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About Water
Just as water flows across borders, our work stretches across sectors and nations. We are experts in large-basin management, and addressing complex nexus issues such as the interactions between watersheds and climate change, or water, energy and food.
IISD focuses on policy and programming solutions for governments, civil society and industry that protect and enhance the natural environment, while also improving socioeconomic well-being. We conduct economic analyses and hydrologic assessments so that governments can consider different options before making final decisions. And we support the management of watersheds across national boundaries, bringing together all relevant sectors and stakeholders.
Our policy work is informed by scientific research conducted at IISD Experimental Lakes Area, a one-of-a-kind outdoor laboratory that allows us to conduct safe experiments on whole lakes in a way no other research site in the world can do.
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Singaporeans are raring to do something extraordinary: protest.
That might not seem like a big deal with the Arab Spring uprisings; Chinese journalists taking to the streets; and thousands of typically docile Japanese rallying against government policies. But tropical Singapore is the land of quiet brooding, where mass street demonstrations are as common as snowstorms.
What has people so riled up? Well, people.
The impetus for the Feb. 16 march was a report that the tiny island's population may rise by as much as 30 percent to 6.9 million by 2030. This seems to be the government's answer to the question of how to sustain prosperity in one of the most crowded and expensive cities in the world.
The signs of overcrowding and urban stress are palpable to any visitor. Prices are surging, public services in a nation famed for nanny-state tendencies are slipping and some of the finest infrastructure anywhere is buckling under the strain. Locals blame the influx of immigrants, which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's ruling party touts as one key to Singapore's success in the years to come.
The city-state, with about half the area of New York City, has 3.3 million citizens and 2 million foreign residents, many of whom have contributed greatly to Singapore's growth in finance and construction. Yet complaints that overseas workers deprive locals of jobs and drive up housing prices fill the air. Singapore is the third-most-expensive Asian city and ranks as the sixth most-costly in the world, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit ranking of 131 cities.
Singapore may well serve as a case study for what happens when leaders try to offset slowing economic growth with immigration and increased birthrates. There are lessons that Japan or Italy would do well to study. All of it is turning into a political liability for Lee, the son of Lee Kuan Yew, who is regarded as the father of modern Singapore.
The erosion in his party's popularity is accelerating after the release Jan. 29 of a white paper that contained the 6.9 million figure, which it calls a projection, not a goal. Lee Hsien Loong has since said the number of people will be "significantly" lower than the report suggests. Will Singaporeans buy that?
"The new population policy is anti-Singaporean and it threatens our existence and livelihoods," says Gilbert Goh, 51, an advocate for unemployed citizens and an organizer of the Feb. 16 protest.
Sadly, some of the rants one reads in the media and online veer toward xenophobia. If Singaporeans are so livid, they should stop supporting Lee's party. After all, isn't the government, by seeking to import more human capital, telling its own people that they lack the skills to compete? Anyone who doubts Singapore is serious only has to look at accelerating efforts to reclaim land from the sea for development, giving the city the room for population growth.
The real question, as public angst rises, is whether the opposition is justified. Former United Nations demographer Joseph Chamie says it is. To Chamie, the view that it's almost always better to have more and more people is the human equivalent of what Bernard Madoff did with money, something he calls "Ponzi demography."
The human-pyramid scheme works like this: Population growth, either through births or immigration, boosts demand for goods and services, increases borrowing, boosts tax revenue and adds to corporate profits. Everything seems grand and leaders take a bow.
It's a bubble, though, and it eventually bursts when population growth stalls. Incomes top out, high debt crushes consumption and investment, the need for public assistance rises, environmental degradation increases and angry people take to the streets.
As households are left to pick up the tab once Ponzi demography runs its course, government leaders issue dire warnings about economic decline if the flow of fresh talent stops.
This will sound familiar to Singaporeans as Lee's People's Action Party sketches out a dystopian future without adding wealthy bankers and low-income workers to the nation's ranks.
Singapore needs to find another way. The era of easy growth is over. Just as economies such as Japan and South Korea are seeing the limits of their export-led models, Singapore's formula has run its course. Raising the productivity of its current workforce would be more potent for a developed, open economy looking to compete in a region dominated by the cheap labor and manufacturing of China and India. Singapore should focus as much energy on incentives for its existing residents to innovate and start new businesses as on adding more bodies.
Not only is Singapore toying with liberalized immigration, it's also revving up a campaign to persuade Singaporeans to wed younger and reproduce. It is an odd push for Lee. Four decades ago, concern about overpopulation prompted his father to urge a delay in nuptials and to have smaller families. Today, amid a birthrate of about 1.3 children per woman, efforts to encourage bigger families border on the offensive. Just check a new website, "Hey Baby."
Singapore's addiction to population growth sends a simple and disconcerting message: The country has run out of ideas to increase economic vitality, aside from encouraging people to procreate or immigrate. Ponzi demography, indeed.
William Pesek is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

subset: commoncrawl


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If you want one of the core chemistry textbooks then this is one of the best. This chemistry textbook is the one that elaborates on the essential subject matter and knowledge you will need to understand chemistry as the science at the centre of everything. Highlights include the detailed yet relatively easy to understand chemistry facts and the accompanying images are excellent. This version also includes the vital Mastering Chemistry. This is one of our best selling cheap chemistry textbooks that continues to offer quality at a great price to college students. Bruce E. Bursten is the author of 'Chemistry: The Central Science Plus MasteringChemistry with eText -- Access Card Package (12th Edition)', published 2011 under ISBN 9780321741059 and ISBN 0321741056.[read more]
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Sound Off, March 4, 2013
To the person who responded to my article about the fairness in the blog.
The answer to your question is I care. Obviously I cared enough to write a letter about the imbalance of pro-Republican articles against the Democrats. I would think if you bothered to check you would see that I am right about the imbalance. You probably don't care about fairness in voting either, which is another Republican trait. As far as me having to much time on my hands, well, the time on my hands is none of your business. I choose to pay attention to what I perceive to be an imbalance in the articles in the blog, then it is my business. So mind your own business!
Hooray for President Obama and the Gop for implementing the upcoming spending cuts to lower our horrendous deficit!
We lower our overbloated defense budget, maybe now we can stop being the world's bully!
Our war budget is shameful. No wonder we love guns so much.
We lower domestic expenses- something we should have been doing the past 12 years!.. We, as Americans do not know how to sacrifice. Every special interest says 'No, not me, when it comes to giving back to America... take it from the other guy."
We are a very selfish nation. Makes me wonder, if the back to nature, non-materialistic creed, anti- war philosophy of the hippies of the 60s was much more appropriate than the business first, let's go to war, screw the ecology philosophy of the past 40 years? Had enough of the "me first" "guns and war are good" philosophy, yet?
Our Washington Democrats were in the state urging voters to call the Republicans. Good idea! I am going to go down the list and call as many as I can and thank them for the sequester and urge each and every one of them to continue. They all made laughable remarks about the seriousness of the sequester for the needy, our schools, blah,blah. Doesn't affect me one bit. If we can live on 2 percent less due to increase in payroll taxes, the federal government darn well can learn to exist on less.
It is time the Washington Democrats learn to get along. And truly represent all classes, not just the welfare class.
On the TV news they were talking about how much the big snow storms in the Midwest will help ease the drought, and the answer is, not much. They're well over 20 inches of rain short and the snow will only account for about 2 inches. And that is if it melts slowly and has a chance to seep into the ground. They also discussed the fact that corn production is suffering, due to the drought. You think?? This, of course, makes the price of animal feed go sky high as well as what's used for human consumption and the various other uses. They said that HALF of the corn produced in the United States is used to make ethanol.
Now what's wrong with this picture? What's wrong is that we will be sipping our food allotment of corn at the gas pump to keep from starving to death, but we won't run out of gas on the way, we'll just keel over from starvation. Of course, our drinking cups cannot exceed 16 ounces.
There was a man being interviewed on TV, a Mexican/American from some small town in Texas. He said that he'd worked at the cattle feed lots for many years and that the one in his town will be shutting down due to high feed prices and the lack of livestock being raised. He went on to say that all of the other businesses in the town will go belly up with everyone out of work and the whole town will die. This is progress?


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Video removed as a courtesy to EA.Shot on the sly at GDC, the Italian gaming site Multiplayer.it provides this peek at the visual tour de force of Battlefield 3 - including urban combat with buckling pavement and crumbling buildings, and even an aerial sequence?
The video appears to come from a behind-closed-doors screening at the Game Developers Conference, much of it gameplay. Even filmed bootleg style, the game's packing some serious visuals.
For more on Battlefield 3 from GDC, check out our full preview.
[via Multiplayer.it]


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Document Type
- Journal article (1)
- Conference Proceeding (1)
- positron emission tomography (2)
- vandetanib (2)
- 2- deoxy-2-(18F)fluoro-D-glucose (1)
- Medullärer Schilddrüsenkrebs (1)
- Positronen-Emissions-Tomografie (1)
- medullary thyroid carcinoma (1)
- tyrosine kinase inhibitor (1)
Predictive value of FDG-PET in patients with advanced medullary thyroid cancer undergoing vandetanib treatment (2017)
Introduction: The prognosis of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is poor using common chemotherapeutic approaches. However, during the last years encouraging results of recently introduced tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) such as vandetanib have been published. In this study we aimed to correlate the results of \(^{18}\)F-fluorodeoxyglucose ([\(^{18}\)F]FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging with treatment outcome. Methods: Eighteen patients after thyroidectomy with recurrent/advanced MTC lesions receiving vandetanib (300 mg orally/day) could be analysed. A baseline \(^{18}\)F-FDG PET prior to and a follow-up \(^{18}\)F-FDG PET 3 months after TKI initiation were performed. During follow-up, tumor progression was assessed every 3 months including computed tomography according to RECIST. Progression-free survival (PFS) was correlated with the maximum standardized uptake value of \(^{18}\)F-FDG in lymph nodes (SUV(LN)max) or visceral metastases (SUV(MTS)max) as well as with clinical parameters using ROC analysis. Results: Within median 3.6 years of follow-up, 9 patients showed disease progression at median 8.5 months after TKI initiation. An elevated glucose consumption assessed by baseline \(^{18}\)F-FDG PET (SUV(LN)max > 7.25) could predict a shorter PFS (2 y) with an accuracy of 76.5% (SUV(LN)max <7.25, 4.3 y; p=0.03). Accordingly, preserved tumor metabolism in the follow-up PET (SUV(MTS)max >2.7) also demonstrated an unfavorable prognosis (accuracy, 85.7%). On the other hand, none of the clinical parameters reached significance in response prediction. Conclusions: In patients with advanced and progressive MTC, tumors with higher metabolic activity at baseline are more aggressive and more prone to progression as reflected by a shorter PFS; they should be monitored more closely. Preserved glucose consumption 3 months after treatment initiation was also related to poorer prognosis.
Predictive value of \(^{18}\)F-FDG PET in patients with advanced medullary thyroid carcinoma treated with vandetanib (2018)
Introduction: Therapeutic options in advanced medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) have markedly improved since the introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). We aimed to assess the role of metabolic imaging using 2-deoxy-2-(\(^{18}\)F)fluoro-D-glucose (\(^{18}\)F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) shortly before and 3 months after initiation of TKI treatment. Methods: Eighteen patients with advanced and progressive MTC scheduled for vandetanib treatment underwent baseline \(^{18}\)F-FDG PET/CT prior to and 3 months after TKI treatment initiation. During follow-up, CT scans were performed every 3 months and analyzed according to Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST). The predictive value for estimating progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) was examined by investigating \(^{18}\)F-FDG mean/maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmean/max) of the metabolically most active lesion as well as by analyzing clinical parameters (tumor marker doubling times {calcitonin, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)}, prior therapies, RET (rearranged during transfection) mutational status, and disease type). Results: Within a median follow-up of 5.2 years, 9 patients experienced disease progression after a median time interval of 2.1y whereas the remainder had ongoing disease control (n=5 partial response and n=4 stable disease). Eight of the 9 patients with progressive disease died from MTC after a median of 3.5y after TKI initiation. Pre-therapeutic SUVmean >4.0 predicted a significantly shorter PFS (PFS: 1.9y vs. 5.2y; p=0.04). Furthermore, sustained high 18F-FDG uptake at 3 months with a SUVmean>2.8 tended to portend an unfavorable prognosis with a PFS of 1.9y (vs. 3.5y; p=0.3). Prolonged CEA doubling times were significantly correlated with longer PFS (r=0.7) and OS (r=0.76, p<0.01, respectively). None of the other clinical parameters had prognostic significance. Conclusions: Pre-therapeutic \(^{18}\)F-FDG PET/CT holds prognostic information in patients with advanced MTC scheduled for treatment with the TKI vandetanib. Low tumor metabolism of SUVmean < 4.0 prior to treatment predicts longer progression-free survival.


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6 Health Benefits of Aloe Vera Juice for Your Heart
The thick gel found in the leaf of the aloe vera plant has been used for thousands of years to heal a variety of topical conditions. In fact, aloe gel was one of the most frequently prescribed medicines in the 18th and 19th centuries. The gel is composed of 95 to … Read More


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It's a sign that Rod Barajas is finally healthy enough to catch normally: Eric Fryer has been optioned back down to AAA. Fryer went mostly unused in his 11 days on the roster, acting as an emergency catcher in case Michael McKenry was hurt. In four games he was 1 for 3 with a single.
Matt Hague was been called up. I don't expect he'll see many starts with Casey McGehee and Garrett Jones swinging well but he should serve as a good bat off the bench. As a pinch hitter this year he's 4 for 12 with 1 strikeout, 2 runs scored and 2 RBIs.
Filed under: baseball, Pirates | Tagged: baseball, Casey McGehee, Eric Fryer, Garrett Jones, Matt Hague, Michael McKenry, Pirates, Rod Barajas |


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Motawi MSU Block S in Green - 4x4
Motawi Tileworks Collection
Officially licensed MSU Block S tiles are the perfect addition to either the tailgate table or go all the way and incorporate several into a bar backsplash. Go Green! Motawi Tileworks is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan where they design and make all of their ceramic tiles by hand. They can be hung on the wall, displayed on a stand, or used as the focal point in your next tile project.
- size: 3-13/16" square
- size with frame: 7-1/2" square
- tiles are 5/8" thick and have a notch at the back for hanging.
The solid wood frames are built by Family Woodworks in Pennsylvania with premium 2-inch flat quartersawn white oak wood and finished using their 4 step signature process. Available in Nutmeg and Ebony finishes.
- solid oak
- 2" wide
The solid wood clocks are handmade in Iowa by Schlabaugh & Sons. Quartz movement with AA battery included.
- Arts & Crafts clock - 6w x 10h x 3d
- Prairie clock - 10w x 10 1/2h x 4 3/4d


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Mystic Seaport seeks experienced captain for 19th century wooden whaling ship
MYSTIC >> Only experienced mariners need apply.
Mystic Seaport is looking for the first captain in more than 90 years for the historic whaling ship, the Charles W. Morgan. The Connecticut maritime museum has been restoring the 172-year-old wooden ship, preparing it to sail across New England next summer.
The Day of New London reports that seaport officials said job candidates must be experienced mariners and also be comfortable with the public because of the media attention and crowds the ship will attract during its three-month trip.
"They have to be absolutely qualified to manage this artifact, which has national and international importance," said Dana Hewson, the museum's vice president for Watercraft Preservation and Programs. "They also have to embrace the role of the public nature of this endeavor."
Applicants must have a 500-ton Near Coastal Master license and 10 years of command experience on traditional sailing vessels with extensive knowledge in square-rig sailing. The job could require the captain to work with the media, passengers and governors of the states the ship is visiting.
Qualifications limit the size of the pool of candidates, Hewson said.
"It's a relatively small world, so it's certainly been known in the field that we'd be doing this," he said.
The Morgan's last voyage ended in 1921 and is the world's only surviving wooden whaling ship.
The ship, which was launched by Mystic Seaport in July, will visit ports in Boston, New Bedford, New London, Newport and Provincetown next year. Organizers and scientists say one of its most important destinations will be Stellwagen Bank off Boston, which had been a hunting ground for whales and is now a refuge.
The Morgan will sail with a mission to raise public awareness of the importance of protecting the oceans and its species and of whale watching as a sustainable business.
Hewson said the museum hopes to announce the new captain in the next two or three months. The captain will be involved in the fitting out of the ship next spring and the job will end once the voyage is completed in August 2014.
Mystic Seaport would not disclose the salary.


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NIST 2012 budget spotlights cybersecurity
From: GCN
By William Jackson
The fiscal 2012 budget for the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the appropriations bill signed into law in November is up just slightly from fiscal 2011, but it shifts a sizable amount of money to in-house research and engineering, including two cybersecurity programs.
A National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence to be housed at NIST is funded to the tune of $10 million for the year, and $16.5 million is appropriated to support the administration's National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which is managed by NIST.
The Consolidated and Continuing Appropriations Act of 2012 provides $750.8 million for NIST overall, up from $750.1 million for last year. The lion's share of the budget, $567 million, goes to Scientific and Technical Research Services, an increase of almost $70 million in the current year, according to NIST. Of the remainder, $128.4 million goes to the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a public-private green manufacturing initiative managed by NIST to work with small and midsize U.S. manufacturers. Another $55.4 million is slated for construction and maintenance of research facilities, down $14.5 million from fiscal 2011.
Cut from this year's budget were the Technology Innovation Program and the Baldridge Performance Excellence Program.
Development of cybersecurity standards and guidelines has become a major effort at NIST, particularly since the passage of the Federal Information Security Management Act in 2002, which made the agency responsible for technical specifications for FISMA compliance. Its publications have helped to establish a baseline for information security requirements, along with formal descriptions and definitions for foundational concepts such as risk-based management.This effort would be extended in the National Cybersecurity Center for Excellence. The center is intended to support cybersecurity activities in state and local governments, academia, and the private sector as well as the federal government. It will provide a hub for developing, evaluating and transferring technology to the sectors. Its activities would include researching cybersecurity threats and training workers.NIST was chosen to house the center because although a number of agencies have a role in government's information assurance, NIST is the only federal lab whose mission is to collaborate with the private sector on standards.The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, released in April, is a conceptual framework for a system of voluntary, interoperable credentials that could be widely accepted for online transactions. The goal is to create an identity ecosystem that would help enable the estimated $10 trillion worth of online business being conducted globally each year. The program does not envision a single, government-mandated ID or credential. The private sector would be responsible for developing and fielding the technologies for the ID ecosystem, with the government playing only a supporting role. NIST manages the NSTIC program office and coordinates interagency activities in this area.NSTIC's roots go back to the president's Cyberspace Policy Review, which recommended the creation of an identity ecosystem that would allow the use of strong, interoperable credentials.
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I'm always getting letters from great Aromandina fans asking me for more DIY ideas. One thing that you all really seem to love is sugar scrubs. According to your letters, you can't get enough of them! That's why I'm sharing my recipe for homemade Cocoa Mint Sugar Scrub. The ingredients seem like they would make a decadent dessert — but in this case, they're a yummy treat for your skin and your mood!Read more
Aromatherapy Article|Aromatherapy for Hair and Skin|Aromatherapy News|DIY Body Care
Cocoa Mint Sugar Scrub — Yummy for Your Skin AND Your Mood!
Posted: December 22, 2013 by


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An arrangement that is exquisite as its name suggests, this bouquet has lavender stock, mini spray roses, and fuchsia heather.


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Abstract and Keywords
Worldwide, governments subsidize agriculture at the rate of approximately 1 billion dollars per day. This figure rises to about twice that when export and biofuels production subsidies and state financing for dams and river basin engineering are included. These policies guide land use in numerous ways, including growers' choices of crop and buyers' demand for commodities. The three types of state subsidies that shape land use and the environment are land settlement programs, price and income supports, and energy and emissions initiatives. Together these subsidies have created perennial surpluses in global stores of cereal grains, cotton, and dairy, with production increases outstripping population growth. Subsidies to land settlement, to crop prices, and to processing and refining of cereals and fiber, therefore, can be shown to have independent and largely deleterious effect on soil fertility, fresh water supplies, biodiversity, and atmospheric carbon.
Keywords: agricultural policy, land use, soil loss, climate change, biofuels, subsidies
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Created especially for Australian customer!
This book puts more fish on your line!
Want to dangle a line anywhere in Australia or New Zealand? On the way to becoming a successful angler, discover how to choose your tackle confidently, master rigs and knots, read your fishing environment, cast efficiently and take home more fish for the table — all while
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Sharpsburg Baptist Church and the women's service group, the Olive Branch, will host the annual Chicken Q and Fair scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 24, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the church, 6413 Ga. Hwy. 54 in Sharpsburg.
Space for selling arts and crafts and food items is available for $15. In addition, chicken barbecue is available from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for a cost of $8 per plate, including 1/2 chicken, slaw, potato chips, bread and tea. Tickets are available by calling 770-251-6963 or walk-up.
For addition questions call 770-251-6963 or email email@example.com.


text:
The world of Remnant, a world of magic and monsters known as Grimm. Students from Beacon Academy learn to become Hunters and Huntresses protecting the citizens from the dangers of the Grimm, but the Grimm aren't the only monsters to watch out for.
Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame.
Allows you to choose the data by which the thread list will be sorted.
Order threads in...
Note: when sorting by date, 'descending order' will show the newest results first.
Forum Rules


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Has your camera been damaged in some way or developed a fault. We repair all types of damage from replacing a scratched lens or LCD screen to charger and battery replacements. Are you looking to sell your camera and want it to look as like new? We can service it for you and replace any damaged parts.
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text:
After very few issues only I moved my application from Python2 to Python3 making sure it will still run with Python 2.7, and hence has python >= 2.7 as dependency only.
This was mainly done because Python3, and some dependencies are not installed in a default 12.04 LTS, and I do not want my users to have to install all Python3 only to run my script.
When I create an appname.desktop launcher I now need to decide if it starts my application using Python2, or Python3 like
EXEC=python /path/app.py
EXEC=python3 /path/app.py
But what I would like it to do is to
- Launch the application with the Python3 interpreter if Python3 is installed.
- Otherwise use Python2 if Python3 is not installed.
How can this be done? Do I need to tell it in my package installation script, or can I have a launcher which can handle both (in case people install Python3 after they had installed my script)?


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A decade ago, hormone replacement therapy seemed to be the solution to all of the uncomfortable symptoms women face during menopause. Then in 2002 researchers from the Women's Health Initiative found several health risks associated with HRT and pulled the plug on their study early. In light of these results, many women stopped using HRT. Now the pendulum seems to be swinging back. The WHI study has come under fire by many doctors and researchers for the methods it used. In many new studies, HRT has been shown to have far fewer risks - and more benefits - than the WHI study led women to believe.
In this interview, learn what Davis, California gynecologist Dr. Michael Goodman has to say about the HRT controversy. He'll discuss the causes of and treatments for hot flashes, vaginal dryness and other common symptoms of menopause as well as the potential risks and benefits those treatments have for your heart, breasts, bones and brain.
Pre, Peri, Post? Defining the Menopause Transition
Dr. Goodman: Menopause is basically when a woman, who is born with maybe 200 , 300 , 400,000 eggs and then with each menstrual cycle loses maybe 40, 50, 60 of those, runs low and almost out of eggs to the point that ovulation doesn't proceed, and she stops her periods, and that literally is menopause.
Reproductive years are the time when you are most likely to get pregnant - regular periods, whole lot of eggs, whole lot of hormones. Premenopause is the time, maybe late 30s, early 40s or so, when the periods have changed a little bit. They are not quite as regular, but they are still pretty regular; that's when PMS sort of raises its ugly head.
Then there is perimenopause. Perimenopause is really the time around the final period. Again, menopause is the final period. So perimenopause is really the roughest time, and that's where there are a lot of these ups and downs and real irregularities in the periods and a bunch of other things. By definition, perimenopause is five or six years before the final period, and the year after. But that's just a definition from people who have to give temporal relationships to definitions. It's really that time before and after the final period where things are rough.
Menopause is just a point in time, and post-menopause is everything that's after your final period. The only way you know that it's the final period - again by arbitrary definition - is one year later. So if you haven't had a period in one year, you are officially post-menopausal.
Some women go through menopause really easily, and some women have a heck of a time, and interestingly there are types of people that have easier or more difficult menopause. Everyone is an individual, but women who are larger tend to have a little easier menopause. Women who are especially stressed and concerned about menopause or who have had difficulties in the past, had a sister or a mom that went through difficult menopause, and anxiety leads to a more difficult menopause.
In no particular order, what's the list of symptoms? Hot or warm flashes, palpitations, headaches, sleep disturbances, chest pressure or pain, shortness of breath, numbness, weakness, fatigue, bone and joint pain, memory loss, anxiety. What else? Loss of urinary control, vaginal dryness big time, memory difficulties, loss of sexual desire, pain with lovemaking, disrupted functioning at home and in the workplace, crawling skin, restless legs, dry eyes, hearing difficulties, a bunch of different things.
With hormone therapy you are replacing what the body is losing or has lost. There are many things that can be used, but it is really all about estrogen. That's what menopause is all about. There can be hormone supplementation when a woman is perimenopausal, when there are ups and downs, she is losing estrogen but really hasn't lost it yet; that's more supplementation. Then there is replacement therapy when the estrogen level is just on the floor. What estrogen does is smooth the peaks and valleys, and it basically replaces what the body is used to.
Hormone Replacement and the Women's Health Initiative
Dr. Goodman: The Women's Health Initiative, the WHI, study results came out in July of 2002. It is in my opinion, and a lot of menopause specialists' opinions, the worst thing that's been done for women's health. It's the thing that's set women's health back the most so far this century.
What the Women's Health Initiative purported to show, number one, was that estrogen led to a higher risk of breast cancer. Not true. Number two, that - unlike previously thought - estrogen did not help with cardiovascular disease. It made it worse. That is not true. It depends on when you start estrogen. Third was that it didn't help with cognition. That's also not true. It depends on when you start and a whole host of other things.
The interesting thing is that the WHI data flew in the face of all the other studies, which tended to show that hormone therapy helped the heart. But the Women's Health Initiative study was a study of older women taking hormones. If you were there at 48, 52, and you are going through menopause and having a lot of symptoms, you were excluded from the study because half the women got estrogen, half got the sugar pill, and they didn't want to take women who were having all these symptoms that they knew would be helped by estrogen and deny it to them. So they just excluded them from the study.
So it was a study of older women on hormones, and that's the big deal because there is a window of opportunity. This has been shown by the reanalysis of the WHI data and by countless other studies, that if a woman starts on hormone therapy near to menopause, shortly after menopause, certainly within the first three years of menopause and arguably within the first five, any type of HRT protects against cardiovascular disease and protects against cognitive difficulties somewhere in the range of 30 to 60 percent.
The other thing it showed was that there was a huge difference in breast cancer rates between women who took estrogen - and again the study was on oral estrogen, not on transdermal, big difference - and it was a specific oral estrogen called Premarin that was combined with a very strong synthetic progesterone called Provera, the least helpful of all the progesterones. What it shows is that when you combined these, there was a higher risk of breast cancer. But lo and behold, afterward when they analyzed the part of the study with the women who were only taking estrogen, no synthetic progesterone, those women didn't have any greater incidence of breast cancer, in fact had a little less breast cancer.
You know, if something is a big problem and is scary, it's going to make the front page. If a little later on it turns out it's not as scary as we thought or it's good news, maybe it will make page 17. So what happened with the Women's Health Initiative study was bad news. It was publicized. And then the medical pundits came in. Some of these pundits were OB/GYNs. Most of them were not. So all of them said, "Oh, yeah, I guess so, women should stop their hormones," before they read the study.
Oral vs. Transdermal Estrogen for Treating Menopause Symptoms
Dr. Goodman: The ESTHER (Estrogen and Thromboembolism Risk) study comparing oral versus transdermal - in other words through the skin with a patch or a gel compared to oral estrogen - shows unequivocally that through the skin that is much safer. The problems that have previously been attributed to estrogen, meaning stroke, blood clots, those kinds of things, cutting down your thyroid hormone level, making you hypothyroid, bringing down your testosterone level, diminishing sexual desire, those are the results not of the estrogen, but of the oral estrogen, because oral estrogens are cleared through the liver. In that clearance process, orals go through and low-dose transdermals don't. A lot of things are liberated by the liver, including clotting factors and binding proteins that cause a lot of the problems that were attributed to estrogen because all of the early studies were done with oral estrogen. They were done with Premarin, some of them with Estrace. But they were done with what was available then, and it was thought that all these bad things were because of estrogen, and it turns out that a lot of the bad things are because of the oral form of estrogen.
The Roles of Progesterone and Testosterone in Menopause
Dr. Goodman: Why do doctors add progesterone and testosterone [to HRT]? First, most doctors do not add testosterone, and that's a damn shame because testosterone is a female hormone also. And certainly if you have a surgical menopause, meaning your ovaries have been removed and you go into menopause in one fell swoop, you have lost 50 percent of your testosterone. So if you are a woman that's had a surgical menopause, and your doctor dutifully supplied you with, hopefully, transdermal estrogen and hasn't supplied you with testosterone, you ought to go back and ask why. I don't know why doctors forget that. Testosterone goes down in women also, but again the big thing is estrogen. You can't really give testosterone without estrogen.
Why do doctors add progesterone? Well, progesterone is produced by the body month by month by month after you ovulate. It's to prepare the lining of the uterus for pregnancy, get it nice and sticky, sort of feathering the nest, and then if you don't get pregnant that nice mature lining is totally swept away in the menses as your estrogen and progesterone go down. There's a certain percentage of women, somewhere between five and ten percent, that are genetically at risk to form endometrial cancer or cancer of the uterus, and that can be stimulated by estrogen. If you take estrogen past menopause, and you are one of those women, you are at higher risk for endometrial cancer. So progesterone is frequently added to the mix on an ongoing basis to protect the uterus either day after day after day, or cyclically, by taking ten days or two weeks of some progesterone compound every two, three, four months or so to get rid of any tissue that might have been built up.
My advice is, if that's going to happen, great. But it should be either a bio-identical progesterone which can be trade name Prometrium or possibly a compound called norethindrone, definitely not Provera unless the Provera is being given only cyclically for withdrawal every few months.
The Real Risks of Hormone Replacement Therapy
Dr. Goodman: There is no increased risk at all for ovarian cancer, definitely. In fact, there is significant evidence that shows that hormone therapy in the form of birth control pills protects women from endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer. So in other words, women that have been on birth control pills for 20 years between their teens and their 40s or something like that have significantly less endometrial and ovarian cancer. So no increased risk on hormone therapy with ovarian cancer or any other kind of cancer with the exception of breast and endometrial cancer, which I will talk about in a second.
Endometrial cancer we just talked about as far as the risk of hormone therapy. If you are one of those women with a genetic predisposition - we don't know who they are yet, so we treat all women like this - to prevent endometrial cancer take a progesterone along with the estrogen either continually or cyclically.
The big one is breast cancer. Everybody is scared of breast cancer, and I don't blame women for being scared of breast cancer, but, you know, in a way it's not as scary as you may think. First, more women than men die from cardiovascular disease. Second, more women die from cardiovascular disease than all cancers combined. So you have to look at things in context.
If a woman is taking low dose hormone therapy in the way I was talking about - in other words, limiting the amount of estrogen, having it transdermal, going to cyclic progesterone or no progesterone at all if she is not building up tissue - in that situation, there is no increased risk of breast cancer for up to seven to ten years of continuous therapy.
Beyond that, the statistical risk from about seven or ten years on with low doses of HRT, is somewhere between an additional three to five cases of hormone-sensitive breast cancer per 10,000 women per year, and the amount of heart disease you will prevent is far higher than that.
So what about a woman with either a family history of breast cancer or cancer in situ, or she's a breast cancer survivor? With breast cancer, there is hormonally dependent and there is non-hormonally dependent. The least virulent types of breast cancers are the hormonally dependent. They are much easier to treat. If she has a history of non-hormonally dependent breast cancer, there is no reason in the world why she can't take estrogen. It doesn't increase her risk.
HRT reduces the risk of colorectal cancer by exactly the same percentage as the supposed increase in breast cancer that everybody got bent out of shape from in the WHI, an additional seven to eight cases per 10,000 women per year.
Oral estrogens, yes they increase the risk of stroke. Low-dose transdermal with a little asterisk behind it, no.
Finding a Doctor with Experience Treating Menopause
Dr. Goodman: So what do women ask the doctor? Well, hopefully you are going to see a doctor who is a guide rather than a pill pusher and who has some time to spend with you - and unfortunately that's not the majority of doctors. So the first thing is, if you are having problems, and it's not solved by your quick seven- or eight-minute visit with your primary care doctor, then you may need to spend a little money to see a doc out of network who is a menopause specialist. How you find one is you go online to menopause.org. That is the North American Menopause Society's Web site, and on there they have all the members, but what they especially have is what are called certified menopause practitioners. These are nurse practitioners and physicians who have taken the extra time and training to become certified in the treatment of menopause. So that's one thing you do.
But you go in to see the doctor with a list. Go in with a list of what the problem is. You want to ask your doctor, what are the options, what are the pros and cons, and you want to tell her or him where you want to go and how you would like to get there, and make sure you get your answer and don't settle for an appointment for three or four months later. You don't settle for oral therapy. You don't settle for a quick answer. If the doc has only a limited amount of time, which happens a lot of times, and the doctor is frustrated as you folks out there might be, then you demand another appointment to come back to get it worked out.
Hormone Replacement Therapy Isn't 'One Size Fits All'
Dr. Goodman: So obviously you are going to go in if there is a problem, meaning the periods are all over the map, meaning 'I am having a lot of PMS,' meaning 'I am not sleeping well,' ups and downs. You will start some sort of regulation, and this regulation doesn't have to be with hormones. It can be with herbs and botanicals and definitely lifestyle changes.
It's all individual. If you are going through perimenopause, it's a tougher deal because sometimes you are high, sometimes you are low. There is a place in perimenopause where using either oral or vaginal or transdermal contraceptives, like using birth control pills because that can give you a steady level and also regulate the periods that are sometimes going blooey during that time - that's not a bad time for oral-contraceptive-type therapy.
Otherwise during perimenopause I start real low and carefully, because too much estrogen causes breast tenderness and anxiety and irritability and that sort of thing. I'll tend to use more progesterone than estrogen sometimes early on because a lot of times progesterone, in either a cream form or an oral micronized form, to use it at bedtime, is a great replacement during perimenopause. I am talking about progesterone, I am not talking about a synthetic progestin. There is a place for synthetics sometimes, but not in this.
Estrogen is great at the lowest dose that will take care of things during the menopause transition just to smooth those peaks and valleys and to get you through menopause, and then little by little after you are through menopause, little by little, under your control fade off and stop. That's one way, and that probably is the safest for the breast and may arguably be a little safer for stroke, blood clot kind of thing, but again that data is oral data, not transdermal. That's one way.
Then there are all the studies that say if you start around that time and you continue for five and probably ten years or more, you have all these cardiovascular and cognitive benefits, and you protect your bones. So there are different ways. It really depends on risk factors. It depends on how you are feeling about it. You have got to feel good about taking what you take.
Over-the-Counter Options for Treating Menopause Symptoms
Dr. Goodman: First, believe about ten percent of what you see on the Internet when it's talking about hormonal substances. I am not being cute. I'm being real. If anything is advertised to you as being natural, stay away from that. "Natural" is an advertising term. Understand that. Natural is trying to get you to buy something because it's 'natural.' Doesn't mean it's better. Natural is something that comes directly from a plant or an animal source. So for example, Premarin, that oral pill that everyone hates, that is the only natural hormonal product there is. Natural is different than bio-identicals. Bio-identical is very different. Bio-identical is a hormone that is synthesized from a natural product to be biologically identical to what's found in nature inside your body.
The recent controversy about bio-identical hormone replacement therapy is not really about bio-identicals. The problem is with some false advertising on the part of some compounders. So what was happening is some online pharmacies and some other non-online pharmacies were advertising something to the tune of BHRT (bio-identical hormone replacement therapy), an alternative to estrogen therapy. The fact is that BHRT is hormone therapy. Some of these pharmacists were deciding on the doses, and the patients were almost ordering from the pharmacy, and the pharmacy would call their doctor to get a rubber stamp okay, and the doctor didn't know anything about what was going on, and these pharmacists were giving huge doses.
We'll get to online products and herbs and botanicals and supplements. There are a lot of over-the-counter products that have names that make you think that they have got estrogen in them: Estroven, Estro-something. And it turns out that there is no estrogen in any of those products. They just have names that make you think they have estrogen in them. Also wild Mexican yam has no progesterone in it, and the body doesn't have the metabolic processes to convert it. A chemist can do that in the lab. So it's buyer beware on these.
Suffice it to say that a lot of herbal and botanical products have been used to success, but every single one of these products, every single one is now being tested in double-blind studies, and not one, including chasteberry fruit or primrose oil or Dong Quai or isoflavones or black cohosh, none of them has been shown superior to placebo, because the placebo effect of perimenopausal hormone products approaches and sometimes exceeds 50 percent. So in all these studies all of these things have been very helpful, but the placebos were just as helpful.
For More Information About Hormone Replacement Therapy
If you'd like to learn more about hormone replacement therapy for treating the symptoms of menopause, listen to the entire webcast of The Facts on Hormone Replacement Therapy and hear how Dr. Goodman answered questions from our audience.
For more information on menopause, check out these other HealthTalk resources:


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Objects in the shade of Alloy Orange
The closest color to #cd592e in the Crayola® color palette is
Alloy Orange which has the hex code of #c46210.
Perhaps you'd like to see the intersection between this color and CSS3 or CSS4 palettes?
Alas, there are no images to show you right now.


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ASM skimmers are one of the most efficient skimmers available. Each ASM G2 potein skimmer comes complete with a Sedra 3500 pump, which utilize needle-wheel technology (modified impeller to create super fine bubbles). These hand-made protein skimmers are easy to install, simply place inside your sump, plug it in, and adjust the overflow rate.
Body Size (in) 6 1/2Height (in) 25Footprint (in) 10 x 11Pump (Sedra) 3500Rec. Tank Size 200 Gal


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NH revenues $49M shy expectations in November, mostly due to hospitals not paying taxes
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) � New Hampshire is looking at a big revenue hole in November after hospitals paid $48 million less in taxes than expected.
Administrative Services Commissioner Linda Hodgdon said Tuesday that the state got $49 million less than expected last month and the $48 million accounted for all but $1 million of it. She said the state expects to receive some of the $48 million, but it is unclear how much.
The state taxes hospitals on net patient revenues. The hospitals did not question the guidelines used to determine what was taxable until the current budget was passed last year that cut state payments to hospitals. Ten hospitals are suing the state over the cuts.
The state took in $146 million in November instead of the $195 million it expected.


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Is there any proof that Paul was actually a Pharisee? I ask this because of a recent clash I had with someone claiming that Paul was a Hellenistic Jew influenced by the culture of mystery schools in Tarsus. He claimed that early Christianity has it's roots in these Gnostic mystery schools, and that Paul implemented certain aspects such as rebirth, the Eucharist, baptism, etc. He also said that Hellenistic Judaism already had many aspects of those mystery schools interwoven in it's faith and that therefore Paul chose to minister to the Gentiles because they would be more easily convinced.
I can't find a lot about it, apart from in the Bible. This has me pretty worried since when I search for this on the internet, a lot of "new-age" Gnostic explanations actually affirm it. I hope you can help me out.
You ask for proof that Paul was a Pharisee. The answer will depend upon what your final authority is. Your "debating partner" clearly accepts the idea that human thought is autonomous, i.e., each man must decide for himself what is or is not true. This makes man and his thinking the ultimate authority. But as a Christian you accept the Scripture as your final authority because God, the ultimate arbiter of truth and the final authority in all things, has written the Scriptures.
What this means for your question is simply, "What does the Bible say about Paul?" And Paul himself says that he was a Pharisee in Acts 23:6; 26:5 and Philippians 3:5. The Bible, as God's Word, trumps the internet and any scholar who relies upon human authority that does not submit itself to the Word of God. Thus, you have the proof: Paul was a Pharisee.
"Questions and Answers" is a weekly feature of the OPC website. The answers come from individual ministers in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church expressing their own convictions and do not necessarily represent an "official" position of the Church, especially in areas where the Standards of the Church (the Scriptures and the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms) are silent.
The questions come from individuals like yourself. If you have questions about biblical and theological matters, you are invited to send them by e-mail by using the "Pose a Question" link on the OPC home page or by clicking here.
At least one new question is posted each week, so there should always be something new here for you to read. (For those people who would like to look at previous questions and answers, they will continue to be available as well.)
The purpose of the OPC website's "Questions and Answers" is to respond to biblical and theological questions. Matters of church discipline, disputes, or debates go beyond the scope of our work. We recommend that you present your concerns in these areas to the appropriate judicatory. In most cases this will be to a local pastor, elder, or session. We do not want the website to replace personal involvement in, or commitment to, the local, visible church.
While we will respond to every serious questioner, we are not bound to give a substantive answer to every question, should we deem the question to be beyond the scope of our purpose or our own ability to answer.
You will receive an answer by e-mail. Please be patient as many of our respondents are busy pastors. The response to your question may take up to two (2) weeks. Some of the questions submitted will be chosen to be posted here, along with the corresponding answers.
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Chaplains and Military Personnel


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Violence in Media: A Complicated Relationship
In the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting, America's "culture of violence" has once again entered the national discussion. WSJ's Marshall Crook sits with Wendy Bounds to discuss his own experience with violence in movies, games and more, and how his perspective is changing.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... it's ... we don't know yet and we may never know all that your stool Atlanta and how culture video games TV movies ... maven Philistine may not influence what he did ... I what I wonder is for someone like you but this is a part of who you are does the call to action to take a hard look at this type of stuff is in a queue ... to readers make uncomfortable ... I know I mean I think you know you not talk about this off camera that I a I admit to myself I have to admit to myself ... that as I've gotten older my relationship with the things that the types of violence about watching movies is change not drastically in with a sense of moral outrage but just think or medical ... incrementally ... I'm in a way that I wouldn't have for seen ... even my five years ago twenty nine down twenty nine and the stage or credentials first team of Ion Entertainment we mean by that ... I don't ... shy away from ... art be it you know ... books the movies in some cases video games or TV where ... violence is an integral part of the story click here to savor movies are gone Island well I mean this ... past year ... when my favorite action movies this movie ... the station film called the raid which is ... one of the most violent listeners ears also with the audience I saw what were the most exciting visitors see but I also recognize that it's probably not for everyone in my ability to discern Rio ... take ... is you know that I can actually enjoy ... thus the specific movies and the Matrix like she was tiny and I was watching the Matrix YY bicycle was ... watching the sequel which is not that you don't approve of that ... I did but you we watched the Matrix not long ago you had some different feelings he said to me about when to say there's that one scene where the two protagonists go into the hotel lobby Anderson's beautifully choreographed ... you know a ... bullet ballet action sequence that is a technical marvel ... when I was a kid when I saw it and you know in the later years it was one of the most ... visually ... amazing stimulate isn't ever seen ... but ... the literally three weeks ago when are we watched adapters simply isn't having not seen it ... I was just kind of numb to it right I was actually shocked bummer action there's this we year to ... you know placid expression on his character's faces that they're just going through the motions there's no consequences to the violence whatsoever you don't see any suffering and you know in the ... faces of the people that that that's been killed ... the henchmen ... there's no real story behind each of the henchmen you're just beard led to believe are expected to believe that the bad guys ... the ... and I just remembered ... sky actually having to stop myself and think about why ... I'm not responding in the same ways I use to wear them are doing triage right ... is her riffic Lee violent but ... it's in this world where the violence has real consequences there's real suffering and there's a real ... moral ... conflict with the name within them mind of the main protect innocent least with regards to ... this violent ... outbursts ... and with a few Medicaid yet have a caveat one day you may ... think you had a son or daughter who was under ... on thirteen when she wanted them to see or let them see dark Knight Rises ... the show but Rovio cousin ... of a year ago that our night ... I made sure that I'm sitting there unwilling to pause the movie at any time they had he has a question ... and be an active participant in reading the experience ... I mean that's immediately seems better than just turning on the ... room is so that's a really important point I mean you're bringing and the role of someone who's border into this rate it apparent ... be it someone like you just kind of an enemy entering stage for somebody ... so maybe teach chicken text allies all this ... so with video games I mean how most kids don't play videogames so when the kids are many parents don't you'll probably what many parents tell ... when the kids are playing violent video games ... was in contention was that for them ... another one of the kid that was the homework on that today might do more Alcon that was this thing the kid that started as an arcade game and came up to the tothe as the sector ... um ... and I remember my mother distinctly telling me ... do not I do not want to put mortal combat that is to buy out and of course I went over to someone's house ahead of combat Netflix ... because ... you know as you did that if you do um ... I know I mean I've hung out with people playing like uncharted which is you know ... not super violent but also high on people who make over to the call of duty ... which is incredibly violent and ... their citing a poll we get it it's fun it's immersive its wild ... but it's for me it is one of those things that's Lake I don't know but once been that I'm getting good at this half I also understand if you're immersed in it and if you're part of the call trade you can ... trace like where this game is relative to the skin tone to this game you can die ... confection was so ... whom I decided to mask its weighed on Christmas day ... going decision going to be ... on Christmas day I'm going to see jangle engine in it


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Period Changes in RRc Stars
John R. Percy
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada
Received March 30, 2012; revised April 12, 2012; accepted April 12, 2012
We have used (O–C) analysis to study period changes in forty RRc stars in the GEOS (Groupe Européen d'Observation Stellaire) database of times of maximum of RR Lyrae stars. We find that many of the stars show approximately-linear period changes which are in agreement with the predictions of stellar evolution models. Other stars show period changes that are non-linear and/or larger than predicted by evolution models. Further long-term systematic, sustained observations may help to clarify the nature of the non-evolutionary changes.


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Critical Mass Rides
Critical Mass Rides
The one universal slogan of Critical Masses is We Are the Traffic. The long-running Masses have no pre-determined route, and all participants are equal leaders, having their own claim to their intentions and the purpose of the ride. There may or may not be an obvious overarching cause. Ideally, Critical Mass:
- Starts from the same place at the same time so that people know where to meet you.
- Takes place regularly, but not too often. Once a month is customary.
- Encourages safe riding from participants.
- Hands out leaflets supporting the cause, if there is one.
- Remains courteous.
The police: Cycling UK's briefing on Cyclists' Behaviour and the Law has a section on Critical Mass.


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Welcome to Found Around Town, where we feature cars we find in a city where interesting ones are rare because everyone drives a Prius or rides a bicycle: Austin, Texas.
Actually, I found this one in Marfa, which is in West Texas not far from the Mexican border. For those who haven't heard, Marfa is this tiny, tiny town that was kind of adopted by artists beginning in the 1970s and is now full of cool restaurants, art galleries and some other fairly crazy attractions.
The cars here reflect this dichotomy. You have the older, longtime West Texas residents in their hardscrabble pickup trucks, and you have the tourists and New York second-home-owners in their M-Class Mercedes-Benzes, Audi wagons and Lexus hybrids.
But there's a surprising amount of classic American iron in various conditions around the town too, including a mid-60s Pontiac Bonneville and an International Harvester. But this one was my favorite: a 1962 Plymouth Valiant owned by the famed Food Shark food trailer.
What a cool car the Valiant was! Designed to compete in the emerging compact car segment, this Plymouth has a laundry list of awesome features: unibody construction, torsion bar suspension, Chrysler's famed Slant-6 engine, and a transmission controlled by buttons on the dash are just a few of them.
Styling-wise, it's pretty unique too. I love the little rocket-shaped taillights, the fins on the trunk and the hood, and most of all, the sloping rear end. In its day the styling was called "European" by many, and I tend to agree. It almost looks vaguely Citroen-y, doesn't it? As with most American cars from the late 1950s and early 1960s, future generations of Valiant become far more boring to look at.
The one I found wasn't in the greatest shape, as you can tell from the photos, but it appears to run just fine. It gets extra points for character in my book; here's hoping the owner gives it a full restoration some day.
What are your favorite old-school Plymouths?


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Sure, you could try affixing some magnets to the back of your iPad and get the same iPad-as-fridge-magnet effect for far less, but then what would happen if the iPad dropped and shattered? You wouldn't have anyone to sue but yourself.
Not that I'm suggesting you sue Woodford Design if that does indeed happen, but I do appreciate that £49/$US76 is pretty steep for a couple of magnets. It can obviously be used in either landscape or portrait angles and comes with replaceable corner clips for next year's iPad model. On sale later this year. [Woodford Design via TechRadar]


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Home > About us
To promote veganic agriculture in North America, these are our plans:
Make an internet discussion group for people who are interested in veganic agriculture.
Create a website, www.goveganic.net, where people can learn about veganic principles, techniques, and resources.
Centralize the available internet resources about veganic agriculture for easy access.
Contact veganic farms in North America, and profile the projects of veganic farmers.
Create connections with organizations that have an interest in animal protection, organic agriculture, and sustainability.
Print pamphlets and information sheets to introduce people to the concept of veganic agriculture.
Promote veganics at eco fairs and veg events through talks, stands, and distributing pamphlets.
Encourage farmers, gardeners, and consumers to get involved in the development of the veganic movement.
Future goals:
Organize veganic gatherings to share knowledge and information.
Make a film about veganic farms in North America.
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Conn. shooting families balancing grief, advocacy
HARTFORD -- If and when they choose to speak out, few will have more powerful voices in the national gun-control debate than the families of the Newtown shooting victims.
Since their loved ones were killed in last month's elementary school massacre, the families have met with former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and many have been in touch with local groups created in response to the tragedy. While one mother is clamoring for a say in Washington, people close to other families say the pain is still too raw to enter the realm of advocacy.
"Our family is not looking to make a political statement. It is not looking to change the world," said John Engel, whose cousin's daughter, Olivia Engel, was among 20 first-graders killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. "Our family has been focused entirely on getting through the next month."
As the families weigh whether and how to get involved, they are feeling their way through a swirl of offers and invitations. It is a confusing time even for those looking to contact those affected by the tragedy, including White House officials, who have been reaching out through a grass-roots group in Newtown.
The group, Sandy Hook Promise, was formerly known as Newtown United. It said Friday that it has invited victim family members to an event next week to unveil an initiative to prevent similar tragedies. A co-founder of the group, Tim Makris, said he doesn't have a count of how many families might participate. He said the families are at varying stages of grief and recovery, and some may never want to discuss the issues.
"We're not here to represent or speak for the families," said Makris, whose son escaped the Sandy Hook shooting unharmed. "We're here to help and support the families when they're ready to move forward."
A gunman shot his way into the school on Dec. 14 and slaughtered the children and six women, then committed suicide as police arrived. He also killed his mother before driving to the school and carrying out the massacre.
One 6-year-old victim's mother, Veronique Pozner, said Thursday that she wondered why she hadn't received more information about legislative proposals regarding guns in the weeks after the shooting. Her brother, Alexis Haller, said the family has ideas to share and wants to be part of the discussion about the response to the tragedy.
Haller said an assistant to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told him that the White House had been trying to consult with the families but that their efforts were rebuffed by a group purporting to speak for them. A White House spokesman confirmed that but declined to name the group.
Makris said his group has been talking with the vice president's office for a week, and as recently as Friday morning, about setting a meeting between the families and Biden, who is leading an administration review of gun safety laws. He said the group has never made statements that it is representing all 26 victims' families.
White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said the Newtown families will have the chance to share their views before President Barack Obama makes any decisions.
"There is no perspective more meaningful in this process than that of a parent who has lost a child," Lehrich said.
As a group, the victims' families have held a few get-togethers, but it has been more typical to talk in small groups of two or three.
Some attended the meeting a week ago with Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman wounded in a 2011 shooting, who started a political action committee on gun violence with her husband a few days after visiting Newtown.
Newtown's first selectman, E. Patricia Llodra, said the town is planning private gatherings with the families to hear their thoughts on what should be done with the Sandy Hook school building.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said several victims' relatives have expressed strong interest to him in advocating for measures to reduce gun violence.
"I will welcome whatever role they choose to have," said Blumenthal.
Newtown clergy have been working with some of the families on how to respond politically, Rabbi Shaul Praver said, but ideas about what should be done are not clear at this point.
"It hasn't quite coalesced yet into some kind of united stand for gun control or more mental health services or whatever," he said. "But I think there is a core area that you are going to hear, that everyone can agree on that you will hear loud and clear from the families pretty soon."
Engel, of New Canaan, Conn., has been helping his cousin's family deal with inquiries and offers from outside groups, and they are not eager to enter the political fray.
"We're really not ready," he said. "We're just trying to figure things out."
Associated Press writers Pat Eaton-Robb and Allen G. Breed contributed to this report.


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By Lisa Desjardins, CNN
Follow on Twitter: @LisaDCNN
(CNN) - Homelessness is not a cute or cuddly cause.
It's often dirty, difficult and uncomfortable. And it is not something that most Americans have personally experienced.
This is a problem for homelessness advocates in a time where many charities, from St. Jude's Childrens Hospital to the Susan G. Komen foundation that fights breast cancer, nationally market and carefully strategize their messages and images.
Now, some who work with homelessness are questioning how an issue that has been in the American consciousness for more than 30 years, has failed to gain more ground.
And they believe one issue is the message. Anne Mahlum is founder and CEO of Back on My Feet.
"Unfortunately I don't think this issue has evolved much at all since the 80s. It might have been more of a hot topic back then when it really became a problem but I don't think there has been enough education around this issue to get people familiar with the individuals who are experiencing homelessness"
Mahlum thinks homelessness needs to be rebranded, to shift its focus to images of individuals.
Her organization stresses examples like Walter Barrera. The 31-year-old started running with Back on My Feet while he was staying in a shelter. Two years later, he has a job and is a long-distance ultra-marathon athlete.
Neil Donovan, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, has been working on homeless issues for more than three decades. He rejects the phrase, "rebranding", shaking his head at the corporate image.
Donovan points out that not everyone experiencing homelessness can make the leap to marathon runner. But he agrees that homelessness needs a new message now.
"One of the consequences of homelessness being with us for now three plus generations is that homelessness has lost its rank as a tragedy in this country and it actually now has kind of leveled off to be some kind of social consequence that perhaps will always be with us."
As potential budget cuts hang over local and federal funding, many who serve the homeless fear their cause will be too low on the priority list to keep resources.
Editor's Note: To hear more about the "rebranding" of homelessness listen to the complete story in the Soundcloud player above.
My problem with these charities is what good do they actually do? Sure giving someone a hot meal and a place to rest their head is a great cause but what are they doing to get these people jobs and a home of their own? There is a reverend in St Louis who uses the homeless for political gain. He feeds them but does nothing to get them off of the street. StL tried to shutdown one of their squatting grounds and none of them actually wanted a job or to better their situation.
They are not homeless. They are mobile.
I agree that there need to be more individual stories, but a large part of homelessness is mental illness and drug/alcohol addiction. Until we get people help who need it so they don't fall into homelessness, it's going to keep on being an issue.
This is why I no longer donate to large charities and instead focus locally..and try to donate my time more than anything...I don't trust the large charities and seeing how much their executives make I question their intentions...every charitable person I've known would balk at a 6 figure salary...in my hometown many homless suffer from severe mental illness because there is nowhere else to go..there are just a few long term mental illness centers in the whole state...and the feds just keep cutting funding...the cycle will continue for a long time..
My relatives are about to become homeless. In there case it has been because neither the husband or wife is keen on working. They have gone through tens of thousands of dollars in support from family and are still asking for more. In this case they deserve to be homeless. Sometimes being homeless is the only way to finally come face to face with money management issues and overcome them once and for all. Not every homeless person you see is 'innocent' or has suffered 'bad luck'.
Trouble is with capitalism,people are so good at making money that they eventually squeeze everybody out into the streets.This is the eventuality of capitalism.Communism in it's trueist form is workable only with a small number of people because if everyone is equal and doesnt get paid money,who decides whose job it is to pick up the trash and do all the necessary but unwanted work a society needs to exist as a civilized group. Capitalism IS eventual for all societies but regulations that only favor the wealthy will undo whatever greatness capitalism can bestow upon people.
I know closing all the factories in Chicago and moving offshore doesnt help.Paying sub human wages doesnt help either.
Businesses want more tax breaks to expand their businesses but when they got those breaks years ago they didnt expand but instead bought homes and yachts in the islands .They didnt reinvest back home,well,our home since businessmen and women who support foreign labor are not truly Americans.
How about "Homelessness...It's the new America."
Homelessness is the "New World Order",how's that working for you Bush fans out there ?
Soylent green is people!! It's delicious homeless peopllleee!!!!
"Re-branding homelessness" = Putting lipstick on a pig.
Excellent comparison! It amazes me that rather than address the issues of homelessness directly the thought of rebranding it - as if it were some commodity, is ridiculous (and I am not criticizing the project featured here... just that in many areas, like Venice, CA, getting homeless shelters approved has been insanely impossible!). There are so many good organizations trying to address the issue with sound principles and hard work - only to be set back by local government, businesses or home owners. Sadly, many do not feel a sense of compassion toward those who are homeless (and not all homeless people are drunks, drug addicts or lazy.... far from it). We are in this world together, we have a duty to help each other and yet, instead there is so much judgement passed, so many incorrect assumptions made... one would think in our great nation we could do better. I guess I am what many would call a bleeding heart liberal and I am not really.... I just believe we could make choices that would be helpful to all of us... like maybe demanding accountability for the mortgage fraud situation that left so many families out on the streets and homes abandoned! And yes, I work with the homeless on Venice boardwalk... not with an agency because there aren't any to work with here on the boardwalk.... several of us just do what we can to help.
As someone who has worked for 40 years trying to help provide affordable housing for low income folk including the homeless, I'd feel better about trying to find new ways to raise more money if the moneys that are already available weren't so often squandered. The City of San Francisco is helping to do a rehabilitated building for the "chronically homeless" at $500,000 per little unit. Over in Oakland, they are doing a couple of similar rehabilitated buildings for over $250,000 per little unit. You can find other examples like these all around California. In many cases, the homeless housing programs have become a gravy train for the non-profit developers and their professionals who are supposed to help the homeless but seem to do quite well for themselves.
because we know "rebranding" solves the issue much better than actually dealing with it.....
Heat up the irons, it's time to "rebrand" the spin doctors and pigs troughing on the disenfranchised in our nation.
Re-brand homelessness as failure of capitalism and the American Republic.
Most people do not know that the majority of homeless are either drug or alcohol addicted and many have been released from mental health facilities over the last few years. They have chosen to not enter mainstream America. Many homeless refuse to enter shelters, accept assistance, or detox.
Bingo! These are largely the same folks who were previously housed in mental institutions before those on the left decided they should be "freed". Now instead of getting proper shelter and care they are living on the streets and occasionally attacking and sometimes killing the general population. That's much better than having them institutionalized...
That's actually not a true statement. There are thousands upon thousands of people that are drug/alcohol addicted that are experiencing homelessness and others that are housed, so that's not necessarily of factor of homelessness. They are finding that there are three factors that create homelessness: access to health care, lack of a living wage, and no affordable housing. There's a percentage of people experiencing homelessness that actually work, but their jobs don't pay them enough money to provide food AND shelter. Many have to choose one or the other. If they get sick, they end up losing their jobs for the time off taken.
Also, not all choose not the enter "mainstream America". Some of them have suffered traumatic experiences and are afraid of "mainstream America". Violence against people experiencing homelessness is actually on the rise because people think violence against "them" doesn't really count. Many people living on the streets suffer from PTSD and don't have access to medication or behavioral health so they self-medicate with alcohol.
The problem of homelessness is not a simple one. It's got so many variables. Yes, there are some out there that are thieves, but I've actually known a thief or two and they were housed. I've known a number of "violent people" but they also have been housed. Look deeper into its causes. It's not just one reason. It's just one stereotype.
"They are finding that there are three factors that create homelessness: access to health care, lack of a living wage, and no affordable housing" – Again, this is mental illness. If there are no jobs you can get that can pay for housing in a given area sane people move to a better area. Only those who are mentally ill stay and be homeless.
"Many people living on the streets suffer from PTSD and don't have access to medication or behavioral health so they self-medicate with alcohol" – Again, mental illness and these people were institutionalized before someone decided it was better to "free" them and put them on the street.
Again, the chronically homeless almost always have mental illness. Those without mental illness may find themselves homeless temporarily for one reason or another, but they do not remain homeless and do not remain in an area that doesn't have jobs for them.
Bs1 – what is your opinion of the ADA? Do you believe that mental illness is the way to wash our hands? Do you believe in science? Mental illness is a product of bio-chemical processes as are many, many dieseases that effect other vital organs. Is the brain a less deserving organ?
Unskblraidr – My opinion on the ADA is not good. Everyone deserves equal access and forcing the expenditure of significant resources to provide unequal access for a specific minority is in no way equal access. As I noted in a prior post the bulk of the homeless population is mentally ill and used to be institutionalized where they received shelter, food and care until some liberal types "felt" they should be "freed" without giving the issue any rational analysis.
You do realize that the 'someone' who 'freed' the mentally ill was Ronald Reagan, don't you? He closes all the mental institutions and threw all the mentally ill onto the street.
That is a misconception. While the majority of severely drug and alcohol addicted people might be homeless, the converse is not true. A large number of homeless people suffer from schizophrenia. Others are the ones you don't see, who have nothing wrong with them except for the fact that they can't find employment that's gainful enough to afford housing. They do their best to keep themselves clean and usually blend in with the general population.
He doesn't like rebranding, but thinks it needs a new message. Isn't that the same thing?
Sounds like he's jealous he didn't get to the idea first and some 28 year old marketing guru from the midwest stumbled onto something in a few months, he'd been waiting years for an idea about.
Homelessness is a bad situation that can be overcome depending on the person. Barrera had his running to get himself out of the etreet, but others are unable to to find shelter without others' direct support and interest. Organizations providing homelike services will always be needed and most certainly appreciated. Nothing like a hot cup of coffee and a bagel in the morning after having access to a toilet and ahot shower...and maybe a fresh change of undergarments
Economically displaced.
"Residentially challenged"? "Differently sheltered"?


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NEW YORK -- September 15, 2004 -- "Saturday Night Live" returns to the air on October 2 (LIVE, 11:30pm � 1:00 am ET) for its 30th Season Premiere with popular returning host, Ben Affleck and musical guest, rap superstar, Nelly.
Affleck makes his third hosting appearance on the show. On October 21, Affleck will star in the holiday comedy "Surviving Christmas" opposite James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate and Catherine O'Hara. Most recently, he was seen in the romantic comedy "Jersey Girl," the sci-fi thriller "Paycheck," and the big-screen adaptation of Marvel Comics' "Daredevil."
Affleck came to prominence at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, when he starred in Kevin Smith's comedy "Chasing Amy" and Mark Pellington's coming-of-age tale "Going All The Way." He captured an Academy Award� and a Golden Globe Award in 1998 for his first script, "Good Will Hunting," which he co-wrote with Matt Damon. He segued into big-budget action with "Armageddon," and was among the ensemble cast of the Academy Award� winning "Shakespeare in Love." Affleck went on to star in the romantic comedy "Forces of Nature," the fantastical comedy "Dogma," "Boiler Room," the suspense thriller "Reindeer Games," the romantic drama "Bounce," "Pearl Harbor," "Changing Lanes" and the political thriller "The Sum of All Fears." His other film credits include "Mall Rats," "Cruz," "Dazed and Confused" and "School Ties."
In 2000 Affleck partnered with Matt Damon, Chris Moore and Sean Bailey to form Live Planet, Inc. LivePlanet's "Project Greenlight" has been nominated for an Emmy�Award for Outstanding Reality Program for the past two seasons and will return for a third season on Bravo.
Musical guest Nelly makes his second appearance on the show � performing tracks from his just simultaneously released two records � "Sweat" and "Suit." The three-time Grammy winner is the first rapper to release two stand-alone CDs on the same day with "Sweat" the more club and street oriented release and "Suit" focusing on Nelly's softer, romantic side. His prior records "Nellyville" and "Country Grammar" have sold 15 million units and produced monster hits including "Hot in Herre," "Dilemma" and "Country Grammar." The first single from "Suit," "My Place" is already climbing the charts and "Sweat's" first track "Flap Your Wings" is heating up in video rotation.
"Saturday Night Live," which premiered on October 11, 1975, is from SNL Studios in association with Broadway Video. The creator and executive producer is Lorne Michaels. Steve Higgins produces. Marci Klein and Mike Shoemaker are producers. Beth McCarthy Miller directs.


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Saving Pennies or Dollars is a new semi-regular series on The Simple Dollar, inspired by a great discussion on The Simple Dollar's Facebook page concerning frugal tactics that might not really save that much money. I'm going to take some of the scenarios described by the readers there and try to break down the numbers to see if the savings is really worth the time invested.
Amy writes in: Is having a garden cheaper than say the farmers market? By the time you count materials, watering, etc. I just don't know!
The answer depends heavily on how you approach gardening. If gardening for you requires piles of brand new tools, a big tiller, plants that have all been started at a greenhouse for you, and other such expenses, gardening is going to really add up. On the other hand, if you try to use minimal tools and use them until they wear out and keep your own seeds, gardening can be really inexpensive.
I'll use our own gardening situation. Most of our garden implements were either gifts or were bought at yard sales, adding up to perhaps $10. Most of our plants are grown from seed in potting soil in our house in the late winter, then moved outside once the frost danger is out of the way. We mostly use a hoe for our garden to turn over the soil and mix in our compost, which is our fertilizer source and is made out of table scraps. We use hay out of a field near us for much of our mulch.
This type of gardening doesn't add up to a whole lot of expense. We just don't put a whole lot of money into our garden each year.
Now, let's say we decided next spring that we wanted a garden. We go down to our local home improvement super store, buy a bunch of plants, buy a bunch of gardening tools, buy a small tiller, and stagger out with a pretty big charge on our credit card. We buy Miracle-Gro as our fertilizer and since we bought starts from the local store, we don't bother saving seeds because the plants are hybridized.
The expense for the vegetables in this scenario is going to be quite high. Even if you spread the cost of all of those implements across several years of gardening, you're still going to have quite an expense.
I'll use tomatoes as an example. A single tomato plant will yield 10 to 15 pounds of tomatoes if properly cared for. How much does it cost to get there?
Most sources where I live sell tomato starts in the spring for about $5 each – or even a bit more. My parents can get them for $2-$3 from a person they've been buying plants from for years. Alternately, you can buy a packet of non-hybridized tomato seeds for $2-$3 or so, along with a reusable tray ($5-$10), a grow light ($30-$40), and a source of soil, and you can grow them in your own home, reusing the seeds year after year.
You'll need some gardening implements to plant them – at the very least, a shovel and a hoe. You'll also need a source of food (compost, which can be free; manure, which can also be free; or a commercial fertilizer, which is easier but can be expensive, on the order of a dollar per plant per year), a fence to protect the plants (we built ours for about $20 per year of use, or maybe $0.25 per plant per year), water (maybe $0.05 per plant), and some insect protection (you can make passable insecticides for pennies, but store-bought ones that work better can also cost you, let's say, $1 per plant per year).
You're easily reaching a cost of $10 per tomato plant. Assuming, of course, that your plant doesn't get attacked by insects or animals and doesn't die of blight or another illness, you'll get ten or fifteen pounds of tomatoes out of the plant. That's actually a pretty solid savings on your tomatoes.
However, to get to that point, you have invested quite a lot of time. You've started the plants from seed or bought starts at the store. You've cultivated the ground and planted them. You've weeded around them. You've mulched them. You've watered them and fed them. You've given them insect protection and disease protection.
Unless you enjoy that time invested, the time invested isn't going to pay off for you. Yes, you'll save money with a garden, but the hourly rate you'll be saving on those plants and vegetables will quickly head toward $1 per hour or so.
If you enjoy gardening – and I do, in reasonable doses – it's all well worth it and you can certainly save some dollars from gardening. If you don't enjoy it too much, find something else productive to do with those hours and enjoy the fine produce available at your local farmers market.