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'Maintain the Union' March: A Turning Point
A Force For Good attended the "Maintain the Union" march in Glasgow on Saturday 18 May 2019. It was organised by "British Together", the political campaigning arm of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland.
We Live Streamed the event on our Facebook page and counted the march in at around 1,400 (1,383 to be exact).
Prior to the event, the main issue raised was:
"We don't Need to March. We show our Voice at the Ballot Box"
We understand the sentiment, but it is not necessarily correct.
The fact is, too many unionists do not vote; nor remember to vote; nor can be bothered to vote!
For example, the central belt of Scotland is replete with SNP councillors in areas which should be solidly pro-UK. However, far too many people who support the United Kingdom have not realised there were council elections on that day; or they had forgotten about them; or couldn't be bothered to vote in them!
That's a real weakness in grassroots unionism and loyalism, and it is essential that it changes.
3 REASONS TO MARCH
1. A March helps us to Politically Organise, Mobilise and Energise
In the face of apathy, a pro-UK march like this helps us to organise, mobilise and energise supporters. It helps us to get thinking about elections, as well as referendums.
Such events can help contribute towards an essential "culture of voting" among unionists and loyalists – which needs to be developed. It helps us to realise that "Our Vote Counts!"
Please don't ever think there is no point in voting!
Indeed, there is an SNP MP in power at Westminster today who has been elected on 2 votes over the Lib Dem! (North East Fife).
And don't bother about the fact that your pro-UK candidate or party is not perfect. If you're waiting around for the perfect candidate or party, then that day will never come.
It is a fact of reality that voting, in our imperfect world, is often about making compromises in order to select the least worst!
Remember to vote in the Euro Elections this Week!
In that regard, the next elections are this week, Thursday 23rd May, for the European Parliament elections. The constituency is the whole of Scotland and we elect 6 MEPs by proportional representation. So, everyone in Scotland will have a candidate to vote for.
The SNP is looking to get the 6th seat. You can help deny them it by voting for any pro-UK party of your choice. But please do remember to vote. You don't need a polling card. Just turn up at the polling centre. You'll be asked for your name, address and post code.
And remember that the Scottish Cabbage Party – the soggy Greens – are a separatist and virulently republican party, so please don't vote for them!
2. A March Creates Visual Imagery for the British Union
What people see determines how they understand reality.
Think about how many times you see an article in a newspaper or on the internet about the Scottish independence debate. The newspaper or website almost always uses a picture from a ScotNat event. It is really depressing!
Looking at that visual imagery makes one think that Scotland is awash with SNP and Scottish Nationalists.
Over time, this is demoralising to those of us sympathetic with the unionist position. It makes us think we are in the minority.
Seeing this, over and over, makes most people presume that Scotland must want separation.
However, if we see pro-British imagery then it helps us realise that there are people in Scotland who want the UK to stay together.
It's all about perception.
If we only see Scottish Nationalists, we think they are dominating the scene. We forget that the other side exists. We feel, psychologically, that nobody is speaking for the other side of the argument. We retreat from the scene, and give up...and lose.
Indeed, until AFFG arrived on the scene with our Thin Red Line, that was exactly what was happening. But our regular counter-presence, at their events, is now transforming that perception in the public mind.
3. These Events give Reassurance and Heart to our Side
So this is crucial: Unless the pro-UK side is seen visibly and colourfully – either at our counter-demos, or at unionist marches – then people will come to believe that the other side are the winners.
That is how life and politics works.
The human brain will tend to submit to what it unconsciously perceives to be the dominant side.
If groups like ourselves were not doing what we are doing, it would appear to all intents and purposes that the ScotNats ruled the streets, and that would make most people, unconsciously, just fall for them.
So events such as these, and A Force For Good's Thin Red Line events at the SNP/ScotNat marches are boosting the morale of our side and helping to maintain the union in the hearts and minds of people.
People see such events, and sit up and think "Hello, good to see the pro-British people out there. I had forgotten they existed!"
As a result, this imagery re-invigourates their desire for the Union.
One of our supporters wrote to A Force For Good recently on this matter.
He said: "By maintaining a Unionist presence during the marches of the SNP, and others, and by offering credible alternative statistics to counterbalance the outlandish claims of the separatists regarding their level of support, you are providing valuable reassurance to the silent majority who believe strongly in our Union that they are not alone.
"It is important that those who would wish to destroy the Union are not allowed to present their politics of intimidation, division and polarisation as the predominant political movement in Scotland, or anywhere throughout the Union."
3 MORE POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
1. The Matter of the Grand Orange Lodge
Some people may have been reluctant to get involved because "British Together", the organiser of this march, is the political campaigning arm of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland.
Firstly, there is absolutely no other organisation in Scotland which could organise such an event, at this stage. There is no political party who would want to do so – and if they did, that would be a polarising event from the get-go!
Our organisation, A Force For Good, does not have the reach, nor the resources to pull off something like this, not at this point in time at least; nor does any other pro-UK campaigning organisation in Scotland.
So it is left to the Grand Orange Lodge to use its network to form the basis of the supporters on the day. That is perfectly understandable.
Secondly, the organiser made clear that no Orange banners or regalia were to be carried, and that the event was open to all people who support the British Union. It was intended to be an inclusive event for all.
Thirdly, the Grand Orange Lodge has experience in these matters. There was the requisite high number of stewards, and everybody on the march behaved impeccably. The route and time was chosen to provide maximum convenience for the authorities and passers-by.
The Lodge proved themselves worthy organisers! They performed with excellence.
2. Make it an Annual Event!
From small acorns, big things one day come.
To our knowledge, this was the first time in Scotland that such a political pro-UK march (not a band and banner event) had been tried.
Around 1,400 was a respectable turnout, especially considering that it had very little advertising on social media. So, this number will only grow, if it is done every year.
And grow it must!
Consider this: Imagine if we don't do this ever again...
The SNP/ScotNats now have two big annual events each year in Scotland. One in Glasgow in May and one in Edinburgh in October (as well as smaller ones in between).
The Scottish Nationalists have already planned 8 marches for 2020 – next year! So they are not giving up or slowing down.
Now imagine that there is a second IndyRef, say 5 years down the line. If we do nothing, then 5 years down the line, our attempted "unionist march" will not have many more on it than were there last weekend!
However, if this is made an Annual Event, and known to be "the big unionist event of the year", then there could be thousands on it. It would prove a worthy match for any SNP/ScotNat marches which were attempting to give the mis-impression that Scotland wanted separation.
Unionists need at least one major march each year.
In our view, this needs to become an Annual Event!
3. The Importance of Glasgow
Furthermore, it's important that the march is held in Glasgow. Glasgow was the Second City of the Empire. It is a Great British Union City and it will be so into the future. We have to recover it from the Nationalists. An Annual March can be part of that strategy.
Another Objection
"We should Concentrate on Convincing via Reason and Facts"
Of course we should do that too!
Some of our people are extremely good at that. They write letters all the time to the papers. Others produce research papers which are helpful. Many people concentrate their efforts on Social Media outreach. Their work is so important.
But only some of us can do that kind of intellectual work! Most of us can't. We need things to do as well! And for lots of us, that means physically waving a flag and joining with others on the streets.
Each of us has to do what we're good at. The AFFG counter-demos, and things like marches, provide that opportunity.
And if we are unable to march, or join AFFG's Thin Red Line – and of course we understand that many people don't want to, or are not able to, for various reasons – then we can at least, financially support those who are able to do them.
We have a very modest Crowdfunder running at the moment and we need your help to ensure we can continue our work through May and June. Please donate what you can here. You don't need to give your name and it will take 2 minutes of your time> crowdfunder.co.uk/maintain-union-2019
Union City Glasgow
counterdemo


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AoM Chpt 22: Lessons in the Field
That afternoon Rei called and asked if he wanted to go pick berries the next day. A group of farms maintained a bus for hauling workers that they could catch on Burnside, and it would take them out to Gresham, about a half-hour ride east. His dad would pick him up at five.
"Five a.m.?"
"Yeah, so are you up for it? It's a small farm. My mom's sister knows the owners, and I went today. Some of the big farms take Burnside winos, but the Hayatsus don't do that. It's not too bad. You can't screw around, though."
"I'll ask my dad." He didn't want Rei to think he was a wuss, and if they worked together, it might be okay. Besides, it couldn't last more than three days and then he'd be on the trip.
His dad thought it was a great idea; his mom was less enthusiastic. "I don't like you riding those busses. I understand they pick up alcoholics."
Steve's dad said, "This isn't the thirties, Gale. Sheesh. You've read too much Steinbeck. I picked berries around here as a kid, and I never saw any bums in the fields. It's tough work."
"Rei said they don't take bums."
His mom frowned.
"Anyway," his dad continued, as if he hadn't heard, "the migrants will show you what real hard-workers look like. You'll have to bust your butt to keep up with them." He chuckled, then got serious. "You do too much daydreaming, and they'll kick you out. Better set your alarm and get to bed early."
That night, Steve made himself a lunch of peanut-butter sandwiches for the next day. When he raised his arm, even a little, it sprang up, trained to the weight of the missing cast. Even maneuvering the knife over bread took concentration. He'd had a big dinner and wasn't inspired to put food together, but he figured he couldn't get too hungry only working half the day. He got in bed by nine, but stayed up another two hours reading a fantasy novel.
When the buzzer went off, he felt like he'd just fallen asleep. He forced himself out of bed, tugging his own body up like a heavy puppet, and went to the window. His senses registered their impressions slowly. The sky was light, Mount Hood was limned in a golden glow, but the Willamette Valley still rested in shadow. The house was dead quiet after the alarm clock; birds had started to chirp just outside; distant traffic rumbled and screeched like some inane television program left on all night. Painfully tired, Steve went and got himself dressed in jeans, sneakers, and an old long-sleeved cotton madras shirt over a thin T-shirt, then dragged upstairs.
He'd just started eating cereal, when he heard gravel crunch in the driveway, followed by an engine idling. A scant spoonful later Rei knocked on the door. Steve hurried out through the cold, and felt grateful for the warmth of the Buick.
He half-dozed on the short trip to town.
Burnside shuffled by gray in the predawn chill. Ragged men and surly teenage boys in loose flannel workshirts loitered on the sidewalks. Every other person seemed to be smoking. Rei's dad let them out, and they both watched him go. Steve caught Rei's dull and hopeless expression and sought comfort elsewhere. The most animated men were the Mexicans, who chattered in Spanish and glanced disdainfully at Steve. He shut his eyes and leaned against a light pole, clutching himself against the cold and trying to doze again. He was seriously underdressed. He needed a hat at least.
A minute later, a bus came and went; then another pulled up. Rei punched him hard on the shoulder. "C'mon," he said, "this is it."
They took a seat up near the front, and Steve tried to sleep against the window. Just behind him, some hoarse old guy was talking loudly about riding the rails as a kid, going from job to job. Steve tuned in for a moment. Why would an old guy still be doing field work? Steve opened his eyes, and watched Rei staring impassively ahead. In the seat across the aisle a pair of Mexicans stared out with the same dull fixity, whites of their eyes practically glowing in their dark faces. He tried to draw some inspiration from the scene. What would the work day of glow-grub harvesters or sowbug haulers be like in Barathrum? He couldn't think about it; he was too tired.
The bus took Interstate 84 along the Columbia River to the Wood Village exit, wound up the steep hill from Troutdale into Gresham, through sleepy suburbs of big fir trees amid apartment buildings and ramblers. When they reached Southeast Burnside, Steve watched the grocery stores and strip-mall shops plod by. A few pedestrians slouched down the sidewalk. One well-made-up young woman in high heels and wearing an overcoat hurried briskly along. Her calves and knees showed bare with every stride. The old man behind him said to his silent compatriot, "Wonder what club she's coming back from. Bet she's a working girl." Steve woke up a bit at that. A real prostitute? Well, maybe a stripper. He'd never seen one, but it wasn't what he expected, like from the TV show Starsky & Hutch. She didn't have a jaded, confident appearance, more like fretful and ordinary.
A few blocks later, they passed the last gas islands and a few seedy free-standing bars just as Burnside turned into Highway 26, the road that led, eventually, to Mt. Hood. The bus gained speed and rolling hills plumed with fir copses spun lazily off on the right. Everything seemed quiet and still in the gray dawn. Steve's mind was a blank. He thought he'd take another try at napping, when he noticed the first stretch of berry fields, acrawl with busy workers. They all seemed alert and determined, like orc slaves in fear of the whip. Steve's guts clenched.
The bus turned off and wound up between wooded hills for a mile, then made a stop. A few passengers stirred behind him, and Steve started to rise. "No," Rei said, "the next one." A group of forty-some men and boys filed off, all except the Mexicans across the aisle. As they went, they shuffled quietly, all business. "They don't look too happy," Steve said.
Rei shrugged.
"You don't have much to say."
"It's five-thirty in the damn morning."
Steve laid his head against the window, determined to be calm, and bumped it when the bus started up again. He was just getting settled and almost comfortable, when the bus stopped with another lurch. The Mexicans sprang up and left. Rei dragged up and followed them. "Come on," he said as he went through the door, not bothering to look back.
Last off, Steve thanked the bus driver, a large middle-aged woman in a red windbreaker, and emerged on a drive lined with horse chestnuts. The avenue led to a small blue clapboard rambler with a large old barn to the left. Through the line of trunks, he could see acres of well-groomed strawberry bushes marching uphill past the barn. A stand of tall fir trees glowered beyond them. Sun lit their tops.
Rei was waiting for him near the barn. A trestle table was set up with a scale at one end and at the other a big metal coffee dispenser and a plastic yellow sports jug with "water" inked in black. The Mexicans were signing a sheet of paper; Rei stood next in line. Behind the table, an elderly Japanese man, presumably Mr. Hayatsu, looked on. The Mexicans finished, and walked toward another line at the barn, where a white middle-aged woman handed out plastic yellow berry crates. As Steve joined him, Rei picked up the pen. Mr. Hayatsu took a step closer across the table, hovering. With his attention still on the paper, Rei muttered, "This is my friend, Steve. He's come to work."
"Hi, Steve." The man had a Japanese accent. He kept his hands in the pockets of his windbreaker. "You a good worker?" He didn't wait for the answer. "No fooling around, okay? We have problems before with city boys goofing off throwing berries. We kick your butt out." He smiled.
"Here," Rei said, ignoring Mr. Hayatsu and looking surly, and handed Steve the pen. "Write down your name, and when you bring up each crate, they'll weigh it and put down your total. They pay a dollar a crate when the day's over."
Steve signed in at the bottom of about thirty names and followed Rei over to the barn, where the crate woman had just helped the Mexicans. "This is Steve, Mrs. Hayatsu," Rei said. Her black hair was white-streaked, and she had a stern, lean face. Steve had taken her for white, but he could see now that she was half Asian.
"Have you picked before, Steve?" Unlike her husband, she didn't have an accent.
"A little," he lied.
She handed him a crate and a wire caddy that had a wheel at one end and nodded into the field where a fat lady carrying a bucket waded across the lush rows, which stood a couple feet high. The lady bent over now and then to stir the broad trefoil leaves behind one of the workers and occasionally pulled a strawberry. "Tell Liz over there you're new. She'll give you a row and explain how we want it picked. The berries are good here, nice and fat."
In the field, Liz gave Steve and Rei their row assignments, right next to each other. She warned Steve to keep the end of the caddy up when he moved along so they didn't get mud on the crate, and told him not to "cream" the row.
"Right," he said, "don't crush the bushes."
"Huh?" The woman looked alarmed. "You'd better keep the crate off the bushes. What idiot would wreck the bushes?"
" 'Cream the row' means going fast and missing berries," said Rei.
"Here," she said, "I'll pick your first hallock, but watch. Dig in and move the bushes around. Some of the berries are a little deep toward the base. See, here's one. This one's not ripe enough. If there's any green, let it go. Too many green berries, and we'll thin your crate. Don't short the hallocks; fill them just to the top and packed, but not so full that they smash when the crates are stacked. Each crate should be about fifteen pounds. Too light, and we'll send you back." She had surgical gloves on her hands stained with berry juice. She picked efficiently, queuing up half a dozen berries in her palms and then spilling them together into a "hallock," one of the crate's twelve compartments. "There you go. Rei can show you how to pick a nice, tidy crate." She leaned close and whispered loudly, "But try to be faster. He's lazy."
When she had moved off, Rei muttered, not too softly. "I hate that bitch." Steve looked up alarmed, but she was ambling away calmly and apparently hadn't heard. The Mexicans, who were about fifteen yards along, heads into their work, grinned, but continued to move like they were in a contest with each other, picking almost at a walk.
"Did those guys start back here with us?" Steve asked him.
Rei nodded glumly.
Steve learned the reason for the row boss's surgical gloves in a hurry. The leaves and the berries were soaked with dew, and cold air seemed to hug the rows. His hands were wet and numb within minutes, and he shivered. After half an hour, he'd filled only half his crate and was lagging behind Rei, who didn't have gloves either but seemed okay with it. The Mexicans had just cleared off with their second crate. Rei had been unusually quiet the whole time, and Steve began to suspect that he'd invited him along just to share his misery.
Sun now lit the slopes behind them and steam curled from the bushes like smoke from a slow ground fire. Steve rose to stretch, and got a faceful of blazing orange heat. He shielded his eyes. Light had crept over the top of the Cascades, showing the glaciers on Hood and the hunched green back of Larch Mountain, much nearer, and slightly north. His lower spine ached, but the sun felt good. He looked behind, up the slope. The shady copse was like a derelict Viking meadhall, sword fern lush among the pillars of fir trunks. He wondered if anyone ever camped in there and came down to steal strawberries
Renewing his effort, Steve managed to catch Rei up and finish the last six hallocks in ten minutes. He pulled the crate free of the caddy, and then carried it to the main table, where Mrs. Hayatsu weighed the yield. A couple of rangy older boys hurried ahead of him and he had to wait, the edges of the crate biting into this numbed fingers. When he finally got there, he struggled to heft the crate, and Mrs. Hayatsu had to steady it on the scale.
She dug through a hallock, picked up a couple berries from the bottom, turned them over, and replaced them, apparently satisfied. "Looks good, but you should speed up. You won't make much money."
"My hands are freezing," said Steve.
"You should bring gloves. For now, hold a cup of coffee. It's getting warm, so you'll be fine pretty soon."
Steve got himself coffee just as Rei brought up his first crate. He downed it quickly, not wanting to fall behind.
Back in the row, he already felt better. The sun had warmed the leaves and dried them on top. He finished his next crate in half an hour. Meanwhile, as if heated out of torpor, Rei had become his usual twitchy, chatty self. "That thing with the dragon was cool, remaking the vampire and all that. I should be close to tenth rank now. Who are we gonna kill first, the giant or the hag? What's the name of the giant again? Oh, right. So, we gonna play without Tess?"
Steve didn't answer this last question, and pretended distraction from his clothing. The cuffs of his outer shirt had been soaked with dew and made his wrists itch. He took the shirt off and tied the sleeves around his waist. All he had underneath was a T-shirt, but it was enough. It wasn't even eight yet. The day would be hot, and right now, that seemed just fine. His only real complaint was that he was already getting hungry. "Oh shit!"
"I forgot lunch," Steve said.
"You're gonna be hurting. You can eat a couple berries. I didn't bring enough for both of us, but I've got a candy bar I'll split. You can have my chips."
"Thanks. That should be enough."
It wasn't. They broke at ten. He'd finished four more crates and was famished. The portion Rei handed over only made him hungrier. He drank extra water, but it didn't help. He told Mrs. Hayatsu he'd forgotten lunch. She wasn't sympathetic. "Sorry, but we don't feed the workers. We can't do it for everyone, and some of these migrants are hungry too. You can catch the early bus out at eleven and remember your lunch tomorrow."
Rei didn't mind an excuse to leave early. "Mom picks us up at one downtown, but hey, we can go to Powell's and check out their roleplaying books."
In the end, Steve earned seven dollars, less than half minimum wage for the time spent. Mrs. Hayatsu handed him the cash from a tin lockbox. "Not so bad," she said. "We'll see you tomorrow." Mr. Hayatsu strolled by, glanced at Steve's crate tally, and grunted.
When the bus dropped them off downtown, Steve towed Rei straight to a McDonald's a few blocks south of Burnside, where he spent half his money on a couple burgers, a carton of fries, and a milkshake. He bought Rei a burger too, to pay him back with interest for sharing his lunch.
"So what did you think?" Rei said. "Sucks, doesn't it?"
"Yeah," he agreed. "It sure does." He felt good for having done it, though, and the country was pretty.
"You gonna come back with me tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Cool. You'll get used to it by next week. It's good to have someone to go with. Besides, strawberries are just till the end of the month. Then it's raspberries. You don't have to bend over so much, and it's easier to make money."
Steve couldn't tell Rei he'd be out for the rest of strawberry season with Tess. "Yeah, raspberries sound better," he said. Then it occurred to him he had something even bigger to share, the school plans his parents had made for him. He recounted that part of last Saturday's conversation.
"Is it for sure?"
"Yeah, I guess so, but I'll be home on weekends, so it shouldn't affect the campaign much."
"No problem then."
The next day he was much better prepared. He set out three layers of clothes: a T-shirt, a sweatshirt, and a rain coat, the latter to keep the dew off his arms. He got an old pair of tight-fitting wool gloves from his dad and cut the fingers out of them. For lunch, he threw a small jar of peanut butter and half a loaf of bread in a plastic sack, along with a big square of baker's chocolate, half a bag of Doritos, and an apple and a banana.
Rei was tired and low on energy again, but he talked more. Having a shared day of work behind them raised the solidarity, which just made Steve feel worse about his imminent betrayal. In the fields, as the sun crept downhill toward them, Rei prattled incessantly about the adventure. He'd guessed that Stefan's weapon was a claw from Varanor, and mused as to whether he could get something like that for Dirk. "Maybe some tail spikes or whatever, if they're better than my daggers. By the way, that idea's just too cool — demigods that give you pieces of themselves as weapons. Where'd you come up with that?"
Having approached unnoticed, Liz the row boss pointed out that Rei had missed several obvious berries, that his chatter could be heard clear down the row, and that both he and Steve were lagging far behind the other pickers. "If you don't keep it quiet and speed up, I'm going to separate you. You're holding your friend back." Which was true.
Rei mumbled something before she'd quite turned away.
"What?" she said.
"I said my hands itch!" he lied.
"Oh." She stalked off.
Being more comfortable made the time go faster than the previous day. Steve bore down and got six crates before they broke for lunch at ten-thirty. Rei had kept up but was a full crate behind, and got chewed out again, this time for creaming the row again.
Just before they finished at noon, Rei said, "I've got chores today, but I'm free later tomorrow, and I can play over the weekend."
Steve sighed. His head felt numb. "I'm sorry, I've gotta pack for a camping trip."
"What about Friday?"
"I'm leaving early Friday, so I can't work."
Steve picked a couple handfuls of berries. Seconds dragged by. "Two weeks."
"Shit. Two weeks? Where?"
"I don't know exactly. Over the mountains. We're going camping, me and my mom and dad, and hooking up with Mr. Harrison."
"Just Mr. Harrison?"
"The Harrisons," Steve said.
"Aw, man, you're going to miss all the strawberries, and I'm gonna be with Liz the Row Nazi."
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I was going to tell you yesterday, but I didn't want to bum you out."
They worked in silence. Steve could guess the progression of Rei's thoughts. The next question was inevitable, but it took longer for Rei to get there than he thought it would. "Hey," he said, "you're going to be camping with Tess, right?"
Steve's shoulders tightened. "She's coming, I guess. Yeah."
Shocked alert, Steve stood up. Rei beamed at him.
Rei nodded. Wary, Steve said, "We'll probably have some time to finish the rescue plot. I could get her up to seventh rank, which could help you guys out a lot, really."
"Whatever. You're going to have Tess to yourself, alone in the woods, for two freakin' weeks! You'll get some action for sure."
Steve felt the sun beating on his face, saw the other pickers hurrying through the jade rows ahead while the two of them stood still. For a moment, he couldn't look Rei in the eye. "Nah, I doubt it," he said. A dragonfly skimmed the nearby leaves chasing a bee. He slid his gaze over to Rei, who held the same expression of vicarious excitement, and Steve's eyes watered at a press of emotion behind them, a mix of amusement, affection, and shame at how he'd underestimated Rei. He hated to wreck the mood, but he needed to be honest. "I thought you wouldn't be too keen about me spending time alone with Tess."
"Why?" Rei's brows knit in genuine puzzlement.
"You like her too, don't you?"
"Well, yeah, as a friend, and a hot chick. I mean who wouldn't, but man, you're the GM!"
Steve made a surprised snort before he could help himself. He knew Rei was an attentive player, but a fan? Rei's goofy expression faded slowly. "What?" he said.
Steve finished out the day with eight dollars, and got lightly sunburned on his face and arms. Thursday, Liz assigned them to separate rows, much to Rei's disappointment. Not having Rei to distract him, he finished eleven crates.
On the final bus ride home, as they neared downtown, Steve said, "Yesterday you acted like it's a big deal I'm the GM."
"It is to us."
"Not to Curt."
"You're wrong. That's why he's such a pain in the butt sometimes. I like being a player, and he does too, but he really wants what you've got."
Steve had always figured Curt's thing was knowing the rules better than anyone else. "He's never even asked to run an adventure."
"He knows he can't compete, is why. He tried once."
"He did? When?"
"About a year ago. A few months after you and me and him got really into your campaign. He followed the rules exactly, and when he looked stuff up, it slowed us down. It just didn't have that spark, you know? We stopped after a couple tries."
"What was it about?"
"Some gnomes were living in these mines and some goblins and trolls lived in some caves that led into them, and we were helping the gnomes…"
"Huh." This wasn't really enough information to pass judgment. It didn't sound too interesting, but Steve preferred not to diss Curt. He'd been a good player. Trying to be generous, he said, "Maybe he just needs practice. Should I make a subplot and let him run it?"
Rei stared out the window—considering, Steve thought.
"Should we do that?" he persisted.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Wright has expressed that The Sims was really implied as a parody of U.S. customer culture. Wright took thoughts from the 1977 engineering and metropolitan plan book A Pattern Language, American analyst Abraham Maslow's 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation and his order of requirements, and Charles Hampden-Turner's Maps of the Mind to build up a model for the game's man-made brainpower.
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Jane Winkworth
"Welcome to British shoe designer, Jane Winkworth's new website. Jane is known by the fashion press as "Queen of Ballet Flats" and is the founder of French Sole, home of the original, own-brand, designer Ballet Flats.
Her new website gives a full insight into the history behind French Sole - with exciting background information, press archives and Jane's personal blog. Jane will also be offering inspiring updates about her tireless work for charity; including her involvement with the English National Ballet and her continuing support of the Starlight Foundation - enjoy!".
Charlotte-Anne Fidler,
Creative and Fashion Director.
Jane Winkworth is known internationally as the founder and designer behind the globally renowned brand, French Sole. Offering fashionable classic flat footwear for women of all ages, Jane is known as the Queen of the Ballet Flats. Her exquisite and unique range of traditional ballet flats in every conceivable shape, style and colour are instantly recognised as the only ballet shoe to be seen in.
Jane started out as a trained restorer and painter of fine art and porcelain, working for some of the of the world's most influential collectors including London's Victoria and Albert Museum. During the 'swinging sixties' Jane lived in trendy Chelsea , where she designed ballerina flatties for herself and her friends. Jane worked closely with Michael Gamba at Gamba Shoes and Annello and Davide in the Charing Cross Road to make unique handmade shoes from her designs.
By 1989 Jane saw a gap in the shoe market and anticipated that there would be a demand for the simple yet stylish little ballet style flats that she was so fond of wearing herself. Trips to France and Spain were spent buying up all the ballets she could find to bring home, to not only furnish her own shoe closet and those of her friends, but to form the basis of a unique mail order business selling only ballet style shoes - French Sole was born and the rest is history! As the founder of ballet flats Jane Winkworth continues to delight with her fabulous collections year after year and the brand goes from strength to strength.
Jess Contomichalos, Editor
Charities Jane supports:
© 2022 All rights reserved Jane Winkworth & French Sole. 26 Brook Street, Mayfair, London, W1K 5DQ.


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PREVIEW: Softball to Play Home Opener vs. Young Harris - Cleveland State Community College - Cleveland State Community College
PREVIEW: Softball to Play Home Opener vs. Young Harris
Young Harris College (NCAA DII)
Young Harris College (NCAA DII) 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1
Cleveland State CC (4-2) 3 2 2 0 1 8 13 0
2B: Alanna Dunson
2B: Hailey Galvan
After starting out their season with a 3-2 record at the Border Battle Tournament in Cartersville, Ga., the Lady Cougar softball team will play their first two games at home this season at Saturday against Young Harris College JV. The doubleheader will begin at 2:00 ET.
Auburn Collake has been a force for the Lady Cougars so far this season. She is batting 10-for-20 (.500), with 6 RBI and a HR, all team highs. P Bekah Copas has also had a strong start to her season, recording 2 wins in 2 appearances.
After this series, the Lady Cougars will continue their homestand against Jackson State on Friday, March 1. The doubleheader begins at 2:00 ET.
LAST THREE SERIES:
February 9-10, Border Battle Tournament at Cartersville, Ga. 3-2
NEXT THREE SERIES:
March 1-2 vs. Jackson State, 3/1 DH beginning at 2:00 ET, 3/2 DH beginning at 12:00 ET
March 4 vs. Snead State, DH beginning at 1:00 ET
March 8-9 at Roane State, 3/8 DH beginning at 2:00 ET, 3/9 DH beginning at 12:00 ET
CSCC TEAM LEADERS:
BA: Auburn Collake and Hailey Galvan, .500
RBI: Auburn Collake, 6
HR: Auburn Collake, 1
R: Three players, 5
W: Bekah Copas, 2


The amount we've heard from politicians and social commentators this week on how unfortunate the UK steel industry job losses are only goes to show how many people are still unapprised of even the basics of economics. Yes it's true, because China can produce and sell steel so much more cheaply than us, it will have a negative effect on our steel industry. But overall that's a good thing - short of wanting buyers to pay inflated prices for UK steel rather than more competitive prices for Chinese steel - which, frankly, only the most narrow Anglo-centric person could desire - it has to be realised that this is just the market's way of signalling that UK steel production is now less efficient than production in other countries, and that the people in the UK steel industry either need to be more competitive or look to do something else. But even if you can't make that argument fly - and goodness only knows why you couldn't - here's something else you should know: artificially protecting UK industries to stave off foreign competition hurts other UK industries in the process. This was the wisdom of international trade laid down most famously by David Ricardo. Let me illustrate how impeding the process of free international trade actually harms the people the government wants to protect – its own industry (and thus, its own citizens).
Let's suppose there is a car factory in Newcastle that isn't doing as well as the executives or the government would like, due to consumers' preference for cars in Japan. The government introduces a policy that favours car production in Newcastle over car imports from Japan. How on Earth could that not be good for the British economy – Britain's gain is Japan's loss, right? Wrong. Quite simply, what you put into the pockets of the car factory in Newcastle you take out of someone else's pockets elsewhere in Britain (as well as having people probably paying more for their cars). Consider Slough's boiler factory; what you don't see is an almost invisible chain of events; the boilers made in Slough are shipped off to Japan and sold to a company that makes its money producing nuclear reactors, the buyers of which are companies who trade in mineral oils, and those companies deal with companies who make cars in Japan and ship them to Britain.
In other words, there is a complex economic process that is going on outside of your peripheral vision, whereby both the car factory in Newcastle and the boiler factory in Slough are both bringing cars into Britain. That is to say, if you protect the car factory in Newcastle from competition you must damage Slough's boiler factory because somewhere down the line they are the competition.
The Newcastle car illustration is precisely how the argument should be applied to steel in Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire. So the next time you hear a politician announcing how much he or she wants to do to protect British producers in one industry from foreign competition, be aware that he or she is unknowingly proposing an action that hurts other industries in Britain, and amounts to a net loss in economic efficiency.


A porcelain flooring cost buying tips install on ceramic can be a ceramic using a design, usually employed to the supporting components of the table. It is the ideal match for anyone who desire an eccentric table. The twisting part could be created out of materials like wood or metal. The thickness of the twisted aid will establish the purchase price of this , so a ceramic with thin-twisted legs will likely be more economical. The twisted area is also assorted from half, single, or even many spins. A spin ceramic works. It can be used as an ordinary ceramic or accent. It is dependent upon the porcelain floor tiles ideas because the dimensions decides things which may be set in addition to it.
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Q: Inject @Parameter in different class in maven plugin I am writing a maven plugin and based on my previous experience i know that my mojo class will end up with a bunch of @Parameters to configure it. What I would like to do is instead of having those configuration parameters injected in the mojo class, I would like to have them injected in a second, configuration-only class. Is this possible?
The current way I do it is the mojo class just constructs a Configuration object where it passes all the injected parameters. Something like this
@Mojo
public class MyMojo extends AbstractMojo {

  private MyConfig myConfig;

  @Parameter
  private String myArg1;

  ...

  public void execute() {
     myConfig = new MyConfig(myArg1, myArg2, ...);
  }
}

But this is rather ugly. I want the DI to happen directly in Config

A: If MyConfig is a pojo, you can use the @Parameter here as well, However, you config will look like:
<configuration>
  <myConfig>
    <someField>value</someField>
  </myConfig>
</configuration>

The second trick is to use setters, because an @Parameter-annotated field will use the matching public setter, if there is one.
private MyConfig myConfig = new MyConfig();

@Parameter
private String someField;

// matching setter for @parameter-annotated field
public void setSomeField( String field )
{
  myConfig.setSomeField( field );
}

A: You can use your MyConfig POJO as @Parameter:
@Mojo
public class MyMojo extends AbstractMojo {
    @Parameter
    private MyConfig myConfig;

    ...
}

The rules for mapping complex objects are as follows:

*

*There must be a private field that corresponds to name of the element being mapped. So in our case the person element must map to a person field in the mojo.

*The object instantiated must be in the same package as the Mojo itself. So if your mojo is in com.mycompany.mojo.query then the mapping mechanism will look in that package for an object named Person. As you can see the mechanism will capitalize the first letter of the element name and use that to search for the object to instantiate.

Source
However, using the @Parameter for fields of MyConfig has no effect, see this thread.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


REFINEInterested in food aid research beyond FAQR? Visit REFINE - a knowledge-sharing mechanism that aims to improve nutritional effectiveness of food aid products.
Langlois, B., Suri, D., Shen, Y., Walton, S., Guevara Alvarez, G., Moses, K., and Rogers, B.
Wilner, L., Suri, D., Langlois, B., Walton, S., and Rogers, B.
Shen, Y., Griswold, S., Suri, D., Vosti, S., and Rogers, B.
Suri, D. J.; Moorthy, D.; Rosenberg, I. H.


Berry Dakara: This Weekend: WED EXPO LAGOS!!!
Mehn, the LIB saga just took over this week sha :p But she's back, using her own domain now, with a lengthy post on what's gone down, so if you feel like reading - go right ahead and Google it. Speaking of Google, I hear they restored her old blog.
Hehe, no, not me. What can I exhibit there? Blog posts?
CAKES aka CAKESIENA aka CAKE FACTORY by K's CRAFT aka BERRY YUMMY HUBBY aka.. okay, I'll stop with the aka's.
Fashi, the cakes he made for exhibition are sooooooooooooo pretty! As in, even Little Miss Perfectionist Me said "Wowwww, I'm so proud of you." this morning! In Jesus' name, Cakes will only get better and bigger (as a vendor, not his rapidly increasing tummy)!!!
P.S. He said his booth is somewhere in the back :( so PLEASE take your time to look for him. Next time, we'll get a bigger booth.
Source - Remember Sisi Yemmie won a N15million wedding courtesy of Wed Expo. The new competition starts today.
In addition, there are 2 other expos going on as well, and everything is at the same venue.
QUALITY spending vs QUANTITY spending.
The expos are being held at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos Island, and the times are from 10am to 6pm everyday this weekend, starting today.
Okay, I gotta go. LOVE YA!!!
Meeeeehn, the Linda saga ain't funny. The Aye guy tweeted a screenshot of their conversation in 2011 proving she knew about lindaikeji.net. Heck, it was his Christmas present to her. Is Lili playing us all?
LOOOL! My dear, the whole thing was just a merry-go-round.
Congratulations to CAKES aka CAKESIENA aka CAKE FACTORY by K's CRAFT aka BERRY YUMMY HUBBY !!!!!
Thanks!!! Hey, great idea for a blog post! Or maybe vlog?


text:
Home Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Transportation
Planemakers like Airbus and Embraer are envisioning a future where the airliner looks radically different — take a look at the futuristic concepts
Taylor Rains
A rendering of Vertical Aerospace's eVTOL.
American Airlines and Vertical Aerospace
The worldwide aviation industry continues to face sustainability concerns and rising fuel prices.
To battle the ongoing challenges, airlines are investing in new technologies, like electric planes and biofuels.
Some manufacturers are betting on futuristic aircraft, like supersonic jets and hydrogen-powered planes.
As the demand for travel continues to skyrocket post-pandemic, the need for more fuel-efficient and cost-saving aircraft is becoming a bigger priority for airlines.
Passengers are seen at Edinburgh airport.
Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Operators are not only battling rising fuel prices, but also environmental concerns from world governments and activists, particularly as aviation-related CO2 emissions rise above 2%.
Airplane flying over trees.
Gergitek Gergi tavan/Shutterstock
Source: ICAO, ATAG
In November 2021, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg unveiled the country's plan to reach net zero emissions from the aviation industry by 2050.
Buttigieg is taking an even more high-profile turn as he sells a trillion-dollar infrastructure package around the nation. He took his first international trip as a Cabinet member to COP26 in Glasgow last week.
Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
Source: DOT
US carriers like Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines, among others, have accepted the net-zero challenge, particularly through sustainable aviation fuels.
An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 EcoDemonstrator.
Source: Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines
Meanwhile, several manufacturers, like Boeing and General Electric, have engineered new systems to improve efficiency and performance on current products.
Taylor Rains/Insider
For example, Airbus has improved its best-selling A320ceo narrowbody jet with GE's next-generation LEAP-1A engine to create the A320neo, which reduces costs, as well as fuel burn by 20% compared to its predecessor.
Pratt & Whitney's PurePower PW1100G-JM geared turbofan is another engine option for the A320neo.
Source: Airbus, Safran Group, General Electric, I flew on Spirit Airlines' newest jet and the quiet cabin and modern interior couldn't make up for bare-bones seats and lack of amenities
Meanwhile, Boeing is on its ninth ecoDemonstrator aircraft that tests concept technologies that could be introduced on new planes.
The Boeing 2022 ecoDemonstrator will test 30 technologies to enhance safety and sustainability. Shown here, the 2022 ecoDemonstrator – a Boeing-owned 777-200 ER (Extended Range) after being painted in San Bernardino, Calif., in June.
Boeing's most controversial plane is being used to fight climate change. See inside the new Boeing 737 Max ecoDemonstrator.
For example, this year's Boeing 777-200ER ecoDemonstrator is testing 30 new technologies, like a water conservation system…
Boeing just unveiled a new 777 'ecoDemonstrator' jet that will test ways to make plane travel safer and more efficient — take a look at the huge testbed
…while Boeing's 2012 737NG ecoDemonstrator provided testing of the MAX's "advanced technology" winglet.
Boeing's 2012 ecoDemonstrator.
Source: Boeing, Air Insight Group
According to Boeing, the AT winglet is the "most efficient ever designed for a production airplane," with the 737 MAX 8 burning 8% less fuel per seat compared to the A320neo.
Air Canada Boeing 737 MAX 8 takes off from Los Angeles international Airport on July 30, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Source: Boeing
While many innovations have already been created and implemented, the industry is still looking toward the future with outside-the-box technology.
Empty airline seats.
Zero-emission electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft and biofuels are proving to be the most popular solutions to the industry's CO2 problem.
Archer Aviation
Airlines like United and American are betting on electric air taxis that could change the way we get around and between cities — here's the 8 companies they're partnering with
Moreover, eVTOLs are shaping a new way of travel between airports and congested city centers, while simultaneously reducing noise pollution.
Archer's Midnight eVTOL.
But, the aviation sector may also see other revolutionary planes hit the market in the next decade or two, like supersonic and hydrogen-powered jets. Take a look at the aircraft of the future.
Archer Aviation has partnered with United Airlines to create the US' first commercial electric air taxi route, flying between Newark Liberty International Airport and Downtown Manhattan.
Maker is Archer's demonstration aircraft.
Source: Archer Aviation
The company's four-passenger Midnight eVTOL will power the route, which takes just 10 minutes from the airport to the city, according to Archer.
Archer Aviation Midnight.
United Airlines is getting serious about electric flying taxis that ferry passengers to nearby airports. Take a look at the Archer Aviation 'Maker' prototype.
Meanwhile, both United and Air Canada have placed orders for another electric aircraft — Heart Aerospace's 500-mile-ranged ES30 electric plane, to enter service by 2028.
England-based Vertical Aerospace is another manufacturer in the race to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Stephen Jones / Business Insider
American Airlines has ordered 250 electric flying taxis to ferry passengers around cities at speeds of up to 200 mph. Take a look at the VX4.
The company has created its VX4 eVTOL, which has amassed over 1,400 orders from carriers like American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and Air Asia. The aircraft is expected to enter service in 2025.
Virgin Atlantic VX4.
See inside the flying taxis American Airlines and Virgin want to use to carry 4 passengers on 30-minute flights between airports and across cities
In October, Delta made a $60 million investment in an air taxi — Joby Aviation's five-seater eVTOL.
Delta Air Lines at JFK.
Ron Adar/Shutterstock
Delta just gave the clearest indication yet of how electric flying taxis will change the experience of flying with airlines
The aircraft, which has a 150-mile range, has flown 1,000 test flights over 10 years, per the company, and is expected to enter service as soon as 2024.
Washington-based Eviation has completed the first test flight of one of the industry's newest electric planes — Alice.
Eviation
One of the newest electric planes of the future just took its first test flight— meet Alice
The "proof of concept" aircraft will be zero-emission and fly up to 288 miles, according to the company. Cargo carrier DHL is the first to buy the plane with 12 on order.
Interior of Alice as a DHL Express cargo plane.
Source: DHL
Brazil-based Embraer has founded its own zero-emission eVTOL startup called Eve Air Mobility.
United just ordered 200 more flying taxis — see inside Embraer's Eve eVTOL, which can fly up to 150 mph
The four-seater air taxi has a backlog of over 2,000 aircraft, including 200 from United. The carrier expects the first Eve delivery by 2026.
Inside the passenger cabin of Embraer-backed Eve, eVTOL.
Eve Air Mobility
See inside Embraer's 4-seat electric flying taxi that could be shuttling passengers between airports and city centers by 2026
Embraer has also come up with another set of next-generation concept planes known as Energia that will feature different propulsion technologies.
Embraer already produces regional aircraft for carriers like Endeavor.
Markus Mainka/Shutterstock
Source: Embraer
Four concepts were initially announced in November 2021, which focused on H2 fuel cell, hybrid-electric, fully electric, and gas turbine planes, and were designed to carry between nine and 50 passengers and fly between 200 and 500 nautical miles.
Embraer Energia aircraft.
But, the planemaker announced on Monday that it has scaled down its focus to just hydrogen fuel cell and hybrid-electric aircraft that can fly up to 200 nautical miles and carry between 19 and 30 passengers, depending on the aircraft.
Embraer Energia hybrid.
These new low or zero-emission concept planes are expected to have "technological readiness" by 2035, per the company.
The Embraer Energia H2 Fuel Cell concept is being designed to run on hydrogen.
Another early-stage concept is Embraer's short-haul turboprop aircraft, which is being engineered to run on 100% SAF, have single-pilot operations, and carry up to 150 passengers.
Embraer new turboprop concept.
According to Embraer, the industry will need nearly 11,000 new aircraft with up to 150 seats over the next 20 years, and it is banking on its next-generation technology to meet decarbonization demands.
Embraer concept turboprop.
Embraer is not the only manufacturer with its eye on hydrogen-powered planes. Airbus has launched its ZEROe program, which will include three aircraft — a turbofan, a turboprop, and a blended wing.
Airbus ZEROe planes.
Source: Airbus, Airbus has chosen its A380 superjumbo jet to test a hydrogen-powered engine it hopes will fuel future zero-emission aircraft
The planemaker hopes to introduce the aircraft by 2035 and is using the mammoth A380 as its testbed for the technology. According to Airbus, all three planes are designed as hybrid-hydrogen.
Airbus A380 ZEROe demonstrator.
Another futuristic technology is the Flying-V designed by engineer Justus Benad, who came up with the design during his time at Airbus Hamberg.
Flying-V concept drawing.
Source: Flying-V
The wingspan is the same as an Airbus A350, and the passenger, cargo, and fuel tanks are all inside the structure, per the design. The aircraft's unique "V" shape reduces weight and drag, lowering costs.
Flying-V scale model.
In partnership with Dutch flag carrier KLM, a small Flying-V prototype was developed by researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and flew its first flight in the summer of 2020 in Germany.
Flying-V scale model in flight.
Source: Flying-V, KLM
In addition to electric, V-shaped, and hydrogen-powered aircraft, one startup is hoping to fly faster than the speed of sound using 100% SAF.
See 7 supersonic passenger-jet concepts that will connect cities in as little as one hour and fly up to 9 times faster than the speed of sound
Colorado-based Boom Supersonic is creating Overture — an ultra-fast plane designed to fly up to 1,300 miles per hour and connect New York and London in just 3.5 hours.
Boom Supersonic has unveiled the latest design for its ultra-fast airliner that will be able to fly from New York to London in 3.5 hours — see the new Overture
Boom's 100% SAF goal means the jet could operate with net-zero carbon, per the company. So far, United, American Airlines, and Japan Airlines have invested in the jet.
A rendering of a Boom Overture aircraft in United Airlines colors.
Source: Boom, SCMP, American has ordered 20 Boom Overture supersonic jets and is set to become the largest customer of the ultra-fast plane
Get the latest Boeing stock price here.
Features Planes Business Visual Features


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Comparative Effectiveness and Academic Detailing to Evaluate Prescription Drugs
Comparative Effectiveness and Academic Detailing
Drug Effectiveness Review Project (DERP): State-Funded Effort to Evaluate Drugs
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER)
The Medicaid Evidence-based Decisions Project (MED)
Pharmaceutical Detailing by Drug Manufacturers
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality - National Resource Center for Academic Detailing (NaRCAD)
Value-Based Insurance Design: The V-BID Project
As drug costs continue to rise, policymakers look for ways to get the most value for the state's dollar. Value-based purchasing and comparing the effectiveness of treatments has gained increased attention. Over the past 15 years, several multi-state, collaborative pharmaceutical policy initiatives have focused on comparing effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, rather than direct government or commercial purchases. This report highlights several of these efforts.
Comparative effectiveness reviews take a systematic look at existing research on the effectiveness of medicines compared to other treatments, and on the harms of different health care interventions. They intregate relevant evidence to inform real-world health care decisions by patients, providers and policymakers. According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, "Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is research that identifies what clinical and public health interventions work best for improving health."
Each of the six CER and value-based purchasing initiatives highlighted below:
Are structured as non-profit entities, some using state funds.
Seek to obtain and provide objective and balanced facts, that include brand and generic drug products.
Publish medical-oriented research reports.
Do not engage in final decisions on use or price.
Do not engage in purchasing any prescription drugs.
State Medicaid agencies and other organizations formed a collaborative group in 2003 to commission high-quality comparative effectiveness reviews to inform evidence-based decisions about which drugs would be available to Medicaid recipients. More than a dozen states joined together to fund the Drug Effectiveness Review Project (DERP), an initiative run by the Oregon Evidence-Based Practice Center Project. The project uses academic reviewers who examine multiple drug studies to help state policymakers purchase the least expensive, yet most effective, medicines.
The Oregon-based researchers have reviewed more than 30 classes of medicines, including migraine pain relievers and cholesterol-lowering drugs. Many of the DERP Final Reports are available online to the public. Reports issued after 2013 are proprietary and not available online.
As of February 2019, DERP includes 14 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. States can gain access to the findings by paying $75,000 a year for three years to fund the research.
Another major player influencing the direction of value-based pharmaceutical purchasing is ICER, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review. ICER is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 that describes itself as an "independent, non-partisan research organization that objectively evaluates the clinical and economic value of prescription drugs, medical tests, and other health care and health care delivery innovations." One of its main research goals is to use clinical data on the effectiveness of drugs to shape prescription drug policy and increase the efficiency of the health care industry.
ICER publishes reports on how well new drugs work by examining patients' health outcomes using quality of life metrics and comparing those to the price of the drug. ICER started calculating specific drug costs in 2014 when they published a report on the ground-breaking Hepatitis C cure. The report argued the drug was not worth the 2014 purchase price of over $80,000. ICER evaluates and rates each new drug's cost-effectiveness compared to a certain benchmark. They assess the budget impacts of new drugs and make recommendations about what prices would be cost-effective.
ICER is funded through a combination of grants, contracts and unrestricted gifts. ICER explains that "funding is not accepted from manufacturers or private insurers to perform reviews of specific pharmacologic technologies."
Many insurance companies now cite ICER's reports when deciding whether to cover new drugs coming on the market. This is mainly because no other organization does similar work of the same scope in the U.S., besides insurers and drug industry companies themselves.
ICER provides a service to insurers in the U.S. that was not previously available. However, there has been some pushback from pharmaceutical manufacturers and patient advocates who question ICER's methods, bias, and agenda. One argument against ICER is that their reports will reduce access to new and potentially life-saving drugs by recommending that new drugs not be covered. Critics also argue that ICER is helping the insurance industry by trying to drive down prices of pharmaceuticals. Opponents also question ICER's funding sources.
Some advocacy organizations also say that ICER's process does not fully incorporate patient preferences and ignores the societal benefits of drugs, like increased work productivity, in their analyses. Groups such as pharmaceutical industry associations say that ICER's methodology is flawed because the reports are not subject to peer review and focus on short-term cost impacts instead of long-term benefits to patients and society. Although there are numerous views about ICER and their recommendations, these arguments demonstrate the high degree of tension in the U.S. market about new pharmaceuticals, how they should be priced, and how they should be evaluated.
The Medicaid Evidence-based Decisions Project (MED) created a collaboration among state Medicaid programs for the purpose of making scientific evidence available to states to aid their benefit design and coverage decisions. Although it focuses on non-pharmaceutical medical equipment, services and treatments, the project includes access to the following decision-making tools:
High-quality systematic reviews of existing evidence.
Technology assessments of existing and emerging health technologies.
A web-based clearinghouse.
Support in designing rapid evaluations of products where no evidence exists.
The support of highly qualified research staff to assist members in applying the evidence to their own need.
State agencies currently participating in the MED project are: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The MED Project also provides rapid response to those agencies allowing participants to request brief reviews of the evidence on state issues.
For decades the practice of marketing prescription drugs to doctors, known as "detailing," has been a widespread, often commercially competitive, practice that provides medical information to physicians, practitioners and authorized prescribers.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) describes the practice and research on the issue in a 2017 post on their website:
"Drug companies often promote products during events or sales visits to doctors. This type of marketing is known as detailing because doctors learn details about drug benefits and side effects. Doctors may also receive gifts such as meals and free samples. Some academic medical centers have begun to restrict detailing. But little is known about the impact of detailing on prescribing practices."
A team led by Dr. Ian Larkin at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Dr. George Loewenstein at Carnegie Mellon University examined whether policies to limit detailing affect prescription patterns. "There has long been concern that drug marketing to physicians might influence their prescribing," says co-author Dr. Michael Schoenbaum of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which also helped fund the research. "Many medical schools have adopted policies to limit such marketing, and this study is one of the first to document what effect these policies actually have."
The researchers examined prescriptions in 19 academic medical centers that restricted detailing from January 2006 to June 2012. The study encompassed more than 2,000 doctors affiliated with the centers. For comparison, the team examined prescriptions by nearly 25,000 doctors not at the medical centers.
Results published in a 2017 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that the changes in mean market share, which is the number of drugs prescribed, were statistically significant for six of the eight drug classes. Changes varied across academic medical centers, likely because their policies varied widely. According to the research, centers with the most stringent policies, such as salesperson registration and training requirements, had the greatest declines in detailed drug prescriptions.
As opposed to pharmaceutical detailing, academic detailing is the noncommercial education of health care professionals, typically conducted by physicians, pharmacists and nurses, about the evidence-based efficacy, safety and cost of therapies.
A recent federal initiative supported by a $300 million grant through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) conducts comparative effectiveness research designed to compare therapies for various conditions to determine which treatments work best.
The National Resource Center for Academic Detailing (NaRCAD) program was founded in 2010 and is funded in part by AHRQ. NaRCAD operates within Boston's Brigham & Women's Division of Pharmacoepidemiology & Pharmacoeconomics. The resource center supports clinical outreach education programs across the United States, Canada and beyond.
According to NaRCAD, the core focus of academic detailing is an innovative, one-on-one outreach education technique that helps clinicians provide their patients with evidence-based care. Using an accurate, up-to-date synthesis of the best clinical evidence in an engaging format, academic detailers change clinician behavior, which ultimately improves patient health. A successful academic detailing visit is a highly interactive dialogue, and continuously assesses a clinician's individual needs to promote better prescribing, screening and patient education.
State laws based on "counter-detailing" or pharmaceutical detailing have been enacted in Maine, Mississippi, Vermont and Massachusetts.
Designed by University of Michigan faculty, Value-Based Insurance Design (V-BID) is built on the principle of lowering or removing financial barriers to essential, high-value clinical services. V-BID plans are designed to align patients' out-of-pocket costs, such as copayments, with the value of services. These products are designed with the tenets of "clinical nuance" in mind. The tenets of clinical nuance are that 1) medical services differ in the amount of health produced, and 2) the clinical benefit derived from a specific service depends on the consumer using it, as well as when, where, and by whom the service is provided.
For over a decade, researchers at the V-BID Center have worked across payer, consumer, provider and benefit designer boundaries to implement and evaluate innovative health benefit designs that balance cost and quality. The goal is to encourage the use of high-value services and discourage the use of low-value services that do not significantly improve health in relation to costs.
Multiple state and local governments have introduced V-BID into their public employee benefit package to promote high-value care and encourage employees to take an active role in their own health care decisions. For example, Minnesota began a program in 2018 that is based on V-BID principles and targeted toward state employees with diabetes.
As Medicaid enrollment expands, some states have embraced this as a prime opportunity to take advantage of these new flexibilities to design value-based plans that engage beneficiaries and improve health outcomes.
If implemented successfully, a clinically nuanced cost-sharing model can enhance the use of high-value clinical services and reduce use of unnecessary and costly services, while fostering consumer engagement and personal accountability. Using V-BID principles to set enrollee cost-sharing levels, Medicaid programs can improve quality of care, remove waste, and mitigate the legitimate concern that non-nuanced cost-sharing may lead individuals to forgo clinically important care.
For example, New Mexico, with the approval of a 1115 waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), implemented the Centennial Care Program to prompt individuals to accept greater accountability for their health care decisions. Enrollees must make a co-pay for certain services like doctor's visits and prescription drugs.
In 2017, CMS tested the VBID model for Medicare Advantage plans in seven states: Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. CMS allowed testing of VBID interventions for diabetes, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), past stroke, hypertension, coronary artery disease, mood disorders, and combinations of these categories. The following year, CMS updated the model to include Alabama, Michigan, and Texas and also allowed for VBID interventions for dementia and rheumatoid arthritis.
For 2019, CMS extended this model to an additional 15 states: California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia. With the approval of their applications, this proposal allowed participating states to propose a methodology that either identifies enrollees with different chronic conditions than those previously established by CMS or revises the existing approved CMS chronic condition category to focus on a broader or smaller subset of the existing chronic condition. Federal action in 2018 required that the model be revised to include all 50 states and territories by 2020.
NCSL provides the above links to non-NCSL articles for informational purposes only; content does not necessarily reflect NCSL positions.


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James Shapiro
From the author of 1599, a fresh perspective on the history of the United States – and a timely reminder of Shakespeare's indelible influence.
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A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
Shakespeare's position as England's national poet is established and unquestionable.
But as James Shapiro illuminates in this revelatory new history, Shakespeare has long held an essential place in American culture. Why, though, would a proudly independent republic embrace England's greatest writer? Especially when his works enact so many of America's darkest nightmares: interracial marriage, cross-dressing, same-sex love, tyranny, and assassination?
Investigating a selection of defining moments in American history – drilling into issues of race, miscegenation, gender, patriotism and immigration; encountering Presidents, activists, writers and actors – Shapiro leads us to fascinating answers and uncovers rich and startling stories.
But perhaps most pressingly, we learn how, in Trump's America, the staging of his work has provoked threats of violence and has become a battleground for freedom of speech.
'With the lightest touch and the most formidable scholarship, James Shapiro, once again, proves himself to be an irresistible storyteller. And what an exhilarating and disturbing tale he has to tell. Here is proof that Shakespeare's power remains undiminished in our divided world.'
Simon Russell Beale
JamesShapiro
James Shapiro, who teaches English at Columbia University in New York, is author of several books, including 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (winner of the BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize in 2006), as well as Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? He also serves on the Board of the Royal Shakespeare Company
More books by James Shapiro
The sequel to James Shapiro's multi-award winning bestseller 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare.
Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? is James Shapiro's investigation into who wrote Shakespeare's plays, from the bestselling author of 1599.
Contested Will
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, by James Shapiro, is an intimate history of Shakespeare, following him through…
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
The hilarious feminist account of the female body by the award-winning comedian Sara Pascoe. Read by the author.
Sara Pascoe
Rachel Cusk's major new work of non-fiction, a series of meditations on women's mid-lives and family life after divorce.
The spellbinding stories of the scientists whose eureka breakthroughs in modern physics reveal science's astonishing predictive power.
Marcus Chown
An urgent analysis of global gender inequality and a passionately argued case for change by a pioneer in the movement for…
The Double X Economy
Professor Linda Scott
The first essay collection from the acclaimed crime novelist, a candid portrait of a life lived unapologetically
My Life as a Villainess
Laura Lippman


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Federal Scientists Map The Rise Of Man-Made Earthquakes Caused By Fracking Injection Wells
By Maria Gallucci @mariagallucci
04/23/15 AT 12:26 PM
Tony Davis walks under his home in Greenbrier, Arkansas, in August 2013. The disposal of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, triggered a swarm of more than 1,000 minor earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 that damaged properties in Arkansas. Photo: Reuters
The U.S. oil and gas boom is causing America to shake. In energy-rich areas across eight states, earthquake activity is sharply rising as companies inject unprecedented volumes of drilling wastewater into underground wells. Now, federal scientists are starting to study the hazard that crumbling buildings, cracking roads and falling objects could pose to residents, local governments and insurance companies.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on Thursday released a preliminary set of models to forecast how hazardous ground shaking could be in the areas that have seen a sharp uptick in seismicity in recent years. The models aim to calculate how often earthquakes are expected to occur in the next year, and by what degree the ground is likely to shake as a result.
"These earthquakes are occurring at a higher rate than ever before and pose a much greater risk to people living nearby," Mark Petersen, who heads the USGS National Seismic Hazard Modeling Project, said in a statement Thursday. He added the agency is developing methods to better assess seismic hazards in the central and eastern United States "in order to support decisions that help keep communities safe from ground shaking."
USGS scientists identified 17 areas that have seen a substantial increase in earthquake activity since 2000 due to energy industry activities. The areas are clustered in eight states: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.
Federal scientists identified 17 areas across eight states that have seen a substantial increase in man-made earthquakes since 2000. Photo: U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. oil and gas production has soared in recent decades thanks to advances in drilling technologies. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has made it possible to extract previously unreachable reserves trapped in layers of shale rock. "Dewatering" techniques allow drillers to revisit older wells, where the remaining reserves are mixed with brackish water.
Crude oil production hit 8.68 million barrels a day in 2014, up nearly 75 percent from 2000 production levels, U.S. Energy Information Administration data show. Natural gas production totaled about 27.2 million cubic feet last year, a rise of 35 percent compared with 2000 levels.
But along with fossil fuel resources, the unconventional drilling methods are turning up billions of gallons of wastewater, which is salty or polluted by chemicals and can't be mixed with freshwater supplies. As energy companies inject more of this liquid into deep disposal wells, pressure is building atop the earth's fault lines, triggering earthquakes in areas with little previous seismic activity. Oklahoma, for instance, experienced 585 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater last year, up from about two on average each year before the state's drilling boom began in 2008.
The number of earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater is rising across the U.S. due to a sharp increase in oil and gas activities. Photo: U.S. Geological Survey
Oklahoma's government on Wednesday confirmed that injection wells were mostly likely to blame for the state's earthquake swarm -- a sharp turnaround for state officials, who for years expressed skepticism about the cause despite the scientific evidence.
Peterson said the USGS report offers the first comprehensive assessment of how man-made earthquakes could increase hazard levels in the 17 particular locations. The preliminary models draw on data about earthquake rates, locations, maximum magnitude and ground motions.
USGS scientists said they intend to expand the scope of their research to include western states where oil and gas activity is rising. In the report, they noted that most disposal wells do not result in felt earthquakes, and that the actual practice of fracking is "only occasionally" the direct cause of detectable shaking.
Fracking Wastewater Causes Quakes, Oklahoma Admits
First Fracking, Then Earthquakes