ALScounts heard an advisor for a Presidential candidate give some interesting statistics on TV last night. He said that 4600 Americans are killed annually in automobile accidents caused by illegal immigrants. He went on to express outrage at the cumulative effects over the years of this loss of life.
Being a curious person who likes numbers, ALScounts wondered about the 4600 figure. Would those accidents have the same outcomes if the drivers had been legals with Green Cards or U.S. citizens? What were the factors in those accidents. How precise is the 4600 estimate? Is that number constant over the last few years or has it grown? ALScounts didn't know if the claim was outrageous or not, but there are ways to find out.
Fortunately we have governmental agencies that retain extensive details on fatal automobile accidents. We wouldn't think of not having an accident report for a fatality! We have the information that one would need to validate the 4600 claim or to qualify it. We have the information that our considerable safety experts can use to learn from fatal accidents to try to improve the human and physical factors that cause these horrible deaths. We have the numbers to crunch.
Based on what spotty data we have on ALS, we're pretty sure that ALS takes a much, much larger toll of American lives than 4600 every year. We just don't have the trail of data to crunch. There is nothing akin to an accident report that is left behind when someone with ALS dies. If we had the data, some smart Americans could crunch them and come up with some improvements to the status quo.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - Can You Hear The Increasing Noise Level?
There has been an interesting e-reaction to Senator Coburn's hold against the ALS Registry Act. PALS and CALS and grass-roots advocates are not taking this one lightly.
Senator Coburn, this might be a good opportunity to find some positive action that you can take to be part of the solution rather than being part of the problem. If the ALS Registry Act isn't the right solution in your professional opinion, please step up with some leadership for something that is.
Today there are many thousands of Americans dealing with ALS. Some are at the beginnings of their journeys. Some are finishing. It's a difficult road regardless of where the path goes. It's a trip that sometimes races from stage to stage, even on holidays.
Please remember all PALS and CALS in your Christmas prayers. Please pray, also, that by next Christmas we will have done the right things to enable researchers to unravel this mystery of a disease.
Peace be with all today.
Friday, December 21, 2007 - He Must Not Have Been Paying Attention The Day They Studied ALS In Medical School!
This morning's WSJ has a front-page article on Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. He takes pride in being a one-man legislation blocker in the Senate. He likes being Dr. No. Evidently he's a practicing physician in addition to being on the taxpayers' payroll in the Senate. He thinks he's being paid to stop legislation. The article specifically cites his stopping the ALS Registry Act from coming to a vote.
This seems really odd to ALScounts. A man who took an oath to first do no harm is willing to stop a simple registry that can potentially hold the clues to save thousands of lives. He just doesn't get it. He likes being the obstinate Senator more than being the compassionate, competent physician, that's for sure.
ALScounts would encourage any of his patients to perhaps reconsider their choice of physician. ALScounts would encourage the voters of Oklahoma to find somebody else to represent them in the Senate.
Saturday, December 15, 2007 - Thank You, Julia.
Congresswoman Julia Carson of Indiana died this morning.
ALScounts met Julia in 1997. Mom had just died from ALS. ALScounts wanted to try to do something constructive with the grief and rage, and the old ALS Digest had sent out some information about the need to modify the Social Security waiting periods for disabilities. ALScounts called the Congresswoman's office in Indy and asked for 15 minutes on her schedule. The appointment was made. ALScounts had talking points ready and was ready to try to make the sale for some help for the cause in 15 minutes or less.
Julia was awesome that day. She was most gracious. We went into her office and we talked and we talked. It was over an hour. She asked good questions about ALS and she listened and then she asked more questions. By the end of that meeting, ALS had an advocate on Capitol Hill.
Occasionally I would run into her traveling or about town. She always recognized my face and would always point at me and say, "Lou Gehrig's Disease." That was usually followed by one of her famous hugs.
During the past few years when she has been in ill health, her Washington, DC, office staff has been most helpful as we have visited on Advocacy Day. They're always supportive of whatever we ask to help PALS and CALS. Julia and her staff were ones we could always depend on. She understood the issues and wanted to help.
Senator Harry Reid issued a statement this week that cites the ALS Registry Act as being a victim of partisanship in the Senate. ALScounts wondered what effect his throwing down the gauntlet will have. Will it make Senators see a very simple way that they can do something decent and productive? Will it make Senators dig their heels in against being chided by the majority leader? The gauntlet was thrown down. What happens next?
ALScounts would like for the Senators who have not yet formally committed to support the ALS Registry Act as cosponsors to reconsider. To sign on as a cosponsor means that some of your most vulnerable and most innocent constituents will get a ray of hope that their data will contribute to a cure for the next person to be slapped with ALS. To sign on as a cosponsor means that you will have taken a very simple step that will make the CDC and private research more productive by giving our smart scientists some dots to connect in the search for the cause of ALS.
There's something in it for you, too, Senators.
When you Senators decide to join forces via the ALS Registry Act, other good things will happen. It will make opportunities for all citizens to find out that our elected officials chose to do something good and decent before the end of the year. The many PALS I've met are incredibly talented people who find creative ways to speak up. You can be assured that when our Senators come together and decide to treat the ALS Registry Act as a simple and decent and smart piece of legislation (and not a gauntlet) that PALS and caregivers and widows and orphans and not-for-profit organizations involved with ALS will step up quickly and make sure that the entire country knows about our Senate's ability to overcome the gridlock of partisan bickering and deliver something good for Americans. We'll make sure that the media know about the Senate that found a way to agree and deliver a simple and decent piece of legislation that will make a difference in lives.
This is the time of year when we're supposed to be very aware of doing the right thing and caring for others. Senators, here's your chance.
Sunday, December 9, 2007 - We Lose So Many Bright Lights Every Year!
ALScounts read about the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and its 30,000 lights. The tradition of the tree started in 1939, the same year that Lou Gehrig took himself out of the lineup. In 1941, the year Lou died, lots of lights were added to the tree.
If they lost at least 6,000 light bulbs on that tree every year, it would have amounted to almost half a million light bulbs since 1939.
If they lost at least 6,000 light bulbs on that tree every year, do you think that the people in charge of Rockefeller Center would have figured out the problem by now?
Tuesday, December 4, 2007 - If Ever A Disease Needed A Spell Checker!
How many of us forget exactly what ailed our deceased grandparents or great aunts and uncles? ALScounts tried the family health history tool. The expected entries of heart disease, cancers, diabetes are provided, and you're able to add diseases at will. The Surgeon General gave us a terrific glossary and spell checker to assist in adding diseases that may have afflicted someone in our family tree. Unfortunately there is no glossary or spell check entry for the disease that is impossible to spell and pronounce - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
ALScounts emailed the Surgeon General to ask that it be added to the possibilities so that we might include it in family health histories. Once ALS strikes your family, you never want to forget it (even if you might not remember how to spell it).
Thirty years ago we started to embrace the concept of hospice care. The inhumane practices of treating a 90 year-old cancer patient in a noisy hospital with noisy machines and incessant midnight blood tests were being replaced in our society with compassionate, realistic palliative care.
Our healthcare system has come a long way in offering patients and families end-of-life care. The paradigm shift to hospice care was embraced by our society.
With cancer in our society, most patients get a chance to enter the big fight with some good medical therapies and a determination to beat it. Sometimes that works and we have a survivor. Sometimes that doesn't work and the patient accepts the future knowing that it was a good fight.
ALS teaches us that one hospice model does not fit all diseases. PALS are handed a diagnosis that does not include the options for the big fight. They have the determination, but medical science doesn't have a good pair of boxing gloves for them to try to beat the disease. Instead they have to skip to a kind of acceptance that always includes the hope that the cure will be found tomorrow. They want to be around in case tomorrow is the big day. Like Morrie Schwartz taught us, they know that their time will come (and much of that timing depends on the interventions they choose), but as long as ALS is a mystery, it's not an acceptance that includes knowing that they've had a fair fight.
CAMDEN, Ala. � Hundreds of hospice providers across the country are facing the catastrophic financial consequence of what would otherwise seem a positive development: their patients are living longer than expected.
It seems to ALScounts that it's time for the hospice model to be improved. We have muddled the ideas of palliative care and respect for life and death with dignity with a one-size-fits-all Medicare funding model. This is another area where we can learn from ALS. As a PALS once said, "If you can't cure me, then at least learn from me."
This morning's paper had a story on the CDC and a new study on heart disease. Although overall deaths from heart disease continue to decline, they have increased in younger women. You can count on the CDC and our nation's healthcare stakeholders jumping on this information to prevent deaths in a group that wasn't fully acknowledged before. Give them some information, and they'll do something about a problem.
The article also mentioned that there are around 500,000 deaths annual due to coronary heart disease. That's a lot, but if you think about it, with ALS deaths estimates we have, for every 100 funerals for a victim of heart disease, there is at least one funeral for a victim of ALS.
ALScounts turned the page, and there was a big article on AIDS and new numbers released by the UN and the World Health Organization. The new cases of AIDS appear to be on the decline, yet it's still a huge world problem, and the numbers themselves are being scrutinized to make sure that the dots are connected correctly. The experts know the value of good information to stop a killer disease.
For the PALS we bury today, we bury their dots with them.
We should all take heed from the heart disease and AIDS efforts. They have made huge progress in reducing deaths by gathering dots and connecting them. They continue to fine-tune their strategies and meet new challenges efficiently by looking at the dots.
We need to smarten up nationally and globally to gather some ALS dots.
BY PUTTING MORE THANKSGIVING IN IT.
No sooner does Thanksgiving end, than the loathsome shopping begins -- a month-long compulsion to buy something, anything, for everyone. We're pressed. We're stressed. And our money is wasted. But we can change all that by focusing on the giving. And redefining Christmas.
Give people donations to their favorite charities.
And request that they give donations to your favorite charities.
A lot more money would go to people who need it. Shopping would be easier and tax deductible. And our giving would be more in keeping with the Christmas spirit.
THE SOLE PURPOSE OF THIS MESSAGE IS TO FACILITATE CHARITABLE GIVING.
If there's one thing that ALS teaches us all, it's that there are more important things in life than "stuff." There are many charities that help PALS and CALS. None is perfect (kind of like kids), but they're out there trying. Please consider supporting them this holiday season. Don't forget, you're not limited to donating to just one of them.
Please pass it on. Thanks to all this Thanksgiving week.
Yesterday Wellpoint, one of our country's largest health insurers, announced a plan to use CDC data find specific problem categories and to improve the health in an individual state They are looking at things like physical activity levels, cigarette smoking rates, heart disease rates, low birthweights, etc. An ounce of prevention is worth an expensive pound of cure for them, and our states clearly benefit when our populations are healthier. It's good business and good public policy. Wellpoint is investing the resources to do things with the public health data that will pay off for Wellpoint in the long run.
ALScounts is always thinking about what we could do with a little data on people with ALS added to the CDC's big pots of information. Maybe ALS is as preventable as heart disease and complications from smoking. Maybe Wellpoint should look at the gazillion dollars in insurance costs for every case of ALS and see if it isn't good business to urge the CDC to gather some data so that they can connect the dots.
Then ALScounts realized that much of the cost of ALS is absorbed by Medicare rather than the Wellpoints. That's good and decent public policy given the nature of ALS, but we need to get our government to realize what Wellpoint realizes about their costly diseases. It's good business to figure out what's preventable and then to prevent it.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - Thanks For Listening, Senators!
This morning the ALS Registry Act received unanimous consent from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. That's one more step in the right direction.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - We're Tired of Monkeying Around When It Comes to ALS!
To the right is the agenda (click to enlarge) for tomorrow's meeting of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The ALS Registry Act is on the agenda. As you can see, so are a lot of other things that are important to our citizens.
The ALS Registry Act is simply a matter of life and death to thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of American citizens (sorry, but we can't be more precise than that since nobody has been counting noses).
ALScounts is pleased to update the list of Registry Act co-sponsors among the Presidential candidates currently employed in the Senate. Senators Biden and Brownback have recently joined the list of co-sponsors of the ALS Registry Act. Senators McCain and Obama are not on board. Please let them know that we expect more from those who aspire to the Presidency. How better for them to show their support of our military and to the average citizenry than to back this small piece of legislation that can store the clues that our scientists need to figure out the terrorist disease called ALS!
Senator Obama serves on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Friday, November 9, 2007 - There's Another Fringe Benefit To Military Service That We Need to Address!
On the VA website, there is a wonderful menu of benefits for our veterans. The list includes compensation and pensions, education, home loans, vocational rehabilitation, pharmacy benefits, and burial benefits. These are a small drop in the bucket of the good tangible things that we owe our veterans and their families who have borne the load for the rest of us.
There's also a horrible fringe benefit to military service that didn't make it to the VA website menu. It's ALS. For a number of years studies have shown that veterans of U.S. military service have a higher incidence of ALS than the general population, and veterans of the first Gulf War have an astronomical incidence. This isn't a rumor or a fabrication of the blogosphere. It's a fact. It's a fact that every American should know. It's a fact that every legislator who authorized the Iraq War should have been very aware of. It's a fact that we need to bring to America's attention.
Google "ALS Military" and you can browse and evaluate the references for yourself.
What in the world causes this? Is it neurotoxins? Is it stress? Is it the uniforms? Is it physical activity? Do we not owe our veterans an explanation and our current military personnel some protection from the disease that nobody deserves?
Can you imagine getting through tours in the Iraq war relatively unscathed physically and mentally, only to start tripping or dropping things or slurring some words in a few years? Can you imagine families having to deal with ALS after all they've already given up to military service? Can you imagine trying to make the case that the ALS was service-related in order to get the appropriate medical benefits? Can you imagine finding out that you were slapped with a delayed and difficult way of giving your life for your country?
This Veterans Day we owe our veterans much more than ceremonies and parades. We owe them action on this outrageous fringe benefit of military service. We certainly need to get the word out and shine some light on this dark problem.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - Yo, Legislators! Over Here! We're Ready!
Yesterday we learned that our legislators are anxious to beef up the Consumer Product Safety Commission, offering substantial dollars and staffing increases. We also learned that the Consumer Product Safety Commission doesn't want the beef in that form at the current time.
We have people with ALS who are literally dying for a little registry that would at least make their data count for something in the quest for a cure. Senators, if the CPSC isn't ready for you, people with ALS sure are... right now!
ALScounts has friends in the San Diego area. Very early on Monday morning their lives were turned upside down in an instant. Step 1 - Get out of the house. Step 2 - Get out of the neighborhood. Step 3 - Get away from the fires. That was all easier said than done for them, but they made it to a safe haven that was pet friendly. Everyone acknowledged that they were all safe and that was the important thing, yet there is the angst that goes along with not knowing the outcome of the fires. Is the house still there? Are the kids' friends and neighbors safe? Television gives only a portion of the facts, and that portion isn't always reassuring or accurate. The uncertainty is agonizing, yet they know that in the next few days the facts will unfold and they'll know with certainty what they're destined to deal with in their upside-down lives.
An ALS diagnosis turns lives upside down in an instant, too. It comes with its own kind of angst and uncertainty. Unfortunately people with ALS live in a perpetual uncertain state like that which our friends in San Diego are suffering through right now. Not having a lot of facts about your situation and not knowing how to deal with whatever is ahead makes one twist in the wind. We humans are designed to gather information and take a deep breath and find solutions to our problems. Unfortunately with ALS we have an information dearth that is exasperating for those trying to deal with their ALS problem.
So when lives are turned upside down in an instant, it's never easy. Information and courage and the help of others will help victims of the fire get through their crisis. With ALS, the information piece is missing and we as a society owe some information about the cause and cure to people whose lives are turned upside down by ALS.
Also, please keep in your prayers those dealing with the fires, and special prayers for the hundreds dealing with the fires and ALS.
It appears that one of Lou Gehrig's jerseys has survived intact and has not been cut up into those dreadful little relics that are sold by the square centimeter to collectors.
There's something about seeing an historical piece of clothing that brings a special image of the person to mind. ALScounts saw St. Francis' garment displayed at Assisi and it gave quite a visual on the meaning of a 13th century vow of poverty. At the Louvre, ALScounts saw the display of Jaqueline Kennedy's clothing and it brought a vivid sense of a vivid White House (that was obviously beloved by the French). The Smithsonian's displays of Presidential togs leads one to compare the shoulders and times and personalities of our national leaders. A jersey that Lou Gehrig actually wore would bring a understanding of the physical and mental strength of a great man whose life was cut short by a disease that persists to this day. This was not a frail, sickly man who fell to an unknown disease. ALS had been around since Charcot had identified it shortly after the American Civil War. This was a man with broad shoulders and strong arms who could hit the ball and make plays and show up to do his job well every day. Lou Gehrig was a mountain of strength who was felled by a disease that continues to take people of strength today.
They anticipate that the jersey will be auctioned for over a quarter of a million dollars. ALScounts hopes that it will be kept intact to help us visualize the important man who was an Iron Horse in baseball and in courage. And may the day come soon when Lou's disease will be talked about in the past tense.
ALScounts goes to the local Walk to D'Feet ALS every year. It's a big fundraiser that keeps the local chapter of the ALS Association in business and present in our community. It's also a whole lot more than a fundraiser.
As a child of the Sixties, ALScounts knows the value of a good demonstration, especially when there is something outrageous going on in society. ALS is about as outrageous as it gets. Yesterday we had around a thousand people walking in a visible venue. That's a demonstration. It actually attracted a news crew that covered the walk and explained ALS on the local news last night. Score one for the demonstrators!
The gathering of people with a connection to ALS sends an important message about the pervasiveness of this killer disease. There are a lot of us who have lost loved ones years ago. There are people dealing with it today. There are friends and relatives and caregivers and patients of all ages and colors and religions and genders. There are young children wearing buttons with deceased parents' pictures. There are golden oldies who have lost spouses. It's a real melting pot of people who have been robbed by a disease with no known cause and no cure.
The biggest team got to lead the walk yesterday. Our pacesetter was a gentleman in a wheelchair being pushed by his best friend, and ALS wasn't even on his radar a year ago. We have to remember that when we see people with ALS such as this young gentleman, they've not spent their entire lives in wheelchairs or being sickly. Many are just like Lou Gehrig - vibrant achievers and usually healthy as oxen into whose lives this terrorist called ALS arrives. They are also pretty incredible people just like Lou Gehrig who have an attitude that some good must come of this. Their courage should humble us all.
We must continue walking and demonstrating and raising Cain and raising funds and demanding that the clues be gathered until this disease is stopped! It's outrageous in our society that the dots are not even being collected. Yesterday there may have been a man on a golf course somewhere having the round of his life who will be leading the Walk to D'Feet ALS from a wheelchair next year.
In the October 7 Los Angeles Times, David Rieff writes of "The Darful Deception" in an op-ed piece. He speaks of how the Darfur case is pitched in order to spark the needed advocacy efforts for the cause.
Rieff writes, "After all, to a regrettable extent, activism is a zero-sum game. When all is said and done, a group that is passionately committed to the plight of Darfur is competing for donations with groups that are equally passionately committed to curing Lou Gehrig's disease or stopping global warming or combating homelessness. For each group, their own cause is preeminent. But, alas, there are only a finite number of contributions to go around."
ALScounts respectfully reacts to that as a gross underestimation of the human spirit. The more we care, the more we care. The more we do, the more we do. The more we give, the more we give. We aren't groups of advocates fighting over a finite pool of energy and goodness and generosity. People working to improve the world should not be pitted against one another nor should they feel that they are competing. It's not that God will only allow us the brains and resources to solve one of the world's problems. When humans raise the activism level for goodness on this earth, everybody gets better.
It's the old principle that if you want something done, give it to a busy person. If you want a genocide stopped or a disease cured or homelessness dealt with or all of the above, give the problems to a society that is busy doing good things.
ALScounts was pleased that Lou Gehrig's Disease made Rieff's radar. It's not a zero-sum game, though.
Saturday, October 6, 2007 - Medical Records Are Waltzing Toward What Music Did Decades Ago!
The last couple of weeks have included some significant announcements regarding digital health records. See the September 17 entry below for a perspective.
It seems to ALScounts that digital health records will play a huge role in providing timely and accurate dots for the researchers to connect to figure out ALS. Our old ways of having health information silos which are slow and inaccurate to correlate have obviously not given us the cause or cure information we need.
Microsoft HealthVault beat Google Health to the marketplace this week. Microsoft is gathering alliances with not-for-profits such as the American Heart Association (to include a blood pressure management center in HealthVault). Microsoft is gathering alliances with major hospitals and healthcare providers and instrument companies. This gets interesting when a portal might be designed to gather particularly pertinent information on PALS that would be intrinsic with the PALS' medical records... or where a new environmental factor could be added for PALS to update as discoveries are made.
There is a flip side to the privacy issues that concern most consumers (and rightly so). There are data availability issues today because of our lack of integrated patient data. Many PALS would like very much for their data to be useful to researchers, yet today their data are buried in files and we're working hard for a registry to release them from their captivity. Once a Registry Act authorizes the release from captivity, there is a long row to hoe to deal with the melange of data that will need more than Arthur Murray to be put into a coordinated and meaningful form.
The fact that Microsoft and Google and dossia are racing to a common goal is good news to ALScounts. We don't know what company will set the gold standard in digital patient records (remember 78s and 45s and 33.3s and 8-tracks and cassettes and cds and mp3s,...) , but ALScounts is sure that once we start a sound implementation of well-designed digital patient data that the whole concept of a registry and connecting dots becomes much more do-able. Dots that are in file cabinets and proprietary computer systems are hard to connect as we have proven in the past with the lack of a cure.
It's time to waltz toward some 20th Century medical records (yes, ALScounts realizes it's really the 21st Century in most areas of our lives).


text:
#include "twoDLed.h"

#include "src/ev3DisplayWidget.h"

using namespace ev3::robotModel::twoD::parts;
using namespace kitBase::robotModel;

TwoDLed::TwoDLed(const DeviceInfo &info
		, const PortInfo &port
		, twoDModel::engine::TwoDModelEngineInterface &engine)
	: robotModel::parts::Ev3Led(info, port)
	, mEngine(engine)
{
	connect(this, &TwoDLed::colorChanged, this, [=](const QColor &color) { emit propertyChanged("color", color); });
}

QColor TwoDLed::color() const
{
	/// @todo
	return QColor();
}

void TwoDLed::setColor(const QColor &color)
{
	/// @todo
	Q_UNUSED(color)
}

void TwoDLed::setColor(ev3::robotModel::parts::Ev3LedColor color)
{
	/// @todo
	Q_UNUSED(color)
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Bushido: The Samurai Code of Japan is the most influential book ever written on the Japanese Way of the Warrior. A classic study of Japanese culture, the book outlines the moral code of the Samurai way of living and the virtues every Samurai warrior holds dear. It is widely read today in Japan and around the world. There are seven core precepts of Bushido: justice, courage, benevolence, civility, sincerity, honor, and loyalty. Together, these seven values create a system of beliefs unique to Japanese philosophy and culture that is widely followed today. Inazo Nitobe, one of Japan's foremost scholars, thoroughly explores each of these values and explains how they differ from their Western counterparts. Until you understand the philosophy behind the ethics, you will never fully grasp what it meant to be a Samurai what it meant to have Bushido.


text:
Database: Get the Dupes Out
Modern tactics for ridding databases of duplicate customer records
By Rod Ford
Approaches to data hygiene introduced 30 or 40 years ago have been rendered obsolete. Back then, the average person moved only once in a decade, was less likely to divorce and typically relied on a single phone line for the entire household. That is a sharp contrast to today, when typical consumers make 11 moves during their lifetimes and 2 million people divorce each year. And, as we all know, the majority of households rely on multiple cell phones, often in lieu of a dedicated land line.
Today, any multichannel marketer can tell you that its customer files change almost daily, with new information contributed from stores, catalogs and the Web. Even with the most strenuous efforts in place to qualify new-to-file transactions, customer files continue to accumulate disparate, and seemingly unrelated, transactions.
Several dynamic factors make it very difficult to correctly identify and value each customer with traditional identity consolidation processes. Consider that:
• Most merge/purge processes were developed more than 30 years ago and were never intended to recognize the fluidity of movement, name changes and vastness of channels in which customers interact today. Multiple channels equate to name and address permutations that accrue as the customer's interactions across channels grow.
• In today's increasingly online and mobile society, about 30 percent of movers each year do not bother to complete the USPS's national change of address process. As a result, the NCOA file is not as accurate as it once was.
• In today's economy, the decline in consumer spending and rising postage costs for the marketer are making accurate data a critical must-have.
Surprisingly, most marketers still primarily rely on NCOA as their dominant tool to identify self-reported movers. While it might be easier than ever to update one's address—either in person, via mail or online—the fact remains that many consumers are not completing this information. In fact, on average, approximately 4 percent to 6 percent of marketers' files contain missed movers.
1 2 3 4 AllNext »
CognitiveDATA Inc.
Rod Ford
Rod Ford Author's page
What Are Customers Really Worth?
The Value of 'Old' Marketing Content
Eliminating Vendor Risk to Win Back Consumer Trust
Let the Marketplace Set the Rate on 'My Data'
What Does 'Machine Learning' Mean to You?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
washingtonpost.com > Opinions
Why Labor Should Embrace a Cap on Tax-Free Health Benefits
By Leonard E. Burman
Thursday, July 9, 2009; 12:03 AM
With union membership shrinking and wages strained, it might sound crazy to argue that labor should voluntarily give up a huge fringe benefit: tax-free health insurance provided by employers. But it should. In the long run, capping the amount of health insurance that employers can provide tax-free would raise workers' wages, partially protect them from layoffs and speed rehiring after a downturn.
Right now, employer-paid health insurance is entirely tax-free -- a break that will cost the Treasury about $250 billion this year. If an employer pays $12,000 for health insurance, that money is not counted as income, whereas the same $12,000 paid as cash wages is subject to income, Social Security and Medicare taxes. The more generous the insurance policy, the bigger the tax savings.
Health experts criticize this arrangement because it encourages employers to provide health insurance plans that cover everything; this, in turn, contributes to overspending on health care by workers who have no incentive to pay attention to costs.
A cap would limit the tax benefits to a dollar threshold. If the cap on family coverage were, say, $12,000, the policy described above would still be tax-free, but a "gold-plated" $20,000 policy wouldn't be. The $8,000 above the cap would be taxed, just like cash wages.
Unions object to the cap because they have worked hard to negotiate extremely generous health benefits for their members. With a flat cap, many union workers would pay higher taxes. To protect union workers from the tax increase, some proposals would limit the cap to those with very high incomes, but that approach would raise little revenue and wouldn't rein in health spending much.
More important, in the long run, a cap could help union workers. For one thing, it would require employers to reveal what they pay for health insurance. If machinists earning $50,000 a year knew that their employers were paying $20,000 for their health insurance, many would ask them to find a cheaper plan (such as an HMO) and boost wages.
What's more, that $20,000 health insurance plan is what economists call a fixed cost. Every full-time worker comes with that baggage. The problem with fixed costs is that they create an incentive for employers to reduce the number of their full-time workers, particularly in a recession. Consider: An employer facing sharply reduced demand for its product might reduce the number of hours worked by its current workforce in an effort to spread the pain. If workers earn $25 per hour and their workweek is cut by five hours, the firm saves $125 per worker per week. Reduce hours for eight workers, and the firm saves $1,000 per week, the wage bill for one full-time worker.
But if the firm also pays $400 per worker each week for health insurance, it could save more by laying off one worker. The firm would save the weekly salary of $1,000 plus the $400 health insurance bill, for a total savings of $1,400. The fixed cost encourages layoffs.
By similar logic, when the economy starts to recover, employers prefer to expand hours for existing workers (or hire more part-timers who do not receive benefits) than hire back laid-off workers. That is one reason employment rises so slowly when the economy perks up.
Unions understand these incentives and try to negotiate limits on such maneuvers, but encouraging firms to ignore the bottom-line pressure created by excessive fixed costs makes them less able to compete in domestic and global markets. That gives nonunion firms an edge over unionized firms.
If the cap encourages employers to turn excessive health benefits into wages, unionized companies can better adapt to changing market conditions, helping both unions and workers. And if employers replace Cadillac health plans with Chevy plans, their employees might be able to afford other useful stuff, like Chevy automobiles.
An effective cap would bring in enough revenue to make health reform possible, something unions have long sought. A cap that was set at the average premium level in 2009 and that grew with inflation would raise almost $850 billion in income and payroll tax revenue over the next decade -- more than half the cost of the plan for universal coverage that President Obama proposed during the campaign.
Unions should embrace the cap.
The writer, a former senior analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, is director of the Tax Policy Center and a fellow at the Urban Institute.


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A-Z Great Film Directors
Andy Tuohy and Matt Glasby | 4.39 | 109 ratings and reviews
Ranked #72 in Movie Biography
A striking, design-led reference book. A-Z Great Film Directors features Andy Tuohy's portraits of 52 directors significant for their contribution to cinema including kings of world cinema Wong Kar-Wai and Akira Kurosawa, arthouse pioneers Fritz Lang and David Lynch as well as the often under-appreciated female directors Kathryn Bigelow and Jane Campion.
With text by film journalist Matt Glasby, each director's entry will also have a summary of the essential things you need to know about them, why they're important, a list of their must-see films, and a surprising fact... more
With text by film journalist Matt Glasby, each director's entry will also have a summary of the essential things you need to know about them, why they're important, a list of their must-see films, and a surprising fact or two about them, as well as images of their key films throughout.
So whether you're already a film aficionado, or looking for a helpful cheat to pass convincingly as an arthouse fan, you'll love this guide to international directors, past and present. less
If you like A-Z Great Film Directors, check out these similar top-rated books:


Anybody ever heard of Summit Kegerators?
Re: Anybody ever heard of Summit Kegerators?
Are they any good? Would one be worth $200 more than a magic chef? Is the beverage factory a repudable dealer?
Yes, the Beverage Factory is a reputable dealer. I have had several transactions with them and they have always been good.
Yes, though I don't own one, I have heard they are OK. I don't think they are metric, so that is good. You will still want an external temperature controller.
FWIW, I also installed a tower blower so that the beer in the lines in the tower don't warm up as much resulting in a 1st glass of foam. I also got a cheap fishing temperature gauge, the sensor from it is sitting in a beer can filled with distilled water inside the kegerator. The reason for that is liquid temperature is what you are concerned with, not air temperature. But the most important item is the temp. controller.
If you think you'll want a double faucet in the future then the Magic Chef becomes more attractive because you'll replace the whole tower so the metric part doesn't matter then.
In your shopping also look for a Danby. They are probably the most common kegerator out there. They have the same issues with needing an external controller though. And they are more difficult to install the controller... but they can be had for less than the Summit.
This one comes with an electronic digital controller. And for $10 more I can get a duo faucet tower.
It's a bit more than $10 - the single comes with a D-coupler or ball locks already, the duo does not.
I just need the single anyway. I cant find any reviews on this item. Would you say Danby is a good brand? I dont mind spending money but I hate spending it and being disappointed with what I bought.
Do you have a costco membership?
No. Nearest costco is 70 miles from here.
Well I have a Danby and a Vissani. The Danby is the better of the two. That seems like a pretty decent price, and a lot of people have used them for years. I like mine and would probably purchase another if this one gave up the ghost.
The temperature controller mentioned is the stock one and is not good. But you may have a different opinion. Regardless of which one you go with, I do recommend using it for a bit without modification - you may get lucky and it will work fine for you. Just be forewarned that with all these entry-level kegerators, most people get a Johnson or an ETC, or one of the really cheap ones on ebay - they are still way better than the internal one is.
Hopefully it has an adequate temperature controller.
Very nice - let us know how you like it.
Mennards here in town had the Magic Chef I was looking at online on display. I gave the faucet a pull and it felt like if I wasn't careful I would break it, or the tower would come off. It just had a real cheap toy like feel to it. I would have been really upset if I spent $500 and that is what showed up.
I will let you know what I think of the Summit in a few weeks. Now I need to figure out how to clean my keg and replace the O rings in it.
That is much easier than choosing a kegerator!


text:
WR Jerrel Jernigan Transcript
Q: Do you see yourself as being a viable candidate to fill the slot receiver position on this team?
A: You've got other receivers. I do see myself filling this void but you've got Vic Cruz and a lot of young receivers, Duke Calhoun, there are a lot of us who could fill that role but we just have to come in and see who can fill that role.
Q: When they drafted you did they tell you they drafted you to play the slot?
A: Basically, when I talked to the coaches and Mr. Reese they didn't know how Steve would come back after the knee injury and they drafted me to come in and play the slot. Play behind him if came back or not or if he left.
Q: So you taking number 12 is that a coincidence?
A: Pretty much the equipment guy asked me if I would like to wear 12 because he knew I wanted to wear 3 because I wore 3 in college and 1 plus 2 is 3. So I was like yeah sure, I'll wear 12 and then my receiver coach asked me if I wanted to wear it and I told him yeah, I'll wear it.
Q: You know that number has some expectations that come with it?
A: Yeah I know Steve was a great, outstanding player, Pro Bowl player. They're going to be some big shoes to fill but I think I'm up for the challenge.
Q: Were you familiar with him as a player?
A: Yeah, I saw him play and then I met him when I was down in L.A. for the rookie premiere and we exchanged numbers and talked a little bit, so yeah, I was pretty familiar with him.
Q: You thought you'd be his teammate at the time right?
A: Yeah.
Q: Was the expectation in the receivers' room that he would be back here?
A: I wouldn't say that. We really weren't worrying about it at the time. We were moving off whoever was in the room at the time but I think pretty much they thought he was going to come back after the knee injury and re-sign with them but that wasn't the case.
Q: How familiar are you now with that role and with the responsibilities of the slot guy in this offense?
A: I'm a little shaky. I'm still learning. We had probably a week and a half, two weeks, I'm still trying to learn the whole playbook and stuff. So I'm just learning day by day at practice.
Q: They played you on the outside some. What has the distribution been between playing inside and outside?
A: It has pretty much been on the play call that Coach Gilbride calls. Sometimes I line up outside, sometimes I go in the slot and move inside, but it really doesn't matter.
Q: How ready are you to play a game?
A: I know the basic stuff. I pretty much understand the basic stuff. Little bit of the other terminology and stuff I'm still working on but I think I'm pretty much ready.


If you stick around here long enough, you will see that Mr. King and I are passionate about training our little people! One of the areas that we are training in is doing tasks/chores/upkeep of our "ship." Three years ago we were conflicted about whether or not to give an allowance for bed making, room cleanliness, and the like. Today we stand in a much different place. Our family is a team. This team has to work together to maintain order and peace in our home. So EVERYONE has responsibilities depending on their age. Therefore we do not give an allowance for the upkeep in our home. However, we do reward or give an allowance for that which is above and beyond their day in day out "jobs." They LOVE being able to receive money for helping Daddy with yard work and things of that sort!
I also gave him photos of our bathroom, laminated them, and put them on a ring so that he can visually see what needs to be done and what product/cloth to use on that part of our bathroom. On the flip side I described what to do. This little check list of cards is also in his supply basket.
I am looking forward to the day when I can "leave" little C to this without assistance.
Cheers to one more thing off of my load and all the while teaching and training my little people.
Wow, ya'll put my parenting to shame. Great example!
Please, y'all have great kids! You can do this too.
What a creative idea!!! I might have to do this too!!


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GUEST BLOG BY CHUK OBASI: An Artist on Top of the World – Remembering Bobby Kashif Cox
Chuck Obasi performs The Actual Dance and also serves as Arts & Humanities Program Assistant, at Intersections International. The blog first appeared on Intersections' blog.
One night during Memorial Day weekend of 2014, my friend Bobby and I stood on the roof of a skyscraper residential building on 72nd street. As our friends and family partied around us and fireworks went off in the distance, we looked down upon New York City. I said to him, "Everything that we want is within reach, bro." He agreed. Bobby, an aspiring filmmaker and music producer, was excited about new connections he was making in the television industry, and new material he had written that was generating a very positive response. I had just returned from Memphis where my first full-length play, Uniform Justice, (which I had written and directed) had completed a successful run. We each felt like we were on top of the world, literally and figuratively. That night, Bobby and I promised each other that we would only go higher from there. We promised we would push each other to stay focused, creative, and passionate.
Bobby Kashif Cox, or BKC, as my former neighbors from the Harlem brownstone where I met my wife would sometimes call him… or Kashif, which most of his other friends would call him. The names we called him helped to differentiate which circle of friends we belonged to… and he had a whole lot of friends. I met him in that Harlem Brownstone, shortly after he met Jenny, the woman who lived above me whom I planned to marry someday.
By Memorial Day of 2016, Bobby was months into a bout with stage four colon cancer. He was scared, but strong, wanting to get back to being his creative self. I was scared too. Actually, I couldn't fully articulate what I was feeling, still searching for ways to come to terms with what was happening. That February I wrote a blog (Artist Fighting Cancer) about his fight in an effort to both process it for myself, as well as bring awareness to the combined efforts of his loved ones to raise funds to support his living and medical costs. I had recently been cast in a one-man play called The Actual Dance — a play about a man's journey in coming to terms with his wife's diagnosis and battle with breast cancer. I dedicated that role to him. He wasn't able to see the performance, but he was with me in spirit. And so when that premiere performance in June 2016 was met with a standing ovation from a nearly sold-out audience, Bobby and I were once again on top of the world.
Riding a wave of love and support, BKC would continue to grab for whatever was within reach. After aggressive chemotherapy he got well enough to resume working. When he could, he would meet Jenny and me at restaurants and bars and we would catch up with laughter and crazy stories and sports talk and politics talk and music talk. We would check in with each other about our passion, and confirm that we were still climbing.
This past Memorial Day, Jenny and I visited Bobby at his home in Far Rockaway, NY. By this time his health had regressed as the chemo therapy lost its effectiveness, along with any other option to eliminate his tumors. He had about three weeks to live. I read to him a new poem that I was relieved to have just finished writing after a week of writers block, called "Light." A poem I would be presenting in Las Vegas less than a week later, but this was the first time I had read the words out loud. I cried as I read it, as parts were so relevant to what I was feeling in regard to Bobby, especially the last few lines:
Light up the whole universe like a comet, your coronation is now
We'll meet you at the horizon
We won't be there forever but our light will ever be shining
Because energy never dies
With potential so immeasurable
That to fathom such size
Our only option would be to look to the skies.
A poet himself, Bobby loved it, saying the piece made him think of one of his favorite poets, Langston Hughes. As the three of us talked, I kept wondering how we would fulfill the promise we made to each other three years prior. There is so much that we are supposed to do here, yet he is dying at the age of 33. At one point Jenny stepped out of the room and Bobby said to me, "I have so much that I still want to say." I replied, "I know."
That afternoon we all danced together—right there in his room—Me, Jenny, BKC, and his younger sister. Bobby got the party started. He picked up the remote, turned the channel to BET, and lifted his arms to the music. Next thing you know, we're line dancing as Bobby is recording it all on his phone. He joked that he'd be on his feet with us if the tumor wasn't holding him down. This energy of Bobby's that lit up the room, that lit up the universe for 33 years, will never die.
The morning of June 14, 2017, Jenny told me that Bobby had passed away. I no longer get to push him to be focused, creative, and passionate, although he continues to push me. Kashif has gone higher, though. Higher than I imagined. To a place where he can continue to live in the hearts of those who love him, his spirit embracing us from every direction. BKC is on top of the world. I love him, and I miss him deeply, and I will cherish him and channel his passion as best as I can. I am proud of who he was on this Earth, and grateful to have been a part of his world. These feelings replace the fear I had a long time ago. These feelings will allow me to continue climbing, with hopes to eventually catch up with Bobby at a new horizon.


Some members of the Nigerian police have again killed another innocent youth in her prime.
While one of the victims, a 20year old lady was shot dead on the spot, the boy who was with her, is left fighting for his life in the hospital.
This comes barely a month, after some officers of the Special Anti-Cultism Squad killed a young football fan in Lagos.
The incident was said to have occurred while the victims were returning from a night club.
The officers involved are Inspector Adamu Usman Sergeant Adeyeye Adeoye, Sergeant Kashim Tijani (4) Sergeant Lucky Akigbe and Sergeant Paul Adeoye while, and one is reportedly at large.
Inspector Dania Ojo was said to have escaped from the scene immediately after the shooting incident in Ajegunle, d has been declared wanted by the Lagos State police Command.
The Lagos state commissioner of police was said to have responded swiftly to this incident and made arrests of the officers involved in the shooting in Ajegunle — While he vowed that officers involved will be dealt with to deter others.
@PoliceNG @PoliceNG_CRU ur men have killed two people at ajegunle. You guys are starting a war you won't win. Nigerians are becoming angry. Call your men to order. Call ur men to order. When it starts, don't say you don't know why.
Just yesterday we had about the killing of a 20yr old girl and a Guy battling for his life with no provocation by Policemen attached to Trinity Police station Ajegunle.
The post Ajekunle Killing: Youths threaten to take laws into their own hands appeared first on INFORMATION NIGERIA.


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Rome on Rome
Lazio-Rome
Forti dei Marmi and Carrara
Modena-Parma
Pompeii and Herculanium
Capri and Ischia
Piedmonte
Cinque Terre, Sestre Levante and Portovenere
Sanremo and Albenga
Trieste, Udine, Aquileia
Trapani and Erice
Selinunte, Segesta and Agrigento
Palermo and Monreale
Noto and Ragusa
Mt Etna and Catania
Istrian Peninsula
Castille-La Mancha
Lisbon and Sintra
Thessoloniki
Cyclade Islands
Ephesus, Bodrum and Aegean Coast
Provence-Alps Maritime
Dordogne-Perigord
Northern UK
Tunis, Carthage, Cap Bon
Kairouan, El Djem
Sbeitla (Sufetula)
Aukland and the north island
Traveling with one carry on bag
Lazio – Rome
Venice and the Veneto
Emila-Romagna: Bologna, Modena, Parma, Ferrara, Ravenna, Rimini
Campania: Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast
Liguria and the Cinque Terre
Piedmont (Piemonte) and Turin (Torino)
Lombardy: Milan and the Lakes
Friuli: Trieste, Udine, Acquileia
Thessolaniki
Catalonia: Barcelona, Costa Brava, Tarragona
Balearic Islands: Majorca
Cantabria: Altamira and the prehistoric caves
Basque: San Sebastian and Bilbao
Castile-La Mancha: Toledo, La Mancha, Cuenca
Andalusia: Granada, Cordoba, Ronda, Seville, Costa del Sol
Rhone and Burgundy
Central/Eastern Europe
Aegean Coast
Rajastan and Agra
North Island – New Zealand
2010 – Andalucia; Costa Del Sol, Jerez, Carmona, Cordoba, Seville
Posted on July 26, 2010 December 9, 2014 by jrome
We've been flying a lot of short hops around Europe. EasyJet is our favorite and they are usually very dependable but they had a problem getting a fuel truck to the plane in Milan and when it was all over, we arrived to the airport at Malaga close to 2 hours late. By the time we got to our rental apartment in Estepona on the Costa Del Sol, it was close to 12midnight. We had just enough time to drop the bags and head on over to the nearest hotel, the Grand Hotel Elba Estepona a few hundred feet away. We sat on the piano bar deck, and listened to waves slapping the shore while we enjoyed a few cold beers and iced campari and potato chips. They closed the bar around 1am and kicked us out.
The next morning we awoke to the sounds of the waved crashing against the beach that was less than 100′ from the bedroom window.
This is a really great apartment on Arena (Spanish for sand) Beach in Estepona. There are two spacious bedrooms, two large bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, a large terrace overlooking the beach and Mediterranean sea. There is a good washing machine and really fast, non-stop Internet. If you're looking for an apartment on the Costa del Sol, I highly recommend this one. The owner, Vicky Churchill lives in the UK. This is her holiday home. she keeps it in really good condition and we were very happy to find it.
Arena Beach is technically located in the town of Estepona, once a small fishing village, now a big fishing town with a population of 60,000, probably twice that much during the summer months. The 23km of sandy beach is an attraction for people from all over the world.
Estepona grew up after the big urbanization of neighboring Marbella got too crowded. We stayed in Marbella a few years ago. It's a lot more relaxed here. In the 1990, the Walt Disney Corporation was very serious about making Estepona the site of EuroDisney, but in the end the French managed to convince them to build the park outside of Paris, a location that was probably better for Disney and a lot better for us here in Estepona.
The area has the usual Andalusian history, Moorish invasion and occupation, Christian reclamation in the 15th century. There are remnants of the old times on the coast with old pirate lookout towers and abandoned crumbling fortresses but these days most of the Costa Del Sol is filled with what is known as urbinizacion, condo developments and beautiful ports with boat slips and restaurants.
In the heart of old Estepona town is a quaint stroll through the old streets that close down everyday from 12:30p – 5p for the long Spanish siesta. It's too hot during the day to do anything but sleep. The streets don't really see life again till way after 10pm.
Around 5pm everyone hits the beach for cocktails, strolls and snacks along the beach. Boats trolling for sardines during the days have brought the catch in around 5pm the beach is loaded with beach pits grilling the fresh catch for bar bites. A cold beer and a warm sardine is the perfect way to bring in the evening.
At the other end of town is the Bullfighting Ring (every town worth it's reputation has one) and the port, where fishing boats still come in every morning with their catch, the restaurants troll for diners at night.
Sunday is a big outdoor market at the Port. It's the usual handicrafts market but we managed to find the authentic Panama hat table (the hats are traditionally made in Ecuador). We got a 20-minute lecture on Panama Hats and why Sean Connery looks like a vegetable wearing his Borsolino/Charlie Chan hat. Gretchen looks fabulous in her new Plantation style (authentico) Panama.
Jerez del la Frontera
From our apartment on Arenal Beach it's about 130 km northwest to Jerez de la Frontera, the fifth largest city in Andalusia, which doesn't sound like a lot but it does have a substantial population of 206,000 people.
Most of the old central city is designated pedestrian zone, which was great while we were walking but not so great when you're walking but not so great when you're trying to get in or out of town. The looks from the locals as we drove the wrong way down small pedestrian streets were priceless.
The fame of Jerez lies with its Andalusian horses, Flamenco dancing and the famous fortified wine. We call it Sherry. They call it Jerez. Actually, only the English speakers of the world are the only ones who call it Sherry because the English just have to anglicize everything they like. For Spain, Portugal, Italy, France it's Xeres (pronounced hair-reth, of hair-res). The name goes back to the Phoenician settlement, Xeres. Over the years the name Xerez and Jerez became synonymous with the protected Domain of Origin stamp. Any wine named Jerez, Xeres or Sherry and must come from this area.
Jerez (Sherry) is basically white wine (from Palomino, Pedro Ximenez or Moscatel grapes) fortified with brandy. Fortified wines last a lot longer and were a favorite of sailors back in the 15th and 16th centuries. Columbus traveled with casks of sherry on his voyage to the new world. Magellan supposedly spent more money on sherry than weapons when he prepared his ships to sail around the world. After Francis Drake and his pirates sacked Cadiz, he brought 2,900 barrels back home to London. The English were hooked. By the 17th century, it was the most popular alcoholic drink in Europe.
The types range from the lighter Fino to Amontillado the darker Oloroso. We got lost in the old Barrio San Miguel and stumbled upon the very famous sherry bar, Tabanco San Pablo. We knew it was famous because as we were inside the local news station was airing a story on the bar and the owner Jesus Munoz, the same guy who served us a few ice-cold glasses of the Oloroso. Yes, it was quite tasty and packed a powerful buzz.
Jerez is filled with all the world famous Jerez (sherry) bodegas from Sandeman to Harvey's Bristol cream. The biggest bodega however is Tio Pepe, the largest sherry house in Europe. Unfortunately, we never made to the tour. It was one of those decisions I regretted later but now we a reason to go back. Mostly I wanted to see the famous drunken mice bouncing off the casks and the famous Ratonero Bodeguero Andaluz (a rat terrier that kind of looks like a Jack Russell terrier) bred to chase after them. I can't believe we didn't stop in.
Fortified wines do come from many countries. Sherry and Madeira wines come from Spain, Port wine from Portugal and Marsala and Vermouth from Italy. They are classic wines used for sipping and cooking. In America, we also have fortified wines; MD 20/20, Thunderbird, Wild Irish Rose, Night Train and a few others. They are mostly used to keep poor alcoholics asleep on the sidewalks of our cities.
The Equestrian school was another place we didn't visit. It's the second most famous in Europe. The first is the Spanish School in Vienna, where the famed Lipizzaner Stallions were originally bred from Andalusian stock.
The art of fine horsemanship and dressage has been associated with the Spanish for a long time, especially with Andalusian and Arab horses. They've been a favorite of the Royalty and Military leaders from the time of the Carthaginians to the Romans, Moors, Spanish and eventually the entire known world.
What we did see in Jerez though was the old Moorish Alcazar, the accent is on the second syllable by the way, Alcazar.
This 11th century Moorish fortress is in great condition although we don't know if it was well maintained or restored. The minaret was turned into a bell tower when the Christians claimed it in the 1264.
The Moorish baths might be the most complete 11th century Arab baths we've ever seen. All three chambers (hot, warm and cool) are still well defined and could easily be restored to work again. The gardens are lush, filled with cooling pools and olive trees. The peaceful small mosque is just the right size for a small family. A couple of old olive presses added in the 17th or 18th century are also on display. One was used to make olive paste, the other to press the oil. They were enormous and probably managed a large production in their day.
The real treat here was the Camera Oscura, which has nothing to do with the fortress but we were glad it was there. The device gives a 360° view of the city from a pair of small magnifying lenses and a rotating mirror, projected through a periscope like tube onto a concave white bowl surface below. It's the original Google earth, except that these images are living. You can see birds fly by, trees and laundry flutter in the wind. You can probably see what's going on in the apartments across the street as well. So far, no one as of yet has complained of invasion of privacy.
We left the beach and drove through the beautiful Serrania di Ronda Mountains past Ronda and into the area of Los Pueblos Blanco, the small white villages. It's an easy decision what color to paint your house.
At the exit to Carmona we ended up on a road more filled with more potholes than tar. We were in the country. We bounced around for the next 20km but finally arrived in this small city, once the summer home of King Pedro of Castile (Pedro the Cruel) in the 14th century. I wrote about Pedro in the 2009 Seville blog.
Carmona was once an old Roman city. The remains of a Roman necropolis and an amphitheatre were discovered here in 1881. It's also the site of one of the bloodiest battles of 9th century Arab against Arab when over 7,000 troops of the Abbasid Arabs from Bagdad attacked the 700 Umayyad Moors of Abd-ar Rahman held inside the fortress. More willing to die in a fight than starve inside the fortress, the mighty 700 of Abd-ar Rahman destroyed the Abbasids, cut off the heads of their leaders and sent them back to Mecca preserved in salt. It's kind of like the the Alamo with a different ending.
Carmona is one of those villages much easier to walk than to drive. The streets are really narrow. It's a beautiful Andalusian town with a couple of Moorish fortress, a lot of Baroque churches, an archeology museum, the Roman Necropolis and a really beautiful Parador Hotel.
Adding to all of this is the "Ruta de las tapas", a group of 17 local restaurants and tapas bars that have gained the right to bear the blue and white "route of the tapas" tile outside their restaurant as if it was a Michelin Star. We have no idea what it takes to get a blue tile, tapas obviously, but the places range from a hole in the wall bar to the grand dining hall of the Parador.
With all this going on we thought it would be a great stop for a couple of days and it would have been it wasn't so hot. We are in the frying pan of Spain. Average temperatures this time of year hover around 40°C (around 104°F). The only air movement is from the wings of the flies and they buzz by your head. The heat has driven the entire town inside. They don't come back out till close to 10pm when it just starts to cool off.
There are two Alcazars (Moorish Fortress/Palaces) in Carmona. Our hotel, the Alcazar del la Reina was neither of them. In looks like an old Patrician home that was converted into a hotel back in the 1970's and supposedly renovated again a few years ago. The price of a room was very good, so inexpensive we sprang for the grand Suite Azul. The room was clean, the furniture was a reproduction of 1930's style and there was a good Internet connection. We probably would have been happy there if the AC functioned better. The poor AC just couldn't keep up with the demand from the heat. By the end of the stay we wished we booked a room in the Parador.
We ventured out for dinner around 8:30p and finally stopped at a small relaxed bar called Taberna El Cubete with the coveted blue and white "Route of the Tapas" tile outside the door. Their specialty is "queso ardiente", spicy deep fired cheese balls, but they were out of them. Instead we got a goat cheese cooked in peppery oil and some deep fried sardines (boquerones) with a mild Spanish style crème fraise.
Next we walked over to the Parador of Carmona and watched the sprawling Vega with a couple of cold beers before walking down the street to Molino de la Romera, an old converted oil mill now another of the famous (blue tile) tapas restaurants. We had some salmorejo al estilo Cordobes (a Cordoba style gazpacho), espinacas al estilo de Carmona (spinach and chickpeas cooked in olive oil and garlic), some sweet aceitunas de las casa (Sevillian olives with chickpeas) and a big piece of veal entrecot or what the Spanish call "Capea". It was an excellent meal.By 11:30pm we started walking back to the hotel and started hearing the voices of children and adults coming out. It was finally cooling down.
We spent a lot of time in Cordoba in 2007 but we never got into the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos (Alcazar of the Christian Kings). Any excuse to come back here is worth it.
Alcazar comes from the Arabic word Alqasr, or Palace. Although there are some remains of the Arab palace in the fortifications and the Arab baths, most of the fortress is from the 13th-15th-century Spanish Reconquista.
The Alcazar was one of the primary residences of Isabella and Ferdinand in the 15th century and, supposedly, it was inside of these stonewalls the details of the expedition to the new Americas were put into place.
During the inquisition of 1482, purging Spain of all Arabs and Jews, the Alcazar was converted into interrogation and torture chambers.
Boabdil, the last of the Moor Caliphs was imprisoned here in 1483. In 1810, Napoleon's troops used the fortress as an Army garrison. It became a prison again until in the 1950's. Now, it's a €4 ticket (free on Fridays) for a walk around the parapet and a great view of the city. There are some old roman mosaic floors that were discovered in 1959 on display, but mostly it's an hour of walking in some really great old history.
After a bowl of cool salmorejo (Cordoba style gazpacho) and a stroll through the small shops around the old Jewish quarter (shops like these must have been here since the 10th century) we made our pilgrimage to the largest Mosque in Europe (well now converted into a Cathedral).
The Mezquita is an enormous hall filled with giant architectural double arches supporting the soaring roof and over 850 columns of jasper, marble, granite and onyx from an old Roman Temple that support the arches. It's one of those mouth open gaping experiences every time we come into this place. I wrote a lot about the Mezquita in our 2007 visit.
In the center of the Mezquita is the Church, officially known as the Church of Assumption of the Virgin. It is a beautiful 15th century church but it just looks totally out of place in this peaceful Islamic prayer hall. But then if it weren't for the conversion of the mosque into the cathedral, the whole building would have probably been torn down during the Inquisition of 1482.
The Catholic reconquistas also left the Mirhab, the original niche of a mosque that point to the direction of Mecca. It's not used anymore but it's well lit and part of the history of the building. The Mirhab of the Mezquita has a pretty unusual history as well. Mecca is east-southeast of the Mirhab but the Mirhab actually points due south. The legend is that the builder of the original mosque, Abd-ar-Rahman, the Falcon of Andalus, directed the Mirhab to point towards Damascus instead of Mecca because the Umayyad Arabs (of which he was one) fled to Damascus from Mecca in 750 after political coup. Since Damascus was the new center of their kingdom, the Mirhab pointed to Damascus.
Our next hotel, the Hacienda de San Rafael is about 45 minutes south of Seville, on the outskirts of a small town called Las Cabezas de San Juan (Saint John's Hills). It's pretty flat except for the couple of Cabezas off in the distance.
It's really hot, there are lots of flies, and the rooms are built with sleeping lofts. Yes, hot air rises into the even hotter sleeping lofts. We were told that in this part of Spain you need three hands, one just to shoo away the flies.
But insectos aside, and, even the air conditioning can't keep up with the heat. The Hacienda and the grounds are really beautiful and relaxing. I just think July might not be the right time to come to here. I can imagine how ideal this property would be in late September/October or in May/June. There are three swimming pools, the staff is extremely attentive and we were upgraded to one of the small houses or "casitas" with a thatched"chozo" roof with a sleeping loft. Thatching a roof was common all over Europe over a thousand years ago, but they're pretty rare these days. There is a lot of upkeep and of course, the fire concern, which is the main reason we don't see anything older than the 16th century in cities like Paris and London. Let's face it, when you have a city of thatched roofs, a city can burn up very fast.
The roofs of the "Casitas" seem very Yucatan to me. I don't know if the Spanish got the style from the new world or the new world got the style from the Spanish? It's definitely an old art form and probably difficult to find a good chozo craftsman. We were told it's a very restricted permit to build them because the thatching is protected. I'm also pretty sure you can't build them in a very dense population.
It's quiet here, so quiet you can really notice what you don't hear; cars, electricity, people. We are spending our days sitting under a open sided thatched cabana hut, shaded from the sun (but not the heat or the flies). Our breakfast of rolls, juice and coffee is brought to the cabana every morning. In the mornings it's cooler outside than in the air conditioned Casita.
During the day we lay by the pool, cool off in the water, write, read, and swat flies. The temperatures are soaring. It's been about 47°C (117°F). It's summertime in Spain.
In the late afternoon/early evening we head north to Seville. We've been getting there around 6p-7p and the only people outside are the tourists. The temperature near the car park read 45°C (113°F) at 6pm. The Sevillianos know better. The small streets of the Barrio Santa Cruz are deserted.
The car park is next to the Hotel Alfonso XIII, a grand Mudejar style hotel built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition. It's now a Starwood property and it's really impressive. It's also less than a 10-minute walk to the Catedral, Alcazar, Giralda and the Barrio Santa Cruz.
Most of the remains of the 1929 fair are in the Maria Luisa Park on the other side of the Hotel King Alfonso XIII. When they built this fair, they built it to last a long time and there are quite a few of the '29 Fair buildings throughout the park. Some of them are now museums.
The centerpiece is the fantastical Plaza de Espana. This was the showpiece of the fair. It's sweeping arched faced has to be over ½ km wide, much too wide to get into one photo from my camera.
Plaza de Espana is a mix of art deco-mudejar design. There are countless porticos, towers and tiled bridges that once straddled a man made pond, which was being renovated during our visit..
The lower section of the facade is covered with ceramic tile illustration/allegories of the provinces of Spain.
The building is a wonderful backdrop of photographers. We saw them snapping off photos of themselves in front of their favorite tile province. It's also been the backdrop for some great films. It was the Cairo British Army HQ in David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" and the Naboo Palace in George Lucas's Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
Seville was once the wealthiest city in all of Spain. Between 1504 and 1649 during the "Discovery of the Americas" years, the money kept coming in by the boatloads, but in 1649, the plague wiped out ½ the city. Seville didn't really recover till the mid 1800's.
The Ibero-American Exposition in 1929 was going to put Seville back on the map. It did, but not in the way they planned. The 1929 Exposition was a major flop and almost bankrupted the city. For some bizarre reason, there was also a World's Fair in Barcelona in 1929. Yes, Barcelona is also in Spain. Now that's what I call really bad planning. How could they not know?
We were here in Seville last year (2009). This year we came back to see the Plaza Espana, explore more of the small streets, take in some window shopping along the Calle Sierpes and check out the tapas bars. Tapas Bars make perfect sense in this heat. A cold glass of beer and a small taste is much better than a fill up. Seville is famous as one of the best tapas bar cities in Spain.
In our few days in Seville, we sampled small plates from at least six tapas bars, ranging from pulpo a la Gallega (grilled octopus) to chupa chups (meatballs, cheese and ham), empinades de pollo (fried chicken), something called a Greek salad, Salmorejo (the Cordoba version of gazpacho), lomo a la cerveza (beef cooked in beer), pringa (shredded beef and cabbage on toast), batatas com anchovas ao vinagre (potatoes with fresh anchovies and vinegar), brochetas del pollo marroqui (Moroccan style chicken and onion skewers), bacalao ahumado (smoked cod), costillas a la miel (ribs in honey), pollo en adobo (chicken marinated in vinegar from Jerez) and habas con jamon (ham and white beans), calmares al a romana (deep fried calamari) and gambas al ajillo (shrimp in garlic sauce) to name a few. There were others I have no idea what they were. At the Bodeguita Cassablanca (our absolute favorite tapas experience) we were invited to join Jose and Vittoria at their table. Jose lived in the US for a couple of years and loved introducing us to all kinds of weird things to eat. They kept on coming.
Of all the tapas bars we ate at, the two we recommend are:
Bodeguita Casablanca on Calle Adolfo Rodriguez Jurado 12, across the Avenida de la Constitucion from the Archives Indios next to the Catedral,
Cerveceria La Giralda – on Calle Mateos Gago 2, just off the main square by the Catedral and the Giralda tower.
El Riconcillo – Calle Gerona 40, Seville, a 4 minute walk from the Hospes Las Casas Del Rey De Baez. This is a really beautiful step back into old Seville. The tapas bar is always crowded but you can also get a table in the dining room. It's an amazing meal.
We love driving through Spain, there are amazing vistas, mountains ranges, white villages, old Moorish castles, old Spanish castles, large old roadside cafes and every once in a while you're treated to a 50' tall black bull silhouetted against the sky. There are currently 89 of these bulls around Spain. The image has kind of become the National Symbol. It originated in 1956 from the Osborne Sherry Company to advertise their Brandy de Jerez. In 1994, the Spanish government finally put an end to the large billboards and most of them came down but after support from some local groups the 89 that remain were saved from destruction.
2009 – Andalucia; Granada, Ronda, Seville
2010 – Andalucia; Gibraltar and the UK
2007 – Andalucia Spain
Posted in Andalusia, Carmona, Cordoba, Costa del Sol, Jerez de la Frontera, Seville, SpainTagged carmona, cordoba, costa, del, jerez, seville, sol, spain
This site is filled with historical anecdotes, observations and photos. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Jonathan Rome & Gretchen Van Horne
Ancient Monuments of Rome
Roman Portraits
April in Rome
Ancient water and the Park of the Aqueducts
Pausylipon: Imperial Villa, ancient tunnels and eels
The most beautiful Piazza in Rome
A great day in the ancient city – 2016
The Walls and Gates of Rome
Finding Pompey's Theater in the Campo Marzio
Saving the Mausoleum of Augustus
Nero's Golden Palace is Open (Again) – 2014
The Pantheon and Piazza della Rotondo
The Coliseum – Fact and Fiction
The curious tale of the Laocoön and his sons
Secrets of the Castel Sant'Angelo
Churches and Architecture of Christian Rome
Vicus Scelerata and the Evil Steps
Mussolini's Architectural Legacy in Rome
Christmas in Rome
2006 – Rome; Christmas, Zampognari and Santo Bambino
"Saints be Praised" – The Relics of Rome
Byzantine treasures of Rome
Modern Rome
The (not so Spanish) Spanish Steps
September in Rome – 2015
The Life and Death of Via dei Fori Imperiali: 1932-2015
Take the A train to Cinecittà
Protect yourselves against Con Artists, Pickpockets and Thieves of Rome
Eating well in Italy (the more you know, the less you pay)
Attack on Rome!
2013-Rome; A day in the life of a great city
2013-Rome; Everything Old is New Again
Cucina Romana – the tradition of eating in Rome
'Sampietrini' – The streets of Rome
Mysteries and Legends of Rome
Great Caesar's Ghost, Rome is Haunted
Satire, Graffiti and Talking Statues
Legends of the Trevi Fountain
Following the Roman Empire
Greece and the Roman Empire
Athens in the Roman Empire
Ancient Greece in Sicily – Akragas (Agrigento)
Ancient Greece in Sicily – Segesta vs. Selinunte
Ancient Greece in Sicily – The rise of Syracuse
Provence – The Roman Province along the via Domitia
Provence – The Roman Province along the via Agrippa
Provence – The Roman Province along the via Julia
Emerita Augusta – Mérida, Spain
Verona: Ancient Rome, Medieval Warlords and Romeo and Juliet tourism
Istanbul and Ancient Constantinople
2013-Thessaloniki, Byzantine city on the Gulf of Salonica
Croatia; Split and Trogir
2010 – Rome, Tivoli, Tarquinia and Centrale Montemartini
2007 – Ephesus and the Aegean Coast of Turkey
2006 – Western Sicily; Palermo and the ruins of Magna Grecia
2003 – Sicily; Mt Etna, i Ciclopi, Piazza Armerina, Enna, Siracusa, Taormina
2000 – Pompeii and Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast
Museums and Monuments of Rome
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We do the Romans a disservice if we heroize them, as much as if we demonise them. But we do ourselves a disservice if we fail to take them seriously – and if we close our long and complicated conversation with them. ---Mary Beard--
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text:
Q: Placing data frame chart in tab This is my data frame
Date    Alarm   Count
0   2015-10-02  Adam    1
1   2015-01-02  David   4
2   2015-01-02  Adam    4
3   2015-12-02  Adam    0
4   2015-01-02  David   6
5   2015-08-02  Hardik  2
6   2015-03-02  David   4

Using this data frame I have created a stacked bar chart
df2 = pd.DataFrame ({i : [j for j in df['Count']] for i in df['Alarm']},index = [i for i in df['Date']])
df2.plot(kind = 'bar',stacked = True,figsize=(15, 5))

This is my output

Now I want to insert this plot in a tkinter notebook tab and want the legend name as "Name". How could I do that?

A: Try this:
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('TkAgg')
import numpy as np
from matplotlib.backends.backend_tkagg import FigureCanvasTkAgg
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from tkinter import *

window= Tk()

fig = Figure(figsize=(2,2))
a = fig.add_subplot(111)

df = pd.DataFrame({
    'Date': ['2015-10-02', '2015-01-02', '2015-01-02', '2015-12-02', '2015-01-02', '2015-08-02', '2015-03-02'],
    'Alarm': ['Adam', 'David', 'Adam', 'Adam', 'David', 'Hardik', 'David'],
    'Count': [1,4,4,0,6,2,4]})

df2 = pd.DataFrame ({i : [j for j in df['Count']] for i in df['Alarm']},index = [i for i in df['Date']])
df2.plot(kind = 'bar',stacked = True,figsize=(15, 5), ax=a)

a.set_title ("Name", fontsize=16)
a.set_xticklabels( df["Date"], rotation=0 )

canvas = FigureCanvasTkAgg(fig, master=window)
canvas.get_tk_widget().pack()
canvas.draw()

window.mainloop()

Output:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Home update I'm off on a Iceland Road Trip!
Hello everybody! As usual in the fall season, a road trip is planned here, and this time my friends and I have decided on Iceland. As you are reading this I am hopefully safely flying from Munich to Reykjavik. I just wanted to let you know that I will be off for the next 10 days until we are done with the "ring road" of Iceland. We have rented our car in Reykjavik and we will be off on a unpredictable adventure alongside fjords, towards volcanoes and glaciers and if we are lucky we will even spot the northern lights, which has been a long time dream of mine. Below is a map of our journey. Through My Lens is prepared ahead of time and will be live on Monday as usual. I hope to do an update post from my trip as well. For those of you who want to view images from my trip before the travel series starts can follow me on instagram and Facebook. I hope to write to you soon. Have a great weekend ahead!
Northern lights is on my bucket list too.
Oh my gosh, I can't wait to see your photos.
I am looking forward to seeing your photos from this exciting trip.


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My boyfriend committed suicide a little over four years ago. At the very beginning, several of my best friends have promised me that they would always be there for me.
Well, they disappeared after two ten minutes phone calls. I admit that at the very beginning of my grief journey, I was not a very "pleasant" (for lack of a better word) person. I screamed, cried, yelled, throwing myself self pity party, asked questions why why why. well, I was in shock. I understand not many people can handle this level of sadness. But these two are my best friends growing up, I've listening to them complaining about their boyfriends, they didn't even bother to give me some kind of comforts when I went through life crisis?
Today is July 4th holiday and one of these friends called me and asked if I wanted to hang out. Although we are still friends, I guess I still have some residual anger and unresolved issues towards her and the holiday just brings back so many bad memories..
If anything positive came out of grief, I have to say that I become a more compassionate person. I used to judge people by the way they behave, the things they say. But now, I am able to put myself in other people's shoes and try to be a little bit understanding towards people in general. We never know what happened in that person's life to make him or her that way.
My friend on the other hand still complain about her boyfriend. Sometimes, I just want to say, "At least you still have somebody alive to argue with."
I know my post is all over the places, I don't even know what point I am trying to make. I guess I just feel a little bit resentful because obviously, when I needed help and comfort the most, my best friends were not there for me.
"What do you need me to do, you are not the only one who has problems" That is what she said to me.
I guess she now believes that since I "got over" my lost loved one, we can be friends again. It is not that easy.
The fact that your friends didn't come over, bring some food, and cry in the bed with you for a few days is upsetting. I would do that for my friends and vice versa. Heck, they've even gone to therapy with me just for moral support.
I think you should get some new friends. Losing a boyfriend (whether or not you were in love) is a tragic incident, especially to suicide. Everyone changes their friends at certain milestones in their life. Those are usually: After high school graduation, after college graduation, after marriage, and after baby. I'm not sure how old you are, but I think you're in your 20s. It's probably time for a change. Good luck and keep your head up!
lilyflower, I too am sorry for your loss. Came to City-Data when my husband of 41 plus years went home to Heaven. Bless I am to have City-Data, believe even before this Thread. Most comforting, understanding folk.
I have learned, for me, want to talk about themselves, what is important at the moment, the events that are happening in their lives.
When I have had enough listening, find silence golden !
could keep up with me ! It brought laughter to everyone, was pleased though sorta hurt.
yes I feel abandoned I think people do not want to associate with death or do not know how to deal with it. It is not talked about much is it?
We should we really should talk about death more and console the mourning people more than we do. Years a go we catered to the mourning why has that changed?
This is sad but seems to be the norm. On one hand I been on the other side of a very depressed angry person and after awhile I could take it anymore. The anger and hate even though understandable just scared me.
Yet I been alone when I needed people. People have bailed on me too many times to count.
I been a very good friend to the few people I known in life. I think I do more and go beyond what most would do.
Yet no one seems to ever do that for me. Too old. Don't care anymore.
I am deeply sorry about your loss. I couldn't imagine how awful that was and how disappointing.
Friends should cry with you, be there...yet people often aren't.
Hate to think of death. I get actual medical attending panic attacks when I think of it too much. Usually being alone in the world. The thought terrifies me.
Lily, i am so sorry that you ran into such people, u deserve better. When i lost my pregnant soon to be wife in a car accident, the grief was unbearable. Now that i look back i think it was also unbearable for my love ones and good friends. Not because they had to be there for me or help me, but i think it was unbearable for them because ppl who truely love you never want to see a love one in pain or grieving, but most of the time they know they were really powerless in stopping the pain and grieving i was experiencing.
I know my family and friends shared my loss, for me and for themselves because they knew her. Its really hard and wears a person out to greive for a long period of time. There was times when my family said they were exaustted and needed a break. But were back after a few days to give support. Lily some ppl just can't handle feeling powerless and some are just selfish.
Lily, I'm sorry your friends have not been there for you. Perhaps some of this is because many people just don't know what to say when someone dies. It embarrasses them or makes them uptight. And death is unpleasant for some because it reminds them of their own mortality.
When I told people at work last year that my mom had passed, some of these people didn't even have grace to say, "I'm sorry." You'd think adults could at least be able to say those two simple words. The people on this Board are far more compassionate and understanding than anyone I know in my real life when it comes to grief and grieving. Probably because we all are here because we loved someone whom we have lost.
I don't like to think of my own death either but it's inevitable and reality so I don't get myself all shook up.
Being alone in the world is no picnic but I can think of many other different things that would be worse. You eventually get used to it and just live day to day.


House building rates in the West Midlands will have to more than triple for Birmingham to reach an ambitious target to deliver 70,000 new homes by 2026, and some development on green belt land is highly likely, it has been confirmed.
A projected figure for new-build of 3,500 dwellings a year is required to address a worsening housing shortage, according to planning experts. It would require construction at a rate rarely seen in the private sector since the post-war boom of the late 1950s.
Fewer than 1,000 homes a year have been built in recession-hit Birmingham during the past three years, while the average since 2004 is less than 2,000 new dwellings a year, according to the city council.
Birmingham Council leader Sir Albert Bore has set a provisional target of 70,000 new homes based on the latest research into population growth and likely demand for housing over the next 15 years.
However, there is only sufficient vacant land inside the city boundary to provide for about 43,000 new dwellings, leaving Birmingham with the tough challenge of persuading neighbouring councils in Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Solihull to accommodate some of the overspill.
Birmingham Council cabinet member for Development, Jobs and Skills, Tahir Ali, became the first member of the new Labour administration to admit publicly that the house building programme would probably involve building in the green belt when he told a full council meeting that incursion into the countryside "cannot be ruled out".
He hinted that the council might seek to re-draw the green belt boundary around Birmingham, which had hardly changed for 50 years. Provisions in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) allowing for changes to the green belt "where exceptional circumstances exist" could be invoked, Coun Ali added.
The NPPF requires the council to assess and meet the full extent of housing need using up to date projections of future demand. Research being conducted at the moment by local authority planners will be published later in the year.
The council's former Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition agreed to plan for about 50,000 new homes by 2026 under the Labour Government's Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) provisions. But the RSS has been abolished leaving councils free to decide housing targets.
Research presented at a public inquiry into the RSS showed that a target in excess of 60,000 new homes for Birmingham would involve building in the green belt. The inquiry also heard claims from house building organisations that the private sector was highly unlikely to be able to deliver as many as 500,000 new homes in the West Midlands by 2026.
The city council's new Labour leadership is making it clear that house building must be a priority.
A resolution proposed by Coun Ali and seconded by deputy council leader Ian Ward accused the former Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition of "wilfully ignoring" housing need in Birmingham, and pointed out that a much-publicised policy by the coalition to build council houses delivered only 406 new homes in eight years.
The resolution stated: "New housing is needed to provide homes for the people of Birmingham. It is also needed to support the economic growth of the city.
Projections for future demand in Birmingham coincide with a National Audit Office report showing that a Government drive to provide more social housing has seriously stalled. Nearly a fifth of contracts with providers to build affordable homes are not yet signed and more than half the dwellings will not be delivered until 2015, the final year of the programme.


Comment: If it ain't broke don't fix it. These are words to live by, yet so few of us actually subscribe to this simple philosophy. Buck & Badger sure didn't, but certainly should have.
The first time we went to B&B it was exemplary. From the food to the service, everything blew us away and we could hardly wait to come back. This time around it was a totally different story, and we left feeling disappointed and underwhelmed.
Instead of the haddock we were expecting our $14 went towards cod and while it arrived quickly it wasn't scalding hot like it should have been. White it wasn't cold or anything like that it definitely wasn't in the zone. Like the haddock we enjoyed previously the cod came as one large piece, and while it was flaky for the most part, there was some slickness between the fish and the batter. The batter itself was on the thick side, but since it was substantial it actually held up to the chunky cut of cod.
The skin-on fries were also not as impressive this time around as the portion had a lot of nubs and not as many full-cuts. It lead to a lot of pinching instead of plucking, which doesn't mean the world, but when I'm paying $14 it'd be nice to at least get a continent or two. The tartar was also disappointing as the mix was on the thin-side and lacked the zip we were expecting. It was good enough to make the fish more palatable, but simply couldn't take it over the top like it did on our last visit.
On our previous trip the rye was grilled to perfection, but this time around it was all over the place. Some parts were charred while other corners were still raw. It was somewhat strange and certainly not the righteous rye we remembered.
We really don't have any explanation for what happened on this visit to Buck & Badger and would definitely not have been back if this is what we would have gotten the first time around. Overall, we don't recommend this Fish Fry, but will likely come back for the rubber match at some point to see if they rebound. Hopefully this Fry was just a bad showing, and the haddock we had the first time is the rule and not the exception, but at this point we're not really sure what to think.


Nice EDC knife by Heidi Blacksmith. The handle is a bit wider than usual, which is for people with larger hands to the advantage. This knife with a stacked beech handle is a practical EDC knife which is quickly stowed away in your pocket.


This page contains a calendar of all 2019 school holidays and term dates for the Philippines. These dates are unlikely to be modified by the Department of Education (DepEd). However, please check back regularly for any updates that may occur.
The annual school calendar – which contains the dates of government school terms and school holidays in the Philippines – is determined by the Department of Education.
Visit deped.gov.ph for the original DepEd orders for school year 2018-2019.
The government school calendar year in the Philippines begins in June every year. However, private schools have the exception to deviate from the calendar as regulated by Republic Act No. 7797 entitled An Act to Lengthen the School Calendar from Two Hundred Days to Not More than Two Hundred Twenty Class Days.
Apart from the school holidays, all schools in the Philippines observe national and local holidays.