text:
By Maurice Possley
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 28, 2007, 7:47 AM CDT
MISSOULA, Mont. -- The disappearance and deaths of millions of honeybees in nearly half of the nation's states is a mystery seemingly befitting an episode of "CSI" and is threatening an estimated $14 billion in crops that rely on pollination.
In an inconspicuous office suite here—the home of Bee Alert Technology Inc.—scientists are feverishly working to solve an entomological mystery: What happened to tens of thousands of honeybee colonies in at least 24 states?
These are crime scenes without bodies. Beekeepers have been opening hives and instead of finding thriving colonies with as many as 60,000 bees, they find an apian ghost town.
"It's called Colony Collapse Disorder," said Jerry Bromenshenk, a University of Montana professor and head of Bee Alert who has studied honeybees for more than three decades. "We don't know that it's a disease, we don't know if it's due to management practices by beekeepers. There are so many variables. We can't yet find a common denominator."
This baffling situation has sent shock waves through the agriculture industry nationwide, particularly almond growers in California, where 80 percent of the world's almonds are produced. The growers rely on pollination by bees.
While the U.S. honey-production industry generates more than $150 million annually, honeybees' pollination of crops is valued at about $14 billion a year, according to a Cornell University study. Beekeepers truck billions of bees to orchards and farms to pollinate crops including apples, grapes, cucumbers, cauliflower, cherries and almonds.
About three decades ago, S.E. McGregor, an apiculturist from Arizona, estimated that one-third of what is eaten by humans is a direct result of the work of honeybees. Bromenshenk suspects that today McGregor's words are an understatement.
On Thursday, a U.S. Department of Agriculture subcommittee on horticulture and organic agriculture is scheduled to conduct a public hearing on the collapse of honeybee colonies. Bromenshenk says the panel will consider the need for money for immediate research, future funding for a sustained examination and whether to set aside money to compensate beekeepers who have been virtually wiped out.
Just when this phenomenon began is hard to pin down, Bromenshenk said, because the reporting of problems is not organized. He said he first went to Florida late last year to investigate a report of empty hives, but as the problem has gained notoriety , more and more reports have emerged.
Bromenshenk is part of a national task force attempting to figure out why bees leave their hives and don't return. He recently returned from California with thousands of dead bees that he suspects were in colonies in the midst of collapsing.
Those bees have been turned over to Dave Wick, whose company, BVS Inc. of Stevensville, Mont., conducts biological screening in an attempt to determine whether an as-yet-unidentified virus is responsible for the mass disappearance.
"We are … trying to figure out the unknown," Wick said in an interview. "This is a devastating situation. If every honeybee disappeared tomorrow, we would still have produce in our markets—it just wouldn't come from the United States."
Bromenshenk's addition to the team studying the bees' disappearance was prompted by the significant research he has conducted at the university as well as the company that spun off from that work.
The firm has learned how to train bees to perform a variety of tasks, including sniffing out poisons, a skill that can be applied to such things as land mine detection or use of chemicals in a terrorist attack. Bromenshenk said the company has discovered how to train a bee in less than a day to identify things by smell or by sight.
While Illinois is not on the list of states where Colony Collapse Disorder has been discovered, Steve Chard, an apiary inspection supervisor with the Illinois Department of Agriculture, said this past week that one possible case has been reported by a beekeeping hobbyist in Decatur who lost nine colonies.
"It's too early to tell for the most part because the weather is just starting to warm up enough to open up hives," Chard said. "We do have one suspected case from Decatur and samples have been sent to the [U.S. Department of Agriculture] for testing. There's no conclusive evidence."
In Michigan, Terry Klein, vice president of the Michigan Beekeepers Association and a commercial beekeeper, said reports of huge losses are beginning to filter in.
"One beekeeper started with 1,500 hives and had only 500 colonies left," Klein said. "Over three or four more weeks, he lost 70 percent of those."
Klein, of St. Charles, Mich., said he lost 80 percent of his bees, but he blames bad weather and mites.
"It's a hard thing to pin down," he said. "You can't autopsy the bodies if they are gone. I am concerned about my survival."
Bromenshenk said that beekeeping largely hasn't changed in more than a century and that the reports coming in don't point to a single cause. "It doesn't appear to be related to poor practices or to those who are organic or those who are not organic," he said.
He suspects that the phenomenon has occurred before, but because reporting practices were not as sophisticated and because the problems have been more publicized, more and more credible reports are being made. He said something similar wiped out millions of bees in Texas, Louisiana and several other Southern states about 50 years ago, but the cause never was determined.
The company is seeking reports from any affected beekeepers at a Web site, href="http://www.beesurvey.com">www.beesurvey.com. More than 400 reports have been filed, but Bromenshenk hopes to get 10 times that number.
"We don't know if this is something new or if it's cyclic," Bromenshenk said. "It is amazing that millions of bees have disappeared across the U.S."
"We've got to figure this out this time," he said. "We've had beekeepers tell us they are going out of business. The public forgets what a critical role bees play in pollination. This is devastating."
12. Companies Offer "Farm Codes" Saying Where/How Organic Food is Grown.
Dole Foods and Organic Valley are two companies which have begun to label their organic product offerings with "farm codes" to help customers check the veracity of label claims. Dole's organic banana "stickers" send consumers to doleorganic.com where typing in the three-digit code identifies the plantation that grew the banana, along with organic certification details, worker photos, and satellite map images from Google Earth. Organic Valley has offered a similar feature on its soy milk cartons since 2004. Entering the expiration date at organicvalley.coop/soy brings up the bios of the farmers who grew the beans. (Business Week, March 19, 2007)
13. Farmers discuss impact of milk bill Some say profits could more than double; others say it's a niche market
Here is an article from Sunday's issue of the Wooster Daily Record:
By KATY GANZ
As the Ohio Legislature debates the legalization of raw milk sales, area farmers await word on a decision that may nearly triple the profits for some small dairies.
"It would be different," Holmes County dairy farmer Alan Kozak said. "Instead of selling it to Smith Dairy or Reiter Dairy, the farmer could sell it direct to the consumer and easily more than double their paid price."
If Senate Bill 95 is passed, raw milk sales will be legal only at the farm, thus cutting out a middle man.
"If a farmer would sell even 500 gallons a week, that doesn't sound like a lot in today's commodity market because it's not worth much more that $1 a gallon," said diversified farmer Ralph Schlatter. "But 500 gallons at $3 a gallon you've increased your income by $1,000 a week."
With 52 weeks in a year a farmer could increase income by up to $52,000 a year, more than most small farms run on in a year, Schlatter said.
Schlatter doesn't use a middle man. He uses a technique known as direct marketing, selling his grass-fed beef and raw cheeses out of a store located on his farm in Defiance.
Having to do direct marketing, though, is one of the issues that may prevent dairy farms from going into the raw milk business, said state Rep. Bob Gibbs, a Lakeville Republican.
"I think the economic impact is relatively minor," Gibbs said. "You're only selling it at the farm level. People have to come and pick it up."
Another problem is liability.
"It's not just straightforward when you decide to go into something like that. There are a lot of safeguards that you have to be concerned with," said Leah Miller of the Farm Institute.
Even now Miller hears complaints from farmers about paperwork, and the red tape would only get worse for a farmer with a raw milk license.
There are several farmers in the Amish community Miller said would consider getting a license anyway.
And a few small-scale Amish farmers are all it would take to fill the need for raw milk, said Holmes County Farm Bureau President Darrell Kick.
"I don't think it's a large market." he said. "It's more of a niche."
Schlatter would disagree.
"This is all being done without advertising," Schlatter said. "These people are doing 400 and 500 gallons a week when they are just doing it by word of mouth and once it's legalized people won't have to be so quiet."
Raw milk is consumer driven, Schlatter said. People often ask him if he sells raw milk and although he has told people no, requests keep coming.
"It used to be that the dairy farmer got half of the consumer dollar, or over 50 percent," Kozak said. "Over time the percent of the consumer dollar that the dairyman has received has shrunk to about one-third. Obviously this would correct a lot of that."
Reporter Katy Ganz can be reached at (330) 674-1811 or e-mail [log in to unmask]
Salinas Californian
14. E. COLI PROBE FAILS TO SOLVE OUTBREAK
Paicines Ranch officially named as source By DAWN WITHERS The Salinas Californian
A report released Friday after seven months of investigation has officially identified the Central Coast ranch where E. coli bacteria contaminated spinach last fall, but it fails to show how the produce became tainted.
A small ranch in San Benito County was the likely source of the nationwide E. coli outbreak that killed three people and sickened more than 200 others, state and federal officials said Friday.
Authorities with the California Department of Health Services and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration - for the first time - said they had isolated the deadly E. coli strain to sources on Paicines Ranch near a field it leased to Mission Organics, a spinach grower.
Even with this revelation, federal and state health officials said during a teleconference they still don't know how the pathogens contaminated the spinach.
The most likely sources, however, are water or wild hogs, according to the report. Streams, which run through the ranch and carry manure from cattle, could have tainted the well water used for irrigation. The ranch also has a large population of feral pigs that could have spread contaminated feces, the report says.
Genetic matches were found between E. coli in Dole bagged spinach eaten by people who fell ill last August and September and the E. coli detected in 21 samples of soil and feces on or near the ranch.
The Paicines Ranch, which breeds Angus cattle and quarter horses, said in a statement on its Web site that it leases land to crop growers and was not under investigation in the outbreak. Ranch officials declined further comment.
The report indicates the contamination probably occurred in the Mission Organics-leased field during or just before harvest, but it goes on to say the bacteria probably was spread to other spinach during bagging and processing at Natural Selection's south processing plant in San Juan Bautista.
But the information does little to help industry leaders take specific action to protect their produce, even as spinach processors cope with a roughly 40 percent drop in bagged spinach sales from recent years, according to a Dole Food Co. representative.
Otto Kramm, chief operations officer for Mission Organics, said in a statement that his company "has cooperated fully" with the FDA and that it supports more research into food safety.
"The FDA report is helpful in narrowing the possible sources of the problem," Kramm said, "but its studies did not find the specific strain of E. coli that caused the outbreak in any of the fields where the spinach in question was grown."
Improvements mandated
Mission Organics can't sell spinach until state health authorities approve a new plan that shows they corrected their agricultural practices to minimize bacterial contamination, officials said during the morning teleconference. The company has said it's repairing broken fences around its fields, and the report cites groundwater issues on the ranch as a possible factor in spreading the E. coli. Mission Organic's spinach fields were in the second year of a three-year transition to organic production, officials said.
The report also identifies three other ranches where E. coli O157:H7 was found in the investigation, although the strain present there wasn't a genetic match to the E. coli that caused the outbreak.
The other three ranches were identified as Wickstrom Ranch in Aromas, Taix Ranch in Hollister and Eade Ranch south of San Lucas.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, a vocal critic of produce industry-led voluntary food safety guidelines, lambasted the report in a statement, saying none of the farms identified have been fined. He accused state and federal health officials of "relegating themselves to 'simple spectators' by reiterating recommendations made in the past and failing to provide an action plan."
Ranchers aren't happy with the report, either. The FDA should have provided each of the farms named in the report with a copy to prepare them for the flurry of media, industry and government scrutiny, said Jeff Gilles of Salinas-based Lombardo and Gilles, a law firm representing Kramm, especially because the report contains inaccuracies.
"It would have been in FDA's best interest to meet with farmers to review the report," Gilles said in an e-mail, "in order to correct certain information provided therein."
Bill Marler, a Seattle-based attorney representing 93 people sickened from the outbreak, said he will decide in the next few weeks whether to add the three other farms to his lawsuits, which already target Mission Organics.
Natural Selection criticized
Also already named in Marler's lawsuits are Dole Fresh Vegetables and Natural Selection Foods, which were targeted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation during visits to the companies last fall. In the report released Friday, investigators pay particular attention to Natural Selection's south facility - one of its two plants in San Juan Bautista
- where the contaminated spinach was processed and bagged. It lays out numerous problems with the company's food safety program.
On Aug. 15, Natural Selection Foods processed the 13 bags of Dole baby spinach that tested positive for the outbreak strain type. A total 34 brands of fresh bagged spinach packaged at the facility were pulled from shelves when the FDA issued its Sept. 14 advisory not to eat such produce.
The report states that from Aug. 15 to 26, Natural Selection Foods didn't conduct its normal sanitation testing and that discrepancies occurred between sanitation schedules and the company's sanitation procedures on the frequency of cleaning for certain areas of the south facility.
"Information and documents obtained from NSF revealed the firm did not update or review (food safety) procedures ... already in use at the north facility prior to initiation of production at the south facility,"
the report said.
Additionally, starting Aug. 13 the company experienced almost a week of chronic labor shortages in its south facility for quality assurance testing and cleaning the facility.
Natural Selection Foods also operated the facility from April 1 to Sept.
15 last year without a license from the California Department of Health Services.
Replying to questions, Natural Selection Foods' spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna said the company's "commitment to food safety is unwavering, and we are taking an aggressive stance on the issue."
The company also hasn't thoroughly vetted the report, Cabaluna said.
The statement also highlighted the company's overhauled food safety program, which it said includes "multiple barriers and extensive pathogen-specific testing" for both its growers and processing facility.
"We believe our salads are safer than ever before," it says.
Report will help
Although the evidence from the spinach outbreak points to one crop, food safety investigators call the problem of contamination multifaceted, complicated and unable to be pinpointed to just one source.
But the report's findings, as well as information gathered at two public hearings, will help the FDA find ways to prevent future outbreaks, said David Acheson, the FDA's chief medical officer and head of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
"There is a need for uniform application of good agricultural practices and good manufacturing practices," Acheson said, "because without them, clearly the potential for illness associated with leafy greens is still there."
Produce-related illnesses are a rising problem, with 72 outbreaks in the past 10 years associated with fresh fruits and vegetables. Leafy greens have been blamed in 22 outbreaks, followed by tomatoes and melons.
While it's impossible to completely eliminate the risk of E. coli contamination in leafy greens, said Kevin Reilly, deputy director of prevention services for the state Health Department, the report points to ways to reduce risk factors through proper food safety practices.
"If we can put into place good agricultural practices on the farm level on every field to reduce the risk, then we can manage the risk and prevent food borne illnesses," Reilly said.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and LOS ANGELES TIMES contributed to this report.
Contact Dawn Withers at [log in to unmask]
E. coli that tainted spinach traced to San Benito County cattle ranch By Brandon Bailey San Jose Mercury News Article Launched:03/23/2007 09:07:17 AM PDT The spinach responsible for last fall's nationwide outbreak of illness and death was likely grown by a company called Mission Organics on a ranch in San Benito County, state and federal officials said today.
As reported by the Mercury News earlier this week, officials said they weren't able to determine exactly how the spinach became contaminated, despite an unprecedented six-month investigation.
But they said samples taken from manure, water and a dead pig found on the ranch were an exact genetic match to the deadly strain of E. coli bacteria that killed at least three people and sickened more than 200 others.
Any of those sources could have led to the contamination, said Dean Cliver, a microbiologist and professor of food safety at the University of California, Davis.
State and federal health officials issued their report this morning and planned to discuss it at a news conference later today.
An attorney for Mission Organics, a Hollister company that grew the spinach, has previously said the company doesn't believe it was responsible for the outbreak. The company has been named in a lawsuit filed by an attorney representing dozens of people who became sick, but health officials have not confirmed the name before today.
But health investigators said they traced the contaminated batch of bagged spinach, which was sold under the Dole label, to one batch processed by Natural Selection Foods of San Juan Bautista. The spinach in that batch came from four farms in the area.
Investigators found traces of deadly E. coli O157:H7 bacteria at all four farms, but only the samples from the Mission Organics site were an exact genetic match to the strain implicated in the outbreak.
While E. coli is often found in the intestinal tracts of cows and can be transmitted through their manure, investigators will probably never know exactly how the bacteria got onto the spinach, according to Dr. David Acheson, a top food-safety official for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
However, investigators have theorized that the bacteria could have been spread by a cow or pig that wandered through the field, or through contaminated irrigation water.
The field is part of the Paicines Ranch, a large property that is primarily used to raise cattle. Owners of the ranch have said they are not responsible for any crops grown by companies that lease portions of the ranch.
The final investigation report can be viewed at: http://www.dhs.ca.gov
15. Antibacterial soap ingredient triclosan may be harmful to humans
NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published March 15 2007
Antibacterial soap ingredient triclosan may be harmful to humans
by David Gutierrez
Triclosan, widely used as an antibacterial ingredient in household hand
sterilization products, breaks down rapidly when exposed to chlorinated
water and produces toxic chemicals including chloroform, according to a
study published on the Environmental Science & Technology research
website As Soon As Publishable (ASAP), suggesting that many
antibacterial products may not only be ineffective, but harmful.
Jump directly to: conventional view | alternative view | resources |
What you need to know - Conventional View
A previous study demonstrated that pure triclosan reacts with free
chlorine to produce chloroform, a toxic chemical and probable carcinogen.
This 2005 study led to the removal of all triclosan-containing
products from the British chain Marks & Spencer, as well as all
triclosan-containing toothpaste from stores in China.
In the new study, the same researchers from the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University tested 16 household products, including
lotions, soaps and body washes. All the products containing triclosan
produced either chloroform or other chlorine byproducts when exposed to
tap water.
The researchers found that people using these products would be
exposed to chloroform levels 40 percent higher than that found in tap water.
Triclosan decomposes into chlorine byproducts in as little as one
minute when exposed to chlorinated water at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a
temperature commonly reached in household use. This led the researchers
to question whether triclosan-containing soaps even provide the
purported anti-bacterial benefit.
Quote: "At fairly low levels of chlorine, the triclosan degrades
rapidly [into chlorine byproducts]." - Researcher Peter Vikesland
What you need to know - Alternative View
Statements and opinions by Mike Adams, executive director of the
Consumer Wellness Center
What this groundbreaking study reveals is that antibacterial products
containing triclosan are a hoax. This chemical is proving to be a real
threat to human health, and that doesn't even include the fact that it
can accelerate the breeding of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
I strongly advise consumers to avoid purchasing antibacterial products
made with triclosan. Use natural products containing tea tree oil or
other herbal ingredients that are naturally antibacterial.
Resources you need to know
Worldwatch Institute page on triclosan:
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1501
Antibacterial ingredient triclosan degrades rapidly when exposed to
chlorinated tap water, producing potentially toxic byproducts.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is
protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole
responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products
and earns no money from the recommendation of products. Newstarget.com
is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not
be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner.
Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this
material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit
www.NewsTarget.com/terms.shtml
16. The Big Fix: Secret Letter Exposes Major Organic Dairy Brands Lobbying
USDA to Eliminate 30% Pasture Feed Requirement
* Milk Processors Clout Versus the Voice of Dairy Farmers
[Download Organic Dairies Secret Letter to the USDA
http://www.organicconsumers.org/artman2/uploads/1/Processors_Allliance_FINAL_Letter.pdf
OCA Web Note (March 19, 2007):
Thousands of organic consumers and dairy farmers, represented by the
Organic Consumers Association and Cornucopia Institute, have repeatedly
complained to the US Department of Agriculture over the past five years
that the USDA must close the glaring loopholes in the National Organic
Dairy Standards. These loopholes have allowed unscrupulous dairy
companies such as Horizon and Aurora Organic to operate intensive
confinement dairy feedlots (where the animals have little or no access
to pasture) and still label their milk and dairy products as "USDA
Organic." This is the reason why the OCA has launched a boycott of
Horizon and Aurora products, as well as the private label milk brands
supplied by Aurora and sold by Wal-Mart, Costco, Wild Oats, Safeway,
Giant, UNFI, and others. This is the reason why thousands of organic
consumers, and an increasing number of retailers, have dropped Horizon
and Aurora products.
We are therefore not surprised to learn that Horizon and Aurora have
been busy lobbying the USDA to keep pasture and feed requirements
vague--hoping to deceive consumers by claiming that organic dairy
animals must have access to pasture, but then not requiring a particular
minimum percentage by weight of their feed--at least 30%--to come from
pasture grass. What this means in practical terms is that the USDA will
soon propose new federal organic dairy standards that allow so-called
organic factory farms to create the impression that their milk cows are
being grazed on pasture, while in fact unscrupulous certifiers and
bureaucrats in the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) will allow them
to get away with "symbolic access to pasture" i.e. intensively confined,
stressed-out dairy cows briefly chewing their cuds outside giant milking
parlors in between their three-times-a-day milkings.
What is surprising to learn is that three highly respected organic dairy
brands have joined with Aurora & Horizon to lobby the USDA for this "Big
Fix": Stonyfield Farm, Organic Valley, & Humboldt Creamery. (download
letter PDF above). We have no evidence that Stonyfield Farm, Organic
Valley, and Humboldt Creamery are deceiving the public--as Horizon and
Aurora are--by not requiring their farmers to pasture their animals and
provide them with at least 30% of their diet with pasture grass, but we
certainly do have the evidence that they are jointly lobbying the USDA
for the continuation of vague and non-enforceable standards ( download
letter PDF above ). OCA will be shortly asking organic consumers and
farmers to contact these companies to formally rescind their previous
statement to the USDA, and to formally and publicly state that new NOP
dairy regulations must require a minimum of 30% of feed (by dry weight)
from pasture. Otherwise consumers will continue to lose faith in the
already tarnished "USDA Organic" label on dairy products.
Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association
Late last year we learned that the nation's largest organic dairy
processors (Organic Valley, Horizon, Stonyfield, Aurora and Humboldt)
collaborated on drafting a secret letter to the USDA Secretary proposing
their own "fix" to the controversy regarding factory-farms and whether
their cattle are allowed to graze in compliance with the federal organic
We've just obtained a copy of this letter and feel that dairy producers
have a right to see and review it very carefully. (Download letter PDF
above).
It sounds good, its goals are laudable, but it depends on interpretation
which is the weakness that some have criticized as the Achilles heel of
the current standards.
Do you trust the corporations, that own and operate the massive
factory-farms that have been gaming the system for years, to collaborate
in good faith with certifiers such as Quality Assurance International?
QAI is the corporate-friendly certifier that has been giving their
blessing to the majority of all organic CAFOs. And do you trust the USDA
to enforce another standard open to "interpretation" when it has looked
the other way on this issue since they were given the responsibility by
Congress to create a fair and level playing field?
Since the two largest factory-farm operators signed onto this letter,
how much teeth do you think they believe it will have in real-world
applications?
The Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, the Midwest Organic
Dairy Producers Association, the Western Dairy Producers Alliance along
with The Cornucopia Institute, the National Campaign for Sustainable
Agriculture and many other consumer and farm organizations, and
virtually every dairy farmer in the United States, has backed, in the
addition to the flowery language that this letter contains, hard
benchmarks to set extremely modest minimums (farmers will have to graze
for the entire growing season, but not less than 120 days, and average
at least 30% Dry Matter Intake [DMI] from pasture).
Dairy producers should consider contacting their milk handlers and
demand that this letter be formally retracted. Farmers and consumers
worked together for years, in public dialogue with the National Organic
Standards Board, to come up with the consensus proposal (120 days/30%).
The dairy processors should not be allowed, working with their powerful
Washington lobbyists and lawyers, to have more say than the hard-working
families who have built this industry through sweat and getting their
hands dirty.
The voice of the consumer and the organic farmers in this country needs
to prevail in this matter.
Mark Kastel & Will Fantle
Codirectors - The Cornucopia Institute
PS: While you are on the Cornucopia site if you have not had the
opportunity to view the photo galleries of the massive "organic"
industrial dairies that have caused this brouhaha in the first place we
invite you to take a look.
March 22, 2007 SPIEGEL ONLINE International
Vicki Morrone
Organic Vegetable and Crop Outreach Specialist
C.S. Mott Sustainable Food Systems
303 Natural Resources Bldg.
http://www.MichiganOrganic.msu.edu/
http://www.mottgroup.msu.edu/
[log in to unmask]" align=left hspace=12 v:shapes="_x0000_s1026">
If you would like to access a searchable archive of the all the previous Mich-Organic listserv postings copy this URL and paste in your browser address field http://list.msu.edu/archives/mich-organic.html


Think how often do we seek fulfillment in lesser things?
TV, Movies, Facebook, Twitter, all other social media, none of these things are bad in and of themselves. But just as no books or art or music will satisfy our deepest longings, none of our modern day entertainment will either. And we know this!


Last week, Apple called out the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to rollback the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. The company cited both the obvious environmental impact of such a move, along with potential economic fallout.
It turns out Apple's got quite a bit invested in the latter. The company announced today that its global facilities are now 100-percent run by renewable energy.
The move is in line with the company's 2015 plan to push toward 100-percent renewable energy, a list that includes all of Apple's data centers as of 2014. As of today, the company's officially adding retail stores, offices and co-located facilities to that list, covering 43 countries, including the US, China, UK and India.
The addition of nine manufacturing partners, meanwhile, brings the total number up to 23 suppliers promising to produce their products entirely with clean energy. How the companies involved actually hit these numbers is, unsurprisingly, somewhat more complex.
The push toward renewable energy has included some creative solutions, including 300 solar rooftops in Japan and 800 in Singapore. The company says it's currently running 25 renewable energy projects globally, with 15 more in the process of being built. That will bump green energy capability from 626 megawatts to 1.4 gigawatts, by its count — and the finally tally doesn't appear to include carbon offsets, unlike some of the competition.
It's easy to see how a rollback of the Clean Power Plan could ultimately have an adverse effect on the company's bottom line.


Tuberculosis, or TB, is a type of infection. It's caused by exposure to bacteria and often attacks your lungs. However, it can attack other areas. Once you're diagnosed with TB, it can take anywhere from six months to two years to fully treat.
Testing for TB can be done with a blood test for TB quantiferon/TB gold. A medical professional can decide if it's necessary to test for tuberculosis based on your symptoms, risk factors, and possible exposures. Learning a little more about this disorder and the blood test for TB quantiferon/TB gold may actually help put your mind at ease.
Do You Need a Blood Test for TB Quantiferon/TB Gold?
Before a medical professional recommends at a blood test for TB quantiferon/TB gold, you may first receive a skin test. After taking your medical history and completing an examination, the medical professional inject a substance into your skin right below the surface. A certain reaction on your skin after two or three days can help determine whether or not you have TB.
The skin test is not as accurate as a blood test for TB quantiferon/TB gold because false positives are fairly common. A blood test can be used for a more accurate diagnosis.
You may still have TB even if you present with no symptoms. This is called latent TB. Some information that may help a medical professional determine your risk for this type of tuberculosis include whether or not you were vaccinated as a baby, if you've recently traveled to another country, if you live with someone who has TB, or if you have HIV or AIDS.
To get tested for TB, get a definitive diagnosis, and learn about effective treatment options, trust your neighborhood FastMed Urgent Care clinic. We have on-site labs to get you your test results as fast as possible and if testing it outside the scope of our in-house labs, we will manage the referral from scheduling the appointment to the digital transfer of all necessary medical records.
Find a clinic near you today. And view our FAQs page to learn more about FastMed.


Purpose of review Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is the most common cause of chronic anovulation and hyperandrogenism in young women and represents a true public health concern and an economic burden.
Recent findings The pathophysiology of PCOS is still not fully understood, but progresses have been made and the relationships between anti mullerian hormone (AMH), follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, E2 and androgens have been explored. The follicle excess plays a central role in the syndrome and AMH is definitively a major component of this phenomena.
Summary The aim of this chapter is to present the recent work studying the role of AMH in the pathophysiology of PCOS and to discuss the improvement that serum AMH assay brings in the diagnosis of PCOS.
Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity25(6):377-384, December 2018.


This class is offered 2 times: once at 11:30 a.m. and again 7 p.m.
Discerning Your Purpose provides a process for challenging your thoughts and desires along with accountability steps to manifest that achievement. Students will explore their skills, abilities and spiritual gifts while discovering the next steps for progressing to the desired outcome. Our required text is Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life by Gregg Michael Levoy.
This is a credit class through Unity Worldwide Spiritual Institute offered by Unity of Omaha and facilitated by Rev. Becky. You are not required to take this class for credit.
Prior to the January 16 class, please go on line and complete the Meyers-Briggs Type Test if you have not done so already. Bring a short summary of your "type" to class or print it out from the website. Be prepared to share your discovery and any thoughts from this assignment.


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A Socialist Campaign in Ohio
The Dan La Botz Socialist for Senate Campaign in Ohio in 2010 was one of the most successful socialist electoral campaigns in more than 60 years. The 25,000 votes cast for La Botz compare favorably with earlier Socialist Party candidacies in Ohio, with other socialist parties, and with reformist parties to the left of the Democrats. The La Botz campaign, in fact, compares favorably with all Socialist, Communist and Socialist Workers Party and other leftist party campaigns since the heyday of socialism. Only Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas, received more socialist votes in Ohio than Dan La Botz. These 25,000 votes for La Botz in 2010 represent one of the most significant votes for social justice in the United States since the 1940s.
No socialist candidate has received so many votes in Ohio since the 1940s. In the 2008 presidential election, the Socialist Party candidate Brian Moore won 6,528 votes nationwide, of which 2,731 were from Ohio. In general in statewide elections, Socialist Party candidates get around 5,000 votes, though in some small states that can be larger percentage of the vote. For example, in 2010 Jane Newton, candidate for the House of Representatives in Vermont got 3,222 votes, coming in fourth out of four candidates with 1.35 percent of the vote. While those represent impressive showing in small states and local contest, the 25,000 votes for the SP in the larger, more moderate state of Ohio, though less than one percent (.68 percent) of the vote represents something qualitatively different in this more conservative region of the country.
When we compare the La Botz vote with candidates who described themselves as socialist in recent national elections we can see its significance in a different light. In the 1970s, the Socialist Worker Party candidates received about 100,000 votes nationally, while in the 1970s and 1980s the Communist Party candidates received between 25,000 and 60,000 votes. Since then socialist presidential candidates have received between 3,000 and 5,000 votes.
The La Botz vote in Ohio also compares favorably with the Green Party statewide candidates. While they are to the left of the Democratic Party and take good positions on many issues and should be supported, Green Party candidates do not run as anti-capitalist candidates, much less as socialist candidates. Ohio Green Party candidate for Governor in Ohio Dennis Spisak got 56,734 votes or 1.51 percent, while Howie Hawkins of New York also got over 58,123 or 1 percent. In Illinois, Rich Whitney got 99,625 votes or 3 percent. Though the Green Party candidates got higher votes, they are not of a different order of magnitude than our showing in Ohio.
Where the Support Came From
The great majority of votes for La Botz came from Ohio's largest metropolitan areas. These urban areas contributed over 20,000 votes to La Botz, while rural areas contributed less than 5,000. Almost half of all of La Botz votes, some 12,459, came from the three largest urban areas—Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati—while almost one third, 6727 votes, came from the second tier cities—Dayton, Akron, Toledo, Youngstown and Canton.
Votes for Dan La Botz in Ohio 2010
PERCENT OF LA BOTZ'S URBAN VOTES
Cleveland 4,713 23
Columbus 4,257 21
Cincinnati 3,489 17
Dayton 1,706 8
Akron 1,527 7
Toledo 1,488 7
Youngstown 1,063 5
Canton 943 5
Mainsfield 280 1
Total Urban Votes for La Botz 20,571
Total Rural Votes 4,797
Total La Botz Votes 25,368
The table above thanks to Taki Manolakos
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Akron, Toledo, Youngstown, and Canton are historically major manufacturing centers, today fallen on hard times, while Columbus, the state capital, is a major administrative, health, and education center. The residents of these cities are overwhelmingly working class people, wage earners, and the level of labor union organization is higher in Ohio at (about 14 percent) than that of the U.S. as a whole (about 12 percent). We can reasonably conclude that workers and union members contributed to this vote, though students and other groups must also have voted for La Botz.
The Election and the Vote
George Voinovich, Republican Senator from Ohio, decided not to run for office again in 2010. The Republican candidate to replace him was Rob Portman, a former 7-term Republican Congressman and member of the George W. Bush cabinet as U.S. Trade Representative and Director of the Office of Management and the Budget. The Democratic Party candidate was Lee Fisher, a former state representative, state senator, Attorney General, and unsuccessful candidate for governor. Also seeking the seat were two Tea Party conservatives, one on the Constitution Party ticket and one running as an independent.
The Socialist Party had not run candidates in Ohio for a long, long time. I was the first Socialist running for the Senate in Ohio since 1936 and the most recent socialist candidate in the state since Norman Thomas's write-in campaign for the presidency in 1940. Other socialist party candidates had appeared on the ballot in the state in the 1970s and 1980s, though they had won no significant percentage of the vote.
Since the 1940s, Ohio had had laws which restricted and in effect made it impossible for parties other than the Republicans and Democrats to get on the ballot. A series of lawsuits brought in the early 2000s and court decisions had eliminated those restrictions and the Ohio Secretary of State created rules which made it quite easy to get on the ballot. We only needed to collect 500 signatures and we collected 1,200 and were certified.
The May 4 Primary Elections
The May 4 Socialist Party primary elections represented the first response to our campaign. Greens, Democrats and independents could not vote in the Socialist primary, unless they wanted to become registered as Socialists. To vote for me as the Socialist candidate, one had to go into the polling place and in front of friends and neighbors, poll workers, and strangers request a Socialist Party ballot from the poll workers. Many were unaware of this option and some of those who were aware found it difficult to publicly declare that they were socialists. Still, in the primary I received almost 400 socialist votes.
The most important result of the primary election was the victory of Lee Fisher over Jennifer Brunner in the Democratic Party. Fisher, a rather typical, not very militant liberal Democrat from Cleveland, had defeated Brunner, a candidate who was considered more progressive on social issues. He was able to win because the national and state Democratic Party organizations came out strongly on his side and pushed Brunner out of the way. Many Brunner supporters deeply resented what they saw as the party organization having stolen her factory. The large numbers of disgruntled Brunner Democrats were potential voters for me.
The Election Nationally and in Ohio
The November 2010 elections saw many Americans vote against the administration of President Barack Obama and the Democrats. Polling organizations reported that the Democrats had lost the support of Catholics, women, gays and lesbians, and voters over 60. For the first time since exit polls began asking, more women voted Republican than Democrat. African-Americans, Latinos, and working class voters were less motivated than before to vote for the Democrats.
The election represented a victory for the Republican Party and a resounding defeat for the Democrats who lost the House of Representatives and some Senate seats. In Ohio, the Republican John Kasich defeated Governor Ted Strickland, despite campaigning in Ohio by Obama and Biden. Republicans defeated Democrats for all statewide offices. Ohio has 18 Congressional Representatives, and out of ten Democrats, five lost their seats.
Votes for U.S. Senate Candidates in Ohio (2010)
Rob Portman – R 57 2,125,810
Lee Fisher – D 39 1,448,092
Eric Deaton – C 1.7 64,017
Michael Pryce – I 1.3 48,653
Daniel La Botz – S 0.7 25,368
Arthur Sullivan – WI 0.04 1,512
SOURCE: Ohio Secretary of State at http://vote.sos.state.oh.us/pls/enrpublic/f?p=130:6:0
The Tea Party movement has been particularly strong in Ohio where various groups backed right-wing Republicans, Constitution, and Libertarian candidates, and rightwing independents. Libertarian candidates, rightwing but generally anti-war, got about 3 percent of the vote in several congressional districts.
The Campaign Organization
The vote for La Botz in the three major cities reflected the campaign's priorities and its efforts over the nine-month campaign. The Dan La Botz, Socialist for Senate campaign had several objectives: 1) to educate people in Ohio about socialism; 2) to meet, engage, link and strengthen activist networks in the state; 3) to build unity on the left; 4) to win votes for my campaign on Election Day as a measure of the success of our educational work. To carry out these objectives we had to build an organization.
At the beginning of this campaign, I and my key collaborators decided that, since there was virtually no existing Socialist Party organization in the state, the most important thing was to build a campaign organization. We naturally focused on building the organization first in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland, the state's three greatest population centers. We identified local left leaders and naturally they had their own organizations or networks made up of local activists. We worked to incorporate those leaders and their fellow activists into our campaign.
We created local organizations in those cities and a little later in Toledo. Our local campaign organizations were usually led by a handful of three to five local activists in each city who held small meetings usually of not more than five or 10 people. Those attending those meetings varied from week to week. Our campaign organizer kept a data base of local activists, created a listserv through which they could communicate with him and each other, helped to convene local meetings, and sometimes attended those meetings.
Who Made up the Campaign?
The La Botz Socialist for Senate campaign was made up of socialist, labor, peace, and housing activists. Many of those led the campaign locally were involved of the years in many of these movements and others such as LGBT, environment, and immigrant rights.
In Cincinnati where I live and work, my key supporters came from Cincinnati Progressive Action (CPA), a small activist group that grew out of a fight over police racism and brutality about 10 years ago. Since then the group has worked on other matter of criminal justice but has also engaged in anti-war activity and in support for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) based in Ohio. Members of CPA were also active in several labor unions, some of them local officers of those unions and some delegates to the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council. One is a longtime housing activist.
In Cleveland our key supporters came from two distinct groups: first, a group of older peace activists associated with Women Speak Out for Peace and Justice (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom) and, second, a few young left and labor organizers involved in the Industrial Workers of the World who had created something called the Cleveland Economic Democracy Network. Also supporting us in Cleveland was a leading member of the Ohio State Labor Party, a local branch of the Labor Party founded by labor unionist Tony Mazzocchi in 1996.
The Columbus group was more diverse than the groups in Cincinnati and Cleveland. In Columbus, Mary Loritz, SP Ohio State Chair, played a leading role. We were also supported by my campaign treasurer, a member of the DSA, and by another couple of DSA members and a couple of Solidarity members who are also local Teamster activists. We were slow in getting an organization in Toledo/Bowling Green. A former FLOC organizer, now teaching college, took on the role of our local organizer. He brought together about ten people who functioned as an excellent local committee.
By the end of the campaign we had 380 supporters active throughout the state. There were 119 in Cincinnati; 45 in Columbus; 48 in Cleveland, and 20 in Toledo/Bowling Green. We also succeeded in building groups of supporters on local campuses: Ohio University at Athens, 25; Kent State, 5; Miami University, 13; Oberlin, 21; Ohio Wesleyan, 21; and Wooster College, 27. In the best case, at Oberlin, we got 20 percent of the student vote.
We raised money from a small base of generous supporters, less than 200 contributors who gave on the average $25, though many gave $100, a couple $500, and our largest contribution from one individual was $1,000. We received donations of as little as $5 or even $1. We had by the end of the campaign raised a little over $10,000. I contributed none of my own money to the campaign. We estimate that we traveled around 15,000 miles throughout the state as well as on trips out of state related to the campaign. We believe that we printed and distributed between 50,000 and 100,000 pieces of literature.
We created good electronic communications from early on in the campaign. The DanLaBotz.com website was established on Feb. 26, 2010 and by Nov. 2, 2010 we had had 16,839 unique visitors to the site. On Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 we had about 1,500 visits each day. There were a total of 23,875 visits, 94,324 page visits. I also wrote a book for this campaign, Vision from the Heartland: Socialism for the 21st Century, which by Nov. 2 had had 900 downloads.
In addition to DanLaBotz..com, we also had two Facebook pages, Dan La Botz and Dan La Botz, Socialist for Senate. Each of those sites had over 1,000 "friends" from throughout Ohio, around the United States and around the world, many of whom commented on the campaign as it developed. We also had a YouTube channel where we put up about 30 videos. The basic "Dan La Botz, Socialist for Senate" video received 2,728 views and a few others received about 500 views. We created listservs for our local organizations and for all supporters.
In addition to our own communications, we filled out many media questionnaires and were interviewed by TV stations about our views. The newspapers carried our opinions to tens of thousands of voters and the TV stations aired our interviews which may have been seen by hundreds of thousands.
We had to make strategic decisions about where to spend our time, where to deploy our supporters, and how to use our economic resources. Our strategy was always to build on our strengths and to avoid undertaking tasks beyond our capabilities. We concentrated on those groups most likely to support us and did not attempt to reach either those who opposed us or those who might have been in the middle. I decided that I would spend my time speaking where I could build our local organizations or where I could speak in urban areas with large numbers of working class, African-Americans and students.
Similarly, we directed our supporters to work in those areas where we were likely to receive a good reception: universities and student communities, liberal communities, urban (as opposed to suburban) working class neighborhood, African-American neighborhoods. We simply did not have enough supporters to be able to take our message to less sympathetic areas, such as the big city suburbs. While we recognize that two-thirds of Americans live in suburbs, they are a much greater challenge both logistically and politically, so we concentrated on the cities and on our most likely supporters.
A political campaign's central activity is the candidate's speech making and the candidate's and supporters' talks with the public. Early on in the campaign I developed a speech concentrating on three issues: 1) the economy and jobs; 2) the environment; 3) the U.S. wars abroad. I spoke about the country's problems and our proposed socialist solutions in down-to-earth language without jargon, without academic terminology, without radical rhetoric, and without sarcasm or nastiness.
Altogether I gave my basic speech, in versions from 5 minutes to one hour in length (usually about 40 minutes) about 50 times either at candidate forums to which I had been invited or at meetings that we had organized. I probably spoke to between 1,000 and 2,000 people in that way. In addition, we handed out literature and engaged in conversations with many thousands of others at public events or in public places.
Conversations with the Public and Supporters
We had some brief conversations with voters while gathering petition signatures, while leafleting mass events, and while speaking at public candidates forums. We found that African-Americans were much more open to discussions with us, as were young people. Middle aged white people were the least willing to engage in conversations with us.
Everyone recognized, and conversations with voters confirmed, that the economy and particularly unemployment were the issues foremost on the voters' minds. Ohio lost 400,000 jobs since 2006 and the state's average unemployment rate was 9.5 percent officially, 17 percent unofficially and 30 percent in African-American and Latino communities. Many young people were finding it impossible to get that first job out of high school or college. Voters expressed to us their concerns about the economy and jobs.
Most of my conversations, however, were with people who were being drawn to our campaign because they were on the left. They were happy to see someone speak out on the war, on the environment, and on LGBT rights. And they were pleased to hear someone offering socialist ideas to deal with the economic crisis. Many of these people on the left appreciated my call not simply for nationalization, but for socialization of industry, for a democratically planned economy, and for workers' and consumers' involvement in the productive process.
Many on the left, of course, were concerned that supporting a socialist candidate would take votes away from the Democratic Party and help the Republicans. This argument got easier after the "progressive" Democrat Jennifer Brunner was defeated by the machine Democrat Lee Fisher. And it got easier still after Fisher fell 10 to 20 points behind Republican Rob Portman and then threw in the towel by giving his money to the party for other races.
We were fortunate from the beginning to have the pro bono services of an attorney and professor at Capital University in Columbus. He offered advice and help in the filing of our petitions, in dealing with some irregularities in the May 4 primary, and later in filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) because I had been excluded from the Ohio U.S. Senate candidate debates sponsored by a consortium of local newspaper and broadcasters. While the election is over, we are still pursuing this case.
Left Unity
From the very beginning we built this campaign based on cooperation between several left organizations, both as a matter of necessity and as a matter of principle. Since the Socialist Party had only a handful of member in Ohio and no organizational infrastructure it could not function as the basis of the campaign. We had support early on not only from the Socialist Party but also from the International Socialist Organization (ISO) and from members of the Democratic Socialist of America (DSA). Later we met members of the Young Democratic Socialist (YDS) at local colleges. Socialist Alternative, while not active in Ohio, endorsed my campaign. A leading member of the Ohio State Labor Party (OSLP) called my campaign to the attention of its members, and many of them supported the campaign.
Inspired in part by my campaign, all of these left groups and others joined in a Socialist Contingent at the October 2 demonstration in Washington. Also in late November my campaign organized the Ohio Young Progressives Conference at Ohio State University in Columbus attended by 27 young activists, many from the ISO and YDS, and Solidarity and SP staff were also present. (http://scrupulo.com/ohprog/index.html) Finally, on October 31, 14 supporters from Toledo and Detroit—members of the SP, Solidarity and the ISO and others—canvassed 500 houses in Toledo. All of this represented a remarkable example of left unity and helped to make the campaign a success.
Weaknesses of the Campaign
While we succeeded in building an organization in several of the state's major cities and among a variety of social activists, the campaign did have some serious weaknesses.
Though we had local union leaders and members in our campaign, we did not find a way to speak in union halls and to union members. The labor bureaucracy's alliance with the Democratic Party made it virtually impossible for us to get a hearing.
While we had a few African-American activists involved in the campaign and while I spoke at state and local NAACP meetings, we never made any serious inroads in the black community.
Similarly with the Latino community which is important in Columbus and Cleveland. While I did attend a large Latino community meeting before the primary in Cleveland and was received with applause and cheers when I spoke, still we never had any Latino base.
While we created organizations in the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo, we never succeeded in creating an organization in Dayton, Akron, Canton and Youngstown. While we had some supporters in those cities, we never got a group together there.
While we did have organizations on several Ohio campuses, we also failed to establish organizations on many campuses, most notably Cleveland State. We did not establish bases on any community colleges.
We failed to organize and mobilize our supporters to conduct door-to-door canvassing in neighborhoods in our key cities.
I offer some conclusions here based on our experience in Ohio in 2010 for explicitly socialist campaigns run by socialist organizations.
The Socialist Party and other groups on the democratic and revolutionary left should continue to mount election campaigns as part of their repertoire of activities alongside labor and movement organizing, recruitment, and training of cadres. Elections provide one of the few situations where socialists, because they are candidates or their supporters are seen to have a legitimate right to speak to meeting, disseminate literature at public events, knock on doors, make phone calls, and attempt to recruit to the movement. We must take advantage of such opportunities.
We can as Socialists be successful in getting a hearing from the American people. Throughout this campaign we had hardly a hostile remark or even a critical comment. People received us with politeness, toleration, and generally with respect even when they differed with us.
While socialist electoral campaigns are largely about the mass dissemination of socialist ideas to the working class, the labor and progressive movements, and to society in general, they should not be approached as educational or public relations matters. Socialist electoral campaigns must be approached as organizing campaigns aimed at building campaign committees, developing local leaders, and winning committed supporters.
The U.S. democratic and revolutionary left is small, limited to a handful of groups none of which has more than 1,000 members in the entire country. When the Socialist Party or other socialist groups undertake socialist electoral campaigns, they should attempt to conduct them on the basis of cooperation with other democratic, revolutionary, and left socialists. Unity on the left redounds to the benefit of all of the groups involved and to the movement as a whole.
We have to develop a way to reach working class voters in their unions, in their workplaces and in their communities. The Socialist Party and other socialist organizations will be able to do this only if they are oriented both to doing work in the workplace, the union and the community, and to conducting socialist education and recruitment as part of that work in the working class.
The Socialist Party and the revolutionary and democratic left made a small but significant advance with this campaign, but its real value will be seen in the ability of the left to prove more successful in reaching the American working class with its values, principles, and program.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We appreciate your interest and would love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact us at any time!
From Wooster, Ohio. (21 Miles) Go South on St Rt 3, approx. 1.5 miles. Turn left on St Rt 226 to Shreve, Ohio. Continue thru Shreve on SR 226 until it joins SR 514. Continue on SR 514 to Nashville, Ohio. Cross SR 39 and stay on SR 514 approx. 4 miles to the sale site on the right at the intersection of CR 22. Turn right on CR 22 and left to parking.
From Mt. Vernon, Ohio. (22 miles) Holiday Inn Express is located on the East side of Mt. Vernon, just off US 36. From the hotel go East on US 36. Turn left or North on US 62 to Danville, Ohio. From Danville go NE on SR 514 10 miles to sale site. Turn left on CR 22. You'll see big red sale barn on the left.
then 3 miles (left) east to Sportsman Park Road then right to Mohican West.


Got Ghosts? Then this Divi Ghost Hunter Theme Layout is for you. The pixel-perfect design gives your visitors a User Experience like no other. Simple design, subtle animations make this a great Divi Theme for Ghost Hunters, Goth Websites, Killer Clowns and more. A one-page scroller that gives your audience what they are looking for. Save yourself hours of design time with this Divi Ready Theme. Our one-step Easy Demo Import will have your page looking exactly like the demo in seconds.


The Bug is a public house located on Lord Street in Fleetwood, Lancashire. Children and dogs are welcome, we are open 7 days a week. Here at the Bug, we offer a variety of drinks and show the latest sport on BT sport and Sky sport Most pubs focus on offering beers, and similar drinks. As well, pubs often sell wines, spirits, and soft drinks, meals and snacks. We sell traditional beer (such as ale) and cider at a relaxed, social drinking establishment and a prominent part of British culture.


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5 Illinois hospitals, health systems awarded for quality improvement programs
Staff - Monday, September 14th, 2015 Print	| Email
The Illinois Hospital Association Institute for Innovations in Care and Quality has presented three hospitals and two health systems with Quality Excellence Achievement Awards during the IHA's Leadership Summit.
"The award-winning projects offer a snapshot of what Illinois hospitals are doing when they think bold to take up best practices, deploy evidence-based practices and test unique approaches to drive healthcare innovation," said Jay Bhatt, DO, chief health officer of IHA.
Winners were selected from nearly 100 applications by a panel of quality improvement experts. The winners, by category, are as follows:
Healthcare System category
Chicago-based Sinai Health System won the award for a program that reduced asthma-related emergency department visits by 66 percent and hospitalizations by 57 percent in one year.
Rural/Critical Access Hospital category
Highland-based HSHS St. Joseph's Hospital, Highland, won for its program, "Patient-Centered Approach to Reducing Readmissions." The hospital has reduced readmission rates by 20 percent in two years.
Urban Hospital category
Elgin-based Presence Saint Joseph Hospital received the award for reducing its venous thromboembolism rates by 87 percent through new care guidelines and an early mobility program.
HSHS St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Belleville, won for decreasing blood usage by 30 percent by building new guidelines into the hospital's EHR.
Tim Philipp Award for Excellence in Palliative Care
AMITA Health in Arlington Heights increased consultations for palliative care by more than 20 percent in one year.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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I've been watching the BBC series Planet Earth on Netflix. Here's the story:
Planet EarthPlanet Earth is a 2006 television series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. Four years in the making, it was the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC, and also the first to be filmed in high definition. The series was co-produced by the Discovery Channel and NHK in association with CBC, and was described by its makers as "the definitive look at the diversity of our planet."
The series comprises eleven episodes, each of which features a global overview of a different habitat on Earth. At the end of each fifty-minute episode, a ten-minute featurette takes a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of filming the series.After the first three episodes, I would've said Planet Earth was a typical nature documentary: very good but not great. A narrative suitable for children...lots of "circle of life" moments...an emphasis on charismatic megafauna (polar bears, African hunting dogs, snow leopards, pandas, elephants)...plenty of cuddly baby animals doing cute and funny things.
But with the second three episodes, I think they kicked things up a notch. Maybe it's the subject matter, but these episodes are almost consistently spectacular. Some highlights:
Caves: Humans parachuting into a cave shaft as deep as the Empire State Building is tall; a mountain of guano covered with cockroaches; underwater caves lit in luminous blues and greens.
Deserts: Saguaro cactus forests; desert fox kits playing at night; male ibex dueling with their horns.
Ice Worlds: Time-lapse photography of the Aurora Australis; skuas chasing away caribou; exhausted polar bear trying to kill larger walruses.
People on Planet Earth
The first three episodes show nothing manmade except a small helicopter in one mountain shot. But starting with Caves, Planet Earth seems more willing to acknowledge the presence of humans. Perhaps it's the fact that you can't grasp the size of underground caverns without tiny persons in the pictures.
In the Diaries portion of Deserts, we meet the indigenous Mongolians who led the film crew to the few remaining wild Bactrian camels. More to the point, the Caves episode tells us how the Maya were unique among civilizations. They had no rivers, so they got their water from cenotes--huge well-like reservoirs fed by the underground system of water-filled caverns.
The episode even shows a Maya pyramid--by far the largest human artifact seen on the series. In short, Caves gives us the first and--so far--only example of how humans interact with and depend on their environment.
I wasn't going to recommend Planet Earth, but now I will. You should check it out, especially if you have children. Renew your appreciation of the wonders of nature.
For more on the subject, see Inuit in Arctic Tale and Native Documentaries and News.
Labels: Maya


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Uncle Pop 2019 ITTF Women's World Cup
Stage set for Uncle Pop 2019 ITTF Women's World Cup in Chengdu, China!
Twenty of the world's best women's players have gathered in Chengdu, China, ready to battle over the next three days in a bid to win one of the most prestigious prizes in international table tennis.
Will World champion Liu Shiwen be celebrating a record fifth Women's World Cup title this Sunday?
The Women's World Cup forms part of the Grand Slam trio of titles, alongside the Olympic Games and World Championships. Whoever celebrates gold on Sunday 20th October will have to navigate their way past a highly competitive field of talent, stretching the entire globe.
That is because the all-star event features World champion Liu Shiwen (of China), her compatriot and Asian Cup champion Zhu Yuling, Europe Cup champion Petrissa Solja (Germany), Africa Cup champion Dina Meshref (Egypt), Pan American Cup champion Adriana Diaz (Puerto Rico) and Oceania Cup champion Jian Fang Lay (Australia), as well as a whole host of household names, who also qualified via their Continental Cups, plus wild card Lily Zhang of the United States, who comes highly rated after claiming four titles in September's Pan American Championships in Paraguay.
Liu Shiwen wants record; Zhu Yuling eyes home pride
A Women's World Cup winner in 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2015, Liu Shiwen would set an all-time record were she to win the title for her fifth time here in Chengdu. Liu currently sits level with former greats Wang Nan and Zhang Yining on four titles apiece.
For the reigning World champion, after her famous exploits in Budapest earlier this year, victory in the Women's World Cup would also put Liu one step closer to claiming an incredible Golden Grand Slam, which she would only complete by clinching gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (subject to selection).
Fellow Chinese star Zhu Yuling also has experience of winning the Women's World Cup in 2017 in Markham, Canada. This time however, the tournament takes on an extra special meaning for the player, who is native to Sichuan Province:
"Sichuan is my hometown and I will do my best to put on a strong showing at this Women's World Cup for everyone watching here in Chengdu. I also hope that everyone will support me and cheer for me! Table tennis has had many competitions in Chengdu over recent years. I hope everyone can learn about Sichuan through table tennis, understand Chengdu, and fall in love with my hometown!" – Zhu Yuling
As the top two seeds, Zhu and Liu will enter automatically into the knockout rounds (Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th October) along with 3rd to 8th seeds: Japanese duo Kasumi Ishikawa and Miu Hirano, Cheng I-Ching (Chinese Taipei), Doo Hoi Kem (Hong Kong China), Feng Tianwei (Singapore) and Europe's top representative Sofia Polcanova (Austria).
Let the group stage begin!
Friday 18th October is dedicated to the group stage, where the players seeded 9th to 20th play off against one another in a bid to reach the weekend's knockout rounds.
The top two players from each group will qualify for the main draw, where they will be pitted against the 1st to 8th seeds.
Let's take a look at the groups in detail:
The highest ranked player involved in first-day action, Romania's Bernadette Szocs has been drawn into a highly competitive group alongside Puerto Rican star Adriana Diaz and USA's Lily Zhang. Szocs and Diaz – who is making her Women's World Cup debut in Chengdu – have never crossed paths before, while the Romanian's last encounter with Zhang came in an Under 21 contest back in 2015. This promises to be a tight race for the main draw.
Will Dina Meshref's experience be the difference in Group B? The Egyptian is making her seventh appearance at the Women's World Cup. In stark contrast, this is the first ever showing for three-time Paralympic gold medallist, Natalia Partyka of Poland. Completing the group is Korea Republic's Jeon Jihee, who won women's doubles gold at last week's German Open. Can she convert that form into her singles game?
Another well-balanced group sees Germany's Petrissa Solja joined by Chinese Taipei's Chen Szu-Yu and Australia's Jian Fang Lay. Solja and Chen head into the group as favourites to progress, but rule out Jian at your peril: the 46-year-old, carrying the hopes of Oceania on her shoulders, defied the odds to reach the round of 16 last year in Chengdu. Can she upset the odds yet again?
The fourth and final group sees Romania's Elizabeta Samara welcome opposition from two North American stars in Canada's Zhang Mo and USA's Wu Yue. 2015 European champion Samara will fancy her chances of successfully negotiating the group stage but it is the head-to-head contest between Zhang and Wu that perhaps holds the most intrigue. Their three previous meetings have all favoured the Canadian, but Wu will be extra determined to avoid the same outcome this time out as she chases her first Women's World Cup victory.
Twitter emoji up and running!
Off the back of a successful Twitter emoji campaign at April's World Championships in Budapest, we are engaging followers once again throughout the Women's World Cup!
Share your stories, moments and emotions with us during the event, using the hashtags #ITTFWorldCup, #Chengdu2019 and #LiftTheCup to see a special event emoji appear like magic in your tweet!
This time, there is also a unique hashtag for Japanese followers to enjoy using. The nation represents the ITTF's largest fan base on Twitter, across the global @ittfworld and Japanese-language @ITTFJapan accounts.
Flash Quotes
ITTF Social: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Weibo
World Cup Press Releases 2019 Uncle Pop Women's World Cup liu shiwen Zhu Yuling Adriana Diaz Dina Meshref Petrissa Solja Lily Zhang Jian Fang Lay
"Table Tennis Capital of the World" … Where will it be?
15 Jan 2020 Press Releases
Key decisions made at ITTF Executive Committee meeting
Table Tennis sets new digital & broadcast media records in 2019!
Liebherr announced title sponsor of 2020 ITTF Men's World Cup in Düsseldorf, Germany
09 Jan 2020 World Cup
Official Table
Official Floor


text:
Q: javascript onload reset timestamp loop woes I normally develop with VBA and MySQL, but have been tasked with creating a live dashboard to be put on screens around my office. For this I'm using PHP and javascript. The dashboard contains two main sections, one calls website traffic data through the google analytics API, the other calls sales data from our internal DB.
I have the seperate halves written in PHP in seperate modules that I'm calling with the code below from the dashboard webpage, using a loop to refresh each module independently every ten seconds. The problem is that I'd like to include two timers on the screen counting upwards in seconds from the last time each of the modules was loaded, I'm using the following code to try and reset a variable with the current time to facilitate this when each document is loaded.
var sales_string_unix = 0;
var sales_string_google = 0;

setInterval(function(){

    $(document).ready(function() {
        $('#google_data').load('fetch_google_data.php');
        sales_string_unix = new Date().getTime();
    });

 }, 10000);

setInterval(function(){

    $(document).ready(function() {
        $('#sales_data').load('fetch_sales_data.php');
        sales_string_google = new Date().getTime();
     });

}, 10000);

My problem is that the timestamp variables reset every ten seconds when the loops execute, rather than when the modules are refreshed. So far 6hrs of Google has returned nothing useful and I expect I'm probably missing something simple thats just outside of my experience. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

A: You need to put the timestamp update code in the callback function of the load() which runs when the AJAX call has completed. You also don't need the document.ready handler inside each function. Try this:
var sales_string_unix = 0;
var sales_string_google = 0;

setInterval(function(){
    $('#google_data').load('fetch_google_data.php', function() {
        sales_string_unix = new Date().getTime();
    });
}, 10000);

setInterval(function() {
    $('#sales_data').load('fetch_sales_data.php', function() {
        sales_string_google = new Date().getTime(););
    });
}, 10000);

Be aware however, that those variables will only be filled once the AJAX call has completed, so you cannot use them directly after the AJAX calls themselves. You would need to run or call the code which relies on the timestamps from within the callback function itself.

A: You don't need the $(document).ready() within the functions, just put it once on the outside
var sales_string_unix = 0;
var sales_string_google = 0;
$(document).ready(function() {
    setInterval(function(){
        $('#google_data').load('fetch_google_data.php');
        sales_string_unix = new Date().getTime();
    }, 10000);

    setInterval(function(){
        $('#sales_data').load('fetch_sales_data.php');
        sales_string_google = new Date().getTime();
    }, 10000);
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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I'm watching Vinland Saga, and so should you
What do you usually think when somebody tells you a particular anime is based on some more or less true historical events? Chances are that it's yet another take on Oda Nobunaga with some weird spin – all the characters are girls or the setting is changed to a high-school, or something in a similar vein. If not that, Japanese do love a good old Victorian setting, Alice in Wonderland included (or no Alice, for a change). One way or another, in all likelihood I'd freak out after hearing that such a thing like Vinland Saga does exist. Really, what are the chances that a Japanese dude could make a compelling story about damn Vikings? With no anime girls (pretty much), no high-schools and (virtually) no slap-stick comedy?
So yeah, Vinland Saga does exist, and it exists quite impressively. The original story began its life with a manga by Makoto Yukimura back in 2005, and it's still going on. To tell the truth, I haven't read the manga (yet), and it's both a good and a bad thing. Good for allowing me to watch the anime without any prejudices but also bad for missing out on some good stuff. Getting into Berserk quite a while ago shortened my list of long manga that has some terrific art and even more terrific and grandiose story, but there still were two entries left – Vagabond and Vinland Saga. With Vagabond I'm sort of stuck because it's actually an adaptation of a quite a lengthy novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa (still not finished reading that). If that name says anything, you know it's Sengoku period at its best. No anime as of yet, though. And then there's Vinland Saga. All I knew before going in was that it's kinda accurate historically, has a decent story and the art certainly isn't the shabbiest. Turns out, that's true, and even more than that.
Some of you might wonder what really that Vinland is. And yes, even if the show briefly mentioned if, it might be not too clear that it's actually America. While some people claim that there were many people who crossed an ocean to the American continent before Columbus – Chinese, Romans, Phoenicians, Polynesians, it's a clear fact that Vikings did so without a doubt. There're some archaeological findings of the Viking origin in Newfoundland, so celebrating (or weeping for that matter) Columbus as the first European reaching the New World isn't really credible. So yeah, Vikings (to be more exact, Leif himself, according to the sagas) discovered Vinland and made a dwelling there. What exactly happened after that isn't clear, though for some reason the settlements weren't very long-lived, so the history may be revealed only through archaeological excavations or Scandinavian records (that aren't completely trustworthy). Anyway, it's a fascinating page of the history of the Northern Hemisphere and I'm glad it gets more attention. Only, to my knowledge Vinland Saga is more concerned about England so I'm not sure how Vinland itself will be tied to the story. Unless, of course, the story can always use the metaphorical rout – Vinland as the West, the (almost) unreachable paradise, a dream, Valinor of Tolkien mythology. After all, coastal Europeans always seemed to be fascinating by the ocean at their door and strange tales and speculations about what lies beyond that.
Anyway, let's go back to the show itself. The thing that grabs attention right away is the strong worldbuilding. I wonder how much research had to be done in order to get most of the historical details right. In principle, events that happened a thousand years ago are so far removed from the present that it's extremely hard to get the details right, or at least to a level when no expert could object. In the first place, sources are so few that we can't be sure everything happened in a way we think it did. For example, someone might excavate a thousand-year-old spear but apart from being a single data point it can't tell for sure whether such spears were extremely common or one-of-the-kind. Speaking about the war-attire, I'm very happy that there're no horned helmets in Vinland Saga. It's has become such a cliché of Viking-times that not everyone questions whether having horns on a helmet really would do more good than harm. Hornless helmets on the other hand look pretty believable and historically accurate. Brownie points for that!
Viking period or not, it's still an anime (or manga, that doesn't matter in this case). And I'm not really sure how to feel about various anime-isms embedded here and there, be it typical comedy-relief characters like Ari the clumsy. Tell me he's not a long-lost brother of Leo from Scrapped Princess. I could link him with Puck from Berserk or even Megumin from KonoSuba. Ylva is a typical strong (but a bit dorky) older sister type. You can look no further than Revy from Black Lagoon or Misato from NGE to find a similar soul. Thorfinn himself so far feels like a very shounen protagonist. There's plenty of time for him to become distinguished but so far he's just a kid on a verge of a looming adventure. By itself a such variety tropes isn't necessarily a bad thing – they may make the viewers feel more comfortable – who would watch an anime that doesn't behave like anime? Especially when the setting so unfamiliar.
I can live with random people behaving like anime characters, but it gets a bit more complicated when the story contains some real historically distinguished individuals like Leif. Somehow I doubt that the real Leif would turn out to be such a quirky dude, more interested in getting an Indian headwear than making a living on more ordinary terms. I don't think such an attitude would've worked among ancient Scandinavians, so count me a bit skeptical about such a portrayal. You could point out that the whole Fate franchise is based solely on such historically-based (emphasis on "based") transformations. That and all the adaptations making Oda Nobunaga a high-school girl. That's fine, but there's still a difference – Fate doesn't try to make a statement about its historical accuracy – it began when two guys met up and thought "Wouldn't it be fun to make all the historical figures meet up and fight?" – "Yeah, and let's add magic!"- "Absolutely, and let's make King Arthur a girl!". As far as I understand, Vinland Saga positions itself as a more historically accurate fiction. Yes, fiction, but still based on reality – no Studio Dean Dragons or mana transfers. But oh well, I don't know and probably nobody does for sure what Leif (and others) really were like. Having read some Scandinavian sagas in my portfolio doesn't make me an expert by any means.
One of the positives of such a crossing between contemporary Japanese and historical Viking cultures also has some undoubtedly positive sides, for example, the show's view of the world which works quite well for both cultures. To be more precise, it's a rare case these days that brings back what 80s OVAs were famous for – gritty "manliness". Just remember all the numerous contributions to the genre of Yoshiaki Kawajiri and the like. That period focused more on sci-fi but historical fiction works just as well, surprisingly well. It's no wonder that the mangaka has confessed of being inspired by the spirit of Fist of the North Star. I think it's really great that creators try to rekindle fan passion for such kind of shows – those 80s OVAs for me have always been a joy to experience, especially since nowadays the market is saturated by other kinds of things – isekai and stuff. Well, technically the same Fist of the North Star is still alive, though it mutated into Neck of the North Star or something like that. Vinland Saga so far avoids such a misfortune. The first fight scene itself was an epitome of "manly" – slashing a mast with one swing, cutting everybody open like it's no big deal, jumping like Spiderman on crack… Physics certainly goes on holiday at many of such moments, and that isn't the greatest thing I can say about the show. But it certainly does look cool. Quite appropriately, there's also a grittier side to the show. Take for example a conversation when two people almost get into a fight because one had cut off the others arm as a revenge, because the other had cut the first one's brother's leg off. Yeah, fun times, fun times.
Another good point about the show is that it doesn't outright celebrate manliness and leave it at that. After the hectic first battle, Vinland Saga goes on great lengths to contrast the foolish and naïve eagerness of the village folks enthusiastically enjoying a prospect of war and a helplessly solitary Thors who actually knows what it's like to participate in one. By itself it's nothing groundbreaking but it's great to see a show exposing its themes right on and being clear but not obnoxious about that.
Speaking about the artistic side of the anime, I also have mostly words of praise. For the most time the show simply looks and sounds competent without being extremely outstanding, and that is enough to keep Vinland Saga at least on the same level of the better shows this season. I guess my only critique would be about the use of CG in the first battle. To be frank, the battle itself looks really great (no wonder another Wit Studio's child is Attack on Titan). Dynamic movement doesn't look as terrible as that in Hand Shakers, far from it, but inevitably it invites CG, lots of it. It isn't bad, really, its only fault is that it's noticeable. And, as almost always, that forms a dissonance with the 2D stuff, and that's no good news. On the other hand, CG used for the sea looks way better. I could even say that a 2D sea wouldn't look so otherworldly and mysterious. What CG really can do flawlessly is to show contrast between what's normal (usually the characters) and what's not (usually some weird characters or strange environments). So, CG always is like a double-edged sword, an no one should know that better than the show's director Shuuhei Yabuta, who's profile contains many titles with roles involving directing 3D sequences. And it looks like Vinland Saga in that respect is going to be a million times more competent than the new Berserk anime. Thank goodness. Music is another department that deserves to be praised. I'd listen to Aimer's EDs over (probably) anything else, the OP sounds energetic enough and the general symphonic feel of Yutaka Yamada's OST works very well with the grand scale of the story.
It's hard to say much about what really happens in Vinland Saga because its start is rather slow. But that doesn't matter, really. Not every show needs to throw the viewers into the middle of confusingly complicated things a la Baccano. Vinland Saga spends most of its time establishing the world, the people, the customs, the way of life of the Vikings. And that's great – a solid worldbuilding right from the start most often than not pays back every second spent on it – with interest. Sparking broader ideas may also be counted as a success of the show – I got an urge to resume watching that TV show Vikings. Or go and read more of Scandinavian sagas. Oddly enough, at the moment I'm reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods where some Viking mythology also has place. Coincidence, but a nice one.
In the end, Vinland Saga is a very strange and on the surface very un-Japanese piece of entertainment. It attempts to be historically accurate and succeeds (more often then not), it still doesn't stray far from being a creation having deep roots in anime and manga narratives. Either way, so far it achieves what it wants – to tell an entertaining story, to captivate and to keep your humble host glued to the screen. Does it survive three episode rule? Like hell it does.
Have you started Vinland Saga? What are your thoughts about it?
Aaand a few words about me, as I have been absent for quite a while. I guess that, looking from a philosophical point, the laws of physics work every time everywhere. Just like the second law of thermodynamics suggests, entropy spontaneously is never decreasing, so consequently your stuff brakes, your table gets messier and messier, plans become corrupted and so on. In the same manner, Newton's laws of motion state that things that are still are likely to stay still and things that move will likely keep moving. Similarly If I write blog posts continuously, I'll continue to do so but once I take a break it's going to be quite difficult to get back into the rhythm, and it is. But oh well, things are going on, I'm alive and kicking and even if at this point consistent weekly posting might be a bit too ambitious (got to start from the bottom), anime hasn't disappeared from my life and hopefully won't, at least in the near future. So yeah.
Have a good day! Or night. Or whatever you need depending on your timezone.
Posted in Anime, Scattered Thoughts
Tagged 2019, Vinland Saga
https://aldael.wordpress.com/2019/07/16/im-watching-vinland-saga-and-so-should-you/
Is it… New Year again?
Well…I have been away myself for quite a while (I just returned yesterday) but it's nice to see you are alove and kicking! 😊 I haven't watched this yet, but seeing as I am behind on watching anime it's not likely I will be seeing this one soon. I have added it to the list though, as it sounds pretty cool indeed 😊
Yeah, eternally expanding watchlists are frightening
Haha…so true 😂😂


text:
Q: How to count time for members connected to my discord I'm currently trying to count time for active members of my discord with discord bot in python. I write name of member and timedelta to the file.
My question is how can I read this timedelta from a file? I know that datetime.datetime has strptime method but there is none for datetime.timedelta.
Any ideas apart from slicing and passing this as arguments to timedelta constructor?
for a in self.members:
        if not a.bot:
            self.member_timers[a.name] = {}
            self.member_timers[a.name]['Time'] = None
            self.member_timers[a.name]['Stop'] = None
            self.member_timers[a.name]['Start'] = None
    self.read()

def read(self):
    lines = []
    with open(f'logi', 'r') as f:
        lines = f.readlines()
        f.close()
    print(lines)
    line = lines[0].split()

def write(self):
    with open(f'logi', 'w') as f:
        for mem in self.members:
            if not mem.bot and self.member_timers[mem.name]['Time'] != None:
                f.write("{} {}\n".format(mem.name, self.member_timers[mem.name]['Time']))

def start_timer(self, member):
    if self.member_timers[member.name]['Start'] == None:
        self.member_timers[member.name]['Start'] = datetime.datetime.now()
    else:
        #policz mu czas zeby nie stracic
        self.count_time(member.name)
        self.member_timers[member.name]['Start'] = datetime.datetime.now()
        pass

def stop_timer(self, member):
    if self.member_timers[member.name]['Start'] != None:
        self.member_timers[member.name]['Stop'] = datetime.datetime.now()
        self.count_time(member.name)

def count_time(self, name):
    if self.member_timers[name]['Start'] != None and self.member_timers[name]['Stop'] != None:
        if self.member_timers[name]['Time'] == None:
            self.member_timers[name]['Time'] = self.member_timers[name]['Stop'] - self.member_timers[name]['Start']
        else:
            self.member_timers[name]['Time'] += self.member_timers[name]['Stop'] - self.member_timers[name]['Start']
        self.member_timers[name]['Start'] = None
        self.member_timers[name]['Stop'] = None

So when reading from file I want to create timedelta object for member so I can later compare if it's bigger than any role timedelta I have assigned.

A: I think you should consider storing the timestamp instead of storing timedelta object.
You can use ts = datetime.datetime.timestamp(datetime.datetime.now()) to get a float (you can convert it to an int if you are only interested in seconds) that you store in your dictionnary.
To read it, you can use datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(ts) and this will give you a datetime.datetime object corresponding to the timestamp you created above
References:
https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html?highlight=timestamp#datetime.datetime.timestamp
https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html?highlight=fromtimestamp#datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp