TAMPA, Florida, July 25, 2013 — If you've chosen a high hurricane deductible, you are saving money every year on homeowners insurance. That may be a good strategy when tropical storms remain far from Florida, but it could prove otherwise when a hurricane actually strikes. As the height of hurricane season approaches, the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I) and Florida Insurance Council (FIC) suggest that Floridians review their hurricane deductibles to make sure they understand what that decision will cost them and have a plan to pay for it.
"Because Floridians have had a seven-year reprieve from paying hurricane deductibles, it may be time for some homeowners to revisit decisions they made about covering these deductible costs," said Lynne McChristian, Florida representative for the I.I.I.
Florida homeowners insurance policies have two deductibles—one for damage from hurricanes and another for damage related to other perils covered under the policy, including non-hurricane windstorms. Deductibles are the amount of a loss paid by a policyholder, and a high deductible always makes annual premiums lower. Paying less for insurance—even a few dollars a year less—seems right when the weather is calm. But high deductibles mean a policyholder takes on the extra risk, and that is not something many people consider. Policyholders should make sure their deductible decisions are affordable.
In Florida, homes with insured values of less than $100,000 have either a flat dollar amount hurricane deductible, starting at $500, or a percentage deductible that the homeowner chooses; homes insured for $100,000 or more typically have percentage hurricane deductibles that start at 2 percent; homeowners also may choose higher hurricane deductibles such as 5 percent or 10 percent. Remember, these percentages are based on the insured value of the entire home, NOT the loss amount. Insured value, in turn, is based on the costs of rebuilding your home after a disaster. It is different from the estimated real estate market value of your home.
Following the devastation caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the Florida Legislature introduced the concept of a separate hurricane deductible; by 1998, all property insurers were required to offer them. Hurricane deductibles have helped to make more private insurance available in coastal areas at a lower price. Additionally, people who select a high deductible have an incentive to mitigate hurricane damage by protecting property from high winds, so their chances of severe damage are diminished.
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have two different types of deductibles: one for hurricanes or wind damage and one for everything else. An "all other perils" deductible is typically a flat dollar amount of $500, $1,000 or $2,000, and it covers damage from calamities such as fire, lightning or if a pipe bursts inside your home. The separate deductible for hurricanes is a percentage of the insured value of a home.
Homeowners get a premium credit for taking on the extra risk associated with a hurricane deductible and, ideally, some of the credit could be saved up to pay the hurricane deductible. Understandably, this is not something everyone can afford to do—and those are the individuals most at risk if they choose a hurricane deductible that is higher than they can in reality pay.
A policyholder who has chosen a 10 percent hurricane deductible pays less for property insurance than someone who chose a 2 percent deductible—but paying less for insurance now means paying five times more in out-of-pocket costs if a hurricane strikes the property.
Consider a home insured for $250,000 with a 2 percent hurricane deductible. If a hurricane strikes, the 2 percent hurricane deductible means an out-of-pocket cost of $5,000. As the illustration below demonstrates, the savings with a 2 percent deductible have added up over the past seven hurricane-free years in Florida, but the impact of the savings is greater in areas where the annual premium is highest. It would require decades without hurricanes for the premium savings from a 10 percent hurricane deductible to reach economic balance for a homeowner.
Policyholders are alerted to the hurricane deductible in multiple places within the insurance contract.
 In Florida, there is a message in 18-point boldface type at the front of the policy as prescribed by law.
 The exact dollar amount of the hurricane deductible is itemized on the policy declaration page.
 A one-page insert in the policy packet outlines deductible options and the weather conditions necessary before they apply.
Because most insurers allow deductible options to be revised only before a policy is renewed, a change you make today may not take immediate effect. The I.I.I. suggests policyholders contact their insurance professional for an annual review of insurance coverage and deductible options to make sure the decisions made continue to be the best ones for their personal financial situations.


To change group access for current members: from your Dashboard, select Members and then search for the member you'd like to modify.
Select the member's name and scroll down to the Memberships section at the bottom of the page. Start typing the group name you'd like to add the member to and select it from the dropdown. Click Share Access.
From the new window that pops up, type in the group name again and select if from the dropdown menu, then click Add.
The new group will now be added to the member's profile. If you wish to remove the member from the previous group, simply click the little trash can icon next to the group you wish to remove.


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some species are much more variable than others. Even if the fitting variations did arise, it does not follow that natural selection would be able to act on them and produce a structure which apparently would be beneficial to the species. For instance, if the number of individuals existing in a country is determined chiefly through destruction by beasts of prey,— by external or internal parasites, &c.,— as seems often to be the case, then natural selection will be able to do little, or will be greatly retarded, in modifying any particular structure for obtaining food. Lastly, natural selection is a slow process, and the same favourable conditions must long endure in order that any marked effect should thus be produced. Except by assigning such general and vague reasons, we cannot explain why, in many quarters of the world, hoofed quadrupeds have not acquired much elongated necks or other means for browsing on the higher branches of trees.
Objections of the same nature as the foregoing have been advanced by many writers. In each case various causes, besides the general ones just indicated, have probably interfered with the acquisition through natural selection of structures, which it is thought would be beneficial to certain species. One writer asks, why has not the ostrich acquired the power of flight? But a moment's reflection will show what an enormous supply of food would be necessary to give to this bird of the desert force to move its huge body through the air. Oceanic islands are inhabited by bats and seals, but by no terrestrial mammals; yet as some of these bats are peculiar species, they must have long inhabited their present homes. Therefore Sir C. Lyell asks, and assigns certain reasons in answer, why have not seals and bats given birth on such islands to forms fitted to live on the land? But seals would necessarily be first converted into terrestrial carnivorous animals of considerable size, and bats into terrestrial insectivorous animals; for the former there would be no prey; for the bats ground-insects would serve as food, but these would already be largely preyed on by the reptiles or birds, which first colonise and abound on most oceanic islands. Gradations of structure, with each stage beneficial to a changing species, will be favoured only under certain peculiar conditions. A strictly terrestrial animal, by occasionally hunting for food in shallow water, then in streams or lakes, might at last be converted into an animal so thoroughly aquatic as to brave the open ocean. But seals would not find on oceanic islands the conditions favourable to their gradual reconversion into a terrestrial form. Bats, as formerly shown, probably acquired their wings by at first gliding through the air from tree to tree, like the so-called flying squirrels,

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home Blog Well being Thanksgiving - Let's Join In
Thanksgiving - Let's Join In
Thursday, 27 November 2014 13:14	Written by Sharon
I've always been a bit scornful of American's celebrating Thanksgiving. It feels stereotypically American – over the top, effusive, a bit sickly sweet (no offence meant!) – but lately I've been wondering if perhaps us Brits should adopt it too? Obviously not by giving thanks for the same things as our US cousins, but being thankful and showing gratitude for all that we have.
Thanksgiving is of course gratitude by another name and as we've said before, feeling positive is just one of the benefits of being grateful or thankful. A growing body of scientific research is highlighting its social, physical and psychological benefits. Among other things, it increases happiness, improves sleep, strengthens relationships and reduces anxiety and depression. And it's been shown to boost the immune system, lower blood pressure, improve recovery from illness and even encourage people to exercise more.
This Thanksgiving, people all over America will reflect on what they're thankful for. But gratitude shouldn't be reserved for one day a year, or for just one nation. It's something we should be mindful of every single day, says Louisa Jewell, an expert on positive psychology, which is the scientific study of psychological well-being.
"If you can make (gratitude) a daily practice it's transformative," says Jewell, president of the Canadian Positive Psychology Association, which aims to improve the psychological health of Canadians by sharing research and ways to apply it.
Her comments are echoed by Robert Emmons, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, who is the world's leading scientific expert on gratitude.
"Gratitude works. It heals, energises, and transforms lives," he says. "When life is going well, it allows us to celebrate and magnify the goodness. When life is going badly, it provides a perspective by which we can view life in its entirety.
"People who live under an 'aura of pervasive thankfulness' reap the rewards of grateful living. Conversely, those who fail to feel gratitude cheat themselves out of their experience of life," says Emmons, author of Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier.
In one study, by Emmons and University of Miami psychologist Mike McCullough, participants were randomly-assigned to three groups and asked to keep a weekly journal. One group wrote about five things they were grateful for, another about five daily hassles, and the third group wrote about five events that affected them. In addition, everyone kept a daily journal about their mood, physical health and overall views about life.
At the end of 10 weeks, those who were grateful felt better about their lives, were 25 per cent happier, reported fewer health complaints and exercised for longer periods, nearly 1.5 hours more per week. "The evidence cannot be ignored: If you want to sleep more soundly, count blessings, not sheep," writes Emmons.
Another way to practice gratitude, which we've also mentioned before, is to write a letter of thanks to someone who has been especially kind and deliver it in-person. Studies by the late psychology professor Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania showed participants still felt good a month later.
We think the evidence is pretty compelling, so perhaps next time we're looking for a new public holiday to celebrate we should petition for a "Gratitude Day", but in the meantime, let's start by being more thankful and showing our gratitude every day.


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Asha Supports the Yamuna Riverbed Slum Community in their Gravest hour of crises
On 15th August'2022, when the entire nation was celebrating Seventy-Five years of Independence, and the proud flags were hoisted across every home in the city, the residents of Asha's slum community in Yamuna riverbed; -one of the poorest, most vulnerable and deprived population in the heart of the capital city was facing the worst survival crises of their lives. As a result of torrential rains and flooding of the river Yamuna, the water level crossed the danger mark and entered the shanties of people in the low line areas of the river. Their little belongings, painstakingly accumulated over the years were washed away in just a few minutes. Not only were their entire household items destroyed, but water damaged their one-room shanties as the floors and the walls of the houses were made of mud, and roofs made of waste materials like discarded plastic, scrap, etc. Overnight, around three thousand people were rendered homeless, without food, shelter, or finances and surrounded by suffering, darkness and despair. Having lost everything and without any roadmap to build their future amidst the ruins of destruction, Asha was the only silver lining of hope in their lives. Asha's team immediately reached them with all the available resources and gave them a healing touch, mental strength and comfort.
Asha's emergency relief and rehabilitation programme started with the distribution of food packets, including wheat flour, two types of pulses, edible oils, spices, fruits, vegetables, eggs and biscuits, to feed their hunger with a balanced nutritional diet. After ensuring that everyone had enough to eat, Asha's Healthcare team started the medical clinics to take care of the diseases, especially water-borne bacterial and viral infections, which are quite common after such natural disasters. Asha's Senior Nurse Practitioners conducted clinics and provided treatment, medicines, and supplements to children, women, elderly, and the sick. The children were given high protein, high calorie and high energy laddoos to fight malnutrition. Asha team also gave them towels, bed sheets, suits, sarees and other items of daily wear and everyday use, as the community started the process of rebuilding their homes and restarting their life from scratch. There is still a long way to go as many of the families lost everything. However, Asha's presence has given the community reassurance, comfort and strength to fight the challenges and, most importantly, look to the future with renewed optimism.
Differently abled Ashok, who had lost his limbs in an accident, is a resident of riverbed slum community along with his sick and ailing wife. The couple lives in a poorly constructed shanty, the only place they can call home in this ruthless and heartless megacity. The only source of income for the family is begging near the busy Interstate Bus Terminal and the highway crossing. Ashok and his wife took time to realize what had struck them when water entered their house on an infamous night with the river in its full fury. Very soon, the water level increased, and they saw household items floating inside their rooms. As they realized that their life was in danger, they could come out of the house after lot of difficulties, literally crawling. They managed to reach the elevated road adjacent to the riverbed and spent the entire night. The following day, when they reached their home, there was waterlogging everywhere. Their shanty was totally damaged and dilapidated, with the entire belongings washed away. Already battling enormous challenges in their lives, they had nothing left with them and were distraught and broken down. As Ashok and his wife were standing near their shanty and staring at the dark future, a young lady wearing an Asha T-shirt came and spoke to them. She had brought with her a bagful of grocery supplies and other necessary items. Most importantly, she gave them solace and comforted them with the much-needed healing touch. Ashok and his wife understood that Asha was their only lifeline and support in this hour of crisis. The next day, they got fruits, eggs, milk and other protein foods. Asha also arranged a medical clinic at the riverbed where the Senior Nurse practitioner compassionately listened to their problems and gave them medicines along with minerals and supplements. With the Asha team's support, they made a beginning in their life with new hope and energy. Asha also gave them towels, bedsheets sarees, suits and other necessary items, and they began to feel that the nightmare had ended and life was slowly limping back to normal. In Asha, they had a lifelong friend who had saved them during one of their worst times . "Without Asha, we would have died without any food and medicines as we lost everything in this tragedy.', said Ashok with tears in his eyes.


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Apple may launch an affordable version of this device
IANS / Updated: May 14, 2022, 08:45PM IST
Apple is likely planning to launch a new Apple TV that will be affordable in comparison to its rivals.
The new Apple TV is expected to be launched later this year.
According to famed analyst Ming Chi Kuo, Apple's aggressive strategy of integrating hardware, content and service amid the recession will help close the gap with its competitors.
Currently, the company sells three Apple TV models. Its 4K Apple TV comes in 32GB and 64GB capacities and retails for $179 and $199, respectively, according to a report in The Verge.
Apart from Nvidia's Shield lineup, no set-top box has the same support for a wide range of home theatre standards and formats like the Apple TV 4K.
It's the gold standard for professional home theatre installers and is popular for its Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) capabilities.
EDID alerts your set-top box, or Blu-Ray player, or other device, what kind of display users plugged it into.
While the more budget-friendly Apple TV HD shares the same EDID handling, it lacks all the other features that make Apple 4K a must-buy for home theater lovers, the report said.


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Displaying 721-740 of 3278 results
Carol Shields
Carol Shields, novelist, poet, playwright, biographer (born at Oak Park, Illinois 2 Jun 1935; died at Victoria, BC 16 Jul 2003). Shields was educated at Hanover College, Indiana, the University of Exeter England, and the University of Ottawa.
William Ian deWitt Hutt
Hutt joined the STRATFORD FESTIVAL in its inaugural 1953 season and was the first to win the Tyrone GUTHRIE Award the following summer.
André Prévost
André Prévost (Joseph Gaston Charles), composer, teacher (born 30 July 1934 in Hawkesbury, ON; died 27 January 2001 in Montréal, QC).
Guy Sylvestre
Joseph Jean Guy Sylvestre, OC, FRSC, librarian, writer, essayist, literary critic, interpreter, (born 17 May 1918 in Sorel, QC; died 26 September 2010 in Ottawa, ON). Guy Sylvestre was an accomplished literary figure and dedicated public servant who was called a "statesman among librarians." Sylvestre wrote extensively about Canadian poetry and literature throughout his career. He worked as the private secretary to Louis St. Laurent and as a librarian at the Library of Parliament before serving as head of the National Library of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada) from 1968 to 1983. In this role, he oversaw a massive expansion of the library's Canadian content and the modernization of library systems across the country. He was president and chair of many major cultural organizations and the author of UNESCO's Guidelines for National Libraries (1987).
Frances Norma Loring
Frances Norma Loring, sculptor (born 14 October 1887 in Wardner, Idaho; died 5 February 1968 in Newmarket, ON).
Jean-Pierre Perreault
In 1981, having followed Le Groupe to Ottawa, he resigned the co-directorship and returned to Montréal as an independent choreographer and teacher.
Rosita del Vecchio
Rosita (Rosa) del Vecchio. Mezzo-soprano, actress, b Montreal 15 Dec 1846, d there 11 Feb 1881. A descendant of an Italian family which settled in Quebec in the late 18th century, she studied at the Sacré-Coeur Convent in Sault-au-Récollet, where she was a friend of Emma Albani.
Timothy Maloney
Maloney, S. (Stephen) Timothy. Musicologist, clarinetist, administrator, b Toronto 15 Jan 1947; B MUS (Toronto) 1968, Artists Diploma (Toronto) 1969, M MUS (Catholic U) 1970, DMA (Rochester) 1986.
Monique Desroches
Monique Desroches. Ethnomusicologist, teacher, b Grand-Mère,near Trois-Rivières, Que, 18 Mar 1948; B MUS (Sherbrooke) 1974, MA musicology (Montreal) 1977, PH D musicology (Montreal) 1987.
Gordon Macpherson
Gordon (Clarke) Macpherson. Pianist, conductor, b Moose Jaw, Sask, 14 Nov 1924; LRCT 1949, Artist Diploma (Toronto) 1953, M MUS (Indiana) 1974.
Christopher (Donald) Jackson. Organist, choirmaster, b Halifax, NS, 27 Jul 1948; premier prix organ (CMM) 1974.
Lise Boucher
Lise Boucher. Pianist, teacher, b Montreal 21 May 1941; premier prix piano (CMM) 1957. She was a piano pupil of Germaine Malépart at the CMM. In 1958 she was awarded the Prix d'Europe, and for the following six years she studied in Paris with Antoine Reboulot, whom she later married.
Jean-Julien Clossey
Jean-Julien Clossey. Violinist, organist, pianist, conductor, teacher, b Pepinster, Belgium, 3 Jun 1866, naturalized Canadian 1918, d Montreal 16 May 1926. He studied piano and cornet 1873-82 at the Liège Cons while also taking private violin lessons.
Benoît Poirier
Benoît (Fidèle) (b Benjamin) Poirier (b Perry). Organist, composer, b Tignish, PEI, 17 Oct 1882, d Laval, near Montreal, 7 Oct 1965; BA (St-Joseph, NB) 1902, honorary MA (St-Joseph, NB) 1928.
Rachel Martel
Rachel Martel. Pianist, teacher, b La Tuque, Que, 12 Mar 1939; premier prix piano (CMQ) 1959. She studied 1953-6 at the École supérieure de musique de Nicolet and 1956-9 at the CMQ with Guy Bourassa. In 1959 she obtained the Prix d'Europe and a Canada Council scholarship.
Paul Jourdain
Paul (Raymond) Jourdain dit Labrosse. Wood-carver, organ-builder, master carpenter, baptized Montreal 20 Sep 1697, d there 8 Jun 1769.
Félix R. Bertrand
Félix-R. (Routhier) Bertrand. Organist, pianist, choirmaster, composer, b Montreal 12 Oct 1909, d Moncton, NB, 28 Jul 1978; D MUS (Montreal) 1948. He was the grand-nephew of Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier, the author of the words to 'O Canada'.
Joël Pasquier
Joël Pasquier. Pianist, teacher, b Montmorency, near Paris, 25 Sep 1943, naturalized Canadian 1973; premiers prix piano, chamber music (Paris Cons) 1962.
Norman Nelson
Nelson, (Richard) Norman. Violinist, b Dublin 1 Aug 1931. He studied 1945-51 with George Strattan at the RCM and with Sascha Lasserson, a pupil of Leopold Auer. Nelson joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1951 and the Sadler's Wells orchestra in 1952.
Frantz Jéhin-Prume
Jéhin-Prume (b Jéhin), Frantz (b François-Henri). Violinist, composer, teacher, born Spa, Belgium, 18 Apr 1839, died Montreal 29 May 1899; premier prix (Brussels Cons) 1852.


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Nearly a quarter of Brits 'live above unused coal mines with low carbon heat potential'
The water from flooded mines can be used as a sustainable heat source, according to the British Geological Survey and the Coal Authority
Almost a quarter of the UK's population lives above abandoned coal mines that could be used to warm homes and public buildings with low carbon heating.
That's according to the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the Coal Authority, which suggest mines are warmed by natural geothermal processes and at places where they are flooded, the water can be used as a heat source for district heating systems.
The organisations, which created maps to show the extent to which heat is stored in Britain's abandoned coal fleet, note that geothermal energy from mines, combined with heat pump technology, could provide a sustainable energy source.
The government has a target to increase the number of homes on heat networks from 2% to 18% by 2050.
Gareth Farr, BGS Geoscientist and Project Leader, said: "It's the first time we have been able to visualise the temperature of Britain's coalfields. We have found records of heat temperatures going back over 100 years and compared them to temperatures in the mines now, and found them to be quite similar.
"This is a clear indication that geothermal processes that create this heat will be here for a long time to come."
Jeremy Crooks, The Coal Authority's Head of Innovation, commented: "Heating accounts for 44% of energy use in the UK and 32% of its air pollution. It's ironic that mining coal, a fossil fuel, would provide access to a low carbon, clean air, energy source that will last far longer than the 200 years of intensive mining that created this opportunity."
If you enjoyed this story you can sign up to our weekly email for Energy Live News – and if you're interested in hearing more about the journey to net zero by 2050, you can also sign up to the future Net Zero newsletter.
British Geological Survey Coal Authority coal mine geothermal energy heating network low carbon heating


Thought | Blog - Be Shore to Ditch your plans!
Be Shore to Ditch your plans!
Located just over the road from us, Bookclub is our local and somewhere we would urge you all to go. It's a hub for a lot of creative meetings attended by "big dogs" from the likes of Google and Facebook.
Mon 31st Dec: New Years EAST!
Nomad is known for hosting regular club nights, live music and boasts being 'party central'.
Fri 21st Dec: Heidi Vogel and guests - Christmas Special!


Our Warm & Safe Ultimate Touring Heated Gloves are made from Grade A top grain drum dyed cowhide. The heated gloves include a thin layer of Thinsulate. Thinsulate keeps you warm when it's cold outside. The unique microfibers or fine fibers that make up Thinsulate insulation work by trapping air molecules between you and the outside. The more air a material traps in a given space' the better it insulates you from the cold outside air. But we do not use a thick layer of insulation like others. We want you to feel the bike and not fatigue your hands. The inside of the Warm & Safe Heated gloves are made with a breathable "Waterproof" Membrane. The palms have reinforced protection. The molded knuckles have a layer of Aramid fiber. The fingers are pre-curved providing comfort the first you put them on. The thumb has double heat, we know how that is appreciated.
Ok, it seems some people get the idea that just because we started putting leather over the knuckle protector because it looks better, that the carbon fiber protection is gone. NO!!! It is still there. Why do we have both pictures? Because some have the leather and some do not as we make this change over. I ripped a pair of the leather covered style gloves apart just to prove there is carbon on the inside of the protector. See the photos.


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Dr. Schwartz's Weblog By Allan Schwartz, LCSW, Ph.D.
Allan Schwartz, LCSW, Ph.D. was in private practice for more than thirty years. He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the states ...Read More
Now that two important religious holidays that impact millions of Christians, Catholics and Jews around the world, Easter and Passover, are over, it is time to come together in ways that help one another respect differing views, particularly between Atheists and Believers involved in organized religions.
In Easter Sunday, 2012, New York Times writer and commentator, Nicholas D. Kristof, wrote an interesting and important article, "Learning to Respect Religion." In essence, what he is saying is that everyone, whether an atheist or other, needs to understand that organized religion has played and continues to play an important role in society. To support his argument, Kristof turns to three writers who are both atheist in their beliefs and critics of organized religion in their thinking. These three are Alain de Botton, writer of a new book, "Religion for Atheists," Edward O. Wilson, Harvard biologist and writer of "The Social Conquest of Earth, and Johnathan Haidt, Professor of Psychology and author of "The Righteous Mind."
What Kristof points out about all three of these writers is that they discuss and admit the important role that religion plays in society, something you would not expect from any of them. To summarize all three, religion is viewed as a force that organizes people into cooperative communities able to live in harmony with each other and provides rites of passage for everyone from birth to death and at every stage of life in between. In addition, it provides great comfort to believers while placing inhibitions on drug and alcohol abuse.
These writers are certainly not ignoring what they view as the negative side of organized religion. However, they are demonstrating the ability to be respectful of those who are believers.
There are too many times when non believers scoff at what religious people think and practice. In fact, one does not have to be an atheist to do this. There are those who describe themselves as spiritual but anti institutional religion as found in a church, synagogue or mosque. There are those who are religious and are mistakenly convinced that psychologists, biologists and other scientists are anti religion. In fact, among these groups, there are many who are fervently religious while having no difficulty reconciling biblical teachings with scientific findings. I have known many psychiatrists and psychologists who attend church and synagogue on a regular basis. Then, too, there are those who are religious who are totally rejecting of those who are atheists.
At a time when there is so much conflict in the world, it is essential that people learn to accept one another in ways that show tolerance for differing beliefs, practices and values.
In my opinion, one defining aspect of mental health is the ability to accept diversity in the world. Some will be quick to point out all of those who are violently anti diversity, such as the radical Muslims and Christian and Jewish Fundamentalists in the United States and around the world. Keep in mind the fact that those people do not represent the vast majority of us who want to live in peace and harmony. There are those who find no role for region in their lives and that is their right. There are those who gain great comfort from their beliefs and practices and that is there right. There are all of us who need to accept both points of view and valuable to them even though we do not agree.
After all, what is wrong with faith if the result is emotional resilience and and stress reduction. Prayer accomplishes this for untold numbers of people. Let's not scoff at each other just because we may be on the other side of the fence.
Your comments and questions are encouraged, as always.
Allan N. Schwartz, PhD
Keep Reading By Author Allan Schwartz, LCSW, Ph.D.
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Moving Back Home Again
Are You Superstitious?
Multidimensional Wellness: Powerful Concept And Practical Tool
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Asylum Squad Comic Strip 54


* Age 21 or over to take orders for or serve and sell alcoholic liquor. As opposed to non-alcoholic liquor.
* Minimum 1 year experience as a cashier.
* Effective oral communication skills.
* Skills to work as a team member.
* Skills to provide customer service.
This quarter at PSU I wrote a full length play for my Script Development class. Since I'm a grad student, I can do that kind of thing. The play I wrote is called 21st Century Love, and it deals with a former Texas high school football coach falling in love with a transgender woman. My original thought was to write a play about two diametrically opposed people falling in love, and I thought those two characters would make an interesting story.
There was a time, not so long ago, when I enjoyed acting. I'd like to think that I know a bit about myself and the way that I work, and so when I say I enjoyed acting, I mean that there was a point in my life where me — the guy you would see every day — was honest and open about himself. Acting, then, became a great way to inhabit the minds of people I'd never think to inhabit, people who had wildly different thoughts than I did, people who weren't as honest and open as me, who tried very hard to obfuscate and keep secrets. But me, Josh Belville, just a silly guy with broken glasses and a very general lack of fashion sense, I was here, and I was me. Acting became a way to fuel emotions that I might not necessarily have on a day-to-day basis, to explore some inner workings that I was familiar with, but didn't spend my life exacerbating, simply because I didn't have to. There's a proverb that goes, "Happy is the man who has no story to tell." That was me. There was no facade, no mask betraying inner feelings. There was just me.
But now, as I'm writing this, and as I spend time delving into the double life of Don Draper (yes I'm watching Mad Men, and yes I'm watching it quickly), it occurs to me that my life has changed. No longer am I the man who is happy to be honest and open about himself and his life. It's affected my work. Now I wear a mask every day, which I don't even remove when I'm therapy; most of my time there is spent talking about other people, rarely about myself. So when I get on stage to perform, the words are meaningless — they're not real, and I'm not real. The two cancel each other out. There's no need to wear a mask when you're already wearing one.
I mean, people get in this business for a variety of reasons. Some do it because they just want to be seen, acknowledged, loved by scores of strangers in a dark room. Some people desire the disconnect from themselves, because their personal lives are tumultuous and require distance. And some people, people like me, do it because our regular lives are relatively empty, meaningless, and donning someone else's persona for a couple of hours a night is just a lot of fun. An added bonus is that we share a human experience for a group of people in a dimly lit theater, who may find themselves transformed by the end of the performance, as much as we were transformed in the beginning.
Performance is about the simultaneous act of giving yourself up for a character, and giving yourself into a character. It is a transformation unseen in any other art form. When Anna Deavere Smith performed her play Fires in the Mirror, she brought that transformation to light, and some people didn't like it. Say what you will about the play, her contribution to theatre is one of illumination of the act itself. She was herself being characters. The incomplete transformation, the ability to be yourself and be the character. No man is Hamlet, but every actor who has performed Hamlet was Hamlet.
My problem is: I can't invest in being Hamlet because I'm too busy being somebody else. Someone who is not me. Someone who doesn't find joy in the world like he used to.
I guess what I'm saying is: I'm unhappy. There. You're welcome.
WARNING: This post has massive spoilers. If you haven't seen Breaking Bad yet, get over your hangup about watching people cook meth and watch it. It's one of the best shows on TV, period.
So I'm thinking about dropping out of PSU at the end of this quarter.
And she repeated herself, and subsequently deleted all of her comments in that Facebook thread.
Now, look, we can talk sociology and why a bunch of rich, attractive people would spend lots of money to sit out in the desert and take a bunch of drugs, but let's not mystify the goddamn thing. There's nothing mysterious about Burning Man. There's some crazy stuff out there, some weird sculptures and people dancing with hula hoops, but it's basically kids doing drugs. I mean, why else would you watch a giant stick figure get burned down unless you were high as a kite? Who would do that sober? Maybe some of your weirder cousins, but other than that, people on drugs.
There's nothing wrong with this (unless harm is involved, of course). But why does a gathering of people have to become this transcendental thing? Why can't we just be happy with each other? Why does it have to be "bigger" than that? I love theatre, and I practically think of theatre as a religion of sorts, but I don't think there's a mystery to theatre. It's people on stage pretending to be other people. That's all it is! The audience buys into it, and we're all good. There's no mystery!
My point really being: if you say mysterious stuff like, "What happens at Burning Man stays at Burning Man," you're basically saying you did drugs. Just like when you say, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," it means you drank a lot, gambled, and probably slept with a prostitute. I mean, you wouldn't say that if you went to a salad buffet and then off to bed at 9pm, would you?
NOTE: I have never been to Burning Man (or Vegas for that matter), nor will I ever go to Burning Man, for I am a cantankerous old fart.


Sao Tome and Principe has no neighbouring countries. There are no countries that are directly adjacent to Sao Tome and Principe because Sao Tome and Principe is completely surrounded by water and has no (natural) land connections to other countries.
Find detailed information on Sao Tome and Principe.


text:
Strikes and Pro Sports in Canada, Again…
by David Doorey March 18, 2010
written by David Doorey March 18, 2010
My soccer hooligan neighbour (ok, he's not a hooligan, he's just, er, enthusiastic) is all in a tiff because the Toronto FC season may not start next week due to a labour dispute, a strike. Last week, the players voted almost unanimously to strike if a deal is not reached before the start of the season on March 25th.
This raises, yet again, the issue of whether a Canadian franchise of a North American sports league is bound by Canadian labour laws. This issue has come up already in regards to the NBA, the NHL, and Major League Baseball. Here's a post I did earlier on the NBA lockout of referees.
In Ontario, it is unlawful for workers to strike unless they first jump through a number of legal hurdles, including exhausting conciliation (like mediation) with a government imposed conciliator. This requirement is here, in Section 79(2) of the Ontario Labour Relations Act. The employer (Major League Soccer) and the union have been going through conciliation in Washington with an American conciliator under American law. Read Section 79(2). Do you think the American-bases conciliation satisfies the requirements of the section?
Does section 79(2) mean that the employer and the union would need to go through an additional conciliation process in Ontario in order to for a strike by Toronto FC players to be lawful?
In theory, if the Toronto FC players strike illegally, the union could be liable for lost revenues due to the unlawful strike. That possibility is found in Section 103 . In practice, though, what would that lost revenue be? Games will be cancelled, so there will be lost gate, parking, concession stand revenues. But even if the Toronto FC players didn't strike, those losses would be incurred, since the other team would not be coming to the game, since their players would be on lawful strike (under US law). Is that right?
Here's a fun question for labour law students: What if the Toronto FC players don't strike, since they are not in a legal strike position under Ontario law. The employer can't lock them out, because a lockout requires the same steps be taken as required for a strike, and those steps haven't been taken. So would the Toronto FC players be entitled to just show up for work during the strike and demand to be paid, even though there is a strike happening in the rest of the league? Could the Toronto FC players be laid off by the employer, since there would be no work for the players (no games)? If so, would they be entitled to employment insurance benefits during the lay-off? Read Section 36 of the Employment Insurance Act: does this disqualify a worker who is laid off because of a strike, when it is not the worker who is on strike? If so, doesn't that disqualify the people who sell beer too, who will also be laid off presumably if there are no games? Would that be fair? What does section 36(4) mean? hmmmm
Gotta love labour law …
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Top 10 Most Downloaded Labour & Employment Law Papers (SSRN, March 17)


This large designer villa with high quality finishes is located a short distance from the beach of Sa Caleta and the beach of Santandría, and just 1 km from Ciudadela. The house enjoys excellent outdoor spaces, with a well-kept garden and several terraces around it to enjoy the outdoor time to the fullest. The bright and spacious living room with fireplace, has direct access to the terrace and pool area. A nice kitchen fully equipped and with access to the outside. There are a total of 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, of which a spacious master bedroom with en-suite bathroom. The property enjoys all kinds of amenities such as air conditioning in all bedrooms and central heating. On the upper floor and with an independent access, there is a large room with terrace and partial sea views, currently in use as an office. The property has a wide entrance to the house, with a parking area. There is a well equipped laundry room. The property has a tourist licence and is ready to be enjoyed all year round or as a summer home.


Sutton's common lands are remembered today in names such as Hillwood Common, Reddicap Heath and Wylde Green. But go back to Tudor times, and they formed half the area of Sutton - about ten square miles. The commons were the uncultivated land where there were no fences, generally having barren soil, rough grassland with tracts of gorse and heather. Go back another six hundred years, and the vast tract of common known as the Coldfield completely surrounded the town.
By 1800 the largest expanse of common, still called the Coldfield, covered what is now Boldmere, and a huge swathe of commons swept round the north of the town from Four Oaks to Roughley. To the east the commons were interspersed with cultivated land, and each stretch of common had its individual name, such as Withy Hill, Whorwoods Field, or Echelhurst. Some areas of common, such as Ley Hill Common and the Coneygreve, were surrounded by farmland. Other, smaller areas of common land were the village greens at Maney, Little Sutton, Four Oaks and Wylde Green.
No individual could own any part of the common land, but everyone had rights. You could wander freely over the commons, your sheep could graze there, and you could gather sticks for fuel. There was a curious Sutton custom called Lot Acres, whereby you were allocated an acre of common land to cultivate for a five-year cycle of crops; that acre then returned to common and you could have a different one for the next five years. Poor people in particular felt the good of this, and over time there was another benefit to the poor, because squatting was not forbidden. A person who built a rough shelter on the commons was sometimes allowed to stay and have a little land, gaining a foothold in Sutton. Eventually there were over a hundred cottages which had begun as temporary shelters in this way, swelling the population of poor labourers among the more prosperous Suttonians.


text:
Whys & Therefores
A Rational Look at the English Language
William Rutherford [+–]
William Rutherford is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of Southern California. His main educational interests have represented an intersection of research in language acquisition, in grammatical theory, and in psycholinguistic theories of language learnability. For ten years Professor Rutherford was co-general editor of the monograph series Language Acquisition and Language Disorders and in 1995 he was the recipient of a festschrift, The Current State of Interlanguage: Studies in Honor of William E. Rutherford (Benjamins). From 1998 until his retirement he was engaged in the application of computer tools in the service of computerized data-bases of L2 learner language designed to serve L2 acquisition researchers. Among his books are Second Language Grammar: Learning and Teaching (Longman) and Workbook in the Structure of English: Linguistic Principles and Language Acquisition (Blackwell). Professor Rutherford's current interest is the potential for early education of rational inquiry as an investigative tool of the sciences and especially cognitive science (e.g. linguistics).
Whys & Therefores aids the reader to arrive at generalizations for the shape of the English language: words, grammar, meaning, sound and spelling. The format adopted throughout is that of a light-hearted ongoing Socratic dialogue between a mentor and a pupil. The intended effects of such activity are: awareness of what it means to 'know' a language; reliance upon native-language intuition; discovery of what one didn't know that one already 'knows' about the language; use of ungrammaticality as an investigative tool; healthy questioning of received facts about language from so-called experts; and usefulness of language play.
Whys & Therefores can be read as a book,dipped into at random, expanded upon, even acted out. The language phenomena treated therein are indexed and tabbed to the dialogues where they are discussed, making Whys & Therefores a valuable source of reference.
Whys & Therefores is intended as an entertaining yet serious do-it-yourself book about aspects of English language form and meaning. However, it will also prove useful to schools as classroom material to be further exploited by the instructor in free-range dialogue form, and to institutions offering teacher training in rational-based instructional procedures for English language education in the schools.
Audio Files of the dialogues are available for download from the bottom of this page.
teachers, students and general readers
Preface xiii - xv
Acknowledgements xvi - xvi
WORDS... WORDS... [+-] 1 - 12
TOGETHERNESS [+-] 13 - 24
BEING CREATIVE [+-] 25 - 36
Being creative
THE END OF THE WORLD [+-] 37 - 48
THOSE LITTLE WORDS [+-] 49 - 60
Those little words
SOUND & SPELLING ONE [+-] 61 - 72
sound and spelling one
ILLOGICAL ~ IRRATIONAL ~ UNREASONABLE [+-] 73 - 84
illogical, irrational and unreasobale
REALLY BEING POSSESSED [+-] 85 - 96
really being possessed
SOUND & SPELLING TWO [+-] 97 - 108
sound and spelling 2
WORDS & CATEGORIES [+-] 109 - 120
words & categories
QUESTIONS... QUESTIONS... [+-] 121 - 132
WHAT NEXT, YOU IDIOM? [+-] 133 - 144
what next, you idiom?
NEGATIVES... NEGATIVES... [+-] 145 - 156
COMPARISON & CONTRAST [+-] 157 - 168
comparison and contrast
SOUND & SPELLING THREE [+-] 169 - 182
COMPOUND INTEREST [+-] 183 - 194
CONTRACTIONS, CONTRACTIONS! [+-] 195 - 206
SPACE, TIME, PERSON [+-] 207 - 218
space, time and person
MODIFICATION [+-] 219 - 230
WORDS, WORDS... AGAIN [+-] 231 - 244
SOUND, SPELLING, MEANING [+-] 245 - 246
A PHONETIC ALPHABET FOR AMERICAN ENGLISH
A PHONETIC ALPHABET FOR AMERICAN ENGLISH [+-] 247 - 248
NOTES AND SOLUTIONS
Notes and Solutions [+-] 249 - 262
REFERENCES 263 - 266
INDEX OF TECHNICAL TERMS
INDEX OF TECHNICAL TERMS [+-] 267 - 269
'Whys and Therefores is a lively and adventurous book, a delight to read! It's hard to put down, and will capture the imaginations of even those readers who don't start out recognizing that they love languages.'
Professor Margaret Thomas, Program in Linguistics, Slavic & Eastern Languages & Literatures, Boston College
'Through the form of Socratic dialogues in both print and sound, Rutherford's Whys & Therefores takes readers and listeners on a unique intellectual tour of the fascinating world of the English language. This book is for anyone in the era of EAGLF (English as a global lingua franca) with the need and desire to enjoyably build conscious knowledge of the language.'
Professor Fusa Katada, Center for English Language Education in Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo
'With wit and humor, Rutherford presents fruits of modern linguistics--amazing principles at work in English that most native speakers are unaware of--whether they are about pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, or even spelling conventions. I recommend the book to anyone interested in linguistics but put off by formalism and technicality found in other introductory books. This book makes an introduction to the discipline a smooth, happy and extremely intriguing one. I am thinking of using it as a second textbook for a generative linguistics course that I teach to future language teachers.'
Hiroyuki Oshita, Associate Professor of Japanese and Linguistics, Ohio University
'Having had the privilege of seeing this book in its gestational stages, I know its goals and have seen how Dr. Rutherford's linguistic insight and sensitivity to newcomers combine to make this a fine first encounter. By itself for "fun," or complementing a text in a classroom, Whys and Therefores successfully combines rational inquiry and humor--no mean feat. I look forward to using the text with my own students.'
Sharon M. Klein, Professor of Linguistics, California State University, Northridge
'Whys & Therefores is a bold work hoping to combine and balance pedagogy, linguistic discovery and explanation, and entertainment.'
LiguistList 23.1882, April 2012
CH 1 DAY 1
DAY 10_
CH 3 DAY 11
DAY 20_PS 4
CH 8 DAY 36_
DAY 40 PS 8
DAY 60 PS 12
CH 14 DAY 66
DAY 100 PS 20


Bill Murray apparently carries a bucket list around with him at all times in search of things to add and check off. He brought it to The Late Show in an effort to finally fulfill his dream of meeting Lady Gaga and luckily, the stars aligned. Then they took an awkward selfie with each other.
Sure, this might've just been an elaborate ruse to introduce Lady Gaga to the show and transition everyone across the street for her concert performance. Too bad I have a wild imagination and I like to believe that Bill Murray stormed the Ed Sullivan Theater, forced his way onto the set and made his dreams come true. He's done weirder things on Letterman in the past.
Also Paul Shaffer's jacket is spectacular and I need to buy one. It's what I plan on wearing to my funeral.


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Evander Holyfield and I have much in common. We both started boxing at the old Atlanta Boys Club, now the Warren/Holyfield Boys & Girls Club. We both had the late Carter Morgan as our manager, trainer and coach. We both won a championship four times.
But there was one difference. Holyfield won the professional heavyweight championship of the world four times, and I won the city of Atlanta amateur title four times.
On my bid for a fifth consecutive crown, unlike Holyfield, I found out I was no prizefighter. I fought Ken King in the finals of the city boxing tournament and the bout went something like this: King would throw a left hook and I would block it with my chin. King would throw a right cross and I would block it with my jaw. I did go on to win the Georgia State Golden Gloves lightweight championship but I had sense enough to know I was no pro.
So, Holyfield became the world champ and I became a sportswriter.
Ten years later, as a junior at Fulton High School, he was still a benchwarmer. At 5' 4" and 115 pounds, he vied for the job of cornerback but his coach prevented him from being knocked into the cheap seats by keeping him on the bench. It was the best thing that ever happened to him because he gave up his dream of being a pro football player for the Atlanta Falcons.
Instead, he turned to boxing, where youngsters competed within the same weight class. He pestered coach Morgan every day at the Boys Club to let him try out for the boxing team. The coach finally yielded to Holyfield's persistence.
During his first three years in the ring, Holyfield never lost a fight. As an amateur, he compiled an impressive 169-11 record, winning a Silver Medal in the Pan-American Games, the 1984 National Golden Gloves title, a berth on the U.S. Olympic team and a Bronze Medal in the 1984 Olympics.
After the Olympics, Holyfield began his quest for the world championship. He spent six days a week in the gym, relentlessly punching the speed bag, skipping rope, shadow-boxing, sparring, lifting weights, running and swimming. He won his first pro fight on a six-round decision. It was the beginning of a string of 27 consecutive wins — 21 by knockouts.
And win Holyfield did, a 15-round decision over Dwight Qawi for the World Boxing Association cruiserweight crown.
Holyfield continued to drive himself in the gym and with outside roadwork. He weighed 208 pounds; 38 pounds less than heavyweight champion James "Buster" Douglas when the two men met in Las Vegas in 1990 in a title fight. Holyfield knocked Douglas out in the third round.
But Holyfield didn't hold the title for long. In Riddick Bowe in 1992, he not only met a bigger opponent but one equal in talent. Bowe won a 12-round decision. The combatants fought two more times. Holyfield won the second match to regain the title but Bowe won the third.
Mike Tyson put his title on the line against Holyfield in 1996, a dreadful mistake. Holyfield slugged Tyson from bell to bell and finally stopped him in the 11th round. They fought again in a rematch, which ended when Tyson was disqualified in the third round for biting Holyfield's ears.
After a 21-month absence, Holyfield, now 44, kicked off his fifth quest for the heavyweight champion title Aug. 18, defeating Jeremy Bates by TKO in 10 rounds. At press time he was planning another fight in November.
When not in the ring, he splits his time between homes in Fayetteville and Houston, Texas.
He was inducted into the Atlanta City Sports Hall of Fame last June and he was already a member of the state of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.


This user identifies as genderless.
This user contributes using Ubuntu Linux.
Currently I'm going on a Useless Info Removing spree, after which I'll probably get bored and ditch Bulbapedia again for a few months.
I'll also write summaries for Magical Pokémon Journey chapters if I get around to it.
This page was last edited on 15 October 2011, at 19:48.


The road to Advanced Customer Center of Excellence Certification & Why you should go for it!
Of course this is quite a broad statement – my previous blogs have given an insight into such things as utilizing SAP Solution Manager (which all SAP customers have) for your COE, and also talked in depth regarding Quality Management for your COE and IT Operations.
But first, let me take a step back – and explain WHAT is ACCOE?
ACCOE – Advanced Customer Center of Excellence, is a certification program that captures not just how a COE operates, but also helps you take steps to become a Center of Excellence that drives innovation.
One example is that of our SAP Operations Control Centers (OCC) – how we work to utilize SAP Solution Manager tools to be more proactive in our IT Operations (proactive Business Process Monitoring, Interface Monitoring, Technical Monitoring for example).
The target of a COE driving innovation, is captured in this picture – your Center of Excellence is no longer an "after-thought" in the SAP world – it needs to be at the forefront of your business to be able to move faster and more efficiently to adopt newer technology, and support the ever growing demands of the business.
Note: Each of the above examples requires input across teams, and each Quality Manager role should be fully integrated within the COE/IT Operations areas.
So now you have a better understanding of the foundational elements for a Center of Excellence that is moving towards innovation for both the business and IT.
OK – so we now understand the importance of the Business, COE and IT Operations working closer together – what does this have to do with ACCOE?
The best sports teams become champions through dedication, commitment hard work and of course through teamwork!
The SAP CCOE team is engaged to help provide support to your teams as you move along the path of maturity.
The journey towards Advanced Certification begins with establishing the delta/baseline – "where am I today?", this is captured in the Maturity Assessment (the SAP Operations Planning Workshop – "SOPW") – this is the first chevron.
Through a 4 day workshop, we discuss with your teams the key elements that are outlined in the Audit Criteria (see below). We help identify areas of opportunity, and help identify any gaps in the processes / organization. A detailed report is then used as the basis to develop a roadmap.
The results of the workshop, will help determine the current level of maturity, and becomes an aid to develop a roadmap towards the required maturity, including the set up of your Operations Control Center (OCC), if not already set up – this is the second chevron.
Note: One of the things to remember, is that as you embark on this journey, you will be making changes and improvements – it is very important to identify these and measure them (KPI's). All efforts along the journey should be documented, as these will help you see the improvements, and provide valuable information to the organization to show such improvements, thus increasing the credibility of the CCOE.
In one of my previous blogs, I expanded on Quality Management. The key to having the 4 key QM roles, ensures that from the business, to support and IT Operations there is a close-knit collaboration, where all parties are working to the same goal.
Establishing a Single Source of Truth is important as you move forward in your maturity – having common standards, terminology and documentation (including a common space for this) will ensure that your teams have a good foundation to build upon, and will be able to move forward and be able to adopt the agile methodology that can be the vehicle for continuous improvement.
The purpose of the audit is to provide you the opportunity to show us what you have done to improve your maturity, and also improve your service to the business (see below for the actual criteria). Providing information on how you have made the improvements (remember my note above – measure your success!), and what your plans are to continue.
During the journey towards the Advanced Certification, we can carry out a "Milestone Review/Mock Audit" – we take into account the first baseline assessment, and we go through the standard Audit list. Our Customer COE team are engaged to work with you and help the Quality Managers (and the rest of the teams of course) identify any areas that may still require some work.
Complex situations are looked at – you may takean area that is a current pain point, and use this as your "pilot/blueprint" for continuous improvement. Once you have a process that works, you can move to another area (it could be one system, one business unit, or even one end-to-end process such as Order To Cash).
The idea here is to establish a model that is a continuous cycle for improvement utilizing the tools at your disposal – Solution Manager, Dashboards etc.
Well the answer isn't as simple as "Why should I do it?".
It depends on the starting point. The results of the baseline maturity assessment will provide us with a better idea. In addition to this the CCOE portal has an online assessment that you can take, which provides you with a report, providing information based on your inputs. This does not replace the SOPW, but it does give insight for you and your starting point.
The next step after the maturity assessment is establishing the roadmap – and then the rest is really up to you on how committed you are to the program.
There is one key pre-requisite to be able to embark on this Advanced Certification program, and that is to ensure your Primary Certification is current. This is a free assessment that you take online – it can be found in our CCOE portal (link at the bottom of the blog).
An excellent article that explains the ACCoE and CCoE programs. I do have a question regarding to the operational standards, Is S/4HANA operational standards (Mostly technical) but some do have certain specifics, are they covered during the certification and/or evaluation process?
Hello Emre, if a customer is S/4HANA we will look at the operational standards, but we don't have a specific audit criteria mark for them.


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text:
Meet the Senators
Senate County Executives Series Senator Jim Robey
Senate County Executives Series Senator Don Hutchinson
Senate County Executives Series Senator Sidney Kramer
Senate County Executives Series Senator Dennis Rasmussen
Unsung Senators Celebration Senator Gwendolyn Britt
Maryland Senate Democrats
Senator Craig Zucker
District 14 (Montgomery County)
James Senate Office Building, Room 122
11 Bladen St., Annapolis, MD 21401
Senator Craig J. Zucker was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2010, and appointed to the Maryland Senate in 2016. During his tenor in the House of Delegates he served ion the Appropriations Committee. He is currently a member of the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee.
From serving as the Chair of the Health and Human Resources Subcommittee during his time in the House of Delegates, Craig understands the importance of making sure the most vulnerable Marylanders have the resources they need to be successful. That is why he was proud to sponsor HB 1105 – The Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act, which is now law. ABLE, when fully enacted, will allow for special savings accounts to be set up for individuals with disabilities and their families. These accounts will help fund
qualified expenses for individuals with disabilities, including medical care, education, housing, and assistive technology. This legislation begins the ABLE process in Maryland and will help to ensure that individuals with disabilities have the resources they need to be successful.
During his time in office, Craig has sponsored several other successful pieces of legislation, including legislation that protected minors from identity theft, helped homeowners facing foreclosure, and took the first steps towards upgrading Maryland's 911 system. Additionally, he sponsored legislation that will allow reimbursement forms for out-of-pocket expenses to be submitted to health insurance companies electronically.
This bill will help reduce costs and turnaround time for these expenses, and is especially helpful to those with developmental disabilities. He also sponsored a bill that will help ensure the state is taking the best possible care of foster children, and one that will help boost business for local restaurants in the Town of Laytonsville.
Prior to holding public office, Craig spent more than fifteen years as a dedicated public servant. Most recently he served as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Maryland State Comptroller, where he worked directly with Maryland's legislators, executive branch, and community and business leaders across the state. Before that, he was Director of Maryland Home Care for an association, helping to improve the lives of the more than 5,000 underpaid home healthcare workers throughout Maryland by securing their first wage increase in nearly two decades.
Craig earned his Bachelors of Science Degree from St. Thomas Aquinas College and his Masters Degree in Government from the Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Brookeville, Maryland with his wife Jenny, their two sons, and their dog Sophie.
Connect with the Senator
Paid for and authorized by the Maryland Democratic Senate Caucus Committee; Patricia L. Horton, Treasurer.


Opening of Lochaber Camanachd changing rooms/pavillion - someone is bound to know the year.
I'm pretty sure you can see John Hawke and maybe Donald Kennedy in the background?
The Minister is Rev Mr Henderson and the Lady in the front Mrs Hatje.


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Posted on 1 August 2014 by eehines
It's time for another installment in my quasi-aperiodic series of allegedly humorous posts. Read 'em, and weep.
A guy is in the hospital with two broken legs. The nurse comes in and tells him that there's good news and bad news.
The guy asks for the bad news first.
The nurse says, "We're going to have to remove your legs."
Then the guy asks for the good news.
The nurse says, "The guy beside you wants to buy your sneakers."
Good News: The Women's Guild voted to send you a get-well card.
Bad News: The vote passed by 31-30.
The Doctor said, "I've got some bad news, your DNA is backwards."
I said, "…and?"
Mike Snifferpippets.
Mike Snifferpippets who?
Oh come on, how many Mike Snifferpippets do you know? Now let me in, it's cold out.
Doorbell repairman.
A man was on a beach when he discovered an old lamp in the sand. He rubbed it and a genie popped out. The genie said "I will grant you three wishes. The only condition is that you cannot wish for more wishes."
"Alright," said the man, "I wish for more genies."
A search and rescue team was assembled and sent on a mission to find an airplane that had crashed on top of a mountain. It was their duty to rescue any survivors. After finally reaching the top of the mountain, they came upon the crash site. At the site, one lone survivor sat with his back against a tree, chewing on a bone. As he tossed the bone onto a huge pile of bones, he noticed the rescue team. "Thank you, God!" he cried out in relief. "I am saved!"
The rescue team did not move, as they were in shock, seeing the pile of human bones beside this lone survivor. Obviously he had eaten his comrades. The survivor saw the horror in their faces and hung his own head in shame.
"You can't judge me for this," he insisted. "I had to survive. Is it so wrong to want to live?"
The leader of the rescue team stepped forward, shaking his head in disbelief. "I won't judge you for doing what was necessary to survive but, my God, man, your plane only went down yesterday!"
And finally….
Q. What do you call an elephant in a phone booth?
A. Stuck.
Q. Why do elephants have trunks?
A. Because they would look funny with a suitcase.
Q. Why do elephants have wrinkles?
A. Ever tried to iron an elephant?
This entry was posted in humor and tagged humor, jokes by eehines. Bookmark the permalink.


An action romantic thriller directed by Ramesh Rout, Angry Young Man released on April 11, 2014. It is produced by Vijay Sinh Rathod and it features Ajay Sinh Rathod and Prachi Sinha in the lead. It is a story about a man whose life is filled with thrill and mystery. He is always waiting to take revenge and is love is still not known to him.


Komori-chan wa Yaruki wo Dase is a 4-panel gag manga by Konno Tohiro that tells the everyday life of Komori, a little girl whose laziness is on a whole different level.
With BLEACH in it's final arc, it seems like Kubo Tite is trying to pro-long the series as much as possible by throwing in characters from the past.
Before we get into the article, I just want to warn those not up-to-date with the manga that there will be spoilers.
Kekkai Sensen is a Must Watch!
Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront) resolves around Leonard Watch, a newbie journalist who also happens to posses the eyes of a god that allow him to see across time and space. Leo obtained the eyes when him and his sister were in Jerusalem's Lot (Formally New York), a city of super natural beings and such, and encountered a powerful demon which left the two of them orphaned. After the incident, Leo decided to move to the city to look for answers.
Out of all the music genre in the world, J-rock is my all time favorite. We all know bands like L'arc en Ciel, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Flow, Alice Nine, The Gazette, Scandal, and so much more. But, what about the new bands?
Here are the Top 10 hottest J-rock bands you guys should be rocking too.
The list is not in any specific order.


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Beersheba's Chaswe Nsofwa dies after training match
Temperatures on the field approached 40 degrees Celsius with low humidity when Nsofwa collapsed.
By JONNY HADI, AP
Chaswe Nsofwa 88. (photo credit: )
Hapoel Beersheba player Chaswe Nsofwa died after collapsing during a training match against Maccabi Beersheba at the team's Vasermil Stadium on Wednesday. Nsofwa, 27, who was part of the Zambian African Nations Cup squad in 2002, joined the National League team close to the start of the new season. The striker scored two goals on his debut Saturday against Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan last weekend. Nsofwa went through a physical when he joined the team just two weeks ago and was declared to be fully fit. New Hapoel Beersheba owner Alona Bareket, who purchased the club just several weeks ago said: "I'm shocked. I can't believe that something like this has happened. This is a huge tragedy for the family, for Hapoel Beersheba Football Club and for me personally." Rescue workers tried to restart Nsofwa's heart for several minutes before taking him to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, where he was pronounced dead. Paramedic Carmel Cohen told The Associated Press that he rushed to the field when he received the emergency call. "When we arrived we found the soccer player lying on the grass. We found his friends trying to help him," he said. "We gave him first aid, electric shocks and an external pacemaker, but despite all our efforts, he was declared dead at the hospital." It was not known what caused the player's collapse. Temperatures on the field approached 40 degrees Celsius with low humidity when Nsofwa collapsed. On Tuesday, Antonio Puerta, a midfielder for the Spanish team Sevilla, died three days after collapsing during a league game. Allon Sinai contributed to this report.
Sela steamrolled by Dimitrov
By ALLON SINAI
Defending judo world champion Gerbi comes up short, brings home silver
Eurobasket 2015: Meaningless defeat for first-place Israel
Oscar-less Maccabi Tel Aviv turns focus on crucial second leg
Israel's young athletes can't find the podium at the Youth Olympic Games in China


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Taste 566815682
How can we feed our kids better?
Start by taking a look in the mirror. And then read this new book.
By Tamar Haspel Washington Post
January 8, 2020 — 3:12pm
Go ahead, tweet about kid food. I dare you.
You'll find that passions run high, which is understandable. We've all been kids, and we all eat. Many of us also have kids, and they eat, too. Each one of us has lived at the interface between children and food, and that makes it harder — not easier — to make sense of it. Passion rooted in personal experience is what makes us bad at parsing controversial issues.
But here's the thing about kid food: Dig into it a bit, and you find that it's not really controversial at all. Just about everybody you would call an expert is singing out of the same hymn book.
For starters, pretty much nobody thinks kids should decide what's for dinner. There are obvious reasons we don't put kids in charge of stuff. Chicken nuggets for everyone! Also, no more school! We'll stay home and run with scissors!
I also couldn't find any expert recommending that you force your kid to eat — or even try — a food (though there are subtler strategies that people argue about). Most experts sign on to some version of what Ellyn Satter, a dietitian and therapist focused on "positive and joyful feeding and eating," calls the "division of responsibility." Parents decide when to eat and which choices are available; kids decide whether and how much of those choices to eat.
The big kid-food question isn't "How should we feed kids?" The big question is "Why do we not feed kids the way everybody knows we should?" I asked Bettina Elias Siegel, author of the new book, "Kid Food: The Challenge of Feeding Children in a Highly Processed World."
Turns out, there are several reasons.
Reason 1: Kid power. "Parenting is more permissive, and parents want to be their kids' friend," Siegel said. "There's no question that kids have unprecedented autonomy over food choices." For most of human history, the idea that kids could ask for something special for dinner would have been laughable, both because food was much harder to come by and kids didn't have that kind of sway.
Now, though, Siegel says, kids have a lot of control over what goes into the grocery cart. One study she cites in the book found that kids' preferences "influenced 95% of parents' food and beverage purchase decisions."
Siegel is clear: This happens because people love their kids. We all want to empower our kids. We want to spend quality time with them. We want to feed them foods they like.
"One mom told me processed foods was a soft place to land," Siegel said. "You come home at the end of the day, you're tired, you want to enjoy the small amount of time you have with your kid." You wouldn't let him light up a cigarette, but a chicken nugget doesn't seem so bad.
Reason 2: Marketing muscle. The food industry loves kid food! And they use a one-two punch to keep it going: Leverage pester power by selling to kids and use "permission marketing" when targeting parents.
We all know what pester power is. "Mommy, puleeeeeeeeeze ..." By using familiar cartoon characters to get kids' attention, placing kids' products at their eye level in the supermarket, and making sure the taste is bland and sweet, marketers — who have all seen that study that says kids have input into 95% of food decisions — win kids over.
Permission marketing leverages confusion and uncertainty about what we should actually be eating to make parents feel better about buying the stuff their better judgment might otherwise nix. The tactics include earth-tone packaging and words like "natural," the prominent featuring of fruits and vegetables on products that are really candy or salty snacks, and health claims for vitamin or fiber content.
" 'Made with whole grain' makes you feel better," Siegel says. "No one's putting the sticker on scissors, 'OK to run with.' "
Reason 3: The treat loophole. Sure, we know kids should have candy or chicken nuggets or sugary cereal only sometimes, but sometimes we fall victim to mission creep. Siegel keeps a list of places that parents report as "regular sources of free sweets" in their kids' lives, and it includes dance class, doctors' offices, therapy, retail stores and even the post office.
The turning of treats into mainstays of kids' diets has played out as the idea "gets endlessly reinforced in all the contexts where pleasing kids' palates is seen as essential to the bottom line: restaurant kid menus, processed food products, school meal menus, summer camps, etc."
No short-order cook
So how do we fix all this? At the top of Siegel's list is severe restrictions on marketing to kids, but she sees that as a long shot in today's political environment.
Parents, though, aren't powerless. If you're trying to feed kids better, Siegel has several suggestions. First, "dispense with the idea that kids should eat something different." Put one meal on the table for everyone, and don't be a short-order cook.
It also helps if you have the time and resources to cook more. Siegel is acutely sensitive to the constraints parents face, but she says cooking is one of the best tools you have to improve family meals.
And those meals may play out better if kids don't have unfettered access to snacks.
"Hunger is the best sauce," she says, and you lose that motivation to try something new if kids come to the table full of Goldfish [the snack cracker].'
She emphasizes, though, that the big problems are systemic. If you want to try your hand at advocacy in the hopes of changing what your kids encounter in schools or at sporting events or in grocery stores, her first piece of advice is not to fly solo.
"One parent is a fruitcake," she says. "Three are troublemakers." Get 50, though, and you've got a powerful organization.
Be a better role model
It's obviously way more complicated than that, and "Kid Food" has an appendix full of resources to help parents navigate the kid food world better. I will shamelessly plug this book, which is well written, well researched, empathetic and practical, for any parent looking to make some changes.
I do, though, have a sticking point. What are the odds we can help our kids eat better when we can't seem to help ourselves eat better? Adults have been told to eat more vegetables since the dawn of nutrition advice, but our consumption has flatlined since the 1970s.
In the intervening decades, we've been eating more processed food, more refined grains, more sugar and more calories. We haven't exactly carved out the moral high ground, and kids can spot a "Do as I say" closet Dorito-eater at 100 paces.
Although kids are a special case both in that their tastes are being formed and they're particularly vulnerable to marketing and temptation, the story of kid food is, to a large extent, the story of food. Food manufacturers have been infantilizing us by selling calorie-dense, salty, sweet stuff in brightly colored packages with exciting punctuation for a very long time. And we're buying it.
They're using the same tricks — the earth-tone packaging, the beside-the-point health claims, the labels that push the latest diet fad — to help us shut down our common sense. For a half-century, they've been feeding us a steady diet of pablum and disenfranchisement.
Maybe, just maybe, if we start doing better by our kids, they'll grow into the first generation to just say no.
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So here's the deal. I don't own "Hero High" and probably wont. I do plan on running my own Claremont Academy game in the near future - just coming up with my own material for it, rather than using the stuff in the old sourcebook.
I am trying to brainstorm ideas for adventure/campaign ideas. Have any of you run in Claremont Academy before? What did your games tend to be like? Were they focused more on everyday life, or were you pretty much just like a normal superteam, who had to take classes periodically?
Any specific ideas for threats/adventures? Anything would be helpful. Thanks!
I ran a Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters game (X-Men) for a while. Here are some of the things that I used in it. We did have only a small class of 6 students, but maybe some of these ideas can be of use to you? Please be aware that all of this is what I can remember off the top of my head (I'm not at home at the moment) and kind of a sampling to hopefully get you inspired!
In the beginning we tried to do a Danger Room session each game (usually fairly short in length, though occasionally they would consume the entire afternoon) along with either a class, lecture or afterschool/weekend activity. As the characters became more proficient with their powers and their lives grew more complex, many of our adventures began to take place outside more and more.
Sessions that were "failed" were repeated so that the student (and player) had a chance to feel "redeemed." Only non-lethal attacks (or restraints) were used unless otherwise specified.
THE introductory Danger Room session for any X-Man or Woman. The student simply had to cross the room and exit on the other side. We used a set time (2 minutes, I believe) for this to be completed and there were obstacles (such as hidden pits filled with water, geysers that knocked them back several feet, flypaper-like sections of the floor or wall, etc.) to make it difficult for them. Usually about half the characters succeeded and half failed but it made for a lot of fun and built some camaraderie between the new students.
Always the second session but this time it requires all of the team to cross the room under the time limit. Good for encouraging them to work together.
Simply a game of tag in the Danger Room with a set time limit and active traps/obstacles operating. The student who is "it" when the time limit expires has to do some extra chore (it ended up that the other students chose to help the loser complete this, further building a team dynamic).
Doctor Strange (Earth's Sorcerer Supreme in our campaign) showed up to give an introductory lecture on magic and how it relates to the "real" world. Unbeknownst to him (and the students who had teleportation ), that player had a great deal of mystical potential and a simple spell that Doctor Strange was using to show the kids some other dimension realms ended up becoming a portal, sucking them through and knocking out the good Doctor. The kids had to survive in a vastly alien realm while defending the Doctor until he could be revived and take everyone home.
Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic brings the kids to the Baxter Building (home of the Fantastic Four) to discuss his invention of unstable molecules (the same that is used to make the X-Men student costumes). We glossed over this pretty quickly. While at the building though, Reed gets called away for an emergency and the student who is the son of Ben Grimm decided to give everyone a tour. A lot of hilarity ensued involving HERBIE and the Negative Zone portal.
No X-Men game feels complete to me without at least one trip to the Savage Land! We ran through a basic fly-over, discussing the history of the place (thank you Wiki!) before having the Blackbird brought down by pteranodons. After surviving the crash the team got involved in a local dispute between tribes and a run-in with a hidden AIM team trying to plunder the ancient technology that keeps the Savage Land going. They eventually were able to contact the Fantastic Four for a lift home.
One of our students was the ward of Dr. Doom (as you might remember, the X-Men weren't necessarily on terrible terms with him once upon a time). It certainly made for interesting dynamics as another player was the son of Ben Grimm/the Thing! Anyway, the students and Xavier travelled to Latvia for "Dooms Day" (the yearly celebration of Dr. Doom's "liberation" of Latvia). Of course things go askew and the students end up witnessing what they think is the murder of Dr. Doom (it was actually a Doombot that Dr. Doom used to trick the assassin). By the time the whole thing was over, the students actually liked Dr. Doom better (for the most part) and he even extended an offer to one of them to consider returning to Latvia following his eventual graduation and becoming a "national hero."
I hope that you have a great time running your game!!
Hmm. It just dawned on me that I referred to Dr. Doom's country as "Latvia" instead of "Latveria".
Okay, I'm also in the process of resuming a previously abandoned Claremont Academy game, so this thread is relevant to my interests. One idea I had for the renewed game was "Designated School Battlezones", areas within the school where student-vs-student fighting is allowed, and in some cases encouraged, in order for the students to prepare for real-life combat situations that can occur anywhere. As well as to help students "work out issues in a controlled, non-lethal environment". Fights are to submission or incapacitation, and the losers are immediately teleported to the Academy's infirmary.
Naturally, this is exploited by Bullies as a way to have fun beating up weaker students. And just as Naturally, this drives the more honorable, dedicated would-be hero students to challenge the bullies to prevent this. Which is the true purpose of the designated Battlezones.