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2012 Previews: N.L. Central
First of all, this photo of my six-year old niece helping me keep score at the Yankees' opener doesn't have a thing to do with the NL Central. It's just that it represents her first tentative steps towards fandom, and is to my mind fully representative of the rituals of the sport. Just the other day she ceaselessly quizzed her ball-playing older brother about what all the players do. Now she's trying to figure out what the hieroglyphics represent, and carefully entering abbreviations at my instruction, and asking with delighted amazement: "What does that mean?" (She also insisted we take a walk, I told her we'd go wherever she wanted in the park because she was in charge. "Yes," she said matter-of-factly. "I know").
The history of winning the World Series and then altering your uniform the next year to advertise the fact is a star-crossed one. The 2009 Phillies, 2007 Cardinals, and 2005 Red Sox all dipped their toe into the pool and wore special gold trim on their unis for their first one or two home games. The 2011 Giants wore a particularly garish patch all season long. Not one of them repeated their previous year's triumphs. Go back into history and there are greater calamities still: the 1920 Cleveland Indians overcame the mid-season death of their star infielder Ray Chapman after he was hit in the head by a Carl Mays pitch, then surged past the scandal-ravaged White Sox to grab their first pennant, then won the World Series in large part because of an unassisted triple play by Chapman's double-play partner Bill Wambsganss.
Next year, Wamby and his teammates dressed in these uniforms:The "Worlds Champions" finished second in 1921, did not seriously contend for the pennant again until 1940 (when they were decimated by an internal player revolt against their manager, earning the players the nicknames "The Crybabies"), didn't win another Series until 1948, and haven't won one since.
The 1927 Cardinals did something similar, although a little less garish, were punished by being crushed in the '28 Series by the Yankees and the '30 A's, but were winners again by 1931.
The 1906 New York Giants wore these modest little outfits, at home and abroad, to celebrate their 1905 title. The Giants fell out of contention in '06 and '07, suffered the singular ignominy of the 1908 pennant race and the Merkle Game Controversy in '08, watched the president of the National League kill himself over that controversy in '09, didn't compete in '10, had their ballpark burn down in '11, lost the epic series on the Fred Snodgrass "muff" and the Mathewson Wrong Call in '12, lost another Series in '13, watched one of their cast-off pitchers lead the last place team past them and to the Series title in '14, saw the team break up amid gambling rumors in '15, won 26 in a row and still finished only fourth in '16, lost the '17 Series when nobody covered the plate on a rundown from third base, and didn't come out of it until they won the Series of 1921 and 1922.
I'm not suggesting wearing a uniform devoted more to bragging than team identification caused these calamities, but there is a remarkable amount of trouble associated with teams that merely tinkered with their jerseys after they prevailed. The Cubs went from wearing a simple "C" for their 1907 shirt to a "C" with the "Cubby Bear" nestled inside in 1908. They repeated the title that year, but changed the jerseys to an even more ornate version with "Chicago" spelled vertically down the buttons in '09, and you might recall what '09 was the start of for the Cubs.
This is a very very very long way of leading up to this question: This gold-lettered uniform the Cardinals wore Friday? Why did they wear it?
I mean, none of the teams in the National League Central are among baseball's best this season. They just aren't and more over, they know it. The division has been drained by the departures of Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder, and despite producing two playoff teams, a World Champion, and a (brief) Cinderella Team, it wasn't a very good division last year, either.
I'm saying the title might come down to superstition. So why tempt it? I mean, the caps are a little kitschy but the unis are kinda nice. But did you notice that after wearing it for one day, David Freese is already hurt again?
ST. LOUIS has to be the default favorite, but Carpenter's gone, Wainwright has looked like crap, Berkman's already suffered two minor injuries that could linger and limit him, or explode and finish him. Among all humans who've never managed before, Mike Matheny is probably the 2nd best choice to try to start on the big league stage (Robin Ventura is the 1st), but on what experience will he call if the injuries continue, or the bullpen falters, or Carlos Beltran is sidelined by a scratched nostril,or the Cards all get blood poisoning from the jinxed gold-flecked unis?
Conversely, managerial experience is no automatic indicator of success – ask CINCINNATI. We all love Dusty Baker, one of the great human beings, but his reluctance to trust youngsters has imperiled the career of Aroldis Chapman and is now reflected in his insistence on catching Ryan Hanigan more than Devin Mesoraco. The Ryan Madson injury will only make Dusty even less willing to trust anybody under 35, and I just have to wonder if at some point ownership is going to wake up in the middle of the night and say "we have committed 297 and a half million dollars to the least important quadrant, the right side of the infield" and disappear into the Arctic or something. How on earth is a market like Cincinnati supposed to produce such revenues? Is the news about the Minnesota Twins censored on the internet in the southern half of Ohio? More immediately, there's a serious question about every Red pitcher (except Chapman, and of course he is used only as the 6th or 7th most important man on the staff).
The Conventional Wisdom suggests Aramis Ramirez was brought to MILWAUKEE to partially offset the loss of Prince Fielder. Nuh-uh. He was brought in to offset the disappearance of Casey McGehee. The Brewers' swaggering line-up of 2011 looks awfully human with Gamel and Gonzalez and Ramirez in it in 2012. Randy Wolf looks like he's at the end of the line and the internal dissatisfaction with Zack Greinke is astounding. It's a very good bullpen, but in any other division this would not be a serious contender.
If Jeff Samardzija and either Bryan LaHair or Anthony Rizzo are for real, CHICAGO may be better than expected, but not much. LaHair has hit well in the NL and Rizzo in the PCL and the obvious move would be to stick LaHair in the outfield, which is already a defensive wasteland, call up Rizzo, and let 'er rip. Or better yet, off-load David DeJesus or Soriano or Byrd for whatever you could get for them, and give Brett Jackson a shot out there, too. But even if the Cubs hit, past Garza and maybe Samardzija the rest of the rotation is dubious and the bullpen (with the possible exception of rookie Rafael Dolis) will give away a lot of games.
There is a narrow pinhead through which PITTSBURGH might squeeze, and force their way into contention. Revivals from Erik Bedard and A.J. Burnett would give a good bullpen something to save. Andrew McCutchen might blossom into an MVP candidate. Starling Marte might come up next month and hit .330. But masked by the completeness of the Buccos' post-play-at-the-plate collapse last year was what happened to the fuel of their brief spring in the sun. Jose Tabata vanished. Garrett Jones vanished. Kevin Correia vanished. Jeff Karstens vanished. Inexplicably, Pedro Alvarez vanished and the Pirates insist on still playing him. Midnight struck and Clint Hurdle was suddenly managing a pumpkin farm. Everything that went right last year has to go right again this year – and then some.
There is one bright spot in HOUSTON. If the new owner and Poor Brad Mills (the manager's new first name) had had to have taken this team into the American League this year, the Astros might've gone 30-132. There may be sparkles from Jason Castro behind the plate, Jose Altuve at second, and Brian Bogusevic, J.D. Martinez, and Jordan Schafer in the outfield, but it is plausible that beyond Carlos Lee there might be nobody on this team who hits 15 homers. There certainly aren't going to be any starting pitchers who win 15 games. Good lord, as I read this to myself, it dawns on me: all the starting pitchers might not win 35 games among them.
Man, I have no idea. If these teams were scattered among the other divisions there wouldn't be a lead-pipe-cinch pennant contender among the six of them. I guess St. Louis will win, with Cincinnati and Milwaukee behind them, and Chicago and Pittsburgh arguing over fourth, and the Astros disappearing from National League history like the Cheshire Cat. The pennant race might prove variable and exciting, but it will not be good, and it will make fans in places like Toronto and Seattle and Miami wish that realignment were a reality.
18 Comments
You wrote: (She also insisted we take a walk, I told her we'd go wherever she wanted in the park because she was in charge. "Yes," she said matter-of-factly. "I know").
Beautiful. You just have to love the absolute assurance of a six-year-old. So confident. May she never lose that – at least not too much of it, anyway. 🙂
Great blog. Lots of supersition which I always like reading about. 🙂
Just one suggestion, though. It's much easier to absorb the blog if you put the really cute stuff at the *end*. 😉
Yeah, what Audrey said. Even those of us who actually like baseball are too busy melting over the adorableness that is Eve and her Unca Keef to register the rest of the post. 😀 (That said, if it wouldn't feel like too much of an invasion of privacy, a series of posts on her journey into fandom would be an incredible read. Please consider following up on this throughout the season.)
Well, putting the cute stuff first may have ameliorated the important point to follow, which is that the NL Central needs for the president to declare it a disaster area and ship in FEMA funds!
Lovely seeing you spending quality time with the kids making memories they'll never forget. That picture of you and Eve and Jake makes me a little wistful. While I had a wonderful father and many uncles who were very much present and influential in my life growing up, none of them were particularly sports-minded, so I missed out on that father-daughter/uncle-niece bonding experience that only sports can provide. Every child deserves and should have an Uncle Keith. 🙂
Wonderful photo…! A lucky lass… Love you, Keith!
The travesty of Bud Selig forcing the Astros into the AL is not one of the great injustices of all time, but I wish it got more attention. 50 years of tradition is nothing to sneeze at.
I am going to be very very quiet. ((tiptoes out))
I think this blog should be re-named "East Coast Baseball Snob".
This blog should be renamed "East Coast Baseball Snob".
Seeing you introduce your niece to the game gave me a serious flashback to my own experience with my dad. My father was a difficult man in many respects, and he wasn't available to me much of my childhood…so when he did make the time to take me to Cubs games it was a very special occasion. I was probably five or six when I attended my first game, and I will never forget the excitement or thrill of getting off the "El" stop at Wrigley Field and holding my dad's hand as we crossed to the park. Spending the day together, just the two of us, was an absolute rarity when I was growing up…so even at that tender age I was fully aware of how special it was. He passed on his love of baseball and football to me, and now I'm easily the bigger fan between the two of us. As I grew up and we found we had less and less common ground to rally around, we were always able to discuss baseball in general and the Cubs specifically. To this day I cannot watch a game without thinking fondly of my first introduction to fandom, sitting on my dad's lap, helping him keep score, and listening to him patiently answer all of my (often silly) questions.
Nothing like a day at the ballpark. I loved taking my grandsons, before they all grew up and started playing the game. As a Houstonian, who saw my first baseball game at Buff Stadium, fought mosquitoes at Colt Stadium, took grandkids to the Dome, and to Enron/Minute Maid, I am totally ticked about moving to the AL. I agree with a previous poster, there is 50 years of NL history here, and it should not have been discarded for 50 million dollars.
Having said that…. I'm not going to comment on your situation with Current TV. Except to say, since you are not on-air, I miss you …… but I don't miss Current.
Ah well. You nailed it on my Reds – how, indeed, does the Queen City support a club with $300 mil + between 2 players for the foreseeable future? Well, if they produce, could be. Sillier things have happened. And who knows? Maybe this nonsense will bring an end to the Steinbrenner Book on Paying Ballplayers…and watching half of them flame out before they've earned their second million. Who knows? Maybe someday in the next 20 years, another Pete Rose will arise and announce his grand ambition to be the first singles hitter making $100K per year. Could happen. Of course, all the psycho-sports-political-economics stars would have to be realigned to, oh, I don't know, sensability so that everyone realizes that if you pay everyone decently and no one brain-dead spendthriftly, the game and the country might become…competitive again? What a thought. Meanwhile, the deal for that San Diego pitcher's looking kinda…well…did I say that Madsen, after signing his $8 mil contract comes up unable to play for the entire year…and that ain't fraud? Heavy sigh.
Love the part about your neice and nephew and your care and feeding of new fans. Put a real smile on my face. Keep at it, k? All good things to you.
I would be very interested in reading KO's take on the Houston Astros going to the American League. His take on what it means for the Astros, the Leagues, Baseball in general, and absolutely the historical aspects and such. It ticks me off as well. Not so much for the history aspect because history has shown the Astros aren't the first club to ever go from one League to another, but because it will mean longer games and less fascinating managerial strategies to take in – and I like the unpredictable predictability of the random pitcher knocking the ball around. For me the DH is a serious buzzkill.
What memories, my Dad took me to my very first game here in Detroit at the old Briggs stadium to watch the Tigers, and the Boston Red Sox, it was Ted Williams last year, he was retiring at the end. My Father's love of baseball rolled over on me, and I always remember those special times. Every Sunday the Tigers played here, you could catch my Dad, and me at the game, he taught me everything about the game, and I guess I did him justice, because i taught the next generation, my children. Miss you Keith, I know you will be back, enjoy your time with your family.
Air Jordans are loved by many, probably the fact that Michael Jordan started his rookie season with a bang. Jordan retro shoes are highly sought after.
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News Release
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ETA News Release: [04/20/2009]
Contact Name: Peggy Abrahamson or Suzy Bohnert
Phone Number: (202) 693-7909 or x4665
Release Number: 09-0420-BOS
WASHINGTON The U.S. Department of Labor today certified for release $54,227,780 in unemployment insurance (UI) modernization incentive funds to the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Massachusetts qualified for the funds available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) by allowing workers to use their more recent earnings to qualify for benefits. Massachusetts' approved application will be posted at the department's Employment and Training Administration Web site at http://www.doleta.gov/recovery.
"Massachusetts is a trailblazer at understanding the importance of providing economic security to workers who have entered the workforce recently and lost their jobs through no fault of their own," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "The commonwealth's law exceeds federal requirements and provides vital assistance to workers."
The Massachusetts Department of Employment Security can use the funds to pay unemployment benefits or, if appropriated by the legislature, for administering its unemployment insurance program or delivering employment services.
"As families in the commonwealth continue to struggle to make ends meet, we will use every possible resource to provide assistance to our displaced workers," said Gov. Deval Patrick. "Massachusetts is committed to the creation of an innovative and dynamic unemployment insurance system to address the needs of our workers."
The Recovery Act made a total of $7 billion available in UI modernization incentive payments to states that include certain eligibility provisions in their UI programs. Each state can qualify for a share of those funds by showing that its law includes those provisions. To date, in addition to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Jersey and South Dakota have been certified by the Labor Department to receive a share of the funds.

subset: commoncrawl


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This set comprises a documentary, followed by a filmed live show, followed by outtakes, all accompanied by a live CD of the same show. On paper it would seem like you've got a good deal, but with only two studio albums out there's not that much meat on the bone as yet. It says on the tin that they've done a thousand live shows, but I wonder if some madness has set in amidst tour bus cabin fever, because it's about as compulsive as a plateful of boiled sprouts.
The DVD opens with a documentary which focuses on life in the tour bus (hence Berth, a fancy nautical name for 'bunk'). I wonder who in their tiny mind thought that would make for good television? Did Bert McCracken's cameo as 'token skanky boyfriend' on The Osbournes infect his brain? Perhaps painting a rock tour as a Kerouac novel or a Jim Jarmusch film might have worked, focusing on the band writing songs on acoustic guitars in hotel rooms? (If they do that.) But watching a bunch of uninspiring herberts describe their gratitude at being able to eat each other's snot and smell each other's farts in their very own custom built bus... it actually puts you right off the idea of being in a band.
On to the show... The Used are a pretty good live act, in that they know how to work an audience, how to string chords together, write good choruses, do quiet bits and loud bits where the volume goes straight up to ten and Bert's shrieking away… so you watch, waiting for the 'one louder' moment, or the transcendent tender whisper, but it never happens. You'd think the fact it was going to be filmed for a live DVD would make them really pull out all the stops at the show in question, putting time, energy and money into making it a real event, one to make each and every member of the audience feel like they'd won the lottery. Fat chance. It's very slickly filmed, but a plain white backdrop dully lit with red light makes them look like a support act. Smaller, less cash-rich bands can make much better DVDs: look at Fugazi's Instrument.
The reason artists like The Used aren't capable of generating the kind of fan cult of Marilyn Manson, Slipknot and, for that matter, touring legends like 'Maiden is because they simply don't put anywhere near as much effort into the details. I've seen the movie, and these guys are just along for the ride.
5Chris Nettleton's Score


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If your club business is doing well despite these tough economic times — attracting new clients, keeping the old ones happy, and turning a profit — you might be thinking about expanding. Well, lucky for you we spoke to some industry experts and got their insights into the essential steps club owners should take as they start off on the journey of expansion. If your aim is to become one of the country's top 100 clubs or just grow to your full potential, these seven key considerations will get you started off on the right foot.
Number One: One of the most important first steps is to take the time to analyze your business. Determine your strengths and think of ways to capitalize on your core competencies. Determine your weaknesses and think of ways to shore them up.
A thorough understanding of the ins and outs of your business will help prevent potential problems that could worsen exponentially as you expand. Chances are you know where your weaknesses are, and now's the time to do something about them.
As for your strengths, focus on what makes your club different. As Rick Caro, president of Management Vision says, "Remember that clubs can't be all things to all people." If your target market is the 30 and older crowd, don't worry about trying to attract college kids with loud music. Although it's never fun to turn people away, if you stay true to your function you're more likely to be successful. Don't jump onto every latest fad. Determining what unique services to offer — whether it's the latest equipment, expert trainers, or just a pleasant environment-will help you figure out how to attract the right market segment later on.
Number Two: Determine your long-range plan. Where do you want to be in two years? In five years? You might have financial goals, such as a certain profit percentage, or market share goals, or maybe you have a certain number of clubs in mind. Whatever it is, you should be able to make a list of goals in order of priority and within a context of time.
As you put together your long-range plan think about what sort of organic growth you foresee, such as general improvements, upgrades, or minor expansions. Think about what sort of external growth you might pursue. If you're thinking about purchasing or leasing a new building, be sure to do your homework. Research neighborhoods, find a dependable contractor, get estimates and get a sense of the size of your investment, and identify one or more targets for acquisition. Don't just compile a wish list-consider what is realistic and doable.
Number Three: Think about financing. There are many different alternatives to consider; you might start out by seeking funding or loans from family and friends. Your next step might be to go to local banks, then regional banks, which can often provide exponentially larger loans than local banks. Some equipment manufacturers will lease equipment to trusted club owners and some building owners will lease space. Think about how much debt you're willing to risk for how much return.
Before you start looking for funding, it's important to make and show that your health club is profitable and keep it that way. "An operator has to realize that if expansion is in the future, the profits are theirs to save, not spend," says Caro. Be sensitive to cash flow and aware of the details of expenditure in the club. How much do you generally spend on maintenance and improvements? Lenders and investors want to see a steady track record of financial stability and recurring revenue streams.
A good tip is to establish your budget with an eye toward saving, and then monitor it every single day. You may have had the experience where you think you're staying more or less on track but then you reach the end of the month and realize that you've passed your budget. By the end of the year you're way off base and you have to reconsider your entire financial plan.
When you're looking for funding you can't let this happen — stay on top of spending by keeping a close eye on where the money comes from and where it ends up. Keep track of every monetary transaction with the larger budget in mind.
"Know your numbers and be able to present them," says Steve Schwartz of Tennis Corp. of America (TCA). "Accounting is the language of business. If you can't speak it, you're going to have trouble."
Number Four: Get your records in order. Review or audit your year-end statements. When you start looking for outside funding you are going to have to present the details of your club to many different people. Make sure that third parties such as lenders and investors, not just other members of the fitness industry, can understand your records. You are going to have to convince lenders and investors that you are capable of spending wisely and making a profit. And it helps if you can tell them in their own language.
While up until this point you may have been focusing on how to minimize your year-end tax expenditures, or other short-term considerations, that is probably not what an investor is going to be interested in. Think about the outsider's perspective and what they'll be looking for. Private equity firms, for example, might be interested in particular metrics like member satisfaction, your market share, penetration rates, staff retention, etc. Find out what metrics the lenders and investors will want to see and make sure you have them to show.
Number Five: Take the time to invest in your club's infrastructure. If you have just a single club or a handful of clubs you might be able to maintain the same central system that you've been using since the beginning, but if you get to eight or 10 or 12 clubs you might need to consider restructuring. You might, for example, have to hire a chief financial officer to deal with a larger cash flow, complex investments and debt management. You will probably have to hire a human resources manager to help manage your staffing needs. And to keep track of it all you should probably consider investing in in-house information technology even before you think you need it.
One systematic manner of expanding is to follow the "cluster" model, as Stephen P. Roma, president of WOW! Workout World has done. Roma has seven clubs within a 50-mile radius of Brick, NJ. The management infrastructure is centralized and directors can get to each club each week. The computer network connects them all to a central billing and service system. This way, when they add a new club there is minimal impact on the billing, management, human resources and computer service. Another bonus is that the managers are all familiar with the area, which allows them to expand strategically and successfully.
In general, you probably won't be able to pay daily or even weekly visits to all your clubs all the time, so you'll need a solid system that can keep track of the money coming in and going out.
"What drives the business is information," says Roma. "You need a rock-solid method to collect the money that is owed to you." TCA's Schwartz recommends that every club owner go out and buy the "Uniform System of Accounts for the Health, Racquet and Sports Club Industry" from IHRSA, whether a member club or not.
While building a whole new infrastructure might seem like an expensive drawback to expanding, just keep an eye on the bigger picture. If you have one or two clubs you have to do everything yourself. An employee out sick? You cover for him or her. Problems with a piece of equipment? You take care of it. But once you have six or seven clubs it becomes essential — and easier — to delegate responsibilities. And if you have a solid infrastructure there will be many fewer headaches along the way.
Soon you'll realize that when the nuts and bolts of running the clubs are being taken care of on a regular basis by your staff, you are free to think about the big picture. You'll have more time to think up creative marketing schemes or pursue whatever larger visions you have for what you want to do with your club.
Number Six: Determine, in detail, your personal management philosophy and style. Once you have a few clubs running you're not going to be able to micromanage anymore, but you'll want to make sure that each club maintains the quality and standards of the original. The key to doing this is to clarify your goals, your work philosophy, your management style, and your priorities.
Once you have your ideas and goals clear in your own head, spread the word. Spend a lot of time with your employees articulating your ideas. "Repeat, repeat, repeat," Schwartz recommends when it comes to instilling the corporate philosophy in employees. When your staff has to make decisions for you, the more they understand your goals the better they'll be able to infer your preferences in a given situation.
Number Seven: Intimately tied with point five is this next step, which is to surround yourself with competent and energetic people. We all know that you can't build a top 100 club all by yourself, no matter how hard you work and how much you sacrifice. Your staff will need to understand your wishes well enough to carry them out without your constant supervision, so you'll want people you can trust. Choose to surround yourself with people who can at the very least understand the intricacies of your philosophy and at best anticipate your next decision.
It's practically a rule that no one specific strategy will pan out for every club. It's also true that no two clubs go about expanding the same way. As Steve Schwartz put it, "The only thing that can be guaranteed is that it will never go like you expected!" But if you've got a profitable club on your hands and are thinking about what to do next, keep these seven key steps in mind and you'll be on the right track to the fast track.
Maybe you started your chain with the intention of staying small and providing fitness to a limited number of people. Maybe you started small with the hopes of being one of the big players in the industry someday. Today, though, your chain hasn't really grown. The key point to examine is whether you are staying small because you want to or because you are afraid to grow. Here are some steps that will help you make a rational decision.
Ask yourself what goals you have for yourself and your company. Do you see your business mainly as a means to make a nice living and enjoy independence? Or do you have dreams of becoming a major competitor in your industry, enjoying phenomenal growth and perhaps going public and being acquired? If the latter is true, then you need to learn more about the capital markets. No business of any scale can be run out of the owner's pocketbook.
Ask yourself if you are limiting the growth of your company because of unresolved personal issues. Experts have found that many people reach the first growth hurdle with great ambivalence. The idea or dream they had took hold-now what? Some of the unresolved issues you may be wrestling with:
- Commitment. You started your business with big dreams, but now worry about what it will do to your life if it grows any more.
- Fear of failure. Some people look at facing a challenge and failing as a learning experience, others look at it as losing. Which group are you in?
- Fear of success. While some worry about failing almost as many fear success. Being good is a lot to live up to. Remember it is harder work, in many cases, to stay at the top than get there in the first place. Are you ready for the challenge?
- Fear of losing control. The bigger you get the more you need to delegate. Is delegation or lack thereof — stopping you from growing?
- Fear of responsibility. Does the idea of being responsible for employees and their families, even when times are bad, give you a knot in your stomach?
- Losing everything. Does the thought of going "bust" keep you awake at night?
Ask yourself what would happen if you took this move and what would happen if you didn't. Make sure you have thought of the possible gains and losses if you took the leap.
Refine your decision-making techniques. Learn some basic techniques of decision making; trade-off analysis, cost benefit analysis, decision trees, and take decisions out of your gut and into your head.
Learn about how other businesses have grown through leveraging. Talk to other owners, bankers and financial consultants and learn how financial deals are made. Remember, you're not the first health club to take these steps — sometimes following a trail is safer than blazing the way.
Decisions come fast and furious in the fitness industry, especially in today's volatile climate. Make sure you have really weighed the pluses and minuses of growing your chain, and when ready go full speed and enjoy the ride.


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What's Your Home Worth?
Your home will have many "prices" before it's sold, including asking prices, buyer offers, counteroffers and the final purchase price. But all of these prices are based on one amount, your home's value.
As a seller, it's important for you to remember that your home's value means its market value, not its emotional or personal value to you or your family. Nobody can put a price tag on the memories and emotions connected with your home. But we can put a price on it as a potential new home for someone else.
Having a professional on your side is especially important when valuing your home. Our expertise with homes and the local market will help us find a realistic value for your home, the first step in getting the best deal. If we haven't worked together yet in this process, this is the time to call or e-mail us to get the ball rolling.


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Talking to our kids about sex is challenging – for everyone, even me! You feel anxious about all kinds of things like their loss of innocence, or telling everyone and their cousin. You worry they'll go out and try it or will think that by talking to them you're giving them permission to do it. You worry about what other parents (and your parents!) will think if you talk to your kid at a young age.
But, you're feeling great! You whacked up the ginger and read ALL of Robie Harris and Michael Emberley's "It's SO Amazing!" book about how babies are made to your 8 year old. She was a little grossed out, had some questions and seemed to understand how sex works. Whew! You are on your way to some great conversations.
You even remembered to tell her "This is a private conversation we have in our family and not with other kids or adults. Other moms and dads want to be the ones to tell their kids about this important part of life. You can always talk to me about it if you have questions or concerns." Super! You rock!
And then…your lovely child heads straight to her best friend at school and fills her in on all the details! And then you get a call from the friends' outraged parents and maybe even the school. Not a great moment in sex education history, but not to worry, all is not lost.
Consider this – You'll probably spend 10 or 15 minutes on the phone with the upset parent explaining your beliefs about sex and kids and that you asked your daughter not to talk to other kids about this. You will apologize, tell them that you'll remind her of this and then offer the parent a resource for getting more info about talking to kids.
Now consider this – You want to have open and consistent conversations with your child about sexuality, love and relationships throughout her youth, right? This is the most important part of this scenario – your relationship with your child.
When you compare the two, which is more important? The freaked out adult who now is forced into having a conversation they should be having anyway? Or your child who knows you are a trustworthy resource and will look to you for help and support for years to come?
When you start these conversations with your children I strongly recommend you tell the parents of her closest buddies, your parents and any other adult she has regular contact with. They need to know so they can step in if she starts blabbing, asks them questions or the like. It's easier on everyone if they are prepared in advance for any little surprises.
When my son was about 3 or 4 we had read parts of "It's SO Amazing." He loved looking at the pictures of bodies and was very into reading this book. One day he was at my in-law's house and he looked at my lovely mother-in-law and announced "You have a vagina!" She knew we'd been reading this book and took it in stride. We had prepared her for moments like this.
When it comes to talking to your kids about sex, you cannot worry about what the neighbors might think. The most important relationship is the one with your child. So take a deep breath, exhale, and get ready for the next conversation.


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OTTAWA — Bryon Mott has time on his hands, and maybe on his side.
The 28-year-old lost his job at the Electro-Motive plant earlier this month, along with everyone else he worked with at the facility in London, Ont.
Mott isn't ready to leave London, but he has heard from friends out West trying to lure him out of Ontario and toward the promise of steady work.
"It's not something we haven't thought of in the last three years," Mott said.
"My wife is born and raised in London. It's not something for me that would happen right away. I'm a young guy. I have other options."
If he ever decides to go, Mott will join a growing number of people who have left Ontario, a pattern of migration that has slowed growth in the country's largest province, resulting in the lowest growth rate Ontario has experienced in the past quarter century.
Between 2006 and 2011, Ontario's population grew by 5.7 per cent, according to census data released Wednesday, lower than the national average of 6.6 per cent.
"What it (the numbers) doesn't show is the dire straits Ontario is really in. The deficit in Ontario isn't a result of Liberal spending or whatever partisan crap you want to say," Mott said.
"It's a result of a lack of good-paying jobs."
The decline in growth in Ontario is largely a result of its inability to lure new immigrants away from neighbouring provinces, the loss of residents leaving to other provinces and territories, all pushed by an economy that has slowed down since the global recession began in 2008, according to Statistics Canada.
The economic impact to the province's manufacturing sector was on display on Feb. 3 when Progress Rail, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., closed the Electro-Motive plant's doors following unsuccessful contract negotiations.
More than 450 workers lost their jobs at the plant, following their lockout on Jan. 1 and after they rejected a new collective agreement that would have cut wages for some workers from $35 an hour to $18 an hour.
Mott said he knows of welders from the factory that have moved out of Ontario, heading West to earn more than $40 per hour for their labour.
"I know that the money is there," Mott said.
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce, which represents 60,000 businesses in the province, sees the dip in the economy and declining population growth as one issue. All the economic trends in the province, such as a faltering manufacturing sector, are related to population trends, said Angie Brennand, the chamber's vice-president of policy and government relations.
"Ontario is really facing a turning point in its economic history," she said.
But percentages are one thing. Volume is another and Ontario still has plenty of it.
Between 2006 and 2011, Ontario added more than 691,000 new citizens — just less than double the number of new citizens added to Quebec and Alberta, respectively, Nos. 2 and 3 in provincial growth by sheer numbers.
The province's population now stands at more than 12.8 million, the only province in the country with more than 10 million residents.
As well, Ontario's share of the country's population was at 38.4 per cent in 2011, more than the western provinces (30.7 per cent), Quebec (23.6 per cent) and the Atlantic provinces (seven per cent).
Numbers aside, Brennand still sees a need to position Ontario back on top. Among the suggestions to turn around the declining growth — and the economy — are delving into a resource-rich area of northern Ontario, known as the "Ring of Fire."
According to the Ontario government, the area stretching west of James Bay has one of the key ingredients needed to make stainless steel — chromite.
The economic benefits could be a boon for local First Nations communities, if the area is heavily mined.
Taking a page out of the West's boom, Brennand said, tapping those resources should attract more newcomers to Ontario.
"At the end of the day, if we can usher in Ontario's next great economic era that will in turn, bring people and jobs to Ontario," she said. "That will result in some pretty strong population numbers."
Mott says he's ready to stick around to see the economic turnaround.
"I can always adapt and survive," Mott said. "Even though I take a hit right now, I'll continue to make myself more attractive with more education and I'll climb my way back up the ladder."


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GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Alec Brown scored a career-high 28 points on 10-of-12 shooting Tuesday night, leading Green Bay to a 78-61 victory over intrastate rival Milwaukee.
Brown, a junior, made four 3-pointers and added eight rebounds for the Phoenix (16-13, 10-5 Horizon League), who also got 18 points from Keifer Sykes and 15 from Greg Mays. Green Bay shot 53 percent from the field, never trailed and led by as many as 20.
Paris Gulley led the Panthers (8-23, 3-13) with 19 points. Jordan Aaron and Demetrius Harris chipped in 15 apiece.
Gulley's jumper pulled Milwaukee within 57-52 with 6:29 left. But Green Bay responded with a 15-1 run, capped by Brown's layup with 4:04 to play, that put the game out of reach.
Despite the victory, Green Bay lost its chance at a share of the Horizon League regular-season title when Valparaiso beat Youngstown State.


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In the future, it might be perfectly normal to wear suits and dresses made of chicken feathers or rice straw. But don't worry: These clothes won't resemble fluffy plumage or hairy door mats. Scientists at the University of Nebraska –Lincoln plan to develop these agricultural waste products into conventional-looking fabrics as a way to reduce the use of petroleum-based synthetic fabrics.
The feather-based fabric will resemble wool, while the rice straw fabric will look and feel more like linen or cotton, according to the researchers. The study describing rice straw fabric was presented today at the 232nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society. The study about chicken feather fabric will be presented on Wednesday, Sept. 13. Both fabrics are still in early development and may not reach the consumer market for several years, the researchers say.
"We hope that the research reported here will stimulate interest in using agricultural byproducts as textile fibers, which would add value to agricultural crops and also make the fiber industry more sustainable," says Yiqi Yang, Ph.D., a professor of textile science at the university. His collaborator for both studies is research scientist Narendra Reddy, a doctoral candidate at the school.
With millions of tons of chicken feathers and rice straw available worldwide each year, these agricultural wastes represent an abundant, cheap and renewable alternative to petroleum-based synthetic fibers, Yang says. And unlike petroleum-based fibers, these agro-fibers are biodegradable. The development could be a boon to the nation's rice and chicken farmers, Yang says.
Rice fabrics are the most developed of the two fabric concepts to date. Rice straw consists of the stems of the rice plant that are left over after rice grains are harvested. Like cotton and linen, rice straw is composed mostly of cellulose.
Using a special combination of chemicals and enzymes, a process that is now under patent review, Yang and Reddy developed fibers from the straw. The properties of the fibers indicate that the fibers are capable of being spun into fabrics using common textile machinery. The resulting fabric will have an appearance similar to cotton or linen, Yang says.
Chicken feathers are composed mostly of keratin, the same type of protein that is found in wool. The researchers are particularly interested in the barbs and barbules, the thin, filamentous network that forms the fluffy parts of the feather. These structures have a sturdy honeycomb architecture containing tiny air pockets that make the filaments extremely lightweight and resilient. Those properties offer the potential for developing fabrics that have lighter weight, better shock absorption and superior insulation — properties that may represent an improvement over wool, Yang says.
This is not the first time Yang's research team has attracted attention. Two years ago, Yang and Reddy developed a method to turn corn husks into fabrics with properties similar to linen or cotton. The fabrics based on feathers and rice straw have the potential to offer even better performance, including the ability to withstand normal washing and ironing, the researchers say.
Chicken feathers and rice straw also could become "green" fabrics used in carpets, automobiles, building materials and a host of other everyday applications — all at potentially less cost and with novel and sometimes superior properties than their synthetic counterparts, the researchers say.
Source: American Chemical Society (ACS)


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Theory of Religion
Zone Books, 1989 - 126 p·ginas
Theory of Religion brings to philosophy what Bataille's earlier book, The Accursed Share, brought to anthropology and history; namely, an analysis based on notions of excess and expenditure. Bataille brilliantly defines religion as so many different attempts to respond to the universe's relentless generosity. Framed within his original theory of generalized economics and based on his masterly reading of archaic religious activity, Theory of Religion constitutes, along with The Accursed Share, the most important articulation of Bataille's work.
Georges Bataille (1897-1962), founder of the French review Critique, wrote fiction and essays on a wide range of topics. His books in English translation include Story of the Eye, Blue of Noon, Literature and Evil, Manet and Erotism.
Robert Hurley is the translator of The History of Sexuality by Michel Foucault and cotranslator of Anti Oedipus by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Distributed for Zone Books.
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affirmation anguish animal appears archaic become body brings ceases clear consciousness clearly closed complete concern condition consumption continuity contrary course death defined definition Desire destroyed destruction developed distinct divine dualism duration eats elements empire essentially evil existence express fact festival finally forces forms given gives human immanence implies impossibility individual insofar intelligible intimacy intimate order knowledge labor least less limits linked longer lost matter meaning mediation military order mind morality movement mythical nature necessary never object offered operation opposed opposite order of things organism plant positing possible precisely present principle production profane pure rational real order reality reason reduced reflection regarded relation religion religious remains restored result reveals sacred sacrifice salvation self-consciousness sense separate situation sovereign sovereignty spirit subordinated takes theory thought tion tool transcendence true universal violence whole world of things


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3DS owners will get free WiFi access in more than 1,000 of the company's stores starting on June 7th -- not quite Sam's Club-style, but it's a start. And with that connection, dubbed SpotPass, people will have access to special, downloadable content such as gaming extras and movie trailers. So come June, get ready to drive down to your local Best Buy -- no pressure to buy anything once you're inside, of course. Don't have a 3DS? You can pick one up for a suggested retail price of $249.99. Don't like purchasing things? Well, you're no fun at all.
Nintendo 3DS to get free WiFi access in Best Buy stores, Best Buy hopes you'll buy stuff
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Nintendo and Best Buy to Bring Custom Downloadable Content to Nintendo 3DS Owners
Nintendo 3DS Will Connect Automatically to Best Buy Wireless Hot Spots
REDMOND, Wash. & MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nintendo and retail partner Best Buy are collaborating to give Nintendo 3DS™ owners customized, automatic wireless access at some 1,000 select Best Buy store locations nationwide beginning June 7. Once connected, the service will provide access to a variety of fun content via the system's built-in Wi-Fi functionality, including the new SpotPass™ feature. The Best Buy service will also include exclusive offers as well as additional entertainment content such as gaming extras and movie trailers. Nintendo 3DS, which lets people see 3D visuals without the need for special glasses, launched March 27 at a suggested retail price of $249.99.
"We want our customers to fully tap into the potential of their Nintendo 3DS device, so we're pleased to offer free access to special Wi-Fi and SpotPass content in-store"
"Nintendo 3DS turns the page in portable gaming not just because of the stunning, glasses-free 3D visuals, but also in the way it keeps people connected to their friends, their games and their world," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "Best Buy provides a firsthand look at the platform with experts to help people understand everything it offers."
"We want our customers to fully tap into the potential of their Nintendo 3DS device, so we're pleased to offer free access to special Wi-Fi and SpotPass content in-store," said Chris Homeister, senior vice president of entertainment for Best Buy. "As a retail partner for SpotPass, this is another way that we're delivering best-in-class gaming experiences at our stores across the country."
Remember that Nintendo 3DS features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo3ds.com.


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Nothing can ruin your summer more than looking awful in your bathing suit because of some extra pounds that you didn't manage to lose in time. To be prepared for the hot season and to look stunning in your bathing suit, read this article and start preparing the low-fat meal recipes that you find here.
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Victims' lawyers want answers on Italian shipwreck
GROSSETO, Italy >> The Italian captain whose cruise ship wrecked off the Tuscan coast is getting some support during his trial from an unexpected corner: representatives of the tragedy's many victims.
A couple from Connecticut perished in the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia.
Capt. Francesco Schettino, who faces 20 years in prison if convicted of charges including manslaughter and abandoning ship, insists he's not the only one responsible for the wreck, which left 32 people dead.
On Tuesday, Schettino's lawyers, as well as attorneys for relatives of the dead and the tragedy's survivors, raised questions about other potential factors, such as emergency generators, pumps and elevators that failed to work, that could have increased the casualty rate.
The luxury cruise liner crashed into a reef, took on water, suffered a blackout and capsized when Schettino steered it close to the island of Giglio on Jan. 13, 2012. It was carrying some 4,200 passengers and crew. The ship was recently raised upright in a major salvage operation.
Schettino allegedly took the off-route maneuver in part because he wanted to impress his passengers with a close-up view of the island's twinkling lights. Unlike five other Costa Crociere SpA employees, he was not allowed to plea bargain.
''Schettino is the only defendant, but he's not the only one responsible," said Daniele Bocciolini, a lawyer for several survivors in a civil suit attached to the criminal trial. ''He's not responsible for the lifeboats that couldn't be launched nor for the emergency generators" that failed.
Bruno Neri, a University of Pisa electronic engineer advising the Codacons consumer group, whose lawyers are also involved in the trial, said the ship was "doomed to sink" but that so many passengers didn't necessarily have to die.
''The passengers weren't chained to the ship," Neri told The Associated Press during a trial recess Tuesday. ''If it weren't for the blackout, perhaps some of them would have lived."
The haunting question — Had everything aboard worked properly, would there have been fewer deaths? — goes beyond the court-ordered mandate of a panel of technical and marine experts in the case, who have refused to speculate.
Costa Crociere SpA itself was allowed to plea bargain and ended up paying a maximum 1-million-euro ($1.3 million) fine as administrative sanctions. Costa is a division of the Miami-based Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise company.
Schettino seemed buoyed Tuesday that lawyers for the victims were pressing for others to be held accountable. He told the AP during a break in the trial, "I want the truth to emerge."
Costa's lawyer at the trial, Marco De Luca, contended that findings already reported by the panel of experts were thorough. Costa, which is paying for the wrecked ship's removal and the towing planned for spring, also is seeking damages at Schettino's trial.
Follow Frances D'Emilio at http://twitter.com/fdemilio


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The Biggest Impact on Your Child's Life
How much time and money do you invest to help your children get into the right college or develop their athletic skills? Yet, getting into the right college or excelling in sports are, for most children, short term achievements. On a scale of 1 to 10 on what will positively impact your children's lives, college choice and youth sports are at best a 5.
Who they marry, however, is a 10. Who your child marries will impact your child's life more than any other decision he or she makes.
How do you help your child make that decision? The good news is it doesn't require private schools, SAT prep courses or sports camps. It's done by loving and treating your spouse the way you would want your child's spouse to love and treat your child. They see what you do and will model that and expect that.


text: BREAKFAST CLUB: "You could be wearing rags, but if you wear them confidently with a high chest, you can pull anything off," insisted Tinie Tempah, who wore a Burberry London suit with white Kitsuné sneakers at a breakfast in London hosted by the brand at its Knightsbridge men's store. Over trays of Mimosas, mini eggs Florentine, and cappuccino cakes, Harry Treadaway talked about some of his latest projects. He's just finished filming a Sky mini series about Ian Fleming, and has wrapped "The Lone Ranger" with Johnny Depp. "I played a baddy cowboy and learned horse-riding and gun-slinging," he said. Treadaway said his next challenge is learning to drive. "I've got my test on Friday. I want to get a vintage Jaguar — a real old banger so you can smash it up, and it doesn't matter. Not really what you're meant to look for in a first car, so don't tell my mum!"


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Got a Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi habit? Lots of Americans do. Consumption of all types of diet soft drinks has been on the rise. And as a nation, we drink an estimated 20 percent more of diet drinks now than we did 15 years ago.
So, is it good for us? A new study finds the answer to that question may depend a lot on, well, what you eat.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill found that diet soda drinkers who ate a so-called "prudent" diet, rich in fruit, fish, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and milk, were significantly less likely to develop metabolic syndrome over 20 years than those who ate a "Western diet" heavy in fried foods, meats and sugars.
Metabolic syndrome is a condition characterized by excess abdominal fat, elevated blood sugar, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol. About 32 percent of the participants in the "Western diet" cluster developed the condition.
Update at April 13, 2012, 11:05 ET: By contrast, 20 percent of people who drank sodas and had a prudent diet had metabolic syndrome. And 17.8 percent of prudent eaters who drank no soda had that problem.
End update.
Those with the lowest risk of developing metabolic disorder were the participants who followed the "prudent" diet and also drank no diet soda at all.
The study is published in the April edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
"What this suggests is that it's really the dietary pattern that's driving this association with health," says Kiyah Duffey, a research assistant professor at the UNC School of Public Health and study author. She says a few prior studies have found that people who consume diet soda regularly may be at higher risk of developing metabolic disorder.
"This kind of helps to make things a little more clear that it's not necessarily the diet beverage that is the problem," says Duffey.
The question of whether diet soda truly helps people manage their weight turns out to be a very tough one to answer.
Conflicting findings abound. A large study published in the New England Journal of Medcine last year found that diet soda had no effect on weight. But another one, published in 2008, found that drinking more than three diet drinks a day led to weight gain.
The American Heart Association doesn't have specific guidelines on diet soda consumption, but spokesperson Rachel Johnson of the University of Vermont says moderate consumption seems fine. "But what the mistake a lot of people make is that they compensate for the calories that they save in the diet soda with other foods and beverages," says Johnson.
And many experts say the diet soda habit is a good alternative to sugar sweetened beverages that are clearly linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and increased health care costs.
And some of those rushing to file may be fueling up with diet soda. Americans are drinking more diet soda and other artificially sweetened drinks than in years past. And while it may seem like a good idea to cut out extra calories, researchers have found swapping real sugar drinks for zero calorie options hasn't produced the expected results.
Now, as NPR's Allison Aubrey reports, a new study sheds light on why.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: Americans' love affair with diet soda has been decades in the making.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing) Just for the fun of it. Just for the one of it. Just for the taste of it, Diet Coke.
AUBREY: Diet Coke was introduced in the early 1980s and heavily marketed. As a nation, we started drinking lots of it, along with other diet drinks. And even in the last 15 years, consumption has continued to rise. People think by drinking it, they're helping control their weight.
RACHEL JOHNSON: Well, I think they make that assumption.
AUBREY: Rachel Johnson is a professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont.
JOHNSON: But what the mistake a lot of people make is that they compensate for the calories that they save in the diet soda with other foods and beverages, rather than eliminating those calories from their diet.
AUBREY: It happens so easily. You go to the vending machine for a midafternoon snack and after you push that diet soda button, you feel you've got a free pass for a bag of chips. This compensatory eating may be the reason that past studies have found that people who drink a lot of diet soda tend to gain weight over time. The weight gain also left researchers wondering if there's something about aspartame or other artificial sweeteners that primes people to want more sweet things, or in some other way makes them more susceptible to metabolic disorder – a condition characterized by excess abdominal fat, elevated blood sugar and high blood pressure. Some research has pointed in this direction.
To help shed light on the relation between diet soda and health, researcher Kiyah Duffey - at UNC Chapel Hill - decided to take a new approach. She says most of the prior studies had not really evaluated diet soda drinkers' overall patterns of eating.
KIYAH DUFFEY: We really did think that it was an oversight.
AUBREY: She wanted to know if a healthy eater who has a diet soda habit would end up better off than a person with a bad diet and a diet soda habit.
DUFFEY: You can imagine two different kinds of people – one who orders a Big Mac and a large fry and an apple pie and a Diet Coke; and someone else, who eats a grilled chicken salad and an apple and a Diet Coke.
AUBREY: To unravel the differences, Duffey and her colleagues studied data collected over 20 years from about 4,000 adults who had completed in-depth food frequency questionnaires, which detailed how often, and in what amounts, they'd eaten a hundred different kinds of foods.
DUFFEY: So it will ask something like, how often in the last 30 days did you drink low-fat milk? And then it would go on to ask about potatoes, fruit.
AUBREY: And, of course, it asked about soda and diet sodas. Duffey explains when she compared people who were eating what she calls a prudent diet - high in fruits and vegetable and low-fat diary - with people who were eating a standard Western diet - heavy on fried foods, fat and sugar - she found that there were very substantial differences. The prudent eaters were significantly less likely to develop the risk factors of metabolic disorder, even if they did drink diet soda.
DUFFEY: This kind of helps to make things a little bit more clear – that it's not necessarily the diet beverage that is the problem.
AUBREY: Duffey says the take-home message here is that people should pay attention to their overall diet.
DUFFEY: So what this suggests is that it's really the dietary pattern that's driving the association with health, and not the diet-beverage consumption.
AUBREY: Duffey says an important point to note is that the absolute healthiest people in her study were those who drank no diet soda, and had a prudent diet.
Allison Aubrey, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Yeah, that didn't take too long. After seeing how stupid it would be to issue a wholesale ban of internet communication between teachers and their students—free speech shenanigans—a judge and the Missouri House reversed the law, putting a more reasonable bill in its place.
The new bill, which will require school districts to implement their own communication policies by March 1st, 2012, follows a recent suit filed by the Missouri State Teachers Association that called the law out on being over-cautious and altogether absurd. Not long afterward, a judge issued a temporary block of the law, effectively forcing the state to go back to the drawing board.
Now the new bill just needs Governor Jay Nixon's signature to pass into law. This is good news for teachers everywhere. [Ars Technica]
Image Credit: Goodluz/Shutterstock
You can keep up with Kwame Opam, the author of this post, on Twitter, Facebook, and occasionally Google+.


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SAMJ: South African Medical Journal
On-line version ISSN 2078-5135
Print version ISSN 0256-9574
SAMJ, S. Afr. med. j. vol.101 n.4 Pretoria Apr. 2011
Poor long-term outcomes for cryptococcal meningitis in rural South Africa
Richard J LessellsI; Portia C MutevedziII; Tom HellerIV; Marie-Louise NewellIII
IBSc, MB ChB, MRCP, DTM&H, DipHIVMed, Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal
IIBSc, MSc, Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal
IIIMB, MSc, PhD, Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal, UCL Institute of Child Health, London, UK
IVMD, Hlabisa Hospital, Hlabisa, KwaZulu-Natal
OBJECTIVES: To explore linkage to and retention in HIV care after an episode of cryptococcal meningitis (CM) in rural South Africa.
DESIGN: A retrospective case series of adult individuals (>16 years old) with laboratory-confirmed CM from January - December 2007 at Hlabisa Hospital - a district hospital in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
OUTCOME MEASURES: Inpatient mortality and associated risk factors were analysed. The proportion alive and on antiretroviral therapy (ART) at 2 years was determined by linkage to the HIV treatment programme.
RESULTS: One hundred and four individuals were identified with laboratory diagnosis of CM; 74/104 (71.2%) with complete records were included in the analysis. Inpatient mortality was high (40.5%) and was significantly associated with reduced conscious level (aHR 3.09, 95% CI 1.30 - 7.33) and absence of headache (aHR 0.33 for headache, 95% CI 0.13 -0.87). Only 8 individuals (10.8% of all study subjects) were alive and receiving ART 2 years after the CM episode.
CONCLUSIONS: Long-term outcomes of CM are poor in routine practice. Interventions to strengthen linkage to HIV treatment and care and continuation of secondary fluconazole prophylaxis are critical.
Adult meningitis in areas of high HIV prevalence in southern Africa is most commonly caused by Cryptococcus neoformans.1 Short-term mortality in the antiretroviral therapy (ART) era varies widely, depending on treatment modalities and resources.2 Little is known about the longer-term prognosis in Africa, which would probably be an indicator of general effectiveness of the health system in managing complex HIV-associated conditions. Optimal management of cryptococcal meningitis (CM) involves induction therapy with amphotericin B ± flucytosine, acute management of elevated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure, consolidation therapy with fluconazole, initiation of ART, and linkage to long-term outpatient care.2 We explored outcomes 2 years after an episode of cryptococcal meningitis in a rural area of South Africa.
Hlabisa Hospital is a 296-bed district hospital that, with 17 primary health care (PHC) clinics, serves 228 000 people in northern KwaZulu-Natal. The Hlabisa HIV Treatment & Care Programme delivers ART at the hospital and all PHC clinics.3 This retrospective case series included all adult individuals (>16yrs) with a laboratory diagnosis of CM, based on a positive cryptococcal antigen (CRAG) test ± positive India ink examination from CSF, from 1 January - 31 December 2007. Hospital case records, pharmacy fluconazole records, and the HIV programme database were consulted regarding the acute hospital episode and follow-up to 31 December 2009. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression were used to analyse inpatient mortality and associations with baseline clinical and laboratory features. To assess bias introduced by exclusion of individuals without hospital case records, characteristics of included and excluded patients were compared using the chi-squared (categorical variables) and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests (continuous variables). Ethical approval was received from the Hlabisa Hospital Ethics Committee.
From 104 individuals,140 positive CSF CRAG tests were identified; 74 (71.2%) with complete hospital records were included. Median age was 35 years (IQR 30 - 44); 47.3% were male; 47 (63.5%) individuals were known HIV-infected at hospital admission, and 13 (17.6%) were on ART. Median CD4 cell count (N=45) was 49 cells/µl (IQR 16 - 86). The 74 patients most commonly presented with: headache (82.4%), fever (37.8%), vomiting (35.1%), and reduced conscious level (33.8%). Sixty-seven (90.5%) of the 74 samples were positive on India ink examination; median CSF white blood cell (WBC) count was 20 cells/ml (IQR 4 - 56), and 22 (29.7%) had a WBC count <5/ml. Only 26 patients (35.1%) received amphotericin B, and only 6 received at least 14 days. Repeat therapeutic lumbar puncture was uncommon, documented in only 11 patients (14.9%).
Inpatient mortality was 40.5% (30/74), all deaths occurring within 30 days of admission. The inpatient mortality rate was 2.99 per 100 person-days (95% CI 2.09 - 4.28). Allowing for age, sex, CSF WBC count, amphotericin B treatment, CD4 cell count and ART, inpatient mortality was significantly associated with reduced conscious level at presentation (aHR 3.09, 95% CI 1.30 - 7.33) and with the presence of headache (aHR 0.33, 95% CI 0.13 - 0.87).
Forty-four patients survived to hospital discharge. Thirty-five of these (35/44) (79.5%) were confirmed HIV-infected by time of discharge (2 were counselled but refused testing; for 7 there was no documentation of counselling and testing). On discharge, all 44 were prescribed fluconazole, of whom 12 (27.3%) also received ART (5 on ART at admission; 7 initiated ART during admission). Fig. 1 illustrates events following hospital discharge; 6 patients were re-admitted with cryptococcal meningitis, of whom 3 died in hospital. Only 9/44 (20.5%) collected further fluconazole after the consolidation phase, and 9/32 (28.1%) discharged on fluconazole alone subsequently initiated ART. Only 8 (10.8% of all subjects, 95% CI 8.7 -12.8) were alive and receiving ART 2 years after the CM episode. For the 10 confirmed deaths post-discharge, the median time to death was 133 days (IQR 43 -230).
There was no evidence that included patients (N=74) differed from those excluded (N=30) in terms of sex (p=0.73), age (p=0.13), CSF protein (p=0.35), CSF glucose (p=0.31) or CSF lymphocyte count (p=0.26).
These data from routine practice in a rural health district show poor long-term outcomes and highlight the challenges faced by overburdened health services in delivering comprehensive HIV care in high-prevalence settings. The short-term mortality is comparable with data from similar settings,4,5 but higher than reports from clinical trials or tertiary hospitals.6-10 About 1 in 10 of our patients were known to be alive on ART at 2 years, compared with: 60% at 12 months in a clinical trial in Cape Town;7 40.9% at 12 months in a cohort in Uganda;9 36.7% at 6 months in a Ugandan clinical trial;10 and 27% at 3 years in a trial in Zimbabwe.11 Inpatient mortality was associated with more severe disease (reduced conscious level and absence of headache), as also suggested in a neighbouring hospital in KwaZulu-Natal.5 High fungal burden is associated with mortality; our high rate of India ink positivity and reduced consciousness suggest advanced disease at presentation.12 Sub-optimal induction therapy and management of CSF pressure might have contributed to high inpatient mortality, although we could not confirm this. Amphotericin B treatment was uncommon, mainly owing to drug supply problems, in accordance with national-level data showing that more than half of CM cases receive sub-optimal induction treatment.13
Not all patients had their HIV status confirmed during admission, possibly owing to patient refusals, health care worker uncertainty about consent for confused or unconscious patients, or inadequate provision of counselling and testing services. The most striking finding was the high rate of loss to follow-up after hospital discharge; almost half were not seen again, which suggests poor linkage between hospital inpatient services and PHC clinics providing ongoing HIV care and treatment. Continuation of fluconazole after the consolidation phase was also uncommon, similar to other findings in South Africa.14,15 While some patients might have accessed fluconazole and ART elsewhere, the majority probably died.
There are limitations to this analysis, including those inherent in retrospective investigations. Retrieval of hospital records was incomplete, although we found no evidence that bias was introduced by excluding those without case records. Our numbers were too small to explore factors associated with long-term survival. Since this study, aspects of care have been improved: improved supply of amphotericin B, clear protocols for managing CSF pressure, enhanced HIV counselling and testing service for inpatients, and better linkage systems between hospital and PHC clinics. However, numerous challenges remain with the increasing numbers of CM cases in South Africa.16 Practical, implementable local care pathways, that encompass acute management and early post-discharge community support and enhanced clinical follow-up, must be developed and evaluated. By strengthening health systems, we can realise the full benefits from the scale-up of comprehensive HIV treatment and care.
We thank Ntombifuthi Mwelase and Nombuso Xaba for their assistance with data retrieval, and the staff of Hlabisa Hospital and the Hlabisa HIV Treatment and Care Programme. This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (grant numbers 050534 and 075393). TH was supported by the Centre for International Migration and Development (CIM), and Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany.
1. Jarvis JN, Meintjes G, Williams A, Brown Y, Crede T, Harrison TS. Adult meningitis in a setting of high HIV and TB prevalence: findings from 4961 suspected cases. BMC Infect Dis 2010;10:67. [ Links ]
2. Sloan DJ, Dedicoat MJ, Lalloo DG. Treatment of cryptococcal meningitis in resource limited settings. Curr Opin Infect Dis 2009;22(5):455-463. [ Links ]
3. Houlihan CF, Bland RM, Mutevedzi PC, et al. Cohort profile: Hlabisa HIV Treatment and Care Programme. Int J Epidemiol 2010; 12 Feb. [Epub ahead of print] [ Links ].
4. Kisenge PR, Hawkins AT, Maro VP, et al. Low CD4 count plus coma predicts cryptococcal meningitis in Tanzania. BMC Infect Dis 2007;7:39. [ Links ]
5. Lightowler JV, Cooke GS, Mutevedzi P, Lessells RJ, Newell ML, Dedicoat M. Treatment of cryptococcal meningitis in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. PLoS One 2010;5(1):e8630. [ Links ]
6. Bicanic T, Meintjes G, Wood R, et al. Fungal burden, early fungicidal activity, and outcome in cryptococcal meningitis in antiretroviral-naive or antiretroviral-experienced patients treated with amphotericin B or fluconazole. Clin Infect Dis 2007;45(1):76-80. [ Links ]
7. Bicanic T, Wood R, Meintjes G, et al. High-dose amphotericin B with flucytosine for the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis in HIV-infected patients: a randomized trial. Clin Infect Dis 2008;47(1):123-130. [ Links ]
8. Bisson GP, Nthobatsong R, Thakur R, et al. The use of HAART is associated with decreased risk of death during initial treatment of cryptococcal meningitis in adults in Botswana. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 2008;49(2):227-229. [ Links ]
9. Kambugu A, Meya DB, Rhein J, et al. Outcomes of cryptococcal meningitis in Uganda before and after the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Clin Infect Dis 2008;46(11):1694-1701. [ Links ]
10. Longley N, Muzoora C, Taseera K, et al. Dose response effect of high-dose fluconazole for HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis in southwestern Uganda. Clin Infect Dis 2008;47(12):1556-1561. [ Links ]
11. Makadzange AT, Ndhlovu CE, Takarinda K, et al. Early versus delayed initiation of antiretroviral therapy for concurrent HIV infection and cryptococcal meningitis in sub-saharan Africa. Clin Infect Dis 2010;50(11):1532-1538. [ Links ]
12. Bicanic T, Muzoora C, Brouwer AE, et al. Independent association between rate of clearance of infection and clinical outcome of HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis: analysis of a combined cohort of 262 patients. Clin Infect Dis 2009;49(5):702-709. [ Links ]
13. Govender N, Cohen C, Meiring S, et al. Trends in treatment of adults with incident cryptococcosis, South Africa, 2005-2008. San Fransisco, California: 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, 2010. [ Links ]
14. Collett G, Parrish A. Fluconazole donation and outcomes assessment in cryptococcal meningitis. S Afr Med J 2007;97(3):175-176. [ Links ]
15. Jarvis JN, Meintjes G, Williams Z, Rebe K, Harrison TS. Symptomatic relapse of HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis in South Africa: the role of inadequate secondary prophylaxis. S Afr Med J 2010;100(6):378-382. [ Links ]
16. Jarvis JN, Boulle A, Loyse A, et al. High ongoing burden of cryptococcal disease in Africa despite antiretroviral roll out. AIDS 2009;23(9):1182-1183. [ Links ]
Accepted 10 November 2010.
Corresponding author: R Lessells (firstname.lastname@example.com)


text:
|Version 52 (modified by 15 years ago) (diff),
Backwards-incompatible changes
As Django is still in pre-1.0 mode, we haven't yet committed to maintaining backwards compatibility in any APIs. Although we're keeping such changes to a minimum, Django developers should be acutely aware of these changes.
Of course, once we reach 1.0, we'll be strongly committed to backward compatibility.
This page lists all backwards-incompatible changes to Django so far.
Moved mod_python handler
As of [169], using
django.core.handler as a mod_python handler is deprecated. Use
django.core.handlers.modpython instead. We will be removing
django.core.handler for 1.0.
Changed ordering syntax
As of [292], syntax used for
order_by (in the database API) and
ordering (in models) has changed.
Example of old ordering syntax:
order_by=[('foo', 'ASC'), ('bar', 'DESC')]
Example of new ordering syntax:
order_by=['foo', '-bar']
The old syntax is deprecated, and we'll stop supporting it for 1.0.
Refactored meta.py
As of [378],
django/core/meta.py has been converted to a package,
django/core/meta/. If you're using a version of Django from before [378], make sure to delete
django/core/meta.pyc and
django/core/meta.pyo, if they exist. The existence of those files doesn't pose any known problems, but it's best to clean things up.
Changed edit_inline and edit_inline_type behavior
As of [440], using
edit_inline_type in your models is deprecated, in favor of a less-redundant approach that uses
edit_inline itself.
Example of old syntax:
edit_inline=True, edit_inline_type=meta.TABULAR
Example of new syntax:
We'll stop supporting the old syntax for 1.0.
Changed admin log to store primary keys as TEXT fields, not INTEGER fields
As of [469], the
object_id field in
django.models.auth.LogEntry is a
TextField instead of an
IntegerField. We made this change to accomodate non-integer primary keys.
If you're using a Django database installation from before [469] and you want to use non-integer primary keys on an object you edit in the admin site, you'll need to do an
ALTER TABLE in your database.
In PostgreSQL:
BEGIN; ALTER TABLE auth_admin_log RENAME object_id TO object_id_old; ALTER TABLE auth_admin_log ADD COLUMN object_id TEXT; UPDATE auth_admin_log SET object_id = object_id_old; ALTER TABLE auth_admin_log DROP COLUMN object_id_old; COMMIT;
In MySQL:
ALTER TABLE auth_admin_log MODIFY object_id TEXT;
Added support for anonymous sessions
As of [518], Django has support for anonymous sessions. If you're using a Django database installation from before [518] and you want to use the Django admin, anonymous sessions or auth-based sessions, you'll need to make a few updates to your database and settings files.
Change your settings files
"django.middleware.sessions.SessionMiddleware" to the
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES tuple in your admin settings file. Make sure it appears before
"django.middleware.admin.AdminUserRequired". (The middleware classes are applied in order, and the admin middleware requires that the session middleware come first.)
If you want session support any other (i.e., non-admin) Django installation, change the
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES setting accordingly. The order (i.e., whether it comes before or after the other installed middleware classes) doesn't matter.
Create the core_sessions database table
In PostgreSQL, use this:
CREATE TABLE core_sessions ( session_key varchar(40) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, session_data text NOT NULL, expire_date timestamp with time zone NOT NULL ); INSERT INTO content_types (name, package, python_module_name) VALUES ('session', 'core', 'sessions');
In MySQL and SQLite, use this:
CREATE TABLE core_sessions ( session_key varchar(40) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, session_data text NOT NULL, expire_date datetime NOT NULL ); INSERT INTO content_types (name, package, python_module_name) VALUES ('session', 'core', 'sessions');
Remove old, unneeded things
Execute this SQL in your database:
DROP TABLE auth_sessions; DELETE FROM content_types WHERE package = 'auth' AND python_module_name = 'sessions';
Edit your settings file(s) to remove
AUTH_SESSION_COOKIE and
REGISTRATION_COOKIE_DOMAIN, if they exist.
Changed model syntax
As of [549], Django's model syntax has changed. If you're using models that use old (pre-[549]) syntax, you'll need to convert them according to the instructions on ModelSyntaxChangeInstructions.
Moved template loader module
As of [867],
django.core.template_loader is deprecated. Use
django.core.template.loader instead.
Refactored the admin app not to require its own settings file
As of [948], the admin has been refactored, to make things simpler and tighter -- both conceptually and in code layout.
What changed
- The admin no longer requires its own settings file. The "main" site and admin site can run on the same Django installation.
- All the admin code moved to
- The admin requires
INSTALLED_APPS, and it requires the
app_directoriestemplate loader.
- The admin database table isn't installed unless you explicitly have the admin installed (
django-admin.py install admin).
- Renamed the admin log database table to give it a
How to update your code
If you're using a Django installation from before this changeset, do the following to restore your admin site:
- Execute this SQL command:
ALTER TABLE auth_admin_log RENAME TO django_admin_log;
- If you're using an SQLite version older than 3.2.0 (no ALTER TABLE support), execute these SQL commands (following this pattern):
BEGIN TRANSACTION; CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE auth_backup ( id integer NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, action_time datetime NOT NULL, user_id integer NOT NULL REFERENCES auth_users (id), content_type_id integer NULL REFERENCES content_types (id), object_id text NULL, object_repr varchar(200) NOT NULL, action_flag smallint unsigned NOT NULL, change_message text NOT NULL ); INSERT INTO auth_backup SELECT id, action_time, user_id, content_type_id, object_id, object_repr, action_flag, change_message FROM auth_admin_log; DROP TABLE auth_admin_log; CREATE TABLE django_admin_log ( id integer NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, action_time datetime NOT NULL, user_id integer NOT NULL REFERENCES auth_users (id), content_type_id integer NULL REFERENCES content_types (id), object_id text NULL, object_repr varchar(200) NOT NULL, action_flag smallint unsigned NOT NULL, change_message text NOT NULL ); INSERT INTO django_admin_log SELECT id, action_time, user_id, content_type_id, object_id, object_repr, action_flag, change_message FROM auth_backup; DROP TABLE auth_backup; COMMIT;
- If you're using PostgreSQL, execute these SQL commands:
ALTER TABLE auth_admin_log_id_seq RENAME TO django_admin_log_id_seq; ALTER TABLE django_admin_log ALTER COLUMN id DROP DEFAULT; ALTER TABLE django_admin_log ALTER COLUMN id SET DEFAULT nextval('public.django_admin_log_id_seq'::text);
- Edit your Django settings file (probably called
settings/main.py) to make the following changes:
- Add
INSTALLED_APPS. Order doesn't matter; it can be the first, last, whatever.
- Remove
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES, if it's in there.
- Add
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES, if it's not already in there.
- If you've created any custom admin templates, add the appropriate line from the admin
TEMPLATE_DIRSsetting to your "main"
- (Note that Django looks for "404.html" and "500.html" templates in your
TEMPLATE_DIRS. Make sure you have these templates available.)
- (Note that Django looks for "404.html" and "500.html" templates in your
- If you've created any custom admin templates, note that the template inheritance structure has changed. All admin templates are now within an
adminsubdirectory of the template directory. The following admin templates are directly affected by this change:
- 404 --> admin/404
- 500 --> admin/500
- base --> admin/base
- base_site --> admin/base_site
- admin_object_history --> admin/object_history
- delete_confirmation_generic --> admin/delete_confirmation
- index --> admin/index
- login --> admin/login
- template_validator --> admin/template_validator
- Add
TEMPLATE_LOADERS, after
"django.core.template.loaders.filesystem.load_template_source". If you don't have the
TEMPLATE_LOADERSsetting, set it to this:
TEMPLATE_LOADERS = ( 'django.core.template.loaders.filesystem.load_template_source', 'django.core.template.loaders.app_directories.load_template_source', )
- Add
- Remove your admin settings file (probably called
settings/admin.py) and admin URLconf (probably called
- Delete
django/templatetags/*.pyo, just to be safe.
- Edit your main URLconf (probably called
settings/urls/main.py) and add this line:
(r'^admin/', include('django.contrib.admin.urls.admin')),
Change that
"admin"to whatever URL you were using for the admin site.
If you use external mapping to files and directories (e.g., using mod_rewrite), do the following:
- Make sure you're not redirecting
/adminto another instance of Django with different settings (e.g., using settings/admin.py).
- If you had a mapping of admin media files, make sure that it points to new directory, which is
The following steps are optional but will tighten your code up. All assume your project is called
- Move
- Delete
myproject/settings/urls/admin.py(unless you had custom things in it, of course).
- Move
- Edit
myproject/settings.pyto change
- If you use
myproject/settings/main_rss.pyto describe your RSS feeds, move it to
- Change
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULEin Apache configuration from
- Having done all this, delete the directory
Separated flatpages and redirects into standalone, optional apps
As of [1166], flatpages and redirects, previously installed by default, are now optional add-ons. Now they must be installed manually.
What changed
- The flatpages and redirects database files are no longer installed by default.
- Renamed all references to "flatfiles" -- a previous name for flatpages -- to "flatpages", to be unambiguous.
- Renamed the flatpages and redirects database tables.
- Moved all flatpages and redirects logic from throughout the Django code to
- To use flatpages and redirects, you now need to specify them in
INSTALLED_APPS-- use
How to update your code
If you're using a Django installation from before this changeset, do the following to restore flatpages and redirects functionality:
If you don't want to use flatfiles
Execute the following SQL:
DROP TABLE flatfiles; DROP TABLE flatfiles_sites; DELETE FROM auth_permissions WHERE package = 'core' AND codename IN ('add_flatfile', 'change_flatfile', 'delete_flatfile'); DELETE FROM content_types WHERE package = 'core' AND python_module_name = 'flatfiles';
If you don't want to use redirects
Execute the following SQL:
DROP TABLE redirects; DELETE FROM auth_permissions WHERE package = 'core' AND codename IN ('add_redirect', 'change_redirect', 'delete_redirect'); DELETE FROM content_types WHERE package = 'core' AND python_module_name = 'redirects';
If you want to use flatfiles
- Execute the following SQL:
ALTER TABLE flatfiles RENAME TO django_flatpages; ALTER TABLE flatfiles_sites RENAME TO django_flatpages_sites; ALTER TABLE django_flatpages_sites RENAME flatfile_id TO flatpage_id; INSERT INTO packages (label, name) VALUES ('flatpages', 'flatpages'); UPDATE content_types SET package = 'flatpages', python_module_name = 'flatpages' WHERE package = 'core' AND python_module_name = 'flatfiles'; UPDATE auth_permissions SET package = 'flatpages' WHERE package = 'core' AND codename IN ('add_flatfile', 'change_flatfile', 'delete_flatfile');
- If you're using PostgreSQL, execute this additional SQL:
ALTER TABLE flatfiles_id_seq RENAME TO django_flatpages_id_seq; ALTER TABLE django_flatpages ALTER COLUMN id DROP DEFAULT; ALTER TABLE django_flatpages ALTER COLUMN id SET DEFAULT nextval('public.django_flatpages_id_seq'::text);
- If you have a
flatfiles/default.htmltemplate, rename it to
- In every one of your flatpage templates, change the variable
- If you use the URLconf
django.conf.urls.flatfiles, now point to
- If you have a
USE_FLAT_PAGESsetting, remove it.
- Add
"django.contrib.flatpages"to your
- Add
"django.contrib.flatpages.middleware.FlatpageFallbackMiddleware"to your
If you want to use redirects
- Execute the following SQL:
ALTER TABLE redirects RENAME TO django_redirects; INSERT INTO packages (label, name) VALUES ('redirects', 'redirects'); UPDATE content_types SET package = 'redirects', python_module_name = 'redirects' WHERE package = 'core' AND python_module_name = 'redirects'; UPDATE auth_permissions SET package = 'redirects' WHERE package = 'core' AND codename IN ('add_redirect', 'change_redirect', 'delete_redirect');
- If you're using PostgreSQL, execute this additional SQL:
ALTER TABLE redirects_id_seq RENAME TO django_redirects_id_seq; ALTER TABLE django_redirects ALTER COLUMN id DROP DEFAULT; ALTER TABLE django_redirects ALTER COLUMN id SET DEFAULT nextval('public.django_redirects_id_seq'::text);
- Add
"django.contrib.redirects"to your
- Add
"django.contrib.redirects.middleware.RedirectFallbackMiddleware"to your
Refactored RSS framework
As of [1194], Django's RSS framework was refactored. This change should not affect most Django users, because the RSS framework was completely undocumented. The only users affected are people who reverse-engineered the framework, and WorldOnline.
See the new syndication docs. For completeness, here's what changed:
- Created
- Removed
django/conf/urls/rss.py. The syndication system doesn't require its own URLconf anymore.
- Moved
django/contrib/syndication/views.pyand refactored it so that
feed_dictinstead of
- Renamed
- RSS feeds are now specified as subclasses of
django.contrib.syndication.feeds.Feedinstead of
django.core.rss.FeedConfiguration. Syntax is completely different.
- RSS feeds are now registered in URLconfs rather than in "magic" settings modules whose names end with "_rss".
- Templates for RSS titles and descriptions now live in a
feedsdirectory, not an
Changed field name and length for auth.User password_md5 field
As of [1327], the
password_md5 field in the
auth.User model, which is used for authentication in the Django admin, was renamed to
password, and its length was changed from 32 to 128 to accomodate longer hashes and password metadata, such as which hash algorithm to use. This affects everybody who uses the Django authentication system -- including users of the Django admin.
Execute the following SQL to restore auth functionality:
- PostgreSQL:
BEGIN; ALTER TABLE auth_users ADD COLUMN password varchar(128); UPDATE auth_users SET password = password_md5; ALTER TABLE auth_users ALTER COLUMN password SET NOT NULL; ALTER TABLE auth_users DROP COLUMN password_md5; COMMIT;
- MySQL:
BEGIN; ALTER TABLE `auth_users` CHANGE `password_md5` `password` VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL COMMIT;
- SQLite:
BEGIN; ALTER TABLE auth_users RENAME TO auth_users_old; CREATE TABLE auth_users ( id integer NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, username varchar(30) NOT NULL UNIQUE, first_name varchar(30) NOT NULL, last_name varchar(30) NOT NULL, email varchar(75) NOT NULL, password varchar(128) NOT NULL, is_staff bool NOT NULL, is_active bool NOT NULL, is_superuser bool NOT NULL, last_login datetime NOT NULL, date_joined datetime NOT NULL ); INSERT INTO auth_users ( id, username, first_name, last_name, email, password, is_staff, is_active, is_superuser, last_login, date_joined ) SELECT * FROM auth_users_old; DROP TABLE auth_users_old; COMMIT;
Template system changes
As of [1443], we changed the way custom template tags and filters are registered. If you've written custom template tags or filters, you'll need to make a couple of changes:
Filter arguments
For any filters that don't take an argument, remove the second argument to the filter function.
def lower(param, _): return param.lower()
def lower(param): return param.lower()
The system now introspects the function's arguments to find out whether a filter argument is required.
Change the way your tags/filters are registered
Old way:
from django.core import template template.register_filter('lower', lower, False) template.register_tag('current_time', do_current_time)
New way:
from django.core import template register = template.Library() register.filter('lower', lower) register.tag('current_time', do_current_time)
Change template decorator calls
If you're using the undocumented template decorators (simple_tag and inclusion_tag), change your calls to be members of the library class.
Old way:
simple_tag(func) inclusion_tag('path/to/template')(func)
New way:
register.simple_tag(func) register.inclusion_tag('path/to/template')(func)
Change template tags that use filters
Filters are compiled at compile time now.
Old way:
class SomethingNode(Node): def __init__(self, filter_string): self.filter_string = filter_string def render(self, context): var = resolve_variable_with_filters(self.filter_string, context) return var def do_something(parser, token): bits = token.split() filter_string = bits[1] return SomethingNode(filter_string) register_tag('something', do_something)
New way:
class SomethingNode(Node): def __init__(self, filter_expr): self.filter_expr = filter_expr def render(self, context): var = self.filter_expr.resolve(context) return var def do_something(parser, token): bits = token.split() filter_string = bits[1] filter_expr = parser.compile_filter(filter_string) return SomethingNode(filter_expr) register.tag('something', do_something)
See Writing custom template filters and Writing custom template tags for full documentation.
Templates that are included in another template using
{% include %} or
{% ssi %}, or extend a template using
{% extends %}, must explicitly
{% load %} all libraries they need for their tags and filters. Some templates may have worked in the past due to previous requests registering tags : this will no longer work.