be based on a broad public debate. This would include a shift in the collective mindset of seeing schools mainly as training camps for labour markets and social requirements towards a concept of social orchards stimulating the flourishing of varieties of humans which all play crucial roles in the social system. Schools can stimulate this process, but all of us have to embrace it in order to become meaningful.
Maybe you saw the victory speech of Barack Obama after winning the US elections. He proved again to be a charismatic and inspiring speaker, but he seemed a little, hm, obsessed, by "the greatest country in the world" – America of course. Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, professor of global education in Oulu, Finland, wrote an open letter to Mr. President to point to the missing global dimension in the speech. This is Vanessa's second guest post on this blog (after the HEADS UP checklist). Thanks Vanessa, and tell us if you receive an answer!
I would like to congratulate you on your election tonight. For the past few months I have acted and watched friends and family from (literally) all over the world and across generations campaign for you, grounded on a sharp recognition of our global interdependence. However, it was this recognition that I believe was lacking in your first speech as re-elected president tonight. I acknowledge the pressures you were under to focus on 'the American people', who you called ' your own' and 'your family', after all, you are 'their' president. However, other people who have campaigned for you may have done so because they realize that for 'our family', which is much larger than America, dismemberments and forced artificial separations (be it in nationality, citizenship, religion, gender, race, sexuality, identity or ideology) have caused enough damage and trauma already. Therefore, in my professional capacity as an educator and in what you may call 'wishful idealism' or 'blind optimism', I urge you to do something I know is impossible in your polarized political climate: to change your speech a little to make it a bit more globally sensitive.
First, I noticed you nobly emphasized the need to reach out (to the opposition in this case), I urge you to direct your reaching out to the global sphere by prioritizing the poor and the vulnerable not only at home, but everywhere USA leadership has (historically and continuously) contributed to the impoverishment and oppression of ordinary people – let this be driven by an idea of justice based on complicity in harm, not on ethnocentric and depoliticized charity.
Second, please do not offend our intelligence with the slogan that 'America is the greatest (and richest) country in the world' as this can be interpreted as patronizing, arrogant and out of line, given USA's world impact and record, and the shadow of local and global violence in the source of its wealth: I noticed that Native Americans were not meaningfully mentioned in your speech, please acknowledge the enormous sacrifices and wounds of indigenous people in the Americas and elsewhere – again, offer them justice, on their terms, not only 'inclusion', listen and let them teach you.
Third, please introduce the notion of 'radical hope' by daring to speak of the possibility and necessity of a much more ethical economy that does not rely on fossil fuels (national or foreign), rampant consumerism (and unrestrained waste production), profitable militarism, (subsidized) competition, the commodification of life, the financialization of the globe, the relentless destruction of the environment, the exploitative division of labor at home and abroad, siege consciousness, or the elimination of dissent.
Last, please choose a song for your next speech that does not invite parochialisms and dangerous forms of patriotism, but that fuels our internal drive to build bridges of solidarity, to reach out to others beyond geo-political borders, to expect and act towards bright prospects for ALL children (and elderly people, and adults) EVERYWHERE (regardless of place of birth, faith, biological differences, inherited circumstances or life choices), a song that may remind us of the power and indispensability of plurality as an integral part of collective futures we share – together in one finite and fragile planet.
I, and the millions of people who were not born and who do not live (or aspire to live) in America, who have supported you in this campaign, understand that you are only human and that there is only so much you can do within the difficult constraints of your political and existencial context. So we wish you well and expect you to take the privilege and responsibility of your mandate with the recognition that, at this point of our inter-connected present, you are not just accountable to your country, as, with you, we 'rise and fall together' – all of us, not just America.


text:
«Малий коментар Миколая Коперника до гіпотез руху небесних тіл, висунутих ним самим» (, часто коротко називається «Commentariolus», тобто «Малий коментар») — твір польського астронома Миколая Коперника обсягом 40 сторінок, що був написаний близько 1514 року і містив перші нариси геліоцентричної системи світу. Розгорнуту версію своєї теорії, яка дала початок коперниківській революції в науці, Коперник виклав у своїй головній праці «Про обертання небесних сфер», опублікованій 1543 року.

На даний момент відомо три примірники «Малого коментаря», які відрізняються один від одного невеликими помилками в написанні і були знайдені в бібліотеках Відня, Стокгольма та Абердіна. Автограф Коперника досі не виявлено. Точний час, коли Коперник написав «Малий коментар», невідомий. Ймовірно, він був створений до травня 1514 року. Зазвичай вважають, що «Малий коментар» був написаний приблизно в 1509 році, тобто наприкінці перебування Коперника в Гейльсберзі. Нічого достовірного не відомо про поширення та сприйняття «Малого коментаря» сучасниками Коперника.

Історія знахідки

Перший (неповний) примірник «Малого коментаря» виявив 1877 року  у Віденській придворній бібліотеці. Він знайшов його в томі, що складався з 45 сторінок і містив два рукописи, зброшуровані разом, з доданими передньою та задньою сторінками. Перший рукопис містив трактат помічника Тихо Браге Лонгомонтана про комету 1590 року, який Лонгомонтан присвятив своєму другові Йоганнесу Еріксену, датувавши присвяту 18 липня 1600 року. Другий рукопис мав назву Nicolai Copernici de hypothesibus motuum coelestium a se constitutis commentariolus. У 1878 році Куртце опублікував копію цього тексту з короткими коментарями в першому випуску «Повідомлень Товариства науки і мистецтва Коперника в Торуні».

Відсутню частину тексту, яка містить більшу частину теорії Коперника про Місяць, вдалося доповнити за повною копією, яку виявили 1881 року в бібліотеці . Вона була переплетена з Базельським виданням «Про обертання небесних сфер» і належала Яну Гевелію.

На початку 1960-х Вільям Персегаус Делісл Вайтман (1899—1983) вивчав наукові праці XVI століття, які зберігались в бібліотеці Абердинського університету. 1962 року він опублікував бібліографію цих творів, зазначивши в ній, що між сторінками Базельського видання «Про обертання небесних сфер» виявлено одну сторінку «Малого коментаря». Через три роки в результаті досліджень Єжи Добжицького з'ясувалося, що цей том містить третю копію «Малого коментаря».

Історія
Коперник написав «Малий коментар» приблизно в 1514 році і надіслав копії роботи своїм друзям і колегам. Ця праця не була надрукований при житті Коперника, але стала відомою в науковій і церковній спільнотах XVI століття. У 1533 році німецький теолог і гуманіст Йоганн Альбрехт Відманштеттер виступив у Римі з циклом лекцій про теорію Коперника, описану в «Малому коментарі». Ці лекції відвідали папа Климент VII і декілька католицьких кардиналів, які виявили зацікавленість у теорії Коперника. Першого листопада 1536 року архієпископ Капуї Ніколаус фон Шенберг написав листа Копернику з проханням надіслати копію його роботи «найближчим часом».

Копії «Малого коментаря» поширювалися певний час після смерті Коперника, але згодом ця праця була забута і лишалася в забутті до другої половини XIX століття, коли були знайдені її рукописні копії.

Зміст роботи

У «Малому коментарі» Коперник виклав сім постулатів стосовно свого бачення устрою світобудови:

 Не всі небесні тіла обертаються навколо однієї точки;
 Центр Землі є центром орбіти Місяця навколо Землі;
 Усі сфери планет обертаються навколо Сонця, яке перебуває недалеко від центру Всесвіту;
 Відстань між Землею та Сонцем незначна порівняно з відстанню до зір, оскільки ми не спостерігаємо річний паралакс зір;
 Зорі нерухомі, а їх видимий рух викликаний добовим обертанням Землі;
 Земля обертається у сфері довкола Сонця, внаслідок чого здається, що рухається Сонце; Земля здійснює не один рух;
 Рух Землі по орбіті навколо Сонця є причиною позірного зворотного руху планет.

Поширення

Нічого не відомо достеменно про розповсюдження «Малого коментаря» за життя Коперника та його вплив на тогочасну астрономію. Дослідник Коперника  стверджує, що копії «Малого коментаря» поширювалися серед деяких довірених осіб Коперника. Циркулювання копій «Малого коментаря» могло сприяти тому, що Коперника попросили висловити свою думку щодо майбутньої реформи календаря на П'ятому Латеранському соборі.

У книзі Тихо Браге «Вступ до оновленої астрономії» (Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata), опублікованій 1602 року, є коротке посилання на «Малий коментар»: «… або можна також віднести це до річного циклу сонця так, як це зробив Коперник у своєму невеликому трактаті про висунуті ним гіпотези. Він свого часу був подарований мені як рукопис в Регенсбурзі високоповажним доктором Тадеусом Хагеціусом, який залишився в тісних і тривалих стосунках зі мною. Пізніше я сам повідомив про це ряду інших німецьких математиків, про яких я згадую тут, щоб ті, хто отримав цей документ, знали, звідки він взявся».

Тихо Браге отримав свою копію рукопису 1575 року як подарунок від  з нагоди коронації Рудольфа II в Регенсбурзі. Можливо, копія Гагеція походить від , оскільки Ретік заповів йому частину своєї бібліотеки. Коли Лонгомонтан прощався з Тихо Браге в , він передав свій примірник «Малого коментаря» своєму другові Йоганнесу Еріксену. Зрештою він потрапив до Віденської придворної бібліотеки разом з маєтком Браге.

Одна з копій, зроблених Браге та надісланих до Німеччини, потрапила до  в Росток, у якого Браге навчався від 1566 до 1568 року. 1585 року в Ростоку почав навчання Дункан Ліддел, і 2 листопада 1585 року він закінчив свою копію «Малого коментаря», яка пізніше була знайдена в Абердіні. Хоча екземпляр, знайдений у Стокгольмі, нагадує копію Ліддела, поки неясно, як він потрапив до Стокгольма.

Датування

Максиміліан Курце у своїй публікації 1878 року датував «Малий коментар» початком 1530-х років.

На початку 1920-х років польський дослідник Коперника Людвік Антоні Біркенмаєр (1855—1929) уточнитив датування. У Ягеллонській бібліотеці в Кракові він знайшов бібліотечний покажчик, який краківський географ та історик Матвій із Міхова (1457—1523) опублікував 1 травня 1514 року. У ньому зазначалось: «Також теоретичний секстерн, який говорить, що Земля рухається, а Сонце нерухоме» («Item sexternus theorice asserentis terram moveri, Solem vero quiescere»). Цей шестишаровий документ (sexternus) інтерпретується дослідниками як посилання на «Малий коментар». Коли його знахідка була опублікована в 1924 році, Біркенмаєр припустив, що Коперник залишив копію свого «Малого коментаря» у 1509 році своєму другові, краківському каноніку Бернарду Ваповському, який пізніше передав копію Матвію з Міхова.

1973 року  досліджував, чи можна датувати «Малий коментар», використовуючи задокументовані астрономічні спостереження Коперника, але зазнав невдачі.

Американський дослідник Коперника  (1906—1985) на основі наявних знахідок зробив висновок, що «Малий коментар» був створений не раніше другої половини 1508 і не пізніше 1514 року.

Німецький біограф Коперника та співавтор «Повного видання Миколи Коперника», філософ , вважає періодом розвитку ідей, викладених у «Малому коментарі», і самого написання період перебування Коперника в Гейльсберзі з початку 1504 до середини 1510.

 називає найбільш вірогідним моментом часу кінець періоду життя Коперника в Гейльсберзі, тобто близько 1509 року.

Сучасні видання
Після публікації оригіналу латинського тексту другого рукопису Максиміліан Курце опублікував у 1882 році текстове порівняння двох раніше відомих рукописів.  1884 року використав це порівняння тексту та обидва рукописи для латинського тексту, надрукованого у другому томі його біографії Коперника.

Перший німецький переклад з латини був опублікований 1899 року  у «Журналі історії та археології Вармії». Едвард Розен зробив перший англійський переклад, надрукований 1937 року в журналі , а двома роками пізніше передрукований в його книзі «Три трактати Коперника». 1948 року з'явився другий німецький переклад, автором якого був Фрітц Россманн.

Англійський переклад Ноеля Свердлоу 1973 року має широкі анотації та численні пояснювальні ілюстрації. Критичне видання латинського тексту в поєднанні з новим німецьким перекладом було опубліковано в 2019 році в четвертому томі «Повного зібрання творів Миколая Коперника».

Примітки

Література

 Повний текст латиною
 Edward Rosen's  (англ.) Переклад на англійську перших чотирьох глав.
 «Николая Коперника Малый коментарий относительно установленных им гипотез о небесных движенияах» . Скорочений переклад на російську мову.

Історія астрономії
Латинська мова
Література з астрономії
Книги XVI століття
Миколай Коперник
Твори 1514
Рукописи Австрійської національної бібліотеки

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: facebook - custom audience export testing We have an app to export custom audiences to Facebook for marketing purposes. The app is in development mode. I would like to setup an automated test to trigger these exports with. I have tried creating new real facebook accounts to do this which works, but they always seem to get flagged and blocked before long. I have also tried the "test users" available under the roles and they work for the oauth step, but they fail with this error as soon as I attempt to export the audience:

Error executing rest api call - {"error":{"message":"(#272) This Ads
  API call requires the user to be admin of the application. User is not
  admin or developer of this
  application.","type":"OAuthException","code":272,"fbtrace_id":"G/93tjhM3pH"}}

Is it possible to setup a facebook account that will not get constantly de-activated and still be allowed to export custom audiences?
Thanks.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Are you looking for Galactic ebooks. If Yes, then you have reached at right place because this page has a collection of Galactic free ebooks list. We have collected these official available Galactic free ebooks from internet and listed on our ebook directory portal so that you can easily find some best free ebooks for Galactic. Following are the list of free e-books and guides on Galactic, some of the resources in this section can be viewed online and some of them can be downloaded.


With the new era of technology and online facilities, many are trying to have an online presence through various online means. This includes setting up a business website to promote their companies' products and services or simply creating a personal blog to to share about their interests and passions. This is one of the reasons why many people, even though not web designers or developers, are going for the do-it-yourself web design instead of spending quite some bucks to pay for a professional. This simple and straight forward article will help all newbies who are getting started in the web to set up their own website or blog.
What will you really need to get started with your website?
If you really want to build and set up a proper and well-coded website, you will definitely need to know about HTML; Hyper Text Markup Language, which is the language use through the web. However, if you are not familiar with HTML, you can still go for a ready-made website template or CMS (Content Management System). Two main things that you will need to put a website online is firstly a domain name which is the actual web address of your website and secondly you will need a web hosting service.
Domain names are in the format of http://websitetrafficz.com (also known as a Fully Qualified Domain Name – FQDN). The last part of the name e.g .com or .net is known as its extension (or top level domain) and extensions are normally based on the nature of the website where .com refers to commercial sites, .net to networking sites, .org to non-profit organizations or .gov to governmental websites.
How to obtain a domain name?
A domain name should be purchased from an authorized registrar. The price could vary depending on the extension you are buying. I will suggest buying domain name from Godaddy.com. After you have acquired your domain name, the next thing is getting your web hosting services.
Where to go for web hosting?
There are many companies and websites out there offering web hosting services. However, you will need to be very careful about choosing your web hosting provider. Not only the pricing and features are important but reliability and support are a must. What is the purpose of paying cheap for hosting when your sites are almost always down (offline)! That is why it is important to try and test the hosting services of the company before hosting your websites with them. I recommend that you go for a trial or free hosting plan before upgrading so that you can see both the good and the bad of their products and services. One that I would recommend after having been with them for more than 3½ years now; follow this link to be guided to their hosting services page. So, why do we need web hosting?
The main reason for our need for web hosting is simply that we will need some spaces online to place our files so that they may be viewable, readable and accessible internet users.
I have a domain name and I have web hosting. What do I do now?
Well, now that you have your domain name and hosting, you will need to connect the two. When people type in your website address (domain name) in their computer browser, they will have to end up seeing the web pages you created for them to see. These web pages are stored on your hosting server and in order to be viewable, your domain name or web address should point to these files. So, after buying your domain name, you will have to point it to the DNS or Nameservers of your hosting provider. It will take between 24-72 hours for a complete DNS propagation. So, don't worry if your website is down or on and off during this period. After that your domain name will be showing up what you have hosted on your hosting space. Note that to change the nameservers of your domain name to that of your hosting provider, you will have to do so in the control panel where you buy your domain and also add the domain name in your hosting control panel.
If you are buying hosting services from the registrar you bought your domain name from, then there is no need to modify the nameservers information.
To add or modify the content of your website, you can use the hosting control panel's file manager or ftp which is also quicker.


So far I am seeing some small, but good results. We are 3 months into an 18-month journey and I can't wait to check in again soon with you all! If you live on the Florida Gulf Coast and you are looking for an Orthodontic Provider, we highly recommend Fishbein Orthodontics. With offices in Pensacola, Perdido Pace, Crestview, and Navarre they are easily accessible. They offer both traditional braces and Invisalign (they are in the ranked top 1% of all Invisalign providers) among many other services. The staff is always pleasant and welcoming and every experience we have had with them has been amazing. As an added brag, they have won two local awards that have been voted on by the residents of the gulf coast (the Best of the Bay and Best on the Coast). Fishbein Orthodontics is truly amazing and they are helping my son (and many others) create beautiful smiles. Now that's worth smiling about!


MAXTRAX Products come with a Lifetime Warranty against manufacturing defects. Subject to the Limitations on Refunds/Replacements at Clause 3 below, if the Product/s, when used in accordance with the "Instructions for Use" provided with the Product/s, fails due to defective manufacture, we will replace it at no cost to you.
Our Products come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and for compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the Product/s repaired or replaced if they fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure. This warranty is given in addition to other rights and remedies of the consumer under the Australian Consumer Law.These terms and conditions do not exclude, restrict or modify the application of any provision, the exercise of any right, or the imposition of any liability under any statute (including Australian Consumer Law).
If the Product/s is found, upon inspection by us, to be defective and covered by our warranty, we will arrange for a replacement or refund (as applicable), normally within 7 working days of receipt of the Product/s (this may take longer in some cases). Subject to your non-excludable rights under the Australian Consumer Law and this warranty, MAXTRAX expressly excludes any liability for consequential loss, incidental or indirect damages (including but not limited to damages for loss of profits and business interruption) due to a defect of the Product/s. In particular any loss or damage caused to any equipment or accessories used with the Product/s or any loss resulting from a delay in repair or replacement are excluded to the extent permitted by law.
Click here. Provide us with the date of purchase and your "Proof of purchase". Re-pack the entire Product/s ready for shipping and arrange for the Product/s to be returned to us at MAXTRAX, 449 Bilsen Rd, Geebung, Queensland, 4034. We will refund your freight costs only for the return of any Product/s which is covered by our warranty and the freight costs included in your original invoice (Freight Costs) if the: Product is returned in accordance with the Procedure for Warranty Claims in this Clause; or Return is due to an error on our part, less the Freight Costs of sending the replacement Product/s. We will not refund Freight Costs where you have returned Product/s which are not covered by our warranty, or you have not complied with the Procedure for Warranty Claims in this Clause. If we send you a replacement Product/s, and you have already been refunded for the Freight Costs included on your original invoice, we will charge you separately for the Freight Costs of sending the replacement Product/s.
We cannot accept the return of any Product that has been used, unless it is defective and returned in accordance with the procedure outlined above.
If a Product is returned in the following condition/s, this warranty will not apply.
We will charge you an administration fee and return the item to you at your expense.
We will also offer to replace the Product/s at your cost.


Once thought to be extinct but rediscovered in the 1970s, the black lion tamarin (BLT) is now found only in São Paulo, Brazil. High levels of deforestation have dramatically reduced the BLT's habitat and left this species in a precarious state. Learn what steps Durrell, together with local partner and Brazilian NGO IPÊ, is taking to conserve this species.


text:
Despite Early Losses and Bright Future, Vanderbilt not Looking Past the Present
Posted by David Changas on November 20th, 2017
Last week, second-year Vanderbilt head coach Bryce Drew secured what many consider to be the best recruit in the history of the school when consensus five-star prospect Darius Garland signed with the Commodores. His pledge is a game-changer for a program that has seen its share of success over the years but has never been able to reach the next level. Those close to the program expect Garland's commitment to attract even more talent, as top-10 prospect Simi Shittu is also expected to sign with Vanderbilt next spring. Drew also landed four-star wing Aaron Nesmith in the early signing period, and his program is currently among the final three (along with Indiana and Kansas) for the services of five-star guard Romeo Langford. Needless to say, the perception of the program is undergoing a significant shift very quickly, and that will be evident when the Commodores take the floor next fall.
Despite enduring two losses, this has been a banner week for Bryce Drew and Vanderbilt. (USA TODAY Sports)
While there is plenty of reason for excitement about the transformative future of the program, the current crop of Commodores isn't looking past this season. On Sunday night, Vanderbilt, which is led by seniors Matthew Fisher-Davis, Riley LaChance and Jeff Roberson, took #10 USC to overtime before eventually falling, 93-89. The Commodores controlled the game for most of the first half before a stunning barrage of five unanswered three-pointers gave the Trojans a one-point edge at the break. Vanderbilt came back to again control the game in the second half — building a 10-point lead with just under 10 minutes left — but could not hold that lead, as USC knocked down a number of key threes (12-of-26 3FG) while committing only six turnovers in the entire game. Despite the disappointing loss in addition to an earlier defeat at crosstown rival Belmont, the veteran Commodores know there is plenty of season left to turn things around. "We are not satisfied, but there are definitely things we can learn from this game, and things we can take from it," Fisher-Davis said after the game.
Things will not get any easier this week for the 2-2 Commodores, as they will now travel to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to play Virginia on Thanksgiving day in the NIT Tip-off. On Friday, they will play either Rhode Island or Seton Hall against what will likely be a hostile crowd. Looking into December and beyond, they still have quality non-conference opponents in Kansas State, Middle Tennessee, Arizona State and TCU on their schedule. Combining those games with what lies ahead in what appears to be a much tougher SEC, Vanderbilt will have plenty of chances to enhance its resume for a return trip to the NCAA Tournament. And while there is a temptation for fans of the program to look even further ahead to what is certain to be a very bright future in Nashville, there is more than enough talent left on this year's roster for another postseason run to be made.
David Changas (166 Posts)
This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2017 at 3:05 pm by David Changas	and is filed under microsites, sec. Tagged: bryce drew, darius garland, jeff roberson, matthew fisher-davis, Riley LaChance, simi shittu, vanderbilt commodores. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to load library with a suffix I need to load pre installed shared object with dlopen. Say it has name somelib.so
On some systems there is lib with several links: somelib.so, somelib.so.1, somelib.so.321.1
On other systems there only lib without links: somelib.so.321.1
How to load this library properly?
I do dlopen with name 'somelib.so' and this works only on systems where this link exists.
Is the only option to search for library full name if default link('somelib.so') doesn't exist in the system?

A: It depends on the context: plugins, that are meant to be loaded via dlopen, usually come without version-numbers, eg /usr/libexec/apache2/mod_something.so.
Ordinary shared libraries usually have there versions:
libfoo.so.Majorversion.Minoversion
libfoo.so.Majorversion
libfoo so

The Minorversion part can be changed without notice, it means compatible change. If the Majorversion part changes, it is (can be) an in incompatible change. So I suggest you use the second version in dlopen, eg libz.so.1 not libz.so or libz.so.1.2.11.
(To make it harder, both Majorversion and Minorversion can be structured, eg Major='1.1' Minor='1.a')


Is it possible to cycle with children in Johannesburg? That is, can a parent or other caregiver use bicycles for transport as part of their day to day activities?
There are many studies conducted in many different contexts that suggest these are important impediments – albeit with many qualifications. See the reviews e.g. (Heinen et al. 2010; Oosterhuis 2013). Indeed my route to drop off our youngest daughter at her nursery school is a meander. This means I add 1 kilometre increasing the journey to a total of 5.3 kilometres. I have chosen the route because it allows us to avoid interacting with heavy car traffic. At some sections I use side walks when there are no low-traffic alternatives available. The result is a generally pleasant ride back and forth. As you will see in the video below, we are also able to stop en-route to pick up some street side berries.
Ultimately in selecting the route, I am prioritising the travel experience over efficiency. As a result my route is best captured in the image at the bottom right hand side of this image from the Copenhagenize Design Company.
Of course it is possible to have a pleasant cycling experience (i.e. low stress over traffic safety) and a direct journey. Again the team from Copenhagenize Design Company has a useful graphic modelling bicycle friendly traffic planning in Johannesburg.
It is this combination (of convenience and safety) that I think is likely to lure more parents onto the streets with their bicycles in Johannesburg.
However the long history of automobility in the city and other emerging cycling cities is not to be underestimated. It has coerced and normalised car use to such an extent that even when short occasional bicycle journeys can be undertaken away from main arterial routes this does not register as a possibility. This is partly why the Johannesburg Urban Cyclists Association developed a bicycle commuter map. In as much as physical infrastructure (bike lanes) might accommodate bicycle use, new social-cognitive infrastructures also will need to displace those associated with car use. In doing so new social norms, habits, and connotations about bicycles and inversely about cars will emerge.
Heinen, E., van Wee, B. & Maat, K., 2010. Commuting by Bicycle: An Overview of the Literature. Transport Reviews, 30(1), pp.59–96.


text:
Q: Show data from many tables in one table I have tables
CREATE TABLE #TmpA
(
    Type1 Varchar(10),
    Col1 VARCHAR(10),
    Request INT,
    Due INT,
    Month INT
);

CREATE TABLE #TmpB
(
    Type1 Varchar(10),
    Col1 VARCHAR(10),
    Request INT,
    Due INT,
    Month INT
);

CREATE TABLE #TmpC
(
    Type1 Varchar(10),
    Col1 VARCHAR(10),
    Request INT,
    Due INT,
    Month INT
);

CREATE TABLE #TmpD
(
    Type1 Varchar(10),
    Col1 VARCHAR(10),
    Request INT,
    Due INT,
    Month INT
);

One table represent one month of data which user need to select. User can select for 1 month and also for all 12 months. Here I have taken 4 months data as an example.
I have combined data from different tables into one table. Code as follows:-
select *
into #tmpCombine
from
    (select * from #TmpA union all
     select * from #tmpB union all
     select * from #tmpc union all
     select * from #tmpd) t

select *
from #tmpCombine

Now I want to differentiate data based on month(s). My result set should be like:

If there are more or less months columns should increase or decrease automatically.
Code link
Thanks

A: You have a really bad data model, as Tim points out in a comment.  You should be storing all the data in a single table.  Using multiple tables is generally a really bad idea.
But you have the notion of union alling them together.  The next step is a pivot, which you can do using pivot or conditional aggregation:
select type1, col1,
       max(case when month = 1 then request end) as request1,
       max(case when month = 1 then due end) as due1,
       max(case when month = 2 then request end) as request2,
       max(case when month = 2 then due end) as due2,
       max(case when month = 3 then request end) as request3,
       max(case when month = 3 then due end) as due3,
       max(case when month = 4 then request end) as request4,
       max(case when month = 4 then due end) as due4
from (select * from #TmpA union all
      select * from #tmpB union all
      select * from #tmpc union all
      select * from #tmpd
    ) t
group by type1, col1;

Your coding question suggests that you are (way) overusing temporary tables when writing queries.  If so, you need to learn more about CTEs and subqueries.  On rare occasions, temporary queries can improve performance.  In most cases, they hurt performance by introducing unneeded writes and reads and prevent the optimizer for finding the most efficient query plan.


text:
Home / News in Brief / Judge sets October 2015 trial date for Severance
Judge sets October 2015 trial date for Severance
By: The Associated Press	October 23, 2014
ALEXANDRIA (AP) A judge has set an October 2015 trial date for a Loudoun County man charged with three murders in the city of Alexandria over the last 11 years.
The Oct. 5 trial date for Charles Severance split the difference between defense attorneys who sought more time to prepare and prosecutors who wanted an earlier trial date.
Judge Jane Marum Roush, brought in to preside over the case after Alexandria's judges recused themselves, said at Thursday's hearing she expects the trial to last four to six weeks.
One of the slaying victims, Ruthanne Lodato, was the sister of a retired Alexandria judge, prompting the recusals.
Roush deferred a decision on whether to allow a still photographer and television camera at the trial. Media organizations, including The Associated Press, requested the cameras.
2:52 pm Thu, October 23, 2014
Previous: More training, tighter scrutiny suggested for private police
Next: Payne named "Leader of the Year"


text:
Love Leaves Few Traces
By David Balzer
Montreal photographer Guillaume Simoneau never expected his art to take a turn toward the confessional. But his series Love and War, about a young US army sergeant's romantic life, reads as more than evidence of an affair, or one woman's coming of age—it finds its best poetry where it struggles to tell its own story.
David Balzer
David Balzer is a Winnipeg-born, Toronto-based writer, editor and teacher. A two-time National...
Joni Mitchell's Forgotten Opuses
Françoise Mouly is the Talk of the Town
Stupidly perhaps, I begin my interview with Montreal photographer Guillaume Simoneau by proposing that I not probe too far into the backstory of his series Love and War. The images are entrancingly, hauntingly ambiguous, and I want to keep it that way; in his artist's statement he describes the series as "instinctively and sporadically [documenting] the complexity of a young US army sergeant veteran's love life, before, during and after her deployment to Iraq."
Simoneau thanks me for my offer, confirming his wish to "stay on the periphery of this." I proceed to respect that—for the most part. Like all confessional art that confesses obliquely (Sophie Calle's or Sally Mann's, for instance), the anonymous intimacy of Simoneau's work is beautiful, but also, inevitably, elicits curiosity. Viewers will want to ask basic questions about relationships, and degrees of veracity. What's more, the journalist and critic, bound to the viewer (as a professional viewer himself), will want to get at least some facts straight—to attempt some answers.
There are indeed things you should know about Simoneau's project that he's not telling in his artist statement or on his website. And they will augment your enjoyment of the project, now showing at the Contact Photography Festival's gallery space in Toronto (Simoneau won the portfolio review at last year's Contact). Most important, the "love life" of Caroline Annandale is his and hers: Guillaume's and Caroline's. They were a couple. I choose not to dwell on the minutiae of their ups and downs in the interview, but obviously there were a few. The photographs attest to this—the feelings, not the occurrences.
Simoneau has a young practice, but he met Annandale when they were both exceptionally, tenderly young: in 2000, after graduating high school, when Simoneau got a job as a teacher's assistant at the Maine Photographic Workshops in Rockport. Annandale, two years younger than him, was one of his students.
"She drove up for the session with her friend from Nashville," says Simoneau. "Once it was over, we started spending time with each other. She decided to stick around Rockport. Consequently, I was fired from my job. I guess someone was jealous of us and told the staff. We left right after that and started traveling. The story started there."
Looking at the photographs, it's easy to see why Simoneau fell for her. Annandale is all those muse-words: gorgeous, feline, mercurial. With her chestnut hair and eyes, down-turned lips and prominent cheekbones, she could be a model or actress. In Love and War, one sees her beauty mature, from girlhood (a shot of her blowing a kiss to Simoneau in 2000, or of her doing a recreation of Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World the same year, or of her on a bed in Goa a year later, during their travels) to toughened, sexually aware womanhood.
"I knew she was a special person," says Simoneau. "And to this day, despite everything we went through, I still think she's a special person—the kind you meet in your life and know they exist on a different plane, a different reality than most. You meet very few people like that in your life." Carl Jung's famous quote about the meeting of two personalities being like a combination of chemical substances comes to mind: "if there is any reaction, both are transformed"—and art often results.
lw Grasshopperonrose.jpg
LW CanadianMarinejacket.jpg
What to make, then, of Iraq, in the midst of this idyll? Did Simoneau see it coming? "No," he says. "She was a young woman into the arts, nature—a kind of a hippie. But later on, when we weren't together, I found out she'd been seeing someone in the military and it made sense that her involvement had been influenced by this person."
As pieces of a person, Love and War works this way, almost classically. A photograph's inherent purpose is to present and make sense of the past, to verify it. Photographic theory stresses the opposite: that this is merely what the medium professes, but rarely accomplishes. In their marking of a moment, photographs cause reconsiderations and investigations, some of which remain forever open-ended.
Simoneau himself puzzled through the project, telling me that, even though he takes pictures all the time, he didn't know that this would be "something" until he got a text from Annandale saying his visit to Atlanta wouldn't be "a good idea anymore." This text, among others, is in Love and War, photographed on Simoneau's phone as a kind of still life. Three days later, Simoneau received a grant from the Canada Council for a proposal to document Annandale's reentry into society as a civilian. He couldn't do that anymore, but he could do something else.
In this sense, Love and War reads as a Zodiac–style detective story: the more you look at the details, the farther you get from a conclusion. Simoneau photographs evidence—in addition to texts, love letters, printed-out emails, family photos he didn't take—whose only clear message is loss, its presentation seeming the most concrete gesture towards meaning. Obviously, Simoneau wanted to understand, and then found the best poetry in not being able to. A significant portion of the photos in Love and War are dated from 2008 in Georgia, and seem to represent a decadent rekindling of his and Annandale's romance, one that often happens after the first breakup, where confusion, haplessness, and doom dominate. Perhaps he was thinking about the project then, subconsciously, before it surfaced.
"Bringing my private life into the public sphere [as art] is never something I thought I'd explore—in the past, it's actually something I disliked," says Simoneau. Yet Love and War never has a whiff of excess about it. It is self-aware, but also restrained. Its coyness is synonymous with its elegy. I call it a story about a story. Simoneau, who ultimately doesn't seem to want to remember the incident that much, corrects me. "It is, I think, the story of a lost story."
Love and War is showing at Toronto's CONTACT Gallery (80 Spadina Ave.) until March 2. It will be released as a book later this year by Demi Lewis UK.
David Balzer is a Winnipeg-born, Toronto-based writer, editor and teacher. A two-time National Magazine Award–winner, he has contributed pieces on visual art and film to The Believer, Modern Painters, Artforum online, Pop Matters and the Globe and Mail, among others. He is the author of Contrivances (Joyland/ECW Press), a short-story collection that Maisonneuve called "incredibly evocative and strange." He is currently at work on a novel.
Speak Internet
Eavesdropping, Stalking, Failing
What's Really Interesting about Megan Fox's Face (and Lena Dunham's Body)
Reckoning with Ambiguity
Trapped in the Bone Room
David Orr


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a rectangular 13x9x2" pan. Beat all ingredients on low speed (if using kitchen aid), scraping bowl constantly.
2. Beat on high speed, scraping bowl occasionally, for about 3 minutes. Pour into pan (if beating by hand, just continue until it seems well-mixed).
3. Bake until it passes the toothpick test, about 60-65 minutes. Cool, and serve.
Source of recipe: My mother altered a recipe from our much-loved "Betty Crocker's Cookbook" (which has some of the best dessert recipes ever, by the way). She substituted about 2 cups of flour for 2 cups of ground flax, but in my opinion it tastes a lot less healthy than it really is!


text:
Turner Announces Ad Lab in Effort to Re-Imagine Advertising Solutions
Turner Ad Lab will lead to better consumer experiences on all platforms, while strengthening advertising effectiveness for brands.
[via press release from Turner]
Turner Ad Lab to Operate in Collaboration with Business Partners Spanning Research, Advertising and Ad Tech
In an effort to refine the linear TV and digital video ad experience for both consumers and advertisers, Turner announced today Turner Ad Lab, a new joint initiative between the company and the industry. Turner Ad Lab will be led by an advisory board made up of representatives from industry trade organizations, research companies, ad tech start-ups and the advertising community. Turner Ad Lab will lead to better consumer experiences on all platforms, while strengthening advertising effectiveness for brands. The composition of the advisory board will be announced later this month.
"It is clear that we need to rethink the ways that linear TV and digital ads are surfaced to consumers, said Howard Shimmel, chief research officer for Turner. "We know that video advertising is welcomed by consumers and has impact, but we need to consider ways to improve the content and environment. We've already taken a leadership approach in this space by greatly reducing commercial loads on TNT and truTV. We want to do much more, and are looking for the best and brightest thinkers in the industry, along with technology companies who have interesting technologies to test, to partner with us in this effort."
Turner Ad Lab will operate out of Turner Research in close alignment with the company's ad sales organization, headed by president Donna Speciale. Speciale added, "Video advertising needs to evolve into a better experience, one that benefits all key parties - consumers, publishers and advertisers. Turner Ad Lab will aggressively re-imagine new advertising formats and real estate to create a better viewing experience. Having leading industry partners on board to collaborate with us around this effort is key to its success."
Turner Ad Lab will launch with three initial areas of focus: commercial pod structures, new advertising real estate and creative treatments and executions. The advisory board will be made up of a consortium of research and advertising experts who will help steer the various research initiatives and be responsible for oversight and approval of all projects. Members of the board will change annually, ensuring that Turner Ad Lab is constantly seeded with new ideas, technology and innovation.
Turner Ad Lab is the next step in the company's commitment to re-imagine advertising and act as a resource to business partners. Turner has made bold moves in the advertising space in recent months, including acting as a first mover in the industry to significantly reduce commercial time on both TNT and truTV later this year. The company has also developed branded content spaces like Turner Native Plus and social monetization opportunities like Launchpad that better enable marketers to reach the right audience, with the right content.
Turner Ad Lab studies will be conducted utilizing the Time Warner Media Lab, as well as facilities throughout the United States and non-lab methodologies.
About Turner
Turner, a Time Warner company creates and programs branded news; entertainment; kids and young adult; and sports media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.
[january 2016]


text:
What Is America's Fetish This Week? Great White Teeth
Brian Ashcraft
Published 11 years ago: June 3, 2011 at 6:00 am -
Filed to:culture
fetishwiaftw?
When reality star Angel Porrino stepped out in front of the cameras for a Memorial Day party she was hosting, the starlet stopped and smiled. She tucked in her chin and ran her tongue over her teeth.
Flip on the television or open a magazine, and there they are: perfect teeth. More than hair and definitely more than waistlines, Americans are obsessed with teeth. More than any country on earth, America fetishizes pearly whites.
From corporate boardrooms to cheesy clubs, from Hollywood to Porn Valley, good teeth, Americans think, make them attractive and give them confidence. Bad teeth are a deal-breaker. In America, perfect teeth aren't just attractive and sexy, they're the perceived norm.
This isn't true everywhere. It's not even true everywhere in America, but it's the pervasive image and the standard. The obsession has its roots in American history, American technological progress and in America's most glamorous creation: Hollywood.
But before we get into where this love of great teeth came from, let's talk about why. That movie star smile doesn't come cheap: whitenings can cost over $US600, and veneers easily cost into the thousands. All that money spent on something largely cosmetic. What's the attraction?
Straight teeth look good.
White teeth look good.
Maybe you don't think "normal" teeth don't look bad. I have normal teeth, and perhaps you do, too! But being continuously hit with the perfect smiles of the Hollywood dream factory can set expectations. Think of the pressure! Even those who start out with normal teeth, whether that be Tom Cruise or Hilary Duff, get their teeth "fixed" at some point or another.
Dave J Hogan/Getty
Some people, celebrities or not, are teased over their teeth. On a recent episode of The View, Lady Gaga said she was picked on as a kid. "All sorts of things. They said I had a big nose and I had buckteeth," she said. "I had my teeth fixed. And I got thrown in a trash can…"
The country's obsession with teeth started when the country itself started – with its first president, George Washington. Washington, who wore ivory false teeth and not wooden ones, started losing his teeth in his twenties – not as a result of poor hygiene, but due to the quality of health care at the time. Washington owned a toothbrush, not common during the day, and brushed daily. Tooth powder and mouthwash of the day destroyed tooth enamel, leaving Washington with only one real tooth during his 1791 inauguration.
Through the years dentistry improved. Fixing and examining teeth used to be a practice performed by blacksmiths, but it was America that began to take the lead.
"I think having the first formal college devoted to dental education—Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1840 – gave the US a 'leg-up' so to speak," Scott Swank, DDS and Curator of Curator of the National Museum of Dentistry, told Kotaku. "There were others presenting oral health lectures in other countries, but, as an organized unit, the US was the first." (The first school of orthodontics was also founded in America.)
FOR THE LOVE OF BRACES – Extreme close-ups of metal-covered teeth. Photo after photo of scantily clad girls in nothing but braces, either posing for the camera or engaging in sexual acts. The internet is awash with braces fetish photos. For sexual fetishism, braces are lightning in a bottle: they are metallic and shiny, they appear painful, and they direct attention to an orifice. The link between braces and youth also plays into the fetish, with a niche market existing for adult video actresses wearing orthodontic braces. The mouth, of course, is of key importance for porn stars, and some actors and actress (above, Emily Marilyn NSFW) capitalize on their temporary metal mouths.
But every American didn't have a mouthful of white picket fences. According to Dr Swank, during World War II, a large enough number of recruits were turned away due to poor oral health that the US military began to instill dental education for the troops. Water fluoridation, thought to be a Communist plot during the Red Scare and still controversial today, began in the 1940s and aimed to decrease tooth decay.
In the prosperous years after the war, the number of dental products exploded. There was Pepsodent, Pearl Drops, and Ipana, all guaranteed to do great things for your teeth. The middle class had more disposable income. According to Dr. Swank, people also started to realise that, with proper care, they could keep their teeth their entire life, and began to pay more attention to oral care. Parents wanted to give their kids something that they could never had: better teeth. Braces and retainers became a right of passage. They also became objects of fetish, playing into the objectification of medical instruments.
Mike Coppola/Getty
Teeth became a status symbol. It was Hollywood that really solidified America's aesthetic appreciation of teeth. With the advent of sound and the increasing use of the close-up, an actor's mouth became more important.
In movies, the addition of sound and, later, colour drew attention to the mouth. A white smile, much like red lips, looks better on screen. Just as Michael Jackson would wear glittery, white socks to draw attention to his feet, a white smile drew attention to the mouth. "I think the American dental aesthetic standard had as much influence from Hollywood as any other reason," said Dr Swank. "Europeans revered royalty. Americans revered actors and actresses as American royalty."
During the 1970s and 1980s, cosmetic dental care took off as the procedures became not only safer, but more affordable. For kids, getting braces was already like getting glasses, and more and more adults who wanted to improve their smile got braces.
HOT FOR TEETH – Odontophilia is a sexual fetish involving teeth—whether that be licking other people's teeth, biting their teeth, leaving teeth marks on their flesh, or even attempting to pull out their lover's teeth.
By the following decade, products for at-home teeth-whitening, previously done only by dentists, became wildly available, making what was once an in-office procedure available for more Americans. During the turn of the century, toothpaste sales actually slowed down, while whitening products picked up, garnering more retail space.
Not everyone in America has perfect teeth – not everyone in America even cares about perfect teeth. Some Americans are probably pretty annoyed that there's a push for that perfect smile! There are celebrities famous for their dental imperfections – take Madonna and her gap teeth.
CROOKED BUT CUTE? – In ancient Japan, women blackened their teeth. Even today, some women feel embarrassed about showing too much tooth while laughing or smiling, perhaps due to imperfect teeth. Nowadays, crooked teeth are considered cute, and many young idols have "yaeba" (literally: "double tooth", but it refers to crooked canines). For the same reason that many Japanese are able to forgive idols for poor singing voices, they are willing to overlook imperfect teeth. They're charming, cute and natural.
In the West, gapped teeth have long been a trope for lasciviousness as evident by the Good Wife of Bath in Canterbury Tales. Gapped teeth are sexy, and some patients in America are even paying top dollar for custom gaps in their porcelain veneers. These are actually a reaction to cookie-cutter cosmetic teeth. Think of them as perfect imperfections.
America's dental IQ is the highest in the world, and the country has lead the way with the study of dentistry and even dental technology, like first putting toothpaste in tubes. Check out the endless array of dental products available at typical American supermarkets; they're plentiful and cheap.
Teeth play an important part in the American aesthetic. Straight, white look attractive, they look healthy, and they look young – forgoing the stigma of other cosmetic procedures. In this crap economy, fewer Americans can afford pricey procedures, such as porcelain veneers, but the promise of brilliant smiles remains. White. Clean. Beautiful.
Top photo: Ethan Miller/Getty
What Is America's Fetish This Week? is a regular, obsessive look at the trends and topics, from mainstream to niche, that catch America's fancy. WIAFTW alternates bi-weekly with its sister column, What Is Japan's Fetish This Week?
M1557 says:
What the hell is this?!
I am also wonderg what the…
I like the Japan fetish stuff, this not so much.
Dominique says:
I have braces too, because I have a fetish for it.
♣TadMod♣ says:
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Switch296 says:
My God, they listened! A culture article that isn't about Japan. Not one that is very interesting in my personal opinion but still – It's a start, it's a culture article that isn't about Japan when the last 500 or so have been nothing but.
Oh wait nevermind, it's got a article within the article about Japan.
Ah Brian Ashcraft, weeaboo lord of Kotaku
DENAz says:
The fact that anyone would take time to write up a big article about teeth, is kind of creepy
Dissection says:
What Is Brian Ashcraft's Fetish This Week? Great White Teeth
Is it bad that when he mentioned some celebrities that don't have perfect teeth I though of Belladonna's gap teeth before I thought of Madonna? I've been on the internet too long man.
Reoh says:
Please no!
Its bad enough I have to mute tv every 5mins to avoid listening to this crap, why's it on a gaming website?! 😛
Joshy206 says:
Bashcraft is my only problem with Kotaku. This can't even be remotely linked to videogaming.
Maybe he should create his own 'Japanese Women and Fetishes' blog?
I completely agree, the articles he writes are 9/10 just plain uninteresting and poorly written.
I agree he should go open his own Japanese Women and Fetishes blog and start writing up real articles on kotaku
DeeK says:
I enjoyed this article. Interesting read. Have to say, I don't understand the gapped teeth thing. Sexy? Not for me.
Also, I actually consider bright white teeth as unattractive. It looks way too unnatural. Would you really want to hook up with someone that was so insecure about their teeth, they artificially whitened them?


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Beyond language: Reflections on the Arakan tragedy
October 21st, 2012 | Author: Jan
By Richard Falk
Yesterday I listened to the wife of the Prime Minister, Emine Erdogan, speak about her recent harrowing visit to the Rohingya people in the the federal state of Arakan (mainly known in the West as Rakhine) who are located in northwestern Myanmar (aka Burma).
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority numbering over one million, long victimized locally and nationally in Burma and on several occasions over the years their people have been brutally massacred and their villages burned. She spoke in a deeply moving way about this witnessing of acute human suffering shortly after the most recent bloody episode of communal violence in June of this year. She lamented that such an orgy of violence directed at an ethnic and religious minority by the Buddhist majority is almost totally ignored by most of the world, and is quietly consigned by media outlets to their outermost zones of indifference and irrelevance.
She especially appealed to the women present to respond with activist compassion, stressing that women are always the most victimized category in these extreme situations of minority persecution and ethnic cleansing.
The situation of the Rohingya is an archetypal example of acute vulnerability in a state-centric world. In 1982 the territorial government of Burma stripped away the citizen rights of the impoverished Rohingya Muslims who have lived in Arakan for many generations, but are cynically claimed by Rangoon to be unlawful new migrants from bordering Bangladesh who do not belong in Burma and have no right to remain or to burden the state or cause tension by their presence.
Bangladesh in turn, itself among the world's poorest countries, already has 500,000 Rohingya who fled across the Burmese border after earlier attacks on their communities, and has closed its borders to any further crossings by those escaping persecution, displacement, destruction of their homes and villages, and threats to their lives.
To deepen this aspect of the tragedy, only 10% of these migrants who fled from Burma have been accepted as 'refugees' by the UN High Commission of Refugees, and the great majority of the Rohingya living in Bangladesh for years survive miserably as stateless persons without rights and living generally at or even below subsistence levels.
The Rohingya who continue to exist precariously within Arakan are stateless and unwanted, many are reported to wish openly for their own death. As a group they endure hardships and deprivations in many forms, including denial of health services, educational opportunity, and normal civil rights, while those who have left for the sake of survival, are considered to be comparatively fortunate if they manage to be accepted as 'refugees' even if their status as undocumented refugees means the absence of minimal protection, the denial of any realistic opportunity for a life of dignity, and the terrifying uncertainties of being at the continuing mercy of a hostile community and an inhospitable state.
The principal purpose of this educational conference sponsored by Mazlumder, a Turkish NGO with strong Muslim affinities, was to gather experts to report on the situation and urge the audience to take action and thereby mobilize public opinion in support of the Rohingya people. It served to reinforce the high profile diplomatic and aid initiatives undertaken in recent months by the Turkish government to relieve the Rohingya plight.
It also called attention to the strange and unacceptable silence of Aung San Suu Kyi, the widely admired democratic political leader in Myanmar, herself long placed under punitive house arrest by the ruling military junta and recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize honoring her heroic resistance to dictatorship in her country. Her voice on behalf of justice for Burmese ethnic and religious minorities, and especially for the Rohingya, would carry great weight among Buddhists in the country and with world public opinion, and might shame the government into taking appropriate action.
As it is, the present Burmese leadership and the prevailing tendency in domestic public opinion is to view the conflict as intractable, with preferred solutions being one or another version of ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity – either forced deportation or the distribution of the Rohingya throughout the country so as to destroy their identity as a coherent people with deep historical roots in northern Arakan. Outside pressures from Saudi Arabia and the United States might help to rally wider international concern, especially if tied to Burma's economic goals. Aside from Turkey, governments have been reluctant to put pressure on Rangoon in this period because the Rangoon leadership has softened their dictatorial style of governance and seem to be moving toward the establishment of constitutional democracy in the country.
What struck me while listening to the presentations at the conference was how powerful language can become when its role is to think with the heart. I have always found that women are far less afraid to do this in public spaces than men. We – fully secular children of the European Enlightenment – are brainwashed from infancy, taught in myriad ways that instrumental reason and logical analysis are the only acceptable ways to think and express serious interpretations of societal reality.
Mrs. Erdogan, not only thinks with her heart, but she infuses such thought with an obvious religious consciousness that conveys a spiritual commitment to empathy that neither needs nor relies upon some sort of rational justification.
Such a powerful rendering of suffering reminded me of James Douglass' use of the realm of the 'unspeakable' (in turn inspired by the Catholic mystic author and poet, Thomas Merton) to address those crimes that shock our conscience but can only be diminished in their magnitude by speech. Their essential horror cannot be comprehended by expository language even if it is emotively heightened by an inspirational appeal.
Only that blend of thinking with the heart combined the existential validation of direct witnessing can begin to communicate what we know, in the organic sense of knowing, to be the reality. I have discovered in my attempt to address the Palestinian ordeal as honestly as possible that direct contact with the actualities of occupation and the experience of listening closely to those who have been most directly victimized is my only way to approximate the existential reality.
For this reason, my exclusion by Israel from visiting Occupied Palestine in my UN role does not affect the rational legal analysis of the violation of Palestinian rights under international law, but it does diminish my capacity as a witness to touch the live tissue of these violations, and erodes my capacity to convey to others a fuller sense of what this means for the lives and wellbeing of those so victimized. Of course, UN reports are edited to drain their emotive content in any event.
I recall also my experience with the world media after a 1968 visit to Hanoi in the midst of the Vietnam War. I had been invited by a European lawyers' organization to view the bomb damage in North Vietnam at a time when American officials, especially the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, were claiming 'the most surgical strikes in the history of air warfare.' I accepted this 'controversial' invitation to visit 'the enemy' during an ongoing war, although the fighting was somewhat paused at the time, as 'a realist' opponent of the war, basically accepting the position of Bernard Fall, George Kennan, and Hans Morgenthau that it was a losing proposition to suppose that the U.S. could achieve what the French colonial occupying power was unable to do and that it was a costly diversion of resources and attention from more important security concerns.
My experience in Hanoi transformed my understanding and outlook on the war. It was a result of meeting many of the leaders, including the Prime Minister on several occasions, visiting bombed villages, talking with peasants and ordinary Vietnamese, and most of all, realizing the total vulnerability of the country to the military superiority of the United States with no prospect of retaliation — the concrete and cumulative terror of being on the receiving end of one-sided war that continues for years.
I came away from North Vietnam convinced that 'the enemy,' and especially its people, was on the right side of history, and the United States, and the badly corrupted Saigon regime that it propped up, was on the wrong side; above all, I felt the pain of the Vietnamese and was moved by their courage, humanity, and under the dire circumstances, their uncanny faith in humanity and their own collective destiny as a free nation. It produced a sea change in my mindset concerning the Vietnam War, and ever since.
When I left Vietnam, and returned to Paris, I received lots of attention from mainstream media, but total disinterest from these prominent journalists in what was for me the most important outcome of the trip — the realization of what it meant humanly for a peasant society to be on the receiving end of a high tech war machine of a distant superpower whose homeland was completely outside what is now being called 'the hot battlefield.'
The journalists had no interest in my (re)interpretation of the war, but they were keenly eager to report on proposals for ending the conflict that had been entrusted to me by Vietnamese leaders to convey to the United States Government upon my return. It turned out that the contour of these proposals was more favorable from Washington's point of view than what was negotiated four years and many deaths later by Henry Kissinger, who ironically received a Nobel Peace Prize for his questionable efforts.
My main reflection relates back to the Arakan meeting. The media is completely deaf to the concerns of the heart, and is only capable of thinking, if at all, with the head. It limits thought to what can be set forth analytically, as if emotion, law, and morality are irrelevant to forming an understanding of public events.
What at the time interested the NY Times and CBS correspondents, who were sympathetic and intelligent individuals, was the shaping of a diplomatic bargain that might end the war, whether it was a serious proposal, and whether Washington might be interested. It turned out that Washington was not ready for even such a favorable compromise, and plodded on for several years, culminating in the unseemly withdrawal in 1975 in the setting of a thinly disguised surrender.
Poets in the West, caught between a cultural insistence on heeding the voice of reason and their inability to transfer feelings and perceptions into words, vent their frustration with language as the only available vehicle for truth-telling.
As T.S. Eliot memorably expressed it in the final section of his great poem East Coker:
Trying to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
Imagine if the master poet of the English language in the prior century gives voice to such feelings of defeat (paradoxically in one of the great modern poems), how must the rest of us feel! We who are mere journeymen of the written word fault ourselves for inadequacies of depictions and usually lack the temerity to blame the imperfect medium of language for the shortcomings of efforts to communicate that which eludes precise expression.
Earlier in the same poem Eliot writes some lines that makes me wonder if I have not crossed a line in the sands of time, and should long ago have taken refuge in silent vigil:
…..Do not let me hear
Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly
Posted in Burma - Myanmar, Poetry, Reflections, essays & more, Richard Falk, Violence-prevention


text:
Richmond will guide U.S. Digital Gaming, Inc. to Internet gambling
Today, U.S. Digital Gaming, Inc. ("USDG") announced the hiring of former FOX and Walt Disney Senior Executive Jon Richmond as its Chief Executive Officer. Richmond will guide the company's activities to deploy the most comprehensive, legally compliant, Internet gambling platform in the US, at a time when numerous states are clearly moving toward the legalization of online gambling.
Richmond's unique experience will allow him to integrate the key elements of the online gambling space, including technology, interactive entertainment, e-commerce, and online marketing. A highly accomplished leader in the area of digital and interactive media, under his leadership, News Corporation became a major force in the digital arena, leveraging the massive reach of its franchises over multiple platforms, while creating compelling, original digital content. As President of News Digital Media, Richmond also oversaw the development and operation of FOX.com, FOXSports.com, and FOXNews.com. Mr. Richmond recently served as a Managing Director at investment firm Houlihan Lokey where he led the firm's Media, Sports, Gaming and Entertainment Industry Group.
"We welcome Jon Richmond to USDG, where he will help grow our company and redefine online gambling in America," explained Richard D. "Skip" Bronson, USDG Chairman and Co-Founder. "Jon's expertise sits squarely at the confluence of digital entertainment, online commerce and our vision of gambling. He brings broad expertise and experience to our industry, and I'm confident that he'll create a meaningful, high-impact footprint, as he has done at Fox, Disney, and Houlihan Lokey."
Richmond added, "I believe the accomplished team at USDG is perfectly positioned to bring together the various stakeholders – state governments, existing casino operators, and other long standing gaming interests – to ensure the successful introduction of legalized online gambling in the US. We are at a "perfect storm" moment, when all the elements are coming together to rapidly create incredible value, as this proven market becomes legal, regulated and adopted across the US market."


text:
Home Entertainment B-Town react to Telangana encounter
B-Town react to Telangana encounter
Several Bollywood actors have endorsed the killing of four accused in the brutal gang-rape and murder of woman veterinary doctor in a police encounter in Telangana on early Friday morning.
Veteran actor Anupam Kher shared his reaction to the incident, tweeting: "Congratulations and #JaiHo to #TelenganaPolice for shooting down the four rapists, in an 'ENCOUNTER'. Let's go! Now all the people who have raised their voice against the perpetrators of such a crime and wanted to punish them dangerously, speak loudly with me – #JayHo."
Shilpa Shetty hopped on to Twitter to share a detailed note on the condition of women in the country: "The position and dignity of women in our country are in dire straits… it has been so for a while now. Stepping out every day has become an ordeal for most, one that is unavoidable. As a woman, I can't even express how disgusting it is to see the apathy towards rape victims, survivors, and their families. It is highly disappointing to regularly read the news stating that an offender/culprit has been granted bail and is out… What for? To be given another chance to commit a more heinous crime? Reading about girls of all ages being abused and the brutality involved in each case makes my skin crawl. I'm a mother to a son, but I don't think I can bring myself close to imagining the fear that mothers of daughters feel every day."
She further said: "#BetiBachao can't just be relegated to a campaign. The intent isn't enough if it can't be put into action. I urge our authorities to enforce stricter laws that will not only deter future perpetrators but also severely punish the offenders undergoing trials. Also, expediting these proceedings is the need of the hour. Justice delayed is justice denied! Jai Hind!"
Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor gave a strong reaction to the encounter as he tweeted, "Bravo Telangana Police. My congratulations!"
Bollywood 'Queen', Kangana Ranaut's sister Rangoli Chandel also tweeted about the encounter as she said, " Real men protect women and we are definitely looking at a great future where people will dread mere thought of rape or harassment of women, today my heart swells with pride the choices I made and the people I supported, this is new India, Ghar mein ghusega bhi aur marega bhi."
Bollywood actor Pooja Hegde paid condolence to the late veterinarian as she tweeted, "Rest in peace. I hope this sends a STRONG message out to all those people who even have the THOUGHT of raping a woman."
Esha Gupta, also took a strong stand on the encounter as she tweeted, "The police did a great job, a great example has been set by this encounter, what the courts are unable to do, they did. Justice has been delivered. Now can we please hope for the same for Nirbhaya as well? And please let's not argue about the "human rights" or these inhuman scums."
Vivek Oberoi also took a strong stand in respect to the incident said in an interview, "such encounters will create a wave of fear and will prevent the occurrence of such heinous crimes in the country."
Telugu film actor Nagarjuna took to Twitter to comment on the incident, as he tweeted, "This morning I wake up to the news and JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED!! #Encounter."
Telangana encounter
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Short Answer: Choosing the right health insurance option is not an easy task irrespective of the type of health insurance plan you are looking for. It is very important to know what options you have when it comes to individual and family health insurance needs. A lot of factors need to be looked into like what is a health savings account, how much deductible you should choose and what is the role of coinsurance and co-payments. This article is an effort to help you decide the best health insurance for you and your family. We will divide our discussion into various categories which are in order of their prioritization.
Insurance, irrespective of the type, exists for one single reason. To provide you financial cover during catastrophic events. Saving you hundreds of dollars in the bargain. When you buy a health insurance plan, you shouldn't let this basic insurance principle slip of your mind.
Also keep in mind that your health insurance will only kick in when your deductible amount and out of pocket expenses are met.
Health Insurance Premium: This is the amount which you pay monthly, semi-annually or annually against your health benefits as defined in your health insurance plan.
Co payments: This is a pre-decided fixed dollar amount which you need to pay against specific medical services like weekly doctor visits and prescribed medicines.
Deductible: This is an amount which you pay once every year before your health insurance starts paying you for the benefits. If you want lower monthly premium then you can do that by increasing your deductible amount. For more details on deductible concept, read our article on high deductible health insurance plans.
Co-Insurance: This is an amount which is paid by you for the medical services covered by your health plan after you have met your deductible amount.
Out Of Pocket Maximum: The total amount which is to be paid by you on annual basis before your health insurance takes over.
Even before you decide on the type of health insurance plan, you need to first decide on two important factors. These are your affordability (how much you can conveniently pay towards premium) and your needs (what health benefits you are looking for in a health plan).
Important Scenario: Many individuals who are employed get stuck when they are searching for the right health insurance plan. Reason being, their pre-conceived notion of going for the same health plan which they had from their employer. Such health plans are expensive in the outside world.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of choosing the health insurance plan, let us summarize what we are going to discuss coz time is valuable and we need instant and precise information. So if you don't wish to read the full article then here is your 10 step guide to follow and select the best health insurance option for yourself or your family.
The difference between HMO and PPO is covered. Just to highlight some difference between a PPO and HMO. PPO will offer you much higher level of reimbursement. PPO will consists of a network of doctor's and medical facilities which have a contract with the health insurance company to offer medical treatment at discounted rates.
HMO works in a little different way where the liberty of choosing the doctor is quite limited in nature. The most common and known example of HMO is Kaiser Permanente. These plans are less expensive when compared to a PPO.
Once you decide between a HMO and a PPO, you will then come to a point where decision is to be made regarding which health plan to go for within that structure. The primary differentiating factor boils down to choosing between a copay health plan or health savings account.. HSA and a copay has their own pro's and con's which might suit some and might not favor some individual needs. Hence, they are not a one size fit all solution.
Most of us in our quest of finding the right health insurance plan choose either a HSA plan or a copay.
Health Savings Account: A complete overview of health savings account is covered. If you wish to have the right amalgamation of low out of pocket maximum along with affordable premium then HSA could help you achieve both the objectives. One important aspect to highlight here is that if you don't want any coinsurance included in your health plan then your maximum out of pocket amount will be the deductible you choose.
Free Of Cost Preventive Care Services: Preventive care services are absolutely free if you have purchased health insurance after March 23rd 2010.
When Should You Choose A Copay Plan?
A copay plan is suitable for those who frequently visit their doctor for medical reasons. Ideal scenario would be 5 to 6 visits in a year or more. Generally, the copay amount is low between $25 to $50 but if you multiply the amount for each visit with the total number of visits then it is a large chunk of money which you are paying. Copay generally depends on the benefits which you are getting from your health plan and if you are visiting a doctor within the health insurance network. If don't need to visit a doctor frequently then it is fine to choose a plan without a copay to save money.
Do not get confused between copay and coinsurance. Copay is a fixed dollar amount paid before you meet your deductible. Coinsurance is a percentage which you may be required to pay after you meet your deductible.
This is tricky. Affordability is again a factor here. If you have a health plan currently then it is wise to revisit your previous record and check how many times you didn't meet your deductible? Moreover, also check how much you could have saved if you had chosen a high deductible plan. Play a balancing act between your deductible, monthly premiums and your needs.
I hope you get the best out of this information along with the article links mentioned here.