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Tag: Conan
Conan Role-Playing Game Unboxing
Here's some photos of the old TSR Conan RPG that I just won on eBay. This is actually the first time I've bid on something like this, so I'm pretty excited.
Rules booklet
Rules interior
Rules back cover
World of Hyborea interior
Map of Hyborea
Reference Guide & Character Folio
The game is by Dave "Zeb" Cook, and uses a universal chart resolution system based on the TSR Marvel Super Heroes system. You can get a free version of the system, with the Conan IP stripped out, called ZeFRS (Zeb's Fantasy Roleplaying System). Like MSH (also free), it's pretty elegant if you don't mind having to roll and look-up on that one chart all the time, though unlike MSH Conan uses a roll low percentile system. Still, it would be pretty easy to reverse that if you wanted to create a new chart. It seems silly but I know my players are always disappointed when a roll of 99 turns out to be bad.
(32 pages) Pretty much everything you need for an RPG, from back in the day when they could fit it all in 32 pages: Introduction with "what is roleplaying", Combat, Movement, Dangers and Perils, Magic, Living in Hyboria, Improvement and Ultimate Goals, Refereeing Adventures in Hyboria, Creating Hyborian Adventures, and An Adventure in the World of Hyboria. The core mechanic is a simple one: decide what Talent is being tested, look up its rating on the resolution chart, and roll to see whether you get a fail (white), or higher degree of success (green, yellow, orange, red). For opposed actions you first subtract the opponent's talent score before finding the column on the chart. Modifiers come from shifting columns left and right rather than changing the die roll.
Character creation is by point-buy1. Interestingly, you don't really have attributes in Conan. Instead you have a number of talents grouped into six pools: Prowess, Fighting, Endurance, Knowledge, Perception and Insight . Your rating in the overall pool is the sum of your talents in that pool, divided by 10 and rounded down. You can use the pool rating both as the default if you have no applicable talent and if it's better than your specific talent (putting points in a talent will never make you worse than if you used the default).
Just glancing through it, one unusual feature of the system is that whenever combat begins or a new combatant enters the fray, there's a roll so see if you're "caught off guard" and get some number of extra actions. This differs from traditional surprise rules because you can be caught off guard even when you're facing off against your foes with weapons drawn, and even if you're the one initiating the violence: it's really a test of reflexes, not awareness, and quite in keeping with the Conan stories. In fact they quote a snippet from one of the stories when introducing the rule. Bits from the stories are interspersed throughout the text to justify what comes next.
Another interesting bit is that even if you haven't won extra actions through catching a foe off-guard, you can attempt multiple actions; instead of a standard penalty, though, you roll on the resolution chart to see if you can, and if you fail to get a "Red" result (the highest possible on the chart) not only does the second action not come off, but you have a significant penalty for the rest of the current turn and the next. Since the chance is quite low, 8% – 15%, I'm not sure whether it would come up in play except as a desperation move.
The World of Hyboria
(32 pages) is a brief compendium of what's known about the various lands and peoples of Hyboria, oddly presented as if it were the notes of a fictitious professor Ervin Howard Roberts. I say oddly because the introduction, after talking about Professor Roberts' notes, goes on with a perfectly clear biography of Robert E(rvin) Howard, Conan's creator and a bibliography of the then-in-print Ace collections of the Conan stories edited and supplemented by L. Sprague DeCamp and Lin Carter. I guess the fiction is a wink at the prevalence of "these are a bundle of notes unearthed about the adventures of this fellow in a far off land/time" as a framing device for pulp stories such as Burroughs' John Carter or Akers' Dray Prescot series, but Howard never really went in for that. His approach was typically more mythical, a long-lost ancient chronicle of a still more ancient time: "Know, o prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas…" and so on. The World of Hyboria is useful, in that it keeps the referee who wants to run a Hyborean campaign from having to scour the stories taking notes on what's known about the various lands Conan visits, and often has direct quotes from the stories which helps with the flavor, What's lacking, though, is much by way of directly gameable info, although it does have stats for a number of dangerous creatures as well as some examples of famous NPCs like Thoth-Amon and Valeria of the Red Brotherhood. Still, stitching these together into some kind of adventure is pretty much entirely up to the referee.
(15 pages) lists specific information for each Talent and Weakness you can take, as well as a random hit location chart, a list of combat modifiers, another copy of the resolution chart from the back cover of the rules book, an equipment list, the table for specific wounds (when you roll a Red result on fighting), a list of languages and, unusually, a chart of jewels and their typical values. I supposed when you're treading the jeweled thrones of the world beneath your sandals you're going to want to know the cash values.
Master Reference Sheet
(4 pages) contains a summary of pretty much every rule you'd need to consult at the table, some errata for missing talents, and succinct advise for the referee.
BE FAIR! USE COMMON SENSE
BE FLEXIBLE! USE YOUR JUDGEMENT
KEEP IT FUN! GIVE CHARACTERS A CHANCE!
LISTEN WELL!
BE ENTERTAINING! USE DRAMATIC DESCRIPTIONS!
Map of Hyboria
Huge and colorful wall map. Torn between wanting to frame it and maybe wanting to actually use it some time.
Character Folio
Weird useless four-page character brochures: too slick to write on on the outer (character) sides but not slick enough to be erasable, with room for recording a single adventure and its gleanings in terms of fame and treasure on the insides. The mad-libs part at the top where you fill in your character's story with the name and occupation of father and mother, where you were born and what you learned as a youth (you have to take at least 1 point in the talent of your father's occupation) is kind of neat and evocative, but I have trouble picturing these actually getting used except as a template for what you need to write on your sheet of paper.
Two sets, which would be enough for four characters to each have a single adventure if you cut them apart. You could photocopy them, I suppose, but even so you'd only need one master.
Apparently the boxes originally came with two ten-siders and two crayons for coloring them in, though my box only had one crayon left. No big, since nowadays every gamer I know has ten-siders and to spare.
I'm really happy with this purchase, and somewhat to my surprise I'm actually tempted to try running a game instead of just mine it for ideas for my DCC Sword & Sorcery campaign. I can definitely see some people I play with digging this unified approach and ability to design a character over the more particular everything-is-a-separate-subsystem mechanics and random character generation of D&D and its successors like DCC.
though naturally people have come up with random generation methods if you can't stand the fiddliness of point-buy or just want to be surprised. ↩
Conan Wore Armor, Dammit
The Recursion King: Continuous initiative
Recently, in our D&D sessions, I decided to resurrect the idea of a continuous initiative system. Continuous initiative means just that – it is continuous – and does not have a one person acting per combat round order.The order is determined by how high the initiative values are (like normal) but then instead of going back to square one after all have moved, the higher initiative combatants may be acting multiple times over low initiative value combatants. This fundamentally changes combat.
Part of my reasoning in trying this out was because we have a number of house rules which we agree on (me as the referee and the players) and its fun to try new ideas out and see which ones stick. The other part is that if the players ever wanted to create a character like Conan the Barbarian, as it is, the game system would completely punish them for this choice.
This is a much simpler (and therefor probably workable) approach to the idea of continuous combat rounds that I talked about previously in Fluid Combat Rounds Rules, but that's not what I want to talk about. What I want to grouse about for a moment is the notion that in order to simulate Conan, you need rules that don't penalize characters who go around in nothing more than a loin-cloth. Recursion King is hardly the first game designer to have that notion. For instance Clint Black at Pinnacle Games proposed rules that he called Pecs and Pulchritude for giving people armor based on Toughness and penalizing their Parry scores for armor, even going so far as to name one of his example characters Konan. [update: Clint objects that I make it sound like his intention was to mimic the Conan stories and that he failed, when that wasn't his intention at all–his P&P optional rules were just intended to fulfill the request of a fan who was looking for suggestions on how to make gear count for less and character abilities count for more.] At one point it was even a common objection to D&D–armor was too important, so it wasn't even a good simulation of its source material like Conan.
When it comes to the Conan stories, that's just dead wrong. Conan wore as much armor as he could afford given his circumstances (in terms of both personal wealth and what was available in the culture he found himself in), up to and including full plate (when taking the field as King). Indeed, in the very first story he appeared in, his survival was attributed to the fact that he managed to don at least some armor before the assassins got to his sleeping quarters. Even much earlier, when he had barely left Cimmeria, he wore a helmet while among the Aesir and a point was made both of it saving his life and how many other tribesmen might have survived fighting the Vanir raiders if they had taken similar precautions. Robert Howard, and Conan, appreciated the value of armor.
Even in the movie with Arnold, which was shall we say extremely loosely based on the stories, Conan armors up when it comes time to have a big stand-up fight at the end instead of skulking around stealthily.
So where did the stupid notion of Conan fighting naked against guys equipped with chain or better come from? I blame the comics by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor Smith. Despite the fact that quite a few of the stories were close adaptations of the Howard stories, the depictions of Conan, particularly on the cover, tended to have him wearing barely anything at all. Partly it's because most of the comic stories are set very early in Conan's career, when he's a penniless theif or a pirate, rather than a mercenary captain or king, and partly because, well, half-naked muscular men is somehow an important selling point for action-adventure comics, for reasons that probably don't bear too close examination. It's those pictures that seem to have been seared into the public consciousness, to the point where even in our hobby people who set out create rules to emulate the feel of Conan stories seem to think the first thing they need to do is make armor less important.
No, what you need to do to a system to make it suitable for Conan-style action isn't to reduce the relative value of armor, but make it possible to survive battles while lightly armored as long as you're facing lightly armored foes. You want a career of piracy or being a desert raider to be possible, while still leaving the heavily armored Aquilonian knights kings of the battlefield. That is something that D&D and the retro-clones could use some tweaking to adjust, since the armor means you get hit less abstraction makes its lack just too dangerous even against identically armed and armored opponents. Possibly you could adjust the charts so that they reflected armor on a relative instead of absolute scale, but it's getting late and I'm not sure I can specify exactly how that would work. Still, I'm pretty sure that, at least as far as Conanism goes, what you don't want to do is let the fighter wearing nothing hit so many extra times that his expected damage per round is the same or almost as the fighter in plate attacking him.


Influence Central, a family marketing agency, just released a report called Kids & Tech: The Evolution of Today's Digital Natives. The report details findings on the way that kids are using technology and reveals several interesting insights.
Social networks are dangerous for children. Yet forbiding access is dellusive at best, counter productive at worst.
Monster Messenger is here to help parents get out of this dilemna. By providing children a safe access to social features under the control of their parents, Monster Messenger offers parents an elegant, pleasurable and effective solution.


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A Valpo Life in the Spotlight: Luke Savage
By: Andrea Marvel Last Updated: April 24, 2019
Luke Savage might be "the short kid who got good," but there's more to his story than his love for basketball – and his search for a college team.
Luke was born in a small town in Ethiopia. He and his older brother Ben grew up like normal kids: they went to school, they played soccer, and just did kid stuff.
But Luke's eyes were opened when he was adopted by the Savage family here in Valpo – and for the first time in his five years, he saw snow.
"Where I grew up the houses were all right next to each other and we had dirt roads," Luke said. "It was a huge change coming here. There was perfect green grass everywhere, nice homes, and so much space to run around and play."
The Savage home had a basketball hoop in the front yard, and their neighborhood was full of kids who liked to shoot. Even though he was shorter and younger than a lot of his friendly opponents, he used all his free time to practice and get good.
Luke still plays soccer for fun; he does that with a lot of sports. Basketball has his heart now, and he's searching for a college that will help him get an education in criminal justice.
"Basketball's an outlet for education so my parents and I don't have to be in debt when I graduate," he said.
Luke's interest in Criminal Justice was inspired by some friends who are police officers.
"They're really great, and I'm inspired by their service," Luke said. "I'm the type to make a sacrifice to protect others, so criminal justice sounds perfect for me."
A junior at Victory Christian Academy in Valpo, Luke took a criminal investigations & justice class that inspired him to research the field. The class grabbed his attention, and his independent studies have taught him a lot about the history of policing and criminal justice.
Although basketball and studies keep Luke plenty busy, he enjoys spending time with his friends and family whenever his schedule allows.
"I like to hang out with my buddies," Luke said. "We go to the movies, go bowling, or head to the beach and run the dunes."
He also enjoys family game night; his favorite board game is Tripoley.
Although his brother Ben is away at school, running cross country and track at IUPUI, Luke credits Ben for his own trajectory.
"My story is a lot like Ben's," Luke said. "He's the most important person to me because he's always been with me. Now he's running in college and he's achieved a lot stuff, too."
Luke said he and Ben prayed for a family, and God delivered with the Savages. They've worked hard to carve Luke's path along the lines of Christ's will.
"They've taught us both so much about God," Luke said. "I believe in Christ as my savior, follow him every day, and try to do the things he would do.
"Being adopted gives a completely new perspective on life, and I would definitely consider it for myself at some point," Luke said. "It really is life-changing. I always think, if I hadn't been adopted, I wouldn't know half of anything I know now. Coming here, I know that much more about the world. I have greater opportunities. I see things in a big picture."
As Luke's picture gets bigger, he looks forward to finding the college that fits his curiosity, work ethic and drive. Watch his story here https://youtu.be/jhGMY_oYnBw to learn more about how you can help RecruitLuke.com

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: Assigning a variable based on a formula in VBA Excel I'm trying to do a simple a macro that runs a formula and displays it in a msgbox. Right now I have:
Sub basic_messagebox()
    Dim CAT1 As Integer
    MsgBox "The total number of possible Cat I: " & CAT1
End Sub

What I don't have is a value set for CAT1. Basically I need it to run the formula =COUNTIF(F2:F1000,"x") and set it as the variable CAT1.
I've been googling all over but most of what I'm finding is just people trying to use macros to set formulas in cells, which is the opposite of what I need.
What do I need to add to my little msgbox formula to set the above formula as the variable CAT1?

A: How about:
Sub basic_messagebox()
    Dim CAT1 As Integer
    CAT1 = [COUNTIF(F2:F1000,"x")]
    MsgBox "The total number of possible Cat I: " & CAT1
End Sub

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Maxates glaucaria is a moth in the  family Geometridae. It is found in Taiwan.

References

Moths described in 1866
Hemitheini

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


387 Peterbilt Schematics - Welcome, thank you for visiting this simple website, we are trying to improve this website, the website is in the development stage, support from you in any form really helps us, we really appreciate that. We will share this website for you articles and images of wiring diagrams, engine schemes, engine problems, engine diagrams, transmission diagrams, replacement parts, fuses, electrical diagrams, repair manuals, wiring harnesses, fuse boxes, vacuum diagrams, timing belts, timing chains, brakes diagrams, etc. in full, but still support us to improve this website.
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Over the years, there have been many instances when I was asked what I do for a living. After the initial shock when I say I am a lifelong Jewish educator, the reaction has been a shake of the head and the usual response, "I guess you couldn't get a real job!" I often think I was born to try to make Jewish learning better for children. The truth is, I love what I do. What I do is what I am. I am an R.J.E.; a Reform Jewish Educator. There are many reasons why a person like me becomes a Jewish educator. Most usually have to do with finding a purpose that brings passion and purpose to their life.
One of our beloved long time teachers, Cecile Gruer, reluctantly had to retire mid-year. Most don't realize that Cecile was a child during the Holocaust. Along with her family, Cecile survived brutal winters in Siberia. Because she is a Survivor, Cecile committed her life to teaching Jewish children to love Hebrew and being Jewish. In dedicating herself to this purpose, she helped ensure the survival of the Jewish people. Cecile needed to teach. I believe she lived to teach! She became energized every time she walked through her classroom door. Her students thrived under her nurturing instruction. We will always be grateful for her many years as a master Hebrew teacher. Although she will be missed her students will always remember her Hebrew lessons as they read from the prayer book.
The right teachers can make all the difference in how a child views Judaism. Our teachers share their passion and love for Jewish learning with our students. Their being at Temple Beth El is the greatest gift they could give us.


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P T. 2011;36(9):
Health Literacy in the Pharmacy
Practical Strategies to Improve Communication With Patients
Adam Carlisle MD
Kara L. Jacobson MPH
Lorenzo Di Francesco MD
Ruth M. Parker MD
Poor health literacy, also known as low health literacy, is extremely prevalent and a major cause of the inability of patients to take medications properly. Health literacy is determined, in part, by the complexity of the health care delivery system—and the pharmacy serves as a critical component of that system, as it remains the last patient–provider interaction before patients begin taking their prescribed medications at home. This article provides an overview and a brief summary of how health literacy can be addressed at the pharmacy on both the individual and the system-wide level. Individual pharmacists can work to improve their patient–provider communication, and pharmacies should work to create a patient-centered system of medication delivery in order to increase both efficacy and safety.
WHAT IS HEALTH LITERACY?
According to the Institute of Medicine and the National Library of Medicine, health literacy is "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions."1,2 Components of health literacy include patients' ability to obtain health information and services, to process and understand health information, and to make appropriate decisions about their health care.3
Culture and society, education, and the way in which the health care system interacts with patients are all determinants of health literacy.3 Of vital importance to health care providers, health literacy is determined not only by the skills that patients possess but also by the complexity of the health care system and its demands on individuals (Figure 1).4 In this context, the pharmacy serves as a crucial part of this system.5,6 The pharmacy remains as the last face-to-face opportunity for patients to learn how to take a medication safely and effectively.
WHY IS HEALTH LITERACY IMPORTANT?
The problem of limited health literacy is well established.7–9 Poor health literacy is a "stronger predictor of a person's health than age, income, employment status, education level, and race. Groups with the highest prevalence of chronic disease and the greatest need for health care have the least ability to read and comprehend the information needed to function as patients."10 Limited health literacy is also associated with a large number of adverse health outcomes.11–17
Healthy People 2010, a government report, was published in 2000; it provided objectives to improve the health of all Americans and included improved health literacy as Objective 11–2.18Healthy People 2020, published in 2010, also includes specific national goals for health literacy.19
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which became the law mandating health care reform, also mentions health literacy, specifically the goal of improving prescription drug labels to enhance patients' ability to understand and to safely and effectively take medications.20 The Joint Commission has focused greater attention on health communication and has developed guidelines to enhance the readability of patient materials.21
HOW IS HEALTH LITERACY RELEVANT TO THE PHARMACY?
Understanding how to correctly take a prescribed medication is an issue at the intersection of health literacy and patient safety. Numerous studies over the previous 20 years have shown that many adults have difficulty understanding common instructions on how to take their medications.21–25 In one study, 46% of 395 patients misinterpreted at least one instruction on prescription drug labels.25 Patients who are identified as having lower health literacy are at greater risk of misunderstanding medication instructions.26
Two principal reasons for this confusion are the unnecessary complexity and the great variability of the wording on the labels.27,28 Physicians are neither uniform nor consistent in how they write dosing instructions.29 Different pharmacies might also translate physician prescriptions in different ways.30 Two reports by the Institute of Medicine—Preventing Medication Errors in 2006 and Standardizing Medication Labels in 2008—mentioned the inadequate quality and the variability of drug labels to be a root cause of a great proportion of adverse drug events (AEs) and medication errors.1,23
As early as the 1970s, pharmacists have led programs in teaching patients about how to properly take medications.31 However, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) raises the concern that according to its National Hospital Pharmacy surveys, very few patients receive medication education from pharmacists, and even fewer pharmacists inform all of their patients how to take their medications.32 Only a small number of studies have examined the role of the pharmacist in patient communication and education even though pharmacists are often viewed by patients as the most valuable33 or second-most reliable source of information about their medication.34–36
Despite the barriers to clinical implementation, pharmacist counseling has been shown to improve patient knowledge, adherence, and correct use of medication.37 Patient–pharmacist counseling also leads to greater patient satisfaction with the pharmacist consultation.38
How Can We Improve the Pharmacy?
First, it is essential that we acknowledge the prevalence and implications of limited health literacy. Low health literacy can be predicted to be present, to a greater or lesser extent, in any given population,7,8 yet it is impossible to identify individuals with low health literacy as they walk through the pharmacy door. Second, we must understand the relationship between health literacy and errors in taking medications. With this in mind, patients should be screened for health literacy in the pharmacy; in addition, universal systematic measures should be instituted so that all patients leave the pharmacy knowing how to take their medications correctly.39
There are opportunities for improvement in the pharmacy on the individual pharmacist level as well as in the larger system. Changes on both fronts can facilitate a patient-centered system of medication education that is understandable, accessible, standardized, and easily navigable. Patients receive medication information from a multitude of fragmented and constantly changing sources.1 A successful system should make these sources complement, not oppose, each other, with the goal of reinforcing reliable and easy-to-understand content about the safe and effective use of medications.
The model represented in Figure 2 illustrates the role of the pharmacy in minimizing the demands and complexities in order to improve health literacy and health outcomes. In this article, we discuss two types of interventions specific to the pharmacy: face-to-face counseling and standardized labels.
Pharmacist Improvements
Individual pharmacists can improve their patients' health literacy by implementing a three-step process, developed by Jacobson and colleagues:39
assessing the pharmacy for health literacy–friendliness
training the pharmacy staff in clear communication
introducing interventions to facilitate medication adherence, such as pill cards (Figure 3) and telephone reminder systems
A pharmacy health literacy assessment is an important first step for quality improvement in organizations that serve individuals with limited health literacy.5 A pharmacy assessment:
raises pharmacy staff awareness of health literacy
detects barriers that may prevent individuals with limited literacy skills from accessing, comprehending, and taking advantage of the health information and services provided by the organization
identifies opportunities for improvement
To evaluate the health literacy–friendliness of a pharmacy, it may be helpful to access the pharmacy assessment tool on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Web site. Assessment consists of conducting a tour of the pharmacy using the Web site's auditing tools and techniques, carrying out a survey of the staff to identify barriers and best practices, and convening patient focus groups to help provide an opportunity for patients to voice their concerns in the process. If time and resources are limited, the pharmacy staff should do as much of an assessment as feasible, with the goal of making the practice setting more health literacy–friendly.
The Web site for the AHRQ's Pharmacy Health Literacy Center is www.ahrq.gov/pharmhealthlit/ (Is Our Pharmacy Meeting Patients' Needs? A Pharmacy Health Literacy Assessment Tool User's Guide).
The pharmacist is often the patient's last opportunity for verbal and printed instructions on how to take medications properly. This role is particularly important, because patients with low health literacy often comprehend more when directions are explained verbally.40 Despite the prevalence of patients with poor health literacy,21–25 as well as the data linking health literacy to adherence41 and outcomes,12–17 few pharmacies have attempted to assist patients with limited health literacy skills.42 Pharmacists can improve patients' ability to take medications properly by learning how to communicate more effectively (Table 1).
Speaking slowly and remembering not to use medical jargon is important, but many providers tend to change their conversational tone. Doctors have a tendency to speak in a louder voice, as if addressing a child; this can be perceived as insulting to some patients and should be avoided, because low health literacy can be associated with a palpable stigma.43 This change in tone can have detrimental effects; it can offend patients or, more often, may cause them to feign a false understanding, thus contributing to further misunderstanding.
Next, pharmacists should specifically ask patients for any questions they might have about their prescriptions. "What questions do you have?" is more effective phrasing than "Do you have any questions?"
Pharmacists should keep their message simple and should focus on what is pertinent for the patient to know in order to take the drug correctly.
Finally, using the "teach-back" method is crucially important. In one study, patients were much more likely to take their medications correctly if they could show a health care provider which tablets they would take instead of simply repeating instructions that the provider spoke moments before.39 Effective teach-back comprises a four-step process (Figure 4:44)
Clinicians should place the burden of communication and understanding back on their own shoulders. For example, "I have covered a lot of information about high cholesterol today, and I want to make sure I did a good job of explaining this."
The session should be focused on a specific behavior. For example, "Can you tell me when and how you will take this medicine?"
The patient should be corrected as needed.
Reassessment serves as a quality control and is the only way to determine whether the patient understands the information; this is the most important and most often overlooked step. If the patient does not understand, the facts should be explained again in a different manner. Clinicians should continue to explain until both they and the patient agree that the information has been understood.
Instructions regarding how patients should take their medications are vitally important. Patients' recall and understanding of these messages are predictive of medication adherence, which leads to increased medication safety and efficacy.41
Developing Interventions
In addition to the strategies designed to improve oral communication, the use of patient education tools, such as pill cards and automated prescription reminder telephone calls, can be helpful for some patients with low health literacy.
A pill card (see Figure 3, page 578) is a simple, direct, and effective way to show patients which medications they should take and when.45 Step-by-step instructions for how to make pill cards, including the format and suggested graphics, can be found at the AHRQ's Web site (www.ahrq.gov/pharmhealthlit/.29 An automated telephone reminder system calls patients to remind them to refill their prescriptions and allows patients to order their refills by phone.
The successful patient-centered pharmacy should address awareness of limited heath literacy; detect barriers that prevent patients from assessing, comprehending and using health information correctly; and identify opportunities for improvement.39 More information to aid pharmacies in assessing and meeting these goals can be found at the AHRQ Web site. The main goal is to ensure that all patients who leave the pharmacy understand how to take their medications. Actively educating patients with a pill card makes it easier for the pharmacist conducting the counseling.46
Systematic Pharmacy Improvements
System changes can take place on many levels. One communication method of particular importance involves prescription medication labels, which represent the very last line of instruction that either enables patients to take their medications properly or causes further confusion.47 Long after patients have left the hospital, doctor's office, or pharmacy and moments before patients actually self-administer a medication, they still have the prescription label to guide them as to how to take the drug safely and effectively.
Electronically generated prescriptions have also been shown to be both easier to understand and less likely to lead to patient errors than traditional handwritten prescriptions. If all pharmacy systems were standardized to use uniform electronic prescription entry, from physician to pharmacist to patient, a significant number of medication errors could be prevented. The system would also be able to ensure that patients with low health literacy would receive clearly phrased and easy-to-understand written instructions.29
Limited health literacy and complex medication labeling instructions can lead to errors not only in the quantity of medications taken but also in the frequency of dosing. In a study regarding parents' ability to give a medication to their children correctly, the type of measuring device included with the drug, the inscription on the device, and the instructions all played a large role in determining whether children received a correct dose.29 The percentage of parents who administered a drug accurately (within 20% of the recommended dose) was 30.5% when they used a cup with printed markings and 50.2% when the cup had etched markings. By contrast, more than 85% of the parents gave the correct dose with a dropper, a dosing spoon, or one of two different oral syringes.45 Both parents and their children would be well served if the markings on liquid measuring devices were standardized to a volume measurement that corresponded to that indicated on the label.48
In one study, patient-centered instructions were more likely to be understood than standardized labels.49 Specific changes to the label included translation of physicians' order-entry codes and instructions into simplified phrasing for lay-persons—the simplified language was most easily understood, as determined by survey results. For example, "take one pill by mouth once daily" became "take one pill at bedtime."
It is the responsibility of both pharmacies and pharmacists to be involved in advocating for a better system of medication labeling that is patient-centered and that offers information that is understandable, accessible, and easily implemented. Increased regulatory oversight could help to achieve this goal. Pharmacists should continue to be actively engaged in their key professional societies and to apply pressure to standardize and improve prescription drug labeling in an evidence-based and patient-centered manner. The U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) regularly promotes standards for improved medication labels, reflecting formats that utilize lessons of health literacy and offering content that is patient-centered.50–57 As these changes are more widely adopted, all pharmacies and pharmacists should work to implement prescription labels that correspond with the USP patient-centered medication guidelines.
Limited health literacy is quite prevalent in the U.S.7–9 Low health literacy has been shown to lead to both poor patient adherence41 and poor health outcomes.12–17 Health literacy is influenced by multiple factors, including the complexity of the health care delivery system.4 The pharmacy is a critical part of that system,5,6 but generally speaking, pharmacists have not been communicating in a sufficiently consumer-friendly manner to address patients' problems with comprehension. Forty-eight percent of patients misinterpret medication drug labels, and many take their medications improperly.21–25 We can help patients by training individual pharmacists and by implementing system-wide changes. There are many established educational mechanisms available to improve the way in which we communicate with patients on a daily basis.39
As health care providers, we can also change the way we write and interpret prescriptions, deliver information about pharmaceuticals, and compose prescription drug labels that have the potential to create a patient-centered system of care that will help patients take medications more safely and effectively. Pharmacists can and should play a critical role in advancing the health literacy of our nation.
Figures and Table
Health literacy framework. (From Parker RM.)
Enhancing health literacy and outcomes. (Modified from Parker RM.)
The pill card can be an excellent way to educate patients about their medications.
The "teach-back" method is a four-step process. Proper teach-back applied between a pharmacist and a patient leads to improved adherence. (From Ley P41 and from Schillinger D, et al. Arch Intern Med 2003;163(1):83–90.44 Copyright © 2003, American Medical Association. All rights reserved.)
Effective Verbal Communication
What Pharmacists Can Do Every Day
Speak slowly When slowing down the pace of your speech, omit "nice-to-know" information.
Focus on what the patient needs to know.
Do not use medical jargon Instead of saying "hyperlipidemia," say "high cholesterol. Cholesterol is how much fat you have in your blood."
Use an adult tone but simple, direct diction (i.e., "living-room" language) Instead of saying "Discontinue medication if associated with rapid fluctuations in blood pressure," say "If the bottom number of your blood pressure is less than 45, stop taking this medicine."
Solicit questions effectively and consistently Instead of saying "Do you have any questions?" say "What questions do you have?"
Limit the message to one to three main points Simple = effective
Use a "teach-back" method Be certain to assess the patient's understanding, such as saying, "Mr. Smith, can you show me how you would take this medication?"
Dr. Carlisle is a Resident in the Department of Internal Medicine at Barnes–Jewish Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, Mo. Ms. Jacobson is a Senior Research Associate in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. Dr. Di Francesco is Associate Professor of Medicine; Program Director, J. Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency Program; and Assistant Chief of Medicine, GMH, at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Parker is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Emory University.
Institute of Medicine. Standardizing Medication Labels: Confusing Patients Less, Workshop Summary Washington, D.C: National Academies Press. 2008;
Ratzan SC, Parker RM. Introduction. In: Selden CR, Zorn M, Ratzan SC, Parker RM. National Library of Medicine Current Bibliographies in Medicine: Health Literacy Pub No CBM 2000-1Bethesda, Md: National Institutes of Health. 2000;
Wolf MS, Parker RM, Ratzan SC. Literacy and public health. International Encyclopedia of Public Health Dublin, Ireland: Elsevier Press. 2008;98–104.
Hernandez LM. Measures of Health Literacy Workshop summaryWashington, D.C: Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. 2009;
Ellitt GR, Brien JE, Aslani P, Chen TF. Quality patient care and pharmacists' role in its continuity: A systematic review. Ann Pharmacother 2009;43:677–691.
Murray M. Continuity of health care and the pharmacist: Let's keep it simple. Ann Pharmacother 2009;43;(4):745–747.
Kutner M, Greenberg E, Jin Y, Paulsen C. The Health Literacy of America's Adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Washington, D.C: National Center for Education Statistics. 2006;
Sihota S, Lennard L. Health Literacy: Being Able to Make the Most of Health London, U.K.: National Consumer Council. 2004;
Yin HS, Johnson M, Mendelsohn AL, et al. The health literacy of parents in the United States: A nationally representative study. Pediatrics 2009;124;(Suppl 3):S289–S298.
Health literacy: Report on the Council of Scientific Affairs, Ad Hoc Committee on Health Literacy for the Council on Scientific Affairs, American Medical Association. JAMA 1999;281;(16):552–557.
Institute of Medicine. Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Science. 2004;
DeWalt DA, Berkman ND, Sheridan SL, et al. Literacy and health outcomes: A systematic review of the literature. J Gen Intern Med 2004;19:1228–1239.
Paasche-Orlow MK, Wolf MS. The causal pathways linking health literacy to health outcomes. Am J Health Behav 2007;31;(Suppl 1):S19–S26.
Rothman RL, Dewalt DA, Malone R, et al. Influence of patient literacy on the effectiveness of primary care-based diabetes disease management program. JAMA 2004;292:1711–1716.
Schillinger D, Bindman AB, Wang F, et al. Functional health literacy and the quality of physician–patient communication among diabetes patients. Patient Educ Couns 2004;52;(3):315–323.
Wils A. On Accelerating the Global Literacy Transition Cambridge Mass: Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government. 2002;
Schillinger D, Barton LR, Karter AJ, et al. Does literacy mediate the relationship between education and health outcomes? A study of a low-income population with diabetes. Public Health Rep 2006;121;(3):245–254.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health 2nd edI and II:Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. November 2000;
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Healthy People 2020 Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. November 2010;Available at: www.healthypeople.gov/2020
Parker R, Ratzan SC. Health literacy: A second decade of distinction for Americans. J Health Commun 2010;15;(Suppl 2):20–33.
What Did the Doctor Say? Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety Health Care at the Crossroads Reports seriesOakbrook Terrace, Ill.: Joint Commission. 2007;Available at: www.jointcommission.org. Accessed July 28, 2011
Institute of Medicine. To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System Washington, D.C: National Academies Press. 2000;
Budnitz DS, Layde PM. Outpatient drug safety: New steps in an old direction. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2007;16;(2):160–165.
Institute of Medicine. Preventing Medication Errors Washington, D.C: National Academies Press. 2006;
Wolf MS, Davis TC, Shrank W, et al. To err is human: Patient misinterpretations of prescription drug label instructions. Patient Educ Counsel 2007;67;(3):293–300.
Davis TC, Wolf MS, Bass PF, et al. Low literacy impairs comprehension of prescription drug warning labels. J Gen Intern Med 2006;21;(8):847–851.
Davis TC, Federman AD, BassPF3rdet al. Improving patient understanding of prescription drug label instruction. J Gen Intern Med 2009;24;(1):57–62.
Shrank WH, Agnew-Blais J, Choudhry NK, et al. The variability and quality of medication container labels. Arch Intern Med 2007;167;(16):1760–1765.
Bailey SC, Persell SD, Jacobson KL, et al. Comparison of handwritten and electronically generated prescription drug instructions. Ann Pharmacother 2009;43;(1):151–152.
Lokker N, Sanders L, Perrin EM, et al. Parental misinterpretations of over-the-counter pediatric cough and cold medication labels. Pediatrics 2009;123;(6):1464–1471.
Covington TR, Pfeiffer FG. The pharmacist-acquired medication history. Am J Hosp Pharm 1972;29:692–695.
Schneider PJ. Opportunities for pharmacy. Am J Health Syst Pharm 2007;64;(14 Suppl 9):S10–S16.quiz, S24–26
Worsely A. Perceived reliability of sources of health information. Health Educ Res 1989;4:367–376.
Culbertson VL, Arthur TG, Rhodes PJ, Rhodes RS. Consumer preferences for verbal and written medication information. Drug Intell Clin Pharm 1988;22;(5):390–396.
O'Neil CK, Poirer TI. Impact of patient knowledge, patient–pharmacist relationship, and drug perceptions on adverse drug therapy outcomes. Pharmacotherapy 1998;18;(2):333–340.
Smith DH, Cunningham KG, Hale WE. Communication about medicines: Perceptions of the ambulatory elderly. Pharmacotherapy 1994;6:281–295.
De Young M. Research on the effects of pharmacist–patient communication in institutions and ambulatory care sites, 1969–1994. Am J Health Syst Pharm 1996;53;(11):1277–1291.
Schommer JC, Wiederholt JB. Pharmacists' views of patient counseling. Am Pharm 1994;NS34;(7):46–53.
Jacobson K. Strategies to Improve Communication Between Pharmacy Staff and Patients: A Training Program for Pharmacy Staff Rockville, Md: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 2008;Available at: www.ahrq.gov/qual/pharmlit/pharmtrain.htm. Accessed July 29, 2011
Shrank WH, Avorn J. Educating patients about their medications: The potential and limitations of written drug information. Health Aff 2007;26;(3):731–740.
Ley P. Communicating With Patients: Improving Communication, Satisfaction, and ComplianceNew York: Croom Helm. 1988;
Praska JL, Kripalani S, Seright AL, Jacobson TA. Identifying and assisting low-literacy patients with medication use: A survey of community pharmacies. Ann Pharmacother 2005;39;(9):1441–1445.
Wolf MS, Williams MV, Parker RM, et al. Patients' shame and attitudes toward discussing the results of literacy screening. J Health Commun 2007;12;(8):721–732.
Schillinger D, Piette J, Grumbach K, et al. Closing the loop: Physician communication with diabetic patients who have low health literacy. Arch Intern Med 2003;163;(1):83–90.
Schnipper JL, Roumie CL, Cawthon C, the PILL–CVD Study Group. Rationale and design of the Pharmacist Intervention for Low Literacy in Cardiovascular Disease (PILL–CVD) study. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes 2010;3;(2):212–219.
Blake SC, McMorris K, Jacobson KL, et al. A qualitative evaluation of a health literacy intervention to improve medication adherence for underserved pharmacy patients. J Health Care Poor Underserved 2010;21;(2):559–567.
Wolf MS, Davis TC, Tilson HH, et al. Misunderstanding of prescription drug warning labels among patients with low literacy. Am J Health Syst Pharm 2006;63;(11):1048–1055.
Yin HS, Mendelsohn AL, Wolf MS, et al. Parents' medication administration errors: Role of dosing instruments and health literacy. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2010;164;(2):181–186.
Wolf MS, Davis TC, Curtis LM, et al. Effect of standardized, patient-centered label instructions to improve comprehension of prescription drug use. Med Care 2011;49;(1):96–100.
Parker RM, Wolf MS, Jacobson KL, Wood AJ. Risk of confusion in dosing Tamiflu oral suspension in children. N Engl J Med 2009;361;(19):1912–1913.
USP advisory panel recommends standardizing prescription container labeling to improve patient understanding of medication instructions. Pharm Online May 112010;Available at: www.pharmaceuticalonline.com/article.mvc/USP-Advisory-Panel-Recommends-Standardizing-0001. Accessed July 29, 2011
Standardizing prescription container labeling recommended to address poor health literacy. Med News Today May 122010;Available at: www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/188369.php. Accessed July 29, 2011
USP Advises New Labeling Rules. Drug Discov Dev May 102010;Available at: www.dddmag.com/news-USP-Advises-New-Labeling-Rules-51110.aspx. Accessed July 29, 2011
Panel Recommends Standardizing Prescription Container Labeling. Gen Eng Biotechnol News May 102010;Available at: www.genengnews.com/industry-updates/panel-recommends-standardizing-prescription-container-labeling/82673615. Accessed July 29, 2011
USP advisory panel recommends standardizing Rx drug container labeling to improve patient understanding, May 11, 2011. Available at: www.thepharmaletter.com. Accessed July 29, 2011
USP advisory panel recommends prescription container labeling to improve patient understanding of medication instructions. BioMed Rep May 102010;Available at: www.biomedreports.com. Accessed July 29, 2011
USP advisory panel recommends standardizing prescription container labeling. PharmPro May 112010;Available at: www.pharmpro.com. Accessed July 29, 2011
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Myrmecozela imeretica är en fjärilsart som beskrevs av Aleksei Konstantinovich Zagulajev 1972. Myrmecozela imeretica ingår i släktet Myrmecozela och familjen äkta malar. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

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Äkta malar
imeretica


Many owners will jump at the opportunity to file a lawsuit following the discovery of a latent construction defect. In order to curb time-consuming and costly lawsuits from litigious homeowners, some states have enacted "right to repair" laws to allow contractors the opportunity to address these alleged defects before they are brought up in court. While this may seem like a straight-forward idea, it is not a cure-all to Colorado's construction woes. In this two-part series, a Colorado Springs construction attorney with Cotney Construction Law will be discussing the various aspects of the right to repair laws in Colorado.
The right to repair or right to cure laws stipulate that a construction professional has a certain amount of time to fix a problem or defect before an owner can take legal action. In Colorado, an owner filing a claim that alleges faulty construction must go through the Notice of Claim process.
The Notice of Claim process requires that each construction professional whose work pertains to the defect, whether it's a contractor or architect, must be given notice before a lawsuit is filed. This notice or letter must be given 75 days before filing a claim; however, 90 days is required for claims on commercial properties. This letter must provide an account of the claim and damages so that construction professionals can adequately respond with an offer of repair or settlement. If you've received notice of a construction defect, you can protect your rights by hiring an experienced Colorado Springs construction lawyer.
Access to the property for inspection must be given to the contractor within 30 days of the above notice. Construction professionals doing an inspection should take detailed notes on all needed repairs. The construction professional will then have 30 days for residential properties or 45 days for commercial properties to offer either a settlement amount or a plan to repair the defect. Unless the contract requires mediation, the owner will have 15 days to accept or reject an offer once it's received. Then, they can move forward with litigation.
The above laws in no way guarantee that a construction firm will avoid a lawsuit. This is why it is imperative that you partner with a knowledgeable and aggressive Colorado Springs construction attorney to ensure that your rights are protected and that claims are handled swiftly and painlessly.
For more information on how Colorado has been affected by right to repair laws, please read part two.
If you would like to speak with a Colorado Springs construction lawyer, please contact us today.


More than likely you will get more than one estimate. Do not ever spend for a price quote. Most roof business will supply you with a complimentary price quote. As soon as you get two or three price quotes you might see a big distinction in price. Your choice should be made more on quality than the cheapest rate.
A louver is a slatted part of the gable, and it can be opened and closed to permit ventilation inside the roof, while the eaves make up the lower edges of a roofing system. They are built to hang beyond the edge of the roof, extending above the structure of your house itself. The rafters offer additional assistance for the home structure, working as surfaces to which the sheathing is connected. Last however not the least, commercial roofing companies Parramatta Bankstown (This Internet page) NJ has specify the horizontal line that forms the leading surface the roof as the ridge.
Recently, insurance provider want to run a credit look at you, and credit issuing business wish to run a credit check on you, and for this they require your Social Security number. Federal law restricts credit grantors from denying you credit without informing you the reason - if you ask. So make sure to ask, and constantly shred any document with your personal details like name and/or Social Security number prior to tossing it in the trash. It is up to you to take as many preventative measures to secure your number as you can.
There is only one type of business that pays higher insurance rates than roofing contractors which is coal mining. What this indicates is that if you are searching for a hazardous kind of work that you're odds of getting injured doing are high, then welcome to roofing. Likewise being that you're unskilled your odds are even higher.
Comprehend your roofing system's products. Know what local roofers kind ofproduct your roofing system is made from, and how toavoidharming it. Terracotta and slate, for example, are veryfragile and can shatter or break under your weight. This positionsa threat to both your roofing and to yourself. Wood, composite and metal roofs can much betterhold up against being strolled on.
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A Class-A kind of roofing covering can stand up to the flame of a burning brand 12 inches long and wide, or a 144 inches location. A Class-B rooftop can delay the fire stemming from a brand around 6 inches on both edges, or 36 square inches in location. A Class-C roof can withstand versus a burning brand name two inches on either side, or a 4 square inches area.
The sort of roof you have in your home figures out how safe and protected you are. If you did not know, you must likewise realize that the roofing of your home plays a big role in identifying its worth and general appeal.


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How Brands Can Support Mental Health — Both In and Out of the Workplace
By Sarah Fogel
Mental health is one of the most important, yet overlooked, topics that organizations and brands should address. And yet due to stigma, lack of understanding and other factors, championing mental health and advocating for solutions presents its challenges. However, employees and consumers are increasingly looking to businesses to help address societal issues, including mental health. In fact, 83% of respondents in a recent June 2022 Weber Shandwick/KRC Research poll said it is important for companies to prioritize mental health and wellness of employees.
So, how exactly can brands do their part? This article explores the context of our mental health crisis, including some bright spots in our fight for greater support and ways in which businesses and brands can get involved.
The pandemic exacerbated the mental health crisis
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression has increased by 25%. Suicidal ideation also increased significantly in adults across the U.S. and 37% of U.S. high school students reported regular mental health struggles, with higher rates of sadness and hopelessness found in LGBTQ+ and female students. The crisis became so severe during the pandemic that the U.S. Surgeon General and several accredited psychology organizations declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health.
But even before the pandemic, people in the U.S. faced significant mental health challenges. In fact, between 2009–2019, more than 1 in 3 high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness and in 2019, 50 million adults in the U.S. were experiencing a mental illness. To put it simply, we're exhausted.
It's not hard to see why. The number and scale of existential crises that consistently impact peoples' lives and drive news and conversation is overwhelming. From global health tragedies to extreme social isolation, altered home, school and work routines, human rights violations against community groups, the urgency of climate change, ongoing wars across the globe and growing political polarization, social inequities and misinformation — there is more than enough to cope with today.
Introducing 988
One positive development from an increased spotlight on this crisis is the new collaborations across governments, NGOs, companies and brands. Organizations are working together to provide broader access to support, target injustices and defeat stigma.
Most recently, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in the U.S. changed its number from 1–800–273–9255 to 988 in an effort to make it easier for people to remember the number and access mental health services when in crisis. The introduction of 988 was a huge moment of celebration for mental health advocates. With proper funding and additional infrastructures, the potential power of this number to support more people and truly save lives is endless.
And while 988 is certainly not perfect, its development presents an opportunity to create an even better system of care — one that prioritizes equity, especially among BIPOC communities. Despite the fact that mental illness is not a crime, police officers are most often the first responders to 911 calls related to behavioral health crises in the U.S. And even when officers have adequate training in this area, the mere presence of a uniformed officer can exacerbate feelings of distress for those experiencing behavioral health issues, especially those from marginalized communities. Since 2015, nearly a quarter of all people killed by police officers in America have had a known mental illness.
The passage of 988 is clear progress — but there is still more we can collectively do to defeat stigma, provide effective and efficient access to resources across marginalized communities and ultimately resolve the mental health crisis.
Three ways companies can get involved
Governments and nonprofits play a clear role in changing the landscape of the mental health crisis given their current involvement in a variety of communities. But brands and corporations have a valuable role to play in resolving this crisis, too. And more importantly, they can — and should — act now.
Start internally with employee resources.
Brands that support consumer-facing mental health campaigns should first begin by providing their own employees with the resources needed to thrive. Some actions include creating employee resource groups, providing healthcare-funded therapy and meditation, instituting flexible work schedules and providing a livable wage for employees. Brands can also consider instituting a Corporate Wellness Program Manager to provide oversight on all things mental health and ensure that employees have ample resources to maintain support and connection.
Avoid purpose-washing and provide genuine support.
Consumers are paying increased attention to social impact-related steps taken by companies — they want to see and be consumers of brands that are deeply involved in supporting their communities. But some brands have been known to purpose-wash campaigns and consumers are growing wary of that. Businesses should not support mental health because it's "trending." They should because it's critical to both employee and business overall health — and because it authentically aligns with a brand's mission and purpose commitments.
Partner to take action now.
As a brand, if you're looking to engage in the mental health conversation, consider collaborative opportunities. Here are a few examples to consider:
Provide funding for critical, cross-collaborative services. For example, multiple nonprofits are working together to train counselors for 988 and the U.S. government is working to increase funding. For 988 to work successfully, there must be enough trained counselors to provide support. Brands can make a critical difference here.
Use your consumer behavior expertise and launch a creative awareness campaign. Mental health is one of the areas in which awareness campaigns prove highly impactful. Because stigma is one of the largest barriers to accessing mental health services, a creative PSA can be truly successful in changing hearts and minds. And to provide prolonged support on this issue, companies can pair this type of campaign with a purpose-driven investment in a mental health research institution.
Meet diverse communities where they are. When focusing on expanding access to treatment, creating holistic prevention programs or investing in social connection and specific communities, it is imperative to keep in mind where those communities will most effectively receive these kinds of communications. For example, if a brand is looking to support kids' mental health, they need to meet kids where they are — in schools. But if a brand is looking to support adult mental health, they might look to provide campaigns and resources in a work setting. Shaping bottom-up strategies guided by specific communities themselves is imperative to truly addressing their needs, challenges and expectations.
Brands are uniquely positioned to change the conversation around mental health. They have a strong pulse on consumer behavior and the right platforms to elevate the kinds of awareness campaigns that can and will make a difference. But more than this, by partnering with governments and NGOs, brands have an ability to fund the projects of those already doing the work. Governments, NGOs and nonprofits have expertise in meeting diverse communities where they are — and brand and corporate funding will only help to build capacity for these existing programs.
Efforts need to be streamlined, biases need to be addressed, stigma must be confronted and we need to create more effective, supportive crisis intervention services.
And there's no time like the present to start making an impact.
SARAH FOGEL
Senior Associate of Client Experience, Social Impact


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Have you ever started on a journey and somehow you never got where you planned to go? Well that happened this weekend to my husband and I.
We had not been to church in a long while. We have had a business for the past 6 years of running vacation rental homes 4 hours away from where we live. That requires us to travel a minimum of once and most often twice a month to Branson and do some work. While there we found a church we were going to, but as often happens if there is a really powerful pastor, he gets moved. So it was in October and we have not been back. While at home, it seemed we have guests every weekend and they don't go to church so while it sounds like it excuses…it is.
So this weekend we were going. We took off in plenty of time, but I had a new car and I don't know which of us decided but we wanted to use the navigation. That was a trip! We didn't have the address, but come on, I found out about 15 minutes later my husband had put it into his phone, address and route. But we were still trying to make the car nav work. Next you are supposed to be able to talk to it. That was hilarious. You can't just talk. You kind of have to say one thing, then press talk again and say the next. Eventually we had it in there. So with plenty of time to make a quick call to my daughter (because yes, we had overnight guests again at our house) I was on the phone when the car told us we had arrived at our destination….a golf course.
Well at least we were on the correct road. So we trucked on. The next thing we knew we were miles away from the church and about 20 minutes from our home. The service would start in less than 5 minutes and we were 14 minutes away. Forget it.
It occurred to me because I have always told the Lord I don't want to miss a thing, that perhaps there was a purpose in us getting lost so we would have to end up at this church. We had been there many times and it is very close to our home. I was happy. But I have to disclose I was not of the best behavior when I realized we were lost earlier. It was the typical scene of the Christian family going to church and fighting in the car and getting out and being all holy. :).
I used to love this church. When I was a member at a denominational church and on the staff, I would come to this one on Friday evenings just so I could get a taste of something that was unlike what I had grown up with.
But today as we walked in, the music was too loud. (I love loud music, this was too loud) It looked dark and they had the smoke and lights and the electric guitars whining and a very rough singer leading and it was just not what I was used to. After 45 minutes we had only sung two songs, had communion and taken an offering. I am not usually impatient in church. But I was looking at the clock. I knew at this rate it would be after 1pm when we got out and it started at 11:15. There was a time when I worshipped for six hours straight one Saturday each month….but truly I still could, this was just announcements and talking, not much worshipping.
I started wondering if I was wrong after all. God must not have directed us here today because this is not even very worshipful. Then it hit me. They had been praying and singing and talking about healing and testimonies. I told my husband this is my anniversary weekend of being healed of Multiple Sclerosis. It had taken place in this very building, the pastor was the pastor then, but I was there for a Joyce Meyer meeting not a church service.
So from where we were sitting I could see the place that I had stood when I had been healed. God had led us here today. Because the unfortunate truth is that I had forgotten that anniversary. When things are all better we can often get lax in our lives and I had.
It has been so long now that I can't say for sure if it was 22 or 23 years ago. What I do know is that I don't thank God enough for the blessing of my regained health. Many people with MS die young, have to live in wheelchairs, have slurred speech and many many other difficult symptoms. It doesn't just affect the person with the disease, it affects an entire family. If you have read my blog much you know that I get to enjoy my family skiing, horseback riding, hiking, bike riding and just simply being together. I get to hold my new grand baby. I am truly blessed. This past weekend I got to dance the night away at one of my son's weddings. These are precious gifts I have been given back.
Remembering and honoring God for what He has done for us is building an altar. Celebrating and worshipping Him is what He deserves. I am so very grateful that He disturbed my plans this past Sunday to take me on a journey back in time to revisit the place of my miracle and again be humbled of His love for me to care so much that He would draw me there and have people saying, singing and praying the word healing until I got it!
Yes, God answers our prayers. He also still does miracles today. I invite you to read my testimony, it is full of His amazing timing and what made me realize I don't ever want to miss the things He is doing. Do I Trust You Lord Part 1 and Do I Trust You Lord Part 2.
Normally I would just sign off, but I want to pray for you today.
PS. you know what else, I tried to write two other posts for tonite and I was stopped from publishing them both. Another example of a plan derailed…because God wanted someone to read this prayer and testimony. I look forward to hearing if it was you.
I agree that God works in mysterious ways. Part of the challenge is being open and looking for the "miracles" that are being presented. Visiting from TaDa Thursday party.
What an amazing testimony to God's loving plan.
It reminded me that as I toil being ever busier to breath and know that God has it well in hand.
That is a comforting comment Leanne.


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Q: wget stdout into a bash variable and special characters I'd like to use wget in a bash script.
I'd like to store the output of wget in a variable for further processing (in order not to make wget request each time I'd like to apply some formatting to the output).
Here's what I tried:
data=$(wget -qO- mysite.com)

The issue is: mysite.com's html contains special characters with respect to bash's interpreter. The output is therefore truncated somewhere.
How can I get out of this?
thanks

A: If you want to have this be a variable enclose the output in quotations:
data="$( wget -qO- mysite.com )"

To escape special characters you can use sed or printf to escape them
data="$( printf %q `wget -qO- mysite.com` )"

However it might be better practice to save the output to a file
 wget -qO- mysite.com > mysite.html

Then you can remove mysite.html when you don't need it.  This will help if you lose a connection to the site or don't want a http request for debugging purposes.


text:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.*;

/** @author Gergely Kota

OptionPanel allows the user to select a module and enter
information into textfields for it

*/

public abstract class OptionPanel extends JPanel implements ActionListener
{
	// need to have a list of existing classes
	// need to display textfield for each option ... how do??

	private Class superclass;
	private ClassSelector cs;
	private JButton go;
	private JPanel center;
	private Component inserted;
	private OptionTab owner;
	private final int BUFFER = 10;
	private final String LOCATION = BorderLayout.WEST;

	public OptionPanel(Class sc, OptionTab ot)
	{
		superclass = sc;
		owner = ot;
		setup();
	}

	public void setup()
	{
		invalidate();
		removeAll();
		setLayout(new BorderLayout());
		//setLayout(new GridLayout(1,2));
		center = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
		JButton help = new JButton(superclass.getName() + " Help");
		help.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
			public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
				help();
			}
		});
//		GUtil.buttonFix(help, Color.yellow, "help.png");
		JPanel bottom = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
		bottom.add(help, LOCATION);
		//center.add(bottom, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

		JPanel centerWrap = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
		centerWrap.add(center, BorderLayout.CENTER);
		centerWrap.add(GUtil.filler(BUFFER/2), BorderLayout.NORTH);
		centerWrap.add(GUtil.filler(BUFFER), BorderLayout.SOUTH);
		centerWrap.add(GUtil.filler(BUFFER), BorderLayout.EAST);
		centerWrap.add(GUtil.filler(BUFFER), BorderLayout.WEST);

		JPanel buf = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
		cs = new InheritanceList(superclass);
		buf.add(cs.toComponent(), BorderLayout.CENTER);
		buf.add(GUtil.filler(BUFFER), BorderLayout.WEST);
		buf.add(GUtil.filler(BUFFER), BorderLayout.EAST);

		// add two center chunks into this
//		JPanel lefter = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
//		lefter.add(buf, BorderLayout.NORTH);
//		lefter.add(centerWrap, BorderLayout.CENTER);
		add(buf, BorderLayout.NORTH);
		add(centerWrap, BorderLayout.CENTER);
//		add(lefter, BorderLayout.WEST);
		//JPanel south = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
		if(inserted != null)
			setCenter(inserted);
		validate();
		repaint();
	}

	public void setCenter(Component c)
	{
		center.add(inserted = c, LOCATION);
	}

	public void help()
	{
		HelpFrame.getTop().goTopic(superclass.getName()).show();
	}

	public void setClass(Class c)
	{
		cs.setClass(c);
	}

/*
	public boolean started(Progressable p)
	{
		invalidate();
		remove(info);
		ProgressBar pb = new ProgressBar(p);
		add(pb, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
		validate();
		revalidate();
		repaint();
		System.out.println("Finished repainting ... we think");
		return true;
	}
*/
	public OptionTab getOwner()
	{
		return owner;
	}

	public abstract Object result();
	public abstract Object result(Object o);

	public Class getSuperClass()
	{
		return superclass;
	}

	public Class getSelectedClass()
	{
		return cs.getSelectedClass();
	}

	public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae)
	{
//		info.setDescription(getSelectedClass());
	}

	public static void main(String[] aarhs)
	{
		JFrame jf = new JFrame();
		OptionPanel op;
		jf.getContentPane().add(op = new WebOptionPanel(new WebSearchOptionTab()));
		jf.pack();
		jf.show();

	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


"We've gathered some of the best video hands-on we can find online showing off the Galaxy S III in the flesh."
Unless you've been living under a rock you probably already know that Samsung unveiled their Galaxy S3 Android phone yesterday. It was a huge event in London with a gigantic screen up front that went across the entire stage, a live orchestra playing, and a huge area behind the stage were everyone at the event could go afterwards to try out this new phone. Some hardware of the phone include the 32nm Exynos 4 Quad CPU, 4.8" 720x1280 SAMOLED (pentile) display, RGB notification LED (any color like the Galaxy Nexus!), MicroSDHC slot, 32GB of built-in storage, 1GB of RAM. Some special features include S-Voice which is like Apple's Siri but it listens all the time instead of you doing something to invoke it on the device. It seems like it's smarter than Siri too but time will tell if it is and how useful it really is. Another interesting feature is called "Smart Stay". It will use the front facing camera to check if you're watching/reading the device and if you are it will not turn the display off. I think that's a brilliant idea. They are saying the Samsung Galaxy S3 will be available in Europe at the end of May. They didn't give a date for the US or Canada that I've seen.
Compared to other devices out there one thing that's clearly different is the Exynos 4 Quad CPU. It's the only Quad-core out there in the mobile device world other than the Tegra 3. Like the Tegra 3 it is uses an ARM Cortex A9 base instead of the newer and faster ARM Cortex A15 which the Snapdragon S4 uses. However, according to some early benchmarks at AnandTech the Samsung GS 3 is no slouch. Also, while the Exynos 4 Quad is larger than the 28nm of the Snapdragon S4 it's still significantly smaller than the 40nm die size of the Tegra 3. That should give it an advantage over the Tegra 3 in battery life. It's also nice that it as a respectable 2100mAH battery. I do wonder how its LTE battery life will compare to that of the Qualcomm LTE chipsets in the S4 devices - which apparently have much improved battery life over previous devices. One other thing I should mention, there have been rumors that the US version of the Galaxy S3 will use a Snapdragon S4 instead of teh Exynos 4 Quad.
What are your favorite features of the Samsung Galaxy S3? Will this be your next Android phone?
Update: The Samsung Galaxy S 3 will be available in the US in June.


At least two people were killed while another one was injured in a head-on collision between two covered vans on Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Mirsarai upazila early Wednesday.
Inspector Rabiul Azam Robin of Mirsarai Fire Service and Civil Defence said the accident took place around 3:30 am when two covered vans collided head-on, leaving two dead on the spot.
A man identified as Goutam was injured in the accident and taken to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.


text:
STATE BUDGET GIVES REPUBLICANS A CHANCE TO BE RELEVANT
By wallye • 04/10/06 1:41am
by David P. Rebovich It snowed in Trenton briefly last week, a rare event for the capital city in April. But inside the State House, in private homes, and at town meetings throughout New Jersey it was politics as usual for a budget season. Not surprisingly, Republican legislators were complaining loudly about various aspects of Jon Corzine's spending and revenue raising plan. What was surprising was that the minority party was getting some attention. In part, this was because key Democratic legislators were saying some of the same things as their GOP counterparts. Interest and advocacy groups were also making their appeals – some routine, some compelling – for restoring or increasing aid to their preferred programs. And, the new Governor saw his approval ratings decline. Corzine's honeymoon has apparently ended. So too have the confidence and consensus that marked the state's Democrats last fall and in the early days of the new Administration. These disappeared in intra-party conflict about what to do about the new state budget during these tough times. The question now is whether New Jersey's Republicans can take advantage of the Democrats' disunity and public discontent about Corzine's budget proposal. Yes, typically it is easy for the opposition party to criticize a governor's budget proposal. Someone always wants more program support, state aid, and tax cuts and less spending. But it is hard to make criticisms stick. To do that, it is first necessary to draw attention to the especially unpopular aspects of a budget, like a big tax hike or painful spending cuts, and pound these into the public's mind. Then specific complaints should be used to develop an argument that there is something fundamentally wrong with the governor's overall fiscal policy. Finally, to become genuinely relevant, the opposition party needs to present some credible alternatives. What are New Jersey's Republicans doing? After missing what looked like a good opportunity to make some gains in last November's elections, are GOP lawmakers done licking their wounds? Have they moved beyond the simplistic argument that didn't work in the fall campaigns, i.e., state government can keep taxes down and even reduce them by making big spending cuts. Or, have they figured out a way to make this point more convincingly? While it true that a majority of New Jerseyans do not support Corzine's proposed one point increase in the sales tax, folks here also do realize that the state does have big budget problems that cannot be easily solved. That being said, Republicans do have to harp on the proposed sales tax increase, and other revenue hikes in the proposed budget, as a first step in developing a case against the Governor's budget. Alex DeCroce, the even-tempered Assembly Minority Leader, announced last week that the GOP will ask citizens to sign a petition protesting Corzine's tax hike proposals. By itself, this petition may garner a headline or two but not have a big effect on public opinion. After all, Corzine's budget does not contain the kind of tax hikes that Jim Florio's did in 1990. Nor is this Governor considered the confrontational and condescending sort that Florio came across as in his first months in office. As such, a new version of Hands Across New Jersey, the anti-tax movement that helped do in the Democratic-controlled legislature and then Florio, is not likely to reemerge this year. But New Jersey's Republicans are doing quite a bit more than just complaining about the sales and other tax hikes that Corzine has recommended. They are updating their list of spending cuts, totaling a billion dollars, that they created last year. Interestingly, Democratic legislative leaders have said that they want to take a careful look at those suggestions. While the Governor has held some town meetings to try to explain his budget proposal to citizens throughout the state, Republican legislators have decided to hold some of their own. They will begin with events in GOP districts where, yes, they do expect to find sympathetic audiences. But holding your own gripe sessions, like conducting a petition drive, will only get the GOP so far. That's why the Republicans are taking three other tacks on the budget. They are calling for an evaluation of the current Abbott school districts with an eye toward removing from the list those districts whose tax bases have significantly improved. The funds freed up can presumably be used to provide additional aid to suburban districts that are not in good financial shape themselves. Many party faithful wonder why last fall Republican candidates, especially Doug Forrester, did not call for a constitutional amendment of the "thorough and efficient system of education" clause of the State Constitution. GOP leaders have still not reached the point where they want to make this argument. But they are now committed to tapping into growing public discontent about the fact that spending per pupil in Abbott districts exceeds that in many middle and working class suburban ones by $5,000 and more. Some Republicans aren't giving the suburbs a free ride either. The ranking Republican member of the Assembly Budget Committee, Joe Malone, is calling on smaller school districts and municipalities to consider regionalizing services or consolidating jurisdictions, ideas that are not popular in a state where residents identify strongly with their hometowns and enjoy having local control. Anthony Bucco, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, is taking the lead on another position. That is, Corzine's budget contains too many tax hikes and not enough spending cuts. Bucco notes that the Governor's proposal increases spending by $3 billion without providing New Jerseyans with any more property tax relief. Do these qualify as credible alternatives that will enable Republicans to regain relevance on the state's political scene? Well, the answer to this question seems to be yes and no. Yes, because their views are consistent with majority sentiment in the state, which means the Corzine Administration will feel obligated to answer the questions raised by Republicans in the budget approval process. But before anyone starts predicting a resurgence for the GOP, it is important to consider two things. One is that Democratic legislators agree with many of the points the Republicans are making. And, the Governor himself has already expressed concern about high spending in Abbott districts and wants some of them to have their state aid frozen like he has proposed for non-Abbott districts. Expect the Democrats to treat their Republican counterparts respectfully. But as members of the majority party, they are likely to take credit for any citizen-friendly changes in the final budget no matter who came up with the ideas first. In addition, Governor Corzine himself may try to take some pressure off by talking about two policy ideas that are more popular than his budget. One is his plan to restore ethical integrity to politics at all levels of state government. This means eradicating practices like pay to play, dual office-holding and pension padding. The other involves calling for a constitutional convention on property tax reform. The Governor has said that he wants to wait until he gets his first budget squared away before tackling this big problem. But given the public's mood and the Republicans' new found feistiness, Corzine may want to consider moving up his timetable on ethics and property tax reform or at least remind people of his commitment to these reforms. If not, the GOP may be able to make some noise and score some points on these issues, too. David P. Rebovich, Ph.D., is Managing Director of the Rider University Institute for New Jersey Politics (www.rider.edu/institute). He also writes a regular column, "On Politics," for NEW JERSEY LAWYER and monthly reports on New Jersey for CAMPAIGNS AND ELECTIONS Magazine, and is a member of CQPolitics.com's Board of Advisors that offers weekly commentary on national political developments.
Filed Under: New Jersey Politics, new jersey politics
SEE ALSO: The final 24 hours of Ginty's signature drive


A sea of Street Fighter 5 news came pouring in this morning.
Since the game's second beta phase concluded, some players have managed to datamine the PC version making a number of interesting discoveries. Text files were recently found that hinted at characters such as Alex and Urien with abbreviations like "ALX" found among other character files.
Today, a slew of audio clips were found by AceKombat over at Shoryuken that make these hints far more legitimate.
To avoid any further spoilers, we'll be listing the characters revealed after the jump. You'll also find the actual audio clips, information about online player rankings and alternate colors for the beta #2 characters.
Hit the jump to view everything.
In the audio files, we clearly hear the announcer say the following names: Balrog, Juri, Ibuki, Alex, Urien, Guile, and Fan. This falls perfectly in line with the text files found previously, and many are suspecting that "Fan" is the name of the final brand new character that we should be seeing by the end of the year, according to Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono.
Additionally, the audio clips list multiple large-scale fighting game events which are more than likely pointing to the tournaments set for next year's Capcom Pro Tour. We also hear player ranking titles such as "Rookie," "Master," "Warlord," "Hero," and many others.
Lastly, a gallery featuring 10 alternate colors for each of the beta #2 characters has also surfaced. These were allegedly discovered by datamining the PC version of the beta as well.
Source: Jaysen Ward and AnimoSFV. Sent in by bigbosss, Firemadeprime, Haseokonno, TheFragile, drxhunter, Dude130, venom44, TUXEDÒ-KiDD, Clearzova4950, AceKombat, ZombieBrian, enkil, and multiple anonymous readers.


The VIPP Report: Kentucky's own DB Bourbon Candy "Sweetens" the Presidential Inaugural Celebration in Washington, D.C. | Welcome to "The VIPP Report"
The VIPP Report: Kentucky's own DB Bourbon Candy "Sweetens" the Presidential Inaugural Celebration in Washington, D.C.
(Frankfort, KY) As the president-elect Donald Trump transitions his new team to move into the White House, there will be plenty of celebration surrounding the inaugural events in Washington, D.C. A piece of the "Bluegrass" will be a part of the celebration.
Kentucky's own DB Bourbon Candy, LLC will be a part of the Veterans Inaugural Ball, hosted by The American Legion which will be held on January 20, 2017, the evening of the inauguration. The ball will be held at the Renaissance Hotel. DB Bourbon Candy will provide delicious treats to some 900 guests including 40 Medal of Honor recipients who will be honored at the event.
DB Bourbon Candy has participated in some of the biggest events across the U.S. from three invites to the Academy Awards, Emmys, Breeder's Cup Taste of the World at Winstar, Chris Tucker Celebrity Golf Tournament, Barbara Streisand Fundraiser, Chris Everett Charity event, Soul Train Awards, Kentucky NFL Hall of Fame and many Kentucky Derby events like Barnstable-Brown Gala, Grand Gala and 100 Black Men of Louisville.
DB Bourbon Candy, LLC can be found in various locations throughout Kentucky in Liquor Barn and the Kroger Company. You can always visit their site at http://www.dbbourboncandy.com.
If you would like to be an advertiser, please contact us at thevippreport at vippcommunications dot com. You can follow us on Twitter @thevippreport or @vippcomm. To learn more about VIPP Communications, please visit http://www.vippcommunications.com.
This entry was posted in Business, Community Affairs, Education, National, Newsmakers, VIPP Communications Client and tagged bourbon, Bourbon Country, Chocolate, D.C., DB Bourbon Candy, Four Roses Distillery, Kentucky, Presidential Inauguration, Robyn Stuart, Team DB Bourbon, Veterans Inaugural Ball, Washington. Bookmark the permalink.