text:
Understanding MPNs
What Is Essential Thrombocythemia?
What Is Primary Myelofibrosis?
Empowered Patients
International MPN Organizations
MPN Search
PV Reporter
MPN information and research hub
MPN Cancer Connection
MPN Specialists
01: Polycythemia Vera Diagnosis, PV Reporter, Day 1, Doomsday or Living with a Plan
02: MPN Chronicles – Interview with Dr. Pemmaraju
03: Learn Benefits of Becoming your own MPN Advocate
04: First Hematologist appointment for PV patient
05: Tips to Living Well with an MPN
06: My Plan to beat Coronavirus Blues
Dr. Interviews
Dr. Jean Jacques Kiladjian ASH 2018 RuxoPeg Phase 1/2 Trial of the Combo of Ruxolitinib and Pegasys in Myelofibrosis Patients
Dr. Michael Grunwald ASH 2018 Risk Assessment and Treatment Myelofibrosis Patients at Community Oncology Practices in the U.S.
Dr. J.J. Kiladjian ASH 2018 Headline Research Studies
ASH 2017 Interview with Dr. Michael Grunwald
ASH 2017 Interview with Dr. Raajit Rampal, part 1
ASH 2017 with Dr. Raajit Rampal, part 2
ASH 2017 Interview with Dr. Jean Jacques Kiladjian, part 1
ASH 2016 Interviews
ASH 2016 Interview with Dr Kiladjian
ASH 2016 Interview with Dr Rampal
ASH 2015 Interview with Dr John Mascarenhas
ASH 2015 Interview with Dr Angela Fleischman
ASH 2014 Interview with Dr Heinz Gisslinger
ASH 2014 interview with Dr Richard Stone
How I Treat MPN's
INREBIC
Interferon treatment for MPNs
10:59 am By David Wallace
Mast Cells and Histamine in MPN Related Itching Explained
Publisher's Note:
PV Reporter is very pleased to welcome Kate Newberry as contributing writer. She is collaborating with me on the Mast Cell Mania series providing the "medical commentary."
Kate Newberry is a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center collaborating with Dr. Srdan Verstovsek, MD, PhD and the MPN team on clinical and translational research. She received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2002 and completed postdoctoral training in Biochemistry and Biophysics at Oregon Health and Sciences University and MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is the managing editor of MPN Focus, a periodic newsletter published by The Hanns A. Pielenz Clinical Research Center for Myeloproliferative Neoplasia at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Mast Cell Mania – Part 2
by Kate Newberry, PhD
As David discussed in Part 1 of this series, itching, especially after bathing, is a common and troublesome symptom of polycythemia vera (PV) and other myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). Itching has been reported in up to 85% of patients with MPN. While the biological basis of itching is not fully understood, the itch sensation is recognized in the brain by signals sent from specific nerve fibers (neurons) within the skin that respond to various types of stimuli.
Figure 1. Schematic of a mast cell and the degranulation process.
Histamine is one of many stimuli that activate sensory neurons. Histamine is generated in white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system.
The three types of white blood cell that produce histamine are called:
Mast cells
All three cell types contain granules (storage sacs within the cell) that contain histamine and other molecules that act as "chemical alarms." Mast cells reside in most tissues within the body, while eosinophils and basophils are found in the circulating blood. The majority of the body's histamine is stored in the granules of mast cells. Histamine is released from these cells in a process called degranulation. Degranulation occurs when antigens interact with IgE molecules that are bound to receptors on the surface of mast cells, basophils and eosinophils (Figure 1). Once the cells are activated they release the contents of their granules, including histamine and other mediators of the immune response.
The Many Roles of Histamine
So how exactly does histamine cause itching? Histamine is a biologically active molecule that has an effect on a multitude of bodily processes ranging from the allergic response, to gastrointestinal function, and the regulation of the sleep wake cycle (see Figure). Histamine exerts its action by binding to histamine receptors on the surface of cells.
There are four different histamine receptors (called H1-H4):
The H1 receptor is found throughout the body, including the brain, skin and organs. The H1 receptor is found on sensory neurons and thus is involved in the perception of itch.
The H2 receptor is found on specialized cells in the stomach and cells that comprise the blood vessel walls. Activation of the H2 receptor leads to dilation of the blood vessels and gastric acid secretion.
The H3 receptor is found in the central and peripheral nervous system.
The H4 receptor is found in the bone marrow and white blood cells, as well as in the thymus, small intestine, spleen and colon. It plays a role in the migration of mast cells, itch perception, cytokine production and gastrointestinal pain.
The effects of histamine are dependent on how much of it is present in the blood. At amounts slightly higher than normal, you get increased heart rate and increased secretion of gastric acid. As the level further increases, you can have headaches, flushing, hives and itching, and at very high levels it can lead to anaphylactic shock.
As David and other MPN patients have discovered, a combination of 2 different types of antihistamine can greatly alleviate MPN-related itching. Zyrtec (cetirizine hydrochloride) blocks the H1 receptor, while Zantac (ranitidine HCl) blocks the H2 receptor. All of this suggests that if you can sufficiently reduce the histamine levels you can combat the itching.
Below I will discuss some of the scientific evidence regarding the role of mast cells and histamine in MPN-related itching.
Evidence for the Role of Mast Cells/Histamine in MPN-Related Itching
The role of mast cells in MPN-related itching has not been well-studied. Some evidence shows that mast cells in MPNs are functionally abnormal. For example, one study (Ishii, T et al. Blood 2009) showed that mast cells from MPN patients release significantly more histamine, leukotrienes, and IL-31 (all mediators of the allergic response) than normal mast cells. The authors showed a correlation between the presence of itching and a larger number of mast cells. Others have shown increased levels of histamine in the blood and urine of MPN patients. However, evidence of a correlation between histamine levels and itching in MPNs is conflicting. In fact, Ishii and colleagues did not find a correlation between presence of itching and levels of histamine released from MPN mast cells. Interestingly though, they found that MPN mast cells released higher levels of prostaglandin D2 (an inhibitor of itching), but the levels were significantly decreased at higher temperatures, suggesting that perhaps the itching induced after a hot shower is due to the lower levels of prostaglandin D2. A follow-up study by the same authors (Ishii et al. Leukemia 2009) found that mast cells from patients with PV and PMF showed increased activation. However, it is important to remember that these studies were all performed on cells grown in vitro (in a petri dish) and therefore are not definitive.
In another study, skin biopsies were taken from the abdomen of PV patients after exposure to either warm water or room temperature water (Abdel-Naser et al. 2007). The skin biopsies were compared with those from normal individuals. No changes were seen in skin samples from normal individuals when exposed to warm or room temperature water; however, skin samples from PV patients exposed to warm water showed vasodilation and increased numbers of white blood cells. In addition, the mast cells in the room temperature water–exposed skin from PV patients were larger, irregularly shaped, and were densely packed with granules. The skin from PV patients exposed to warm water showed many mast cells that appeared to be ruptured with their granules spilling out. These changes were not seen in the normal skin samples. All of these findings suggest that the mast cells in PV patients may function abnormally and that warm water may induce degranulation and the release of histamine, explaining the onset itching after showering.
Clearly more studies are warranted, but it appears that at least for some patients, the Z&Z combo may be the best defense against itching.
Click on the image below for Part 1 in the "Mast Cell Mania" series – "Over the Counter Combo of Zyrtec and Zantac helping PV patients get relief from itching":
Last but not least, yet another resource to Help You Beat the Itchies – "Strategies to Beat Itching in Polycythemia Vera." Hopefully, one of the strategies in the articles above will work for you and now you have a better understanding of the medical background, explaining why you itch.
Abdel-Naser MB, Zaki MS, Mousa MH, Hamed H, Rizk MS, Mohamed HE, Habib MA. Cutaneous mononuclear cells and eosinophils are significantly increased after warm water challenge in pruritic areas of polycythemia vera. 2007 J Cutan Pathol 34:924-929.
Ishii T, Wang J, Zhang W, Mascarenhas J, Hoffman R, Dai Y, Wisch N, Xu M. Pivotal role of mast cells in pruritogenesis in patients with myeloproliferative disorders. 2009 Blood 113:5942-5950.
Wang J, Ishii T, Zhang W, Sozer S, Dai Y, Mascarenhas J, Najfeld V, Zhao ZJ, Hoffman R, Wisch N, Xu M. Involvement of mast cells by the malignant process in patients with Philadelphia chromosome negative myeloproliferative neoplasm. 2009 Leukemia 23:1577-1586.
Filed Under: Blog, Contributing Writers, Kate Newberry, MPN Symptoms Tagged With: histamine, itching, Kate Newberry, mast cell, MD Anderson, MPN Symptoms
About David Wallace
Founder of PV Reporter, a resource for Myeloproliferative Neoplasm (MPN) patients and caregivers. After being diagnosed with Polycythemia Vera (PV) in 2009, I utilized social media to connect with "informed patients" and develop a better understanding of emerging treatment options. My philosophy on patient care is straight forward - "educating the patient is essential, so the patient can guide their physician to meet his or her needs." PV Reporter is a comprehensive resource hub giving visitors vital tools to become "empowered patients."
Covid-19 Vaccines FAQs for Patients and Caregivers
Precision Medicine and Gene Mutations in MPNs
New MPN Drug Treatments in Development
SEARCH PV Reporter
PV Reporter was created by David Wallace, an aspiring web designer, publisher, writer, reporter, patient advocate and chief bottle washer. I have been a PV patient since 2009. PV became a motivating factor to push myself to always be learning something new. Learning web design and becoming a patient advocate were some of my primary goals.
MPN News
9 Tips to Reduce MPN Fatigue
Common Clinical Trial Acronyms and Abbreviations
Understanding the Phases of Clinical Trials
4th Angel providing one-on-one support services for MPN Patients
Serving the MPN cancer community with support services
MPN 2019 guidelines
Click on the image above for the New MPN Patient Guidelines! Very detailed, provided by NCCN.
Medical Dislaimer
Copyright · PV Reporter © 2021 · Site Design by David Wallace


Ever since the Federal Reserve began unwinding its massive balance sheet and hiking interest rates, the U.S. dollar has gradually climbed against a basket of other currencies. All else equal, higher interest rates in a country increase the value of that country's currency as foreigners flock to take advantage of better yields.
In the 12 months preceding the S&P 500's all-time high clinched earlier this year, investors dumped more than $6 billion in net flows into the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets fund, with the ETF adding more than $2.3 billion in the month preceding the sell-off.
Credit fears spiked again this week, and Turkey's financial crisis sent its currency plummeting 14 percent on Friday.
Developed market exchange-traded funds tracking British, German and French equities are down 6.9 percent, 11.6 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively, since January. And while Raymond James' Scott Brown added that investors aren't as concerned with Europe's credit just yet, aggressive trade policies from Washington aren't helping.
The U.S. and EU have since agreed to begin "dialogue to reduce differences on regulatory standards between the two economies" following European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's trip to Washington in late July.
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported earlier this month that the U.S. trade deficit increased 7.4 percent in June despite the president's efforts.


GPS coordinates, latitude and longitude of geolocated articles in Iran.
Tehran ( pronunciation ) (Persian: تهران - Tehrān) is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province.
The nuclear program of Iran was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program.
Dena (in Persian and Lurish: دنا) is the name for a sub range within the Zagros range of West/Southwestern Iran.
Susa (/ˈsuːsə/; Persian: شوش Shush [ʃuʃ]; Greek: Σοῦσα [ˈsuːsa]; Syriac: ܫܘܫ Shush; Old Persian Çūšā-; Hebrew שׁוּשָׁן Shushān) was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran.
Mashhad (Persian: مشهد ; listen ) is the second most populous city in Iran and capital of Razavi Khorasan Province. It is located in the northeast of the country, close to the borders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Its population is 3,131,586 .
A fire temple in Zoroastrianism is the place of worship for Zoroastrians, often called dar-e mehr (Persian) or agiyari (Gujarati). In the Zoroastrian religion, fire (see Atar), together with clean water (see Aban), are agents of ritual purity.
Yazd (Persian: یزد [jæzd] pronunciation ) is the capital of Yazd Province, Iran, and a centre of Zoroastrian culture. The city is located 270 km (170 mi) southeast of Isfahan.
The Golestan Palace (Persian: کاخ گلستان - Kāx e Golestān), literally the Roseland Palace, is the former royal Qajar complex in Iran's capital city, Tehran.
Lake Urmia is an endorheic salt lake in northwestern Iran near Iran's border with Turkey. The lake is between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan in Iran, and west of the southern portion of the Caspian Sea.
Naqsh-e Rustam (Persian: Naqŝe Rostam Persian pronunciation: [næɣʃeɾosˈtæm]) is an ancient necropolis located about 12 km northwest of Persepolis, in Fars Province, Iran.
The Iranian Plateau, is a geological formation in Western Asia and Central Asia.


text:
Featured: Digging up Positivity - Furry charity and good news - August 2020 - Hello there and welcome to August's episode of Digging Up Positivity. Th…
Review: 'Monster Mind', the sexy Pokémon puzzle game
Posted by Rakuen Growlithe on Sat 16 Jun 2018 - 21:26
Monster Mind is a puzzle-solving, Pokémon-themed, flash game created by Argon Vile. It's available to play for free through Inkbunny or Fur Affinity. One might be tempted to immediately dismiss it as just another pornographic game, however not only is it very well-executed but it also contains deeper questions about sex and sexuality than you might expect.
A puzzling start
The main puzzles—as well as the title—are based on the board game Master Mind. In the classic version, you have to guess the colour and position of each peg in a row of four, usually with six colours to choose from for each slot. After each guess, you are told how many pegs have the correct colour and how many are in the correct position. Over multiple guesses, you can determine the correct pattern.
Monster Mind is slightly different. While you are still required to find the pattern, several guesses are already provided as clues. You must use those clues to determine the correct sequence; although in the most difficult puzzles it might be necessary to make assumptions about more than one peg at a time. You can choose between various difficulties starting from a pattern of just three pegs (although in this game they are adorable bugs instead of pegs) and going up to five pegs. There is also a secret 7-peg puzzle with some extra rules!
As you complete the puzzles, you'll be rewarded with treasure chests. Usually these contain gems which can be exchanged for various items. Items range from aesthetic additions through various game enhancements to sex toys for the sexual scenes. A chest might also contain a bonus coin, giving you the option of playing one of Monster Mind's minigames.
I want to play a minigame
There are three minigames available; balancing scales, tug-of-war and a stair-climbing game. These are played against the Pokémon characters, with each of them having different skill levels in the various games.
The balancing scales minigame requires some quick mental maths. You have a scale with platforms at different distances from the centre along each of the arms, each corresponding to a certain value. You will need to divide the bugs you are given onto these platforms in such a way that each side adds up to the same total. There are usually two other Pokémon competing against you, so speed is of the essence.
The tug-of-war game seems simple at first. You divide up your bugs among three to five concurrent games of tug-of-war with each game earning you a different number of gems. All you need to do is win the most gems. What makes this trickier is that both you and your NPC opponent are able to change how your bugs are allocated in real time. Furthermore, as time passes, your bugs will move forward to be concealed in a tent. At that point they can neither be seen nor moved, meaning you need to keep track of the total value of each competition as well as how many bugs you and your opponent have set down for each one.
The final, and my favourite, of the minigames involves you and an NPC rolling dice to move up a flight of stairs, collect a chest and bring it back down. Movement is determined by rolling two 'dice' with the possible totals of zero, one or two. The reason 'dice' is in quotes is that it's more like rock-paper-scissors, where you pick a value based on what you think your opponent will pick for their 'roll'. Because of this, both players roll at the same time, no matter whose turn it is, and the player whose turn it is moves the sum of all the dice. You might think that then you will just roll zero for your opponent but if both players roll a zero then the person whose turn it is can move four places and take their turn again! In addition, if your bug lands on the same step as your opponent's bug you will knock them off for bonus gems! Experience and learning how the different Pokémon characters play the game is very important.
Now back to the good part
The main reward for the completing the puzzles is the sex scenes. Now, that can be disabled and you can freely play the puzzles all squeaky clean but you'd be missing out on a large part of the game. There are many Pokémon you can have sex with, including Abra, Grovyle, Sandslash and Lucario, to name a few. This is all done through fairly standard point and click interactions. There's even some fourth-wall breaking, as you only exist in their world as a glove which covers up the cursor!
I mentioned in the minigame section that the different Pokémon play the games in a slightly different way. The same happens in the sex scenes. You can't go to every Pokémon , treat them the same way and expect to get the same results. Like people, the Pokémon are all individuals with their own interests. Some want you to go slow, some faster, some have a hair trigger and so on. It can be nice just seeing how the different Pokémon respond.
If you do partake in the sex scenes, you can choose between male and female Pokémon, of which the game asks your preferences when you begin. Furthermore, its possible to purchase items that let you switch the sex of the Pokémon to suit your interests. Other items that can be purchased are for use during the sex scenes, but we will not go into any details here!
Overall and assuming you are okay with the sexual content, it's an excellent game. The art is simple but very clear and doesn't detract from any of the content. Many of the characters, particularly the puzzle bugs, are adorable. There is a lot of depth to the Pokémon, each with well-written dialogue that makes you think. Thanks to this, the experience of going through these puzzles does not get repetitive. The puzzles and minigames require skill far more than luck and, although some puzzles are easier than others, luck does not play a role in the main puzzles. All of them function incredibly well with almost no unintentional bugs whatsoever that I came across.
If you're looking to satisfy a desire for logical puzzles, Pokémon or sex games, I can highly recommend Monster Mind.
Read more: Rakuen interviews Argon Vile, creator of Monster Mind
Equivamp — Sun 17 Jun 2018 - 17:42
By "deeper questions about sex" that you say this proposes, are you referring to different characters responding differently to different things in the sex scenes?
Rakuen Growlithe — Mon 18 Jun 2018 - 01:40
No, although that's interesting too. In the dialogue between puzzles, many of the pokemon ask relationship and sex questions as part of their backgrounds and storylines. For example, one of them talks about labels of gay and straight and whether they are good/useful or whether it would be better to be in a world without labels where people can just be who they are and not part of a label. Those conversations bring more thought into sex and sexuality.
They are brief, not deep philosophical essays but they can certainly stimulate a bit more thought than you would normally get in a sex game. Other conversations touch on a character who had sex with someone that was in a relationship but didn't know because the couple is often off and on and asked who was to blame.
Sonious — Fri 22 Jun 2018 - 18:56
I didn't finish the game as of yet, but I will say that there was quite a bit of effort here.
I mean, particularly the "Bugs" that act as pegs in this game. They are crazy animated. Do the following, pick a peg up, move your cursor really fast and "throw" them away. When they hit the ground they roll along and tumble to a stop.
As far as the game goes to it rewards you whether you solve the puzzles fast or slow. If you solve them fast you'll rank up quicker, while if you take your time you will get random drops of gems in compensation for your time.
At this point I would consider nominating it for Furry games at this point...
That would probably be awkward if it ends up next the Switch pokemon games in the nominee list.
Rakuen Growlithe — Sun 24 Jun 2018 - 07:07
The bugs are definitely a highlight!
You should nominate it. I would think this sort of thing falls under the type of games that we should be encouraging. It will probably lose to some big commercial game like every furry film has but at least we should recognise when people within the community create something great.
2cross2affliction — Sun 24 Jun 2018 - 15:02
Pay attention, guys.
The last three years have gone to independents in the Video Games category, and in 2016, the winner was by a furry ... and everyone bitched about it (the guy ran a FYC campaign on Twitter, OH NOES!). Second place that everyone was complaining should have won was ... an actual made-by-Nintendo Pokemon game, by the way, which is kind of ironic, but anyway, there's the David-beating-Goliath Rakuen's complaining never happens literally happening not two years ago right in front of his face.
Also, also, is porn still winning all the literary categories (which are, by the way, so furry-by-furry that at least one has gone "can I just not do this anymore, please?")? Was Major/Minor porn?
How the fact that this is definitely a porn game will effect the vote is a way more, well, at least "interesting" question.
Sonious not logged (visitor) — Sun 24 Jun 2018 - 15:35
Major/Minor was not porn, you cannot have sexualized games on Steam. Adult visual novels that are on steam typically do not have the adult scenes in them, like Amorous. To access the adult scenes you'd have to download from the web in other places.
2cross2affliction — Mon 25 Jun 2018 - 03:54
You are ominously quiet on the literary question.
Sonious — Mon 25 Jun 2018 - 20:50
You assume I've read a lot of furry fiction. I'm not Fred Patten, so I cannot say.
Okay, I can't be expected to remember everything.
If you are going to pontificate about something, you kind of are expected to remember and/or research what you're pontificating about.
Rakuen Growlithe — read stories — contact (login required)
a student and Growlithe from South Africa/Austria, interested in science, writing, pokemon and gaming
I'm a South African fur, born and raised in Cape Town, but currently living in Vienna, Austria for work and studies. I'm interested in science, writing, gaming, all sorts of furry stuff, Pokemon and some naughtier things too! I've dabbled in art before but mostly like writing although I haven't done very many stories recently but more non-fiction on Flayrah. I helped found and administer the ZA Fur forum.
Review: 'Lagrange' by Phil Guesz
Review: 'Capricious: A Texan Tale of Love and Magic...
So how many animal genitalia based sex toys do you own?
Review: 'Jane, Jill and Jasie', by Malcolm Cross
Book review: 'Freak's Amour', by Tom De...
New MC Crumbsnatcher rap video gathers many subcultures
Opinion: Furries, Freud, art, and "sexual...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Biblepraise Fellowship Online
Inspirational Writings, Stories and Poetry.
Light for the Dark Places
by Rubel Shelly on 18th January, 2011
People talk about being in "dark places" of discouragement, hopelessness, or impasse in their lives. It is not uncommon to read or hear the language of "dark places" for our children, our culture, or our world. In both ancient and modern literature, the metaphor of darkness for human error and its penalties is common.
Maybe that is why the person and nature of God are described as light. "God is light and in him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5) One biblical writer even calls him "the Father of lights" and declares not only that there is no darkness in God or his actions but not even a "shadow" (James 1:17).
It should come as no surprise to anyone that the biblical narrative describes God's entry into flesh this way: Light has come to shine into all the world's dark places. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it" (John 1:5). "I am the light of the world," Jesus said. "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).
In view of all this, who could possibly misunderstand the challenge Jesus gave his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount? Be lights in your world. Be like candles on a stand. Be shining cities on high hills. Be blessings to everyone.
But some of us have missed his point and have done incredible harm in his name. The call to be lights in the world isn't a militaristic call. It isn't a challenge to form a political party or movement for lobbying political parties. People who have gone that route have given unbelievers cause to indict all Christians as unkind, judgmental, and merciless. They see a strident and angry activism that makes them reject Jesus on account of the ugly behaviors of people who profess to represent him.
Light tends to be gentle, appealing, and positive in its presence. It clarifies the landscape and makes life possible. Even if it makes one flinch and shield her eyes at first, God's light typically doesn't come with the blast of a nuclear bomb.
Think about it. Do you think the world needs more caustic critics or helping hands? More dark judgments and predictions or persons who model the light and blessing of God's presence? His encouragement? His grace?
The story is that there was a shortage of hard currency in the British Empire during Oliver Cromwell's reign. Government agents searched for a supply of silver to meet the need. "We have searched in vain for silver that can be minted into coin," began the report. "To our dismay, we have found none - except in our country's cathedrals where the statues of the saints are made of choice silver."
"Then let's melt down the saints," Cromwell said, "and put them into circulation." In a world that needs light in its dark places, that's still a good idea.
Light for the Dark PlacesBy Dr Rubel Shelly People talk about being in "dark places" of discouragement, hopelessness, or impasse in their lives. It is not uncommon to read or hear the language of "dark places" for our children, our culture, or our world. In both ancient and modern literature, the metaphor of darkness for human error and its penalties is common.
The story is that there was a shortage of hard currency in the British Empire during Oliver Cromwell's reign. Government agents searched for a supply of silver to meet the need. "We have searched in vain for silver that can be minted into coin," began the report.
"To our dismay, we have found none - except in our country's cathedrals where the statues of the saints are made of choice silver." "Then let's melt down the saints," Cromwell said, "and put them into circulation." In a world that needs light in its dark places, that's still a good idea.
Rubel Shelly has preached for the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ in Nashville since 1978. During that time, he has also taught at David Lipscomb University and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is the author of more than 20 books, including several which have been translated into languages such as Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, French, and Russian. He is married to the former Myra Shappley, and they are the parents of three children: Mrs. David (Michelle) Arms, Tim, and Tom. To contact Rubel or to subscribe to his newsletter, Fax of Life, send email to faxOfLife@woodmont.org
Steve Popoola is the editor of Biblepraise Newsletter and the founder of the Biblepraise Fellowship Online. He lives in Kent, United Kingdom, where he works as an IT Professional. He serves currently as a Worship Leader in his local church and on occasion, speaks at invited events.
Fresh Start 2 weeks ago
The Sure Foundation 3 weeks ago
Whose Christmas Again? 1 month ago
Pleasing God 2 months ago
Our Advocate 2 months ago
© 2017 Biblepraise Fellowship Online | Data and Privacy Policy


Need a Garbage Collection Service in Ester, AK?
Garbage Collection Service are available* in Ester.
Your first step with organizing a neighborhood yard sale is to find your neighbors with each other and figure out the details. Invite everyone to some meeting to debate the idea and produce yourself offered to the unavoidable person who would like to join in however has basketball practice on the night of your meeting. When you find yourself all together, go over the strategies of it, work out how you'll publicize, and make a register sheet regarding families engaged. Discuss strategies to clearly draw participating houses so that non-participating houses won't are harassed marriage ceremony of the sale. Finally, established a date and initiate advertising the wedding while you uncover things to sell.
First off, dumpster renting are a effortless to find item and will generally be discovered in your local area in case you search online regarding trash services. Most rental firms have websites you could look at to discover what services are being supplied. While you could make inquiries over the phone, exploring the individual websites of firms you are interested in enables you to compare prices along with services whenever you want, without experiencing pressured to commit to nearly anything. For most of the rentals, you can use the internet to have a booking.
There are commonly 4 shapes of dumpsters to fit most anybody. You may rent one out of a 10, Something like 20, 30, or 40 garden size. Don't get one that will be too large or else it's a waste of income, and one not big enough will mean either a couple of journeys which costs additional, or renting yet another dumpster, which also is more epensive. When you check out a roll away from rental site they'll help you settle your differences, as well as trying to keep the territory around your property neat and tidy, along with safe.
Employing a dumpster saves persons a tremendous period of time. Garbage could be thrown straight into the bin, instead of piled up and taken to the remove. There is no fast trip to your dump. By reducing the need to generate there, persons save time. On this occasion can be used to build an income, rather than spend it.
There are a variety of strategies to properly eliminate waste materials, and because people are always going to be producing, distributing, along with consuming items there will always be the necessity for waste disposal and structure Garbage Collection Service in Ester, AK makes it fast easy and handy; you can get in touch with and buy one these days that will be shipped tomorrow.
You are able to really make your spring tidy up or garage area clean out uncomplicated by using a fast and simple roll away from Garbage Collection Service in Ester, AK. The single cost of renting a throw off package will often be below the put together cost of everything you would have to do in order to dispose of the cleanup objects through regular recycling methods. You can save your hair a lot of time and cash and get the work done by employing this quick and easy tidy up method.
Keep business setting clean and threat free with the usage of the construction Garbage Collection Service in Ester, AK. Your organization can look the best perhaps during structure and renovation during enterprise hours simply by consistently setting all got rid of items into your dumpster. Dumpsters are available for a clear and sleek transition through destruction along with demolition to some well stored environment. Ones construction process can be made less difficult with a dumpster. Varieties of sizes can be obtained; choose a dimension that will best suite the trash treatment needs. Keep business right up and going although under-going construction by keeping all rubbish and dust safely found in a dumpster.


Do I pay VAT on planning application fees?
VAT is not payable on fees for planning applications because they can only be issued by the government; however VAT is applied to the service charge for submitting planning applications online as this is a charge set by the Planning Portal.
In contrast, VAT is payable on fees for Building Regulations approval. This is because approval under the Building Regulations can be issued by either local government (LABC) or a commercial independent approved inspector.


The young man at the back of the ballroom in the Santa Monica, Calif., Loews hotel has a question he's been burning to ask, having held it for more than an hour as I delivered a presentation on why content marketing is invaluable for search.
When the time comes for Q&A, he nearly leaps out of his chair before announcing that he's asking a question for pretty much the entire room.
"How do I know what content I should create?" he asks. "I work at a small company. We have a team of content people, but we're typically told what to write without having any idea if it's what people want to read from us."
When asked what the results of their two blog posts per week was, his answer told a tale I hear I often: "No one reads it. We don't know if that's because of the message or because [it's the] wrong audience for the content we're sharing."
In fishing and hunting circles, there's a saying that rings true today, tomorrow, and everyday: "If you want to land trophy animals, you have to hunt in places where trophy animals reside."
Content marketing is not much different.
If you want to ensure that the right audience consumes the content you design, create and share, you have to "hunt" where they are. But to do so successfully, you must first know what they desire in the way of bait (content).
For those of us who've been involved in content marketing for a while now, this all sounds like fairly simplistic, 101-level stuff. But consider this: While we as marketers and technologists have access to sundry tools and platforms that help us discern all sorts of information, most small and mid-size business owners — and the folks who work at small and mid-size businesses — often lack the resources for most of the tools that could help flatten the learning curve for "What content should I create?"
If you spend any time fishing around online, you know very well that the problem isn't going away soon.
For small and mid-size business looking to tackle this challenge, I detail a few tips below that I frequently share during presentations and that seem to work well for clients and prospects alike.
First, let's get something straight: When it comes to creating content worth sharing and hopefully linking to, the goal is, now and forevermore, to deliver something the audience will love. Even if the topic is boring, your job is to deliver best-in-class content that's uniquely valuable.
Instead of guessing what content you should create for your audience (or would-be audience), take the time to find out where they hang out, both online and offline. Maybe it's Facebook groups, Twitter, forums, discussion groups, or Google Plus (Yes! Google Plus!).
Whether your brand provides HVAC services, computer repair, or custom email templates, there's a community of folks sharing information about it. And these folks, especially the ones in vibrant communities, can help you create amazing content.
As an example, the owner of a small automobile repair business might spend some time reading the most popular blogs in the category, while paying close attention to the information being shared, the top names sharing it, and common complaints, issues, or needs that commonly arise. The key here is to see who the major commenters, sharers, and influencers are, which can easily be gleaned after careful review of the blog comments over time.
From there, she could "follow" those influencers to popular forums and discussion boards, in addition to Facebook groups, Google Communities, and wherever else they congregate and converse.
Once you know where and who they are, start interacting with your audience. Maybe it's simply sharing their content on social media while including their "@" alias or answering a question in a group or forum. But over time, they'll come to know and recognize you and are likely to return the favor.
A word of warning is in order: Take off your sales-y hat. This is the time for sincere interaction and engagement, not hawking your wares.
Once you have a rapport with some of the members and/or influencers, don't be shy about asking if you can email them a quick question or two. If they open that door, keep it open with a short, simple note.
Respect their time — and the fact that you don't have enough currency for much of an ask — by keeping the message short and to the point, while leaving the door open to future communication.
We've all heard the saying: "People don't know what they want until they've seen it."
Whether or not you like the bromide, it certainly rings true in the business world.
Too often a product or service that's supposedly the perfect remedy for some such ailment falls flat, even after focus groups, usability testing, surveys, and customer interviews.
The key is to focus less on what they say and more on what they're attempting to accomplish.
This is where the Jobs To Be Done theory comes in very handy.
Based primarily on the research of Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is a framework for helping businesses view customers motivations. In a nutshell, it helps us understand what job (why) a customers hires (reads, buys, uses, etc.) our product or service.
"Customers rarely make buying decisions around what the 'average' customer in their category may do — but they often buy things because they find themselves with a problem they would like to solve. With an understanding of the 'job' for which customers find themselves 'hiring' a product or service, companies can more accurately develop and market products well-tailored to what customers are already trying to do."
One of the best illustrations of the JTBD theory at work is the old saw we hear often in marketing circles: Customers don't buy a quarter-inch drill bit; they buy a quarter-inch hole.
This is important because we must clearly understand what customers are hoping to accomplish before we create content.
For the auto repair company preparing to create a guide for an expensive repair, it would be helpful to learn what workarounds currently exist, who are the people experiencing the problem (i.e., DIYers, Average Joes, technicians, etc.), how much the repair typically costs, and, most important, what the fix allows them to do.
For example, by talking to some of the folks in discussion groups, the business owner might learn that the problem is most common for off-roaders who don't feel comfortable making the expensive repair themselves. Therefore, many of them simply curtail the frequent use of their vehicles off-road.
Armed with this information, she would see that the JTBD is not merely the repair itself, but the ability to get away from work and into the woods on the weekend with their vehicles.
A piece of content covering the elements above, that contains amazing graphics of folks kicking up dirt off-road with their vehicles, along with interviews of some of those folks as well, should be a winner.
Now that you've created a winning piece of content, it's time to reach back out the influencer(s) for their help in promoting the content.
First, though, ask if what you've created hits the threshold of incredibly useful and worth sharing. If you get a yes for both, you're in.
The next step is to find out who the additional influencers are who can help you promote and amplify the content.
After you click "View Sharers," you'll be taken to a page that list the folks who've re-shared the amplifier's content. You're specifically looking for folks who've not only shared their content but who (a) commonly share similar content, (b) have a sizable audience that would likely be interested in your content, and (c) might be amenable to sharing your content.
Don't abuse email. Maintain the relationships by offering to help them in return as/more often than you ask for help yourself.
Share content multiple times via social media. Change the title each time content is shared, and look to determine which platforms work best for a given message, content type, etc.
Use engagement, interaction, and relationship to inform you of future content pieces. Don't be afraid to ask, "What are some additional ideas you'd be excited to share and link to?"
The toughest part of content marketing is often understanding that neither success nor failure are final. Even the best content and content promotion efforts can be improved in some way.
What's more, even if your content enjoys otherworldly success, it says nothing about the success or failure of future efforts.
1.) Only create content that's in line with your brand's goals. There's lots of good ideas for creating solid content, but many of those ideas won't help your brand. Stick to creating content that in your brand's wheelhouse.
2.) This line of questioning should help you stay on track: "What content can I create that's (a) in line with my core business goals; (b) I'm uniquely qualified to offer; and (c) prospects and customers are hungry for?"
Review: Answer the questions "What went right?", "What can we do better?", and "What did we miss that should be covered in the future?"
Revise: You'll need to determine the metrics that matter for your brand before creating content, but whatever they are ensure they're easy to track, attainable, and, most important of all, have real meaning and value.
Repeat: Successful content marketing efforts occur primarily through repetition. You do something once, learn from it, then improve with the next effort. Remember, the No. 1 reason we have less and less competition each year is many aren't willing to pay the price of doing the little things over and over.
This post is, by no means, an exhaustive plan of what it takes to create effortful content. However, for the vast majority of brands struggling with where to start, it's exactly what the doctor ordered.
Is this an area your brand/brands you work with struggle in? If so, what are some tactics you employ?
Any tools you recommend for helping SMBs who likely cannot afford more than one tool?
I'd like for this post/page, including comments, to be a place where SMB owners can learn how to create content with clarity and purpose.
Es muy importanate introducir algo novedoso en tu negocio que solo tu poseas, algo que te diferencie del resto de los demás y gracias a ese detalle la gente accedera a los demas productos de tu tienda o negocio por el efecto domino.
Buen post y gracias por compartir.
Thank you for sharing these tips for small businesses. I work in one of them and sometimes the marketing professionals only speak for the big ones. I'm having a hard time getting people to participate in our blog. I came up with the idea of developing very visual schemes on Spanish law so that students benefit from our advice. This has brought the order of 100 daily visits to the returning blog to re-download these schemes. But then they do not share anything because of their shyness. The funny thing is that when they see me on the street, many students tell me that you have helped me to overcome this subject. Do you have any suggestions on this one? But they do not interact. And depresses a little. What I can do?
Thank you very much Alfrad for your advice, I will try it and get it going.
1. Your Way Forward: I have included a subheading by name "Your Way Forward". I was actually writing guides and tutorials. Even when i had described everything in a perfect way, user engagement was like saturated. And, i truly wanted to increase it. As the name is already telling about what it actually is, i added a very precise, step by step and perfectly arranged info about my tutorial and exactly what to do next. It don't leave the users blank, even if they were not able to pay attention while reading the compact guide. And the comments were like, "Well done i have completely understood everything now." And i got 1500+ additional social shares than my normal post.
Don't know if these will work for everyone, but working 1000% for me.
Looks like you're well on your way, Afraz. We're all testing theories daily.
Do you know some different parameters?
Very insightful post. Many a times I used to get confused where and how to target the audience. Even I started to implement these tactics. And it worked..!
Researching Topics: You can research for popular topics for a particular niche using Buzzsumo, Reddit, Quora and several other popular social media sites. In fact there is a whole blog post in Moz written by Paddy Moogan "How to Generate Content Ideas Using Buzzsumo (and APIs)". You can just enter your topic and you will get a complete list of trending posts which the targeted audience are currently interested in. To go even further you can also do keyword research around the popular topics that you have just shortlisted above.
Promoting the Posts: You can promote the post that you have just written in Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and other social media. You can also use paid promotion in Facebook after selecting the exact demographic to be targeted.
You are very correct. Those are ALL methods me, you and many people reading Moz dabble in daily. However, many of the people currently charged with content marketing at SMBs won't or don't have access to either the knowledge or the tools to make use of those processes.
I want this post to be something a junior person working in content can put to use right away.
Thank you for the great article. Something to follow to keep our audience interested and engaged. Keep up the good work!
Tried this BuzzSumo thing for years, only to find out that it might work in an English market.
It is totally worthless in non-English markets/keywords (I'm from Germany).
For the German market I think Reddit has a German section and you can use it to research popular topics in German. There may also be other social media websites with a German section. There is also another way research for English and then use the same words translated into German. You can further run the topics through a keyword research tool like Google keyword tool and find the approximate search volume.
The point is that the search volumes in the German market are extremely small in Niche areas and very often a search volume of 10 a month is extremely good. If if the search volume shows zero it may still be useful to have a blog post in German if the topic is extremely popular in the English market.
For you, Reddit, Quora and other social platforms would likely work better. The key is to use what you have access to. The key is often to start with the most popular blogs to find the influencers, even if you have to look through old posts to find some of the biggest influencers.
I've seen this work exceedingly well in verticals ranging from healthcare to fitness and nutrition. Once you find the influencers and the content they share, in addition to the places they frequent, you're in.
Great post. Learned valuable info on how to content market in a good way. Struggling with content marketing will be a thing of the past.
Often, I hear business owners say that they want to have a "professional" tone to their content. Do you think that means that you can't use humor or personality? Or do you think that consumers (we're a b2b company) would prefer a little personality in their content?
Great blog post and very interesting to read. I found myself pondering about this statement you made; "Remember, the No. 1 reason we have less and less competition each year is many aren't willing to pay the price of doing the little things over and over."
If anything - especially in e-commerce, the competition is steadily increasing every year and with the threshold being lower than ever to get into business online, more and more niche sites are popping up.
Going back to the theme of this blog post - "What content should I create?", I agree that it takes a lot of research and going back and forth to be able to pinpoint what interest your target group and what generates shares, likes and most importantly, traffic. I do have a question in this regard - is any of the content really valuable enough for the consumers? In the greater scheme, it is yet another form of bait to attract customers and to have them convert.
Everytime I see a "Top 10 reasons why you should buy X" or "Why you cannot live without X", i instantly think - well that's mainly if not solely to sell products. There's a sense of dishonesty in the mold of the content itself and that deters me from clicking (or at least convert on that site).
1. When writing for high-tech industries and tech-related brands, I often struggle with content creation. This is because it's difficult to manage simple language, jargons and keywords. While simplicity is necessary for SEO, jargons are important for the target market. To tackle this, I try to use at most 3 jargons per blog and try to keep the content as simple and solution-focused as possible. This technique has worked well for me.
2. For businesses struggling with content creation, I can't really recommend any software. But I can advise their content teams to read through several articles and webinars on SEO copywriting and blog ideas. Seomofo.com is pretty useful for generating title tags for optimization.
It's tough trying to be a subject matter expert on several different subjects, which is the main reason I prefer brands have SMEs on staff. It certainly helps if you read widely and stay abreast of the latest trends in the respective industries.
The work you're doing has great value.
Very nice and informative post about content marketing. I got to know couple of interesting facts about how to approach the content creation and marketing.
On a different note, I think you missed or incorrectly wrote the second R under "My philosophy of the three Rs:" as Review, which should be 'Revise'.
Thank you. Caught that before it was published, but somehow it must've not gotten saved in the CMS.
If I were to give one piece of advice regarding this subject, it would be to write content which provides answers to questions.
It's that simple. Seek out what people are asking, and then create content which gives them the answers.
With this strategy, it's a lot easier to a). find topics, b). provide content with value, and c). attract Google traffic.
Of course, content marketing can go a lot further than this, but for anyone struggling, the question/answer format is a good starting point which is difficult to get wrong.
That's a great place to start, especially for brands new to content marketing. Collecting these questions is as easy as rounding up information from sales and customer service staff, in addition to anyone else who fields questions regarding the brand, and dropping the info into a Google Doc that's shared with the entire team.
From there' though, you'll want to spent time discerning next questions, those your audience might not have but that your would-be audience might be asking elsewhere, online and offline.
How do I get the Moz blog in my email? I get Rand's but can't find an opt-in for this one. Thanks.
It was very interesting.I like your writing style is so natural and tell me lot of important points those gives me good solutions.
Indeed make a good article contains it is not easy, just what I think every day is there a way to find good ideas in making kontet so that readers like to linger and often visit our site ?? but from the article that was written Mr. Ronell Smith, more or less able to help me in creating content.
Thanks for reading the post. Growing your organic reach is a marathon, as they say, not a sprint. Therefore, start by reviewing Moz's Beginner's Guide to SEO, and continue reading blogs in this space.
There is no doubts that content is the powerful in SEO. It's really a challenging work to create quality and unique content.


As the reach and applications of operations research and supply chain roles continue to increase, the search for talent remains a challenge for many firms. With OR and optimization professionals in higher demand, staffing a team with a slew of experts-of-all-trades (those with strong coding, modeling, technology, and business backgrounds) can be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
In my conversations with hiring managers across several industries, the solution for many seems to be focusing on building an effective team that can function together to fill all of these functions, rather than trying to execute a time-consuming and costly search for "unicorns". Let's take a look at what some of those team members might look like!
First on the list should be traditional OR experts – those with strong optimization and simulation skills that can be used for predictive analytics and machine learning approaches. These professionals may also help out with putting models into production and scaling them up to serve entire networks, and will often prepare models for the coders who can then strengthen the code and make them fault resistant.
Next in line are coders with some operational knowledge, who can work to strengthen provided models. Hiring managers should look for those who have a strong computer science background, as well as some knowledge of how optimization systems function, even if they don't have direct experience in this area or enough experience to be a modeler.
Although you may be able to find traditional OR professionals or coders who have some experience with visualization software, it's more likely that these experts will come from a business intelligence background. Visualization professionals can help translate findings into dashboards for easier digestion by either the executive or management team, and this will help make findings actionable.
Between the members of the OR team and the members of the business team, you may also find it helpful to hire someone who straddles a bit of both. They know enough of the operations research side to be dangerous, but they also have a strong understanding of the business implications of their work, which makes them better able to translate insights into actions and strategy for the business. These roles tend to be more senior, and may also be involved in translating business problems into an analytics model that the team can then refine and work to answer.
Since building members of a team like this requires looking for several different types of backgrounds, and not just strictly OR, what questions should hiring managers and recruiters be asking in order to properly evaluate talent for this team structure?
Although every team will be looking for slightly different components when building out a team like this, there are several questions that employers might consider when evaluating potential talent.
How important is industry knowledge in your search? Considering professionals from other verticals will help widen your potential talent pool to draw from.
Which technical skills are most important to prioritize, and which can be trained on the job?
Beyond technical skills, what are other important skills that team members will need to thrive?
How are you approaching the search? Which avenues have been most helpful in the past, and are there any other approaches you could be trying?
What are your goals for the team over the next 1-5 years? Are your current recruiting and retention plans working in support of those goals?
I hope you found this information on building an operations research team to be helpful! If you're an analytics or OR leader, check out this other post by executive leadership coach Tim Ressmeyer on how you can better evaluate team performance and set goals.
Are there other team members or hiring questions that have helped your team recruit successfully in OR? Let me know in the comments!
I hope you found this information interesting, and if you're looking for opportunities or to hire professionals in operations research, supply chain, data science, or IoT be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn!
I agree with the skill sets to look for.
The Ops Research team I became part of, started with an expert in Ops Research & Visualization using SAS JMP.
1 An IT Project manager/Senior BA with strong (real-time data), development, IT implementation and project management skills, coupled with a masters in Engineering management & knowledge of Tableau.
He built an agile team of 4 people and was able to teach the team his Ops research knowledge. Within less than a year he was able to train them to create models and use simulation tools.
This became the Ops Research team for Ops Innovation. Everyone in the team had direct access to the C-suite and senior leadership team and were able to directly influence strategy.


Think Art Now - 72 Sequential, Fun, Creative Art Lessons based on elements and principles of art. Focus on Drawing, Painting, and Collage.
The lessons conform to the California Visual Art Standards.
Patricia Kodet is available for teacher inservice days.
Follow Pat's board Think Art NOW on Pinterest.


White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel will have a campaign team ready when, as expected, he announces Friday he's leaving Washington to run for mayor of Chicago. Unless Emanuel changes his mind at the last minute, which associates say is highly unlikely, he will return to Chicago as early as Sunday to begin to collect signatures necessary to put his name on the ballot next Monday.
A campaign manager has been hired, aides have a plan to get Emanuel on the ballot, and Emanuel has secured private commitments from several Chicago-based political consultants. Several people said they have been contacted by people representing Emanuel but have been asked not to disclose the contacts. Candidates need 12,500 signatures to qualify for the ballot, but in practice, they'll find twice as many.
Emanuel's interim replacement is expected to be Peter Rouse, a senior adviser to the president. But White House officials insisted that no final decision had been made, which is a way of saying that, though a final decision has been made, it could become something less final if something happens during the next 24 hours to change minds. Others, like deputy national security adviser Tom Donilon and White House counsel Robert Bauer, have made it clear that they don't want it. Vice President Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, has also been mentioned as a possible temporary replacement. A request from the President might change their minds, especially if the tenure of the appointment is short. Many White House staffers are rooting for Rouse, who is well-liked and well-respected by almost everyone who works for the President.
Democrats said to expect a mid-morning announcement from the president Friday, where he will say good bye to the departing chief of staff and announce the promotion of his new chief of staff. Word of Emanuel's final decision is likely to be given to reporters tomorrow, along with the identity of his replacement.
Emanuel will not cruise to victory. Several prominent names, including Cook Co. Sheriff Tom Dart and Rev. James Meeks, also want to run. Dart is probably Emanuel's biggest threat.
Chicago politicos are unsure if anyone has what it takes to beat Emanuel, a campaigner of mythical status, but to a person, most believe he is vulnerable. He may even face challenges based on his actions as chief of staff, including the failure to pass immigration reform and his well-known revulsion for organized progressives.


President Trump again attacked MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough on Saturday morning, dragging out a feud that has been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats. The President is spending the Fourth of July weekend at his golf club in Bedminister, New Jersey, and he began a series of tweets by congratulating Canada on its 150th birthday. But he quickly returned to his familiar hobby of trashing the media.
Trump's tiff with the two hosts, who have often been critical of him on their show, Morning Joe, started earlier this week when the President tweeted several crude comments. He called Brzezinski "low IQ Crazy Mika" and said she'd been "bleeding badly from a face-lift" at a meeting in Mar-a-Lago, the President's Florida resort. Both hosts have denied the meeting ever took place.
After the President's tweets, the two hosts wrote an op-ed published in The Washington Post Friday that accused Trump of pressuring them into apologizing to him in exchange for axing a negative story set to run in the National Enquirer tabloid. The Enquirer is controlled by Trump's good friend and supporter David Pecker, and the story was about Brzezinski and Scarborough's then-secret relationship. The two have since announced they are engaged to be married, and in their column they accused Trump of blackmail. They said Enquirer reporters had called and harassed their families, and that top White House staffers demanded they apologize for critical coverage of Trump. On Friday, New York magazine's Gabriel Sherman cited three anonymous sources saying Jared Kushner, husband to Trump's daughter Ivanka and a senior adviser, told Scarborough this spring that he would need to personally apologize to Trump.
"The Donald Trump we knew before the campaign was a flawed character but one who still seemed capable of keeping his worst instincts in check," the two hosts wrote in their op-ed.


text:
Tag Archives: uaw
How electric vehicles have helped labor and climate groups team up
Originally published in The Guardian on December 23, 2021.
As the Biden administration attempts to increase incentives for the production of electric vehicles, labor unions and climate groups have teamed up to push for better wages and working conditions for autoworkers – and leave the door open for the nascent EV industry to unionize.
Last month, leaders from some of the largest environmental groups in the country sent a letter to top executives at Toyota, lambasting the automaker for appearing to support the electric vehicle revolution all while lobbying against a proposed tax credit for union-made electric cars.
The tax credit would give $4,500 to consumers who buy electric from unionized US plants – currently just Ford, General Motors and Stellantis NV would qualify – and has been hotly opposed by companies like Tesla, Honda, Hyundai and Nissan. But Toyota went a step further and began funding ads in papers like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and trade press claiming the federal bonus would hurt non-union autoworkers. (All electric vehicles, union or not, would remain eligible for an existing $7,500 tax credit.)
Representatives from 12 groups – including the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters and Evergreen Action – blasted Toyota for "greenwash[ing] its image" and called its lobbying "extensive and unacceptable". The organizations rejected Toyota's claim that incentivizing electric vehicles with union labor would hurt the nation's climate targets, and said its "manipulation of the political system and undermining action on climate is not limited to the United States".
This came on the heels of another letter from prominent climate groups, urging electric vehicle start-up Rivian to respect workers' wishes should they decide to unionize, and permit what's known as a card check process. Rivan, which went public last month in the biggest US IPO since Facebook, is poised to ramp up vehicle production in the next year.
Ten climate groups, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace USA, Sunrise Movement and 350.org, signed on to the letter – and said therein that they had reached out to Rivian privately in August. After two months with no response, the groups decided to take their demand for labor peace public. The president of the United Auto Workers announced in the spring that his union was planning to organize EV workers.
As lawmakers in Congress continue to hash out a wide-ranging social spending bill, labor unions, climate groups and prominent liberal thinktanks have joined forces to make the case that reducing emissions while creating unionized manufacturing jobs in the US is not only possible – but better for consumers and manufacturers alike.
This isn't the first time that labor and climate groups have found common ground – but it represents a revitalized alliance that could help strengthen both the fight for reducing emissions and for bolstering worker rights.
Transportation is the largest source of pollution in the country, and the growth of non-union auto work has been accompanied by a nearly 20 percent decline in wages in the auto industry since 1990. "The fight for environmental and economic justice –the right for every American worker to not just survive but to thrive – are inextricably linked," wrote UAW president Ray Curry and Center for American Progress founder John Podesta in a joint-op-ed this summer.
Rivian is not the only vehicle manufacturer that green groups have been targeting, according to Katherine García, who leads the Transportation for All campaign at the Sierra Club. "Behind the scenes there are other vehicle manufacturers we're working with on labor peace," she told the Guardian, adding that they've been holding one-on-one meetings to make their case.
While environment and labor groups have not always seen eye-to-eye, the two have a history of shared interests. Josiah Rector, an urban historian at the University of Houston who has studied the 20th century environmental movement, noted that the UAW has previously fought against toxic chemicals and pollution in auto plants.
But in the 1970s, says Rector, automakers viewed the fight for cleaner air and other environmental standards as yet another threat to their bottom line, at a time when they were already hurting from two major oil crises, intensifying deindustrialization, and the closing of manufacturing plants. Automakers began to play "environmental blackmail" against their workers, insisting that any further regulation from the government would force companies to cut even more jobs. "UAW, under threat of job blackmail, helped the companies lobby for a weaker Clean Air Act, which really strained tensions with the environmental movement," said Rector.
Erik Loomis, a labor historian at the University of Rhode Island, also noted that the decline in industrial unions has especially hurt the unions that were more progressive to begin with – widening the gap between climate progressives and labor. "That left you with the longtime more conservative unions, and as environmentalism has become more of a rich person's movement it also became disconnected from working-class culture," Loomis said.
"I think the reality is climate groups have now realized that's politically untenable and they need to build working-class coalitions if they want to get climate change legislation passed," he adds. In other words, Loomis said, whether the modern-day solidarity is an alliance of deeply shared values or of convenience, the fact is that "neither are particularly strong enough on their own to get laws passed."
Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor unions and national environmental groups, attributes the work they've been doing recently to many years of relationship building, but credits the Build Back Better Act for catalyzing their efforts in 2021.
"That has focused everyone's attention, and there's an understanding that we need to reverse this trend of offshoring and de-unionization that's hollowed out communities across the country," he said.
The White House has set an ambitious goal of making half of all new car sales electric by 2030. Even with the united front from labor and climate groups, and the strong backing of a unionized EV sector from Joe Biden, it's not clear the union-made tax credit will make it through the Senate. West Virginia senator Joe Manchin has voiced opposition to the subsidy, saying that taxpayer dollars shouldn't be used as an incentive for consumers. Republican governors with non-union auto facilities have also urged Congress to reject the tax credit, and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, called Biden a "UAW … puppet" on Twitter. (Brian Rothenberg, a spokesperson for UAW, declined an interview, saying their focus is on passing the Build Back Better Act.)
For now labor and climate groups are scrambling to get the bill over the finish line, and make the case that in order to compete effectively in the global electric vehicle revolution, the US needs to invest more in the workers who make the cars on American soil.
Sam Ricketts, co-director of Evergreen Action, said while there have been signs of solidarity between unions and environmental organizations in recent years, the steps being taken in the electric vehicle debates, like climate groups pressuring companies directly and publicly, represent something new and more concerted. "This is new work happening in civil society, with groups recognizing that organizing can happen in the commercial sphere, not just the halls of Congress," he said. "It's leading-edge in that way."
Rector, the University of Houston historian, said that if climate and labor groups want to surmount the problems that have plagued their solidarity efforts in the past, they'll need a plan to defeat arguments that climate goals are zero-sum for union workers. "To solve the environmental blackmail problem, you need to have strong policies that undercut the argument coming from corporations and today from politicians like Joe Manchin," he said. "And to do that, you need a strong coalition to push those policies through."
Tagged climate, climate crisis, electric vehicles, EVs, labor, rivian, uaw, unions
Ending GM's Two-Tiered Labor System is UAW Members' Top Demand — And Part of a Bigger Fight Against Worker Classification
Originally published in The Intercept on September 26, 2019.
Since last week, nearly 50,000 GM workers have been on strike, in part against a two-tiered system enforced by the auto giant that leaves "temporary" workers doing the same jobs as permanent staff for substantially less pay and fewer benefits.
The striking workers, represented by the United Automobile Workers union, or UAW, are demanding a defined path to "permanent seniority" for GM's temporary workers — who make up about 7 percent of GM's U.S. workforce. GM has also entrenched inequality in its ranks by contracting out some jobs, like custodial work, that were traditionally staff roles.
"I work right across from a temporary employee who's been there for two and a half years," Chaz Akers, a Michigan-based autoworker who has worked at GM for 3 1/2 years told Reuters. "I install the passenger side headlight. He installs the driver side headlight. I make more money than he does. I have better health insurance than he does. It ain't fair. It ain't right. If you're going to pay people to do a job, pay them all the same."
The workers' demands are part of a broader push against worker misclassification, a tactic used by employers to lessen their labor costs. The fight has been playing out most aggressively in California, where Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping bill last week to transform the lives of workers in his state. The law — known as AB5 — sets strict limits on who can be classified as an independent contractor, rather than an employee, and is the most serious legislative threat to the gig economy in years. The law also provides new momentum for advocates considering similar reforms in other states.
Coming to an agreement on temporary workers has become the most difficult issue in the GM-UAW negotiations, according to the Detroit Free Press. Both sides are reportedly holding strong to their positions. The Free Press also reported that resolving questions around temp workers was union members' top request when UAW leadership surveyed them last year.
Protests of temporary workers by the UAW is "not a brand-new development" said Jake Rosenfeld, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis and author of "What Unions No Longer Do." "But it does seem really foregrounded now in the union's complaints, and that seems new. These classification disputes, from my perspective, seem to be growing and tracks on to the same battles over classification in California with Uber and Lyft."
GM, like Uber and Lyft, is pushing back against the workers' demands by claiming that such "flexible" workers are necessary for its business model. Right now, GM is trying to convince permanent, full-time workers to accept raises and more job security in exchange for freedoms around temps.
For example, GM has reportedly proposed a boost to the company's profit-sharing formula, financial gains that would only go to permanent, full-time employees. GM workers typically earn about $1,000 for every billion in GM's North American pretax profits. In 2018, eligible employees earned payments up to $10,750.
Temporary workers, who often do the same work as traditional employees, are paid less, entitled to fewer benefits, and are easier to get rid of. "That's a trend that we're seeing all over the economy as companies try to shed conventional, full-time employees in favor of independent contractors, subcontracted workers, or franchised employees," said Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, a political scientist at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. "The difference with the auto manufacturers is that their temporary workers are covered by the UAW and its contracts, unlike in most other sectors of the economy."
In 2007, under pressure from the financial crisis, UAW leaders agreed to a two-tiered contract, in which new GM hires would be paid at lower rates than workers hired before. To get out of this arrangement, widely deemed unfair, the union negotiated a new contract in 2015, in which new hires would still have lower starting salaries, at $15 an hour, but could "grow into" the full UAW hourly wage of roughly $30 an hour after eight years. Union leaders — citing GM's clear improved financial position with billions of dollars in profit — now want to shorten that process, under the basic principle of equal pay for equal work. GM and the UAW did not return requests for comment.
GM's current arrangement with temporary workers is one of several ways that employers have managed to fissure their workplaces over the last few decades, said Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California Santa Barbara. Another example is by spinning off portions of their companies, like in the 1990s, when GM spun off its parts factory, Delphi. "What that meant was all of a sudden, Delphi was competing with lots of other non-union companies and went bankrupt [in 2005] and so then, of course, in the bankruptcy proceedings, you manage to transition to lower wages," Lichtenstein said. Another way is by contracting out custodial staff who used to be company employees.
"In the auto industry, janitors used to be employed by the auto companies and got the same wages as autoworkers," he said. "In fact, autoworkers would often become janitors as they got older because it was easier labor and still good pay," said Lichtenstein. "Eventually, all the companies said, 'OK, janitorial work is not part of our core business — we'll just outsource it.'"
In general, there has been an upward trend in companies like GM moving toward temporary workers. In 1990, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 42 percent of all temp workers in the U.S. were in clerical positions, compared with 28 percent of temp workers in the manufacturing and industrial sectors. But by 2000, just a decade later, 47 percent of all U.S. temp workers would be working in the manufacturing and industrial sectors.
The UAW, for its part, has a record dating back to the early 1980s of negotiating concessions around labor costs if economic conditions sour, with the understanding that if the company's fortunes improve, those concessions would be phased back out, Lichtenstein said.
GM, Ford, and Chrysler all say that they may need to increase their use of temporary workers in the future, pointing to the fact that they're competing with non-union foreign manufacturers that have more temporary workers and lower labor costs. In June, the Los Angeles Times reported that workers at rival auto plants run by Toyota, Nissan, and Honda make $50 an hour in wages and benefits, while GM workers cost $63 an hour. Temporary workers make up about 20 percent of the Japanese automakers' plants.
A former GM temp worker, now in a skilled trades apprentice program, told Michigan's public radio station last week that being a temp was one of the worst times of her life. "They have a way of pitting you against a permanent employee where you feel like, if you go the extra mile, if you work a little bit more than your union brother or sister, that will give you an opportunity to eventually get hired in full time and that's not the case," she told the radio station.
Lichtenstein believes it's clear that these two-tiered systems are weakening labor organizations. "And it's not just a humanism or good-feeling thing," he said. "It's also a recognition that this is going to divide and then destroy the union."
Tagged gm strike, labor, temporary workers, two-tiered, uaw, Union, United Automobile Workers, worker misclassification
The Biggest Strike in America Is About How Much Bosses Can Gut Your Healthcare
Originally published in VICE on September 18, 2019.
When about 48,000 workers went on strike Monday against General Motors, they launched the largest American labor stoppage against any business since the financial crisis. The striking union—the United Auto Workers—is confronting vicious headwinds in the form of always-cheaper foreign labor, reduced car sales, and pressure to invest in electric and self-driving vehicles at a time of impending climate catastrophe.
On top of all that, workers formed picket lines because GM is trying to effectively cut their hard-fought healthcare benefits. According to the Center for Automotive Research, a Michigan-based think tank that receives some funding from auto companies, the average UAW worker pays about 3 percent of their health care tab, compared to 28 percent paid by the average American worker. Crain's Detroit Business reported on Monday that GM's initial contract offer asked workers to start paying 15 percent of their healthcare costs.
While such a move by an employer may seem fairly ordinary by contemporary standards, it wasn't that long ago that Americans would have viewed this request as a huge scandal. In fact, experts said, that a once-mighty labor union is fighting tooth and nail to save generous health plans speaks to the economic precarity most Americans have grown to numbly accept.
"Having to pay large amounts of your health-care, that is still a fairly recent phenomenon," said Erik Loomis, a labor historian at the University of Rhode Island and author of A History of America in Ten Strikes.
Loomis pointed to a 1983 labor stoppage where thousands of copper miners and mill workers went on strike for almost three years against the Arizona-based Phelps Dodge Corporation. "One of the key issues of that strike was that workers were so outraged by the request that they pay part of their health care," he explained. "It was unprecedented, and yet today it's become so normalized. Everyone complains about it, but employers just slowly force more and more of their costs onto their workers."
Rather than ask why UAW workers pay so little in healthcare costs relative to others, Loomis said, the conversation should be framed around "workers defending what they have, and not letting companies cede more and more of their responsibility."
Employer-based health insurance was actually something of a historical accident in the United States, led partly by labor unions that were barred from negotiating over wages during World War II. That led unions to begin focusing on other types of permissible fringe benefits, including employer-sponsored insurance. Many non-union companies followed suit, facing pressure to compete with unionized firms. Subsequent changes to the federal tax code made offering health insurance even more attractive for employers, so much so that 70 percent of the population was covered by private health insurance in the 1960s, up from nine percent in 1940.
Today, of course, when "job hopping" is common and the so-called gig economy means many workers are not full-time employees, it's become painfully evident that tying health insurance to work is less than ideal.
Shaun Richman, who directs a labor studies center at SUNY Empire State College, said there is a strong case for "getting the boss out of the doctor's office" altogether. Employer-based health insurance, he argued, "is plainly outmoded and is absolutely killing unions." His thinking is partly strategic: Every time a union starts a round of contract negotiations, they almost invariably begin by fighting back against proposed healthcare cuts. "There's simply no round of bargaining that employers won't put healthcare on the table, and it's been devastating," Richman said.
Indeed, the fight over healthcare benefits is central to understanding the last few decades of labor disputes in the United States.
"The major issue we saw during labor walkouts in the 1990s and 2000s had to do with the restructuring of healthcare plans," said Jake Rosenfeld, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis and author of What Unions No Longer Do. "Wages were really the secondary concern."
Whether the auto workers can make their fight for affordable healthcare resonate with the broader public may be key to the UAW sustaining support for the strike in general. Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, a political scientist at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, said auto workers might struggle to engender the same level of enthusiasm that striking teachers have across the country beginning last year. In fact, they might not even reach the same level of support as workers at other recent service-sector strikes like those at Stop & Shop grocery stores and Marriott hotels.
"My research and the work of others suggests that it may be easier for workers to build solidarity with their broader communities when they have daily interactions and are in the same social networks as the public," Hertel-Fernandez said.
Still, as Rosenfeld pointed out, one thing working in the UAW's favor is the clear profit margins enjoyed recently by U.S. auto companies. "GM is highly profitable now, and was bleeding money during the last 2007 walkout," he said.
While the last UAW strike in 2007 ended after just two days, at least one union leader suggested Monday this labor stoppage could go on for much longer. On Tuesday, the White House reportedly began trying to broker a deal to end the strike, but GM also announced that it would be cutting off its share of strikers' health benefits, shifting the burden to unions and telling workers they could apply for COBRA. On top of this financial blow, the average full-time UAW will be paid just $250-per-week while the strike stretches on—assuming the union's strike fund holds up.
"They're in a war for their lives, and the company is basically putting a gun to the unions' head," said Richman. "They're saying we'll reopen one of these factories if you agree to all these other concessions. I don't think the UAW has much choice but to stand and fight, but this is not public education—schools can't be shipped overseas. These jobs very much can be shipped overseas and have been. That threat is very real."
Tagged GM, labor, strikes, uaw, unions


Google pretty much has its bases covered. Looking for an image? There's Google Images. Looking for a video? Video results appear in search. As do products.
But one thing has been noticeably absent: music. Which is not an insignificant fact given that two of the top 10 search queries in the United States are music-related. But Google being Google, it has a plan for music.


Apple announced a number of changes that could undermine the ad models of platforms such as Facebook and Google, with the tech giant making a big deal about user privacy at it's WWDC conference.
Apple hosted it's WWDC Developer Conference, and announced a number of developments that take direct aim at the likes of Facebook and Google.
The biggest of these developments was the announcement that the new version of iOS and MacOS would not allow the likes of Facebook or Google to track the browsing habits of Apple users across other parts of the web – effectively meaning that they couldn't use those browsing habits to inform future advertising.
Hello, I'm Scarlett and on this edition of Digital Minute, we're exploring how the announcements at Apple's developer conference could hit Google's and Facebook's ad platforms.
A couple of weeks ago we looked at Google's developer conference, and last week it was the turn of Apple to unveil just some of the features that they will be introducing – and company took a very un-subtle swipe at Facebook in the process.
Apple announced that it would be introducing features that would limit the ability of social media platforms to monitor the web use and location, making it more difficult for the likes of Facebook or Google to track browsing habits away from their own properties.
The feature, code-named IPT2, is a development on the initiative introduced last year that saw the ad-tech platform Criteo lose 22 per cent of its revenue, so this could prove to be a major threat to the ad models of Google and Facebook.
Apple didn't mention Facebook specifically in the announcement, but did demonstrate the technology using examples from Facebook and Instagram – an obvious nod to who this technology is aimed at. You can read more about that over on our blog.
Thanks for watching, I'm Scarlett Whittell, and that was your Digital Minute.


Küchen Schaffrath Heinsberg. Here you are at our website. Nowadays were excited to announce we have discovered a very interesting niche to be discussed, that is Küchen Schaffrath Heinsberg. Many people trying to find information about Küchen Schaffrath Heinsberg and certainly one of these is you, is not it?
There are numerous reasons why you are looking for information about Küchen Schaffrath Heinsberg, but certainly, you are looking for different ideas for your needs. We discovered this on-line sources and we feel this is one of the wonderful material for reference. And you know, initially when I first found it, we liked it, we hope youre too. We know, we may own different opinions, but, what we do just wish to assist you in finding more suggestions concerning Küchen Schaffrath Heinsberg.


text:
DLE steht als Abkürzung für:
 Data Link Escape, ein ASCII-Steuerzeichen, siehe Steuerzeichen#C0-Steuerzeichen
 Diehl Luftfahrt Elektronik, siehe Diehl Aerospace
 Diskoider Lupus erythematodes in der Humanmedizin, eine Form der Autoimmunkrankheit Lupus erythematodes beim Menschen.
 Diskoider Lupus erythematodes (Tiermedizin), eine Autoimmunkrankheit bei Hunden und Katzen
 Durchlauferhitzer
 Powiat Legnicki in der Woiwodschaft Niederschlesien, Polen (Kfz-Kennzeichen)

Siehe auch:
 Anh. DLE

Abkürzung

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia