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The primary source of Legionnaires' disease that killed three people staying at a downtown Chicago hotel this summer is believed to have been fairly innocuous: the decorative fountain in the lobby.
That fountain was permanently removed from the JW Marriott on Adams Street, and the hotel began an "an ambitious remediation plan," according to Chicago health officials, that included temporary closure of the places Legionella bacteria were found, such as the men's and women's locker rooms, swimming pool and spa whirlpool.
City health officials said the outbreak has been contained.
But it was a textbook case of a Legionnaires' outbreak, said Trish Perl, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. That is why she has discouraged her employer from installing decorative water fountains at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
"It is an underappreciated disease, and people get really sick — scary sick," Perl said. "Unrecognized, or if a person dawdles or is prescribed the wrong antibiotic, it can cause a very impressive pneumonia."
Though swimming pools are regularly monitored, the water in decorative fountains is not checked by either the Chicago or Illinois health departments unless people become ill.
The city and state aren't alone. Health department representatives from two of the nation's most popular tourist states, Florida and California, also said water quality in decorative fountains is tested only with cause, not as routine.
Legionnaires' disease is not exactly a plague. The bacteria are not spread among people, and those most at risk are a relatively narrow population: the elderly, heavy smokers and those with compromised immune systems. It accounts for about 10 percent of pneumonia cases, Perl said, though she speculated that the number is likely higher than diagnosed.
Still, it can clearly be a grave and unpredictable disease, as seen in a more recent outbreak in Quebec City, which has killed at least 11 people and, as of press time, has yet to been traced to a source.
It also has a long history with hotels. Its initial outbreak, which vexed health officials for months, happened at a Philadelphia hotel during an American Legion convention in 1976.
The bacteria are most often traced to the combination of widely trafficked public places and warm water, which makes a hotel's decorative fountain a perfect intersection.
"The thing about those fountains is they don't always register" as a potential hazard, Perl said. "People think, 'This is soothing, this is beautiful.' Since people aren't drinking water out of it, they don't think in terms of what could happen."
Latest Travel
Does that mean travelers should beware of Legionnaire's disease? Sort of.
Perl said it's reasonable for those with compromised immune systems to avoid the spray from decorative fountains. And if there is a known outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, absolutely, stay away, she said. She added, however, that "it's not the first thing I would worry about while traveling."
"There's travelers' diarrhea and influenza; so many things more common and likely," she said. "It's really difficult to come out with rational public policy (about Legionnaires') because of all the ifs. Personally, I just don't think we should have decorative water fountains. That's a hospital epidemiologist speaking."
The Travel Mechanic is dedicated to better, smarter, more fulfilling travel. Thoughts, comments and suggestions can be sent to email@example.com. Include "Travel Mechanic" in the subject line. Follow him on Twitter @traveljosh.


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December 9, 2016 (UNIAN) The U.S. Congress has passed the consolidated National Defense Authorizations Act, 2017, boosting U.S. security assistance to Ukraine to US$ 350 million, according to a posting on the Facebook page of Ukraine's Embassy in the United States. "U.S. Senate has finalized consideration and following the House passed the consolidated National Defense Authorizations Act, 2017," the posting said. "According to the bill, from amounts authorized to be provided for security assistance to Ukraine, including lethal assistance, up to $350 million shall be available for fiscal year 2017, a $50 million increase from $300 million authorized in NDAA, 2016," it said. "The document is now headed for signing by the U.S. President," the posting said. "We appreciate the bicameral and bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress for Ukraine in our fight against the ongoing Russian aggression," the Ukrainian Embassy said.
Friday, December 9, 2016
U.S. Congress boosts security assistance to Ukraine to US$350 million
Posted by Oleg Bezverkhnii at 07:44
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Fallen conservation officer to be remembered
WEST HARTFORD >> A Connecticut environmental conservation officer who was shot and killed 15 years ago while investigating a report of illegal deer hunting is being remembered.
A wreath-laying ceremony was planned at Fairview Cemetery in West Hartford on Wednesday, the anniversary of Officer James V. Spignesi Jr.'s death. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officials are expected to join Spignesi's family members for the annual event to honor his memory and sacrifice.
Spignesi began his career at the state's environmental agency as a wildlife biologist. He later became an environmental conservation officer in 1990.
A scholarship fund has been created in his name. It is awarded to a UConn upperclassman who aspires to a career in wildlife management.
The hunter involved in the 1998 fatal shooting in the town of Scotland was ultimately acquitted.


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T-Mobile may want to come up with more promotions like its late December "zero money down" offer. The campaign seems to have resonated with consumers as the brand's Value and Purchase Consideration scores rose above those of its wireless rivals.
Value scores for the brand turned up on December 19th, and increased 23 points from -12 to 11 before settling back down just after the first of the year.
The amount of consumers considering purchasing T-Mobile also surged past an index of rivals AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint for 10 straight days during "zero money down" but went back down below them since the promotion ended December 31st.
The news on January 8th that T-Mobile was doing away with annual contracts on its unlimited data plans also gave it a sizable bump, but not enough to surpass the competitors again.
T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint were measured with YouGov BrandIndex's Value and Purchase Consideration scores, which ask respondents: "Does the brand provide good value for money' and "When you are in the market next to purchase this product or service, from which of the following would you consider purchasing?" respectively.


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sell me a sand trap and tell me you're floating
That's my preamble. My amble is multifold:
—One book I really think might spook you in the best long-winter-of-the-soul way is a book of poems by Mr. Edward Mullany called If I Falter at the Gallows
—Hope to see you soon in Boston, DC, Chicago, New York, and/or Richmond. Check out the list to the right to see where you can find me and tell me nothing I write will ever be as good as The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll and how annoying my beard is.
—Many thanks to Chester College for having me visit and talk to people and read some work. So many fun and smart people there. I really dig the whole tender-hearted art freak sleepaway in the forest vibe. New Hampshire! You are full of surprises. Tender thanks owed to a lot of people, especially Mark and Laura for their instigating and adventuring, and the awesome faculty at Chester (Monica, Chris, Tim, Jenn) for their woodsy alchemy. I did a little video poem thing for Chester's "In Place" series while I was there. They wouldn't let me stand on the backhoe, but I did get to work with a guy named Kyle Petty. He wasn't the race car driver, but he was very handy. Meg Cameron recorded the sound and helped me make sure I didn't eat the microphone. The poem is called "Can We Get Ice Cream at This Hour" (thanks again to Mark and Laura for originally running it in Big Lucks!) and you can watch it by clicking on some triangles:
08 - Mike Young - Can We Get Ice Cream At This Hour? from In Place on Vimeo.
8 comments:
- Michael Filippone said...
I love the video.
Is The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll all it's cracked up to be? I've been wanting to read that one for a while. I read The Long Ships and it was definitely as good the reader reviews said it would be. I just don't know how NYRB Classics can keep pumping out the gold. They have to have published an Achilles heal at some point, right?
- Mike Young said...
Oh it's so good. It harkens to such romance that it makes me want to use "such" as an adjective, which is more romantic than using "so much," which means I guess more archaic, and it is definitely archaic--in mode, in ideology, in gesture, in plot, in and out of the harbor--but in that awesome capital A sense of archaic, where you recognize "oh this is outdated but not just in the past-the-sell-date way, in the way that it feels literally out of any dating structure, it feels like of course this is an old-timey episodic picaresque but suddenly I feel like everything I learned about those words is wrong, history is so much weirder than the sepia of it suggests" and so on, yes, so good.
- kerry lillian said...
paroozing your blog. i have no words. i have no fucking words.
- kerry lillian said...
"im floating"
- Mike Young said...
haha, thanks kerry! obviously i need to update it. baseball is back, levon helm is dead, and it's even my birthday. poor blog is in a laggy reality.
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Networks that offer less choice of health care providers remain the most common types of plans on Affordable Care Act exchanges, with 72 percent of the market, according to a new analysis by research firm Avalere.
The push toward more restrictive networks like those used in HMOs is one way plans seek to keep costs and premiums low, the healthcare consulting firm says, but it can involve tradeoffs for the insured.
"Provider networks are getting narrower, which means it is more important than ever that patients understand what kind of plans they are buying," Avalere's Chris Sloan said in a statement. "Unknowingly enrolling in a narrow network plan could lead to patients being unable to see their preferred doctor or go to their most convenient hospital."


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Larry Spears
President & CEO
Larry C. Spears Center for Servant-Leadership, Inc.
Kathleen Patterson
Associate Professor
Regent University School of Business & Leadership
Editor, Journal of Virtues in Leadership
Insights on Servant Leadership
From Men's Wearhouse to Starbucks to Southwest Airlines, businesses and organizations are buying in to the concept and value of servant leadership. In this Leadership Talks session, Dr. Larry Spears, president and CEO of the Spears Center for Servant-Leadership, shares his personal insights from his first encounter with the writings of servant leadership founder Robert K. Greenleaf in 1982 through his work today at the Larry C. Spears Center for Servant-Leadership. Join us as Dr. Spears discuss his personal beliefs about servant leadership; the difference between servanthood and being a servant leader; and why he considers servant leadership to be a philosophy of life rather than a leadership model.
About the Speakers
Known as today's foremost authority on servant leadership, Larry C. Spears is president and CEO of the Larry C. Spears Center for Servant-Leadership, Inc., established in 2008. From 1990-2007 he served as president and CEO of the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership. An author and editor who has published hundreds of articles, essays, newsletters, books and other publications on servant-leadership, Spears has been interviewed by dozens of newspapers and journals, including Fortune, the Washington Post, Advancing Philanthropy, and many others. In 2004, he helped to introduce servant leadership and Robert Greenleaf to ten million viewers during an interview on NBC's Dateline. As creator and editor of various books on servant leadership, Spears is also a series editor of the Servant-Leadership Essay Series, serves as the senior advisory editor for The International Journal of Servant Leadership (2005-Present) and a national and international speaker.
Dr. Kathleen Patterson has been a part of Regent University's School of Business & Leadership (SBL) for more than 10 years and is a noted expert in the field of servant leadership. She is editor of the Journal of Virtues in Leadership and coordinates several servant leadership roundtables across the U.S. as part of SBL's annual Roundtables of Leadership Research and Practice and the American Society of Business Behavioral Sciences Conference. In addition, she coordinates the international Tri-continent Global Servant Leadership Research Roundtable. Dr. Patterson is also involved in numerous consulting projects, locally, nationally and internationally.
About Leadership Talks
The most successful leaders are those who apply both time-tested principles and contemporary theory to address the ever-changing environments they lead. Leadership Talks provides you with fresh insights from leadership experts, scholars and practitioners that you can quickly process and immediately apply within your organization. As a continuous learner, you will benefit from case studies, practical lessons and inspiring anecdotes provided by some of today's top leadership speakers. To learn more about the School of Business & Leadership, visit us on the web at www.regent.edu/global.
School of Business & Leadership
1000 Regent University Drive
Virginia Beach, VA 23464
© 2010
Volume 5
Issue 2
Leadership Talks is produced by Regent University's School of Business & Leadership. Views expressed are those of the speakers and are not necessarily the views of the School of Business & Leadership or of Regent University.


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Meanwhile, Khawaja has been given a further hearing this week, but is unclear if it will result in him being charged with a crime. Given that some Palestinians have been held under administrative detention rules for up to eight years, it is possible that Khawaja's ordeal is only just beginning.
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Story highlights
- About 2,000 unmarked graves were found at the University of Mississippi medical center
- The find has forced the medical center in Jackson to halt its expansion
- Experts believe the graves are associated with the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum
Amid a grove of trees, buried beneath the grass and dirt, Mississippi's past is colliding with its future.
Surveyors last month discovered dozens of neat, tight rows of coffins just feet below the ground at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.
Sure, there were stories that there was a cemetery somewhere on the grounds of the medical center that today sits where the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum once stood.
But the location of the cemetery was lost to history. That's until an estimated 2,000 unmarked graves were discovered during a survey for a planned campus expansion.
The find has forced the medical center to halt its expansion and begin the daunting task of figuring out what to do about the 2,000 bodies lying in the path of their next big thing.
It's a scene that has played out in recent years in New York, California, Texas, Illinois and Wisconsin as developers look to build on what is believed to be vacant land only to find forgotten graveyards.
"As development continues likely more are to be found," Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropology professor at the University of Florida, said.
But the sheer size of the Mississippi find -- one of the largest in recent years -- has many asking one question: Who were these people?
Finding coffins
For as long as anyone can remember, construction workers and contractors have been finding the simple pine boxes on the property of the medical center, which opened in 1955.
There were four, five and sometimes six boxes with only skeletal remains found here and there on the grounds. Once, in the 1990s, workers building a laundry facility found about 40 unmarked graves, said Jack Mazurak, a spokesman for the medical center.
But last year, that number jumped with the discovery of 66 coffins during a road improvement project at the campus.
Over the years, there were rumors. Depending on who you asked, the coffins contained the bodies of the Civil War dead or slaves.
But experts disagreed. Historical records revealed the area was not a major battlefield during the war, and there was no indication in the state historical archives that a slave cemetery existed on the site.
The medical center partnered with the Mississippi State University anthropology department, with a team led by Prof. Nicholas Hermann, that was tasked with removing the remains for testing.
Almost immediately, Hermann's team determined the bodies were connected to the asylum, which opened on the grounds in 1855.
"We're guessing because there's no personal remains, no clothes, not even really any buttons or pins or anything, that they were probably residents of the asylum and either buried in a shroud or not buried with anything, so that would put them probably around in the mid to late 1800s to early 1900s," Derek Anderson, an archeologist on the team, told CNN affiliate WLBT shortly after the finds.
Once testing is finished, the bodies will be reinterred in the medical center's designated cemetery, Hermann said.
'A lot of graves'
A number of factors, from historical records to the layout of the coffins, led Hermann to believe this was just the beginning of the find.
When he found out the medical center was planning on building a cancer center and a children's justice center on the site, he said: "I think you are going to have a lot of graves."
Part of his assessment hinged on history. The asylum drew residents from across the state, people who were committed for a variety of ailments. Many, according to records, were institutionalized for years.
When residents died, few were claimed by families. Experts believe poverty may have also played a role -- families could not afford to retrieve and transport the bodies.
As a result, many were buried in unmarked graves in an area of the property believed designated as the asylum cemetery. Without headstones and markings to denote the outlines of the cemetery, it was swallowed up by time.
So how do you determine that without digging up the grounds and, possibly, disturbing the dead?
The answer: ground-penetrating radar.
"When I saw the printout of that ...property, it was mind-blowing," Mazurak said.
The radar survey showed hundreds and hundreds of coffin-like outlines in tight rows. Many were believed to be just four or five feet below the surface.
"As it turned out there were 800 to 1,000 graves on the southern piece of property, and another 1,000 graves on the north side of the property," Mazurak said.
'Living link'
Almost immediately, construction plans on the site were put on hold.
Already the university medical center was absorbing the cost to exhume and rebury the bodies found last year at a cost of about $3,000 each, Mazurak said.
Removing 66 coffins from underneath a road was one thing. But removing hundreds of coffins from an unmarked graveyard was another thing entirely.
"There is a living link to each grave," Mazurak said.
Exhuming and reinterring upwards of 2,000 bodies would cost millions, a price the university can't afford. So for now, the medical center will leave the dead where they lie and look for alternatives for the expansion.
As news of the find made headlines, people across the country reached out to the medical center.
The questions, in many cases, were the same: Can you tell me if my family member is buried there?
Searching for answers
That's the question Jannie White posed when she stumbled upon the news of the unmarked graveyard at the medical center.
White has spent years researching her family history, trying to piece together the path her family had taken from Mississippi north.
She grew up hearing stories about a great-grandmother who had been institutionalized at the asylum. The details were sketchy, and nobody was sure where the woman was buried or even what name she was buried under.
"I guess you would call it a rumor in the family. They kept saying she was in an institution a little bit outside of Jackson," White said in a telephone call from her Detroit-area home.
She picked up the telephone and started making phone calls, eventually connecting with Mazurak and others at the medical center.
"I asked whether they could tell me if she was buried there, and what name she was buried under," she said. "I'm just trying to find out what our last name was then."
But answers have been harder to come by.
Records related to the asylum are contained in 16 bound volumes at the Mississippi state archive, Hermann said.
The volumes, all handwritten, are rich with detail, chronicling the name, age, ailment and admission date for every patient from between 1855 and 1935, when the asylum was closed and relocated.
"Within those records, they provided a detailed account of how many people died every year and what they died of," Hermann said.
Hermann's team believes their research on the 66 skeletal remains may one day be able to determine who was buried where on the property, if not the exact location.
"People are very concerned about their relatives, and that's a driving factor," he said.
Studying the past
It's a years-long project that requires digitizing the records as well as testing DNA, primarily from teeth of the remains. Those results, Hermann says, will reveal details about where the person grew up regionally.
With that information combined with the records, Hermann and others believe it's possible to link the dead with the living.
Already, Hermann and his team have determined the 66 bodies uncovered during the road improvement project were buried late in the asylum's history, somewhere around the 1920s.
By knowing where the dead came from and what they died of, it will help shed light on the history and treatment of mental health conditions across the state of Mississippi in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Hermann said.
With a limited budget and less than a dozen people on the research team, the answers to many questions are likely years away.
But one thing, Mazurak says, is clear about the find in Mississippi: "The past frequently intersects, I almost want to say collides, with the present."


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Trade Deadline looming, Morneau, Perkins want to stay
MINNEAPOLIS -- With the All-Star Game in the rearview mirror, the July 31 Trade Deadline looms for the Twins, who are expected to be sellers after losing 12 of 15 entering the break.
First baseman Justin Morneau and closer Glen Perkins are the club's two biggest trade chips, but Twins general manager Terry Ryan said he'll listen to potential offers for any of the club's players. Others who could be available include veteran right-handers Mike Pelfrey and Kevin Correia and veteran utility infielder Jamey Carroll.
"Whenever you have deadlines, it always picks up whenever you get closer to it, so I'm sure it will," Ryan said. "There are teams that want to move quickly and others who want to find out where they stand. The next week will be a big deal for a lot of teams."
Morneau is making $14 million this season, the last of a six-year deal, and he said he's trying his best to ignore all the trade rumors surrounding him.
"It's out of my control," Morneau said. "I'm not too worried about it. If it happens, I'll deal with it. If not, I'm happy to play here."
Morneau added that his camp has not been contacted by the Twins about a possible extension, and that he has six teams on a limited no-trade clause, but none of those are listed as potential suitors. Teams reportedly interested in Morneau are the Yankees, Rays, Orioles, Red Sox and Pirates.
Morneau also wouldn't say if he'd re-sign with the Twins this offseason if he were dealt, as he didn't want to answer any hypothetical questions. But he did note that if it were up to him, he'd stay with Minnesota.
"I think it's more rewarding to win with the organization you've grown up with and the people that you almost become a family with," said Morneau, who has played with the Twins since '03. "It's a place where I'm happy and we've won here, which is always the goal. But it's not up to me, so we'll see what happens."
Perkins, a Stillwater, Minn., native, has made it clear that his preference is to remain with the Twins, especially after signing a three-year extension before last season with a $4.5 million option for '16.
"Everyone knows where I want to be," said Perkins, an All-Star for the first time this year. "I guess the thing I really only worry about is going out and pitching. But they'll do what's right for the team, but I think that's me here, so we'll see."


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Blind Item #2
This B list mostly movie actress who is only B because of her A+ list name recognition had to send a car and driver to pick up her child from school the other day. Our actress was too hammered at noon to go out in public. She hadn't realized it was a day kids got out early and teachers had to call and remind the actress when the child was the last to be picked up.


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If you've never used Swiftkey, you should give it a try: it's a smart keyboard which uses some crazy intelligent algorithms not just to predict what word you're typing, but what word you're going to type next. It's spooky. Just don't, whatever you do, lend your phone to a friend.
Because SwiftKey learns from what you've typed in the past, in messages, Facebook, Twitter—everything. That means it's been reading your confessions, tracking your romantic encounters and learning what gets you off. So when a friend starts typing something on your phone, well... they might be in for a surprise. [xkcd]


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SPRINGFIELD – A two-year-old temporary Illinois income tax increase should become permanent to pay an increasing state portion of employee pension costs through 2019, a top House Democrat said Wednesday.
Deputy Majority Leader Lou Lang's proposal to shrink a $96 billion deficit in five state retirement systems also would increase the retirement age to 67 and increase employee
contributions by 3 percentage points.
The Skokie Democrat called his entry into the yearslong struggle to find a pension solution an idea that would meet with a judge's constitutional approval, compared to others that tinker with post-retirement cost-of-living increases.
"This is a plan that's constitutional, that's fundable," Lang said at a state Capitol news conference.
Lang did not address the common claim that the state's annual obligation to long-term retiree programs – more than $7 billion in the budget year that begins in July – already eats up the 67 percent income-tax increase Gov. Pat Quinn pushed into law in 2011 to reduce the state budget deficit. The evidence is in the $9 billion in overdue bills Illinois owes for goods and services, which has barely budged in that time.
"Including the income tax increase as part of the solution, to me, is already being part of the solution," said Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Northbrook Democrat who has been the focal point on a House solution. "It's actually how we're making the pension payments right now."
Lang said he had given House Speaker Michael Madigan an outline of the measure. Madigan spokesman Steve Brown later said Lang's legislation is among those the Chicago Democrat is considering in seeking a solution.
Plans by Nekritz, Democratic Senate President John Cullerton of Chicago, and Gov. Pat Quinn all have included other cost-saving measures, including increased worker contributions, less-generous benefits, and a shift of some teacher-pension costs to local school districts.
The idea is that because of decades of the state skimping on what it's supposed to pay, reform has to include measures to reduce the state's cost going forward. A payment of $7 billion is roughly one-quarter of what the state raises annually in general tax revenue.
"We have to deal with it on a comprehensive basis so it's not just about revenue. It's a lot more than that," Democrat Quinn said Wednesday when asked about Lang's proposed income-tax extension. Quinn would not say whether he supports keeping the tax increase in place beyond its 2014 expiration.
Lang, who also would shift teacher costs over several years, would offer taxpayers a $1 billion-a-year rebate beginning in 2020, the year a decade-old bond sale to raise pension-fund money is paid back.
Since 2011, new employees must work until age 67 before retiring. Current employees generally may retire at 60 with full benefits after eight years of state work.
Nekritz would raise the retirement age of current employees with allowances for their age and how close they are to retiring.
Her plan would completely reduce the system's deficit in 30 years. Lang proposes revamping the payback schedule to come within 80 percent of full funding within 50 years.
Pension plan relies on making tax hike permanent
SPRINGFIELD – A two-year-old temporary Illinois income tax increase should become permanent to pay an increasing state portion of employee pension costs through 2019, a top House Democrat said Wednesday.


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5 Reasons to Hire Professional for Tree Removal
When Long Islanders are in need of tree care services, Competition Tree, Inc is the first company they call. For more than 22 years, their team of professional and highly trained arborists has been providing exceptional tree care. From maintenance to removal, Competition Tree, Inc provides fast, safe, and affordable care for trees.
Trees are a wonderful feature on your property. They create visual appeal, offer privacy, and provide cooling shade; however, there are times when you want to have a tree removed from your property. For example, a tree may be taking up space that you want to use for something else, or it may a hazard to your property.
Whatever the reason, if you want to have a tree removed, don't try to tackle the job yourself. Instead, hire a professional care company that specializes in tree removal. Not sure why you should hire a professional for tree removal? Here's a look at five reasons why you should let the pros remove your trees.
At first glance, it might seem like taking down a tree on your own will be simple; however, once you get started, you'll quickly realize the complexities of the task.
A professional tree removal company will have the proper training and experience that is necessary to remove a tree. There's a lot more to taking a tree down than just sawing through its trunk and letting it topple. You need to have an effective strategy and the right tools; things that a reputable tree removal company will have.
Tree removal can be very dangerous. Large limbs and heavy trunks can easily fall on top of property – or on top of you! Unless you know exactly what you're doing and have the right tools, you could be putting yourself and anything surrounding the area in serious risk of danger. For example, what happens if a limb falls on top of you or the entire tree topples over onto a roof?
Given the dangers that are involved with tree removal, it's best to leave it in the hands of a professional.
Complete Tree Removal
Taking down a tree is only a part of the removal process; you also have to remove the limbs, branches, and parts of the trunk that are left behind. Additionally, there's a stump that has to be dealt with, too.
Do you know where you're going to put the remnants of the tree you removed? Are you just going to leave the trunk standing where the tree once stood? A reputable tree removal company will not only take down your tree, but will also remove the remnants from your property – including the trunk.
Fast Service
Can you take an entire 40 feet (or taller) tree down in just one day? And can you take it down safely? If you answered 'no' to these two questions, then you should hire a professional to remove your unwanted trees.
A tree removal company will not only be able to take down one – or several – trees in just a few hours, but will also be able to take your trees down safely. In the span of a couple of hours, you can have one or more trees completely removed from your property, and you'll never even know that those trees were there!
Cost Savings
You might think you'll save yourself some money by removing a tree on your own; however, in reality, you'll actually spend more money when you DIY this project.
Unless you already have the necessary tools, you'll have to buy or rent them. On top of that, what happens if an accident happens and property is damaged or someone is injured? You will be responsible for paying for any repairs or medical care that may be needed.
To save yourself money, instead of doing the job yourself, hire a professional tree removal company.
If you're looking for a reputable tree care service company that specializes in tree removal, contact Competition Tree, Inc. Their team of experts will ensure your trees are taken down and completely removed from your property, safely, quickly, and affordably.
- Learn more about East Norwich, NY 11732
- Open a East Norwich, NY map
- Find the East Norwich, NY United States Post Office
- Locate nearby East Norwich, NY pharmacies
- View the current East Norwich, NY weather report
- Browse a list of East Norwich, NY public and private schools
- East Norwich, NY is located in Nassau County on Long Island


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Several years ago the GHEIST signed a secret agreement with an extraterrestrial power to obtain help in enslaving Clint City and its gangs. Now the Order of Theus is sending one of its most ruthless emissaries to assist the evil organization in the accomplishment of its dark designs - Hriger, killer from outer space. And having got wind of his arrival, Thomy has been sent to see if he can find out a bit more about the GHEIST's plans. As for the Rescue clan, they've dispatched Shirley to dig up Hriger's spaceship which, according to Bertha, is buried near the Freaks circus, currently touring in her home town of Balgenheim.
Get these characters in the shop's packs
5 new missions have been added. Click here to see the list of Newblood missions.
Wackojacko0 - Friday 21/09/2012, 11:28
Titan - Open Casket
Wackojacko0 - Friday 21/09/2012, 12:22
Titan - Open Casket
@crypto140 i didnt see any messages hahahaa
Whitedragon11 - Friday 21/09/2012, 13:31
Eternal - Harbingers of Ares
Freaks got a good card in Bertha, maybe not a replacement of Esmeralda but a good second. Shirley is the Travis of the Rescue, but probably won't see much gameplay. Thomy is ok. Hriger seems like he may have potential, GHEIST have their Draheera replacement
To see their abilities and final arts, check out Evil Organization Killer Alien
El Darrioso - Friday 21/09/2012, 13:47
Colossus - URBAN MADNESS
So far, if kolos is mentioned on a card, automatically their ability is -6 opp damage, min 4
mahawirasd - Friday 21/09/2012, 14:20
Imperator - Immortality
I agree with your general contention, however:
1. i hardly think hriger will be as scary as draheera although he is more resistant to soa clans.
2. although i have to agree that rescue has always been prone to SOA, having shirley won't be so bad if ever we need to bluff or switch up the play.
Pink Huntress - Friday 21/09/2012, 14:31
Veteran - Immortality
Hriger = OP
Yayoi is 7/6 SOA -2dmg min 1 and received a perm ban
1san - Friday 21/09/2012, 14:52
Guru - Black Sea Piranas
Freak, and rescue are already well rounded elo clans. I am glad they replaced Draheera with Hriger so fast, sadly Thomy doesn't fill the gap Lehane left.
I hope that in coming weeks UR puts out some cards that get some of the elo weak clans back into the meta.
Uppers: I noticed they are generally all low powered, why not give them a 3 star with 7/3 and +1 power and damage? Not as OP as Zatman but fills the void better then harold and pallack.
Junkz: This clan seems to have a major damage issue. They have alot of good low leveled cards with nice power but low damage. I think they should introduce a new ability with the next junkz release. Something like +1 damage per star
(So however many stars the opponents card has you add 1 damage to your card). Well option 2 you can unban Rowdy, as many have mentioned before me...he simply got weak as time went on.
Berzerk, you take away there best card (Spyke) and to top it off no DR? Perfect solution 4 star card 6/6 -3 opp power and damage min 4.
Only other slight problems, Sakrohm need a better SOA then Ludwig, the Frozn need more cards, and vortex need a nice power reducer.


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SOCHI, Russia (AP) — So far during the Winter Olympics, Vladimir Putin hasn't shown off his pecs, scuba-dived to a treasure site or engaged in any sort of the he-man stunts he's known for.
But the Russian president's vigor and determination have been on display in quieter ways during these Winter Olympics — which, for him, have been a long round of visits to officials, athletes' facilities and sporting events. That's harder duty than it sounds.
Competitors at the Olympics get nervous knowing that the eyes of the world will be on them for a few minutes. For Putin, that scrutiny extends for the entire 17 days of the games. And many of those eyes are waiting for him to fail.
Although the home-country crowds may be largely on his side, Putin has received much criticism from abroad for the Olympics' staggering cost, Russia's crackdown on dissent and the widely denounced law banning pro-gay propaganda to minors. Serious questions have been raised about whether his security forces are capable of fending off threatened attacks by Islamic militants and whether Russia has been cooperating enough with Western governments on protecting fans and athletes.
Through it all, Putin has conducted himself with the slightly chilly aplomb that is his hallmark. During more than a dozen years in power, he's rarely allowed himself to be spontaneous; those moments when he did were often embarrassing, as when he inexplicably nuzzled a boy on the stomach. But he has learned how to use a choreographed moment to present an image of studied casualness.
Any leader of a country hosting the Olympics would feel obliged to show up at the events, but Putin's own athletic inclinations make his visits more than just protocol.
He's clearly a big sports fan, and that adds to that, said International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams.
Putin's Sochi appearances may also have helped soften his image to foreigners of a stern autocrat. It was the first time I've seen him smile, spectator Josh Straub of Red Deer, Alberta, said of the Russian president's visit to the Canadian team's headquarters.
But Livia Rickli of Amsterdam wasn't as willing to buy into his attempts at charm. In the Netherlands we have the gay thing, so we weren't such good friends with Putin, she said. Now, you know, suddenly he's there, suddenly he's nice.
In a sense, Putin can be seen as an analogue to the athletes on the snow and ice of Sochi. He's strongly disciplined, consistent, and trained well enough to make the near-impossible look easy. For the duration of the Olympics, he also has to navigate tricky psychological straits — exult in victory, accept defeat gracefully and don't trash-talk your opponent (or at least, not much).
Putin showed most of those qualities Friday in a drop-in visit to USA House, the local U.S. Olympic headquarters. Although Putin has sparred with Washington, sometimes with considerable acrimony, over issues ranging from missiles to human rights to alleged U.S. meddling in Russia, he steered clear of confrontation during his visit, took pains to praise the U.S. team and even noted that Russians love many American hockey players — the sport where the United States and Russia have their biggest rivalry.
If those placating words were a challenge to his competitor's spirit (this is a man who loves to throw others around in his favorite sport of judo) they also conveniently paralleled Putin's foreign-policy attempts to portray Russia as a country devoted to peace and respect for all nations.
It also feeds the image, or myth, of the Olympics as something of a higher calling. And it allows Putin, at least for a couple of weeks, to fend off awkward questions.
He made the connection specific in a visit the next day to the Swiss Olympic house, when a journalist asked about the recent pardoning of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose imprisonment is one of the most controversial chapters of Putin's presidency.
Putin shot back, There is hope that you will never connect sports and politics.
The biggest public challenge for Putin in the Olympics so far came a few hours later when the United States beat the Russian hockey team in a shootout. It was a tough loss and a tough problem: he had to play the dual roles of graceful host and, for the internal audience, No. 1 fan.
Sport is sport, he said. I think our team played very worthily. It seemed to me they were a class higher — a little bit higher.
For those fans who came to Sochi well disposed toward Putin, his appearances have bolstered their esteem.
I liked him before and I like him even more now. You don't have to worry about where he stands, said John Paul Haslik of Cairo, Georgia.
Russians who already admire him as a strongman find his image burnished. He is showing the world he is a man of his word, an honest man, said Alexander Krylov, a Sochi resident.
Putin has another week to go in this rarefied air of staying above politics and for now, even some of his domestic critics are content to let him have the time-out.
Boris Akunin, a best-selling author often critical of Putin, noted that many may have hoped that the Olympics would fail in a way that could weaken Putin's hold on the country. But in a blog post, Akunin wished the Olympics success because I'm not ready to live by the principle that what's bad for Putin is good for us.
On Feb. 23, the Sochi Games will end and the Winter Olympics flag will be handed over to Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the 2018 edition. The world's attention will drift away from Sochi, and Putin will return to the Kremlin and the rough business of Russian politics.
Where, presumably, he will find times to show his muscles in public once again. For now, though, they are hidden well, if always ready to be revealed.
EDITOR'S NOTE — AP correspondent Jim Heintz has covered Russia for 15 years. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeheintz.
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9:04 pm MDT and CR, glad to hear you had a great day off. I wish you got a few more of them though.
Vana, I'll do what I can. We don't leave here until August 26 or 27, that much I'm pretty certain of. So whether we go to Christina Lake at the beginning and drop down to the US after Labour Day, or do the US loop first and hit Christina Lake FOR Labour day, I don't know yet.
As soon as I know though, I'll be telling you next!


text: Grants Go explore Applicants will receive information about funding together with terms and conditions directly in writing. IRFD reserves the right to make budget changes and shall not be liable for any printing errors. o All periods 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 All instruments DFF–Danish ERC-programme DFF–Research Project 1 (thematic) DFF–Research Project 2 (thematic) Sapere Aude Starting Grant Previous instruments Individual postdoc Conferences MOBILEX Sapere Aude Research Talent Sapere Aude Advanced Grant YDUN Part-time positions Research scholarship outside universities Magazines International research stay Spring Fall Pregraduate scholarships Spring Fall Research network International postdoc Other research projects Senior research Sapere Aude Databases Biobanks Research Project 2 Research Project 1 Steno scholarships Large apparatus Scientific fields Humanities Natural sciences Social sciences Medical and health sciences Technology and Production sciences Interdisciplinary Learning and Quality in Education People and Society Socioeconomic Effects of Welfare Investments Early, Knowledge-Based Initiatives Digital technologies No results were found.


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Week of 9/14/09 - 9/20/09
* Meeting with Mayor Adams to discuss approach to UGB expansion process at Metro
* Monthly meeting with Maria Lisa Johnson, Office of Human Relations
* Meeting with Oregon Yacht Club members Mary Schutten and Joe Angel to discuss river community members becoming a Community Beyond Neighborhood Boundaries
* Monthly meeting, Keith Witcosky and Bruce Warner, PDC, and Paul Slyman of Harbor ReDI.
* Visted Foster-Powell Neighborhood Association
* Visited Washington County Board of Commissioners - neighborly visit on a beautiful Oregon fall morning. They only had one item on their agenda, a routine board appointment, so afterwards I visited with Commissioner Desiri Strader - we talked about the challenges of being the lone woman serving on an elected body with four men. We also chatted with Beaverton Councilor Betty Bode at the coffee kiosk, regarding baseball in Beaverton.
* Portland Business Alliance quarterly meeting
* Amalia Alarcon de Morris, Office of Neighborhood Involvement, monthly meeting
* Lisa Turley, Bureau of Emergency Communications, monthly meeting
* "Sustainable Development & Green Buildings Aren't Synonymous" Seminar, Architectural Heritage Foundation
* 199th Anniversary of Mexican Independence celebration at City Hall, where Mayor Adams, PDC Commissioner Bertha Ferran and I sang the National Anthem when the sound system wouldn't cooperate.
* City Council meetings Wednesday morning and evening - Youth Summer works program at City Council Wednesday evening.
* Met with Commissioner Leonard regarding BDS challenges
* Met with Anne Dufay, Southeast Uplift Executive Director, to update on SEUL issues
* National Alliance on Mental Illness dinner honoring former Senator Gordon Smith
* I was out of town, at the Oregon Planning Institute in Eugene, Thursday and Friday, and stayed there for the Ducks game vs. Utah on Saturday. I didn't have any outside engagements on Sunday, and after three days away I expected to spend much of the day catching up on emails. Instead, it was such a beautiful day, I did several hours of yard work and several loads of laundry, vacuumed, cleaned the bathrooms, and renovated the cat litter (I bet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton doesn't have to do cat litter), and then took a nap while watching football on TV. So if you were waiting for an answer to your email, that's why you don't have it yet.
Dinners at home: Sunday, however Luke was out of town and Steve was working at the hospital, so I don't think that counts as a "family dinner".


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Anyone who works with soy wax knows that candles produced with this wax will have great cold throw. Cold throw is the scent of the candle when it is not lit. Typically with soy wax, this throw will always be strong. However, when it comes to hot throw with soy wax you may be left desiring more.
Why does my candle not have hot throw?
When using soy wax to craft your candles, a lack of hot throw is just the nature of the wax. However, it could be possible that there was not enough fragrance or scent added to the melted wax. When it comes to adding the scent to the wax, temperature is everything; and be careful not to add the fragrance when the temperature is too high. Finally, the last thing to consider is the wick. This will also have a direct effect on the hot throw in your candle.
How to Solve It
If you are just not satisfied with the hot throw of your soy candles and have carefully examined all of the possible problems that may have inhibited your hot scent throw; you may want to consider changing your wax. Paraffin based waxes have very strong hot throw. You can also switch your wax to a blend of both soy and paraffin. Natures Garden's Joy Wax is a great example of this blend; providing candles with excellent hot and cold throw.
With soy wax, you are able to add up to 1.5 ounces of fragrance oil per pound of soy wax. This fragrance load will provide the best possible scent for soy wax candles. Also, if you are interested in seeing if a fragrance oil performs in soy wax, check out the fragrance oil's customer reviews. People often post what medium they used the fragrance oil in, especially if it works in soy wax.
Also, when making candles, waxes vary in the degree in which you can add the fragrance. If you are noticing that your candles are not producing a strong enough hot throw, you may want to lower the temperature at which you add the fragrance oil. It can be possible that some of the fragrance is burning off simply by the heat of the melted wax. Adding your fragrance at too high of a temperature will do this.
Selecting a hotter burning wick for your candles will also help with a candle's hot throw. Some great hotter burning wicks to select from are Hemp or CD wicks. But as always, testing is key.


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Bhubaneswar: An Odisha activist Tuesday said he has moved the Central Information Commission against state-run aluminium maker Nalco for denying him information under the Right to Information Act.
Activist Akhand said he had field an RTI application Sep 19 to find out the name of foreign companies registered with the Nalco to buy alumina and aluminium, tenders floated by it and tenders awarded to the buyers and their shipment status.
Nalco denied the information saying that such details are of commercial confidence and thereby cannot be shared, the activist told IANS.
"I also filed another application Oct 3 to find out if the vigilance unit of the company is maintaining any records on the corruption charges against some of its former chairmen and directors, Akhand said.
"To my surprise, the company also refused to share this information", he added.
In response to his query, K.N. Ravindra, company secretary and Nalco's public information officer said no such record on the corruption charges was being maintained in the department.
Many senior Nalco officials have in the past shared the company's domestic sale and export details with media. A section of media recently reported that the company had struck a dubious deal with a foreign company this year, the activist said.
It is mandatory for a company to maintain transparency in its activities. The denial of such information was an attempt to conceal corruption, he said.
"Like any public sector enterprise, Nalco is supposed to ensure transparency, probity and integrity in such matters. Since such information is of larger public interest, I don't understand why Nalco is maintaining secrecy," he said.
"I have appealed the Central Information Commission against Nalco. I have sought direction to the Nalco to provide all the information free of cost. I have also sought imposition penalty on the company's public information officer for not providing the details, he added.
Nalco, headquartered in Bhubaneswar, is India's third largest aluminium maker.
Source: IANS


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Frank was excited about his new rifle, and decided to try bear hunting. He spotted a small brown bear and shot it. There was then a tap on his shoulder, and he turned around to see a big black bear. The black bear said, "That was my cousin, and you have got two choices. Either I maul you to death or we have sex." After considering it briefly, Frank decided to accede to the latter alternative.
Even though he felt sore for two weeks, Frank soon recovered and vowed revenge. He headed out on another trip where he found the black bear and shot it. There was another tap on his shoulder. This time a huge grizzly bear stood right next to him. The grizzly said, "That was a huge mistake, Frank. That was my cousin and you have got two choices. Either I maul you to death or we have rough sex." Again, Frank thought it was better to co-operate.
Although he survived, it would take several months before Frank finally recovered. Outraged he headed back to the woods and he managed to track down the grizzly and shot it. He felt sweet revenge, but then there was a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to find a giant polar bear standing there. The polar bear said, "Admit it Frank, you don't come here for the hunting, do you?"
Frank and Bears
12:34 AM Adult Jokes No comments
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2 days ago I went to the London Islamic School.
An Islamic school. In London. What about that.
It was part of this outreach programme that the University of London Islamic Society (ULUIsoc) was planning. You know, where you go out to schools, tell them how great university life is, and let them figure out for themselves how stressful it is later.
It was more or less like my 'sekolah agama' back home. downstairs there's a mosque, and upstairs was the school. Except my school was the other way round. I think that its more sensible to build the mosque downstairs. How do they expect the old uncles to climb stairs for each prayer time??
So my friend told me a bit about British schools.
1)There were private schools for jolly rich chaps
2)State schools funded by the jolly government
3)Islamic schools for jolly Muslims
But then Islamic schools were usually paid for by the students themselves, because there's this problem of shortage of government funds. Come to think of it, if i were Gordon Brown i wouldn't want to be funding schools harboring future 'terrorists', would i? that's a whole load of bull.
On another note, there's this professor in the LSE who wrote in Psychology Today that 'half of Muslims are terrorists or are active supporters of terrorism'. Even bigger bull.
But on the whole, the school looked like it was in good shape. There was a computer lab complete with projectors and everything. Even my school wasn't that up-to-date, and we call ourselves an Islamic country -.- The kids wore 'kopiah' and white robes and one of the teachers looked like Haji Zul, an uncle in Kota Damansara. Ahhhh, how i miss home :'(
So then we were supposed to do a presentation. Before i said anything i asked them 'Can you guess where im from'? Cause i was the only, how shall i say it, 'stranger' in the outreach group.
Then they said
Okay, the first two are acceptable. India? Not that im degrading Indians, they are an honourable, warm people, but that's so far away from where i come from.
Then an African-descent boy raised his hand and said 'you come from Malaysia'. Good boy. You'll do well in the future, and you look a bit like Obama, which is currently a good thing. :)
Then we went on to do a workshop, like asking them what they want to do etc. Most of them had no idea, much like me when i was their age. Oh wait, when i was in secondary school i changed ambitions every few weeks. Brain surgeon this week. Pediatrician next week. Lawyer next next week. Thankfully it didn't get any worse than Lawyer.
At the end me and Zaid (he's doing Econs at UCL, and he's from South Africa. He went to Egypt last year and said that he spent more time with Malaysians than Arabs. Malaysia Boleh!!) gave a peptalk which sounded like this:
"In the end yeah, you're not innit for the money. You've got to do something fulfilling and in the end, you need to know that you're doing this to please Allah. What would you think of an engineer who memorises the Quran?"
Boy: "That's sick"
"exactly. And that's the type of person you're aiming to be. Safe" :)
Friday, February 26, 2010
London Islamic School
2 days ago I went to the London Islamic School.
Posted by The Author at 10:41 PM 0 comments
Friday, February 19, 2010
Pooh pooh
So i was in the toilet, doing my business. 'Throwing my big water out', according to the popular Malay idiom.
Some people read, some people play with the water taps. Me? I just stare at the wall and get it done ASAP.
Now to put this story into a better context, let me show you a picture:
The door lock was this knob that you had to twist 90 degrees to lock the door. But this whole time, the knob would only turn 45 degrees, no further. And that was what i did. Turn it 45 degrees. Honest, i thought it was locked.
So i was staring at the wall, when suddenly someone pushed the door open (the door swings to the inside, thank God for the contractors' common sense) With lightning-fast reflexes, i pushed the door shut with the strength of '1000 fists of Xiaolin'. BAMMM!!!
Then i heard the person scream. Girl. Positive -.-
Im sure it was a girl. If a guy screamed like that, i'd be TERRIFIED. Thanks to '1000 fists of Xiaolin', she didn't push the door far enough to see my face. If she did get that far, maybe she'd scream even louder. Or maybe i'd be the one to scream like a girl. *shudder* And what do you know, after that the knob could turn 90 degrees.
Posted by The Author at 6:33 AM 3 comments
Friday, February 12, 2010
Games with Names
In my LSE100 class, we were learning about the discipline of ethnography, which is basically studying different people's cultures in their particular contexts.
For example, your name could mean a lot in your specific culture. Take my teacher's name, Carmen Amelia Gayoso *something*. Having a Spanish father (Gayoso) and an Italian mother (*something*), both of her ancestries are reflected in her two surnames. In addition, the name Carmen is common in Peru, and has been in the family for 4 generations. Basically, her great-grandmother is Carmen, her grandmother is Carmen, her mom is Carmen and she is Carmen, and its common practice to name your child after a distinguished person.
So each of us had to do the same, write our full names and 3 meanings of our names in our culture.
So there's this guy, Joe. In his family, Joe has a lot of significance. Why? Because his ancestors were alternately Joseph or Jonathan. E.g if his grandad is Joseph, his dad is Jonathan, and he is Joseph, and the pattern continues. Kinda like a binary code, 101010101010
And then I wrote my full name on paper, 'Mohamad Ikmal bin Ahmad Nordin'. Since the question asked about meaning, i gave a literal one. 'The Praised Perfect son of The Praised Light of Religion'. This was the first time i saw my full name translated into English, and i was like WOAAAAA. And then when Carmen asked me to explain my name, she was like WOAAAAAAAA. And then she asked the class, "has anybody found interesting facts about their name? No? Then let's hear Ikmal's" Then i told the whole class the meaning of my name, and they were like WOAAAAAAAAAA.
Seriously, those of you with Arabic names, try translating it into English and then saying it out loud. It'll sound really exotic, like some kind of mystical rock or ancient artifact. 'Praised Light of Religion', doesn't that sound like the Tablet of the 10 Commandments?
Then i told them that a name in Malay culture gives some sort of semblance to your character. Ikmal=perfect. "So in your culture, does your name bring a burden on the way you're supposed to behave?" "Well, not exactly. It's not really something that actively determines your real life. So if my name is Ikmal, which means perfect, im...not perfect, but i'd like to think i am". Erkk.
Posted by The Author at 6:05 AM 3 comments
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Posted by The Author at 6:37 AM 4 comments


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8 Ways to Create Paperless Business Cards
What's that, you're still printing your business card on paper? That is so last year. These days, business cards are going all virtual and that's a good thing. Not only are paperless business cards good for the environment, and easier to carry, they're also unlimited — you'll never run out when you're networking at an event or conference.
But there are a bunch of different ways to construct a virtual business card, which is right for you? Below are eight ways to build a virtual business card that you can use to send your information to contacts the next time you're at a networking event. Please share any other services you use in the comments.
Use Your Phone
1. SMS - While it's true that almost everyone you meet is going to have a pocket to store your business card in, it's also true that almost everyone you meet will have a cell phone as well — and they're likely to be a lot less cavalier about losing, misplacing, or throwing away their phone than they are about your business card. The services below allow you to beam your business card via SMS text message to interested parties.
Contxts - Send and receive 140 character business cards via text message for free. 140 characters doesn't seem like a lot, but it's enough to include vital contact information (like name, business name, phone #, and email). See our previous review of Contxts here. TextID - Meet someone new and tell them to text message your username to a short, six digit number. In return, they'll receive your contact info via SMS. The service costs $19.95/month with 250 free texts.
DUB - Once you've created your business card on DUB's web site you can then have it sent to other users by email or SMS simply by sending a text message to the DUB site. DUB actually could have fit into almost any of the categories in this section since it supports email, SMS, and they have iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile applications, as well as a web interface.
2. Mobile Web - MyNameIsE is essentially a mobile social network of business cards. The site collects together all of your social profiles into a virtual business card that is accessible via mobile web and iPhone-optimized web sites. When you meet a new contact, simply enter each other's usernames and a connection is made.
Perhaps more interestingly, though, the people behind "E" have created a USB dongle called the E Connector (pictured above) that they plan to sell to trade show and conference organizers as a way for attendees to more easily share information. The dongle, which is about the size of the keyless entry keychain fobs used for automobiles, can automatically share contact information when it comes near another Connector.
3. Email - Why manually email your contact information to someone you've just met when you can tell your phone to do it for you? Check out the services below, which combine the ease and ubiquity of text messaging with the power of email to share your virtual business card with colleagues.
Dropcard is a lot like Contxts and TextID, but it's focused on email. After you create a profile, anytime you meet someone you just text their email address to a special number and they're emailed your virtual business card. Dropcard is free for up to 5 connections per month, but for heavy networkers, opt for the $9.99/month plan that allows you to send unlimited cards.
WeaveMet - WeaveMet is a similar service that lets you send your contact information to people you meet via email or text message. You simply instruct the service (via SMS) to email new contacts your information, along with a short note (like where you met).
4. iPhone - There are a number of great iPhone business card sharing applications available in the App Store, and we profiled a bunch of them last month. One of my favorites is beamME, which lets you create a vCard and send it to anyone you meet via email, mobile number, or even Twitter direct message. But check out last month's roundup for a number of great options.
Use Your Social Media Profiles
While mobile phone-centric applications are very helpful in the field, they only provide room for the most basic of information. The options below will help you create a more complete business card.
5. Social Networks - Social networks, especially those that cater to business usage, are an amazing replacement for business cards. Most people you meet are probably going to Google your name anyway, so filling out profiles on prominent social networks is a good way to make sure that what they find is what you want to present. LinkedIn, or Xing if you live in Europe, are good places to start.
LinkedIn offers tools to help you connect further with people you've met via networking events, as well as a way to communicate with them without having to give out your personal contact information. Be sure to complete your entire profile and pick an appropriate vanity URL.
Another option that shouldn't be overlooked is Facebook. Privacy controls make it possible to keep your business and social contacts separate, and the coming addition of vanity URLs will make it a lot easier for people to find you.
6. Google Profile - On the whole, Google Profiles are pretty basic — they're yet another place to list standard biographical information and profile links. But because they now figure so prominently into Google search results, it's a very good idea to set yours up as part of your virtual business card strategy. Further, short vanity URLs make them really easy to share.
7. Twitter - Everyone is already exchanging Twitter user names when they meet at conferences because they're short, easy to remember, and a great way to invite someone to connect with you without having to exert much effort. In May, we profiled a new app that allows you to send business cards over Twitter.
twtBizCard makes sending a business card via Twitter as a easy as appending a hashtag to the end of an @reply directed at the person who you want to send information. The nice thing about sending a virtual business card this way is you can use the remaining tweet space to include a message about where you met.
8. Profile Aggregators - As a whole, every one of your social media profiles paint a picture of your online identity, so you may very well want to include those profiles as part of your virtual business card. But for social media junkies, that becomes a difficult prospect — sharing a bunch of social media profiles URLs just isn't easy. An elegant way to deal with that problem is by using a profile aggregator.
We recently reviewed a number of ways to share your social media profiles, but two you should pay special attention to are Retaggr and Chi.mp. Retaggr creates a virtual social media business card that you can share and embed. The card includes links to all of your social profiles and even pulls in dynamic content (like blog posts and tweets). Chi.mp, meanwhile, gives users their own yourname.mp domain name and aggregates content from socials sites that you use. The reason Chi.mp is ideal for business use is that it has advanced privacy settings that allow you to create special profiles for different users — i.e., so that your business contacts never need to see pictures of your kids from your Flickr stream.
What About All Those Old Cards?
So now your business card is completely virtual, what do you do with your old paper cards? Well, it'll probably still be a few years before the business card completely goes the way of the Do Do, so hang on to a few of them. However, there is something you can do about all the paper business cards you collect at networking events.
If you send your collection of business cards to CloudContacts, they'll scan and organize all that information for you. You can view all the business cards you've collected from people you've met online, and download that information to desktop email clients like Outlook, Entourage, Thunderbird, and Exchange. Once they're done scanning, CloudContacts will either return your paper cards to you or recycle them.
More social media resources from Mashable:
- HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook - A Guide to Protecting Your Online Identity - HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter - HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, P_Wei


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Although girls and women are most often affected, boys and men can also suffer from anorexia nervosa. The first symptoms of anorexia nervosa often begin by the teenage years, but for some, the illness does not begin until adulthood. People who develop anorexia nervosa are often "perfectionists" and tend to push themselves to achieve difficult goals. Anorexia nervosa sometimes develops following a stressful or upsetting event (for example, the loss of a relationship, a difficult move, or life change).
Do people with anorexia nervosa see themselves as thin?
Most people with anorexia nervosa do not see themselves accurately and lose perspective about their own body size or shape. It is common for people with anorexia nervosa to experience "body image distortion" (another way of saying that they do not see or experience their bodies accurately). Usually, people with anorexia nervosa will compare themselves with others and imagine that other people are thinner.
Is anorexia nervosa related to sexual abuse?
Anorexia nervosa is not necessarily related to sexual abuse. Most people who develop anorexia nervosa have never been sexually abused and it can be harmful to mistakenly assume that they have been. However, it is true that a large number of people with anorexia nervosa have been subjected to sexual abuse or other traumatic experiences. For those people, feelings about body weight and shape may become fused with painful feelings and memories of abuse.
Is anorexia nervosa related to low self-esteem?
If a person has low self-esteem (feels bad about themself), he or she may try to do something to feel better. Because in most modern societies, being slim is considered desirable, people will sometimes try to lose weight in an effort to feel better about themselves. If a person with low self-esteem who begins to diet and lose weight is also a "perfectionist", there is a danger that he or she might become preoccupied with weight loss. For some, this will develop into anorexia nervosa.
Do people recover from anorexia nervosa?
Yes, most people do make a good recovery from anorexia nervosa; however, it often takes a long time. Although some people can make a quick recovery, particularly if they get help soon after the symptoms are first present, others may suffer for many years before they return to good health. Some people who develop anorexia nervosa go on to have persistent illness, and are at high risk of physical problems due to chronic malnutrition and poor general health.
What physical problems accompany anorexia nervosa?
Because people with anorexia nervosa do not get enough nutrients in their bodies, a number of physical problems occur. Bones often become brittle and easy to break due to inadequate calcium, phosphorus, and hormones. Heart problems often happen, causing chest pain, and in some cases, the heart can stop beating properly. It is also common for people with anorexia nervosa to become infertile during (and sometimes after) the illness. People with anorexia nervosa often feel cold, weak, and may have difficulty sleeping at night. The best treatment for these and other physical problems involves improved nutrition and regular treatment from doctors and other health professionals.


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Bottom Shelf Beer Olympics: Germany
Will Gordon drinks his way through the bottom shelf of the liquor store...so you don't have to.
Next Tuesday is my birthday, and for the first time in several decades I care slightly more about the occasion than the rest of you do. It's entirely possible that I wrote a big "Hey, it's my birthday!" post last year, but if so I assure you I was faking it, because last year my birthday was a Sunday. No one needs an excuse to drink outside on a summer Sunday afternoon, and a dozen sunshine beers is plenty parade enough for any well-adjusted partially grown man. The birthday before that was a Saturday, which is like Sunday in being an automatically special occasion, and for about 100 years prior I was consistently single enough for no one to give a shit when I was born.
Bottom Shelf research director Emily is a huge birthday celebrant, though, which means I no longer have the option of letting them roll by unmarked. This comes as quite an adjustment after spending so many years ignoring (though only once forgetting) the occasion. I'm a man who talks about himself on the Internet for several thousand words a week and as such am in no position to claim modesty, but I still think there's something creepy and narcissistic about declaring your own sovereign holiday on some otherwise-innocent day in the middle of August.
After a few years of well intentioned fits and starts involving cupcakes and song, Emily and I have reached comfortable common birthday ground: The day must begin with Totino's Pizza Rolls in bed, because how can any successful day start otherwise?, followed by an afternoon of outdoor beer and an evening of yelling and pork. The details can vary from there—although, hint hint, the Pizza Roll details shouldn't vary too far from Combination flavor—because I am a reasonable and open-minded fellow who cares not if his birthday beers are deluxe ones that come in glasses and with flavor; I'm just as happy with cans or even plastic cups of watery nonsense. The only thing I require is that they be served outside.
Boston's not the best place for outdoor drinking, because most of the year's weather discourages bars from making too big of a patio investment. And climate aside, it's often just too hard to get all the necessary licenses in a city where you need a special legislative dispensation to flush the toilet with your non-dominant hand. The best part about living in Boston is going out of town and being blown away by the freedoms extended to drinkers in other lands. Did you know that in parts of Maryland bars are allowed to temporarily lower the price of a draft beer? It's true! Most of the time they cost $5, but then all of a sudden they cost $4 for a couple of hours in the middle of the day. Most people die, though, and the economy collapses. But still, nice gesture.
I wish Boston could treat its drinkers more in the German manner. Now that's a country with no shortage of storms and regulations that still manages to support a lively outdoor beer culture. I know very little about Germany, but I know they have special gardens set aside just for their beer, which means I know more than enough about Germany. Now all I need to do is figure out which beer to drink when I get there. Let's see which is best among Beck's, Paulaner, Bitburger, and Spaten.
Before I get to this round of the Bottom Shelf Beer Olympics, I'll go over the rules one more time: I realize that these four beers are not perfectly representative of German beer, and I also recognize that their price and quality may not make them strictly bottom shelf material. But they're the least expensive, most available German beers near me. And we're on with it.
I'll start at the bottom: Beck's didn't make the podium. The American version of the world's best-selling German beer is brewed in St. Louis, which might have been expected to help my sample's freshness, but instead the only real flavor to fight through the water was a nasty metallic skunkiness.
Bitburger wasn't much better but it did inch over the line into drinkability: I could have a birthday dozen of these, no problem, but by the 9th or so I might tire of the slight sour note and touch of burnt grain. It's got an awfully bitter little finish to it, too.
Spaten Premium Lager was a great leap forward. It was a bit plain other than a welcome and surprising hoppiness, which is enough to make it an excellent mass-market lager. There was nothing bestial or spoiled about it, and that alone makes it the best green-bottled import I can remember drinking.
But Paulaner's Original Munich Premium Lager was my favorite. It starts with a vaguely sweet biscuit impression, then gets a little bit citrus on you before an assertively bitter finish. It's simultaneously clean and complex, and for that it moves on to join Grolsch and Sapporo in the finals of our international cheap beer tournament.
Next up, Canada.
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Chocolate poisoning in cats and dogs
Chocolate contains a substance called 'theobromine' which is toxic to dogs and cats. It's similar to caffeine and can cause problems with the nervous system, bowels, kidneys and heart.
Mouth pain in cats
Mouth pain in cats Overview Cats are very good at hiding pain. This was an important skills for their wild ancestors but it makes it difficult to spot signs of a problem in our pet cats. One of the first signs of a painful mouth tends to be a change in their eating habits. You may even notice your cat hissing or appearing scared of their food. Make an appointment to see your vet if your cat is…
Mouth pain in dogs
Dogs with sore mouths often eat on one side of their face, eat less or, if the pain is severe, they may stop eating completely.
My dog eats poo – help!
Unfortunately (for us!), many dogs enjoy the taste of poo, and eating it (coprophagia) is a very normal dog behaviour. Contrary to popular belief, if your dog eats poo, it's unlikely to be because of a health problem or something missing from their diet.
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Grimm thankful for mother's timely push
Guidance made Cubs right-hander realize need for hard work
CHICAGO -- Justin Grimm is pitching for the Cubs, but the right-hander would not have made it to the big leagues if his mother, Tammy, hadn't given him a well-timed kick in the rear.
The boost came in the summer after Justin's freshman year at high school. His older brother, Matt, was very diligent about getting up early for workouts with the baseball team. Justin wasn't.
"My brother, he was the one with the work ethic, and he worked 100 times harder than I did ever in high school and throughout college," Justin admitted.
So on this particular morning, Matt was up at 6:30 a.m. as usual.
"I remember thinking, 'This guy's an idiot, I'm getting my sleep,'" Justin said.
But Tammy had enough.
"She said, 'You're going to start waking your butt up and go work out with your brother or you're going to get a job. You're not going to be lazy all summer,'" Justin said, recalling the conversation.
Now, Tammy Grimm is a teacher, and she was working two jobs. That morning, she drove Justin to the school. The timing was perfect as baseball coach Mark Daniels was walking out of the school as they pulled up.
"She said, 'You need to talk to my son, and you need to get him here and tell him he needs to working out because he thinks he's Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz all rolled into one and he doesn't have to work,'" Justin said.
Said Tammy: "Poor Coach Daniels probably thought I needed medication. I just got in my car and drove off."
What she didn't find out until last year is that Justin and his coach had a long talk.
"It was only last year that Justin finally told me what Coach Daniels talked to him about, that he had the abilty to go pretty far in the sport, but that he was going to have to work at it," Tammy said. "[Daniels said] even though Justin had talent, if he didn't work at it, it would be wasted talent. From that morning forward, when my oldest son, Matt, would say, 'We're going for workouts,' Justin was up and ready to to go."
On Mother's Day, Justin, 25, wanted to say thanks to his mom for giving him the timely push.
"I definitely wouldn't be where I'm at today -- technically, I learned from my brother, but my parents supported me and got it kick-started," Justin said. "It surprised me -- my mom came in furious one morning and said, 'Get up, we're going.' She jerked me into gear."
Justin had made it clear to his mother and father, Mark, that he was going to pitch in the big leagues. In 1999, he announced his decision because of another Bristol, Tenn., native, Jimmy Gobble, who was the Royals' first-round Draft pick that year. Gobble stopped by the local Little League field before leaving for the Minors and saw Justin throw a one-hitter to beat Gobble's former team.
"Jimmy was signing balls and things like that for the kids and Justin got a ball and that night, that's when he said, 'I want to be a professional baseball player when I grow up,'" Tammy said. "We were like, 'We'll see.'"
When your mother is a teacher, it's understandable that there's more emphasis placed on education than baseball. So when Grimm met with his high school guidance counselor to discuss college and his major was baseball with no Plan B, the counselor called Tammy in.
"The guidance counselor looked at my mom, and said, 'We're trying to talk to him about a Plan B, and all he can tell me is he wants to play baseball and I'm trying to get something out of him and I can't,'" Justin recalled. "My mom said, 'We've had this talk at home, and that's all I get out of him, too.'
"My mom gave me more support than anything," Justin said. "My dad was a big sports guy, and he was the guy I went to talk to about problems, but my mom, she helped keep things in perspective and was always there for me."
Justin was selected in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft by the Red Sox, but he did not sign and got a scholarship to Georgia. In 2010, he was selected in the fifth round by the Rangers and signed in August that year. Last July, he was one of four players the Rangers sent the Cubs in the Matt Garza deal.
Did Grimm ever come up with a Plan B?
"Honestly, I did not," he said. "Georgia was my Plan B. I didn't think I'd have to put it into use. My mom, being a teacher, she was all about education. Me, since I had the scholarship, I don't think she worried about it too much."
Said Tammy: "He may not think of [Georgia] as Plan B, but it was Plan B."
Grimm is one year shy of completing his degree.
"I'm always asking him and trying to encourage him and see if he can't get those last few classes finished up and get that degree," Tammy said.
His major? Consumer economics. It was based on a suggestion by his mother, who wondered out loud what he was going to do with his signing bonus.
In April, Tammy was at Wrigley Field, bundled in a Cubs sweatshirt and wearing team-themed earrings to cheer her son in a series against the Reds.
"I was really excited, and he did well, so that always makes a mama happy -- when their child is doing well and helping the team out," she said. "I still get excited when he runs out there, whether it's from the bullpen or as a starter and gets an opportunity to play in these big league games."
Last year on Mother's Day, Justin sent Tammy a baseball and signed it: "Thank you for everything, you're the best mom in the world." It's still on the mantel at the family's home.
"She's really been great," Justin said. "She's definitely had her times of being very irate with me, but when you get to this point, you realize why she did what she did. Not many people get it at the time. She was always good at pushing but didn't push too much."


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Cisco today announced its intent to acquire privately held Cloupia, a software company that develops products for automating data center operations for the deployment and configuration of physical and virtual resources.
Cisco will pay $125 million in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of Cloupia.
DEAL TIME: Top tech M&A deals of 2012
Cloupia's infrastructure management software provides a single "pane-of-glass" view into the automation of compute, network, storage, virtual machine and operating system resources, Cisco says. It will work with Cisco's UCS Manager to control pools of compute, storage, networking and virtual machine resources in data centers, the company says.
The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2013. Cloupia employees will be integrated into Cisco's Data Center Group.
Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.