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In the end, the naysayers who accused HBO's "True Detective" of being sexist seem mostly irrelevant. Yes, it would be nice to see more top-notch hour-long dramas created by women and concerning women, particularly more women of color. But that's not what "True Detective" was intended to do.
At its heart, this was a story of male friendship, transcending macho rivalry and frat boy cavorting to ultimately be about guys saving each other.
A mystery wrapped in a religious cult conspiracy, slowly unfolded by two antiheroes – one a lying adulterer, the other an addict with pretentious theories about the meaning of life – ultimately was a male drama. The mission involved saving little girls, balancing the loss of one of the detective's little girl. But women didn't figure in, except as a plot twist to establish the two detectives' antipathy.
Next: 42 shows you should binge watch right now
Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey deserve applause, the creepy littered overgrown and horrific compound where the endgame played out deserves a nod for set design; T Bone Burnett deserves praise for the moody, even otherworldly music. But storywise, the eight episodes of this anthology series involved too many leaps and loopholes. The misdirection concerning the suspected pedophile priest, the Rev. Billy Lee Tuttle, was just confusing. How did he die? What did it matter?
Much of the gumshoes' discovery happened by luck and chance rather than logic. Green ears? Green paint? A painter! The sudden rush of clues, leading neatly to the serial killer via work permits and job orders via computer, felt a bit pat after all the soul-searching, existential doubt and flashback interviewing.
The final scenes, with McConaughey dressed, positioned and coiffed to look like Jesus Christ, suggested more profundity than the show actually offered. Looking to the night sky for cosmic truths, Hart (Harrelson) and Cohle (McConaughey) again slip away from the authority figures (this time, it's the hospital) to go it alone. Together.
It's all about good versus evil, light versus dark, Cohle concluded, and "the light's winning."
Moody, unnerving, confusing – but surprisingly optimistic.
HBO Go crash
Meanwhile, the light may have been ascendant, but the electrons weren't cooperating: The HBO Go streaming service collapsed, unable to feed demand for the finale Sunday. The network promptly scheduled a rerun, and the service on HBO cable was unaffected. The twitterverse had a field day (sample tweet: "Congratulations to #TrueDetective for being the first show to literally break @HBOGO").


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The following tasty, fragrant and moist cake, is a version of THIS cake, a recipe for which I've posted here five years ago. In the version I have here, I've decided to substitute the milk syrup with citrus-saffron one. To enhance these flavors, I've also added saffron to the batter, and topped the cake with orange and blood orange slices towards the end of baking.
The saffron and citrus gave the cake a beautiful, deep yellow color, and amazing aroma. The cake was a great success and disappeared quickly. Try it and enjoy.
* The original recipe calls for only 15 minutes of baking, as the cake was baked in a larger pan, therefore needed less baking time. For baking the cake shown here in larger pan, follow the pan size and baking time from that recipe.
* If you can't find blood orange, substitute with red grapefruit, or any other citrus fruit.
Makes: 16 squares
Prep time for the cake: 20 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Prep time for the syrup: 5 minutes
Cooking time for the syrup: 5 minutes
Chilling time: 2 hours
For the cake:
8-10 saffron threads
1 Tbs hot water
2 cups semolina
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
4 XL eggs
2 Tbs oil
1 medium orange
2 small blood oranges (see notes)
For the syrup:
2 cup water
1 cup fresh orange juice
Zest from ½ orange
½ cup sugar
6-8 saffron threads
¼ cup honey (preferably orange blossom)
1. The cake: preheat the oven to 340F (170C). Brush the bottom of an 8×8" (20×20 cm) square pan with a thin layer of oil. Place the saffron threads in a small bowl and add the hot water. Let steep for 2-3 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients for the cake, except for the oranges. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 25 minutes.
3. While the cake is baking, use a small sharp knife to remove the rind of the oranges, including the white part. Cut each orange in half and slice them.
4. Take the cake out of the oven and arrange the slices on top. Place back in the oven and bake for 5 minutes longer. Transfer to a rack, to cool to room temperature.
5. The syrup: combine all the ingredients in a medium size pot and bring to an almost boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes. Take off the heat and add the honey. Mix well and pour the syrup over the cake, through a fine strainer. Cover the cake with plastic wrap and bring to room temperature.
6. Place the covered pan in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving. The cake will keep, covered in the fridge, for 3-4 days.

subset: commoncrawl


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Design News -- in partnership with Mouser Electronics -- set out to find the most innovative and influential design engineers. The response was overwhelming. Readers sent us lots of stories of engineers who are creating new trends, making significant impacts on the industry, and creating products that are improving and changing lives.
Click on the image below to read about 11 of our finalists.
Read about our winner, TI engineer Punya Prakash, here. And be sure to check back tomorrow, when we will profile the remaining finalists in our Rising Engineering Stars Contest.


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Select a Country and Role
From Sectors and Smart Beta to Fixed Income, SPDR Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) give you wide access to diverse investment opportunities. Find out more.
This information is for informational purposes only, not to be construed as investment advice or a recommendation or offer to buy or sell any security. Investors should always obtain and read an up-to-date investment services description or prospectus before deciding whether to appoint an investment manager or to invest in a fund. Any views expressed herein are those of the author(s), are based on available information, and are subject to change without notice. Individual portfolio management teams may hold different views and may make different investment decisions for different clients. There are no guarantees regarding the achievement of investment objectives, target returns, portfolio construction, allocations or measurements such as alpha, tracking error, stock weightings and other information ratios. The views and strategies described may not be suitable for all investors. SSGA does not provide tax or legal advice. Prospective investors should consult with a tax or legal advisor before making any investment decision. Investing entails risks and there can be no assurance that SSGA will achieve profits or avoid incurring losses.
Performance quoted represents past performance, which is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate, so you may have a gain or loss when shares are sold. Current performance may be higher or lower than that quoted.


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Hot Online: Taylor Swift sued
Trending topic
Taylor Swift is being suedbecause she allegedly kept $2.5 million for a show she never performed. The singer cancelled a concert in Ottawa last August after being paid up front for the performance, and the lawsuit alleges that Swift kept the money.
Check this out
Vice PresidentJoe Biden said yesterday during a forum that home owners should buy a shotgun. He said, "If you want to protect yourself, get a double-barreled shotgun. Have the shells of a 12-gauge shotgun and I promise you - as I told my wife … 'Jill, if there is ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony here, walk out, put that double barreled shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house. I promise you whoever is coming in is not going to.' "
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Acclaim New York Yankees Timex Watch
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Combustion Appliance Testing: Why, How, When?
Combustion appliance testing, before and after weatherizing a home, is an absolute necessity to protect homeowners from the effects of CO gas and other combustion products. Learn the BPI test procedures.
Earn Building Performance Institute Continuing Education units after reading this Home Energy article!
Take the test and earn 0.5 CE unit per article.
All people and animals are at risk for CO (carbon monoxide) poisoning. Infants and people with chronic heart disease, anemia, or respiratory problems are more susceptible to its effects. Each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 400 Americans die from CO poisoning, more than 20,000 visit the emergency room for CO poisoning, and more than 4,000 are hospitalized for CO poisoning. Fatalities are highest among Americans 65 years of age and older.
The seriousness of the issue is highlighted by the news of a civil lawsuit filed on August 11, 2010, stemming from the CO poisoning of a family of four in Aspen, Colorado. According to a recent report in the Aspen Daily News, the lawsuit claims five preventable causes that led to the poisoning, including disconnected exhaust piping and fresh-air intake vents, defective design of the boiler unit itself, improper installation of the ventilation system, and the absence of CO detectors in the house.
"Examples like these are the precise reason why we have standards," says Larry Zarker, CEO of BPI (Building Performance Institute). "Anything less can result in tragedy for families and adverse consequences for contractors, manufacturers, program managers, and anyone and everyone connected with the project, however distantly." (BPI knows of no one involved in the case who has any affiliation with BPI.)
There can be many problems with combustion equipment in existing homes, especially if the homes are older, the equipment is older, and there isn't money to maintain or replace the combustion appliances or the distribution systems. Technicians who work in existing homes, especially low-income homes, must be able to test houses and combustion appliances properly, in order to ensure that everything is safe. Unfortunately, energy raters who work in new homes are not required to test appliances for safety.
My company, Pure Energy, based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is known primarily for performing quality assurance and quality control inspections of work performed in existing low-income homes on behalf of utility retrofit and weatherization programs. These programs run many diagnostic tests, including an entire litany of combustion equipment and combustion appliance zone (CAZ) tests. But Pure Energy's quality control inspectors find gas leaks or unacceptable levels of CO in about half of the homes in which they perform comprehensive final inspections.
Why is that? Many home performance professionals and weatherization technicians are confused about why, when, and how to test combustion appliances and the combustion appliance zone to ensure safe living conditions for families. If you read this article, you will:
- learn why it is important to be sure that combustion appliances are safe to use, before and after weatherization;
- learn about each type of test; and
- learn how to perform each test efficiently and safely.
What is CO?
- CO is a product of incomplete combustion of a fuel.
- It is very dangerous for humans and animals, because it prevents the absorption of oxygen into the bloodstream.
- CO is expressed in parts per million (ppm).
Sources of CO
- Fuel-burning furnaces, boilers, and water heaters
- Fuel-burning space heaters
- Fireplaces
- Gas ranges and ovens
- Vehicles
- Tobacco smoke
Characteristics of CO
- Odorless
- Colorless
- Tasteless
- Mixes well in air
- Does not stratify
- Follows airflow in a structure
- Poisonous
How much CO is too much CO?
- 35 ppm NIOSH permissible exposure limit: 8 hours
- 200 ppm NIOSH ceiling: 15 minutes
- 200 ppm Slight headache within 2 to 3 hours
- 400 ppm Headache within 1 to 2 hours
- 800 ppm Sickness and twitching of limbs within 1 to 2 hours; unconsciousness within 2 hours
- 1,600 ppm Headache within 20 minutes; death within 2 hours
- 3,200 ppm Death within 30 minutes
- 6,400 ppm Death within 10 to 15 minutes
- 12,800 ppm Death within 1 to 3 minutes
Easy or Not, You Must Test
Look at the two photos above. It is easy for most technicians to see that there are signs of flame rollout in the first photo and a disconnected flue in the second photo. Flame rollout means that the fire leaves the place where the fire should remain and comes out of the unit. This is dangerous because combustible materials may be close to the flame. A disconnected flue pipe is a problem because the fumes from the burnt fuel might not be going up the chimney. If these fumes come into the room, and if they contain CO, and if the level of CO is high enough for a long enough period of time people or pets can be poisoned (see "What Is CO?"). There are other by-products of combustion, including moisture, that can cause structural and health problems if they don't all go up the chimney. However, this article deals primarily with BPI test procedures, which don't include action levels for by-products other than CO.
Because some combustion appliance problems can't be seen, they are not easy to diagnose, and tests must be performed to find them. For example, by using tracer smoke, a technician can tell if an appliance drafts properly. However, the technician can't tell if the draft is strong enough unless he or she checks draft pressure and compares it to a chart of acceptable minimum draft pressure ranges.
The combustion appliances we are most concerned with are those that were not designed to turn themselves off if a problem is detected. These appliances also rely on nature to make them draft properly. The best scenario is to eliminate all older, inefficient, natural-draft combustion appliances and replace them with high-efficiency, direct-vent appliances, where exhaust gases are vented to the outside and combustion air is brought in from the outside through a separate vent, so the occupants are in control of the house and its systems instead of being controlled by the systems. But until this can happen, we must ensure safe operation when weatherizing homes. We are mostly concerned with fuel-burning water heaters, and space-heating systems that are not 90%+ efficient and direct vent, but there are always exceptions. Most new systems won't fire if there is a problem with the flue, but older systems will still fire. And if they are making CO, the CO in the flue gases can leak into the living area.
Some programs require energy auditors and field technicians to be BPI certified. Combustion-testing procedures are prominent in BPI standards. Home Performance with Energy Star requires combustion testing. Appliances need to be checked for safe operation if the home has been weatherized. Some electric conservation and efficiency programs are beginning to air seal homes with combustion appliances to reduce cooling load. The purpose of air sealing and some insulation is to reduce the air exchange across the thermal boundary. If the home has a fossil-fuel heating or water-heating system, the reduced air exchange may change the way the combustion appliances work.
BPI standards require testing before and after the work is done. "Test in and test out" is a familiar motto for those who test according to BPI standards.
When fuels don't burn fully, CO can be formed. This is our main concern. Carbon monoxide can enter the house if the chimney is blocked or the flue is disconnected, or because exhaust fans in the house are pulling air down the chimney. In addition, a depressurized CAZ can cause flame rollout and gas leaks can cause explosions. The technician must test for all of these potential problems.
The tests are designed to answer the following questions:
- Is there CO in the ambient air? In the CAZ? In the flues? In the gas oven? If so, how much? Is it too much?
- Are there any gas leaks in the gas lines or valves or joints?
- Do the fumes go out the chimney or the flue quickly? Do any fumes come back into the room? When the water heater or furnace or boiler fires up, do flames come out of the unit?
- When the CAZ is depressurized the most by exhaust fans or clothes dryers in the house, do the appliances still draft adequately?
- Is the pressure in the flue with reference to the CAZ strong enough to ensure that the appliance drafts?
Some tests are always performed, regardless of the type or age of the appliance. These include testing for gas leaks, testing for CO in the ambient air, checking for flame rollout, and testing for CO levels in the exhaust. Be aware—sometimes you will find a CO level in the flue gases that is higher than BPI action levels, but manufacturers may allow higher CO levels if the appliance is power vented (other terms are fan assisted and forced draft).
All the combustion safety tests must be performed if there are any natural-draft combustion appliances in the house, and if air sealing or insulation is done. These appliances are most likely to fail to draft properly in a worst-case CAZ depressurization scenario. If you don't know what worst-case CAZ depressurization means, you are not alone! Read on.
Worst-Case CAZ Depressurization
When bathroom fans, vented kitchen range hoods, or vented dryers are on and venting, they are pumping air out of the house. New air has to come from somewhere to replace what is being pumped out. If windows are closed, and the building envelope and interstitial cavities have been sealed, that new air is likely to enter the house through the chimney and the flues. If the water heater or furnace comes on when air is coming down the flue, the flue gases will enter the house. This is bad. This sort of negative pressure imbalance can also happen when ducts are leaky or sealed, and when interior doors are opened or closed.
So the technician must put the house under worst-case conditions—that is, under conditions the occupants might happen to create that might cause a problem with the combustion appliances. This means that the technician tries to configure the house systems and door positions in such a way as to cause the highest depressurization on the CAZ, because that is when a combustion appliance may not vent properly. The technician must keep checking the pressure in the area where the combustion appliances are located until he or she finds the worst-case configuration. Some doors may be open and others closed—every house is different. There are typical configurations, but the only way to know what is worst-case for a particular house is to measure the CAZ pressure with reference to the outside until the biggest negative number—representing the pressure difference between the CAZ and the outside—is reached. That is worst-case depressurization.
If the appliance drafts strongly enough when the house is under worst-case depressurization, the appliance will probably operate safely. However, all the tests must be done at the end of each workday during weatherization, in order to be sure that the house remains safe.
The BPI action levels specify what is safe and what is not safe. There are action levels for the amount of CO that is permissible in flue gases; for the minimum draft pressure that is acceptable in the flue pipes with reference to the CAZ; and for the maximum negative pressure that is acceptable in the CAZ. And there are rules for what to do if any of these levels is exceeded or not met (depending on the test). For a link to BPI's Combustion Safety Test Action Level Tables, see For More Information below.
A natural-draft furnace works by gravity. In this type of furnace, assuming there is enough difference in temperature between the air outside and inside the flue, the buoyancy of warm air causes it to rise in the flue. In an induced-draft furnace, there is a fan just inside or outside the wall where the vent exits the home that forces flue gases through the flue. This fan creates negative pressure in the flue. In a forced-draft furnace, a fan in the combustion appliance forces combustion gases through the flue to the outside of the home using positive pressure. A condensing furnace, both direct- and indirect-vent pulls some heat out of the exhaust gases before they are expelled from the house, making them more efficient. Condensing furnaces use fans to create a positive pressure in the flue. (Note that appliances with positive pressure in their vent connectors require airtight vent connectors.)
Some problems are obvious. Some are not. With proper training and equipment, a technician can identify dangerous conditions that otherwise might go undetected. These valuable skills can save lives.
Negative pressure in the flue means that the gases are being sucked out. Positive pressure in the flue means the gases are being pushed out. Don't confuse pressure with flow. We want the flue gases to leave the building (flow to the outside). Sometimes this happens when the flue gases are pushed out (positive pressure in the flue with reference to the CAZ), and sometimes this happens when the flue gases are sucked out by nature (negative pressure in the flue with reference to the CAZ). It is important to know how the appliance is supposed to work before deciding that the pressure in the flue is wrong.
If a test fails before the house is air sealed or insulated, follow the BPI Combustion Safety Test Procedure For Vented Appliances. Depending on the problem found and the action level, no air sealing should be done until the problem is fixed. If a test fails after the house is air sealed or insulated, follow procedure—fix the problem. Follow the directions on the action levels charts.
Proper testing is essential—these tests can be a matter of life and death! A little knowledge can be dangerous. All of the appropriate tests need to be done thoroughly, done in the proper order, and reported on a form. The form should be signed and dated. There should be a set of test results that were done before work was performed, and another set of test results that were done at the end of each workday, when the air leakage rates may have been reduced.
Why Does Pure Energy Find So Many Problems?
Why does Pure Energy find so many gas leaks in the houses it inspects? Why do we find so many high CO levels? It's possible that no one ever performed the tests. We believe some technicians don't know how to test properly, or they test too quickly and miss gas leaks at pipe joints. We also believe some technicians don't perform all the tests, or perform them in the correct order. It is also possible that some technicians don't know how to use their tools properly, or that they have not maintained their equipment adequately, so the tests are invalid. And we believe some technicians don't know how to interpret their test results. Why do we believe these things? Because we have struggled with some testing procedures, and we know how hard it can be to learn the whys, hows, whens, and whats of combustion testing!
So here we want to share skills we've learned—to help technicians multitask successfully. Our suggestions follow.
Organize your office, self, vehicle
- Have your data-collection forms prepped.
- Make sure you have combustion analyzer printer paper and data-collection forms.
- Is the equipment charged? Need batteries?
- Does the customer know how to prepare for your visit?
Before your appointment
- Order tools and parts if necessary.
- Have the oxygen or CO sensors in your combustion analyzer expired? If they have, your tests aren't valid.
- Not having one tool will shut you down, so check to be sure you have all the tools, equipment, and supplies you will need.
In your vehicle
- Do you have all the supplies you need, such as chemical smoke, high-temperature flue tape, and plugs to fill the test holes?
- Is your vehicle organized enough so you can find your tools and supplies?
- Is everything accessible and secure?
At the customer's home
- Can you get to the CAZ and all other areas?
- Can you get to the water heater and furnace?
- Take the tools and equipment to the CAZ as you are unloading.
- Turn the water heater down and the furnace off if conditions allow; mark settings.
- Remember to return the water heater and furnace to prior settings. Tip: leave your truck keys here as a reminder!
Remember: The house is a system, and everything in it is part of this system. The water heater and furnace or boiler may never have been tested for adequate draft pressure or CO before your visit. It is very likely the systems have never been tested with the CAZ under the worst-case scenario, as described above. You may be the first to fully test. Be safe. Do it right.
A. Tamasin Sterner is the founder and owner of Pure Energy, a Lancaster, Pennsylvania–based company. She has been in the energy auditing and weatherization field since 1980, working in Washington, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, and Montana. Recently, Pure Energy, in partnership with Larry Armanda of Therma-View Infrared and Energy Consultants, opened a training center on a ranch in Montana, and created a mobile teaching and testing lab in Pennsylvania.
This article is part of a series sponsored by Home Performance with ENERGY STAR, jointly managed by the U.S. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency. The opinions, views and ideas expressed within this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency of the U.S. government.
For more information:
The author can be reached at email@example.com.
To learn more about her company, Pure Energy, go to www.PureEnergyAudits.com.
To learn more about Pure Energy's training opportunities go to www.PureEnergyCenter.org.
For more on BPI CO testing standards, including CO action levels, go to www.bpi.org.
For the report on the lawsuit cited at the beginning of this article, see www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/141957.
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Front Runners List: Click to see list completion progress by climbers that log their climbs using Peakbagger.com.
Multiple Ascents Grid: Click for a grid showing all of Urszula Jelen's ascents of peaks on this list (including up to 10 rounds of repeats).
Compare Climbers: Click to compare ascents of up to 5 climbers working on this list.
Sometimes called the "Aussie Eight", this list most often omits the high point of the Jervis Bay Territory. However, research on the legal status of Jervis Bay seems to lead to the inescapable conclusion that this coastal encalve is not technically part of the Australian Capital Territory or of New South Wales, and therefore is a territory of Australia of equal status with the other eight states and territories.
This list does not include the external territories of Australia--this site considers them to be separate dependencies owned by Australia but not part of it. See The List of Countries in the World for more information on this topic. If all Australian dependencies were included with the mainland, then Mawson Peak on Big Ben on Heard Island would be the country high point.
The nine summits on this list are not much of a mountaineering challenge. The most difficult is probably Mount Ossa, which requires some scrambling on a rough trail and a several-day journey on the Overland Track. Many other peaks here are very remote, but present no technical climbing issues.
= Peaks climbed by Urszula Jelen = Unclimbed peaks
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Retail Store Associate
Retail Store Associates play a meaningful role within the CVS Health family. At CVS Health, we're shaping the future of health care for people, businesses, and communities. With your talents and expertise, you can help us play a more active and supportive role in each person's unique healthcare needs. Join our team of thousands as we positively impact millions…one customer at a time.
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• Providing differentiated customer service by anticipating customer needs, demonstrating compassion and care in all interactions, and actively identifying and resolving potential service issues
• Focusing on the customer by giving a warm and friendly greeting, maintaining eye contact and offering help locating additional items, when needed
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Speedtest® guides
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While conducting a seminar with college students about self-esteem, Yolo Akili heard a young person say something that remains an important touchstone for those of us trying to do liberatory work in our communities. When talking about loving oneself, a Black woman said, "Self love? That shit's gay!"
I've turned this statement over in my head a million times as it so accurately and unintentionally reveals so much about the constructions of sexuality in our culture. "Gay" has become an all purpose insult that means something is not cool, wack, aberrant, and not worth your time. How deep is it that loving yourself is a weird and unworthy pursuit? If self love is gay, what is straight? Is straightness self hatred?
I want to be clear that I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being a cis gender man or woman engaged in loving consensual relationships with cis gender women or men. Like with race in our country, the problem isn't necessarily white people, but how whiteness as a problematic social construct impacts everyone. Similarly, I would argue that straight people aren't the issue but the way straightness and heteronormativity operate in our culture are serious impediments to self love and self actualization.
I choose to be queer. My choosing queerness has a lot to do with the scripts that exist for straight men and women's relationships. Take the recent box office smash, Think Like a Man. So much of what is prescribed for straight couples is for women to change themselves into what they imagine men want from them. You can see it if you want to but it's essentially a feature film length infomercial for Steve Harvey's similarly titled book. It had the requisite gay jokes (for both men and women) and many a strong black woman cut back down to size. By thinking like a man, you ensure that he gets what he wants, sex, and women get what they want, a man. This reductive view on what motivates straight relationships depends on strict gender roles.
Straightness/heteronormativity sets up roles for men and women that serve a capitalistic agenda more than the building of loving relationships. The script is simple; find a member of the "opposite sex", date, get married, buy a house, have kids and do all of this as an individual family unit. Our culture will sell you the tools to properly achieve these ends, to properly conform to gender norms that will hopefully help you attract someone to walk down the aisle with you. Buy this men's loofa and women will be all over you, buy this lady razor and your man will love to get close to you. Selling people the idea that they are somehow insufficiently performing their gender, and therefore not attractive, reinforces a sense of self doubt and looking externally for validation, which is great for capitalism. You have to do something or buy something to be worthy of relationship. What a queer thing to say that my relationship with myself is important and I should invest in it over and above my ability to pull a partner.
And this is why I and other queer folks are giving Obama's announcement regarding gay marriage the side eye. Leveraging privilege for certain types of households does nothing to address systemic inequality or combat discrimination that queer folks face. Why do romantic ties afford rights and access that would otherwise be denied? And I use the word "afford" deliberately because so much of what is obscured about marriage are its roots and continued relevance as a financial institution. Love takes a backseat to the structural realities of couple privilege in our culture. Society continues to give us messages that marriage is valuable, perhaps even at the expense of our own personal safety and freedom.
Self love is awesome. It should be celebrated and encouraged, not derided because it hinders an economy that's dependent on folks feeling insecure. If loving yourself is gay, I don't want to be straight.


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Date(s) - 08/26/20
12:00 AM to 11:59 PM
Have fun creating and learning from home with a collection of WheatonArts Family Art Workshop video tutorials! Great for all skill levels and ages, each tutorial is paired with engaging discussion questions and links for further learning. A new video is added every week!


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Knee: Synovial Cartilage Damage
A year and a half ago I fell mountaineering, banged my right kneecap and couldn't walk for two weeks. I saw a doctor, who said that I had lost cartilage. For the past year my knee has constantly throbbed.
A year and a half ago I fell mountaineering, banged my right kneecap and couldn't walk for two weeks. I saw a doctor, who said that I had lost cartilage. For the past year my knee has constantly throbbed. It feels unstable and hurts when I climb. Prolonged sitting is very uncomfortable. My knee locks when I stand. Is there anything I can do before getting an MRI, since they are so expensive?
Carter Mcfarlan | Rock and Ice Forum
A year and a half! Stoic was only a reasonable response when medical solutions were restricted to amputation. Do your bit to stimulate the economy, and get an MRI. If you're paying out of pocket, it will actually be half price for you to fly here, to Australia, and have one. Flights included!
Your synovial cartilage is hurting. That call is about as complicated as diagnosing virulent hegemony in the bones of the White House. Whether the assault on your cartilage occurred at the time of impact or over the following months is up for debate. Locking of the knee, and instability, are definite concerns and much harder to diagnose without an MRI. Could be a bone chip, torn meniscus, ruptured cruciate ligaments, yada yada. MRI!
Do the following three exercises to get it moving a little more freely.
Lie on your back with your injured leg relaxed over a chair facing sideways and in front of you, knee at 90 degrees and foot hanging off the other side. Get a mate to pretend your foot is the steering console for Grand Theft Auto, sweeping full lock turns left and right. Hold full lock for a mile or so in each direction and repeat a few times. Start holding each rotation with mild tension and build as the discomfort decreases.
Facing away from a table (or something around that height), place the top of your right foot on the tabletop and sit on your heel. While leaning back, point your knee toward the floor. Feel the burn and enjoy it for 30 seconds. Repeat a few times, morning and night.
Traction of your patella (kneecap) is like giving a cow a vaginal examination—awkward. Push your patella to one side. Grab the underside (with difficulty!) and ply it away from your knee. Hold till your fingers hurt and then push it the other way.
Those cheeky Ruskies have a missile lock on you. Employ some Maverick evasion maneuvers or that knee is going to crash and burn. Remedial yoga that targets the knee and hip and all the muscles between would be a good start. The usual arthritis supplements, namely glucosamine and fish oil, might also help. But first, get some fancy pictures.


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The Reaper – Inst
Epic Banga Beat
Produced by: Dj Naydee
Product Description
Tell Ya Story to This Epic Hollywood banga. Buy & Download W/ no tags at BeatsPlanet.com.
Prod By DJ Naydee
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Standard vs Premium, Whats the Difference?
What are the differences between a Standard Lease and a Premium Lease?
File Received – Untagged High Quality MP3 File
Rights Granted – One Profitable Use Up to 2000 Units Sold
Files Received – Untagged High Quality Mp3 and Seperated Wave Files of all instrumentals and Vocals if applicable
Rights Granted – One Profitable Use Up to 50,000 Units Sold
Do You Sell Beats with Exclusive Rights, If So How Much?
Yes, we do offer the option to buy beats Exclusively. Each beat has its own Exclusive pricing, click on CONTACT US and mention the title(s) you'd like pricing for.
How To Order Using the Shopping Cart
- Browse the library for beats here.
- Select the type of lease that you want , Standard or Premium Lease, then click "ADD TO CART". You will see the product added to the cart listed on the page.
- Once you are done shopping click on "VIEW CART" and review your order.
- Click on PROCEED TO CHECKOUT to enter your billing details.
- Fill your billing details and click on "PROCEED TO PAYPAL" button.
- You'll then be directed to PayPal's website for the payment.
- Once your PayPal payment is confirmed, a link where you can download your beats will be delivered to the email address that you registered.
Where's My Beats? I placed an order but haven't received the email.
Beats are emailed by the server automatically immediately after payment has been made, if you haven't received the email its likely one of two very common causes
- It has landed in the SPAM or JUNK mail folder of your mail provider. This happens very often with GMAIL, Yahoo Etc. You'll need to log into their website in order to see the spam folder as often you cannot see the spam folder from your mobile device.
- You've entered your email address incorrectly twice during the checkout process, in which case the server sent it to that incorrect address
If after checking your spam folder you still dont see the email then click on CONTACT US so we can investigate the issue.
Your Beats Are Hot, Do you Do Custom Beats?
Yes, we've just recently started offering the Custom Beats Service bundled with Mixing & Mastering. See the full Mixing & Mastering Section.
Can I Sell My Song With Your Beat on Itunes etc ?
Yes of course, that is part of the point of selling you the lease rights, so you can sell and profit from your song. Though keep in mind, the Standard doesn't allow more than 2,000 copies to be sold so its good to play it safe and purchase the Premium to lock in the lease which allows 50,000 copies to be sold.
Can I Post My Song With Your Beat On Youtube, Vimeo etc?
Yes of course, though if you are going to post on one of the video sites and have the Monetize feature enabled (In-Video Ads that you earn money from) then you will need the Premium Lease.
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Additional Information
|Lease Type
Premium Lease, Standard Lease
|Beat Options
Strictly Instrumentals
DJ Naydee
Riaa Gold Certified Producer/Engineer, founder of Beats Planet.


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POETRY DISPATCH No. 382 | September 24, 2012
Editor's Note: I'm a long-time reader of Sharon Olds' poetry, which almost always says the right thing. Things I need to fear, feel, sense on many levels. Her poems deal a lot with family, childhood, marriage, love, death. The 'big stuff' set down in telling words, (the old 'ordinary'—but 'extraordinary') lines, stanzas that often shine in their own light.
One of her early poems on 'grandma' begins with the line: "Late in her life, when we fell in love,/I'd take her out from the nursing home/for a chaser and two bourbons." What could be more 'ordinary' ? Variations, too, on the theme of love/sex also find a home in the soundness of her words with a passion simmering just beneath her lines: "How do they do it, the ones who make love/without love?…"
I don't have a complete shelf of her work, but I remain especially fond of THE FATHER, (which I read often), THE DEAD AND THE LIVING, and THE GOLD CELL.
Her new book, STAG'S LEAP goes back to her well-honed theme of love/sex, with a particular emphasis on husband and wife. A marriage "gone South" shall we say, after thirty plus years. Heartbreak city–at least for her who is left what all the remains… something it takes a whole book of leaping poems to get over, though it never quite does—not the way she sorts it out, sees it, feels it, turns it over in her heart in words. "Memorable" doesn't quite say it.
I have problems sometimes with poets as successful as Sharon Olds: San Francisco Poetry Center Award, Lamont Poetry Selection for 1983, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award…poets, in their prime, making all the right moves, the right poems…till "the light" of national attention shines down upon them so brilliantly that slowly but surely too many of them become "Poets", so blinded by the light and they lose sight of how they used to say it so clearly in the beginning…and suddenly start stretching things a bit much…tossing in foreign phrases, words that may sound wonderful to their ears, but fall upon the readers like clunkers. There's a bit too much of this going on in some of these poems:
"tressed with spinneret sludge, speckled with/flue-mash flecks, or the morse of a species—/" from "On the Hearth of the Broken Home". Or…
"…His harpoon—a Beothuc harpoon—" Sorry…I come to something like this and the poem stops me in its tracks(lines) and I find myself turning the page, even worse, closing the book.
There's more, but I'm going to end right here because I DO like this book. I do love most of the poems. I DO highly recommend it—for…women (and men) who have been left by 'the other'…for those contemplating separation, divorce after a long or short marriage. For those left to live with the remains. This is NOT a self-help book of poems about dealing with abandonment but more like a journey, a meditation on rising to another level…love after love…which few approach, given the burden of memory. — Norbert Blei
The last time we slept together—
and then I can't remember when
it was, I used to be a clock
of sleeping together, and now it drifts,
in me, somewhere, the knowledge, in one of those
washes on maps of deserts, those spacious
wastes—the last time, he paused,
at some rest stop, some interval
between the unrollings, he put his palm
on my back, between the shoulder blades.
It was as if he were suing for peace,
asking if this could be over—maybe not
just this time, but over. He was solid
within me, suing for peace. And I
subsided, but then my bright tail
lolloped again, and I whispered, Just one
more?, and his indulgent grunt
seemed, to me, to have pleasure, and even
affection, in it—and my life, as it
was incorporated in flesh, was burst with the
sweet smashes again. And then
we lay and looked at each other—or I looked
at him, into his eyes. Maybe that
was the last time—not knowing
it was last, not solemn, yet that signal given,
that hand laid down on my back, not a gauntlet
but a formal petition for reprieve, a sign for Grant Mercy.
Poem for the Breasts
Like other identical twins, they can be
better told apart in adulthood.
One is fast to wrinkle her brow,
her brain, her quick intelligence. The other
dreams inside a constellation,
freckles of Orion. They were born when I was thirteen,
they rose up, half out of my chest,
now they're forty, wise, generous.
I am inside them—in a way, under them,
or I carry them, I'd been alive so many years without them.
I can't say I am them, though their feelings are almost
my feelings, as with someone one loves. They seem,
to me, like a gift that I have to give.
That boys were said to worship their category of
being, almost starve for it,
did not escape me, and some young men
loved them the way one would want, oneself, to be loved.
All year they have been calling to my departed husband,
singing to him, like a pair of soaking
sirens on a scaled rock.
They can't believe he's left them, it's not in their
vocabulary, they being made
of promise—they're like literally kept vows.
Sometimes, now, I hold them a moment,
one in each hand, twin widows,
heavy with grief. They were a gift to me,
and then they were ours, like thirsty nurslings
of excitement and plenty. And now it's the same
season again, the very week
he moved out. Didn't he whisper to them,
Wait here for me one year? No.
He said, God be with you, God
by with you, God-bye, for the rest
of this life and for the long nothing. And they do not
know language, they are waiting for him, my
Christ they are dumb, they do not even
know they are mortal—sweet, I guess,
refreshing to live with, being without
the knowledge of death, creatures of ignorant suffering.
Running into You
Seeing you again, after so long,
seeing you with her, and actually almost
not wanting you back,
doesn't seem to make me feel separate from you. But you seemed
covered with her, like a child working with glue
who's young to be working with glue. "If I could
choose, a place to die,"
it would never have been in your arms, old darling,
we figured I'd see you out, in mine,
it was never in doubt that you had suffered more than I
when young. That moved me so much about you,
the way you were a dumbstruck one
and yet you seemed to know everything
I did not know, which was everything
except the gift of gab—and oh well
dirty dancing and how to apologize.
When I went up to you two, at the art opening,
I felt I had nothing to apologize for,
I felt like a somewhat buoyant creature
with feet of I don't know what, recovered-from sorrow,
which held me nicely to the gallery floor as to the
surface of a planet, some lunar orb
once part of the earth.
Years Later
At first glance, there on the bench
where he'd agreed to meet, it didn't seem to be
him—but then the face of grim
friendliness was my former husband's,
like the face of a creature looking out
from inside its Knox. No fault, no knock,
clever nut of the hearing aid
hidden in the ear I do not feel I
love anymore, small bandage on the cheek
peopled with tiny lichen from a land I don't
know. We walk. I had not remembered
how deep he held himself inside
himself—my fun, for thirty-two years,
to lure him out. I still kind of want to,
as if I see him as a being with a baby-paw
caught. His voice is the same—low,
still pushed around the level-bubble
in his throat. We talk of the kids, and it's
as if that will never be taken from us.
But it feels as if he's not here—
though he's here, it feels as if, for me,
there's no one there—as when he was with me
it seemed there was no one there for any other
woman. For the first thirty years. Now I see
I've been hoping, each time we meet, that he would praise me
for how well I took it, but it's not to be.
Are you happy as you thought you'd be,
I ask. Yes. And his smile is touchingly
pleased. I thought you'd look happier,
I say, but after all, when I am
looking at you, you're with me! We smile.
His eyes warm, a moment, with the accustomed
shift, as if he's turning into
the species he was for those thirty years.
And turning back. I glance toward his torso
once, his legs—he's like a stick figure,
now, the way, when I was with him, other
men seemed like Ken dolls, all clothes. Even
the gleam of his fresh wedding ring is no
blade to my rib—this is Married Ken. As I
walk him toward his street I joke, and for an instant
he's alive toward me, a gem of sea of
pond in his eye. Then that retreat into himself,
which always moved me, as if there were
a sideways gravity, in him, toward some
vanishing point. And no, he does not
want to meet again, in a year—when we
part, it is with a dry bow
and Good-bye. And then there is the spring park,
damp as if freshly peeled, sweet
greenhouse, green cemetery with no
dead in it—except, in some shaded
woods, under some years of leaves and
rotted cones, the body of a warbler
like a whole note fallen from the sky—my old
love for him, like a songbird's rib cage picked clean.
[from STAG'S LEAP, Knopf, 2012, $16.95]


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The Sencha Customer Portal is currently experiencing a service disruption. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Security Bulletin Update - Log4J Issue (CVE-2021-44228)
NOTE: This incident is no longer considered active, but is being maintained as Monitoring for short-term visibility.
This is an update of Idera's internal review of the Log4J Issue (CVE-2021-44228). Idera has completed its review / investigation on all family of products.
For products supported in this portal, our investigation confirmed there are no exposed instances of the Apache Log4j library within the version range that contains this vulnerability. Therefore, the investigation confidently concludes none are impacted by the Apache Log4j vulnerability. For specific security bulletin updates regarding Qubole and Xblend / Xray, please review the information provided in the support portals for those products.
Although our initial and thorough investigation has concluded, Idera continues to monitor for potential breaches, we will continue actively to monitor this situation and communicate with stakeholders as appropriate.
Idera Security Bulletin CVE-2021-4104
Current Description
JMSAppender in Log4j 1.2 is vulnerable to deserialization of untrusted data when the attacker has write access to the Log4j configuration. The attacker can provide TopicBindingName and TopicConnectionFactoryBindingName configurations causing JMSAppender to perform JNDI requests that result in remote code execution in a similar fashion to CVE-2021-44228. Note this issue only affects Log4j 1.2 when specifically configured to use JMSAppender, which is not the default.
Idera does not use JMSAppender within our products so we are not impacted by this new CVE.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us.
Idera Security and Compliance Team.
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Energy-Wise House Flipper
November 01, 2009
A version of this article appears in the November/December 2009 issue of Home Energy Magazine.
David Robinson is a retired contractor who recently started doing what he calls Energy-Wise Renovations of foreclosed homes. He is buying clusters of homes in run-down neighborhoods, hard hit in the housing crisis, in the San Francisco Bay Area and into California's Central Valley, and retrofitting them with measures such as R-50 insulation in the attics, air sealing, and Energy Star appliances. But he is also creating some pretty stylish kitchens, redoing hardwood floors, and installing granite countertops, crown molding, and wainscoting in these homes. "You can't sell a home on energy efficiency alone. The first time home buyers in my market just won't pay the price of a deep energy retrofit. But when it's all included in the whole package, they buy it easily," says Robinson.
Robinson is having no problem selling these houses for 10%–20% above market prices, and he's still giving the home buyers, and the neighborhood, a very good deal. "I believe that there is a wonderful and huge opportunity in bank-owned foreclosures—millions of them," he says. "And we must rescue all those wonderful opportunities from the normal house flippers, who would just add carpet and paint and turn them into a rental and lower the values and miss the opportunity for deep energy reduction. Isn't that like putting makeup on a corpse? I buy all foreclosed homes and don't feel bad about beating up the banks to get the best deals possible so I can put in complete energy packages and some very nice renovation and still sell the finished product at the end."
Robinson is looking for potential investors who would like to take advantage of this opportunity while the housing market still has plenty of cheap homes to sell. He wants to teach them his method and therefore accelerate the process of converting our housing stock to affordable, efficient, and sustainable housing, and to make a good living doing so. He's added one word to the descriptor he used in his call-in radio show: Saving the planet, one (foreclosed) house at a time. (For another take on affordable and efficient housing, see sidebar "Look to Seattle.")
Not Just in Fresno
After completing eight projects, Robinson has seen a definite pattern that results from this approach to renovation. "Your mileage may vary, but don't let that stop you. Within 50 miles of any point in this state, there are some neighborhoods with similar demographics to the neighborhoods that I have worked in. You mainly just need to move inland from the more-expensive coastal neighborhoods." The same holds true for neighborhoods all across the United States and Canada.
Typical homes and neighborhoods have the following features:
- Homes are 30-to-50-year-old tract housing; 1,000–1,500 square feet; with three or four bedrooms and two baths.
- They have 4 x 12 pitch roofs and 8-foot ceilings; they are single-story construction, usually on a slab, usually stucco.
- They are in a desirable area—people want to live there.
- Neighborhood is not the lowest-priced zip code in the area—median home value for this zip code is about median for the whole city.
- Neighborhood includes anchors (jobs, shopping, parks) that attract buyers.
"These homes usually have everything worn-out," says Robinson. "Roofs, A/C, windows, carpet, paint—everything can benefit from renovation. Newer homes don't need enough. Older homes may need too much work and could become money pits." Robinson recommends focusing on tract homes. "The tract homes will all be built the same. Stay in a tract and get economies of scale and knowledge of prices and start controlling your own comps and appraisals."
The 8-foot ceilings, slab foundations, and stucco make these typical "flipper" homes easy targets for energy saving. "Probably the biggest problem in American housing stock is air infiltration through the leaky building envelope," says Robinson. "One of the biggest culprits is a ventilated crawlspace combined with unsealed floors. This causes the stud bays and the whole house to be a "stack," and the stack effect, where warm air rises, automatically takes away our conditioned air." Obviously this doesn't happen with a slab floor. "Flat ceilings (8 foot or any height) are easier to seal and insulate than the various other configurations: shed ceilings, cathedral ceilings, coffered ceilings, arches, and so on. All of these are areas that can be problems," says Robinson. "Wood siding on homes has been notoriously leaky. Stucco with the building paper barrier behind it, not so much."
Robinson looks for homes that allow him to realize energy savings without spending too much. "I choose to buy in tracts where it is pretty easy to realize big savings. Much older, and there is danger of them becoming a money pit. Much newer, and they don't need as much. So there isn't really room in the budget for what I do.
"New home buyers typically go for three bedrooms and two baths, and the fixed-up homes offer even greater appeal," says Robinson. "Studies have shown that the newer buyers want two bathrooms, three bedrooms minimum. And they are willing to pay for it." In other words, Robinson buys and fixes up the configuration that he has the best chance to sell. Less-desirable homes wouldn't sell for 10%–20% above market rates, and wouldn't lift the whole neighborhood while providing much-needed tax revenue to cities.
The federal government is stepping in to help as well. "There are a lot of first-time home buyers, and the current administration is determined to get as many as possible into home ownership," says Robinson.
|Look to Seattle
Other innovations are coming from Seattle, where G2B Ventures is creating a private equity fund to invest into residential energy efficiency in a socially and environmentally responsible way—buying homes out of distress and taking the opportunity to drive in energy efficiency before offering them for rent. "Our goal is to bring energy efficiency into the market that shows the greatest need for our work—and to do so at large scale. Homes consume about 20% of our nation's primary energy, so we can really make a difference by turning distressed housing stock into comfortable, attractive homes that use less energy," says Aaron Fairchild, Managing Partner of G2 Ventures.
The firm takes a twist on the standard buy/sell model by offering them to a market segment that the green building movement often overlooks—renters. "We are taking a lead on offering green homes to the typically under-served market of renters so that the benefits can be spread a little further," says Fairchild. The firm keeps the relationship going with its tenants by offering energy saving tips and tricks, home maintenance manuals, and feedback on utility usage. As these renters eventually move on towards home ownership, they will look for similarly efficient homes to buy, therefore encouraging the marketplace to keep offering green homes. "It's a virtuous cycle," comments Fairchild, "with benefits extending for many years beyond our initial efforts."
—Sonja Gustafson
Sonja Gustafson is a marketing manager at G2B Ventures.
For more information on The Efficient Real Estate Fund and G2B Ventures, please visit their Web site at www.g2ventures.com or contact Aaron Fairchild at (206) 947-8208.
The Energy Package
Robinson's experience so far has taught him that serious energy-efficient retrofits are hard to sell unless they are combined with more visible things that first-time buyers are attracted to, such as the oft-cited granite countertops in the kitchen. With the complete package, Robinson has had no problems finding buyers for his renovated homes. He decided early on to avoid government-mandated or -funded programs to create energy-efficient homes that sell. He has found that the Energy Package sells, as long as it is combined with other popular retrofit measures. The Energy Package consists of
- redesigned, sealed R-8 ducts, second return;
- new HVAC equipment (typically 2-ton 13-SEER, 80% package units), or mini-split systems;
- new vinyl dual-pane replacement windows;
- low-e 140 glass on east and west windows;
- R-50 cellulose attic insulation;
- R-13 cellulose wall insulation;
- ceiling fans;
- CFLs everywhere;
- planting one or more shade trees;
- installing mechanical ventilation (Panasonic Energy Recovery Ventilator FV-04VE1 or Panasonic bath exhaust a minimum)
- shell sealing attic;
- shell sealing under floor and/or sealing crawlspace and installing poly ground sheet;
- installing gas and Energy Star appliances;
- installing light and motion sensors;
- duct test done by HVAC subcontractor; blower door test done by A/C sub; and
- combustion air test done by A/C sub.
(The last two on the list are the test-out procedures. All systems are deemed "catastrophic," so there is no test-in procedure.)
Along with the Energy Package, Robinson also includes what he calls the Wow Package and Done Package. The Wow Package includes upscale items such as new kitchen cabinets, all-stainless appliances, crown molding, custom tile showers, and designer light fixtures; and the more practical but still attractive features of the Done Package include water-efficient landscaping, new garage doors and windows, 30–50-year composition roofs, proper drainage away from the house, dash coat or complete exterior paint, and new 100-amp electrical service.
For Profit
Robinson calculates that the energy and other packages and soft costs—interest expenses, insurance, taxes, waste, theft, Realtor fees, closing costs, utilities, and missed estimates—along with a good $20,000 profit per house, add up to $100,000. He suggests that the total buy-sell spread be no less than that amount. "If there isn't a 100k spread from buy to sell, you must modify your cost structure or pass and wait for a better deal," he says. "That's the bottom line."
Robinson offers some cautions for people who want to enter this business of energy-wise house flipping. "For this math exercise to make sense, you must have a good idea of your final sales price. To get clarity on this, you must have a well-done comparative market analysis (CMA) from your Realtor. Some Realtors want to wing it and give you their opinion without doing the CMA. They are the wrong Realtor, so keep looking."
Jim Gunshinan is Home Energy's editor.
For more information:
David Robinson coordinates a teleconference every Tuesday at 6 pm Pacific Time. If you want to know more, call him at (559)994-9477, or e-mail him at firstname.lastname@example.com. He will e-mail you a PowerPoint presentation that you can look at on your own computer and give you a call-in number and password for the teleconference.
Web: GreenEarthEquities.com
Robinson also teaches classes through Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), www.pge.com.
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Botswana Consensus Forecast Report
FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast reports for Botswana are monthly publications containing macroeconomic projections from a variety of prominent sources. Each month, we poll the research departments of investment banks, financial institutions and research organizations to obtain their view of the future. The report covers the most important economic indicators for a 5-year forecast period. Complemented with concise analysis and numerous charts, it provides the most comprehensive assessment of Botswana's economy available in the market.
*Individual reports include a single user license, which entitles only one user to use the research. If you require more than 1 license for this report, please contact a sales representative at +34 93 265 10 40 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Buy a report: 190.00€ Buy Report
The FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast for Botswana is the most dependable source of economic information available for the country. You get the essentials of research conducted by the leading economists for Botswana within a single publication. This monthly publication gives you a precise picture of both the current state of affairs and future developments in Botswana Every month, FocusEconomics polls more than 20 of the most renowned experts on Botswana's economy and provides their forecasts in a single report, which is complemented by authoritative analysis from the FocusEconomics research team.
Table of Contents
- Botswana Economic Outlook
- Economic Indicators
- Fact Sheet
Table of Contents
The Consensus Forecast report for Botswana's economy covers approximately 30 macroeconomic indicators for a 5-year forecast period and quarterly forecasts for the most important economic variables. The forecasts are complemented by five years of historical data, thus providing a complete picture of Botswana's economy. Reports are available in PDF or PDF+Excel.
The PDF report also contains concise written analysis on the most important economic indicators, including economic activity (GDP), industrial production, business confidence, consumer confidence, inflation, monetary policy decisions and important exchange rate movements***, thus providing a better understanding of the forecasts. All indicators are illustrated by charts, enabling past developments and future trends to be grasped quickly and intuitively.
The country reports include forecasts for:
GDP per capita
Economic Growth
Domestic Demand
Total Consumption
Fixed Investment
Industrial Production
Fiscal Balance
Public Debt
Central Bank 30-59 Days Dep. Rate
Exchange Rate
Current Account Balance
Trade Balance
International Reserves
External Debt
With the FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast for Botswana you can easily:
Assess Botswana's business environment. Our report on Botswana's economy provides you with the fundamental tools and strategic intelligence to evaluate the key economic and political developments affecting your business in Botswana. With a forecast horizon of five years, you'll have an unbiased and objective basis for your business decisions.
Analyze trends. The publication tracks the developments of market perceptions and thus provides you with a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of Botswana's economy as well as the associated risks.
Plan the future of your business. The FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast for Botswana is the ideal planning tool, enabling you to anticipate potential economic turmoil before it occurs and providing you with authoritative advice for optimal business plan execution.
Stress-test your business decisions. Alongside an average forecast figure (the Consensus Forecast), FocusEconomics also highlights the minimum and maximum value for each indicator forecast, thereby providing you with landmarks for your scenario-based analysis for Botswana.
***Note: Indicator coverage varies by country. For a precise overview of what indicators are covered, please download a sample of the country/region of interest.
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Video of the Day: Suspect hijacks two cars, leads police on wild chase
Staff Writer
The McDonough County Voice
Hot video
Police have captured a 28-year-old man who hijacked three cars and led authorities on a wild chase through multiple counties.
Screen time
Cold War intrigue hits close to home when Paige begins to look into her mother's background on "The Americans" at 10 p.m. EDT tonight on FX.
Best of the day
Emma Watson shared a new trailer for the movie "Noah" with her fans on Twitter. #noah #itsfinallyhappening
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Antony Page and Michael J Pitts recently posted their intriguing article, "Poll Workers, Election Law, and the Problem of Implicit Bias" (forthcoming in Michigan Journal of Race & Law) on SSRN. Here's the abstract.
* * *
Racial bias in election administration – more specifically, in the interaction between pollworkers and voters at a voting booth on election day – may be implicit, or unconscious. Indeed, the operation of a polling place may present an "optimal" setting for unconscious racial bias to occur. Pollworkers sometimes have legal discretion to decide whether or not a prospective voter gets to cast a ballot, and they operate in an environment where they may have to make quick decisions, based on little information, with few concrete incentives for accuracy, and with little opportunity to learn from their errors. Even where the letter of the law does not explicitly allow for a pollworker to exercise discretion, there is a strong possibility that unconscious bias could play a role in pollworker decision-making. Whether a poll workers' discretion is de jure or de facto, the result may be race-based discrimination between prospective voters. This article addresses how unconscious bias may play a role in the interaction between pollworkers and prospective voters and discusses some ways in which the potential for unconscious bias to operate in America's polling places may be mitigated.
* * *
For a sample of related Situationist posts, see "The Racial Situation of Voting," "Why Race May Influence Us Even When We "Know" It Doesn't," "The Interior Situation of Undecided Voters," "On Being a Mindful Voter," "Implicit Associations in the 2008 Presidential Election," "The Situation of Political Animals," and "Your Brain on Politics."
To review all of the previous Situationist posts discussing implicit associations click on the "Implicit Associations" category in the right margin, or, for a list of such posts, click here.
Image from The Virginia Pilot.


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Australia began the 1910s with innocence but by decade's end any innocence had gone, snatched away at faraway places unheard of in 1910 like Gallipoli, Fromelles and Beersheba. Children hanging Christmas stockings in 1910 ended the decade without fathers, brothers or even their own lives. The decade started with the usual, even frivolous reports about matters such as fruit supplies and ended with life trying to adjust back to those carefree times, but with the stark evidence of missing faces at the Christmas dinner table.
Fruit was in abundance for Christmas 1910 with oranges from Spain, bananas and pears from France and California. Shoppers could also buy novelty fruits such as avocado and persimmons.
The Portland Guardian raised Christmas spirits dampened by wintry weather. They reported on the many Christmas shop displays around the town.
There were always Christmas pudding recipes in the papers.
Christmas 1911 saw the shops of Colac go all out with their window displays. Mr Stephen's Enterprise House was the place to go for grocery and homewares supplies. He stocked hams and cheeses and a range of Christmas delicacies and even a new fly-killing preparation, essential for an insect free Christmas lunch in Australia. Mr Stephens also stocked a range of alcohol including Seppelt's wine, port and sherry.
Christmas Eve 1911 in Portland saw the usual hustle and bustle. It was an evening to catch up with old friends back in Portland for Christmas while children soaked up the festive atmosphere. The Ozone Coffee Place was just one of the shops with an elaborate window display of lollies and sweets. By evening the butchers and bakers had sold out of their goods.
In 1912, the Colac Herald noted the change in Christmas gifts and cards over the years. Christmas cards with traditional English Christmas scenes had given way to gifts such as books by Dickens, Kipling and Thackeray all available cheaply. Books of Adam Lindsay Gordon's poetry were also a popular gift in 1912. Likewise, for children, toys had changed. Toy planes and modern toy soldiers pushed leaden soldiers aside.
From ox tongues to magic lanterns, block cakes to dolls, The Portland Store Pty. Ltd. could cater for all Christmas 1912 shopping needs.
More recipes. Have you ever had bread sauce on your turkey?
Science based toys were popular in 1913 including planes, submarines and phonographs imported from England and Europe. Simple toys were out of fashion according to one importer.
WW1 began in August 1914 and Australians were given a warning in October of that year. "More than one Christmas will pass" before the war would end.
Cheap poultry fed on biscuit crumbs were on the menu for Christmas 1914.
The Colac Herald acknowledged those suffering during the Christmas season due to the war.
"We have reason to hope that out of this season of deepest trial, of cruel warfare and of untold suffering, there will come a day when the world will be assured of years of peace, when not so much consideration will be given to weapons of warfare, but the thoughts of mankind will be turned more and more to improving the conditions under which so many people have to live."
The Colac Herald. (1914, December 23). The Colac Herald (Vic. : 1875 – 1918), p. 2. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74265363Despite the events overseas, Casterton had plenty of Christmas cheer as described in this lovely article about Christmas in Casterton, 1914.
During Christmas 1914, Australians felt there was hope the war, the big adventure, would be over by Christmas 1915. Instead, by the time that Christmas came around the realities of the Great War had come home, with the horrors of Gallipoli the awakening. Christmas thoughts turned overseas, with the comforts of the soldiers on that December day utmost in the minds of family. Christmas billies and packages were sent overseas to give the boys a touch of home.
The Lady Mayoress of Melbourne placed an order for 37, 000 Christmas puddings for the troops. Country folk could send 1s 3d to the Patriotic League and a card would be attached to a pudding with the donor's details and the key to open the tin.
Warrnambool sent 300 Christmas billies to the front in 1915.
A sample of offerings from the shops of Colac for Christmas 1915.
The Figaro Brisbane was a long way from the Western District, but their sentiments about Christmas 1915 are worth sharing.
By January 1916, news was getting back to Australia about how troops sent Christmas Day in Cairo.
On October 14th, 1916 between 9am and 1pm, 1002 parcels and 114 mail bags left the Western Station, Ballarat bound for the Expeditionary Forces.
Residents of Port Fairy could give a fowl for a soldiers' Christmas dinner at the Caulfield Base Hospital.
A Christmas Box Wanted From You was the catch cry in September 1916. How nice, what a lovely thought. But it was not a Christmas pudding or biscuits the boys wanted in their boxes from home. They wanted tobacco and a lot of it, especially as the Army was spending £25,000 a day on tobacco and cigarettes.
Stuck for Christmas gift ideas? Consider making a calendar. One can never have too many calendars. Put one in every room if need be!
The "Everlady's Journal" Christmas edition had everything a lady needed to know for preparing for Christmas with the limitations the war brought.
The rush to release books in time for Christmas was on during October 1917. C.J. Denis had released "Doreen" and May Gibbs had "Gum-Blossom Babies" and "Gumnut Babies" on offer.
A recipe for an old English plum cake that would keep for six months.
Father Christmas handed out gifts to the children from the South Warrnambool Presbyterian Church Sunday school at a Christmas tree party in 1917.
August was the cut off date for Christmas parcels being sent overseas for Christmas 1918. This was a change from 1917 when the parcels sent in September were not distributed until January.
The A.I.F. Christmas book had "the finest collection of war photographs". The book became available to the public in 1918.
A call went out to country folk to give poultry for Christmas 1918. The goal was 1000 pair of victory chickens for soldiers in hospital in and around Melbourne. Dispatch centres were set up in towns such as Timboon, Port Fairy, Macarthur and Penshurst.
With the end of WW1 in November 1918, the message for Christmas was "Peace on Earth".
The war years brought with it the first example of mass marketing I have come across as I've moved through the decades and it came from Kodak. The advertising began in earnest in 1915 with the suggestion a Kodak camera was a perfect gift to send to a "soldier friend" to record their experience. Their other angle was directed at those at home. Buy a Kodak camera and take photos of daily life to send to a "soldier friend" to cheer them up. The Christmas after war's end, they turned to the idea of a Kodak camera being a perfect way to preserve memories.
The streets of Ararat were busy on Christmas Eve, 1918.
The residents of Port Fairy were feeling a renewed Christmas spirit in 1918, stocking up on food and clothing.
At Wail West in the Wimmera, locals were dusting off their picnic blankets for a Christmas picnic, revived from pre-war days.
Those making phone calls on Christmas Days 1919 faced double rates.
At last, the future was looking brighter when Christmas 1919 arrived as it was the first Christmas since the Treaty of Versailles was signed and the second since fighting had ceased.
Christmas 1919 in Horsham was busy and businesses added greenery to verandah posts along Firebrace and Wilson Streets.
The last Christmas of the 1910s went off with a bang for the residents of some Western Victorian towns. Residents of Clear Lake, Vectis and Hamilton to name a few saw a heavenly body come to earth on Christmas Day 1919.


text:
Paul Aiken / Daily Camera
Courtesy University of Colorado
Understanding the JonBenet Ramsey grand jury's vote to indict both of the girl's parents for child abuse resulting in death, and then-District Attorney Alex Hunter's subsequent refusal to sign the indictment or prosecute the case, is hampered at the outset by the cloak of secrecy which, by law, enveloped the process.
"To me it seems to mean that the grand jury compromised, for this reason," said Dan Recht, a Denver criminal defense lawyer and legal analyst. "JonBenet Ramsey was killed intentionally. That seems clear. The way that she was tied up, the way that she was manipulated physically, everyone would agree that she was intentionally killed.
"So to have a grand jury say that they acted recklessly, seems like a compromise."
However, not everyone agrees that the death was initiated by a deliberate act. One police theory of the case held that the events of the night of Dec. 25, 1996, might have started with an accidental injury to JonBenet.
"Under that (scenario), if that was presented to the jury — andI don't know how it would have been — but if it was, then it's possible that the grand jury made a more informed decision," Recht said, "and this wasn't a complete compromise verdict inconsistent with the facts as Alex Hunter knew them to be."
If, in fact, the Ramsey grand jury's decision did represent a compromise decision made in the absence of jurors' confidence about what really took place inside 755 15th St. on Christmas night in 1996, that would not be unusual, Recht said.
"Juries compromise all the time, but normally it isn't quite so blatant as this seems to be," Recht said. "But in a homicide case, for example — and now I'm talking about a regular, petit jury — and the person is charged with first-degree murder, there's second-degree murder, there's manslaughter, and juries will regularly compromise between what the parties want, because they can't come up with a unanimous verdict of first-degree murder.
"And so they'll compromise on a lesser offense. That is the nature of jurors, often."
The language of the Colorado statute relating to child abuse states that the crime can be charged when a person "engages in a continued pattern of conduct that results in malnourishment, lack of proper medical care, cruel punishment, mistreatment or an accumulation of injuries that ultimately results in the death of a child or serious bodily injury to a child."
A failure to seek necessary emergency medical care after an accidental injury, such as a blow to a child's head rendering a child unconscious, would meet the statute's requirements, experts said.
Could jury have bypassed DA?
Meanwhile, there are questions surrounding Hunter's actions once the indictment was returned.
University of Colorado law professor Mimi Wesson said she believes that under Colorado grand jury law, Hunter might not have had the statutory power to invalidate the indictment by refusing to sign it.
"I doubt that a judge would order a prosecutor to sign an indictment, but that's a different question from the validity of an unsigned indictment," she wrote in an email.
"The question of the prosecutor's obligation usually comes up when a defendant is indicted and arrested and arraigned and generally put in the path of a prosecution, and then tries to get the charges dismissed on the ground of the prosecutor's failure to sign the indictment," she added. "This has not come up in Colorado that I can discover, but in some other jurisdictions, these defendants have not been successful."
Wesson also pointed out that Rule 6.6 of the Colorado Rules of Criminal Procedure states that, "Presentation of an indictment in open court by a grand jury may be accomplished by the foreman of the grand jury, the full grand jury or by the prosecutor under the instructions of the grand jury."
In the email, Wesson stated, "It seems to me that this rule suggests that the grand jurors had the power to bypass the DA's Office and report to the court that they had returned an indictment. Of course, if they did not know they had this power, they might believe that they were powerless to act without the DA, and that they were bound to maintain secrecy."
Sara Sun Beale, a professor at Duke University School of Law and author of the book "Grand Jury Law & Practice," said that while she did not disagree with Wesson's interpretation, she believed it remains "an open question" whether Hunter followed proper procedure under Colorado law.
'Let the community understand'
Now, with more than 13 years having passed since the grand jury left the Boulder County Justice Center for the last time, one grand juror who spoke to the Daily Camera asked what benefit might lie in the jury's decision finally being reported.
Addressing that question, Recht said, "I'm not sure if it's going to move the ball down the field, as far as figuring out who actually did this, as far as prosecuting anybody for doing this. So I don't know if it does anything in that regard.
"On the other hand," Recht said, "this is a case that was watched by the whole country. And this new information gives the country, the community, some insight into how the criminal justice system works. And that's helpful, and that's what, in essence, the First Amendment is about, which is to let the citizens, let the community understand how our government works, how the criminal justice system works."
Contact Camera Staff Writer Charlie Brennan at 303-473-1327 or email@example.com.
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