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ENTER THE PHOENIX!
September 28, 2020 November 17, 2020 Robert Slavinsky 0 Comments avengers, marvel, Marvel Comics, X-men
The Battle To Decide the Next Host of the Phoenix Begins this December
ONLY ONE WILL RISE! The infamous firebird of cosmic destruction and rebirth known as the Phoenix Force returns to Earth in the pages of Jason Aaron's AVENGERS this December. On the hunt for its next host, the Avengers and some of the most powerful heroes and villains in the Marvel Universe will engage in a globe-spanning competition that will ultimately decide…who will be the all-new Phoenix.
"The most iconic, primordial powers of the Marvel Universe have been central to my AVENGERS run. And few forces in the cosmos are more world-shaking and potentially world-destroying than the Phoenix Force. It's legacy on Earth goes back to the Stone Age, as we've seen, but we haven't seen much of the firebird in the present day. That's about to change in a very big way," Jason Aaron promises. "The Phoenix is back and in its spirit of fiery rebirth, it's seeking a brand new avatar. So begins the greatest tournament the world has ever seen, as some of Marvel's most powerful heroes and villains are called to battle for the right to become the all-new Phoenix. All will be transformed. But who will burn?"
As is tradition, the Phoenix Force graces its hosts with iconic new costumes. This time around, the cosmic designs come courtesy of superstar artist, Javier Garrón.
"Javier Garrón has been doing simply gorgeous work on the "Age of Khonshu," and now he's busy bringing to life the biggest, most powerful, more fiery group of Avengers we've ever seen," Aaron said about his extraordinary collaborator. "Plus a few really wild surprises."
Check out Leinil Yu's cover of AVENGERS #40 below and don't miss ENTER THE PHOENIX when it kicks off in AVENGERS #40 this December!
AVENGERS #40
Written by JASON AARON
Art by JAVIER GARRÓN
Cover by LEINIL YU
← VITA AYALA AND ROD REIS TAKE THE NEW MUTANTS ON A WILD RIDE IN THE AFTERMATH OF X OF SWORDS!
Keven Gardner From 12-Gauge Comics talks Thomas River! →


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Meet the innovative leaders behind
Zero Gravity Solutions, Inc.
Timothy A. Peach
CEO and CFO, Zero Gravity Solutions, Inc. CEO and CFO, BAM Agricultural Solutions, Inc.
Mr. Peach has over 20 years of finance and operations experience working with companies from development stage through significant revenue generation. His track record includes successful IPO and bond offerings, mergers, etc.
Raveendran Pottathil
CTO, Zero Gravity Solutions, Inc.
CTO, BAM Agricultural Solutions, Inc.
Dr. Pottathil is President of Accudx Inc., a strategic technology and consulting company. He has a 40-year history spanning academia, industry, invention, and company creation. He has successfully set up many Clinical Reference Laboratories in Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, and India.
Julie Bloch
Vice President, Communications
Julie Bloch is responsible for global communications for ZGSI. Her role includes oversight and structuring of both internal and external communications infrastructure and platforms as well as serving as communications counsel, support, advisor and resource for senior management.
Victor Robenson
Vice President, Business Development, Marketing and Sales
Mr. Robenson brings a wealth of experience and relationships to the Company as President and Founder of 3Phases Consulting, LLC, a strategic marketing and business development consulting company servicing a broad range of clients in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Harvey Kaye
Mr. Kaye has more than 40 years of experience in providing financing, strategic planning and administrative leadership as an entrepreneur, investment banker, chairman, CEO and director.
His track record includes successful IPO and bond offerings, mergers, acquisitions, integration and profit improvement. His track record includes successful IPO and bond offerings, mergers, acquisitions, integration and profit improvement.
Patrick Kennedy
Mr. Kennedy works closely with the company's management team, is active in the development of company strategies. He planted ZGSI's first experimental garden utilizing John W. Kennedy's formula which prompted the formation of BAM FX.
Ed Cowle
Following a ten year career on Wall Street, Ed Cowle has been starting, financing and advising small businesses for the past 20 years. Mr. Cowle is a Founder, Director and former Chief Executive Officer of US Rare Earths, Inc. (USRE) since 2009.
Michael T. Smith
Mr. Smith is the retired Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Hughes Electronics Corporation. He spent nearly 20 years with General Motors in a variety of financial management positions.
Soumyo Sarkar
Mr. Sarkar has served as Chief Executive Officer and Portfolio Manager of Sumit Capital LLC, an independent institutionally-orientated investment advisory firm since its founding in 2010.
Alexander M. Boies
Mr. Boies is currently employed as an associate at the Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP Law Firm in New York, NY wherein he works with a wide range of clients on complex litigation matters.
Rik Miller
Senior Strategic Agricultural Advisor
Former President, DuPont Crop Protection
Rik served on CropLifeTM International's Strategy Council and under appointment to the USDA Secretary of Agriculture's Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee.
Science Advisors
John L. Freeman, Ph.D.
Plant Scientist and Science Test Lead
Dr. John L. Freeman is currently a Plant Scientist and Science Test Lead at Intrinsyx Technologies Corporation at NASA-Ames in the Space Biosciences Botany Laboratory.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Star Wars: The Old Republic Deserves a Second Chance
January 21, 2016 June 11, 2021 Lisa Clark SWTOR
We are not the only ones who think SWTOR deserves a second chance from those who gave up on the game early on. While launch was a bit rocky, it's come a long way since then and the "hate" online seems to have died down some in recent months. Still, from time to time you'll see comments from people bashing on SWTOR who have not even given it a legitimate chance recently. I get it, first impressions are incredibly important. First impressions can really make or break a game sometimes. I've been there myself (many times). But SWTOR is truly a game that deserves a second chance if it's been some time since you last tried it (or if you know someone who quit and you think they might like it now).
This opinion piece from Philip Kollar at Polygon expresses it all quite well. Philip was a WoW nut like me, and looking for a new MMORPG to replace his Blizzard addiction. He gave up on SWTOR after a short-lived experience and taking his Imperial Agent only to level 30. But recently he returned and has some very good things to say about the latest edition of SWTOR.
Know someone who started but quit and want to encourage them to give it another go? You might want to direct them to this piece on Polygon. As he summarizes:
"If you played Star Wars: The Old Republic at launch and gave up, you owe it to yourself to give it another try. If you ever find yourself on the Empire side of the Harbinger server, come join my guild. We call ourselves Kylo Friends, and we're just playing through the story content and having a good time.
That's not the ideal great time I would have expected when this game launched, but I'm enjoying the hell out of it now."
Lisa Clark
Lisa has been an avid gamer since she was old enough to hold her first controller and a game writer for more than a decade. A child of the Nintendo generation, she believes they just don't make games like they used to but sometimes, they make them even better! While consoles will always be her first love, Lisa spends most of her gaming time on the PC these days- on MMOs and first-person shooters in particular.
Episode VII Stormtrooper in EA Battlefront Files?
Top 10 Worst Star Wars Games of all times


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Books Fiction Interviews
Julia Armfield: 'salt slow is about women and bodies and the ways in which our bodies contain us and betray us'
No Comments on Julia Armfield: 'salt slow is about women and bodies and the ways in which our bodies contain us and betray us'
This interview is also available as an exclusive supporter-only podcast – become a supporter on Patreon.
Julia Armfield's short story collection salt slow opens with "Mantis", a story about a teenage girl whose body is changing. But unlike her peers', her body is changing in a more unexpected, more monstrous way.
As the girls around her grow "alien, deeper-voiced and softer-boned beneath the surface, foreign objects with their sudden hips and waists", she begins shedding: her teeth, her hair, her skin. While preparing for a Saturday night party, she says her mother "fixes my face with lipstick and black liner, attaches artful strands of tape beneath my wig to keep my eyes upright. 'There you are,' she says, 'red-carpet ready.'" For the other girls around her these changes – to their bodies, to the way they make-up their outward appearance – apparently facilitate a single "conquest": to satiate their "frenetic…hunger". For this mantis, there is still a hunger, "not for kissing but for something more in keeping with my genes."
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"Mantis" rather neatly sums up what you're getting with salt slow, a book that Armfield would describe as "very much about women and bodies and the ways in which our bodies contain us and betray us. Not so much a collection of dystopian stories, but rather very realistic things looked at at a slight squint. That's kind of the way I like to describe the way I write generally."
While salt slow was on commission, Armfield won the 2018 White Review short story prize with "The Great Awake" a story that features in the collection and which you can read for yourself online. In it, the inhabitants of a city lose their "Sleep", ghost-like creatures who free those they have left of the need to sleep at all. The story touches on many themes, particularly the very metropolitan sense that sleep is for the weak and that time should be used productively – to progress we need to work. Of "The Great Awake" Armfield says, "Some people have suggested it's the least symptomatic of the general tone, but it doesn't represent a particular departure for me. But that's what some people say."
Tonally, I don't think this story is a great departure – it's dark, the fantastic and bizarre bleeds into reality, and it examines a very contemporary issue. But it is, perhaps, a thematic departure. Because, for the most part, the stories in salt slow could be described using a term that is being used for a number of new literary works: feminist horror. As any readers of ghost stories or the gothic will know, feminist horror isn't a new concept, but Armfield represents a new generation of writers who are using literary horror to write about women.
With the publication of salt slow, Armfield has entered into a group of writers who have debuted with short story collections of dark, modern-gothic writing (if not outright horror) with major publishers, alongside the likes of Daisy Johnson (Fen), Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties), and Kristen Roupenian (You Know You Want This). "I reread the first story of Fen every single time I'm trying to write, I just think it's completely majestic," says Armfield. There would have been a time when it seemed unlikely a major publisher would wish to pick up a short story collection, let alone one as tonally dark as these, but I think this speaks to just how relevant – and exquisite – these works are.
But how did Armfield find herself publishing a short story collection as her debut? At the age of 21 ("too early for anybody to be trying to successfully write a novel"), she was on one of the first Curtis Brown creative writing courses. "I was always getting incredibly bored and giving up at around the 10,000 word mark, I couldn't maintain this level of focus. So short stories became, essentially, me throwing an enormous strop one day and deciding that I wanted to do anything that I could actually finish and, therefore, anything which I could claim some validation from purely by the process of having finished. That's how I ended up writing the first story in salt slow, 'Mantis', which I wrote in a couple of days in an absolute rage, and it felt so good to finish something. Short stories allows you a way of looking at what might be considered the same world just from lots and lots different lenses. And for me, it kind of circumvents the the fear of boredom, which happens to me when I try to write novels, which is great because I'm trying to write a novel at the moment."
As someone who has been quoted in an older Guardian interview as thinking The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is "beautiful and weird", it would be hard to not talk about horror. What is Armfield's relationship with horror?
"My relationship with horror is that if I was only able to watch one genre of movie for the rest of my life, I would watch horror movies. And I find them bizarrely comforting. I find them the perfect film medium and I find horror writing comparatively… not difficult to find because there is so much good horror writing, but horror writing is comparatively something that I haven't come across as often. And I don't know, I think that so much of the time when I'm trying to write horror, I'm not emulating horror writing that I've read, I'm emulating horror movies."
salt slow ends with the story the collection takes its name from. A woman, in a relationship that echoes words of wisdom passed down from her mother, "Fall in love with someone who makes you ache," finds herself lost at sea with her partner, drifting as they scavenge for food to satisfy the "vast silence of his hunger", and to feed her and the baby she will give birth to she doesn't know when. As they drift, they notice the increasing and monstrous size of the creatures they encounter, above and below them, and they sleep, trying to ignore the "groan of creatures below. Things down there, growing." Later they encounter an almost-Lovecraftian creature of unimaginable size rising from the water, "Tentacles the colour and consistency of candlewax", of comfort to her and of fear to him.
Armfield cites Lovecraft as an inspiration to her as a writer, "I love that balance he has of the completely straight-faced and the absolutely insane. There are so many unpleasant creatures and nastiness, but always kind of on the fringes of this very straight face. He's so important to me as a horror writer."
Reading Armfield's superb debut collection, that influence is clear.
salt slow by Julia Armfield is published by Picador. Buy the book.
Tags Carmen Maria Machado, Daisy Johnson, Fen, H. P. Lovecraft, Her Body and Other Parties, Julia Armfield, Kristen Roupenian, salt slow, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, You Know You Want This
← Catriona Ward's Little Eve wins Best Horror Novel at British Fantasy Awards 2019 → David Weiner: 'These movies are like odd little children that you feel the need to protect'


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Two Shrinks Pod
About the pod
Podcast topics
Things We Came Across
Two Shrinks Pod/
About the pod/
Who are we/
Podcast Episodes/
Podcast topics/
Things We Came Across/
Letters to the editor/
Psychology talk for all
Click here to subscribe in iTunes
46 - Dark Tetrad of personality - Psychopathy, Narcissism, Machiavellianism & Sadism
July 04, 2019 / Hunter Mulcare
This week on Two Shrinks Pod we're returning to the darker side of humanity and taking a look at the Dark Tetrad: psychopathy, narcissism, machiavellianism and sadism. We chat through the rationale for adding sadism into the mix and examine the ways it can play out in romantic relationships, responses to grief and online trolling. As always, we wrap up with Things We Came Across - Hunter explains judgement of people who make spelling errors and Amy makes yet another argument for why cats are awesome (i.e. how other animals are more fear and disgust inducing than them).
Hunter's articles:
Subclinical sadism and the Dark Triad - https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/1614-0001/a000284
The Dark Tetrad and callous reactions to mourner grief - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886918304677
Amy's articles:
Predicting short- and long-term mating orientations - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29373049
Trolls just want to have fun - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886914000324
Things We Came Across:
Spell checker - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02702710500400495
Scary and revolting animals - https://digest.bps.org.uk/2019/06/25/psychologists-have-created-a-league-table-of-scary-and-revolting-creatures/
July 04, 2019 / Hunter Mulcare/
Hunter Mulcare
Two Shrinks on the School of Movies podcast - discussing Inside Out
June 29, 2019 / Hunter Mulcare
Exciting news listeners - Two Shrinks recently guested on the School of Movies podcast where Amy and Hunter were asked to come on and help discuss Pixar's masterpiece that explores the function of emotions - Inside Out. This is a movie that therapists frequently refer people to watch to help them understand emotions. School of Movies is hosted by the fabulous Alex and Sharon Shaw and they do super in-depth analysis of films (check out their Good Will Hunting episode for a great discussion of therapy and trauma). In the Inside Out episode we have a really good discussion on the function of core emotions shown in the film : Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness - and of course we make sure that we relate things back to therapy and therapy processes.
The episode can be found at the following places:
Podbean: https://schoolofmovies.podbean.com/e/inside-out-1561733314/
Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/inside-out/id388751599?i=1000443062210
On twitter: @SchoolOfMovies
June 29, 2019 / Hunter Mulcare/
45 - Don't stand so close to me: understanding interpersonal distance
45 - This ep we are talking about the ins and outs of interpersonal distance - that is how close you like to be to other people. Amy talks about cross-cultural differences and attachment (surprise surprise) whilst Hunter takes us on a journey of age related differences and discusses the impact of psychopathy on interpersonal distance. Spoiler: psychopaths don't respond to your angry expression. TWCA we have a first for 2SP, a listener TWCA from Sahra O'Doherty on Pervasive Labelling Disorder, Amy talks taste perception whilst listening to music and Hunter talks about a survival analysis of the characters in Game of Thrones.
Age differences - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02479/full
Psychopathy - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2167702618788874
Cultural difference - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022022117698039
Attachment - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15513270
TWCA:
Pervasive labeling - https://gsep.pepperdine.edu/content/faculty/pld.pdf
Game of thrones - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30535868
Sourness and music - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27311296
44 - Men's responses to a miscarriage or still-birth - with Kate Obst
May 14, 2019 / Hunter Mulcare
44 - How do men respond to pregnancy loss? What is their experience? What supports do they need? And is it different to how women respond? This episode Hunter interviews Kate Obst whilst at that APS Health Psychology conference in Adelaide in April 2019 and she talks about men's responses to a miscarriage or still-birth. This will be of interest to anyone (not just men) who is interested in grief and how we respond to the loss of a baby. Kate was awarded the prestigious Westpac Future Leaders Scholarship in 2018 and at the conference presented on her honours research. She is currently completing a combined PhD/Master degree where she is continuing to research this topic. In this interview Kate discusses her research findings and highlights the variability in response to pregnancy loss, the barriers men face to accessing support and some possible paths to improve the response of the health system for grieving parents.
The interview was recorded on location at the conference in what turned out to be a room that was a little noisy - there is a slight hum in the background - but it shouldn't detract from the content of the episode.
Some relevant links:
Heartfelt foundation (photography for grieving families): https://www.heartfelt.org.au/
Sands Australia (miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death support) 24 hour support line: 1300 072 637
Sands men's support line appointments: https://www.sands.org.au/male-parent-supporters
Bears of Hope 24 hour grief support line: 1300 11 HOPE
Red Nose grief and loss 24 hour support line: 1300 308 307
Miracle Babies 24 hour NurtureLine for families with a baby currently in the NICU/SCN: 1300 622 243
Pillars of Strength (Australian-first organisation supporting bereaved dads to stillbirth, neonatal death and infant loss): http://pillarsofstrength.com.au/
Pink Elephants Support - they focus on infertility and miscarriage specifically. They are also rolling out a service called Fertility in the Workplace, encouraging organisations to better support staff RTW post loss. They also offer peer support. https://pinkelephantssupport.com/
For psychologists looking to do CPD there is a conference coming up in Melbourne in October 2019. Hosted by the centre for perinatal psychology. https://www.centreforperinatalpsychology.com.au/perinatal-loss-conference/?fbclid=IwAR33xyaalPdw535qvcbz994JBJexZ0NJX79qZTPaGmd3lcwHaTqYje4kUs0
Kate's research:
Australian men's experiences of support following pregnancy loss: A qualitative study https://www.midwiferyjournal.com/article/S0266-6138(18)30343-7/fulltext
Australian heterosexual women's experiences of healthcare provision following a pregnancy loss https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871519217301142?via%3Dihub
Media articles about Kate's research and supporting scholarship:
https://rubyconnection.com.au/insights/social-responsibility/pregnancy-loss-understanding-the-whole-familys-grief.aspx
https://familyincluded.com/category/pregnancy-loss/
Research profile : https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/kate.obst
Hunter on location at the APS Health Psych conference (in the noisy IT room) with Kate Obst
May 14, 2019 / Hunter Mulcare/
43 - Self-forgiveness as a therapeutic strategy - with Dr Grant Dewar
43 - This week Hunter brings you an interview whilst on location at the Health Psychology conference in Adelaide. He interviews Dr Grant Dewar who use self-forgiveness as a therapeutic strategy in particular using it to lessen the impacts of adverse traumatic events that have occurred earlier in our lives. His approach has its roots in ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) and is easy to understand. Grant has conducted a number of studies into this approach and uses it in his clinical practice. This should be of interest to therapists and also to people who are struggling with the effects that trauma and other negative experiences.
https://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/grant.dewar#
http://www.vitallivingpsychologyservices.com
https://www.facebook.com/Grant.M.Dewar
https://www.facebook.com/vitallivingpsychology/
Tim Gordon on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-QVJ0oJH-XNvMb9wOjRZZ7OHsxB-yKC-
42 - What makes us laugh? The psychology of humour
April 14, 2019 / Hunter Mulcare
This week, Two Shrinks tackle humour. Hunter and Amy agree with toddlers that wearing underpants on your head is indeed hilarious, snort over funny words and discuss the role of feedback in enjoyment of cartoons. We also chat about the role of humour in therapy - where can it help and when does it go too far? As always, we wrap up with things we came across. Hunter justifies his recent earworm and reads a perfectly 'p' preoccupied proposal to the APA before Amy finishes up with the tragedy of rabbit auricular amputation.
What makes some words funny?
Humour and psychotherapy
Toddler humour production
Facial feedback and enjoyment in children with autism
Positive and negative earworms
Auricular amputations in rabbits
A perfectionistic proposal to the APA
April 14, 2019 / Hunter Mulcare/
41 - Harry Potter & the Pathological Personalities
February 18, 2019 / Hunter Mulcare
41 – Ever wondered what Voldermort's attachment style is? Does Bellatrix Le Strange meet criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder? What about Snape? Is his behaviour schizoid, obsessive or best explained by complex grief?
If you are a fan of Harry Potter then this is the Two Shrinks Pod episode for you. In this episode Amy and Hunter go through each of the ten personality disorders discussed in the personality disorder series last year and discuss which characters from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books could have personality disorders. They also discuss possible differential diagnoses and ponder the use of words starting with P in the DSM-5 diagnostic categories. For a bit of fun Hunter gives Amy the Two Shrinks equivalent of her O.W.L.s, quizzing her on her Harry Potter knowledge at the end of each personality cluster.
February 18, 2019 / Hunter Mulcare/
40 - You can't ask a psychologist that
December 30, 2018 / Hunter Mulcare
40 - Are you psychologising me right now? Do you think about me when I'm not here? Can I be the only one that sees you next time? Do you think I'm crazy? Why would I come and see if you if you've never had this problem? My kid has the problem so why are you telling me I need to change? How do you cope with everything I tell you? Should I leave my partner/job? Where do you live and can I touch your hair?
Yep - these are some of the questions psychologists get every day - so we decided to run through these and talk about how we respond to them and why. This is the ep for anyone who is super curious about psychologists and why we act the way we do - it should also be good for other psychologists to know they aren't crazy and their experiences are normal (also see question four). For this episode we got Liz Daff (from the forensic episode) to join us in this discussion to give us an additional perspective on these questions.
We finish off with "Pods We Came Across" - pods we've been listening to this year.
Liz: Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History http://revisionisthistory.com/
Hunter: Trumpcast with the wonderful Virginia Heffernan http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/trumpcast.html
Amy: Susan Calman's Mrs Brightside - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0683q6p/episodes/downloads
December 30, 2018 / Hunter Mulcare/
39 - Improving the performance of professional athletes. Sports psychology and mental conditioning with Michael Inglis
39 - Ever wondered how athletes improve their mental game and stop cracking under pressure? Or would you like to know how you could improve your own performance in sport (or anything else)? Then this is the episode for you. Hunter chats to Michael Inglis, sports psychologist and co-founder of The Mind Room https://themindroom.com.au/ about a mental conditioning program he runs for athletes. Michael has worked with professional athletes from many different sports including AFL, rugby, soccer and cycling and has a wealth of experience. The episode wraps with a food orientated Things We Came Across discussion of being "hangry" and orthorexia.
Feeling Hangry : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29888934
Orthorexia : https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/by-eating-disorder/other/orthorexia
38 - Social Stigma and Welfare with Dr Timothy Schofield
November 16, 2018 / Hunter Mulcare
For the final interview of psychology week, Amy talks to Dr Timothy Schofield, research fellow at Melbourne University. They chat about Tim's research into the stigma associated with welfare benefits, what makes a group vulnerable to stigma and the challenges of a research career. We wrap up with a Things We Came Across that soothes Amy's doubts and riles up Tim with references to embodied cognition.
Bitter preference and psychopathy - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26431683
November 16, 2018 / Hunter Mulcare/
37 - Neuroscience of Social Anxiety - with Laura Finlayson-Short
In our next interview for psychology week, Amy chats with Laura, a PhD candidate who's researching the parts of our brains that are active in social anxiety. We talk about what happens when we think about ourselves and others at the same time, how they might be skewed in social anxiety and what it's like being a PhD candidate.
36 - Psychological treatment of chronic pain - with Dr Kathleen Leach
36 - for the second psychology week 2018 interview Hunter talks to Dr Kathleen Leach about chronic pain and the role psychologists play in the treatment and management of chronic pain. Kathleen has extensive experience working with patients who have chronic pain. Our usual experience of pain is that pain means damage but this is not the case in chronic pain which is different to acute pain. Some of the topics covered include the risk factors for developing chronic pain as well as why the best practice treatment of chronic pain is done with team of a physiotherapist, occupational therapist and psychologist, in additional to medical staff. Kathleen talks about some of the psychological approaches to help patients improve quality of life and management of their pain, such as countering unhelpful boom/bust cycles.
Teaspoons : https://www.bmj.com/content/331/7531/1498
35 - How to get better sleep - with Dr Lyndel Shand
35 - Want to know how to get better sleep? Then have a listen to this episode which is our first in the series of interviews for psychology week 2018. Hunter talks to Dr Lyndel Shand on how to get better sleep, they talk the ins and outs of sleep hygiene, why it is important to understand sleep cycles and stages of sleep if you are to improve sleep. As sleep problems can mean different things to different people they then talk through several cases examples exploring how psychologists (and you can) resolve sleeping issues. Topics include struggling to get to sleep, struggling to get back to sleep after waking, not going to bed, and hyper-somnia.
Hunter and Lyndel finish up with segment Things We Came Across, discussing the important topics of whether knuckle cracking does give arthritis, and the correlates of binge watching television.
Hunter: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9588755
Lyndel: Binge watching research https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27106091
Psychology Week 2018 - Preview
Psychology Week 2018 and 2SP is having a podathon! We have conducted four interviews and we will release one each day this week.
How to get better sleep - with Dr Lyndel Shand. Hunter and Lyndel talk about understanding sleep cycles and then discuss several case examples (trouble getting to sleep, trouble getting back to sleep etc) to illustrate different problems and how psychologists work to overcome them
Psychological treatment of chronic pain - with Dr Kathleen Leach - Hunter interviews Kathleen who has extensive experience working with people with chronic pain. They discuss the role of psychology in the treatment of chronic pain and how psychologists work in to improve the lives of chronic pain patients.
Neuroscience of Social Anxiety - with Laura Finlayson-Short - Amy has a great chat with Laura, who is a psychology PhD candidate about what our brains do when we are socially anxious, and discuss what it is like being a PhD candidate.
Understanding Stigma - with Dr Timothy Schofield - Amy talks to Tim who is a research fellow about his work on understanding stigma towards the self and others (eg. towards those on welfare payments), and have a candid discussion about what it is like working as an academic.
For each we also got our guests to join in on the Things We Came Across section - with interesting results.
34 - Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder - Ordered, Controlled, Anally Retentive
Know someone who likes to have things neat and tidy, sticks rigidly to the rules and appears tightly wound? This week we're talking about the characteristics of Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. In the last of our personality disorders series, we cover diagnosis, theory and treatment of this PD. We attempt to avoid self-diagnosis (Hunter), outwardly reject prior misdiagnosis (Amy) and barely refrain from diagnosing the entire psychology profession with OCPD. Wrapping up the show, Hunter talks about medical journal articles from the 1800s and Amy ponders if she's got what it takes to survive an apocalypse.
Personality Disorders in Modern Life, 2nd Edn. Millon & colleagues
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edn (DSM-5)
Hunter:
Maladies of the 1800s : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=%22Edinb%20Med%20Surg%20J%22%5Bjour%5D
Alie Ward's Ologies : https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/somnology-sleep-part-2-with-dr-w-chris-winter/id1278815517?i=1000422378279&mt=2
Are survivalists malevolent? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886918301223
33 - Dependent Personality Disorder - "Please look after me"
October 23, 2018 / Hunter Mulcare
Pod 33 - The penultimate episode of our personality disorder series takes a look at Dependent Personality Disorder - when someone has an excessive need to be taken care of, is submissive, clingy and fears separation. Whilst it is a rare PD (<1%) all of us have dependent elements and Amy and Hunter also compare it to some of the other personality disorders discussed in the previous pods. There is, as usual, good discussion about different theories to explain this disorder (hear Hunter get frustrated about psycho-dynamic theories) and finishes up with talking about how to do therapy to address the problems of this disorder. For TWCA Hunter spends a moment talking about Dr Christine Blasey Ford and her research, then pivots to discussing what your resume photo really tells others, whilst Amy succumbs to more research about the tv show Survivor (hey we have a brand and we are sticking to it).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependent_personality_disorder
Personality Disorders in Modern Life, 2nd Edn. Millon & colleagues (copies of pdfs of this can be found for free online if you know where to look)
(Hunter) Dr Ford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Blasey_Ford
Resume photos: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886916309023
(Amy) Survivor - chapter "Do you know who your friends are? An analysis of voting patterns and alliances in the reality tv show Survivor in : https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Reality_Television.html?id=mFVHXwAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y
October 23, 2018 / Hunter Mulcare/
32 - Avoidant Personality Disorder - Sensitive, Vigilant and Socially Anxious
This week, Two Shrinks is leaving behind cluster B personality disorders and launching into cluster C, taking a long look at Avoidant Personality Disorder. We'll chat about the people who seem shy, quiet and invisible, hanging out on the the fringes of social interactions. Continuing our PD series, we'll take you through diagnosis, theories and treatment. As always, we wrap up with things we came across - Hunter discloses he has been binging on a Survivor podcast (Oz survivor). and ponders the effects of watching reality tv on aggression? Then they discloses Are Amy's phantom vibrations normal?
Join us next time for Dependent PD!
Avoidant PD material from:
Oz Survivor podcast - http://australiansurvivor.libsyn.com/website
Post-reality tv watching aggression - http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-33476-001
Phantom vibrations - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563212000799
31 - Forensic psychology with Liz Daff : working in prisons, working with anti-social personality disorder and psychopathy.
September 16, 2018 / Hunter Mulcare
31 - Finishing up our mini-series on Anti-Social Personality Disorder and psychopaths we thought we'd talk to our colleague Liz Daff about working as a forensic psychologist. That is, a psychologist who works in prisons or forensic settings with people convicted of crimes or about to go to trial. This interview was so interesting and gripping. It is for anyone fascinated by crime shows (Midsomers Murders anyone?) or wondered what it'd be like to work with someone convicted of a serious crime. Liz is completing her clinical and forensic training through Swinburne University and gives a great description of some of the challenges working in this area.
We of course finish of with 'Things we came across' which Liz joins us for, with a discussion on the lack of evidence base for parachutes, Amy talks about anti social personality disorder and Survivor (the tv show), Hunter meanwhile talks about the psychological processes behind why his honey, lemon, cloves and ginger drink helps with head colds (ie. the placebo effect).
Survivor (Amy) : https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15205436.2011.567346
Parachutes (Liz) : https://www.bmj.com/content/327/7429/1459
Placebo effect (Hunter) : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886917304191
September 16, 2018 / Hunter Mulcare/
30 - More about psychopaths. Children with psychopathic traits, successful people who have psychopathic traits, & treatment of psychopathy
August 28, 2018 / Hunter Mulcare
This episode we decided to continue on from pod 29 and chat more about psychopathy. Amy takes us through a discussion of how psychopathy does and does not manifest itself in children and adolescent. Spoiler – it does and doesn't.
Hunter then talks (at length) about 'successful' or non-incarcerated psychopaths, think nasty politicians, corporate CEO, that kind of thing.
At about 47 minutes we jump to a discussion about treatment of psychopaths and anti-social personality disorder which is really interesting.
For TWCA Hunter ponders the number of Subway stores by country and talks about white-coat hypertension, whilst Amy finds comfort in knowing chimps fake laugh to improve social standing.
The Handbook of Psychopathy – Christopher J. Patrick (Ed).
Psychopathy in children - http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-01001-020
Succcessful psychopaths - http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-01001-023
TWCA
Subway stores: https://www.subway.com/en-US/ExploreOurWorld
White coat hypertension and personality: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25186529
Aping expressions : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21355640
August 28, 2018 / Hunter Mulcare/
29 - Anti-Social Personality Disorder, Psychopaths and Sociopaths - description and theory
This week on Two Shrinks Pod we're looking at the darker side of human nature. Hunter & Amy chat about the diagnosis of Anti-Social Personality Disorder, psychopaths and sociopaths. Lump Hannibal Lector and The Grinch (pre-heart growth) into the same camp and get nerdy over theory. We lighten things up at the end with a chat about the (perfectly normal) brain reasons Amy sees faces in things and blame Hunter's snacking on social influence. Join us next time for a chat about ASPD treatment!
Background reading:
ASPD vs Psychopathy: Bartol & Bartol
Psychopathy & ASPD in an Australian sample, Ogloff et al - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15228932.2016.1177281
Reoffending in Australian prison samples, the role of Psychopathy & APD - http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0306624X16653193
Gender differences in ASPD - http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0031681
Cases:
The Grinch - https://www.psychologyinaction.org/psychology-in-action-1/2013/10/31/personality-disorders-in-the-media
Gary Gilmore – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gilmore
Harold Shipman - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/7897767/Harold-Shipman-thought-he-was-boring-letters-show.html
Seeing Jesus in toast - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945214000288
Channing tater - https://www.buzzfeed.com/lyapalater/potatoes-that-look-like-channing-tatum?utm_term=.hblmZYEev#.gpopYQezZ
The Fitzroy Diaries – http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/features/the-fitzroy-diaries/
Chocolate ripple biscuits
Social snacking - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29154607
Ideas? Suggestions? Want to tell us to practice our microphone technique?
twoshrinkspod@gmail.com


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text:
Terrorist crimes have nothing to do with Islam: Leader
Written by Press TV
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the atrocities committed by Takfiri terrorists have nothing to do with Islam.
The Leader made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow in the Iranian capital Tehran on Sunday.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the terrorist groups' savage crimes, such as beheading and torching people, show that they know nothing about Islam, noting, "Islam is the religion of fraternity, kindness and seeking the best for others and these crimes have nothing to do with Islam."
"In countering the violent terrorism and barbarism [committed] by Daesh and like-minded Takfiri groups committing these crimes in the name of Islam, people should be given the chance to practice rightful Islamic activities," said the Leader.
The best way for blocking the infiltration of the Takfiri currents, the Leader said, is to bolster genuine Islamic ideologies, which he described as "moderate and sensible."
Ayatollah Khamenei also described the nations of Iran and neighboring Turkmenistan as close relatives and underscored the need for the two countries to take "effective and practical" steps with a view to implementing bilateral agreements.
The Leader underlined the necessity for Iran and Turkmenistan to further cooperation amid tense conditions prevailing in the region.
"Iran-Turkmenistan border are frontiers of peace and calm, and are reason for the two sides' peace of mind and the possibility of using the Iran route for access to the Persian Gulf and high seas is a valuable opportunity for Turkmenistan," said Ayatollah Khamenei.
For his part, the Turkmen president described as unfavorable the ongoing political conditions in the region and noted that Daesh and its followers are foreigners to the teachings of Islam. He expressed regret that certain governments are supporting the Daesh terrorists.
Berdimuhamedow also expressed delight with his meeting with Ayatollah Khamenei, saying Iran and Turkmenistan maintain historically good ties.
He welcomed Ayatollah Khamenei's description of Iranian and Turkmen nations as close relatives and said the implementation of the recommendations of the Leader during previous visits have born fruitful results.
The Turkmen leader also said that some countries are interested in becoming linked to high seas through Iran and Turkmenistan.
The Turkmen head of state had last met with Ayatollah Khamenei during a 2012 visit to the Islamic Republic.
Gurbanguly arrived in Tehran earlier in the day on a visit aimed at boosting the bilateral ties.
So far during the visit, Iran and Turkmenistan have signed nine memorandums of understanding for the expansion of cooperation in different fields, including the health and medical sector, media, power transfer, sports, transportation, and housing.
During his stay, the Turkmen president is also to attend the third Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) summit, which is to be held in the Iranian capital on Monday, with nine heads of states, including Russia's President Vladimir Putin in attendance.


text:
D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program
Enacted 2004
Launched 2004
The District of Columbia's Opportunity Scholarship Program provides vouchers to low-income parents who choose private schools for their children. This program is America's only private school choice program created by Congress. Learn more about the program's details on this page, including eligibility, funding, regulations, legal history and more.
We do not administer this program.
Eligibility Test Apply
Student Eligibility
EdChoice Expert Feedback
Rules/Regulations
Governing Statutes
Participating Students (2021-22)
of Families with Children Eligible Districtwide
Participating Schools (Fall 2021)
Average Voucher Value (2020–21)
Value as a Percentage of Public School Per-student Spending
District of Columbia's Opportunity Scholarship Program Participation
Students Participating
School Year Ending
Vouchers are worth up to $10,204 for K–8 students and $15,307 for students in grades 9–12 for 2021–22. Those amounts increase annually with the Consumer Price Index. Vouchers first pay for tuition, with any leftover funds available for certain qualified fees that schools may require as well as for summer school. As the result of a 2019 reauthorization bill, Congress currently allocates $20 million for the voucher program, including administrative fees.
(Last updated January 17, 2023)
Families must be current D.C. residents. Additionally, families must either receive benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or earn no more than 185 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) when they enter the program ($51,338 for a family of four in 2022-23). Students may continue to receive vouchers in later years if their household income does not rise above 300 percent of the FPL ($83,250 for a family of four in 2022-23). Students are given priority if they previously attended public schools identified as one of the lowest-performing under the District of Columbia's accountability system or if they or their siblings already are participating in the program. They may use vouchers only to attend private schools located in D.C.
The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program helps thousands of students access schools that are the right fit for them, but policymakers could do more to expand educational opportunity.
Eligibility for the scholarships is limited to 185% of the federal poverty line initially. Around one-third of D.C. students are eligible for a scholarship and fewer than 5 percent of students citywide actually use a scholarship.
The average scholarship size is about $10,300, which is about 44 percent of the average expenditure per student at D.C.'s district schools, though the maximum scholarship size varies by grade level ($10,204 for K–8 and $ 15,307 for high school). Only $17.5 million in scholarships is currently appropriated annually, which is equivalent to only 1.2 percent of D.C.'s total K–12 revenue.
In order to expand access to educational choice, the U.S. Congress should dramatically increase the D.C. OSP's funding and expand eligibility to all students (prioritizing scholarships based on need). Congress should also formula fund the D.C. OSP—moving away from a volatile annual appropriations process—in order to put program funding on stable footing year after year. The program could also be converted into an education savings account to ensure that all students have access to the education that's the right fit for them, whether private school or a customized course of education.
Additionally, D.C.'s scholarship program has several unnecessary and counterproductive regulations, including removal of private school autonomy over admissions and requiring participating students to take the D.C. Public Schools assessment in grades 3 through 8. Congress should restore private schools' admissions autonomy and allow schools to choose from a menu of nationally norm-referenced tests.
Income Limit: 185 percent x FRL (300 percent x poverty to remain eligible year-to-year)
Prior Year Public School Requirement: None
Geographic Limit: District (D.C.)
Enrollment Cap: None
Budget Cap: $20 million
Voucher Cap: $10,204 (K–8) / $15,307 (9–12)
Testing Mandates: State test (D.C.)
School Requirements:
Must not discriminate
Comply with district health and safety codes
Maintain a valid certificate of occupancy
Employ core subject teachers that have a bachelor's degree
Be accredited and comply with other standards prescribed under the District of Columbia compulsory school attendance laws
Allow site visits by the administering program entity
Submit proof of financial sustainability for schools in operation for five years or fewer
Have financial systems in place to ensure funds are used appropriately
DC ST § 38-1853
No legal challenges have been filed against the program.
D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program State Groups


text:
Bains peut désigner :

Géographie
 Bains, une commune française, située dans le département de la Haute-Loire et la région Auvergne ;
 Bains-les-Bains, une commune française, située dans le département des Vosges et la région Lorraine.
 Bains-sur-Oust, une commune française, située en Bretagne.

Patronyme
Navdeep Bains (né en 1977), homme politique canadien.

Voir aussi

 Bains publics
 Les Bains Douches

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


As part of California's mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at its ports, investment has been made in a network of electric trucks which will promote greener logistics, particularly at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced that it has preliminarily awarded $41mn to the Port of Los Angeles to begin developing a goods transport network. The network will transport goods from the ports throughout southern California using trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
The project is set to include 10 zero-emissions electric trucks, as well as fuel stations and equipment. In total it will cost $82.6bn at the initial phase, with the $41mn being given by CARB as part of the Zero-Emission and Near Zero-Emission Freight Facilities (ZANAEFF) campaign.
It has been reported that the initiative should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 456 tonnes.


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text:
Q: Can't run "compgen -c" from perl script I want to check if a command exists on my machine (RedHat) inside a perl script.
Im trying to check if compgen -c contains the desired command, but running it from inside a script just gives me an empty output. Other commands work fine.
example.pl:
my $x = `compgen -c`;
print $x;
# empty output

my $y = `ls -a`;
print $y;
# .
# ..
# example.pl

Are there possible solutions for this? Or is there a better way to check for commands on my machine?

A: First, Perl runs external commands using /bin/sh, which is nowadays a link to a shell that is a default-of-sorts on your system.  Much of the time that is bash, but not always; on RedHat it is.
This compgen is a bash builtin. One way to discover that is to run man compgen (in bash) -- and the bash manual pops up.  Another way is type as Dave shows.
To use builtins we generally need to run an explicit shell for them, and they have a varied behavior in regards to whether the shell is "interactive" or not.† I can't find a discussion of that in bash documentation for this builtin but experimentation reveals that you need
my @completions = qx(bash -c "compgen -c")

The quotes are needed so to pass a complete command to a shell that will be started.
Note that this way you don't catch any STDERR out of those commands.  That will come out on the terminal, and it can get missed that way. Or, you can redirect that stream in the command, by adding 2>&1 (redirect to STDOUT) at the end of it.
This is one of the reasons to use one of a number of good libraries for running and managing external commands instead of the builtin "backticks" (the qx I use above is an operator form of it.)

† This can be facilitated with -i
my @output_lines = qx(bash -i -c "command with arguments")

A: It's because compgen is a bash built-in command, not an external command. And when you run a command using backticks, you get your system's default shell - which is probably going to be /bin/sh, not bash.
The solution is to explicitly run bash, using the -c command-line option to give it a command to run.
my $x = `bash -c compgen -c`;

From a bash prompt, you can use type to see how a command is implemented.
$ type ssh
ssh is /usr/bin/ssh

$ type compgen
compgen is a shell builtin

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Our talents
EN|FR
Your Ambitions, Our Talents
News of the firm
UGGC Avocats assists Bpifrance in the reorganization of the capital of Federation Entertainment
Paris, June 7, 2021 – UGGC Avocats, a leading business law firm, has advised Bpifrance, a shareholder of Federation Entertainment since 2018, on the occasion of the reorganization of the production company's capital.
Federation Entertainment has just completed a new round of financing which includes the arrival of a new financial investor: Montefiore Investment and the reinvestment of BNP Paribas Développement (shareholder since 2018). The shares of the 3 investment funds Amundi Private Equity Funds, Alliance Entreprendre and Entrepreneur Invest which had participated in the first round of financing in 2018 have been bought by Montefiore Investment which now holds nearly 30% of Federation Entertainment's capital.
As part of this transaction, Bpifrance and BNP Paribas Développement also sold part of their shares to Montefiore Investment but continue to support the Federation Entertainement group by retaining a minority stake in the company's capital.
Founded in 2015, Federation Entertainment is a production company with operations in seven countries. The group is behind several popular hits such as Le Bureau des Légendes for Canal +, and Marseille for Netflix Original. Present in an increasingly competitive market, the company wants to accelerate its international external growth through this capital reorganization and become a global player in the audiovisual sector.
Created in 2012 and headed by Nicolas Dufourcq, Bpifrance finances companies – at every stage of their development – with credit, guarantees and equity. Bpifrance supports them in their innovation and international projects and also ensures their export activity through a wide range of products. Consulting, networking and acceleration programs for startups, SMEs and ETIs are also part of the offer to entrepreneurs.
The UGGC Avocats team that assisted Bpifrance in this transaction was composed of Charles-Emmanuel Prieur (partner) and Laura Malach (counsel).
Other counsel involved in the transaction
Frieh Associés advised the production company Federation Entertainment with Michel Frieh (partner) and Chiraz Zribi (associate).
Charles-Emmanuel Prieur
Laura Malach
About UGGC Avocats
Created in 1993, UGGC Avocats is one of the leading independent business law firms in France. UGGC Avocats assists private and public operators. The firm has extensive expertise in legal and tax matters; through its teams and its family office, it offers a very large capacity of intervention in France and abroad (Europe, Africa, Asia and South America). UGGC's approach is based on its ability to mobilise multidisciplinary teams adapted to its clients' needs. UGGC Avocats gathers more than 150 lawyers, including 32 partners.
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Soon the fire crackled cheerfully before him and erased some of Lord Hob's chill, leaving behind only the cold lump of indecision and worry.
"Very nice, Douglas," Lord Hob said.
Hob stared at the little man. The little man stared right back, looking bored.
"Yes, of course," Hob said, waving his hand dismissively.
He hated the way Douglas said 'Dread Lord'. There was an unmistakable hint of sarcasm that he tried to ignore. Instead he chewed on this thumbnail as Douglas left. But, as the cloyne was about to close the door behind him, Lord Hob spoke.
"Oh, Douglas," he called as if he had just thought of something.
He hadn't, of course. Anytime he could mess with the cloyne, no matter how petty the jab, Lord Hob would always jump at the chance.
"Yes, Dread Lord?" Douglas had turned, still looking bored.
"At once, Dread Lord." Douglas did not leave however. He remained with an expectant look on his unsettling face.
With that, Douglas left the Dread Lord Hob alone with his thoughts.
The bulk of his army he'd left in the Plains of Rialt to the east of Haven. They were to keep an eye on Haven and wait for further instructions. Upon reflection, he'd probably made a poor choice in leaving his army behind. As it was, alone in the Keep with only the cloyne for company, there wasn't much for him to do. Which is why he wanted to speak with Finn.
Alistair Finn was Lord Hob's Master of Information. In other words, he was a spy. Thanks to an intricate network of operatives all over Gund, as well as a deep understanding and knowledge of magical communication, Finn has been able to keep Lord Hob up to date on all that was going on in the world. And frankly, Hob had found himself a bit of a news junkie. He was starved for news. While the journey from Haven had been instantaneous, he'd not had the chance for his usual morning briefing. While at the Keep, the morning update was conducted by Finn. Out in the world, he'd had one of Finn's operatives with him, which he had left behind. He needed to know what was going on out there, especially now that the One was back.
But for now, he had to wait.
The Dread Lord Hob did not like to wait. It made him twitchy. So he paced, frowning at the armor he'd strewn about. He could pick it up, he supposed. That would give him something to do, but the thought made him angry. Each time he strode the length of the room, he'd pass by the dropped armor and fumed. After his seventh circuit, just as he was about kick at the armor in frustration, Douglas returned.
He bore with him a large tray of food. So large, in fact, that it gave Lord Hob a headache as his brain attempted to work out how a creature as small as Douglas could bear such an unwieldy burden. Douglas, on the other hand, seemed to exert no effort whatsoever as he placed the tray, a feat that should have been too awkward to accomplish, on the stone table next to the high backed chair.
"Thank you, Douglas," said Lord Hob, sitting.
"That wasn't me, Dread Lord. That must have been another."
The Dread Lord Hob directed the full force of his glare down upon the little man before him. Douglas, for what else could he call the nasty little creature when he could not tell one from another, did not blink. He only met Lord Hob's gaze with those cold, black eyes. Eyes that contained all that was evil in the world.
"Do we have one of the Relays in residence?" Lord Hob asked.
"Her, Dread Lord," Douglas interrupted.
"Leave her alive," said Lord Hob.
"At once, Dread Lord." The little man gave a slight bow before leaving Hob alone once again.


text:
Date Book
Archive / Museum
German Pages
About us - The history of the B.F.H.
Although not founded till 1994, the origins of our club go back to the year 1981. At that time two of our foundation members photographed at Schleissheim Airfield in detail the historic maintenance hangar (Flugwerft Schleissheim) dating from 1918 and the old terminal (Flugplatzwache) dating from 1912. In the years to follow, the efforts to preserve these buildings were the centre of the activities. With the opening of the museum Flugwerft Schleissheim, a department of the Deutsches Museum in September 1992, these activities came to an end.
On this background, in April 1994, it was due time to leave old habits and founding the Bayerische Flugzeug Historiker e.V. (Bavarian Aviation Historians) as an organizational platform that on one hand brings forward the development of the museum airfield and on the other hand documentates the whole Bavarian aviation history in an appropriate way, for further generations.
The old maintenance hangar in 1981
Project based working
Our work is very much based on projects, that means in our club exist several workgroups who mainly work on selected themes of Bavarian aviation history.
Make aviation history accessible for public
Aviation history shall not stay expert knowledge for insiders. It shall become more and more accessible for the interested public. Therefore we invite regularly to public to our own events and participe on various events with our information booth, e.g. in the museum Flugwerft Schleissheim, on air shows and model exhibitions.
The exact dates can be found in our date book for events and the announcements of the daily press.
Guided tour around Schleissheim Airfield.
Your contact to us
The contact address is in the Impressum
Active members:
single membership
40 € / year
Fördernde Mitglieder:
single membership outside EU
40 € / Jahr
50 US$ / Jahr
Reduceed fees (16 €/year) for pupils, students, pensioners, etc. possible. Please enquire at our address.
Registration and Qualification
The Bayerische - Flugzeug - Historiker e.V. (Bavarian - Aviation - Historians; abbrevation: B.F.H.) are registered at the Amtsgericht Muenchen under the
No 14754 and qualified as non-profit organisation under No. 143/211/10240
(resp. 842/24165 until November 11th, 2006) by Finanzamt Muenchen fuer Koerperschaften.


Buyers, this home was originally built for the seller, this is not a Spec home, rather it is Custom Built! All three levels are finished with only the best materials and workmanship. It includes 8 inch baseboards, all windows have casings,crown moulding in all ceilings including the bsmt, built-in shelving, antique doors & hardware, radiant heat, gourmet kitchen with high end stainless steel appliances, granite counters, wainscoting, upstairs games room, engineered hardwood floors, both kitchens, laundry & all 8 bathrooms have slate flooring, the 2 bdrm legal suite also has S/S appls, pro. decorated, all this located on a level large lot across from Mundy Park. Seeing is believing. Sold as is,the house is not is not completed.


Hull City suffered their first home defeat under Nigel Adkins, losing 2-1 to Millwall at the KCOM Stadium.
Will Jackson presents his 30-second verdict.
If City are to stay in the Championship this season, it will be at home where they will seal it. That was certainly the argument before the visit of Millwall, after going eight games unbeaten at the KCOM Stadium under Nigel Adkins.
However, there wasn't many inside the KCOM Stadium thinking that after the Lions took the lead just 51 seconds into the game.
With City putting the ball into touch moments after kicking off, Millwall caught the hosts napping at the back, Lee Gregory back-heeled Jed Wallace's cross across the face of goal for George Saville who held off the challenge of Michael Dawson to bury.
The Tigers looked shell-shocked and for 15 minutes it was a shambles. Loose passes, weak tackles aplenty, City struggled to get a foothold in the game as they gave the visitors a welcome leg up.
It was only after Jarrod Bowen struck a half-volley against the cross bar that City sparked into life, creating a number of chances to score. Unfortunately, though, such was their performance in the first half, of their eight shots not one hit the target with Kamil Grosicki, Ola Aina, Jackson Irvine and Seb Larsson all going close but not close enough.
But, their woes were compounded in the 33rd minute when Jake Cooper's leaping header from Ben Marshall's corner found its way inside the post.
It seems the two-goal lead was good enough for Millwall, who put most of their energy into protecting that cushion in the second half.
City went close with a couple of chances, Bowen and Harry Wilson stinging the palms of Archer, while Larsson saw a long-range effort deflected inches over the bar.
It was beginning to look as though, once again City had ran out of ideas of how to break this resolute side down, but with eleven minutes remaining Abel Hernandez found a way through, poking Harry Wilson's free kick into the back of the net on his return to the side.
But, it was too little, too late for Nigel Adkins' side, who suffer their first home defeat since November.
It took Neil Harris' side just 51 seconds to open the scoring and that set the precedent for what was a damaging first half defensive display.
Unfortunately, despite their second half dominance they left themselves with a mountain to climb.
Abel Hernandez. After almost seven months on the sidelines, the Uruguayan finally made his comeback against Millwall and he even got himself on the score sheet.
Angus MacDonald. Easily the worst 45 minutes of his Hull City career to date. The defender just could not get a grip in the game with his mistakes costing the Tigers dear. He was replaced at half-time by Ondrej Mazuch.
If City are to stay up they need to be winning these sorts of games, plain and simple.
Unfortunately results elsewhere have shown just how big an opportunity it was to pull away from the pack tonight, with all four clubs below the Tigers losing.


CustomShow allows users to import video files into the application for usage online and offline.
For information on how to import media into CustomShow, please see Importing Media.
To import a new video, or add an existing video to a presentation slide, click on the Media button at the top of CustomShow's Editor Console.
Videos can be added to a slide by clicking on the video in the media window and clicking on Insert.
Videos can also be added to a slide by clicking and dragging the video from the media window on to the presentation slide.
Once a video is added to a slide, the image's properties can be examined in the Properties Panel.
By default, when selecting a video the Video tab will be opened.
File path for the video selected.
This path is relative, and changes to the location of the video will not affect the visibility or playback of the video in the presentation.
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Tuesday, Oct 09, 2018 12:08 PM
Broncos High School Coach of the Week: Brett Mertens
Photo provided by Montrose HS
To the surprise of many, Brett Mertens has the Montrose Indians rolling this year. Sitting at No. 3 in the Class 4A football rankings (and No. 1 in the RPI), Montrose came away with a 54-28 win over Heritage on Friday night to improve to 6-0 on the season. And it feels like he's just getting started. Mertens played his high school football at the 8-man level where he won a state title at Merino. He knew at that point that football was his future. He made sure his track in college would lead him back to the high school ranks where he could have the same positive impact on kids that his high school coach, John Barber, had on him. When Mertens talks about his players, one gets the sense that he is successful in that arena. The Indians will play three of their four remaining games at home and with the way the season has unfolded through six games, have a legitimate shot at being a top seed when the 4A state football playoffs begin.
Mertens is this week's selection as the Broncos High School Coach of the Week. The Broncos Coach of the Week is selected in partnership with the Broncos and CHSCA.
Years as head coach: 5 (29-22)
Years at Montrose: 2 (13-4, 6-0 this season)
Previous stops: Offensive coordinator Crean Lutheran (Calif.) (2009-12); Crean Lutheran head coach (2013-15); Montrose offensive coordinator (2016); Montrose head coach (2017-present).
Q: What got you into coaching?
Mertens: I had a really good experience as a high school football player. My head coach (at Merino) was John Barber who is kind of a legend in 8-man football back in the day. He just had a way with kids and inspired us to be good. And we had a good experience. I just fell in love with football and we ended up winning a state title and through that process I just fell in love with the game of football so I knew I wanted to stay involved in it. Obviously that led to coaching. I knew pretty young. I knew in high school that my goal was to be a high school coach. I chose a school that I could get a degree in education and pursued that path.
Q: You had someone who was great for you in that role, so what do you think it's like for your players to be coached by you?
Mertens: Oh man. I hope they see someone that is passionate about them as people as well as football players. I want them to know that we care about them as individuals and the No. 1 goal is not winning. I hope they also see that we are passionate about football and that we want to do the best we can.
Hopefully they see someone who is energetic and loves what they do and wants them to have a great experience.
Q: In a situation like last Friday where you're playing a top team and you come away with a convincing win, does that help them feel like you're as invested in them as much as you want them to be invested in you?
Mertens: I think they see that. We spend a lot of time breaking down film and that stuff. It's a fun job. We ask them to give their full effort and as coaches hopefully they see that we give our full effort too. I hope they understand that we care a lot about it and we want to help them be successful and it's not something we take lightly. I think our whole staff (takes it seriously). I think I have the best staff in the state of Colorado. Hopefully my players see that all the way through and not just with me, but with all our coaches.
Q: In a season where you're undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the RPI, people might not talk about you as much as other teams. Do you guys like being that team that flies under the radar and has a chance to really surprise some people?
Mertens: We were really flying under the radar early in the year. Now it seems like (we're noticed) a little bit more. Loveland and Pine Creek deserve to be ranked one, two. That's who I voted for. We've had a great season and we've won some close game. I think our kids have surprised me with how well they've played. We're pretty inexperienced and to start the year I wasn't too sure how we were going to do. If you had said that we'd be 6-0 and No. 1 in the RPI I would've told you that you were crazy. It just goes to show that our kids this year, and I truly mean this, this is the best group of kids I've ever had in terms of attitude and effort and just a teamwork standpoint. I think it shows that when they buy into that, they can achieve more than people thought they could and they can work together and accomplish some pretty cool things.
Q: Heritage coach Tyler Knoblock told me after the game on Friday that he was surprised how strong your team looked after losing a lot of seniors last year. What is it about this group of kids that its able to perform at such a high level?
Mertens: I think the biggest thing is that our leaders, our true leaders who are the kids that the team looks up to, are the most unselfish kids on the team. They're also some of our best players. When you get that kind of leadership, it spreads and everyone strives to be like that. I'll give you one example. Our two guards on our offensive line were both running backs when they were freshmen. I asked them to move to the offensive line this year. Their attitude has been unbelievable about that. There has been zero hint of selfishness. They just do what's best for the team. And they're two of our captains. It's that kind of stuff right there that has me encouraged about this particular team. It's how unselfish they are. They don't care who scores a touchdown, they just want to be successful as a team.
Q: Do you think a lot of that comes from the culture that you and your staff have built there?
Mertens: I can't take credit for those kids. We preach all those things, I think every staff does. I'm the lucky one who gets to coach those kids, that's the truth. Some of the kids we have in our program are some of the best young men I've ever coached from a character standpoint. I can't take credit for the quality men that they are. We preach those things, but that's a credit to their families and them as people more than our staff.
Q: What's the ideal ending for this team's story this season?
Mertens: I don't want you to give anyone any bulletin board material. It's been kind of cool because we haven't really talked about that. I know every coach says that, but our motto is to go 1-0 this week. So we're just trying to go 1-0 again this week. Things take care of themselves when you take care of the little things each week. Everyone's goal at the beginning of the year is to win a state title, but we haven't talked about that. We're just trying to take care of what we need to do this week.
Story by Dan Mohmann/CHSAANow
Broncos players announce $200,000 commitment to five Colorado organizations through club's Social Justice Fund
The Social Justice Committee identified five key focus areas to support for this cycle of funding: Education, Juvenile Justice System, Food Insecurity, Mental Health and Homeless Youth.
Broncos' 2019 rookie class makes impact felt off the field at Christmas with the Rookies party for children in foster families
After helping to raise $25,000 for charity back in May, the Broncos' 2019 rookie class brought its combined impact in the community to fruition by hosting a special holiday celebration for 10 teenage boys in foster families on Tuesday night.
Why Justin Simmons was a clear choice to be the Broncos' Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year
Simmons contributed more than 3,500 minutes with 20 different local organizations and built countless relationships in the community in 2019.
Broncos recognize 2019 Community Champion award winners
Von Miller, Chris Harris Jr., Joe Jones, Brandon McManus, Will Parks and Dalton Risner were honored at a team meeting on Thursday.
Broncos nominate Justin Simmons for 2019 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award
The prestigious award, presented by Nationwide, recognizes a player for his outstanding leadership both on the field and in the community.
Diontae Spencer to honor late father, turn pain into progress via My Cause My Cleats
Spencer's father was shot and killed in 2010, and Spencer is now aiming to reduce gun violence.
Why Kareem Jackson's custom shoes for My Cause My Cleats carry a personal message
By representing his foundation on his cleats on Sunday, Kareem Jackson will continue to honor his mother's and sister's fights against cancer.
Broncos staff members select causes for 2019 My Cause My Cleats
For the third consecutive year, Broncos staff members had the opportunity to spotlight specific causes close to their hearts through an open submission process.
Select cleats to be auctioned for charity in 2019 Denver Broncos My Cause My Cleats auction
More than 25 Broncos players will auction their My Cause My Cleats for charity with 100 percent of proceeds benefiting their designated nonprofit.
Broncos High School Coach of the Week
Discovery Canyon's Shawn Mitchell is the latest Broncos High School Coach of the Week.
Salute to Service: Broncos share personal stories behind their helmet stickers
These are some of the stories behind why the Broncos picked certain military branches for decals on the back of their helmets for Salute to Service month.


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Home News Netflix 'thrilled' with Oscar win for Syria documentary
Netflix 'thrilled' with Oscar win for Syria documentary
Netflix is "thrilled" that the documentary "The White Helmets" which it distributes about rescue workers in war-torn Syria picked up an Oscar, the head of the US video streaming service said Monday.
"One of the great things about entertainment is just being able to connect people to stories," Reed Hastings said at the Mobile World Congress, the phone industry's largest annual trade fair, in Barcelona in northeastern Spain.
"We are so thrilled that the Oscars, the Academy, honoured the film 'White Helmets' and I definitely encourage you all to see it," he added.
The 40-minute film triumphed at Hollywood's biggest awards show on Sunday in the documentary short-subject category.
It was the first Academy Award win for Netflix, which distributed the film.
The documentary follows three rescue workers with the White Helmets — also known as the Syrian Civil Defense — who train in Turkey to provide emergency medical assistance to civilians caught in Syria's civil war.
Accepting the Academy Award, director Orlando von Einsiedel urged the audience to get out of their seats and call for an end to Syria's six-year civil war, which led to a standing ovation.
Netflix started streaming TV in the United States nearly a decade ago and has now launched in almost every country.
It ended 2016 with nearly 94 million subscribers, adding five million outside the United States in the last three months of the year.
Nearly half — 47 percent — of Netflix users are now outside the United States, a proportion expected to increase as it adds more customers.
ds/mck/cw


The Center for International Policy Asia Program is headed by Director Selig S. Harrison, who has had extensive experience with Asia and the Middle East during his time as the South Asia Bureau Chief and later the North Asia Bureau Chief of the Washington Post. To learn more about Selig Harrison, please visit the Asia Program Staff Page.
The Asia Program focuses on creating innovative policy solutions to current issues in Asia and the Middle East, as well as the dissemination of information regarding human rights crises throughout the region. For up to date information regarding the Asia Program, please see recent Articles, Conferences, Publications, and Task Force reports.
The Asia Program provides a in-depth look at policy issues throughout Asia and the Middle East, with a special focus on India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and North Korea. TasTo learn more about these countries and the Asian region, please visit the Asia Program Resources page.
Did Pyongyang Really Sink the Cheonan?


There was good news and bad news as the Porsche 911 approached its 30th anniversary year. The bad news came mostly from the sales staff and the accountants.
The 1993 Porsche 911 RS America's fewer frills saved 70 pounds and $10,000.
For starters, deliveries to America were down again: to 4,115 units in calendar '92, then just 3,729 in '93. Worldwide production was still sliding, too, from more than 22,000 for model-year '92 to 15,082 for '93. The Porsche 911 accounted for the vast majority of all these totals. Sad to say, the Targa was no more, dropped after '92 as a money-saving measure after years of losing sales to the Cabriolet.
Saving money was paramount, because Porsche had been losing it by the carload -- $130 million in 1992 alone, a huge sum for a small independent automaker. In fact, Porsche was by now flirting with bankruptcy.
Stern measures were overdue, so there was no little interest surrounding the 1993 appointment of 40-year-old Wendelin Wiedeking as chairman and CEO. As events soon proved, he was the right man at the right time.
Porsche certainly needed a new chief with both brains and courage. As Business Week summarized in June 2000, "the previous 15 years had seen a succession of CEOs who tried and failed to manage both the Porsche business and the fickle Porsche family that owns it. By the time Wiedeking came on the scene, years of poor decision-making had left Porsche adrift." Even so, the decline was not apparent to most outsiders, Porsche customers included.
With a background in materials, machine tools, and production engineering, Wiedeking joined Porsche in 1983, the year he earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering. After serving as project manager for the paint and body shops at the then-new Stuttgart plant, he left in 1988 to work for two German metals firms, then returned to Porsche in 1992 as spokesman for the company's operational Board of Management before being named Board chairman and CEO.
Despite his fondness for Porsche -- or perhaps because of it -- the new Doctor-in-charge prescribed a heavy dose of "tough love." Wasting no time, he cut production, slashed the workforce a hefty 25 percent, and brought in Japanese engineers to teach Porsche about more-efficient production methods.
Wiedeking also euthanized Porsche's fading front-engine 928 and 968 models and brokered a new entry-level car, the Boxster, that would further trim overhead by sharing many parts with a totally redesigned new-generation Porsche 911. And the shakeup had only begun.
Later, to meet surprisingly strong demand, Wiedeking outsourced Boxster production, again to the chagrin of many company veterans. He even let Porsche be kicked off the Frankfurt stock exchange because he didn't like filing quarterly reports that let competitors in on secret plans. Most daring of all, perhaps, was Wiedeking's long-range plan for Porsche to develop a sport-utility vehicle as a hedge against future downturns in sports-car sales.
Though Wiedeking had yet to make his mark in 1992, the year brought some good news for Porsche 911 fans: a new RS America coupe. Reaching U.S. showrooms that April as an early 1993 offering, it bucked the trend of ever-costlier Porsches by listing for $10,000 less than a standard $64,000 Carrera 2. Car and Driver aptly termed it "a frill-less 911, one that sheds 70 pounds of fluff and looks pure and ready for some serious fun."
That "fluff" involved the air conditioning (made optional at $2,940), power steering (not available for any sum), stereo, the token rear seats, even the armrests (replaced by simple pull handles). But buyers did get a whale tail instead of the smaller auto-extending spoiler, plus the inch-wider wheels and tires that cost $1,352 extra on a C2.
Owners also got the best performance yet in a non-turbo 911. C/D's example rushed through the 0-60 sprint in 4.6 seconds and scaled the standing quarter-mile in 13.3 seconds at 105 mph. With that, the magazine labeled the RS a "foolproof way to convert almost anyone into a full-lather Porsche-phile." Road & Track's numbers were only a bit less stunning: 5.3 seconds to 60 and 13.8 at 102.5 mph in the quarter.
Alas, the RS America appealed scarcely more than the 1988 Club Sport, and only some 300 were built in 1993. Although it looked another "instant collectible" 911, R&T concluded that a "mothballed classic is not what the RS America is meant to be. Spirited, even frisky, this 911 is a thoroughbred designed to do one thing really well: run like a Preakness winner."
So full credit is due to Porsche for what it was able to achieve. Despite a growing mound of business problems, Zuffenhausen was still willing to deliver a pur sang GT, even though only a few might want one. Most other automakers wouldn't have bothered.
And what of the Porsche 911's 30th birthday? Though fans the world over staged their own celebrations, Porsche's dire business situation delayed an official observance to late 1993 for Europe and early 1994 for the U.S. But, boy, was it worth the wait.


Traditional feedback control systems give little attention to issues associated with the flow of information through the feedback loop. Typically implemented with dedicated communication links that deliver nearly precise, reliable and non-delayed information, researchers have not needed to concern themselves with issues related to quantized, delayed and even lost information. With the advent of newer technologies and application areas that pass information through non-reliable networks, these issues can not be ignored. In recent years the field of Networked Control Systems (NCS) has emerged to describe situations where these issues are present. The research in this field focuses on quantifying performance degradations in the presence of network effects and proposing algorithms for managing the information flow to counter those negative effects. In this thesis I propose and analyze algorithms for managing information flow for several NCS scenarios; state estimation with lossy measurement signals, using input buffers to reduce the frequency of communication with a remote plant, and performing state estimation when control signals are transmitted to a remote plant via a lossy communication link with no acknowledgement signal at the estimator. Multi-agent coordinated control systems serve as a prime example of an emerging area of feedback control systems that utilize feedback loops with information passed through possibly imperfect communication networks. In these systems, agents use a communication network to exchange information in order to achieve a desired global objective. Hence managing the information flow has a direct impact on the performance of the system. I also explore this area by focusing on the problem of multi-agent average consensus. I propose an algorithm based on a hierarchical decomposition of the communication topology to speed up the time to convergence. For all these topics I focus on designing intuitive algorithms that intelligently manage the information flow and provide analysis and simulations to illustrate their effectiveness.


Consultancy Dutchscot has created the identity for Hungry Worms, a book-sharing initiative that aims to create a connection between people living with dementia and the wider community around them.
Hungry Worms has been set up by Darren Gormley, who previously worked for Age UK. The initiative sees books donated by the public in a number of London coffee shops. Carers then take these books into the homes of people living with dementia. After being read, they are returned so that they can be borrowed again.
The branding for Hungry Worms is based around a series of "worms" characters. Each represents a different type of book genre, such as comedy or thriller.
Goulden says the Hungry Worms wordmark is intended to reference "a title of a book or a chapter heading" and all typography is in Plantin, "the classic book typeface". Colours are based on old-fashioned library card inserts.
Each book in the scheme gets its own insert and holes are punched in this every time a book is borrowed and read.
The holes motif is also used on Hungry Worms business cards. Here, they deliberately obscure some of the text telling the "story" of Hungry Worms, which Goulden says is a "subtle hint" at dementia.
Posters were also put up at each sharing hub to encourage book donations – each features a Hungry Worm going on its own journey.
Goulden says the Hungry Worms programme is broadening out to serve not just people living with dementia but also those with other mental health issues.


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Exercising their influence
As policymakers struggle in battle against obesity, providers and insurers are offering their own solutions
Maureen McKinney and Jessica Zigmond
As part of its obesity-fighting efforts, Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando, Fla., offers a teaching kitchen, where families can learn how to prepare healthy meals.
Healthcare providers and insurers are moving onto the front lines of the nation's war on obesity as policymakers' efforts flounder.
Last week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's aggressive move to target alarming rates of obesity hit a significant roadblock when a judge struck down his limits on large-sized sugary drinks just one day before the controversial rules were supposed to go into effect.
The setback—and the barrage of criticism the effort drew from the food and beverage industries—illustrates the fight policymakers have on their hands as they try to craft legislation aimed at stemming some of the sources of obesity and its related health impacts.
In the face of uneven legislative progress, many hospitals and health systems are tackling the obesity epidemic head-on, particularly as emerging payment models make them more accountable for controlling costs and improving outcomes.
Viewed as a leading cause of preventable death, obesity, or excess body fat, is associated with a host of poor health outcomes, including higher rates of heart disease, osteoarthritis, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers. The problem is compounded by a number of hard-to-address factors, including lack of access to nutritious food in many urban and rural areas and low socio-economic status.
Hospitals and physicians have traditionally stuck to doling out simple advice about exercise and healthy eating when confronted with obese patients. But that hands-off approach is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
For instance, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Nemours, which is one of the country's largest children's health systems, has had a weight management program in place for patients in Delaware for more than 20 years. In response to a growing prevalence of obesity in Florida, Nemours created a sister program there in an outpatient setting six years ago called Healthy Choices Clinic, which provides dietitians, mental health counselors, nurses and exercise specialists who can tailor programs that meet the needs of young people struggling with their weight.
Kids who stay with the program for longer than a year have seen a reduction in their body mass index, a measurement that indicates if a person is overweight or obese, according to Dr. Lloyd Werk, who has run the clinic since its inception. "Whether the health consequence is walking down the road to Type 2 diabetes, or sleep apnea, or Blount's disease (a disorder of the growth of leg bones), there's increasing recognition that being obese and overweight is not without consequences," Werk said.
In January, the Academic Pediatric Association granted Nemours a two-year provisional accreditation for physician obesity fellowships, the first program that centers specifically on pediatric obesity. "Health systems need qualified, well-trained people to meet the needs of an overweight population," Dr. George Datto, director of the fellowship, said in a statement after the announcement. And the system's newly built Nemours Children's Hospital, Orlando, Fla., features KidsTRACK, a family research center that includes a teaching kitchen where parents can learn how to prepare healthy meals for their children.
Sentara Williamsburg (Va.) Regional Medical Center is using its parent system's ownership of an insurance company to bolster its population health management efforts, said Bob Graves, president of the 145-bed hospital. Ten-hospital Sentara Healthcare owns Optima Health, a health plan.
Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara has also used the plan to target its own employees who struggle with obesity-related diabetes and other chronic conditions. It uses quarterly appointments with health coaches and offers premium-lowering incentives for participation. Optima Health has also launched obesity-related initiatives for non-employee members, he added.
These stepped-up efforts by providers and insurers take place against a backdrop of obesity rates that have risen substantially in recent decades and show few signs of receding despite heightened national consciousness about its health impact. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than one-third of adults and almost 17% of youth in the U.S. were obese in 2009 and 2010, and there had been no change in the prevalence of obesity among adults or children from 2007-08 to 2009-10.
Healthcare costs related to obesity nearly doubled to about $147 billion in 2008 from roughly $75 billion in 1998, according to Terry O'Toole, senior adviser in the CDC's division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity. Meanwhile, the average American adult is 25 pounds heavier today than the average adult was in 1960.
O'Toole said the campaign to address obesity began around 2004 and got a shot in the arm when first lady Michelle Obama launched the Let's Move campaign, her well-advertised effort to move kids away from television and computer screens and onto playgrounds and dance floors. "No doubt we've seen more activity with Let's Move," O'Toole said. However, it's essential to adopt broader strategies that improve the environment in ways that make healthy living easier, he said. For this to happen, communities need to determine what changes are necessary to boost physical activity in schools, promote safe options for bicycle transportation and provide access to nutritious foods.
A more comprehensive approach
Trust for America's Health, which advocates for the nation's public health departments, has pushed for such a broader approach to address the obesity problem in America. Jeff Levi, the group's executive director, said an effective strategy involves three components: cultural change, which is seen through the first lady's campaign; programs and interventions, such as the diabetes prevention program developed from a National Institutes of Health study and now being implemented at YMCAs; and policy changes that encourage people to make healthier choices, such as nutrition standards in school lunch programs and menu labeling at restaurants, which the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will require nationwide.
"Over the last five years, we've seen a start of the programs and policies and activities that will alter the trajectory," Levi said. "We're not seeing that yet in a significant way with the numbers, but that takes time."
It also continues to face stiff opposition, which makes legislative strategies difficult to execute. New York City's proposed limits were an attempt to curb the public's intake of soda, which health experts say contributes significantly to obesity. But in his 37-page ruling in favor of New York City restaurateurs, Justice Milton Tingling called the beverage rules—which would have capped the size of sugared drinks served at restaurants, stadiums, food trucks and movie theaters to 16 ounces—"arbitrary and capricious" and full of loopholes that exempted many sugary drink vendors while targeting others. He also concluded that the city's Board of Health did not have the authority "to limit or ban a legal item under the guise of 'controlling chronic disease.'"
The American Beverage Association, an industry group that had vigorously protested the drink limits, issued a statement saying the judge's ruling had provided a "sigh of relief to New Yorkers and thousands of small businesses that would have been harmed by this arbitrary and unpopular ban."
Bloomberg last week pledged to fight the ruling. New York has one of the more significant obesity problems in the nation with over 57% of adults and nearly 40% of children classified as overweight or obese, according to state health department data.
Some advocates of government-led efforts to fight obesity are predicting Bloomberg, who also led the way on requiring calorie counts on menus, will ultimately be successful. "I wouldn't count out Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City health department quite yet," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Washington-based advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest. "We are confident that the city will prevail here. Many years hence, people will look back and think it was crazy for sugar drinks to ever be served in 32- and 64-ounce pails."
Healthcare providers, who are already dealing with the health impact of the obesity epidemic as payment models move toward capitation, don't have that long to wait. Efforts to coordinate care at Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, for instance, are focusing on diabetics and patients who struggle with congestive heart failure.
The safety net hospital is planning to develop a program for obesity, which is a primary cause of diabetes, said Shannon Sale, Grady's vice president for planning and business development.
The program will be operated though Grady's primary-care clinics, which are also partners with nearby federally qualified health centers in a Medicare accountable care organization. Under the ACO, Grady will encourage diabetics to exercise and monitor their weight and diet. The accountable care partners are also considering patient incentives for healthy behavior and for adhering to scheduled checkups.
At Yale New Haven Health System's Bridgeport (Conn.) Hospital, local primary-care providers, public agencies and civic groups launched a public health campaign to reduce obesity. It is asking area employers to support and promote healthy eating and exercise. "To change behavior for a community you really have to hit it from all sides," said Lyn Salsgiver, vice president for strategy and business planning at the system. "For us as a country to change the way we think about healthy eating and physical activity, we have to change the culture."
TAKEAWAY: Hospitals and physicians are taking up the obesity fight as policymakers struggle to get traction.
—with Melanie Evans, Beth Kutscher
and Andis Robeznieks
Participants continue to drop out of Medicare ACO program