I've been thinking a lot about peace lately. There seems to be so little of it in the world, and it seems so easy to try to blame that on any number of obvious suspects.
Peace is something I think we all strive for, but it is something many of us (me included) struggle with.
My sense is that it is because of where we look. So often we're inclined to look to those things that we have control over. Perhaps it's something material. If I just owned this, or lived there, or had a better job – I would have peace. Perhaps it's our relationships with others. Loneliness and longing to be in a relationship or perhaps loneliness and longing because our existing relationships aren't living up to our expectations may affect our sense of peace.
I know that I also indulge in feelings of frustration when I allow things that I don't feel I have control over to affect my sense of peace. World peace seems threatened by an unnecessary war begun under false pretenses and perpetuated through fear of the consequences of failure. Religious fundamentalism both at home and abroad is upsetting. The senseless hysterical fear of both Christians and Muslims used to justify brutality and murder in the name of God is shocking. Self-importance, self-righteousness, bias, close mindedness, cynicism, deception, and manipulation are all deeply disturbing to me.
The problem is that all of our attempts to discuss and resolve these issues fail. We all seem to want peace, but we all want it under our own terms.
I think that we have to start by recognizing that our feeble efforts fail because they all come down to human attempts to pattern the divine. Peace is an attribute of God. Any human attempt to replace that quality with something of our own making (however noble) is doomed sooner or later to fall short and be unsatisfying.
Peace is found, as Job said, in seeking greater understanding of our Maker. It is a surrender of all of our merely material concerns and our need to control and pass judgment on the outcome. Jesus was trying to tell us the same thing when he said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27) His peace derived from His oneness with the Father. He encourages us to follow His example and seek Peace from the same source rather than the crude illusion the world offers. When we look to God, we find peace reflected in all of His creation. We get to replace hate with love, trouble with blessing, and fear with trust. Then we become the peacemakers of the Beatitudes and our reward is that we see peace everywhere.
Clearly we've got a lot of work to do, but that's as it should be since it is the work of a lifetime.
Last week I had a fairly frustrating and disturbing correspondence with someone regarding real threat posed by radical Islamists today. What was disturbing about the correspondence is that this person was so invested in their view that they refused to even consider that perhaps the facts about the potential loss of life don't support the current level of anxiety or spending.
Just to give you a little context, the conservative view espoused by this person is that our viability as a nation is at risk as a result of the jihad let by al-Qaeda. As a result, we should physically seal our borders with soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder if necessary, refuse entry to any Middle Eastern Muslim, and imprison those already in this country who oppose our government's policies. He feels strongly that these policies are necessary to keep his family safe and those (like me) who think this is both impractical and excessive are traitors who are putting themselves and the rest of the country in mortal danger.
You can write someone like this off as a part of the lunatic fringe, and he very well may be, but what was disturbing about the whole episode is his absolute refusal to engage in any sort of fact-based dialog. I'm willing to consider just about any point of view if you can bring the facts to back it up. If you can prove, for example, that the Laffer theory of cutting taxes to spur economic growth works, I'll have to reconsider my current view that it is just an excuse for the Republican party to pay off their rich patrons. On the other hand if I'm able to bring up facts that call your theories into question, like the fact that one of the longest most profitable economic expansions in our history occurred right after a period when taxes on the wealthy were increased, I expect you to offer me the same courtesy.
It's this active dialog that preserves the balance which drives our democratic process forward. It also forces people to form opinions based on research and discussion rather than rhetoric and ideology.
Unfortunately, there appears to be a distressing lack of constructive dialog in the country starting at the very top of our government and reaching through the media right down to individual citizens. It's the sense that people are unwilling to let facts stand in the way of a good opinion. That can only lead to more confrontation, frustration, and recrimination.
This isn't anything new. Even Jesus faced similar challenges in His healing ministry. His message of love and understanding healed every disease and overcame death. He could walk through the streets and people only had to briefly touch Him to be healed. But there were those whom even He couldn't reach. The pool at Bethesda was surrounded by hundreds who believed the moving water would heal them. Only one was open to the thought that Jesus might be a better choice. Those in His home town were going to kill Him rather than admit that this boy they knew growing up could be the Christ. I suppose the lesson for us is even after all of that He still loved them.
It may seem like stating the obvious, but perhaps the easiest and most effective way to win the war on terrorism is to stop being afraid.
I'll share some government facts and figures with you to give you an idea of why I say that.
Over the past five years 2,752 have died in the United States as a result of terrorist acts.
In 2005 (most recent available government figures) no one died in this country and 56 US citizens were killed in other countries as a result of terrorism. To put that in context, twice as many people died in the United States during the same period from wasp and bee stings. Your risk of being killed by a terrorist is about at the same as your risk of being hit by a meteor. More people drown in bathtubs in the United States every year than are killed worldwide by terrorists. The Homeland Security budget for this year, however, is $50B.
In comparison, since 9/11, traffic accidents have claimed the lives of over 200,000 people and the National Highway and Traffic Safety Budget is $815M.
2005 was one of the worst hurricane seasons on record with four storms causing $160B in damage and approx 2000 deaths. The budget for Hurricane relief and defense this year is $29B.
We don't seem to have any problem living in areas where hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods are virtually predictable.
We don't seem to have any problem dealing with the current risks associated with driving. Government standards are making cars and roads safer and the fatality rate is declining gradually as a result. If we were as frightened about automobile safety as we seem to be about terrorists, though, we could make our cars much safer. We could mandate ignition interlock devices that would virtually eliminate drunk driving. We could eliminate speeding by deploying the sort of automated monitoring equipment already used in Europe. We choose not to because we like the freedom associated with driving our cars.
But somehow when it comes to terrorism, we flinch, open our wallet, and give up our rights.
The only explanation I can come up with is that neither political party really wants the war on terror to end because both continue to perpetuate the myth that there is a significant risk. That reason may be reflected in the budget numbers and the obvious promise that money can buy security.
Money can't buy security any more that it can buy love. Fortunately, security like love is freely available to whoever sincerely seeks it from the only real source.
Ever wonder why al-Qaeda is so upset with us and why they resort to suicide tactics to get our attention. President Bush has said it is because they hate our freedom. That has always seemed stupid to me. So what if we are free. Why would that bother them? And why pick on us? If you are so upset about people who live in democracies, why not pick some smaller and easier to beat country like maybe Italy or the Pacific island of Niue?
As with a lot of things, if you just dig a little bit past the spin, it isn't very difficult to find out. Just before the presidential election of 2004, bin Laden himself said that he wasn't mad at the US people, he was fighting against our government's policies. He just wanted US forces out of Muslim countries.
He has at other times said that he wants to overthrow the autocratic dynasties of the Persian Gulf region, along with other secular and pro-Western regimes of the Middle East. Finally he has also been identified with the grand radical Islamic vision of re-establishing Muslim world dominance which certainly implies some sort of confrontation with the west.
That isn't to say that they don't understand the west. They understand us better than you may think. The reason they use terrorism is because they respect democracy. They trust that our government ultimately responds to the will of our people. I think that it is naive to assume that bin Laden would be satisfied if we left Iraq, or even the Middle East; but I'll leave a discussion of how to deal with bin Laden to another post. This post is more about understanding.
The reason some Muslim's blow themselves up is because they believe in martyrdom as a pious way to oppose an oppressive regime. Similar traditions of self sacrifice exist in many religions, though this admittedly includes blowing up other people too. Self-sacrifice as a concept is something that our culture celebrates when we agree with the cause. When we don't, we just don't get it. I'm sure the Romans were similarly perplexed when the early Christians refused to defend themselves as they were about to become kitty chow.
What fundamentalist Muslims are most disturbed about is a bit of cognitive dissonance that may be difficult for us to completely understand. Much like Biblical Jews and some fundamentalist Christians, they believe that God will bless the devout with economic and political success. When they look around, they don't see that success. In fact, they see very much the opposite. All of the success is in the west. Wealth and power appear to be concentrated in decadent countries where there are very few Muslims. Rather than evaluate how they may have limited themselves by excluding women, resisting modernization, and opposing education; they have blamed the west. They see a vast conspiracy to erode basic Muslim practices, corrupt Muslim values, and further weaken what otherwise should be the dominant religious and political movement in the world.
This might seem a wacky set of beliefs to some. But so is creationism, the claim that our founding fathers were all evangelical Christians, and the belief that ignorance and abstinence are effective forms of birth control.
There is also the claim that the suicide bombers are poor, uneducated, or mentally incompetent. There have been some of those, but the majority are young idealistic well educated men from middle class families. They want to make a difference in the world. They are encouraged by radical clerics to strike back in the only way that they feel can accurately convey both their anger and frustration. They blow themselves up in acts of political terrorism in the sincere hope that western democracies will wake up and take notice. What they fail to understand about western democracy is that we don't care about them. Rather than ask why, we are content to accept that they are crazy, so we had better shoot them before they multiply.
Some might say that it is soft-headed to try to understand people who are trying to kill us. I think that if you are going to call yourself a Christian, you can't do any less. Jesus didn't ever say this was going to be easy, but He did promise a reward for those who were willing to try.
One of my guilty pleasures is reading Jack Kelly's weekly column in the Blade. My wife Terry won't read it any more because it just upsets her. Jack is a conservative Republican and a military veteran still fighting the Viet Nam war. He seems to feel that there is a military solution to every problem. He also clearly has issues with anyone else who doesn't share his view.
The reason I raise Jack is because he is a spokesperson for the "win at all costs" Iraq strategy. Since we're seeing a lot of that sort of fear mongering in the public discourse defending the war in Iraq, I thought that I would look at some of these ideas in a little more detail and see where they lead.
The first fear is that if we lose in Iraq, those that we are fighting will get nuclear weapons and use them on us. It is probably not a coincidence that this is the same argument that was used to justify the invasion. I guess if it worked once, why not try it again? Hopefully we can all agree that there are no nuclear weapons in Iraq, nor are there even the basic pieces to make a nuclear weapon. The only country that we know has a nuclear weapon that is also unhappy with us is North Korea. We also suspect that Iran has a nuclear program, but they don't have a bomb yet. I'm assuming that the native Iraqi's really don't have any interest in using nuclear weapons to blow us up, they can do it now with IED's, and when we leave they will probably be too occupied blowing each other up to follow us. So it must be al-Qaeda that Jack is worried about. Somehow they would take over Iraq if we left and then use oil revenue to buy a bomb from North Korea. Even if they could take-over, the reality is they don't need oil revenue to buy a bomb. They could probably raise the money today if a nuclear bomb were for sale. Fortunately, these bombs aren't for sale and for good reason. If I sold you a bomb or any other WMD, what would prevent you from turning right around and threatening to use it on me to get your money back? In other words, this is a silly argument.
The second fear is connected to the first. If we "lose" in Iraq, al-Qaeda will quickly subdue the warring factions and gain control of Iraq's oil reserves. The whole reason that there are warring factions in Iraq is because of the oil money. It is highly unlikely that native Iraqi's armed to the teeth are going to suddenly roll over and let al-Qaeda take control when we leave. Iraq at its core is a tribal country and the al-Qaeda leaders are not part of the family. They could certainly gain more influence, but it is much more likely that Iran, Syria, and the Saudi's will have the greatest say in who has influence and power in Iraq when we leave. Each of them already has a dog in this fight and none of them are al-Qaeda.
We are left with an administration attempting to create support for a particular policy through baseless fear. This policy has killed over three thousand Americans, maimed another 23,000, and killed perhaps as many as 600,000 Iraqis. I don't know about you, but it looks a lot like terrorism tactics to me.
I have to apologize to you readers because every time I hear George Bush speak on the television, I feel like I'm being lied to and it bothers me. On the other hand, I love to hear Bill Clinton speak. I know that he has lied to the American people too, but for some reason it just didn't bother me as much as it does when George does it.
So I'm going to try to do my best to demonstrate a little charity but unfortunately, it is going to be laced with a health dose of conspiracy theory.
As I sit here trying to figure out why we are sending more troops to Iraq, the best that I can come up with is that Mr. Bush is delusional. Honestly, though, I can't bring myself to that conclusion. All that I'm left with is the conclusion that this is a deeply cynical political gambit to keep the Republicans in power. Perhaps from a solipsistic point of view, Republicans losing the white house might the worst thing for the country that Mr. Bush can imagine and it justifies the lives that he is putting at risk. That's really the best charitable explanation that I can come up with. The less charitable theory is that the Republicans like the power that a war president has and would be happy to have an extended sort of conflict as long as the casualty count is manageable.
So here's how that theory goes.
If the US pulls out of Iraq now, we'll save US lives but there is likely to be a very bloody civil war including the sort of ethic cleansing we've seen in other parts of the world when new political boundaries are being drawn. We could help mitigate some of that violence by helping to partition the country in a more peaceful way, but even that may not help. Any admission by the white house that our original goals are no longer attainable in Iraq will surely cost the Republicans the white house in 2008.
The only choice to preserve the white house for the Republicans is to make front-runner John McCain right. He has been an advocate of overwhelming force from the very beginning. If we are able to pour enough American troops into a small enough area like Baghdad, we may be able to change the nature of the fighting from open warfare to the sort of low boil conflict we see in Israel. With that sort of "progress", John McCain could squeak out a victory. We'll still be Iraq with no clear exit strategy, but the Republicans will have retained executive control and all the war powers that entails.
Don't be surprised to see Ms. Rice also moving closer to Mr. McCain in the near future. Why else would heavy-weight John Negroponte take a demotion to a deputy position at the state department? This is preparing the way for Rice to gracefully exit and hit the campaign trail.
I believe that if the Democratic ticket starts looking like Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, you'll see the Republicans respond with a ticket of John McCain and Condoleeza Rice. I wish I could claim credit for this idea, but I read it first in a John Hughes column in the Christian Science Monitor.
Whatever happens, I do pray for the protection of everyone in that region. An all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving God is speaking to us all including George. That message remains one of harmony, peace, and love. If we listen with humility and obedience, we might just learn something.
Those of you reading this that don't live in Michigan may not appreciate what a weird winter we are having.
Many of us who live here do so because we like all four seasons. Winter in particular is a favorite of mine. The cold is cleansing. The snow transforms the landscape into a beautiful sparking white canvas. Sunny days are crisp and clear with a special blue sky. Winter is leveling. It doesn't matter who you are, it is the same temperature for everyone.
The problem is that we haven't had any winter so far. I continue to play golf on the weekends even though the course closed a month ago. The ski resorts from here through southern Canada have no snow. Cherry trees in New York think it is spring and are starting to bloom. A 41 square mile ice sheet that jutted into the Arctic Ocean off Canada for the last 3000 years has broken loose. Weather forecasters are predicting that within the next decade there may be an open water passage through the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The sea ice there has already shrunk two million square kilometers. That's about the size of Alaska.
The vast majority of the world's credible scientists agree that the earth is warming. Whether or not you are willing to agree that human activity is the cause, from a policy point of view, we can't continue to ignore the topic. At this point, whether or not cyclical warming is involved, we are adding gases to the atmosphere that at least acerbate the problem if not actually cause it. Those gas emissions come from fossil fuels burned in power plants, automobiles, and factories. Those emissions are the only thing that we can control, and virtually every other nation emitting such gases has been willing to do so.
Unfortunately we have an administration in power that has rejected all attempts to curb emissions even though we are one of the primary sources. It certainly seems short sighted to suggest that we can't afford it when you look at the costs from rising sea levels alone. But this is the same administration that has run up record deficits through profligate spending and seems perfectly content to pass those along to our children. It is also the same administration which illegally weakened EPA rules through executive order. So simply stonewalling the global community on this issue for six years shouldn't seem so shocking.
As Christians, we should expect and demand more of our leaders. In addition to learning more about our Maker, we all have the responsibility while we are here to leave this place in better shape than when we found it. That commitment is a perfect demonstration of loving your neighbor as yourself. It is also being the faithful and wise steward that Jesus spoke of.
The beginning of a New Year is a natural time for reflection, planning, and perhaps new direction if things didn't work out so well last year. Unfortunately, we don't seem to see much of that going on in the White House.
The invasion and occupation of Iraq has now lasted longer the WWII and will quickly cost more American lives than were lost in the 9/11 attacks. The level of violence in Iraq is at an all time high and the economy and infrastructure there remains in a shambles.
Mr. Bush's answer to these problems is more of the same. The strategy that he appears to be considering is adding more troops. Here's the theory behind that strategy. If there are sufficient troops on the ground to quell the warring factions in any particular geography and then hold that area by leaving troops there, we can expand the parts of the country that are able to live in relative peace. The hope then is that those Iraqis who support moderation will be able to act on their beliefs without fear of reprisal. If the fighting factions can be squeezed down into smaller and smaller enclaves, the rest of the country can return to some state of normalcy and the Iraqi police can take over.
The problem is that it won't work.
The reason that it won't work is because the Iraqi government forces are unreliable. The tribal bonds that motivate the current fighting are much stronger than loyalty to the central government. Finally, if the US switches from "search and destroy" tactics to "secure and hold" tactics, the opposing fighters will also adapt their tactics to much smaller sniper and assassination engagements. The door to door fighting that will result will drive up US and civilian casualties and further weaken our position with the Iraqi population as well as here at home.
Perhaps Mr. Bush is motivated by pride, or maybe a genuine fear of the consequences of our failure. The reality, however, is that we have put ourselves in a position where this is not winnable under the current definition of victory. We have to change our expectations of what is possible and recognize that until the Iraqis sort out their own internal differences, there is precious little we can do to bring peace to that region.
The best that we can do is prevent Iraq's neighbors from taking advantage of the instability in Iraq and perhaps foster a transition so some federated state where the sectarian fighting can be contained and those areas that are currently peaceful can make some progress toward self-government.
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Gallup refinery honors local veterans
MPC's Gallup Refinery Leadership Team members volunteered their time at the Quilts of Valor veterans' program in Gallup, New Mexico. The program provides quilts to 10 service members each year. The MPC team served the refreshments, and thanked veterans in attendance by presenting each of them with an MPC Veteran's Challenge coin and baseball cap.
"I was truly struck by the beauty of these homemade quilts," shared Dave Pruner, environmental health and safety manager. "Being a veteran, it was emotional to experience these veterans, with their families in the audience, receive these spectacular offers of appreciation. The quilt maker spends many months custom making the quilt and then presents it in the ceremony by wrapping it around the veteran."
The grandfather-in-law of Sergio Zarate-Resendiz, building grounds support, was one of 10 who received a quilt. Sergio and his wife's family were at the event to watch the presentation.
"It felt great to see the refinery supporting our local veterans," shared Zarate-Resendiz. "I was proud to witness the ceremony that honored my family member and other veterans."
"I did not expect the level of impact that these quilts and the ceremony would have on the veterans and their families," emphasized Pruner. "To see the pride and appreciation on all of their faces was priceless. I cannot wait until next year."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Varun Sharma Speaks On His Struggles, Was Given Food In Paint Cans & Rotis Wrapped In Newspaper
Fukrey 3 To Show Coronavirus & Lockdown Situation With A Funny Twist, Reveals Director
Varun Sharma Opens Up On Nepotism, Quarantine & More In An Interesting Chat Session
Chhichhore Day 5 Collection: The Film Crossed Its 50 Crore Milestone In Just 4 Days
Chhichhore Honest Review: The Story About College Friendship Takes You Back To Old Times
Bollywood actor Varun Sharma has given some really good performances in his short career and it won't be wrong to say that with his superb acting, he has made few characters immortal such as Chucha from "Fukrey" series. However, Varun's journey has been full of ups and downs and the actor never had an idea that he would be able to make people laugh with his comedy skills.
Varun is basically from Jalandhar, Punjab, and he thought of becoming an actor after watching Shah Rukh Khan in the movie "Baazigar". Some time ago, Varun revealed how badly he was treated in the beginning of his career as once he was told that he was going to play the role of hero's friend but in reality, he was signed as a background artist.
This incident dates back to 2011-12, he was told to sign a contract of four lines which he signed as he had no knowledge at that time. Varun further added that he was sent for shooting by train but after reaching there, he found out that he was not hero's friend but a background artist. He added that main characters used to shoot while he used to walk behind them and he kept on doing it as he thought that he would get some experience.
Varun also told how he and others like him were given food in paint boxes, foil was fixed inside while the name of the brand was seen on the outer side. Varun told that in one paint box, there was daal, one had rice and one had vegetable while chapattis were given wrapped in newspaper.
Varun made his Bollywood debut in 2013 with the movie "Fukrey" which was a big hit and his character of Chucha in the film was loved and praised.
Varun will be seen next in "Roohi Afzana" which also stars Rajkummar Rao and Janhvi Kapoor.
Related Topics:Varun Sharma, Varun Sharma filmy career, Varun Sharma struggle, Varun Sharma struggling days
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Home Business Food Heartland Portadown producer announced as finalist in Belfast City Airport competition to win...
Food Heartland
Portadown producer announced as finalist in Belfast City Airport competition to win £30k marketing prize
Long Meadow's Blossom Burst Cider will be judged by top UK food critic Charles Campion at tasting session in competition to find NI's 'Best' product.
George Best Belfast City Airport has announced that a product from Portadown has been shortlisted as one of 10 finalists in a competition offering producers the chance to win £30,000 of marketing support and brand visibility at the airport.
Long Meadow Cider will present its Blossom Burst Cider at a tasting session on 16th May at Belfast City Airport to a panel of food and drink experts including one of the UK's most high-profile food critics, Charles Campion.
The competition, launched in partnership with Food NI and local councils in January to find the 'Best' local food and drink product, offers one producer the prize of £20,000 of branding on site at Belfast City Airport and £10,000 of online support through the airport's digital channels.
The tasting session follows on from a detailed application process and two-week social media competition.
Joanne Deighan, Commercial Manager at Belfast City Airport, food and beverage expert Charlie Kerlin, Director of Corporate Finance at Grant Thornton, and Michele Shirlow, CEO of Food NI, will also sit on the panel.
Joanne Deighan, Commercial Manager at Belfast City Airport, said:
"We were truly blown away by the standard of entries we received and would like to thank all producers who entered the competition, particularly those that progressed to the second stage of the competition on Facebook.
"The airport plays host to 2.67 million passengers from all over the world travelling through the airport each year, so this prize will be hugely beneficial to the winner and will introduce them to an exceptionally diverse audience."
Michele Shirlow, CEO of Food NI, commented:
"We are very pleased to announce the final shortlist of 10 products, all of which are outstanding, in fact the top 30 products were all excellent and it was tough to whittle it down to just 10.
"We are thrilled that Charles Campion will be joining us for the final judging session as his expert opinion is highly valued throughout the UK food and drink sector.
"Our aim is to continue to ensure that the legacy of the NI Year of Food and Drink continues in 2017 and beyond. Through competitions like this, we have maintained that momentum by showcasing Northern Ireland's truly world class produce."
Charles Campion, acclaimed Food critic for The Times, The Daily Telegraph and the London Evening Standard, said:
"I am delighted to be on the judging panel for this exciting competition with Belfast City Airport and Food NI to help shine a light on the fabulous food and drink producers that Northern Ireland has to offer.
"It is excellent to see such a diverse range of products in the shortlist, and I appreciate this is the tip of the iceberg of the talent that exists in Northern Ireland. All of the shortlist are well deserving of the marketing prize. I look forward to sampling each of the products on 16th May."
The full list of 10 shortlisted products is:
Mash Direct – Champ
Long Meadow Blossom Burst Cider
Melting Pot Traditional Butter Fudge
Morelli's Ice Cream – Double Cream Vanilla Ice Cream
Boatyard Distillery – The Boatyard Double Gin
Abernethy Butter Company – Abernethy Butter
Mauds Ice Creams Ltd – Poor Bear's Delight
Pop Notch – Salted Caramel Popcorn
Donnybrewer Butter
Rademon Estate Distillery – ShortCross Gin
For more information on the competition, please visit www.belfastcityairport.com/foodni
George Best Belfast City Airport can also be found on Facebook (George Best Belfast City Airport) and Twitter (@BelfastCity_Air).
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Air Pollution: Eastern China Becomes A Smoker's Lounge
December 11, 2013 /0 Comments/in China /by Brett Walton
Did you miss Circle of Blue's reporting on how cleaning up the power sector – namely coal – and reducing energy demand would clear the air and provide water benefits? Not to worry; Brett Walton gives an update on the current smog situation and how a recent report may provide solutions.
Photo via NASA Earth Observatory
Smog, colored gray, covers eastern China in this image, taken December 7 by NASA's Terra satellite. One of China's premier federal science centers is developing a plan to reduce the country's reliance on coal, the fuel that is both causing the smog and stressing diminishing water reserves. Click image to enlarge.
As often happens in the winter these days, air pollution in China reached hazardous levels last weekend. So much, in fact, that it can be seen from space.
Poor air circulation during the winter months can set the atmospheric stage for a coal-fired nightmare. For reference, coal accounts for 70 percent of the China's energy consumption and – along with tailpipe emissions from trucks and cars – much of the nation's air pollution problems. Starting on Saturday, December 7, and spreading across the eastern half of the world's most populous country, a dismal airborne pudding reached from Chengdu in the interior to Beijing and Shanghai, the capitals of politics and commerce. The air is still chock full of dust, pollutants, and the tiny particles that are generally referred to as PM2.5 – those that can penetrate deep into the lungs and cause the most severe health problems.
According to the air-monitoring system attached to the U.S. Embassy, PM2.5 levels peaked in Beijing at 480 micrograms per cubic meter of air the night of December 7. Meanwhile, the 24-hour average for PM2.5 on December 7 was 348 micrograms per cubic meter, a hazardous level, particularly for children and the elderly. The air that day in Shanghai was even worse, topping 600. Cliff Mass, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, pointed out on his blog that this number is more than three times higher than the average air quality at airport smoking lounges, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.
12-07-2013 22:00; PM2.5; 480.0; 487; Hazardous (at 24-hour exposure at this level)
— BeijingAir (@BeijingAir) December 7, 2013
Coal and Water Connection
China's hunger for coal is directly related to its thirst for water to mine, wash, and process that coal. According to Circle of Blue's Choke Point: China reporting back in 2010, coal accounts for roughly 20 percent of China's total water use. Thus, reducing energy demand would have a double effect: a decrease in the emission of harmful pollutants that clog up the air and a reduction in the water that is used in a rapidly drying country.
In a report that was produced earlier this year for the Asian Development Bank, Circle of Blue — with the help of the Wilson Center's China Environment Forum and various Chinese government agencies — found that incorporating water into a "co-control" management strategy for the energy sector would provide these water and air benefits. China's Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy (PRCEE), a unit of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, is carrying out a pilot co-control project in Urumqi, a city in the western desert that faces water shortages.
In a summary of the ADB report, Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue's senior editor, argues that China cannot run from its environmental problems:
"The stakes in choosing a sound water supply strategy for supplying China with electricity could not be higher. The choices that China makes in the near term to define the power sector of the 21st century will reflect a profound reckoning with economic and environmental conditions, which are expected to grow more turbulent unless the world's biggest nation reins in its energy demand.
The Circle of Blue and Wilson Center researchers found that sound judgments, based on new co-control data and operating practices, could compel cities and industries to conserve water. That, in turn, would reduce air emissions and still provide reliable supplies of energy at reasonable prices."
The proof of urgency is in the air.
Do you live, work, or travel in China? I'd love to hear from you. Send me a tweet to @waltonwater or contact Brett Walton directly, or comment below.
–Brett Walton, Circle of Blue reporter
Tags: air pollution, China, Choke Point China: Fresh Focus, Choke Point: China, Coal, In the Circle, In The Circle: Fresh Focus, sr-cpchina, water-energy nexus
https://i2.wp.com/www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Chinahaze_tmo_2013341.jpg?fit=720%2C720&ssl=1 720 720 Brett Walton https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Circle-of-Blue-Water-Speaks-600x139.png Brett Walton2013-12-11 15:50:352016-03-10 14:02:21Air Pollution: Eastern China Becomes A Smoker's Lounge
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P4P harms poor patients
Health law's pay policy is skewed, panel finds
By Robert Pear
The New York Times, April 28, 2014
Federal policies to reward high-quality health care are unfairly penalizing doctors and hospitals that treat large numbers of poor people, according to a new report commissioned by the Obama administration that recommends sweeping changes in payment policy.
Medicare and private insurers are increasingly paying health care providers according to their performance as measured by the quality of the care they provide. But, the draft report by an expert panel says, the measures of quality are fundamentally flawed because they do not recognize that it is often harder to achieve success when treating people who do not have much income or education.
Low-income people may be unable to afford needed medications or transportation to doctor's offices and clinics, the panel said. If they have low levels of formal education or literacy, they may have difficulty understanding or following written instructions for home care and the use of medications. In addition, the clinics and hospitals they use may lack the resources and high tech equipment needed to diagnose and treat illnesses.
The panel found that existing payment policies unintentionally worsen disparities between rich and poor by shifting money away from doctors and hospitals that care for "disadvantaged patients."
Measures of health care quality and performance — widely used by Medicare and private insurers in calculating financial rewards and penalties — should be adjusted for various "sociodemographic factors," the expert panel said. The panel was created by the National Quality Forum, an influential nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that endorses health care standards.
….The Obama administration commissioned the study, but is not entirely comfortable with the recommendations, officials acknowledged. The existing policies of the National Quality Forum and the government say performance scores should generally not be adjusted or corrected to reflect differences in the income, race or socioeconomic status of patients.
…. "We do not want to hold hospitals to different standards of care simply because they treat a large number of low-socioeconomic-status patients," said Dr. Kate Goodrich, the director of quality measurement programs at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "Our position has always been not to risk-adjust for socioeconomic status within our measures because of concern about masking disparities, and potentially rewarding providers who provide a lower level of care for minorities or poor patients."
By Kip Sullivan
The notion that doctors and hospitals are screwing up and will behave if they are subjected to punishment and reward by third parties is not new. The Code of Hammurabi (1750 BC) subjected Mesopotamian doctors to a combination of reward (more shekels) and punishment (cutting off of doctors' hands) http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/hammurabis-code-and-u-s-health-care/. But even Hammurabi didn't recommend punishing the patients.
But that is effectively the position taken by the National Quality Forum (NQF), the Obama administration, and the numerous private-sector firms and groups that peddle pay-for-performance (P4P) as a solution to the health care crisis. By refusing to adjust scores on report cards to reflect patient socioeconomic status (SES), P4P proponents are guaranteeing that the P4P fad will punish clinics and hospitals that serve poorer patients.
It is widely known that report cards on clinics and hospitals that are used in P4P schemes are, with rare exceptions, poorly adjusted to reflect differences in patient health. It is also widely known that report cards are almost never adjusted for income, insurance status and other SES indicators. But what was not widely known until Monday's report in the New York Times was that the NQF and the Obama administration have actually endorsed a policy of prohibiting the use of SES data to adjust scores on report cards.
Why would the NQF go to the trouble of explicitly outlawing the use of SES adjusters and thus draw attention to a serious defect in virtually all P4P schemes in use in America today?
As is always the case with managed care propositions, finding a well-documented argument for the NQF's position is impossible. All we have is this tiny remark in footnote 15 in an NQF document:
"Risk models should not obscure disparities in care for populations by including factors that are associated with differences/inequalities in care, such as race, socioeconomic status, or gender (e.g., poorer treatment outcomes of African American men with prostate cancer or inequalities in treatment for CVD risk factors between men and women)." http://www.qualityforum.org/docs/measure_evaluation_criteria.aspx
Like most report-card proponents, the NQF gives at least lip service to the necessity of adjusting scores to reflect differences in patient health because (a) these differences affect quality measures and (b) they are beyond provider control. Why, then, wouldn't the NQF treat SES factors the same way? Patients' low income, their lack of health insurance, their illiteracy and other factors subsumed under the concept of low SES status affect the outcome of medical care, and they are all way beyond the control of providers.
The basic premise of the NQF and the Obama administration is that the only way for policy makers to know if medical care has worse outcomes in poor people is via report cards. This premise is so foolish its mere statement constitutes a rebuttal.
The NQF "argument" then goes on to claim that the benefits of revealing disparities in health care outcomes via report cards outweighs the damage done to providers who treat poor people and to poor people themselves. Or at least that's what we have to imagine went through the minds of the folks at NQF. As I said, the proponents of this bizarre policy apparently did not feel compelled to leave a paper trail that would help the rest of us comprehend their thinking.
It was the existence of this strange policy that led to the convening of the expert panel described in the Times article. http://www.qualityforum.org/Risk_Adjustment_SES.aspx The panel rejected the NQF-administration rationale by huge margins. According to the panel's report:
"There is a clear and expanding body of evidence to suggest that providers serving 'low-socio-demographic' populations and communities are more likely to be identified as 'poor performers' and either be less likely to receive financial rewards, or be more likely to face financial penalties, in pay-for-performance programs."
"The net effect," said the panel, "could worsen rather than ameliorate healthcare disparities." To avoid this outcome, said the panel, the NQF should "reconsider" its policy. If the NQF remains concerned that lawmakers may remain in the dark about disparities in health outcomes, it should seek evidence for such disparities through other, more traditional means. In the future, the panel concluded, "purchasers, policymakers and other users of performance measures should assess the potential impact on disadvantaged patient populations …. (p. 10)" before imposing P4P schemes.
How did it come to this? Why do our country's top health policy makers have to be told to honor the fundamental principles of science and medicine, namely, make sure whatever you recommend is safe and effective before administering it?
There are some big obstacles to achieving universal coverage in the US under a single-payer system. None is more serious than the sloppiness of managed care think – the refusal of the health policy elite to honor the equivalent of evidence-based medicine and the equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath. It encourages lawmakers to buy cheap, snake oil health policy in place of real medicine. All of us who care about an efficient and humane health care system in the US must redouble our efforts to shine a light on the establishment's cavalier attitude toward science and ethics in health policy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/us/politics/health-laws-pay-policy-is-…
"Risk models should not obscure disparities in care for populations by including factors that are associated with differences/inequalities in care, such as race, socioeconomic status, or gender (e.g., poorer treatment outcomes of African American men with prostate cancer or inequalities in treatment for CVD risk factors between men and women)."http://www.qualityforum.org/docs/measure_evaluation_criteria.aspx
It was the existence of this strange policy that led to the convening of the expert panel described in the Times article. http://www.qualityforum.org/Risk_Adjustment_SES.aspxThe panel rejected the NQF-administration rationale by huge margins. According to the panel's report:


Resin floral heart magnet favors can be used at any stage in your wedding festivities. Keep them next to a photo booth at your engagement party, wedding shower, or wedding. Make a pretty magnet board for your seating arrangement and use the magnets to hold each name card. The floral hearts will look beautiful holding each name. There are so many options for the favors! I like to give useful favors for my guests at any celebration and everyone could use a magnet, right?
Also, the floral confetti can be made any color to match your personal wedding theme and colors.
Trim flower petals to make flower confetti.
Add flower confetti to the resin and stir.
Pour into heart molds and let dry for 24 hours.
Pop out of mold and glue magnet to back of the heart.
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These are amazing and I cannot wait to try them myself. They could be used for every mold and for so many other occasions.
Thank you so much Jeannie, resin is so much fun and yes, any mold will work!


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The Latest on Sunrail in DeLand
Photo credit: Sunrail
Riding the train to an adventure is the dream of almost every child or child at heart. The clickety-clack of the track, watching the scenery fly by, seeing everything from a new perspective and for adults, avoiding the traffic that accompanies a drive on the interstate.
Since 2014, that adventure has led many passengers east and west along the Sunrail tracks from Poinciana in Osceola County to DeBary in Volusia. But, that's where the adventure ended. Passengers never got an opportunity to see DeLand and it's award-winning historic, downtown district. In 2024, the adventure can continue!
A look back at the brief history of Sunrail will show that the first of four phases opened in 2007. The last completed phase ended with the DeBary station. In the final phase, the track east from DeBary (the current end of the line) to DeLand is set to start construction in early February 2022 with completion in 2024. At a cost of 11 million dollars to build the tracks and the new station for DeLand, the county has a major investment in making the last Sunrail stop a success.
Currently, one of the most popular stops on the line is Winter Park, where day-trippers step off the train and into the historic downtown district rich with parks, dining and shopping. No other stop offers such convenience for the casual rider In the last few years, Sanford has offered Sunrail passengers a free trolley/bus service to its downtown. The cost, paid for by the Community Redevelopment Agency, has proven to be worth it for the business owners. DeLand city and downtown Mainstreet leaders have taken note and are also considering a free trolley service to Sunrail passengers. The trolley will take riders 3.3 miles, straight down SR44 (New York Ave) on the ten minute ride into downtown DeLand.
Commuters and sightseers alike will benefit from the new Sunrail stop when it is completed in 2024. The hope is that it rivals Winter Park and Sanford as popular stops and brings more business and attention to an already thriving downtown district.
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Here we'll work with two bead colors (A and B) for clarity, but once you know the steps, you can easily work with a single color, or create a pattern within the netting … You can also weave ogalala from existing beadwork, such as peyote bezels, or herringbone ropes.
I'll show you how to make a spiral rope using size 8° seed beads as my core beads and size 11°s as my outside beads, but you can also do it using all one-sized bead, varying the outside bead count, changing the number of core beads you pass … I'm not a beadweaver, but I'd love to learn the basics, I see so many beautiful designs that seem so far out of my reach – can you point me in the direction of other instructors that make the actual construction look possible?
Jill's book, the newest release in the Beadweaving Master Class series, presents 24 sumptuous beaded jewelry rope projects that utilize a variety of beading stitches: spiral ropes, peyote ropes, netted ropes, herringbone ropes, right angle weave ropes, and ropes using other stitches, including Oglala, chevron, and brick.
I made my first rope several years ago but never finished it. Unfortunately, once I got almost done with the necklace, I decided that I didn't like the pendant with the rope. The next time I started a Cellini spiral was a year or so ago. She strung it on a leather rope and it turned out great.
My editorialized version of this beautiful beadwork stitch. Size 8/0, 11/0 and 15/0 beads are used to create the Cellini spiral peyote stitch. This stitch produces a three dimensional spiral effect. Very pretty.
Twisted Rope Spiral DVD available for purchase at www.queenbeadnj.com. Learn how to make your very own Twisted Rope Spiral bracelet today!