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NOWCAST WESH 2 News at Noon
Scarcity of key material squeezes medical mask manufacturing
MARTHA MENDOZA, JULIET LINDERMAN, THOMAS PEIPERT and IRENA HWANG
the wispy material rolling off. This production line is made from plastic, but it might as well be spun from gold. It's melt blown textile, the material that makes certain facemasks so effective against the Corona virus. The melt blown previously was roughly 25 to $28,000 per ton, and then towards the end of April went over $450,000 per tonne. It's a complete seller's market. Most of the raw material for personal protective equipment, or PPE, is made in China. And amid critical shortages, medical mask and gown makers around the world are running out of this crucial ingredient. We definitely need more capacity, and it's it's restricting our ability to do what we need to do for the country procedure. Ameritech is the largest domestic maker of medical masks. We need factories manufacturing, the raw materials. We stepped that up. There are just a handful of American businesses producing melt blown textile, and those firms say they can't make enough. The Trump administration has spent more than $20 billion on cove in 19 contracts, but despite early warnings, the federal government failed to block exports of the material by those domestic producers, and it hasn't yet made the long term commitments US manufacturers say they need to ramp up production. University of North Carolina researcher Philip Clapp explains that mask filtration efficiency doesn't depend on the size of the pores in the fabric, but on the makeup of the melt loan plastic that the electrostatic charge of the material actually helps to kind of suck up the smaller particles out of the year and makes in a work very well. Rear Admiral John Plug Check heads up FEMA Supply Chain Task Force. He says he's confident that increased domestic production will be able to meet peak surge demand for Cove. In response, we've we've systematically attacked the supply chains from raw material to manufacturing to distribution light. All Incorporated is spending more than $25 million to add to melt blown lines at its New Hampshire facility. But Reese says American manufacturers will never be able to compete with Chinese prices, and he's reluctant to spend millions on a market that will most likely evaporate when the pandemic passes without some significant intervention or legislation. It's not gonna happen. It's very, very risk, Allen breed, Associated Press
Rachel Spray is still grieving the loss of her fellow nurse who died after being exposed to the novel coronavirus at Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center. Now, as she stands in front of the gleaming glass and concrete hospital, she says she "dreads going in there" and fears she'll be next.That's because like those in many U.S. hospitals, management is rationing supplies, she says, keeping medical-grade masks under lock and key.White House officials say U.S. hospitals have all the medical supplies needed to battle the deadly virus, but frontline health care workers, hospital officials and the Food and Drug Administration say shortages persist. Critical shortfalls of medical N95 respirators — commonly referred to as N95 masks — and other protective gear started in March, when the pandemic hit New York. Pressure on the medical supply chain continues today, and in "many ways things have only gotten worse," the American Medical Association's president, Dr. Susan Bailey, said in a recent statement."N95s are still in a shortage," said Mike Schiller, the American Hospital Association's senior director for supply chains. "It's certainly not anywhere near pre-COVID levels." Early in the pandemic the White House failed to heed stark warnings — specifically about N95s — from high-level administration officials. The Associated Press has found the administration took months to sign contracts with companies that make the crucial component inside these masks: meltblown textile. Meltblowing is the manufacturing process that turns plastic into the dense mesh that makes N95 masks effective at blocking vanishingly small particles, including viruses. Even today, manufacturers say the Trump administration hasn't made the long-term investments they need in order to ramp up to full capacity. Meanwhile, the administration allowed meltblown exports to slip out of the country as the pandemic, and the demand for masks, soared. Manufacturers say they risk significant losses if they invest millions in machinery, raw materials, new employees and factory space to churn out a product projected to have a short-lived demand, without assurances that the government will continue to buy their meltblown textile after the need for N95s recedes post-pandemic."I'm not going to sit here and tell you that we're going to guarantee purchases in 2021 or whatever date you pick," said Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, who heads the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force. He denies there are shortages.Meltblown textiles are used in everything from diapers to air conditioners. Electrostatically charging meltblown gives it the ability to capture particles too tiny to be filtered by regular masks. A study published this summer in the medical journal The Lancet found that frontline workers without N95 masks who cared for COVID-19 patients have the highest risk of infection."The initial lack of personal protective equipment in nursing homes, and lack of infection control practices in general, contributed to a general community spread across the country," said Harvard Medical School's Dr. Andrew T. Chan, one of the authors.But that personal protective equipment just wasn't available early in the pandemic when demand for the disposable masks and gowns exploded. And it still isn't.Before COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, the government estimated that the U.S. would need more than 5 billion N95 respirators per year in a pandemic. In March, the Department of Health and Human Services said the demand would be about 3.5 billion.Those estimates were based on N95 manufacturer recommendations and hospital best practices that dictated health care workers use one mask per patient visit, so a single nurse could go through perhaps a dozen a day. But due to shortages, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructed health care providers to reuse them. Because of this shift in usage, it's hard to accurately estimate the severity of the shortages of medical-grade masks and gowns. But today, hospital administrators — some of whom are facing new state orders to stockpile supplies — say they can't get as many masks as they want, and the FDA included N95s on its most recent medical supply shortage list.In Fresno, nurse Rachel Spray typically gets one N95 per shift.Kaiser spokesman Marc Brown didn't dispute this claim, but said the change in the way masks are used still allows the clinical staff to safely care for patients. The hospital is just carefully managing supplies, he said."We continue to prudently manage PPE supplies to ensure they are readily available to protect our health care workforce for the duration of this pandemic," he said.White House trade adviser Peter Navarro disputes reports of shortages. In an August interview, he said his office responds daily to news stories of ill-equipped medical providers, sending supplies as needed."We have what we need to get to people what they need," he said.In 2019, the U.S. produced 15% of meltblown in the world while China accounted for 45%. Navarro has long advocated moving manufacturing back to the United States, and during the Republican National Convention President Donald Trump pledged to do just that with crucial medical supplies."We are taking our business out of China. We are bringing it home," he said. But the meltblown example illustrates the failure of this administration to take necessary steps to fulfill this promise.Meltblown is spun out of plastic pellets made from oil, typically polypropylene or polyethylene. The pellets are fed into a heated metal extruder, and jets of hot air force the liquefied plastic through an array of extremely small holes, producing fine plastic fibers. As the fibers cool, they overlap and stick together, forming a dense mesh.This year, American meltblown makers have been ramping up supply. But some say they need more government support to meet the demand. Mike Clark, a division president at Hollingsworth and Vose, a meltblown maker based in East Walpole, Massachusetts, said his company has tripled production of meltblown for masks by ramping up and exiting other markets. But he and other makers have reservations about investing significant amounts of their own money .After the H1N1 epidemic in 2009, Hollingsworth and Vose purchased a new meltblown machine, but the demand for N95s plummeted when the virus dissipated, Clark said."We're now confronted with the same thing," he said. "No one will guarantee volumes past 2021. And the issue is, the lead time for one of these machines is a year, so just as we get that machine set up and installed, that demand might go away."The company received a government contract for $1.9 million to produce an additional 27.5 million N95 masks, but it doesn't include long-term purchase guarantees."It's half the problem solved," Clark said. "If the government bought you a machine that's 100% paid for, it still wouldn't make sense to waste space in your plant, just collecting dust."Lydall Inc., headquartered in Manchester, Connecticut, began the pandemic with one manufacturing line pumping out rolls of meltblown. A second should be online by the end of this year, and a third by May."We have one of the most highly sought-after products the world over," Lydall CEO Sara Greenstein said.To increase production, Greenstein said the company invested more than $25 million, which she hopes will be offset by a $13.5 million government contract for meltblown materials.Dan Reese, president of Prestige Ameritech, the largest domestic maker of medical N95 respirators, said he emptied his own savings during the H1N1 flu outbreak to expand operations and boost his output, only to end up near-bankrupt and laying off workers when demand dried up.He currently buys meltblown fabric from wherever he can get it, and estimates it would cost $15 million and take a year to start producing his own. A machine alone costs $5 million."I don't have the cash," he said. "If we continue to ramp up our production like we plan, we're going to run out of meltblown." Reese said. Meltblown shortages are "restricting our ability to do what we need to do for the country."Under the Defense Production Act, a mechanism that allows the U.S. government to compel companies to prioritize federal orders and help manufacturers increase production capacity, some mask and meltblown makers have gotten a boost.Between mid-April and early May, four N95 manufacturers — O&M Halyard, Honeywell, 3M and Hollingsworth and Vose — received a total of $134.5 million to increase production, including expanding existing operations and setting up new production lines. The federal government also approved smaller contracts this summer with NPS Corp. and Lydall to bolster meltblown production.But the Trump administration has not specifically restricted exports of meltblown material, a power it can use under the act. And in the face of shortages, U.S. meltblown makers have continued exporting their goods overseas.They've sent more than 40 shipping containers of meltblown material and related supplies offshore, with about 40% of it going to Pakistan, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from Panjiva, the supply-chain research unit at S&P Global Market Intelligence.That compares with only six shipping containers during the same period in 2019.The DPA gives the U.S. government the authority to block exports of crucial products and materials.Shifting manufacturing overseas made the U.S. medical supply chains vulnerable.Greenstein of Lydall says if the U.S. wants a stable supply of medical equipment, it will have to produce all of its own meltblown."You can't rely on this long-distance supply chain to provide the mission-critical elements that are a matter of life or death," Greenstein said. "When it's affecting everybody, the countries that have the domestic supply will prioritize their use over others."Moving production back to the U.S. has been a central goal of Navarro, who has warned for years about U.S. dependence on China for manufacturing. This year's pandemic shortages, he said, "is the type of scenario I was worried about on steroids."But Navarro's dream of "re-shoring" is tricky, in part because the costs of end products often rise.U.S. health care providers are calling for significantly more government investment in domestic medical supply manufacturing, even if it raises costs. "There's been a big push for years to lower the costs of health care, and one of the ways to do that is to lower the costs of the products, and one of the ways to do that is to manufacture them in a place where labor and materials are cheaper," said Teresa Dail, chief supply chain officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which includes four hospitals and more than 200 clinics. "I'm willing to bear the cost," she said, "to ensure that we have access to products and have our pipeline more stable than what we've seen in a global failure like this."Pre-pandemic, five U.S. producers were making about 42 million N95 masks a month. By October, that is projected to have increased to 11 U.S. producers making 168 million a month, which could amount to 2 billion a year, according to the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry's analysis of the impact COVID-19 has had on meltblown markets. Also pre-pandemic, 24 U.S. companies were making meltblown, with 79 machine lines in operation, according to the association's Brad Kalil. But only a fraction of that was going into medical respirators, Kalil said. By the end of 2021, he said, there will be 28 new lines in the U.S., representing a 35% increase, with almost all of the newly produced textile going into medical supplies.The Trump administration has helped pay for seven of those lines, Kalil said. But mostly they're being built through private investment, which he says may not pay off."If every single country and region decides they're going to make their own to be self-sufficient, we'll have way too much meltblown probably within the end of next year," Kalil said.Still, some U.S. companies are rolling the dice.As Seattle became a major coronavirus hot spot this spring, the clothing and sportswear company Outdoor Research also switched gears. It had the money, two U.S. factories and highly skilled employees, so it set out to make masks, said Jason Duncan, a company vice president. The company started with cloth masks for the general public, but soon pursued making medical-grade masks, investing millions to convert an entire floor of its downtown headquarters into an FDA-approved facility.Outdoor Research used its deep ties in the industry to secure meltblown material and, this summer, the FDA approved its N95 masks.Where is it getting its meltblown?"That's a closely guarded secret," Duncan said.___Linderman reported from Washington, Peipert from Denver and Hwang from Atlanta.
FRESNO, Calif. —
Rachel Spray is still grieving the loss of her fellow nurse who died after being exposed to the novel coronavirus at Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center. Now, as she stands in front of the gleaming glass and concrete hospital, she says she "dreads going in there" and fears she'll be next.
That's because like those in many U.S. hospitals, management is rationing supplies, she says, keeping medical-grade masks under lock and key.
White House officials say U.S. hospitals have all the medical supplies needed to battle the deadly virus, but frontline health care workers, hospital officials and the Food and Drug Administration say shortages persist. Critical shortfalls of medical N95 respirators — commonly referred to as N95 masks — and other protective gear started in March, when the pandemic hit New York. Pressure on the medical supply chain continues today, and in "many ways things have only gotten worse," the American Medical Association's president, Dr. Susan Bailey, said in a recent statement.
"N95s are still in a shortage," said Mike Schiller, the American Hospital Association's senior director for supply chains. "It's certainly not anywhere near pre-COVID levels."
This viral video shows how masks help stop the spread of coronavirus
Early in the pandemic the White House failed to heed stark warnings — specifically about N95s — from high-level administration officials. The Associated Press has found the administration took months to sign contracts with companies that make the crucial component inside these masks: meltblown textile. Meltblowing is the manufacturing process that turns plastic into the dense mesh that makes N95 masks effective at blocking vanishingly small particles, including viruses.
Even today, manufacturers say the Trump administration hasn't made the long-term investments they need in order to ramp up to full capacity. Meanwhile, the administration allowed meltblown exports to slip out of the country as the pandemic, and the demand for masks, soared.
Manufacturers say they risk significant losses if they invest millions in machinery, raw materials, new employees and factory space to churn out a product projected to have a short-lived demand, without assurances that the government will continue to buy their meltblown textile after the need for N95s recedes post-pandemic.
"I'm not going to sit here and tell you that we're going to guarantee purchases in 2021 or whatever date you pick," said Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, who heads the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force. He denies there are shortages.
Meltblown textiles are used in everything from diapers to air conditioners. Electrostatically charging meltblown gives it the ability to capture particles too tiny to be filtered by regular masks.
A study published this summer in the medical journal The Lancet found that frontline workers without N95 masks who cared for COVID-19 patients have the highest risk of infection.
"The initial lack of personal protective equipment in nursing homes, and lack of infection control practices in general, contributed to a general community spread across the country," said Harvard Medical School's Dr. Andrew T. Chan, one of the authors.
But that personal protective equipment just wasn't available early in the pandemic when demand for the disposable masks and gowns exploded. And it still isn't.
Can I use a face shield instead of a mask?
Before COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, the government estimated that the U.S. would need more than 5 billion N95 respirators per year in a pandemic. In March, the Department of Health and Human Services said the demand would be about 3.5 billion.
Those estimates were based on N95 manufacturer recommendations and hospital best practices that dictated health care workers use one mask per patient visit, so a single nurse could go through perhaps a dozen a day. But due to shortages, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructed health care providers to reuse them.
Because of this shift in usage, it's hard to accurately estimate the severity of the shortages of medical-grade masks and gowns.
But today, hospital administrators — some of whom are facing new state orders to stockpile supplies — say they can't get as many masks as they want, and the FDA included N95s on its most recent medical supply shortage list.
In Fresno, nurse Rachel Spray typically gets one N95 per shift.
Kaiser spokesman Marc Brown didn't dispute this claim, but said the change in the way masks are used still allows the clinical staff to safely care for patients. The hospital is just carefully managing supplies, he said.
"We continue to prudently manage PPE supplies to ensure they are readily available to protect our health care workforce for the duration of this pandemic," he said.
How often should I wash my cloth mask? What about surgical, N95 masks?
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro disputes reports of shortages. In an August interview, he said his office responds daily to news stories of ill-equipped medical providers, sending supplies as needed.
"We have what we need to get to people what they need," he said.
In 2019, the U.S. produced 15% of meltblown in the world while China accounted for 45%. Navarro has long advocated moving manufacturing back to the United States, and during the Republican National Convention President Donald Trump pledged to do just that with crucial medical supplies.
"We are taking our business out of China. We are bringing it home," he said.
But the meltblown example illustrates the failure of this administration to take necessary steps to fulfill this promise.
Meltblown is spun out of plastic pellets made from oil, typically polypropylene or polyethylene. The pellets are fed into a heated metal extruder, and jets of hot air force the liquefied plastic through an array of extremely small holes, producing fine plastic fibers. As the fibers cool, they overlap and stick together, forming a dense mesh.
This year, American meltblown makers have been ramping up supply. But some say they need more government support to meet the demand.
Mike Clark, a division president at Hollingsworth and Vose, a meltblown maker based in East Walpole, Massachusetts, said his company has tripled production of meltblown for masks by ramping up and exiting other markets. But he and other makers have reservations about investing significant amounts of their own money .
After the H1N1 epidemic in 2009, Hollingsworth and Vose purchased a new meltblown machine, but the demand for N95s plummeted when the virus dissipated, Clark said.
"We're now confronted with the same thing," he said. "No one will guarantee volumes past 2021. And the issue is, the lead time for one of these machines is a year, so just as we get that machine set up and installed, that demand might go away."
The company received a government contract for $1.9 million to produce an additional 27.5 million N95 masks, but it doesn't include long-term purchase guarantees.
"It's half the problem solved," Clark said. "If the government bought you a machine that's 100% paid for, it still wouldn't make sense to waste space in your plant, just collecting dust."
8 common mistakes to avoid when wearing a face mask
Lydall Inc., headquartered in Manchester, Connecticut, began the pandemic with one manufacturing line pumping out rolls of meltblown. A second should be online by the end of this year, and a third by May.
"We have one of the most highly sought-after products the world over," Lydall CEO Sara Greenstein said.
To increase production, Greenstein said the company invested more than $25 million, which she hopes will be offset by a $13.5 million government contract for meltblown materials.
Dan Reese, president of Prestige Ameritech, the largest domestic maker of medical N95 respirators, said he emptied his own savings during the H1N1 flu outbreak to expand operations and boost his output, only to end up near-bankrupt and laying off workers when demand dried up.
He currently buys meltblown fabric from wherever he can get it, and estimates it would cost $15 million and take a year to start producing his own. A machine alone costs $5 million.
"I don't have the cash," he said. "If we continue to ramp up our production like we plan, we're going to run out of meltblown." Reese said. Meltblown shortages are "restricting our ability to do what we need to do for the country."
Study finds face masks prevented thousands of COVID-19 cases. Experts say you should keep wearing them.
Under the Defense Production Act, a mechanism that allows the U.S. government to compel companies to prioritize federal orders and help manufacturers increase production capacity, some mask and meltblown makers have gotten a boost.
Between mid-April and early May, four N95 manufacturers — O&M Halyard, Honeywell, 3M and Hollingsworth and Vose — received a total of $134.5 million to increase production, including expanding existing operations and setting up new production lines. The federal government also approved smaller contracts this summer with NPS Corp. and Lydall to bolster meltblown production.
But the Trump administration has not specifically restricted exports of meltblown material, a power it can use under the act. And in the face of shortages, U.S. meltblown makers have continued exporting their goods overseas.
They've sent more than 40 shipping containers of meltblown material and related supplies offshore, with about 40% of it going to Pakistan, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from Panjiva, the supply-chain research unit at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
That compares with only six shipping containers during the same period in 2019.
The DPA gives the U.S. government the authority to block exports of crucial products and materials.
Shifting manufacturing overseas made the U.S. medical supply chains vulnerable.
How the CDC is warning hospitals to prepare for coronavirus shortages
Greenstein of Lydall says if the U.S. wants a stable supply of medical equipment, it will have to produce all of its own meltblown.
"You can't rely on this long-distance supply chain to provide the mission-critical elements that are a matter of life or death," Greenstein said. "When it's affecting everybody, the countries that have the domestic supply will prioritize their use over others."
Moving production back to the U.S. has been a central goal of Navarro, who has warned for years about U.S. dependence on China for manufacturing. This year's pandemic shortages, he said, "is the type of scenario I was worried about on steroids."
But Navarro's dream of "re-shoring" is tricky, in part because the costs of end products often rise.
U.S. health care providers are calling for significantly more government investment in domestic medical supply manufacturing, even if it raises costs.
"There's been a big push for years to lower the costs of health care, and one of the ways to do that is to lower the costs of the products, and one of the ways to do that is to manufacture them in a place where labor and materials are cheaper," said Teresa Dail, chief supply chain officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which includes four hospitals and more than 200 clinics.
"I'm willing to bear the cost," she said, "to ensure that we have access to products and have our pipeline more stable than what we've seen in a global failure like this."
Pre-pandemic, five U.S. producers were making about 42 million N95 masks a month. By October, that is projected to have increased to 11 U.S. producers making 168 million a month, which could amount to 2 billion a year, according to the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry's analysis of the impact COVID-19 has had on meltblown markets.
Also pre-pandemic, 24 U.S. companies were making meltblown, with 79 machine lines in operation, according to the association's Brad Kalil. But only a fraction of that was going into medical respirators, Kalil said. By the end of 2021, he said, there will be 28 new lines in the U.S., representing a 35% increase, with almost all of the newly produced textile going into medical supplies.
The Trump administration has helped pay for seven of those lines, Kalil said. But mostly they're being built through private investment, which he says may not pay off.
"If every single country and region decides they're going to make their own to be self-sufficient, we'll have way too much meltblown probably within the end of next year," Kalil said.
Medical supply shortages loom as more coronavirus tests return positive
Still, some U.S. companies are rolling the dice.
As Seattle became a major coronavirus hot spot this spring, the clothing and sportswear company Outdoor Research also switched gears. It had the money, two U.S. factories and highly skilled employees, so it set out to make masks, said Jason Duncan, a company vice president.
The company started with cloth masks for the general public, but soon pursued making medical-grade masks, investing millions to convert an entire floor of its downtown headquarters into an FDA-approved facility.
Outdoor Research used its deep ties in the industry to secure meltblown material and, this summer, the FDA approved its N95 masks.
Where is it getting its meltblown?
"That's a closely guarded secret," Duncan said.
Linderman reported from Washington, Peipert from Denver and Hwang from Atlanta.


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text:
Category Archives: Politics
The future for America's broken government
Longtime readers will recall that this used to be primarily a political blog. Eventually, though, I fell victim to outrage fatigue and turned to other subjects. These days we have a different administration, but one reason I've been escaping into pop culture (for the first few posts since I started updating again) has been that my reaction to the current political situation can only be properly expressed by this Uncyclopedia page.
I'm very, very pessimistic about the political outlook for the next few years. The traditional norms that allowed Congress to function in the past have totally broken down: the Senate now requires a 60-vote supermajority for anything due to routine use of the filibuster, and as we've recently seen the Republican congress is willing to put a gun to the head of the national economy by demanding concessions before raising the debt ceiling.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration is willing to use its executive authority to launch a new war in Libya, but not to unilaterally take action on the economy. Since the only stimulus the Republicans will accept is more tax cuts for the rich, we can expect that unemployment will continue to remain sky-high through 2012.
Then, Obama will lose re-election to whomever the Republicans nominate. It might be Rick Perry or Michelle Bachmann. If we're lucky (!) we'll get Mitt Romney, who might be unprincipled but at least appears to be sane. The economy is by far the strongest predictor of presidential election results, and with unemployment as high as it is, the independent voters will go for the Republicans in droves. A very harmful political dynamic has taken hold whereby a minority can wholly obstruct the legislative agenda in the Senate, use this to prevent any measures that might help the economy, and take advantage of anti-incumbent sentiment to regain the majority.
So, basically, we're doomed. At the very least the next Congress needs to change the rules of the Senate to eliminate the filibuster. It could be one upside of a Republican Senate: it would not be out of character for them to remove the obstructionist tools they relied on when they were in the minority. Maybe they'd get rid of the debt ceiling as well once they were the ones spending (or more likely, cutting taxes). It would result in a lot of policies I don't like, but in the long run getting rid of both of those things would be good for the country.
If I had the power to rewrite the Constitution I'd get rid of the Senate entirely, and maybe just institute a parliamentary system, but obviously neither of those things are going to happen. Instead I'll just watch old episodes of The West Wing and imagine what it would be like to have a functional government.
This entry was posted in Apocalypse, Democrats, Politics, Republicans, Senate on August 21, 2011 by Arcane Gazebo.
Politicizing history in Texas and elsewhere
Via Robert Farley, the Wall Street Journal reports on a fight over the history curriculum in Texas schools, which seems to be just a bit politically charged. For example, this proposal:
Replace references to America's "democratic" values with "republican" values
While this is the only one that's blatantly partisan, the conservatives on the board are also pushing to de-emphasize the contributions of women and minorities, and to get more religious content into the curriculum.
This is pretty unsurprising, and not just because it's Texas. Probably history curricula have been politicized everywhere, since the dawn of time. Recently I read a book in which the author visited a number of post-Civil-War monuments, and was disgusted at the respect accorded to various Confederate figures in the South. Which in turn reminded me of my experience learning Civil War history in a Virginia public school, where guys like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were described with a kind of heroic aura about them. There was a real effort to obscure the fact that they were fighting for a truly evil cause: I still remember that when we started the Civil War segment, the teacher explained that we might have heard that the war was over slavery, but this was a naive picture. Instead, we were told that the Civil War arose from a set of complex causes related to states' rights, such as disputes over congressionally-imposed tariffs. Later on in my education, there was a moment of realization that, wait a minute, it totally was about slavery!
And this was a good school in not-at-all-Southern Fairfax County! I can only assume that this was part of the state curriculum. And in a way it's understandable that Virginia would want to whitewash the most shameful chapter in its history, but it's not just about that. It's about white supremacists being able to put up statues of Stonewall Jackson and fly the Confederate flag in the name of their "heritage".
Another example: after living in Virginia I briefly attended a private school in Houston whose mascot was the Rebel (as in Confederate). And while I was there, there was talk of changing the mascot of this nearly all-white school. It's amazing to me the outcry that went up among students and alums, who thought this was political correctness gone wild, and couldn't see what was so offensive about naming the football team after people who fought on behalf of slavery. And of course the vast majority of them weren't racists, they just didn't think about the Civil War in moral terms, partly because of the way the Civil War is taught in the South.
But as much as I love to bash the South, this kind of thing goes on everywhere: look at how the American Revolution is taught in the U.S. versus in Britain. Or the ongoing dispute between China and Japan over Japan's whitewashing of their own war atrocities. So what Texas is doing now is just par for the course (not that it shouldn't be opposed).
This entry was posted in History, Politics on July 16, 2009 by Arcane Gazebo.
2008 Election Thread
I'm at an election night party tomorrow, so I'm posting the election thread tonight. I might check in on the comments via iPhone, however.
Endorsements: My support of Barack Obama is well-known to any reader of this blog so a formal endorsement at this point is unnecessary. And in the downballot races I'm generally endorsing the Democratic candidates as well. After years of failed governance, it's time to send the Republican Party into the wilderness.
I'm no longer registered in California, but I will still endorse Yes on 1, No on 4 and 8. (I haven't looked at the others.)
Predictions: Obama wins the Kerry states plus CO, FL, IA, NM, NV, OH, VA for a total of 338 electoral votes.
The Democrats pick up 7 Senate seats: AK, CO, MN, NC, NH, NM, and VA. Convicted felon Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens loses in AK by a small margin; Norm Coleman barely holds off Al Franken in MN. In the House, the Dems pick up 30ish seats.
Races of interest:
Obviously, the presidential race, but I think the outcome is pretty certain at this point.
Of the Senate races, the aforementioned AK and MN races will be the most exciting. I'd love to see Minority Leader McConnell lose in Kentucky but it doesn't seem likely.
In the House, my own representative is Jerrold Nadler (D). I don't think he'll have much trouble getting re-elected in solidly blue Manhattan. I don't know much about him yet, though. Anyway, it was pretty funny to hear McCain say that New York City isn't "real America"; my district alone (NY-8) contains such un-American landmarks as the Statue of Liberty, the New York Stock Exchange, and the World Trade Center site.
Likewise, my previous representative, Barbara Lee of CA-9, is in a pretty safe seat. I've moved from one of the bluest counties in America to another. But one of my past residences is the location of an interesting race:
CT-4: My old district in Connecticut, home of the last House Republican in New England. As Republicans go, Chris Shays is not that bad, but we're still talking about a member of a party that enthusiastically supports torture. I'll be rooting for his opponent, the awesomely-named Jim Himes.
Meanwhile, if I can stay up late enough, there are some ballot initiatives to watch in California. Prop 8 is the big one, which would actually revoke marriage from thousands of couples. It's been close in the polls so this will give you Californians a reason to go out and vote even though the state's electoral votes aren't in question.
Tomorrow morning I'll go find out just how long the lines are to vote in Hell's Kitchen. I never had to wait very long in North Berkeley, but the population density is just slightly higher here…
Go out and vote! Then come back here and comment.
This entry was posted in Election 2008, Politics on November 3, 2008 by Arcane Gazebo.
Fusion research
I have a confession to make: I haven't decided which party to vote for in the presidential election next week.
Of course, I phrased that statement carefully. As any regular reader of this blog knows, I long ago decided which candidate to vote for. But this month I changed my voter registration to New York from California, and here in New York there are two ways to vote for Barack Obama.
What's going on is that New York is one of the few states with an active fusion voting system. Here a political party is permitted to cross-endorse another party's candidate, so that voters can express different preferences from one of the major parties without feeling that they're throwing their votes away. So there are two lines on the ballot with Obama's name: one for the Democratic Party, and one for the Working Families Party. Similarly, John McCain's name appears three times, under the Republican, Conservative, and Independence party lines.
The result of this is that, while California's minor parties are pretty much all total crackpots, the electoral system in New York has the potential to reward serious and pragmatic third parties that align with a major party most of the time, but can withhold an endorsement in a close race and thus have an influence on the outcome.
For a while it seems that this created an effective four-party system with the Conservative Party to the right of the Republicans and the Liberal Party to the left of the Democrats. Recently (in 2002) the Liberal Party failed to qualify for the ballot (you need 50,000 votes in the gubernatorial election) and the Working Families Party became the sole progressive alternative. Meanwhile the Conservative Party is still around, and there's also the Independence Party which appears to have no ideology and seems to endorse whoever is the most mavericky, so they're backing John McCain.
So, back to my dilemma. Back in 1998 when I was first qualified to vote (having turned 18 just after the '96 election), I was only leaning Democratic. After eight years of Republican governance, I have become a staunch Democrat, and if I were still in California I'd vote a straight Dem ticket. But since I'd like to see more leadership from Dems on progressive issues, a vote on the Working Families line would help send that message.
I've thought of a compromise. I'll vote Democratic on the federal offices, since this is a year when I'm not just voting for the least bad alternative: I'm proud to be a Democrat and I have no reservations about supporting our presidential ticket. But in the elections for the state legislature, I'll vote Working Families to keep them honest. (Either way I'm voting for the same candidates–in all of the races on my ballot Working Families has endorsed the Democratic candidate.)
This entry was posted in Democrats, Election 2008, Politics on October 27, 2008 by Arcane Gazebo.
Arcane Gazebo's financial crisis FAQ
I won't attempt to explain the financial crisis here, but I will answer a few questions that have frequently been asked of me.
Q: Why haven't you been blogging about the recent events in the financial sector (or anything else, for that matter)?
A: One reason is that I don't have a lot of insight to add over what others are already saying. On top of that, since I work in proprietary trading I'm not at liberty to talk publicly about the aspects that affect me the most. As for blogging on other topics, I'm spending a lot of time at the office, and posting to the blog from firm systems is (I believe) frowned upon in the same way that using personal e-mail accounts is.
Q: Do you still have a job?
Q: What's it like starting out in the finance industry right now?
A: Sort of like you got the last ticket on a luxury cruise, and the cruise ship was the RMS Titanic. Or you moved to Tokyo just in time for a Godzilla attack.
And now, some questions that have not been asked of me but to which I have answers:
Q: What's happened to the Lehman Brothers building since they went bankrupt?
A: Since it's on the edge of Times Square, it has a big TV screen on the front that used to show attractive video of various landscapes. When Barclay's took over the building, it didn't change for a few days, and then turned into a still Barclay's logo on a hideous blue background–BSOD blue. They later figured out how to animate the logo, but it's still that awful blue and the entire block glows with the color at night.
Q: Is there a blog collecting those dumb trading floor pictures you complained about a while back?
A: Yes: Sad Guys on Trading Floors.
Q: Can you give me financial advice?
A: I think my employer would frown upon this.
Q: I work in the financial services industry. What is a good song to play at the office this week?
A: "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"
Q: Is there a bright side to all this?
A: Barack Obama is now the overwhelming favorite in the presidential election.
Q: So why haven't you been blogging about politics?
A: The political news cycle moves so fast that by the time I get home from work my commentary is redundant.
Q: What about the music blogging?
A: I've just been lame. I did catch a couple shows at Austin City Limits a couple weeks ago (Spiritualized, and Iron & Wine). And I've been listening to the new TV on the Radio album, which is excellent.
Q: Should you put a disclaimer on a post like this?
A: It should go without saying, but the opinions expressed here are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer. I should just put that on the sidebar.
This entry was posted in Finance, Music, Politics on October 12, 2008 by Arcane Gazebo.
Palin in comparison
Some days, not being able to post to the blog from work can be frustrating. Now that I'm home, let's talk politics.
I was not one of the 38 million people watching Obama's speech last night: I watched the speech on PBS, whose viewers weren't counted in that number. As almost everyone has said today, it was a great speech. Indeed, it so unnerved John McCain that he pulled up the wrong name on his cell phone and accidentally offered the VP slot to Sarah Palin instead of Tim Pawlenty. (To be fair, newfangled gadgets like cell phones give McCain trouble in the best of times.)
As Michael Bluth would say, "Her?" I was hoping for a more obviously and hilariously bad choice like Mitt Romney or even the ridiculously unpopular Joe Lieberman, but figured the McCain campaign was too smart to think either one was really a good idea. Palin was an option I wasn't even aware of, and I kept going back and forth on whether it was a politically shrewd move or a bizarre, impulsive mistake.
I've decided on the latter. One of the biggest themes of McCain's campaign is experience, and by picking Palin they've given up any ability to claim that experience matters. Her political resume consists of being mayor of a small town, followed by two years as governor of a small state; compared to this, Barack Obama is a senior political veteran.
The whole thing is obviously a cynical ploy to win over disaffected Hillary voters, in the apparent belief that they will vote for any candidate with ovaries regardless of whether or not they happen to oppose everything Hillary stands for (as the pro-life, ultraconservative Palin does). And yet, if the campaign really wanted to reach out to Clinton supporters with a pioneering female nominee, McCain advisor Carly Fiorina was the obvious choice. Kay Bailey Hutchison was another possibility that has been mentioned today, although she's pro-choice, and the social conservative wing of the GOP has made it clear that a pro-choice VP was not an option.
The vice-presidential debate should be interesting; all Joe Biden has to do is demonstrate that Palin is out of her league, something that should be an easy task for him given his extensive policy knowledge and skill as a debater. I would have much preferred to see him debate Lieberman or Romney, either of whom he would have utterly demolished, but this matchup will probably be worth sitting down with some popcorn.
However, Biden does have a bad habit of making offhand comments that come back to bite him (remember when he referred to Obama as "articulate"?) and it's quite likely that, at some point in the campaign, he'll get in trouble for some unfortunately-worded attack on Palin. Hopefully he'll be careful about this.
(This could be part of McCain's plan to attract Hillary voters: rather than nominating one of the experienced and qualified women in the GOP, pick a total lightweight and then accuse the Obama campaign of sexism when they point out that she's a lightweight. This plan does have its downsides, though.)
This entry was posted in Democrats, Election 2008, Politics, Republicans on August 29, 2008 by Arcane Gazebo.
Political advantages of name recognition
When I was in high school I was a resident of Connecticut's 4th congressional district, represented then and now by Chris Shays. As Republicans go he's not that bad. Nevertheless I feel strongly compelled to support his opponent this year. Could be the name.
This entry was posted in Connecticut, Democrats, Politics on June 20, 2008 by Arcane Gazebo.
Today's injustices: telecom immunity and show trials
As the results come in from today's Potomac Primaries, I'm very happy to see Barack Obama continue to defeat Clinton by huge margins. Meanwhile, political news today brought reminders of why this stuff matters.
We had the Senate vote to grant retroactive immunity to telecoms who participated in the warrantless wiretapping program. The Dodd/Feingold amendment, which would have held the telecoms accountable for breaking the law, was soundly rejected by a 31-67 vote. It's probably too much at this point to expect Republicans to stand up for the rule of law, but it's shameful that so many Democrats voted nay here. Once again I wonder why the increasingly useless Dianne Feinstein is one of the senators from California. Meanwhile, Obama voted for the amendment, but Clinton didn't bother to show up. I'll give her some slack since the vote wasn't close, but some leadership on this issue from her might have helped.
Meanwhile, the military is finally preparing to file charges against some of the Guantanamo detainees; they are seeking the death penalty. Parts of the article inadvertently highlight just how badly this system has gone wrong.
Col. Steven David, the chief military defense lawyer for the Guantánamo cases, who must provide detainees with military lawyers, said he did not have six lawyers available to take the cases, which the Pentagon described as a milestone in the war on terror.
In addition, he noted, a tangle of questions are unanswered in the military commission system, which has yet to begin a single trial. They include whether waterboarding constitutes torture, how statements obtained by coercion are to be handled, whether detainees may be so psychologically damaged that they may not be able to assist in their defense and exactly what the rules of the trials are to be.
The fact that any of these things are questions at all is appalling. Yes, waterboarding is torture. If this isn't obvious from a simple description of the procedure (and it should be), it's obvious from the fact that it has historically been used to torture people. No, statements obtained through torture should not be admissible as evidence. Historically, the primary use of torture has been to obtain false confessions, and there's no reason whatsoever to think this information is reliable. It's horrifying that any of this is even up for debate in this country.
Whether or not these men are guilty of the charges against them, executing them based on statements elicited through torture will not be just. That would make these military commissions no better than the show trials Stalin used against his political opponents. I can only hope that the military comes to its senses on this and gives these men a fair trial.
Meanwhile, as long as we're charging people with war crimes, let's do Donald Rumsfeld next: he personally approved the torture of these detainees.
This entry was posted in Politics, Senate on February 12, 2008 by Arcane Gazebo.
Mitt's parting shot
I had a moment of sadness when I heard Mitt Romney was dropping out, until I was helpfully reminded that I actually dislike him, just less so than the other candidates:
Romney is speaking before CPAC right now, explaining why he's suspending his campaign, and according to advance excerpts given to the Associated Press, Romney will say:
"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."
Classy! It's easy to get outrage fatigue with this crowd, but this kind of thing never fails to make me angry. Somehow Republicans keep getting away with labeling as "surrender" any counterterrorism approach that doesn't involve (a) knocking over random Middle Eastern countries, (b) torturing innocent people in secret prisons, and (c) massive illegal domestic surveillance programs.
On the other hand, Romney's attempt to spin his departure as a maneuver in the war on terror is actually pretty hilarious.
This entry was posted in Politics, Republicans on February 7, 2008 by Arcane Gazebo.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Mystery Writers of America Presents the Mystery Box
[United States] : Blackstone Audio, Inc. : Made available through hoopla, 2013.
Format: Eaudiobook
Description: 1 online resource (1 audio file (13hr., 25 min.)) : digital.
There's nothing more mysterious than a locked box. Whether it's a literal strongbox, an empty coffin, the inner workings of a scientist's mind, or an underground prison cell, there are those who will use any means necessary to unlock the secrets of The Mystery Box. With this anthology, bestselling author Brad Meltzer introduces twenty-one original stories from today's most prominent mystery writers. In Laura Lippman's "Waco 1982," a young reporter stuck with a seemingly mundane assignment on lost-and-found boxes unwittingly discovers a dark crime. In Joseph Finder's "Heirloom," a scheming neighbor frightens the new couple on the block with an unnerving tale of buried treasure. In R. L. Stine's "High Stakes," a man on his honeymoon gets drawn into a bizarre bet involving a coffin, a bet he may pay for with his life. From the foothills of Mount Fuji to Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, from a physics laboratory in wartime Leipzig to an unusual fitness club in Boca Raton, these sometimes terrifying, sometimes funny, and always suspenseful tales will keep you riveted.
Meltzer, Brad.
Detective and mystery stories, American.
ISBN: 9781470899622 (sound recording : hoopla Audio Book)
Read by various readers.
More By


Bell clocks initiate shift changeovers of duty watches. The strikes of the bell indicated the time at sea. Back in the day, sailors like Christopher Columbus and his crew used sand clocks made from glass, so-called hourglasses.
There are thirty minute hourglasses and fifteen minute hourglasses. Duty began and ended at eight strikes. The counting method back then ended at eight and WEMPE decided to manufacture 8-day-bell-clocks as a reminder of times long past. The German training ship Gorch Fock still teaches its students this rhythm.
WEMPE bell clocks are available in various series, all with battery-powered quartz movement and with either Roman or Arabic numerals. Whether chrome plated or colourlessly lacquered and high-gloss polished brass - mechanical WEMPE bell clocks are used all over the world and perfectly fit the interior of ships and yachts.


Sie haben "1" neue Nachricht.
I amazed everyone with my vast knowledge and overall approachability.
I had my eyes open for many a day.
I went to Spain once all by myself & had Chocolate con Churros at some totally random place near the trainstation & smoked a cigarette on a bench near Jardín Botànico & I did this all by myself. This is how brave I used to be.


text:
Yoshida: $40 Vita games 'a fair proposition'
There's no wrong price point, says Sony studio boss
President of SCE Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida is confident that consumers will happily pay full price for Vita games.
Titles for the new handheld vary in price - both digitally and at retail. Games are available from£4.79 for downloadable titles like MotorStorm RC, to £19.99 for mid-range games such as Ridge Racer, to £44.99 for Uncharted: Golden Abyss and other triple-A titles.
But Yoshida claims that, despite the rise of 69p apps for iPhone, iPad and other portable devices, gamers will still pay full price for Vita games if they are of high enough quality.
"We have a theory that if we create really compelling, engaging experiences that you can spend hours with, you'll see the value of spending 40 dolars against one dollar," he told VentureBeat.
"Gamers love all kinds of games. I totally understand people who like games like Angry Birds, but if you're a gamer, you're also interested in trying different kinds of experiences, bigger games.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...ir-proposition


text:
Joe Manganiello Confirmed as Deathstroke in Upcoming Ben Affleck Batman Flick
Keven Skinner News September 8, 2016 batman, ben affleck, DC Comics, Deathstroke, Geoff Johns, Joe Manganiello, justice league 0 Comment
From Warner Bros and director Ben Affleck comes the as of yet untitled new Batman movie, which is co-written by Affleck and DC Entertainment President/COO Geoff Johns. The film will star Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Joe Manganiello as the villain Deathstroke. The movie will hit theaters likely sometime in 2018.
Deathstroke Video Footage from Justice League Revealed by Ben Affleck
Keven Skinner News August 29, 2016 batman, ben affleck, DC Comics, Deathstroke, ezra miller, gal gadot, justice league, Ray Fisher, zack snyder 0 Comment
From director Zack Snyder (Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Watchmen) comes the highly anticipated Justice League film which will assemble DC Comics' greatest heroes. Starring Henry Cavill (Superman), Ben Affleck (Batman), Jason Momoa (Aquaman), Gal Gadot (Wonderwoman), Ray Fisher (Cyborg), Ezra Miller (The Flash), Amber Heard (Queen Mera), Willem Dafoe (Vulko) and JK Simmons (Commissioner Gordon), the film is scheduled for theatrical release November 10, 2017.


Thermoplastic Elastomers Market (Type - Block Copolymers (TPS, TPU, TPE, TPA), Blends (TPO, TPV); End use Industry - Automotive (Wires and Cables, Under-hoods and Bonnets, Exteriors), Building and Construction (Seals and Gaskets, Expansion Joints), Medical (Tubing, Catheters, Grips), Consumer Goods (Power Tools Handles, Sporting Goods and Toys)) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2018 - 2026.
This report focuses on study of the thermoplastic elastomers market at the global, regional, and country levels. It analyzes and forecasts the thermoplastic elastomers market based on value (US$ Mn) and volume (kilo tons) from 2018 to 2026. The market has been forecast based on historical trends, demand-supply scenario, drivers, restraints, opportunities, and expansions and developments by stakeholders across the value chain.
The report covers detailed value chain analysis, which provides an inclusive view of the global thermoplastic elastomers market. Porter's five forces model for the thermoplastic elastomers market has also been included to help understand the competition landscape of the market. The study incorporates market attractiveness analysis, wherein segments have been assessed based on their market size, growth rate, and attractiveness.
The study provides a decisive view of the global thermoplastic elastomers market by segmenting it in terms of type and end-use industry. These segments have been analyzed based on the present and future trends. Regional segmentation includes the current and projected demand for thermoplastic elastomers in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The report also covers individual type and end-use industry segments across all regions. Key players operating in the global thermoplastic elastomers market are Exxon Mobil Corporation, Covestro, Huntsman Corporation, BASF SE, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Celenese Corporation, PolyOne Corporation, Arkema Group, SABIC, and KRATON Corporation. Market players have been profiled in terms of critical aspects such as company overview, business overview, financial overview, and strategic overview.
The report provides size (in terms of volume and value) of the thermoplastic elastomers market for the base year 2017 and the forecast between 2018 and 2026. Market numbers have been estimated based on type and end-use industry segments of the thermoplastic elastomers market. Market size and forecast for each major type and end-use industry segment have been provided in terms of the global, regional, and country-level markets.
In order to compile the research report, in-depth interviews and discussions have been conducted with several key market participants and opinion leaders. Primary research represents a bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. Key players' annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents have been reviewed for competition analysis and market understanding. Secondary research also includes search of recent trends, technical writing, Internet sources, and statistical data from government websites, trade associations, and agencies. This has proved to be a highly reliable, effective, and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing market participants' insights, and recognizing business opportunities.


text:
IMPPP Imperial Petroleum Inc. - 8.75% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred
Cumulative dividends paid on March 30, June 30, September 30 and December 30. We may redeem, at our option, in whole or from time to time in part, the Series A Preferred Shares (i) on or after June 30, 2022 and prior to June 30, 2023, at a price equal to $26.00 per Series A Preferred Share, (ii) on or after June 30, 2023 and prior to June 30, 2024, at a price equal to $25.75 per Series A Preferred Share, (iii) on or after June 30, 2024 and prior to June 30, 2025, at a price equal to $25.50 per Series A Preferred Share, (iv) on or after June 30, 2025 and prior to June 30, 2026, at a price equal to $25.25 per Series A Preferred Share, and (v) on or after June 30, 2026, at a price equal to $25.00 per Series A Preferred Share, in each case plus an amount equal to all accumulated and unpaid dividends thereon to (but not including) the date of redemption, whether or not declared. This security was issued by Imperial Petroleum Inc., whose common stock symbol is IMPP.
GICS sector: Energy
Industry: Oil & Gas E&P
Country of incorporation:
Outstanding shares: 795,878


Plumbing problems? You're not alone. Despite how simple it can be to eliminate most plumbing problems Buckeye, many people do not know the best way to fix their own personal simple plumbing issues. If you're one of those people and would like to avoid investing in the service, continue reading to discover how to turn into a plumbing expert!
On very cold winter nights, enable your faucets to trickle slightly, especially if your pipes are located within a crawlspace. The flowing water prevents the pipes from freezing as quickly as they could otherwise. You may catch this type of water and employ it for other household must prevent wasting it.
Act quickly in case your pipes freeze! Shut down the liquid and open the faucet, enabling it to drain in the event it thaws. Beginning with the faucet, and working the right path to the iced-up area, aim a propane torch or hairdryer in the pipe - this will likely quickly defrost it. You might wrap the pipe inside a heating pad or aim a heat lamp at it, but this will take a while. A last resort is usually to wrap the pipe in rags and pour boiling water over it.
Don't pour oils, grease or fat down the sink. Whenever they cool, they are going to harden and create clogs within your drains. This is especially true when you have a garbage disposal, because the fat will result in the blades to run slower and much less efficiently. Keep a container within your kitchen which is used especially for discarded grease.
In case you have a nicely at your home and notice pink or orange stains throughout the drains of your tub or sink, this is probably brought on by too much iron within your water. This is often remedied by using a water softener that may be purchased with a shop, or a company can take a look at your home and handle the specific situation for you.
If your water is coming out black, then most likely you possess an iron and magnesium issue to your water. You need to speak to a water softener company, and obtain these people to turn out and assess your water. They are able to fix the problem by having a water softener.
Use strainers on all drains to keep foreign objects and debris from clogging drains. You must clean your house sink's strainer whenever there exists a large particle that's held in it. Clean bathtub drain screens as often as required.
Frozen and bursting pipes from harsh winter weather is a concern that no-one wants, so plan now to winterize your exterior faucets and pipes against freezing conditions. An easy way to achieve this is to look for the outside water shut-off valve located inside your home (often located in the basement). Shut down the liquid valve to prevent water flow, and then start the outside faucets to empty out water that has collected. Be sure you switch off the surface water faucets tightly following the water has drained out. Ingest any hoses you might have outside hence they don't crack from your freezing weather.
Ensure everyone at your residence knows the location where the main water shut off valve is and that they understand how to work it. Doing this, when there is a water problem, anyone with your household can make from the water, thereby decreasing the chances that your home will incur major water damage.
Watch the way your toilets are flushing. If you must jiggle the handle or maybe if it will take too much time, you might have to repair some toilet parts. Replacing these parts early may allow you to spend less on your water bills and could save you from more expensive repairs at a later time.
Try to limit the level of hair that goes down your drains. Hair could become tangled up from the pipe and turn out blocking in the them, preventing water from flowing smoothly. Purchase a cheap screened drain cover to set over your drain to avoid any hair from heading down and clean it off regularly.
Guarantee that everyone in your household is able to shut off the main water supply, or knows how to contact someone that can. In case there is a burst pipe or some other water-related emergency, you ought to immediately switch off this type of water in order to avoid flooding, structural damage, as well as a sky-high water bill.
Make sure that everyone in your household understands how to shut down the key water supply, or knows how to contact somebody that can. In case there is a burst pipe or some other water-related emergency, you must immediately shut down the liquid to prevent flooding, structural damage, plus a sky-high water bill.
Check how good your toilets are flushing. In the event the handle should be played with to keep the liquid from running constantly, or if it must be held down several times as a way to flush, you might need to switch out a number of the parts in your tank. This is simply not expensive, and it also could help lessen your monthly water bill. It could possibly also signify you prevent the embarrassment of your flushing system breaking when you have visitors!
Look at your faucets for leaks. Check the knobs along with the faucet itself. Numerous gallons of water a day could be wasted because of leaks and that's not good if you're paying your water bill. By stopping a leak now, it will save you yourself a lot of cash. Leaks can grow as time passes also, so avoid a disaster and appearance all faucets for leaks!
Check how well your toilets are flushing. In case the handle must be played with to help keep the liquid from running constantly, or maybe it needs to be held down a few times to be able to flush, you might need to switch out a number of the parts in your tank. This may not be expensive, plus it might help lessen your monthly water bill. It may also suggest that you avoid the embarrassment in the flushing system breaking in case you have visitors!
Hopefully, you possess found the tricks and tips above to be quite handy! Whether you hire out your job or do-it-yourself, take the necessary time to get it done right. It can create more trouble and expense in the foreseeable future, should it be not done right!
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Q: check if the value is phone number in model sequelize How can I add validation for value in model to accept only mobile number form cutom country
I just did that but I don't what should do next
user will enter the phone number like that "+15555555555"
phone: {
    type: Sequelize.STRING,
    allowNull: false,
    validate: {
      notNull: { args: true, msg: "You must enter Phone Number" },
      len: { args: [11,11], msg: 'Phone Number is invalid' },
      isInt: { args: true, msg: "You must enter Phone Number" },
    }
  },

A: You can use regex to validate phone number pattern of specific country:

//regex that validate phone pattern for specific country
const phoneValidationRegex = /\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}/
phone: {
    type: Sequelize.STRING,
    allowNull: false,
    validate: {
        validator: function(v) {
            return phoneValidationRegex.test(v);
        },
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


48% of small businesses don't follow software and app updates cyber advice.
Yet the impact can be significant with 89% of small businesses experiencing a reputational impact following a cyber attack – the cost is more than financial.
In this blog we look at systematic approach to securing your business from a data breach – whether accidental or malicious.
As an additional incentive to get serious about information security, the GDPR require organisations that process personal data to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures and be able to demonstrate that processing is performed in accordance with the regulations. The fines are very considerable for non-compliance and / or experiencing a data breach – up to €20m – eye watering.
A systematic approach needs to be led and driven by one of the organisation's management team and reach out across the organisation. Our approach is founded on the information security guidelines from the National Cyber Security Agency.
Technology: your computer systems, networks and data storage that need to be configured and operated in accordance with the security policies.
An IT representative – could be an internal person or a senior person from your IT Services Provider.
The mandate of the Information Security Governance team is to ensure the security of your information and to provide the central response focus and leadership in the case of a data breach.
IT systems and information management: Policies cover all aspects of IT management and security including monitoring, firewalls, security and encryption software, workstation build, software and cloud services, information storage and backup and WiFi networks.
Failure to use BCC when sending email.
How much do your staff know and how aware are they of the dangers?
Your staff exit process should ensure that any IT assets are recovered from leavers and access privileges revoked.
Finally, we come to technology – a place where many organisations start…. and end.
Monitoring.Continuously monitor computers, networks and software to enable early detection of security issues.
The size of your business is almost irrelevant in developing a cyber security defence plan as every business needs to protect itself. Obviously, the scale and scope will vary, but you do need to cover all the elements – governance, policies, people and technology.


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Home » Food Safety: Color contributes to safe, efficient food production
Food Safety: Color contributes to safe, efficient food production
Good planning is key to an effective color-coding program and proper usage of corresponding plant tools. In this example, red indicates receiving/raw materials; blue indicates QC lab/test kitchen; yellow and purple indicate processing areas; gray indicates employee lounge; white indicates restroom; green indicates office space; and orange indicates the warehousing area. Source: Carlisle Sanitary Products.
Clothing can be made to match the tools. Source: Remco.
Perfex brushes and brooms are made using an injection-molding process that melts polypropylene bristles to a polypropylene brush block, creating a one-piece unit that prevents fiber fallout and eliminates bacteria pockets. Source: Perfex.
Tools and their shadows are displayed on a pegboard. Shadow images are produced by the Mobile In-House Sign Shop from Visual Workplace Inc. Source: Visual Workplace.
Brushes and other cleaning tools and their shadows are shown inside a major US bottled water plant. Source: Visual Workplace.
Jaan Koel
KEYWORDS cleaning and sanitation / HACCP / maintenance
Color coding of maintenance and sanitation equipment is becoming a certification requirement.
The great thing about color is its universality. No matter what language a person speaks, color is the same for everyone. And if you attribute certain values or rules to the use of color in a production environment and communicate these effectively, everyone will be able to understand and comply with them.
Using color effectively in a well-planned program helps improve food safety by preventing workers from mixing up tools that shouldn't be mixed, keeping pathogens or allergens from traveling from one part of the plant to another. The vast spectrum of colored plastic totes, buckets, carts, bins, scoops, brushes, mops, squeegees, scrapers and other items also makes cleaning more efficient. Plus, color helps organize procedures in the workplace, enabling workers to make decisions quickly and more accurately. And color supports safe, efficient waste disposal and helps reduce waste in general—in areas including transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, loss of tools and time looking for tools before and after use.
No federal or state regulations are in place for color-coded cleaning tools, yet many manufacturers use these tools to streamline operations. Likewise, no hard and fast rules exist about what colors to use in a particular part of a plant, but certain colors have become standard: red for raw meat, blue for seafood, green for produce, white for finished food and yellow for hazardous areas. Purple and orange are sometimes used for allergens.
"In a perfect world, you wouldn't need color coding. Workers would simply remember what utensils belong where, on the raw side or finished side, and that these tools should never cross over from one area to the other," says Guelph Food Technology Centre Food Safety Director Paul Medeiros. "But people have a habit of forgetting. Color coding is one of the best ways to make items stand out clearly and simply so mistakes aren't made."
The extent to which color is used in a plant depends on how complex its production environment is. Some plants with a single product line can get by with as few as three colors. Others that produce a wider variety of products, particularly if they contain allergens such as peanuts, shellfish and certain types of grains, use more.
"It's not rocket science," says Medeiros. "You have to take a look at the potential of products contaminating each other, and then figure out how best to use color to mitigate those risks."
Injection-molded durability
Perfex Corporation in Poland, NY manufactures and sells brooms and utensils in a broad array of colors. Mike Dougherty, director of marketing, stresses the importance of durability. "Our brooms and brushes are extremely robust. We use an injection-molding process that effectively fuses the bristles to a high-impact brush block, creating a one-piece unit, preventing fiber fallout and eliminating any areas for bacteria to hibernate. The material is 100 percent polypropylene, which can be melted down and reused causing no harm to the environment."
Polypropylene is also non-conductive and does not absorb water, bacteria, grease, petroleum products, detergents, sanitizers or solvents. It rinses clean and dries quickly. Brooms and brushes consist of two parts—a brush head and a handle. If the head wears out, it can be replaced separately from the handle, saving cost. In addition, multiple brush heads are compatible with a single handle.
Perfex also has a patented broom handle/brush connection called "Lite 'n Tite" that provides a snug fit with no wiggle room so handles and brush heads stay connected. The company's products and materials are USDA and FDA approved.
The Perfex product portfolio is divided into two parts: TruClean Pro and TruClean II bucket/wringer/trolley/mop systems and a wide variety of scoops, scrapers and brushes that clean everything from large areas to those harder-to-get nooks and crannies. All the equipment can be repeatedly sanitized using any method, including autoclaving. "We recommend brooms and brushes be rack washed using a sterilizing/disinfectant solution," notes Dougherty. Most of the brooms and brushes are available in standard red, white, blue, green and yellow.
Color and HACCP
Brian Hutton, director of marketing for Oklahoma City-based Carlisle Sanitary Maintenance Products, considers color a vital part of the HACCP toolbox. "Color is very effective in preventing contamination risks at exchange points," says Hutton. "You can immediately see if anything, any tool or cleaning device, is out of place.
"Color helps the general concept that there should be a place for everything and that everything should be in its right place at the time when it's needed," adds Hutton. Carlisle works primarily in the five standard colors. "We add black for anything to do with floors and have introduced purple and orange for allergens, such as nuts, shellfish, eggs, gluten, strawberries and other things."
In addition to providing brushes a to clean flat surfaces, pipes, drains and the many hard-to-get-at areas, Carlisle provides color coded cutting boards as large as six-by-eight feet. The company also sells a line of mopping supplies and accessories, and waste and material handling products in standard colors.
One large distributor of color-coded tools in the US is Nelson-Jameson Inc., based in Marshfield, WI. "We pride ourselves as a one-stop shop. At the same time, one of our strengths is customization," says the company's MRO Department Manager Dakonya Freis. "If a customer needs a specialty item, say a brush that is two inches larger in diameter than the norm, we can work with our suppliers and meet its specs."
That goes for added colors as well. Nelson-Jameson pushed various manufacturers to add purple and orange for allergens. "Keep in mind when you develop an orange brush, you have to match it with all the other equipment it will be used with—scoops, brooms, paddle scrapers—the works." There are more than a few examples of where Nelson-Jameson's custom products and colors have gone mainstream after creating wider demand from other players in the industry.
"One of our customers contacted us to expand its color-coded program," Freis explains. "The company wanted to add green and brown. Green we already had, but we talked the customer into going with purple instead of brown due to product availability and turnaround time. After working with our suppliers, we were able to deliver a satisfactory product within the time requested."
SQF and increased confidence
Color coding makes for improved relations with customers and regulatory authorities, according to Michelle Williams, sales and marketing support, at Remco Products of Zionsville, IN. "Visiting authorities from the FDA as well as customers see an effective color-coding program as a sign that a company is serious about food safety. It makes them feel more confident."
An effective color-coding program also plays an important part in SQF certification and, for this reason, will likely become a prerequisite for suppliers seeking new business, and possibly keeping current business.
Color can be also used to advantage in clothing. Colored hair nets go with colored lab coats, aprons, hard hats and other things that can immediately identify a visitor to a plant. Internally, an employee working in the raw area of a plant might always wear red.
On a larger scale, color coding provides special benefits to companies that have multiple facilities: a unified color program helps employees transition quickly and easily from one plant to another.
Tool shadows
Rhonda Kovera, CEO of Visual Workplace Inc. of Grand Rapids, MI, sells signage-making equipment companies can use to create their own color programs in-house. Her company's main product, Mobile In-House Sign Shop, consists of a laptop preloaded with software and templates, a vinyl-cutting plotter, heavy-duty cart and rolls of adhesive-backed vinyl in a variety of colors.
"We've taken equipment and technology that's been available through local sign shops, and packaged it for manufacturing organizations so they can create their own in-house color programs," she says.
Included are "tool shadows" for peg boards on which tools are hung for ready use by workers. When the tool is in use, the shadow shows it's gone. When the worker finishes using it, the shadow acts like a magnet showing where it belongs until needed next time. "Plant managers can also use our equipment to color code their tools," says Kovera. "If a plant purchases 100 black brooms, for instance, our equipment can be used to color code the handles to match whatever area the brooms are intended to be used in."
Visual Workplace's in-house sign can save a facility up to 75 percent of the cost of going outside. "That's one reason many of our customers come to us," she notes. "Another is the fast turnaround time."
One of those customers is Del Monte Foods. "Through the use of sign shop technology, our McAllen, TX distribution center has benefited tremendously. Not only have we achieved cost savings, but also the flexibility of designed signs for various and diverse programs," explains DC Manager Benjamin Martinez.
Becky Brubaker, a label operator at Campbell Soup, says she's been making her own signs for the last four years. "I really like the sign shop clip art for making my signs come to life. It adds color to the signs and makes them catch your eye when you walk by."
Effective color use, according to Kovera, is part of lean manufacturing and the 5-S approach to plant management—sorting, straightening, systematic cleaning, standardizing and sustaining the new order.
Food safety triangle
Dan Fone, director of business development for NSF International's Global Food Safety Division in Ann Arbor, MI, says color is part of NSF's "Food Safety Triangle"—Training, Tools and Time. "The three parts fit together like an equilateral triangle and are inextricably linked," says Fone. "If you have the right training and the right tools, but only give workers five minutes to do a 15-minute job, they could end up taking risky shortcuts. Similarly, if they have the right color-coded tools but not enough time or training, things will break down."
Fone says he likes the idea of using instructional signage next to clusters of color-coded tools to remind workers how to use them properly. But the most successful companies mix things up. "One month they use posters; the next month perhaps stickers on lockers in the change room; the next month managers on the production floor talk to people, and so on. The best way to get a message across is to keep it fresh."
Other beneficial technologies, according to Fone, are handles and bristles impregnated with antimicrobial agents. "While there are no studies done as yet I'm aware of concerning their effectiveness, these agents could be just as important to handles as they are to bristles. The handles come into contact with hands, and many studies out there show hands to be the prime source of moving bacteria from one place to another in a plant."
Food safety hinges on identifying and reducing contamination risks at critical exchange points. Using color-coded cleaning tools is one of the easiest and most effective methods of doing this.
Paul Medeiros; Guelph Food Technology Center; 519-835-7867; pmedeiros@gftc.ca
Mike Dougherty; Perfex Corporation; 315-826-3600 ext. 24; miked@perfexonline.com
Brian Hutton; Carlisle Sanitary Maintenance Products; 405-475-5692; brianhutton@carlislefsp.com
Dakonya Freis; Nelson-Jameson; 714-384-1080; d.freis@nelsonjameson.com
Michelle Williams; Remco Products; 317-876-9856; mwilliams@remcoproducts.com
Rhonda Kovera; Visual Workplace; 616-277-5253; rhonda@visualworkplaceinc.com
Kelly Nichols; NSF International; 734-827-6850; knichols@nsf.org
Recent Articles by Jaan Koel
Poultry processing: Increased demand paves the way for innovation
What food manufacturers can learn from the pet food industry
Food-grade lubricants: When simple is smart
Boost plant efficiency by being clean, safe and savvy
Preparation is paramount
Jaan Koel was a Contributing Editor for FE.
Using color to ensure food safety
Tequila producer finds safe, efficient way to add dry ingredients
Some pointers on choosing metal detection systems to keep food safe from adulteration
Does your operation need color-coding? 13 criteria to help you decide
Food Process Engineering and Technology, 3E
Building an Industry 4.0 Vision to Ensure Food Safety and Reduce Food Waste


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Cold storage facility to open in northwest Houston
Business // BizFeed
Katherine Feser
Construction of Texas Frio Cold Storage is underway at 500 Victoria Drive in north Houston. The project, designed and built by KDW, will provide 43,742 square feet of cold storage and 19,086 square feet of office space.KDW
Texas Frio Cold Storage, a family-owned and operated company based in Houston, has broken ground on a nearly 63,000-square-foot facility near Crosstimbers and Interstate-45 in north Houston.
Designed and built by Houston-based KDW, the facility at 500 Victoria Drive will provide freezer storage space for Houston-area foodservice and restaurant operations. The building will contain 43,742 square feet of cold storage space for whole and packaged beef, pork and poultry products and 19,086 square feet of office space. The cold storage space could be doubled to meet future needs.
RELATED: Packaging company opens in Conroe industrial park
Texas Frio Cold Storage will have the capacity to store 287 truckloads of product while shipping and receiving from nine refrigerated dock positions. Construction is expected to be completed by mid-2020.
Texas gas supplies plunge during winter storms. That's a problem.
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By Catherine Traywick and Sergio Chapa
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY and MATTHEW BROWN
H-E-B debunks viral photo of empty shelves, bread shortage rumors
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Reach Katherine on
Katherine Feser covers a variety of subjects for the Houston Chronicle Business section. She coordinates some of the paper's most popular special sections, including the Chronicle 100, Home Price Survey, and Top Workplaces. She compiles many of the staples of the section, including the daily markets page, People in Business, event listings and real estate transactions.